Philosoraptor

I ended up beating Super Robot Taisen and Ghost Sweeper Mikami over the weekend... Super Robot Taisen—7.5/10—A short, but respectable SRPG. At thirteen chapters, getting through this game took me somewhere between eight and ten hours over a couple of days. The story is bare bones, the enemy AI is pretty simple, and stages are large and usually contain 10-25 enemies, including reinforcements. There are also a few defensive towers in every stage, which heal you if you occupy them. One unique aspect of this game is you can recruit almost any unit from the enemies' side to fight for you (I'm assuming aside from the final boss). The reason I ended up giving it a lower score is it can easily be cheesed right from the beginning, and the oversight ended up being large enough that it took all the strategy aspects out of the game. I didn't factor it into my final score, but it's also worth pointing out that the translation patch I used was kind of buggy. It would struggle to reorient the screen on your units after your enemies' turn, but moving your cursor does fix it. Ghost Sweeper Mikami—8/10—I was surprised by this one. It has a really fair difficulty curve, interesting stages, and varied normal and special attacks at your disposal. The standout stage has you riding on the back of a cat across the rooftops in Tokyo. It, however, only has seven stages and is quite linear. The whole thing might take an hour at most to get through. On a related note, what would y'all consider to be too short for a platformer? Like, where would it start impacting the score of the game in y'all's minds? ...but I'm really making this post to complain about Goemon's Great Adventure on the N64. I didn't even finish it. I didn't even get past the first area. Holy balls. So, this game lacks a tutorial. One of the very first obstacles you encounter in the game are floating rails, which Goemon spins around like a gymnist. After spending 20 minutes trying to figure out how to launch myself in the correct direction, I read the manual, which didn't help. I ended up having to google it, and it turned out to be unintuitive. It didn't end up mattering where Goemon was as he swung around the pole; you just had to hold a direction on the control stick and press A. Strike 1. Jumping in this game is also very poorly implemented. Goemon's gravity in this game is similar to Fox's in Smash. Even with a double jump, his airtime is akin to a sumo wrestler's. Fine. Well, it would be fine if Goemon didn't have a nasty habit of also eating button inputs, especially double jumps. I died dozens of times to failed double jumps, and got hit dozens more. One of the worst is at the top of the last stage in the first area. After ten solid minutes of mind-numbing platforming, you come to a pit with a swing. There is an enemy that WILL time his shots to exactly when you need to jump on the swing and your double jump WILL not work. I got past it once in ten tries. Strike 2. Finally, at the end of the stage, after a relatively easy boss fight, you get to have a long, poorly-implemented giant robot battle. Die enough, and you get to do the whole stage again. Strike 3. I put about five hours into this game, and the most fun I had was running around the Edo period town. That's not what I'd call a good thing for a platformer. Good gawd. 2/10 Literally, the only reason it's getting a two is because the music was pretty good and the Edo town was cool. Otherwise, it's garbage. May God have mercy on the sould of whoever completes this game for the N64 completions thread.

Subscribed! I really like your Balloon Fight video, and I'm looking forward to seeing the next ones you make!

Been a little less busy recently on the gaming front, but I've managed to work my way through a couple more games: Witch n Wiz (NES)—8/10—A Catrap-inspired puzzle game, this game is absolutley oozing with fun ideas and personality. Each new idea is used in ten-ish stages, with the first four or five being introductions to the mechanic. I won't spoil any mechanics here, but they're all well done. However, because there are so many different mechanics, most of the stages were significantly easier than older puzzle games with fewer mechanics. I also went back and forth on what to rate this game. If this came out during the NES's lifetime, it'd be a 9 all day. However, I've seen most of these mechanics in other puzzle games, and I wouldn't be shocked if they've all been done before. That's why I ended up going with an 8. However, that doesn't keep it from being a fantastic time. I highly recommend it, especially for those who are looking for a beginner friendly place to start in this genre. Star Versus (NES)—6/10—This game is significantly harder to describe. It's...like a more complicated Asteroids with a hint of Geometry Wars thrown in. Your spaceship has swords for close combat, can strafe, has two types of weapons, a shield, and tank controls. I would have liked to see larger numbers of enemies that take fewer hits (like Asteroids or Geometry Wars) and a simpler and smoother control scheme. In my opinion, fitting all that functionality on a NES controller was too ambitious. Enemies also take multiple hits, sometimes over ten, which makes it difficult to kill them effeciently without getting shot full of holes yourself. Beating the high score of 10,000 isn't terribly difficult, but it got me hooked long enough to try for a six-digit score, which takes some doing. Thankfully, the OST is awesome. I will say that I never tried the two player mode, which is both a competitive 1v1 mode and the main selling point of the game. I could see how the control scheme could shine more there. Senran Kagura Bon Appetit Full Course (Vita)—7/10—A tittilating rhythm game that manages to capture a lot of the personality of the Senran Kagura series and gets a lot right. It's a surprisingly well executed 6-button (in Easy and Normal) or 8-button (Hard) rhythm game that looks and plays similarly to the Taiko Drum Master games. For me, the 31-song OST has a few low five-star songs, but no certifiable bangers. Nothing that I'm going to be putting on repeat or seeking out years or decades later. Songs with lyrics sound like well produced, generic anime songs. Instrumentals tend to go for a vareity of genres, but they don't do any genre particularly well. There's also the standard Senran Kagura content: plenty of nearly AO-rated cutscenes, outfits, pictures, and themes and a crazy storyline of granting whoever wins the cooking contest one wish. One girl ends up wishing for a refrigerator. The effort put into the story may be a little lacking compared to the mainline games, but it's certainly a much better effort than Peach Ball. However, this game commits the cardinal sin of music games: framerate drops. While rare, they do tend to happen when there's too much going on in the cooking montage. They also only last a second or two, but they're enough to cause you to miss notes or not hit notes perfectly. Overall, its a game that's not broken and definitely shows effort on the part of the developers, but doesn't necessarily shine in a genre with lots of heavy hitters and better offerings.

Yup! This thread is about beating games in your backlog regardless of console. It can be anything.

Thanks! I used The Mexican Runner's criteria to call it beat, which is: A Mode - Beat Phase 12 Ballon Trip Mode - Get Rank 1 His list is here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1KDNGI76HoMNyYLL6RqWu4PqUbw-lI920tf7QTclnLLE/edit?pli=1#gid=0 VGS also has a list for the NES completions thread, and the requirements are a little easier. They are: Beat the high score in both 1 player and Balloon Trip modes That list is here: https://pastebin.com/JJ6Zy2Di IMO, getting the high score in Balloon Trip mode is harder than getting to phase 12 or getting the high score in 1 player mode. There's a trick to it, though; if you can pop 20 balloons in a row without letting any pass by you in Balloon Trip mode, all subsequent balloons turn orange, which are worth 500 points instead of 300. If you do it again, they turn red, which are worth 700 points. I got to rank 1 because I was able to pop the first 20 balloons.

I've got to do a better job checking in here more often. Here's what I've beaten recently: Crisis Force (FC)—9.5/10—A wild ride with graphics that look to be straight from the Genesis, not the NES. Even though there are only two weapons, the game makes up for them with tons of unique enemies, difficult, but not impossible stages (stage 5 *cough*) and seven stages of unforgettable action. Boss fights are somewhat difficult, but not overwhelming either. The balance is perfect. You can even transform into a giant, ultra-desctructive version of the ship and take out some anger on people for a limited time. There are lots of great ideas here, and they're extremely well executed. This is one of the few FC games I've played that I'd say we truly "missed out on." Jackal (NES)—8/10—A surprisingly great non-traditional scrolling SHMUP/action game. Levels are top-down and scroll both left to right and top to bottom, although more of the latter. The jeep does a great job actually feeling like a jeep, too. Power-ups go from grenades to rockets that explode in cross patterns, although unreliably. Bosses, aside from the last one, are easier than most SHMUPs, and the levels are pretty well balanced. The last level is certainly a challenge, but the game isn't too overwhelming as long as you go slow. The main negative of this game is you have to get too close to the edge of the screen for it to scroll. Task Force Kampas (PS4)—7/10—A simple and easy top-down shooter with randomly generated stages, good music, and interesting bosses, the big letdown to this one is actually that it doesn't do very much. Stages are well made, it's very solid and responsive, and nothing seems particularly cheap or out of place, but it also doesn't stand out amongst other games like Rym9000 or even Project Starship X. There's lots of competition in this genre, and this game fun, but not necessarily something super special. I do, however, like the variety of the pilots and ships you get. They all feel different and interesting. Project Starship X (PS4)—8.5/10—Similar to Task Force Kampas and Rym9000 in gameplay, but an improvement over Task Force Kampas. The addition of a short warp jump that gives invincibility and can also be used to attack makes this game stand out. Warping/jumping to avoid lines of bullets or ridiculous patterns is fun, and challenging, but not unfair. There are 14 levels, 6 of which you'll see in every run, and there's augments to each that can be unlocked, like surprise patterns or altered patterns. There's also rogue-lite elements, as the power ups you get on a run can differ. Each pilot has a different amount of starting health, shot pattern, and power, so there's something here for everyone. One other thing to mention; this is a ridiculously easy platinum to get, and it only takes about 20 mintes. Same with Task Force Kampas. Shikhondo (PS4)—8/10—A great SHMUP with very, very interesting and unique theming based on yokai. Both The Girl and the Grim Reaper play very differently, and each of the five stages in the game look like old japanese paintings in motion. The patterns are beautiful, and the two-stage bosses are all very well-designed. Boss rush mode gives you an extra life and bomb after each clear, and the arcade mode stages gradually increase in difficulty, but they don't ever feel unfair. The system of buzzing bullets to fill a bar, getting essentially get a powered-up shot + bomb for a short time, and then further enhancing that powered-up shot with another bomb is really cool, and it adds a risk/reward to the gameplay. The negatives are that the backgrounds are typically heavy on the yellows and oranges, and there's plenty of yellow-orange bullets that are hard to see. Also, with five stages and only two playable characters, the game is short and kind of lacking on features outside of multiple difficulties. I think it would have been more interesting to have a few more characters or stages. Balloon Fight (NES)—6/10—Probably one of the top five best black box games, IMO, but definitely no Super Mario Bros. The main mode is a shameless copy of Joust that's a little simpler, although the bonus rounds are slighly different. The Balloon Trip mode is unique to Balloon Fight, and is a fun autoscrolling, obstacle-avoidance challenge. It's a neat, well-executed little package that doesn't have hours and hours of content, but has tons of replayability. Kirby's Dream Land 3 (SNES)—9/10—An unexpected, yet fantastic mix of powers and friends, Kirby's Dreamland 3 does an amazing job getting lots of mileage out of what it has. With six different helpers, all of which use Kirby's power differently and have different strengths and weaknesses, the game gives players lots of options and lots of replayability. The levels are bright and cheery, and the music is fantastic. The mix of powers, helpers, and good stage design make this one a standout in the franchise. Twisted Tales of Spike McFang (SNES)—7/10—This is like Secret of Mana lite. A fine game that's fine. It works without bugs or issues. it has some dialogue that slowly appears on screen. You get three hats. You have two attacks (and the cheaper jump + spin attack variant, which you can't get dizzy from, unlike the regular spin attack). That's about it. The story is there. The locales, while pretty, are few in number. I don't think it's worth the going rate right now, but you can certainly pay more for worse. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (Switch)—10/10—Not really much to say about this one that y'all don't already know. It's got everything you could dream of from past iterations and from fighting games in general. I ended up 100%ing Adventure mode on Hard, which was a heck of a think towards the end. Dharkon is a bastard. Pokemon (NES)—4/10—Sadly, everything they've done in this game that has charm or is interesting is either taken directly from Pokemon or is reworked to imitate Pokemon. Everything else about this game they've borked. However, because they borked so much, it comes together to make some kind of weird, parallel universe Pokemon that's painfully mid. It's uncanny to the point of horror. A creepypasta of a game. Almost no sound effects outside of the music, NPCs move in odd ways (if at all), every trainer says the same thing after defeat. Battles don't fare any better. Even the most basic battle mechanics in Pokemon are implemented poorly, broken, or non-existant. They got stat calculations wrong and didn't implement EVs or IVs, so there's no benefit to raising a Pokemon. Just catch a higher level one when you see them. Gym leaders have extremely overleveled Pokemon, but their movesets are garbage and not copied from any of the games, so they're easy. None of my Pokemon were over level 50 when I beat the Elite Four. They've even remade a significant chunk of the routes, towns, and caves, but removed trainers and gameplay mechanics. In most cases, they've even changed the layouts of each locale to where it's uncanny, but wrong. It's hard to recommend, but it's certainly an experience if you're tired of the same old Pokemon formula...to say the least. Get 'em Gary (NES)—6/10—A simple arcade game where you climb a building and fix broken windows while an angry guy throws bowling balls, bombs, and Sega Genesis consoles at you. You also have to avoid kites in later levels. It controls well and is, overall, a solid arcade-style game. Later levels introduce flower pots and gargoyle statues that make it harder to get to the other side of the floor quickly, and the angry guy runs faster, but nothing else of note. It's good fun, and something I could see coming out on the console in 1985. Jay and Silent Bob Mall Brawl (NES)—8/10—A nod to Double Dragon and River City Ransom, JASB is an incredibly well-executed mashup of the inspiration. You can switch out between Jay and Silent Bob at any time, which is nice. The diffiuclty also is very fair, which is coming from someone who sucks at the genre. This might be the only side-scrolling brawler I've ever beaten outside of River City Ransom...so maybe it's super easy to veterans. The sprites are straight out of RCR, but the gameplay, stage design, and concept is more DD. The boss fights are usually references to other franchises, like Mega Man or to Double Dragon. The only reason I didn't give it a higher grade is I didn't like the theming much. I'm not a big Jay and Silent Bob fan, and I don't like having to fight poop monsters with plungers.

When was the last time I posted? It's been a while. Since I went off about Scarlet, I've beaten 11 other games. I just finished compiling a list of ratings and reviews of ~300 games I've played recently or remembered well enough, and Scarlet is dead last. I'm still bitter. Anyway, the games I've beaten recently are: Pokemon Legends Arceus (Switch)—9/10—The best open-world Pokemon game on the Switch, IMO. It is, however, not a true "mainline Pokemon game." You can't battle friends, Pokemon battles can be up to 3v1 against you, and there are stealth mechanics and a crafting system. It's much more like Monster Hunter than most other Pokemon games. The pacing is a bit slow sometimes, but the story and setting are top notch. Nekketsu Street Basket: Ganbare Dunk Heroes (Famicom)—7.5/10—In true Kunio-kun fashion, this game is a side-scrolling beat-em up disguised as a basketball game. You don't even have to give the other team the ball after making baskets. There are three tiers of hoops and plenty of super throws/shots, but since there are no indicators for where your players are if they're off screen, grabbing rebounds and fighting off the computer can be tough. There's also one team that can teleport, which is just as cheap as it sounds. Since the NES/FC doesn't have the strongest lineup of basketball games, I feel like it's one of the better ones, but I'd still rather play Double Dribble. Theatryhthm Final Fantasy Curtain Call (3DS)—7.5/10—Can't really fault the game for the OST, but the biggest issue I had with this game were the held notes on the Field sections, which made you trace a line up or down and then sometimes flick a final note in a different direction. Typically, the game will just pick up on the up or down movement with button controls, meaning you'll end up with "bad" timing on notes that you shouldn't. It's better with the stylus, but the hand cramps aren't worth it. Field sections are also half the stages, roughly. If this game were just the Battle sections, it would have been a much higher grade. Darius Burst CS Chronicle Saviours (PS4)—7/10—A polished side-scrolling SHMUP with loads of content and bosses, but the relatively uninteresting mission structure, the bullet patterns designed for a quarter-eating multiplayer cabinet in Arcade mode, and the relative difficulty of keeping an eye on both yourself and the boss due to the three-screen-wide aspect ratio kind of knock this one down a peg for me. The ships also don't feel terribly different, despite having different loadouts. If I'm given a choice between a bullet hell and an old-school SHMUP, I'll take the former every time. Sadly, this one feels like a modernized old-school SHMUP. Great for some, and still good fun if you can round up some friends, but not my ideal cup of tea. Darius Burst (PSP)—7/10—Despite both Darius Burst games having the same grade, I liked this one more. This one was remade with the PSP's aspect ratio in mind, has a five-stage arcade mode instead of a three-stage one like Chronicle Saviors, and has significantly less cheap bullet patterns. However, it also doesn't have as many modes, you can't turn your ship around to shoot backwards, and ships don't feel too different here either. Both games have bullet sponge bosses, and both feel like a modernized old-school SHMUP. Again, great for some, but not my ideal cup of tea. Soreyuke! BurunyanMan Portable (PSP)—7.5/10—A side-scrolling SHMUP geared towards adults that doesn't really bring anything new to the table. Giant men and women are the bosses, and the main gimmick is buzzing bullets to power up your shot (like Castle of Shikigami). The stages are lively enough, and the bosses are fine, but it's definitely not worth the price to import nowadays. Wanpaku Kokkun no Gourmet World (Famicom) (Panic Restaurant)—7/10—A fun, themed platformer with lots of cheap enemies, some of which can attack you from off screen. Character sprites look great and the enemies are interesting. However, there are only six levels, making the runtime only 30 minutes on a good day. Some power-ups, like the fork, are significantly less useful than just trying to headbutt stuff (the default action). What it does well is the platforming and the setting for the game. Very unique. It is another one that I'd say isn't worth the going rate these days, though. Splatterhouse: Wanpaku Graffiti (Famicom)—6/10—A bamboozle of a game that could do with more iframes. When looking at gameplay on YouTube, it looks sweet as Hell, but when playing it, not so much. Hitboxes are hit and miss, enemies can drain your life quickly due to the relative lack of aforementioned iframes, and boss difficulty is inconsistent throughout the game. The more difficult ones are very cheap. However, the password save and continue system make this one very accessible, and the theming is also quite interesting. A mixed bag, for sure. Robocco Wars (Famicom)—8/10—A well-executed, half-SHMUP half-platformer chimera, Robocco Wars is an enjoyable romp through close to a dozen stages before a high-difficulty-spike boss. As a platformer, it's solid, and as a SHMUP, it's one of the better ones on the console, albeit a bit easy. My only complaints are that the power-ups and levels, while pretty and bright, are pretty standard-fare. Nakayoshi to Issho (Famicom)—7/10—Five hours of straightforward, no-moon-logic RPG action with slot machine-esque, turn-based combat. Your goal is to save six respective Nakayoshi manga worlds by gathering three orbs and the lost pens of each manga author. There are no levels, only equipment, items, and additional health given at the end of each area, making this game grind-free. However, the mechanics don't really evolve until the last area, which is Sailor Moon themed. The Sailor Scouts are added to your slot machine reels and, when activated, deal big damage to enemies. Nakayoshi to Issho also does very little to differentiate the otherwise unique worlds of each of the mangas represented in this game. Dialogue is pretty same-y and towns and schools don't look much different throughout. The game does have lots of unique enemies, although, tbh, I couldn't tell you whether they're from the mangas or just random enemies. What this game does do, is provide a stress-free RPG that captures a slice in early 90s time. Mega Man 7 (SNES)—5/10—Of the three Mega Man games I've played so far (5, 6, and now 7), this game is both the hardest and the worst by not close. The robot masters are all pretty easy thanks to the significant boost in damage from weaknesses, but most of the Wily stages are straight up cheap as hell thanks to bad enemy placement and gimmicks. The bosses in the Wily stages are also brutal, especially the final Wily fight. The Bass fights aren't terribly easy either. But honestly, what makes this game so bad is that it feels like some other, inexperienced developer trying to make a Mega Man game. The sprites are way too big, giving the aforementioned tough bosses a large blue target, the controls don't feel as tight as the NES versions, and the music is forgettable. Even though the levels are bright and cheery, I didn't really feel like the Mega Man charm is there. Just like how fixing the interior of an otherwise broken-down car doesn't address the main issues, the interesting things MM7 does with the robot master powers having more use outside of battle, hidden paths, and the shop doesn't save it, IMO.

Yeah, that's why I didn't mention the Mystery Dungeon game. Maybe they'll grow into it, but if not, it'll be an easy one to trade or offload for something they're more interested in later. I think It'll also hold up well if they decide to revisit in in half a decade or more. Edit: If pacing was an issue with New Pokemon Snap, I might recommend against Arceus as well. It's pacing is a lot closer to Monster Hunter than a standard Pokemon game.

Yeah, stay away from Violet/Scarlet. I personally don't like Diamond and Pearl much, so I might not be the best judge of Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl. Regardless, they're polished and they're solid and faithful remakes. If your kids like Gen IV, they'll probably come away liking those games. I liked Sword and Shield more than Brilliant Diamond or Shining Pearl, but they do peter out story-wise towards the end and the post game is pretty minimal outside of the DLC. Both sets games are pretty much free of the issues I mentioned about Violet and Scarlet, and there's good fun to be had. I enjoyed Let's Go Pikachu and Eevee more than both Brilliant Diamond/Shining Pearl and Sword/Shield, but that also comes with the caveat of Pikachu and Eevee being a remake of one of my favorite gens, Red/Blue. If they end up loving Brilliant Diamond/Shining Pearl, they might really like Let's Go Pikachu and Eevee as well. My favorite "traditional," open-world Pokemon game on the Switch is Pokemon Legends Arceus. Traditional is in quotes because it's more like a mixture of Monster Hunter and Pokemon. It's as polished as I hoped Voilet and Scarlet would be and is an interesting reimagining of the series. It's also based on Hokkaido in the Muromachi period (1336-1573), which gives it a unique tone and setting. However, there are no multiplayer battles if your kids are super into that. The other one I'd highly recommend is New Pokemon Snap, it's everything you'd hope a sequel would be and more. If they like taking photos with their phones or enjoyed the original, it might be another one to consider.

Pokemon Scarlet is done. 34 hours. I'm PISSED. ...But I'm going to try to focus on the positives. The Koraidon pokemon you get is a lot like toothless in how to train your dragon, personality-wise, so that's cool. You save a kid's dog with sandwiches. That's neat. The new mons are, for the most part, good. Solid generation. Uhhhhhhhhhhhh...Oh yeah! That streamer gym leader (Iono) was fantastic and probably the best character in the entire game. Sadly, she was only like...ten minutes of it. I guess it's cool that trainers don't automatically challenge you even when they see you. Uhhmmmmmmmm...yeah. That's all I got. Bad things? Where to start. First, aside from Iono, everyone is unlikable to downright annoying. Nemona is your main rival and is an insufferable battle maniac. Most are tropes if they even get that far. The character designs are, for the most part, bland by Pokemon standards. So bland, in fact, that you have to fight a worn-out Japanese salaryman TWICE as a main-story character. The writing is lackluster, with most main story people saying the same-ish things after defeat, especially gym leaders. The game is extremely light on story, and the "big bads" are all inconsequentially minor and nonthreatening (Team Star was formed as an anti-bully group, but they were kind of becoming bullies themselves and they were skipping classes). The "biggest bad" of this group is helping you disband them...and is a sad-looking kid with an Eevee backpack. The final big bad is an AI who inhabits the body of a Pokemon professor, and they're keeping a time machine running that is bringing dangerous Pokemon from the past. But, you know, not so dangerous that a kid who didn't have Pokemon until 20 hours ago can't beat them. The Pokemon that have been brought from the past and are in the overworld aren't even hurting anybody or anything, and no one ever really mentions them outside of the handful of characters in the questline. Speaking of writing, the whole game story is based around you being in the equivalent of junior high-ish, so you start the game going to basic-ass classes instead of, you know, a proper tutorial, which you don't get for a startling amount of features. Instead, in class, stuff like "how much damage will supereffective moves do" are covered. Did you know you could fly to a point on the map you've visited immediately? I didn't. Wish I learned that in class. The whole school class thing is about as well done as the classes you can optionally go to in most other mainline Pokemon games, but it's mandatory, making the first hours of the game absolutely drag. And once the subpar classes are finished? You're told to go find your "treasure" and put on extended vacation from classes. If I were a parent with a kid at this school, I'd be pissed. So, now you get to go out into the wide, glitchy as hell world. The textures look, with no exaggeration, straight from a PS2 launch title. Framerates outside of about ten feet of your character drop into single digits for anything and everything. You want to know how to break immersion in a video game? Have background people and Pokemon move around like Mr. Game & Watch. The massive crowds watching gym leader battles in Sword & Shield have been replaced by crowds of a dozen or two dozen of the same four NPCs in 8 FPS. The epic gym battle song from Sword & Shield with the crowd in full voice has been replaced with an aenemic version in this game. It sounds like a Drake version, but somehow more halfhearted. Outside of the city, things aren't any better. The gigantic, open world is full of bugs, and not of the Pokemon kind. Framerate issues, chugging, clipping, sprites and Pokemon loading only if they're about 30 feet from you (if at all), being attacked from Pokemon loaded inside walls in caves, the camera going into the ground...and this is six months after launch. They're about to launch DLC for this train wreck! The glitches wouldn't be as bad if they weren't happening literally every minute or two. I'm shocked this game didn't crash on me. When the game is working, it's lazy. The caves the sandwich kid's herbs are in are all the exact same, as are the cutscenes. You can't change out of the four seasonal school outfits, only accessorize, which you can do in basically every mainline Pokemon game since X and Y. No set mode. You still can't turn off EXP share. The lazy postgame raids from Sword and Shield are back. They even phoned in the Elite Four. Aside from the final battle, all battles took place in a bland, lifeless, white room. They couldn't even do themed rooms like in, you know, RED AND BLUE. But that's not all! Pokemon can now wander around and watch your battles, meaning they can GET UNDER YOU during a battle and trigger multiple battles after you get done with the first one. I get how some Pokes would be aggressive and attack you, but this is literally Pokemon clipping into your sprite during a battle and triggering successive battles. I did a fire-type-only run. However, each gym until the last only one boosts the level of Pokemon that can listen to you by 5, which made me scramble from story locale to story locale. I avoided all battles because the experience from catching Pokemon (i.e. the main point of the entire franchise) threatened ot overlevel me. This made the game extremely linear and destroyed the open world concept. Other issues: You can also attempt to target Pokemon like Z-targeting in OOT, but it doesn't work more often than it does. Shinys don't make noises when they appear, meaning the player has to rely on the 30-foot draw distance to spot a shiny before it's deloaded and gone forever. The map does not not stay pointed North, and when you rotate it, the Pokemon it decided to load on the map don't stay in the same spot on the map. They removed the Pokemon Day Care in lieu of camping. If you camp with two Pokemon in tall grass, they'll lay eggs after a while, but it means you can't do anything else while you're breeding. This gets incredibly boring very quickly. They attempt to gate off content using terrain or water, but you can still easily get to areas you're not supposed to with Koraidon. Cities are sparse and you can't walk into most buildings. When you can, most are just PS1-era menus. Exploration and rewarding the player for talking to people is almost nonexistant. HMs and their functionality are now gone, and TMs are one use, but you can make more using a half-baked crafting system. The music is probably the worst in the series and is completely forgettable at best or out of place at worst. The new "gym tests" that you have to complete before taking on a gym are mostly errands or minigames, but they're all time wasters and none are implemented well. The transformation gimmick in this game, Terastallization, crystallizes your Pokemon, changes its type (cool idea), and gives it a stupid hat based on its type. For example, fire's is a candelabra and bug's is bug antenna. It's not epic, unlike gigantamax, megas, or even Z-rings. The biggest crime, however, is that the Metascore as of writing is a 72. Some critics gave this game 100s. Most of them praised the open-world leap to whatever dead end this game is heading to while ignoring the menagerie of issues in the game. If this game didn't say Pokemon on the front, that critic score would probably be a lot closer to the user score, which is currently a 33. It's no exaggeration to say that this is the Sonic 06 of the Pokemon franchise. I'd argue, however, it's worse. Pokemon is the biggest media franchise on the planet. Bigger than Star Wars. Bigger than Mickey Mouse. Bigger than whatever else you're thinking of. The fact that this game has this many problems and saw the light of day is jaw dropping and irredeemable. There are no excuses worth entertaining from an entity this large or this established. All things considered, this is probably the worst game I've ever played, or maybe even ever will play. It's atrocious, and I could keep going, but this write up is long enough. On Reed's scale, it's an absolute 1/10. I've never felt like a game wasted hours of my life as much as this one has, and, as a lifelong Pokemon fan, this is the first Pokemon game I can wholeheartedly say that I'm sad it exists.

Finished up Mega Man 5 this weekend. I ended up giving it an 8.5 as opposed to the 9 MM6 got because I thought the music wasn't as memorable, the last Wily fight was kinda garbage, and it was never clear what Gravity Man's power does once you get it. Overall, it's harder than 6. In MM6, only a few of the robot masters were tough (i.e required an E tank when going through the last boss rush in the Wily stages), but in MM5, about half the bosses were tough. The last Wily fight was harder as well. I didn't think the platforming was super difficult or required extreme precision in either game, outside of one or two sections. However, I think the Wily robots were more difficult in 6, and I think the stages were overall more difficult in 6 as well, albeit only slightly. Shout out to those giant stompy robots, though. Those guys can get a computer virus for all I care.

It’s finally time to put some of the things that have been sitting around up for sale. I have had a few transactions here, although I don’t have any feedback, over 1000 positive transactions on eBay, and over 50 on NintendoAge. Right now, I’m going to try selling games in console-specific lots unless otherwise stated. Because of that, prices are going to be cheaper. I’ve also tried to take pictures of each lot as best I can, but I’m willing to take more pictures if it’ll put someone’s mind at ease. Same with save batteries: I’ll throw a game in to check, if necessary. Last I checked, all these games worked. Also, what you see in the pictures is what you get. If you don’t see a cart holder, foam block, or insert in the box, it’s not there. Last I checked, all of these games worked, but I can’t vouch for save batteries. Hit me up with a DM if you see something you’re interested in. N64 Lot -$175 Pokemon Puzzle League – CB Star Soldier Vanishing Earth – CB https://imgur.com/a/e5Y0rXx Japanese games - $175 – willing to break this up Batle Pinball – CIB Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon: Another Story - CIB Calcio Bit (GBA soccer game) – CIB Devil World (Famicom) - CIB Metal Max Returns – CIB The Great Battle II Last Fighter Twin – CIB https://imgur.com/a/ezq9qhe Game Gear games – $500 Ax Battler - CIB Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse - CIB Clutch Hitter - CIB Halley Wars - CIB NBA Jam - CIB Psychic World - CIB Putt & Putter - CIB Puzzle Bobble – Cart only Scratch Golf - CIB Shining Force: The Sword of Hajya – Box only Sonic Labyrinth – Cart only Sonic the Hedgehog - CIB Sports Trivia - CIB Wimbledon Tennis x2 - CIB https://imgur.com/a/2hMBEB6 Game Boy games – $250 Addams Family - CIB Amazing Spider Man – Box only Asteroids/Missile Command - CIB Boxxle - CIB Cleaning Kit - CIB Marble Madness - CIB Monopoly – Box only Navy Seals - CIB Home Alone - CIB Game Genie box and inserts https://imgur.com/a/c0A5Mnk Game Boy Color games - $300 Dragon Warrior I & II - CIB Fifa 2000 – Box only International Superstar Soccer 2000 – Sealed Frogger 2 – Box only Mario Tennis – Box only Mickey’s Racing Adventure - CIB NBA Showtime NBA on NBC – Box only Pokemon Trading Card Game – Cart only Rampart – Box only Rayman - CIB https://imgur.com/a/Zs3epPt Game Boy Advance games - $450 Final Fantasy Tactics Advance – Cart only Golden Sun – Cart only Mech Platoon - CIB Namco Museum - CIB NHL 2002 – Sealed Pac-Man Collection - CIB Pac-Man Pinball – Sealed Pinball Tycoon - CIB Pokemon Pinball Ruby & Sapphire – Cart only SD Gundam Force – Sealed Sega Arcade Rally - CIB Super Robot Taisen Original Generation – Cart only Wing Commander Prophecy Xevious – Sealed Yu-Gi-Oh the Sacred Cards - CIB https://imgur.com/a/kbsMrjJ SNES games - $275 Beavis and Butthead – Box only Final Fight - CIB Mortal Kombat 3 – Box only NBA Live 97 – Box only New Horizons – Box, manual, and poster Super Smash TV – Box only Weaponlord – Box, manual, and reg card https://imgur.com/a/bUuOegd NES games - $250 1942 - CIB Adventures of Link – Game and box Bandai Golf: Challenge Pebble Beach - CIB Blades of Steel - CIB Chessmaster – Cart only Goal - CIB Goal – Cart and photocopied manual Jackal – Cart only Ms. Pac-Man - CIB Ninja Gaiden - CIB Operation Wolf – Cart and manual Solstice - CIB T&C Surf Designs – Box and manual Tetris – Cart and manual Tetris- CIB Top Gun – Box and manual Top Gun Second Mission - CIB https://imgur.com/a/bBNVLuF Sega Master System games – $100 Alex Kidd: High-Tech World - CIB Alien Syndrome - CIB After Burner - CIB Bomber Raid – Cart and box Gangster Town - CIB Ghost House - CIB Out Run – Cart and box Rescue Mission - CIB Space Harrier - CIB Spellcaster – Cart and box https://imgur.com/a/XNp244L Sega Genesis games - $125 Dragon’s Revenge - CIB Eternal Champions - CIB Eternal Champions - CIB Eternal Champions – Cart & box Judge Dredd - CIB with reg card Madden ’94 - CIB Phantasy Star II – Cart and box Primal Rage - CIB Sub Terrania - CIB Sub Terrania - CIB Super Thunder Blade - CIB Toejam & Earl Panic in Funkotron – Cart only Troy Aikman Football - CIB Zany Golf - CIB https://imgur.com/a/gH2R8Wa

It sounds like you've played through a bunch of Mega Man games. Of the ones you've played, where would you put the rest of the mainline and X series in that list?

Yeah, you're too modest. You're ahead of me by quite a lot. I plan on returning to Super Metroid. It seemed like a massive step up in the series. Eventually, I plan on playing the remake on the 3DS to see if it's any better. I'm sure it is, but I'm curious how much better. I thought I might never play the GB game if I played the 3DS one first. Interesting. The way the people I grew up around always talked about them, I figured they were going to be slightly less difficult than I Wanna Be the Guy or Super Meat Boy. I owned Wily Wars as a kid, but I never ended up beating it. I erroneously assumed the NES games would be harder. I've been avoiding them all these years because I didn't think I was a good enough gamer to beat one. I didn't actually give MM6 a rating in my last post, but on my spreadsheet I gave it a 9/10. It's good to know that they're all good. That tracks with what I saw online; there didn't seem to be a consistent "favorite" Mega Man game among the internet gaming community. The only one I was mildly worried about maybe not being as good was the first one. I figured 6 was less popular because the music wasn't as good or the hover Rush power mechanic, which reduces the difficulty a pretty significant amount. I honestly played it first because it seemed to be labeled "the easiest" most consistently online, with 5 being the next easiest.

Metroid Zero Mission, Metroid II: Return of Samus (GB), and Mega Man 6 are done. I can't say enough about Zero Mission. It's a 10/10 game. I didn't expect it to live up to the hype, but it does. I can't think of anything negative to say about it. Metroid II was a painful and boring experience, even with a map. I'm not a fan of point and click and adventure games, puzzle-heavy RPGs, or obtuse puzzles in general, and I think this game falls into those categories somewhere. I don't like the tedium of bombing every single mysterious pixel for five more missles. I also didn't really like the relative emptyness of the map, even though I get what they're going for there. Even the Metroid encounters were pretty whelming. 6/10, although I think others will like this more than me. I put in Super Metroid twice and put about 30 minutes into it each time before literally falling asleep on the couch. I took that to mean my Metroidvania fatigue is now becoming literal, so I put it back on the shelf. I'm getting old... So, I switched to Mega Man 6, even though it might be one of the more unpopular Mega Man titles because of the Rush powers. I thought the difficulty was really fair, and I didn't have as hard of a time 1cc'ing it as I feared. I've always thought Mega Man games were going to be the most difficult games I'll ever play, but it's clear that modern "difficult" platformers and action games have surpassed at least this Mega Man entry in difficulty. It's no Super Meat Boy or Rabi Ribi. The scales have fallen from my eyes, and I'll definitely be playing more Mega Man games in the future. These last three games also fulfill one of my backlog tasks for the year: beating a 2D Castlevania, Metroid, and Mega Man game. Woo! Now people won't look at me like I have two heads when I say what I haven't beaten yet.

The only reason I won't be playing it is it's a FPS; it's not really my genre. I own more golf games than FPS games.

Good suggestions! If I play another Castlevania game this year, It'll be Judgement or Lords of Shadow. I want to save more Castlevania goodness for next year. In the meantime, I was going to move on to Metroid games, since I haven't really played anything in that series either. I've beat Prime and I've owned the NES Metroid since I was a kid, but I didn't know what I was doing or where I was going. I also haven't really played it in 25 years. I know there's an order to playing them, too. I was thinking: Metroid: Zero Mission Super Metroid Samus Returns/Metroid II: Return of Samus ??

I can only comment based on my knowledge of printing documents and marketing materials on standard printers, which may differ significantly from the printers used in this process. Printing stuff is tangentially part of my day job as a writer. First off, you have to get the images somehow. If you're using a camera to take pictures of the real box, the angle, lens, and filter of the camera can make straight lines not straight and can skew the distances between elements. Scanning a box, especially an Earthbound box, is difficult because of how thick it is, and that can also make the lines not straight. If they're getting templates and images off of the internet, they don't know how those images have been made, much less compressed, altered, resized, or degraded. From there, they're making a mock-up of a box for printing that isn't using the same assets used to make the original, so it will never be exactly like the original. The box and guide for Earthbound were created using mixed media and old-school techniques. They cut out or glued elements to a page to finalize them for printing. This is what gives it its scrapbook look and feel. Clay models and figures were used. Desktop publishing software has existed since the 80s, but Indesign was first introduced in 1999. The transition from physical to digital assets when designing a product, book, flyer, or whatever was still underway in the mid-90s. However, the bootlegger is probably relying on software and their digital design skills alone to replicate the box in some kind of desktop publishing software. This is where the issues start happening. It's very difficult to take accurate measurements from a physical item and replicate it exactly on screen. Even a few pixels off could be enough of a tell for someone to scream "FAKE!" If they're unfamiliar with the printing process or the software, they may position the elements correctly in the software without being aware of margins, bleed, spacing, or other settings the factory's machines use when printing. Also, if you send the same file to three different printers, you're going to get back three slightly different products. On a micro scale, printing errors that shouldn't be there can be introduced in a print run, making it even harder to exactly replicate the original. Printing techniques and printers themselves have also improved a lot since the 90s. Finally, it's still expensive to create high-quality printed materials, and bootleggers are typically trying to maximize profits, meaning lower-quality fakes. Printing stuff is a headache.

I'm calling the Castlevania gauntlet for now while I still have a hankering to play some Metroid games at some point this year. Here's what I thought (using Reed's rating scale): 9.5 - Symphony of the Night - I think this is the best Castlevania game I played. It's got all the action I hoped for without ever really slowing down. I also didn't expect the new area after you get the good ending. I also found Alucard to be the most fun protagonist to play as in any of the games I played. My only gripe is that the bosses are all pretty easy. 9.0 - Rondo of Blood - Tied for second best and easily the best 2D Castlevania. It's incredibly impressive for a game that came out in 1993. This game, on the whole, is much more difficult than any of the other games I played to completion...with Richter. Maria makes the game vastly easier in some ways, but harder in others because she takes fewer hits and doesn't hit as hard as Richter. I played half of the game with each protagonist, and I prefer Maria because she controls more like a normal character and less like a bag of sand with legs. I went back and forth between giving this game a 9 or a 9.5, but I think some of the minor oversights like Richter's physics and not being able to duck under attacks I think you should (and can duck under as Maria), like the axe knight's axes and the stage 3 boss's lance, ultimately make it a 9 for me. 9.0 - Bloodstained - Ritual of the Night - I ended up jumping to this game after playing Order of Ecclesia for a bit because I felt the Castlevania fatigue setting in and wanted to see if my opinion of this game had improved after playing the other games. Turns out, it had. For me, this game fixes the easy bosses issue with Symphony of the Night, has more areas and exploration, and implements the shard system better than I thought I would. Miriam is also my second-favorite protagonist to play as behind Alucard. I would call it the best Castlevania-esque game of all time if it wasn't so slow. The crafting system, the cooking system, missions, and farming for drops and shards really slows down the experience. I ended up taking 20 hours to 100% the map and get the good ending, but I think it should have taken closer to 15. 8.0 - Castlevania - Aria of Sorrow - The originator of the shard system, I honestly liked how the shards were implemented more in this game than Bloodstained because there was no grinding to level the shards. The game is solid, and Soma is an interesting protagonist to use. However, it's hard to overlook the smaller size of the map, the less responsive controls, and the significant reduction in secrets when SotN came out five years earlier. I also learned while playing this game that the Gamecube's Game Boy Player introduces a very noticeable amount of lag to GBA games, even though it's basically just a GBA. After about 30 minutes of trying it on the GBA player, I played an hour of it on the Retron 5, which has significantly less lag, and the rest of the game on a gen 1 DS, which had the least. 8.0 - Super Castlevania IV - I went off the board with this one because I always heard that it's the best 2D Castlevania game. That opinion seems to be changing now that Rondo of Blood is more accessible, but it's still a very solid game. I thought the level design was clever, but the limitations of the hardware let it down when it's trying to be really ambitious. The moving platforms that kill you if they run you into the sides of spikes, the chandeliers, stage 8, and the last platforming stage all could have used a bit more polish. Similarly, the bosses are a mixed bag between brutal and easy, with the last gauntlet being more on the brutal side. This game probably has the hardest Death fight in any of the games I played. However, Simon's whip gimmick really makes this game stand out, and I think he's my second-favorite protagonist to play as in 2D Castlevania games so far, falling just short of Maria in Rondo of Blood. 5.0 - Castlevania (N64) - Throwing this one in here, but I played it in January. Not great music aside from the title track, questionable control decisions and hit detection, a camera with a mind of its own, off-camera cheap shots, and obfuscating puzzles. However, I could see this game being significantly better with a remake. Thankfully, it's short at only ten hours. This game does have some cool boss and enemy designs, too, and the movement could honestly be worse. N/A - Castlevania (NES) - I popped this one in and played for about an hour, but I didn't beat it. The controls, specifically the jumping, were difficult to get a good handle on. I also felt like if Simon touched anything inanimate in mid air, he just fell out of the sky like a brick. I didn't really mind the knockback much, but the precision required to hit anything in this game is much higher than in all the later games I played. The OST is also a bop. If I were to dole out a preliminary ranking, I'd go somewhere in the 6-7 range. N/A - Order of Ecclesia - Another one I stopped after about an hour because I could feel the Metroidvania fatigue setting in and I wanted to get to Bloodstained while I was still enjoying the genre. I didn't get far enough to draw symbols, so no preliminary ranking here.

It's got some wear that's pretty common with these boxes, but, like you said, other types of common wear are suspiciously absent. For the wear that's absent, it's incredibly hard to come up with a reason why it doesn't exist. For other SNES games? Maybe. For Earthbound? Much harder. @dogbowl made a great point about the stickers, and I'll go one further. Regardless of whether those exact stickers existed in 1995, why would the owner pull off the hardest stickers to remove (void stickers) and not all the others? From the pictures, it looks like they haven't even really attempted to pull the others off. Plus, if the stickers were cleanly removed, they could add to the wear that's absent from the box. Yeah, that's one I noticed, too. Even though Earthbound sold terribly, the date on the receipt (11/11/00) is over five years after the game initially released. The likelihood of a copy of Earthbound sitting around in any capacity in a retail store like Toys R Us for five years is basically zero. A complete copy would have sold years ago and an empty box would have been thrown out, taken home by an employee, or destroyed. Regardless, I can't see a scenario where they would have accepted a return five years after the release date. It'd be like if I walked into store today and asked them for a refund for my copy of Runbow Deluxe Edition for the Wii U. 11/11/00 is at the tail-end of the N64's lifespan, and it's when I started buying games with my birthday money from Toys R Us. SNES anything was long gone from my local store at that point. This is probably where I'd lean more on the knowledge of someone who has sold on eBay more than I have.

CIB collecter and Earthbound enthusiast here. That box is 100% fake, and the insert is a reproduction. I have two real Earthbound CIBs in my possession, and while it looks right on a precursary glance, too many small things are off about it. I could go into extreme minutiae about it, and I'm willing to in a PM, but not a public post. I'll outline some of the things that are immediately off about it: The size of certain images are too large. The colors and print quality on both sides are not of the same quality as the originals, even if it's faded. If it were faded, some of the colors have not faded as they should, meaning they're wrong. The physical box that they used is manufactured differently from the original. The printing of text and images is not correctly aligned with other aspects of the box. The insert doesn't show the wear or staining one would expect to see from nearly 30-year-old white cardboard. I can't speak to the authenticity of the Toys R Us stickers, receipt, bag, and other stuff.

Agreed, but it sounds like enough of them leverage the third-party APIs everyone's concerned about losing that it might be worth cleaning up the mess if it means their job won't be harder in the future.

I actually like YouTube more than I ever did way back when. I cut cable over the pandemic and switched to YouTube for all my entertainment. Everything I could have ever dreamed of is on there: sports highlights, robot fights, more video-game-related content than I can shake a stick at, deep dives on cave- and mountain-related disasters, tours of medieval castles, documentaries, live streams...it's neverending. Plus, now, most videos are pretty professional and don't look like they were shot on a camcorder in someone's backyard. As for subreddits going offline for a day, I think a much better protest would have been moderators just doing less or nothing at all. Let the spam posts, bot comments, and terrible threads get made. One day where people don't go to their favorite subreddit is far less impactful than seeing their subreddits descend into the madness the moderators prevent for days, weeks, or months.

Alright! Thanks y'all! I have a game plan now. I'm going to try some more Castlevania games in the following order: Symphony of the Night Aria of Sorrow Rondo of Blood Castlevania (NES) Order of Ecclesia I really appreciate y'all's opinions. I'm really hoping that it was less of me not liking the genre and more of a framing issue for me. The games I've played, beaten, and enjoyed that fall under the "Metroidvania" umbrella are Momodora - Reverie Under the Moonlight, Rabi Ribi, and several Shantae games. I didn't think any of those games would be as different from Bloodstained as they actually are.

Alright. Whelp. I'm doing Castlevania wrong. The first game I beat this year was Castlevania 64, which was extremely okay. But, I've never played a 2D one. Beating one is one of my backlog challenges. Well, what's the "Castlevania" I've been itching to play most? Bloodstained. I figured that'd be a fun introduction to the series since it's a highly acclaimed, recent title. Nope. Apparently, all the Metroidvanias I've played have been light on the Vania and heavy on the Metroid. I was not emotionally prepared for crafting systems, enemy-specific drops, crystals, familiars, grinding, and the littany of other RPG-esque mechanics in this game. Apparently, Bloodstained is best enjoyed after playing other Castlevania games because it doesn't really explain everything Castlevania to you. It feels like handing someone who just finished up Shining Force a Disgaea game. My GF recommended I start with Symphony of the Night, but is there another one out there that might be worth checking out? Maybe one that better tickles my Metroid sensibilities or eases me into the systems, preferably without a damn crafting system?