Philosoraptor

Kirby Super Star is done. I never grew up with a Super Nintendo, so going back and playing these beloved classics is always anxiety inducing. This was especially true of Kirby Super Star, as it's one of my girlfriend's favorite games in one of her favorite series, and she excitedly sat right by me on the couch and watched my entire playthrough, hoping I'd love it as much as her. Well, on the first day I got through Spring Breeze, Dynablade and some of the Great Cave Offensive. I was whelmed. It was a good Kirby game, but nothing special, I thought. I also really didn't like Great Cave Offensive as I'm not the biggest fan of slow puzzle platformers (que my girlfriend being disappointed and heartbroken that I didn't like one of her favorite parts of the game). Thankfully, that wasn't the end of the game. I got through the rest of the game on day two, and DAMN it was amazing (except the rest of the Great Cave Offensive). Revenge of Meta Knight and Milky Way Wishes have some of the best gameplay in the Kirby franchise. The boss rush was really cool, too. It was cool to see how much the Super Smash Bros franchise borrowed from this game. Overall, while this didn't end up being my favorite Kirby game because Return to Dreamland and Planet Robobot exist, it's an absolutely fantastic game that lives up to the hype. Also, the graphics are extremely impressive for the SNES, and the soundtrack is probably the best in the series. *phew*

First one in a while; Pokemon Brilliant Diamond is done. I'll be honest; this game is not great. I don't even think it's good. There are moments that save it, like the Elite Four actually being challenging and the Grand Underground being actually neat, but damn if this game isn't a slog. You want a large variety of Pokemon pulled from gens I - IV? Nope. You're limited to an arbitrary 151 made up of a hodgepodge of (in my opinion) mostly mediocre-to-crap 'mons from the first four gens until you finish the Sinnoh Pokedex and get the National Dex. Even then, you don't get a TON more like you do in other games. Cave herpes, AKA Zubat and Geodude, are back in force, and they brought their friends Budew, Onix, Machop, and Buizel (and their evolved forms). Hope you like 'em, cause you'll be seeing one or more of them on nearly every route and in a lot of trainer's teams. You want a cool story? Naah. Not here. You get standard Pokemon fare with a villain who is best described as "uninspired." You want a balanced game with a fair difficulty curve? Nope. Like most newer Pokemon games, Exp Share is automatically turned on, so enjoy all your Pokemon being several, if not 10+ levels more than your opponents until you get to the Elite Four, where you'll probably be under leveled if you only fought trainers or changed a bunch of your team throughout the journey. Mini games? Side quests? Extras? Not so much. Super Contests are a fun, simple distraction but the system wasn't overhauled and they're not notably better than in other gens. The aforementioned Grand Underground is probably the coolest thing about the game, but the lack of Pokemon variety neuters it. Secret Bases are back, but I didn't make one, honestly. Never felt the need or desire to. That's not to say it's not all bad. You can use HMs without having to teach them to your Pokemon. The game is faithful to the originals, maybe to a fault. The pause screen now tells you were to go. You can also put stickers on your Poke balls to make confetti, lightning, and other stuff pop out when you throw them (wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee). If you've played Let's Go Pikachu/Eevee and Sword/Shield, you're given a Mew and Jirachi in the fourth town. Speaking of Mew and Jirachi, they're surprisingly not OP at all. They have 100 in each base stat, which is a bunch initially, but it makes them a "jack of all trades" instead of a reliable anything in the end game. Mew ended up being a buff stick/Baton Passer (like Lopunny), and Jirachi ended up being my fourth attacker behind Gardevior, Garchomp, and Raichu. I went into the Elite Four with my entire team around level 60, which ended up being lower than pretty much everyone else's teams, especially Cynthia. Next up are some SNES games and then on to Sega stuff. Dunno what yet, but I'm excited for a change of pace.

Truly (about the pokepinion, but that's not a bad thing). I love Red and Blue, but the two Black and White games are the only mainline ones I actually haven't played through. I own them, so they will be played one day. I'll hope Scarlet and Violet will be what you've been looking for. I'll be excited to see what they do with it as well. I haven't looked much into it to avoid spoilers, but I'm hoping for a more polished and finished experience than Sword and Shield, regardless of what direction they take it in. I felt like, even though the game was a lot of fun, the rushed ending outed that they very much ran out of time.

Haha. The DS gens killed off my love for Pokemon for a bit, too. In my case, it was Diamond and Pearl. I sadly never played Platinum at the time, which fixes a lot of the pacing issues that make Diamond and Pearl so. very. sloooooooooow. X/Y is honestly what got me back into it, and the games just get better and more unique from there. I just bought Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl, so I'm hoping that redeems the DS versions on some level. I've been a fan since I got Pokemon Red for my birthday, and I've played most of the games they've released, spin-off or otherwise. There's always some people whining about some feature being in or not being in a game, but that's what makes Pokemon games as unique as they are. If you can ignore the noise, there's a lot of fun to be had in the Pokemon franchise.

Pokemon Sun/Moon are unfairly maligned in my opinion. I honestly thought they were better than X/Y by a lot. S/M has one of the best and more developed stories in the whole series, and the villains aren't just an afterthought like in X/Y or Sword & Shield. People latched on to the "no gyms hurrrr" rhetoric and didn't really give it a fair chance, but if you go into it with more of an open mind, I think you'll enjoy it. Edit: Also, you've convinced me to give Chibi-Robo! Zip Lash a shot. I've had the game + amiibo bundle since launch but never played it. I'll also back up your opinion on MiiTopia. It's certainly more fun when you put in the time to make Miis who are relevant to your life or likes.

I'll break my list up between standard picks and less common opinions. I'm also just going to say "a bunch of SHMUPs, especially Cave and Compile SHMUPs" so that my list isn't full of them. The standards: Super Mario Bros 3. Super Mario World Super Mario Galaxy 2 Pokemon ORAS Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Super Smash Bros Ultimate Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Final Fantasy 7 Paper Mario Tetris The hotter opinions: Mario Tennis (N64) Mario Golf World Tour Panzer Dragoon Orta Halo Disgaea: Hour of Darkness, 5, 6, and D2 Assault Android Cactus Ar Tonelico 2 Super Monkey Ball 2 Katamari Damacy Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA F 2nd Gundam Breaker 3 Xenoblade Chronicles The House of Fata Morgana Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete Soul Calibur 2 Marvel vs. Capcom 2 Guitar Hero 2

I FINALLY got everything moved over and organized reasonably well. You know what that means, @Gloves: I think in the coming months, I'd like to focus more on Dreamcast games. I haven't really put many hours in that console since I bought it and I'd like to play my games before the laser inevitably goes out. I've heard fixing those is hit or miss.

That's how Kwirk was. 15 or 20 of the 30 puzzles were pretty or very easy comparatively, but the others really ramped up the difficulty. I spent what seemed like 90% or more of my playthrough on the 10 puzzles I took the longest to solve. I can't speak to Amazing Tater, but the nice thing about Kwirk was the level design; they made it really easy to see what you had to do, but made reverse engineering the later levels hard. It's not terribly different from the mindset you need when playing Catrap, just a different viewing angle. I think if you're good at one, the skills transfer well.

Wow! Congrats everyone for 100 games beaten this year! I'm glad to see this thread is still going strong.

I planned on going for the platinum prior to moving, and I might still do it. I only need to beat it on the hardest difficulty to get it. You know what? Yeah. I'll do that. That'll be the first thing I do when I get some time between work and shuttling stuff between the old and new place. That gives me something to look forward to when it's all done. Thanks man.

First post in two months. Damn it's been a hell of a last two months. The only game I managed to find time to beat in that time was Demon's Tier +, which I beat in mid-April. It was enjoyable and significantly easier than other "SHMUP-inspired" dungeon crawlers like Enter the Gungeon and Binding of Isaac. I actually played both of those before this game and ended up liking Demon's Tier + the most of the three. Also, thanks to the Binding of Isaac, Enter the Gungeon, and Steredenn, I now know that I dislike games centered on "runs" with tens or hundreds of random weapon or equipable "possibilities" that you lose after your run ends. Steredenn aside, I feel like those games are actively wasting my time until I unlock enough possibilities to start actually getting consistent runs. To me, they're like the cursed offspring of a mystery dungeon game (which I love) and a top-down action game (which I also love). Steredenn is a true SHMUP, but most of the ideas for weapons seemed...uninspired...or downright detrimental. I would have liked to see more of a standard weapon system, but the game is very unique. In Demon's Tier +, you still have the (light) "SHMUP-inspired" gameplay, but more traditional RPG elements. You have six characters to choose from, all of whom have different stats. As you progress in the dungeon and kill enemies, you get more and more of the game's main currency, which you can use to upgrade your character's stats at the end of each level and pay for better weapons and helpful items in the hub-world. If you die in the dungeon, you lose all your money, but not your weapon. It's good fun. It's more of a *gestures towards all the new terms for Dark Souls-esque games* type of game. Souls-like? Souls-lite? Roguelike? Roguelite? Who knows. Why do we do this to ourselves? Anyway, due to unforseen events, I've spent the last month and change moving. I found a better place not far from where I was, but the saying "you don't know how much stuff you have until you move" is so apropos. As soon as everything gets back in order and my life settles down a bit, I do plan on continuing my backlog challenge. I'm thiiiiiis close to 100 games beaten this year, and I'd rather not squander that opportunity.

Two pretty big beats for me this month. First up is Jump King on the Switch, which I managed to do in just under seven hours on my first attempt. The WR speedrun is just over four minutes, so it's a plenty difficult game. The DLC is harder and free, too, if the main game isn't hard enough. To quote thesixaxis.com, "Jump King is an excellent experience in soul-crushing difficulty and nightmarishly precise platforming. It's the type of game that won't be for many people, but for the small percent that craves this kind of experience, they won't be disappointed." That being said, I'd highly recommend anyone who is a fan of unique platformers to give this a try. It's a vertical jumping game, as you'd expect. However, instead of the standard jumping mechanic in most platformers, you press and hold A to make your character jump higher and farther. After he jumps, you have zero mid-air control over where he goes. The only other thing you control is the direction of the jump, which can be left, right, or straight up. You can also run, of course, but that's only really for setting up for the next jump. You can't die, but your character can fall quite a ways if you miss platforms. I think it's one of the best games I've played this year, tbh. The second game I've beaten so far this month is New Super Lucky's Tale for PS4. I also enjoyed this one quite a lot. It's about 10 hours of solid 3D and 2D platforming fun, and it feels like a well-executed nod to games like Spyro the Dragon. It's not terribly hard, either, making it good for nearly all ages. What makes it worth mentioning is that it's one of only two games I've ever platinum'd. The other being Horizon: Zero Dawn. I'm no completionist, but this one had both reasonable enough trophies and engaging enough gameplay for me to see it through.

Yup. It was a stupid misconception I held onto for far too long. Edit: I dismissed it unfairly because it wasn't Tetris and was, therefore, "crap." I saw it as a poorly thought out clone when it's actually a great game in its own right.

I burned out on classic games lost motivation this month. It was inevitable, but the year is young. I beat 21 games in the first half of the month, but only one in the second. Oh well. Highlights include: Putt & Putter - One of my all-time favorite Game Gear games, and probably my favorite mini golf game. Bubble Bobble (SMS) - This one and the Game Gear version has twice as many levels as the NES one. I like all the additional items and collectibles there are, too. Sonic the Hedgehog (GG) - This was the first Sonic game I owned, and now it's the first 2D Sonic game I've beaten. I played it on the Retron 5, and it's SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO much easier on a TV instead of the blurry Game Gear screen. Fatal Fury 1 & 2 - I think I like Fatal Fury more than Street Fighter. Or at least the old Street Fighters. The characters might not be as iconic, but the Fatal Fury games seem to play smoother to me, at least on Genesis. Super Street Fighter 2 (Gen) - Another first. I actually beat one of these old Street Fighter games. Ryu is cheap. Tengen World Cup Soccer - One of the best handheld soccer games I've played. It's good, old fashioned, arcade-y fun at Sensible Soccer speed. Alex Kidd: The Lost Stars - I AM THE MIRACLE BALL!!?!?! But seriously...this game is an acid trip disguised as a platformer. Columns - A surprisingly good and deep puzzle game when you get into it. I always dismissed it as "not Tetris," but it excels on it's own merits. The sole lowlight was Wimbledon Tennis (GG), which is awful. The developers made every court play faster or slower, which is expected, but I didn't expect that the players would be faster than overhead smashes on clay. Aside from the ball, the whole game plays like it's on fast forward, which makes precise movement and shots near impossible. Not exactly what I want from a tennis game. To recover from the burnout, I've decided to knock out some longer games on more modern consoles. The only game I beat in the last half of the month was Disgaea 6: Defiance of Destiny, which was a bit of a disappointment. I'm a huge Disgaea fan, and I've played and beaten every main series entry in the series to date. This one was disappointing in a unique way. Typically, Disgaea disappoints by adding annoying and unlikable characters to the main roster (looking at you Mao). That's not the case here. The worst character is at least average, and the best characters are some of the best in the series. For the first time I can recall, the disappointment comes from the gameplay itself. It's feature light for a Disgaea game, the number of classes has been significantly reduced from other games in the series, and, worst of all, you can't play the game with the best graphics AND with the best performance settings on Switch. So you get treated to upgraded, albeit blurry sprites, or nice sprites and chugging gameplay and framerates. It also mostly takes features from older games, aside from the increased level cap, and has only a few unlockables. I think it could have been one of the best in the series if it had been both robust and optimized for Switch, but maybe the complete version on the PS4 will be better, at least on the performance side of things.

I also beat Fatal Fury. It took me a couple of continues, but I eventually found out that Geese doesn't really like flying kicks.

Got a few maybe beats for you, @Splain I played Blockout and got 1025 cubes played and 81,739 for a score with the default Flat cubes on the default play field. There doesn't seem to be a leaderboard for this game, nor is there a campaign or anything. It's just...press Start and play Blockout. However, there are different block sets and play field sizes. I also played one game each of NBA Jam... and NBA Jam Tournament Edition. Both of these games do have leaderboards, but no season, playoffs, or tournament mode...despite one being named Tournament Edition. Is one game enough, or should the completion requirement be to top the leaderboards? On a side note, man, I don't know if it's the hit detection or the camera angle, but pushing people down in NBA Jam is a lot harder than I remember it being.

Looks like you have to talk to the witch/warlock. This video shows them at about the 1:00 mark

I actually managed to stay motivated and continue beating a bunch of games throughout February. I've posted about most of the games I've beaten in the corresponding "beat every game" thread, but as I move to newer consoles, I'll probably start posting here. Anyway, I was able to beat 34 Game Boy and Game Boy Color games in February, making my total for the year 70. Some highlights: R-Type II on R-Type DX—Amazing SHMUP. Best one I've played on the GB yet. Pitman (Catrap)—Pitman's puzzles are fantastic and all the levels can be beaten within a minute. It has great controls, a rewind function, a password function, and a level editor that outputs your levels as passwords if you want to share them with friends or revisit them. Overall, it's a great game, and easily in the conversation of best puzzle games on the GB, IMO. Akumajou Special: Boku Dracula-Kun (Kid Dracula)—This game is so great that it stands up to the Famicom version, IMO. It's mind-blowing that Konami managed to put something like this on the GB and have it run with no slowdown and have no control issues. Absolutely phenomenal. Final Reverse—A 2P SHMUP where you're fighting the opposing player. Each "fight" has two rounds. The first is a 30-second preliminary round, where you draw a track with your spaceship, adding twists and curves to the line while the opponent does the same. Your spaceship must stay on this line. If you die in this round, you are not penalized, but whatever portion of the line you didn't draw is filled in with a straight line to the other end of the screen. The second is a deathmatch, and you switch lines. So if you were able to draw a bullcrap line, the computer gets stuck with it (and vise versa), like so: Operation C—This game is just as impressive as Kid Dracula. When Konami gets it right, they really made some of the best games on the console. Snoopy Tennis—A fantastic game and one that I highly recommend for anyone who yearns for an old-school, yet realistic tennis experience. I'd honestly say that, tennis-wise, it's better than Mario Tennis on the GBC. And most tennis games released at its time or before it. And it's not close. Some lowlights: Soccer (DMG-GSA)—A fun soccer game with a massive flaw that makes goals too easy to score. The goalie mirrors where the ball is on the pitch and doesn't stay in his box. Whoops. This one needed a little more play testing, Tonkin House. This bug was fixed in the European release of Football International. After Burst—A puzzle platformer marred by slowdown and very unresponsive controls. R-Type DX—A colorization that somehow manages to run worse than the original GB versions of the games that are on the same cartridge. They also decided the 4th boss of R-Type II (stage 10) should fire a bunch of bullets. I'm cool with the idea, but in practice, the chaos and the limitations of the hardware make a significant number of bullets invisible (but still deadly). As for my actual backlog list, I've met or exceeded the number of games in each genre I wanted to beat this year. However, I have not beaten any games for a majority of the consoles I wanted to play this year, so my backlog challenge is still not complete. I'll probably be moving on to other consoles sometime in March. I'm thinking maybe SNES, SMS, or Genesis.

Anyone for more tennis? The championship mode of Snoopy Tennis is done on Easy difficulty. Let me know if this needs to be done on harder levels. I'm not sure whether there is a different ending screen for Medium or Hard. So...umm...tennis-wise...this game is better than Mario Tennis on the GBC. And most tennis games released at its time or before it. And it's not close. Mistime your serve, and it's a fault or it's in the net. Leave too much space between you and the net and get a ball hit at your feet? Straight into the net if you don't hit the right shot. Balls can be hit wide or out if you try to go for too much. You actually have to time your shots pretty accurately to hit them. Drop shots and lobs can both be used offensively and defensively. Lobs also WORK when opponents play net, and you can actually win points going down the line or cross court against an opponent with poor positioning at the net. Balls can and will hit the tape, and not just randomly, either. This unassuming game with Peanuts characters is a much more accurate representation of tennis than one would expect. Oh, and it was made by two people. More on the fascinating story of how this game came to be can be read here. Oh, it's also insanely difficult. Remember how I said I didn't drop a game in Mario Tennis, having never played it before, until the second round of the tournament? I lost more games to Charlie-effing-Brown, the first opponent, than I did my entire Mario Tennis playthrough. On easy. And I owned this game as a kid. I think I might be able to beat the championship on Medium, but I think the championship on Hard is as pure a definition of Nintendo hard as you can get. Mike Tyson. Turbo Tunnel. Snoopy Tennis on Hard. Seriously. However, Mario Tennis does have the better control scheme. Pressing away from the net and B to hit a slice is hard to do without moving your character. Sometimes you'll hit balls long when you're running towards the net and have to make a split-second reaction to prevent the ball from going by you because the game thinks you want forward + A or B (deep shot). With how accurate this game is trying to be tennis-wise, it can be irritating that the controls can cause additional unforced errors. Overall, this is a fantastic game and one that I highly recommend for anyone who yearns for an old-school, yet realistic tennis experience.

Pokemon Puzzle Challenge is done on Normal difficulty. Let me know if the game needs to be completed on hard; you get the same ending, but you have to face more opponents.

Mario Golf is also done. Same thing as Mario Golf; you only get "End" after beating Mario in the Peach's Castle tournament, but you also get credits after winning the Links Club tournament. I feel like shot aiming, especially putting, isn't precise enough. Also, the way the game displays where the ball will go if putted straight is best thought of as a guesstimate; somewhat regularly, putts that should go in based off of the guide missed left or right on straight greens. It also has the "you can't trust that the default aim for putts is actually straight in" mechanic that a lot of old golf games seem to have, too. However, I think that this game is significantly better about aiming than most old golf games, FWIW. Overall, it's a really worthwhile golf experience. All the mechanics and information you need to succeed is here, and the --five-- courses you can play are all fun and impressive, especially Peach's Castle. Of the two games, I think Mario Tennis is the better one, albeit only slightly. I will probably be returning to Mario Golf more, though, because the 1P content is more replayable to me.

It actually says "つんタ モのよ," but it's highly stylized. Rookie mistake. Hmm. I think the biggest difference is the difficulty. However, other games on the list must be beat at certain difficulties or higher, and we could easily apply the same criteria here to make the experience of Nekketsu Koukou Soccer-Bu: World Cup Hen and Nintendo World Cup similar. Luckily, I also own Nintendo World Cup. I played a chunk of a match with each team, and here is what I found: Teams that are better, significantly better, or OP, and make the game easier than Nekketsu Koukou Soccer-Bu: World Cup Hen: Germany Argentina Brazil Italy Spain Mexico USSR Holland Teams that are comparable to the team you have to use in Nekketsu Koukou Soccer-Bu: World Cup Hen: England USA Teams that are worse and make the game harder than Nekketsu Koukou Soccer-Bu: World Cup Hen: Japan Cameroon France So, in the future, I'd recommend requiring that the game be beaten with England, USA, Japan, France, or, for masochists, Cameroon. Since @Bucket beat Nintendo World Cup earlier this year, I'm happy to take the number of points awarded for a second completion.

Mario Tennis is done. You only get "The End" after beating Mario, but you also get credits after winning the tournament. Not a lot to complain about here. The only things I can think of are that the action in general seems a little slow, and only the final opponent of the tournament actually lobbed my character consistently, making serve and volley play a massive hack. I didn't drop a game until the second round of the tournament. It is a very fun game, and I appreciate how much Mario Tennis goodness they shoved into this cart.

I beat the Japanese version of Nintendo World Cup, Nekketsu Koukou Soccer-Bu: World Cup Hen (DMG-NCJ). All the text in this game is in Japanese. There appear to be some differences between the two versions. The biggest difference is that Nintendo World Cup allows you to choose your team, making the game possibly a little harder if you choose the worst team (Cameroon) and significantly easier if you choose a better team. In Nekketsu Koukou Soccer-Bu: World Cup Hen, you can only play as Japan, which is one of the worst teams. The amount of time in each match is also different, with four minute halves in Nintendo World Cup but only two-and-a-half minute halves in Nekketsu Koukou Soccer-Bu: World Cup Hen, making a playthrough a bit over an hour without any losses. Gameplay-wise, it seems like there aren't any noticeable differences. Since you're stuck with Japan in Nekketsu Koukou Soccer-Bu: World Cup Hen, Argentina and Germany, the two best teams and the last two opponents, are brutal. Everyone on those teams are twice as fast as your players, even usually overpowered Kunio, and no amount of knocking them down will get them to stay down. They are relentless in chasing you and the ball down, and they will fire super shots at your goal if they get enough time and close enough. The shorter match length also plays a decent factor here, as ties give you the game over screen in both versions and overcoming deficits against such a punishing AI is difficult. I had to resort to stalling using headers after scoring a goal to beat both of them 1-0. Overall, if you like Nintendo World Cup, this version is just as good.

Pokemon Card GB2: GRdan Sanjou has an English translation. I liked it better that the first game for some of the reasons you outlined, but they're both fantastic. FYI, there is an official free-to-play, online Pokemon TCG game for PC that has a rudimentary story mode to teach you the basics, but then lets you play other humans. It's updated frequently to reflect new card sets and rules. However, I think the oldest cards in the game are HG/SS era cards, which are from early 2010 and later. If you buy physical Pokemon cards, you get a code to get a free pack of the same cards in the game. If you bought a promo box, it also comes with a promo code that allows you to get the promo cards in the game. Pokemon also sometimes sends out codes in official emails. Packs can also be earned in game, and you can trade cards or packs to other players for other cards or packs. I wouldn't say it's perfect, but it's good fun and a cheaper way to play than buying decks of physical cards, typically. I'm not sure if they will ever make a new game as long as this game is up and running.