cj_robot

Finished Suikoden IV.

The game was OK. The game starts off real slow, and I'm glad I listened to one review that said it gets better if you stick with it, but even still I didn't think it was great. The visuals were definitely a disappointment for me, being such a fan of the original two games' 2D art style. The story is nothing special either and it's pretty short for a RPG. It's really the most fun when you're actually doing the Suikoden thing: exploring the world to recruit characters, watching your headquarters grow, checking out all the mini-games, etc. 

This game had such a cool visual style that I think holds up pretty well. I remember having trouble with the controls, but I don't know if it was the game or that I just didn't like the Dreamcast controller very much. It was some decent fun, but I had trouble getting very far into it.

6/10

11 minutes ago, twiztor said:

but from this argument, is there "one single person on the planet who doesn't already know that" Super Mario Bros 3 is Super Mario Bros 3 (aka Super Mario Advance 4)? like, the entire name is still in the title of the re-release. 

Yeah, if you're staring at the cartridge, sure I guess. But could anybody actually recite all the titles with the correct numbers from memory? Not me, that's for sure.

I just realized.. didn't the Japanese Super Mario World include the subtitle Super Mario Bros. 4? Doesn't that make the GBA game's full title Super Mario Advance 2: Super Mario Bros. 4: Super Mario World? I kinda like it, actually.

Mario for sure, because they just went bonkers with it.

No on Final Fantasy because it made complete sense at the time, and there's not one single person on the planet who doesn't already know that FFIII(SNES) = FFVI(SFC). Because if somebody does refer to the game as Final Fantasy 3 (God forbid), it takes literally 12 milliseconds for somebody to respond, "You DO realize that it's actually FINAL FANTASY 6, right? RIGHT?!?!?"

NES: SMB/Duck Hunt, SMB2, SMB3, TMNT, and DuckTales. Best Christmas ever.

SNES: Super Mario World/All-Stars combo cart.

Genesis: Sonic 2

GameBoy: Zelda: Link's Awakening

Nintendo 64: Mario Kart 64

PlayStation: Final Fantasy VII

Dreamcast: Sonic Adventure

PS2: Honestly can't remember. For some reason, back in 2001, I started collecting games before I even owned the console.

GameBoy Advance: Super Mario Advance, F-Zero and Castlevania: Circle of the Moon on launch day.

GameCube: Pikmin and Rogue Leader.

Wii: Twilight Princess, Excite Truck, Call of Duty 3, all on launch day.

PS3: Resistance: Fall of Man

Strangely, it's the more recent consoles that I have a header time remembering. 

I've never played this one, but I've have a hard time dealing with the concept that death is permanent for characters in the later games I played. If I can ever get over that mental hurdle, I figure I'd probably enjoy this series, as I usually do with these kinds of games.

I'm going with the most obvious answer: Super Mario Bros. 3.

After the brilliant, ground-breaking sequel that was Super Mario Bros. 2, Nintendo shamefully back-pedaled with SMB3, returning once again to the already conquered Mushroom Kingdom with the same ol' baddies to deal with yet again. And wait, Mario and Luigi look and control exactly the same again???

At the same time, they added new aspects which make it feel like it belongs to a completely different franchise. (What is with this map screen? Mini games? Oh, so Mario can fly now?!?)

Totally ridiculous. SMB3 is an ok game, I guess, but it certainly isn't a Super Mario Bros. game. Should have been called Super Mario World Zero or something like that.

On 2/7/2023 at 2:45 AM, Sumez said:

Also here's the obvious one no one's gonna disagree with: Contra Rogue Corps

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned Contra Force yet.

7 hours ago, Sumez said:

If you haven't played the Oracle games yet, you're in for a massive treat! Literally some of the best Zelda games ever made.

That's good to hear. I did have one of them (Seasons, I think) back when it was new, but sadly I never gave my GameBoy Color the love it deserved. I'll have to check those out some time.

Been playing TLoZ: The Minish Cap, and have been really enjoying it so far. It's becoming clear to me that instead of trying (and failing) to enjoy the home console Zelda's all these years, I should have just been sticking with the portable ones, which seem to be much more up my alley.

Honestly, even "shoot-'em-up" sounds weird to me. When did that phrase come around, anyway? I thought they used to be referred to as simply "shooters" back in the day.

Finished The Getaway: Black Monday.

Honestly, I was surprised at how bad this game was. On the surface, it looks like it has some very high production value, with nice graphics and character models (for a PS2 game, anyway), and excellent voice acting. It's all style and no substance, though. Controls are frustrating, there's no camera control, and there's a surprising lack of freedom as to what you can do in the game. Apparently, the developers actually recreated a portion of real-life London in the game, but there's absolutely nothing to do in the city other than drive around, and playing through the main game never even gives you an actual opportunity to explore anyway, so what was even the point? Oh well, on to the next game.

Does everybody here drink IPAs while you play through your collection of "minty" SNEZZZZZ shmups (like S.T.G)? Or do you just drink rubbing alcohol like I do?

I got this right when it came out, but never ended up playing all the way through. It's been so long now, I can't really give it a proper score. I remember it seemed really interesting, kind of like the 3D evolution of whatever you call the genre that Out of This World belongs to, if that makes any sense.

After having a lot of fun with Shadow of the Colossus last year, I'll probably get back to Ico some time soon.

Am I mistaken or are digital games being tracked now as well?

If so, I finished all the puzzles on Picross S.

As usual, I go on vacation with a device loaded with games and end up playing Picross the entire trip.

27 minutes ago, the_wizard_666 said:

The cartridge also indicates it being a Game Boy game and not a GBC game, due to the DMG item code.  Which also means the case to make GB-compatible GBC games part of the GB list is technically stronger than shifting a game that is clearly meant for release as a GB game over to a system that it was not released for.

I agree that it makes the most sense to think about it this way. For instance, there are several Game Gear games that are actually technically Master System roms which puts the hardware into "Master System" mode to run. But these games were branded as Game Gear games and Master System games separately, and we obviously think of them as such.

Another example is the Sega Mark III (Master System) game, Phantasy Star, which was re-released on the Mega Drive as an actual Mark III rom and converter inside a Mega Drive cartridge. At the technical level it is a MS game, but obviously this version would be considered part of the Mega Drive library as well.

Kinda like those black-box NES games that are actually just Famicom boards with pin converters inside the cartridge. Those are considered part of the NES library, even though the Famicom is a completely different console

18 minutes ago, Gloves said:

No, cuz nobody is gonna play like 30 versions of Mahjong.

I mean, I've been looking at the number of soccer games on the PS2 completion thread and thinking the same thing about that.

I'm siding with @fcgamer on this one. For me, specifically with the Famicom/NES, it makes sense to differentiate the regional subsets and not just think of it as one big glob of games. As has been pointed out, the library overlap isn't really as big as one might think. And the stuff that did overlap, in many cases, is different from one region to the next. Not just localization, but in many cases gameplay was altered, complete graphics overhauls or reskins, features taken out either due to hardware differences or otherwise. Obviously Disk System games can't be just be plugged into NES with an adapter, but neither can many Japanese carts that had special chips like Konami's VRC games.

In my opinion, there is just too many interesting differences in either side of the library to just simply ignore by lumping them all into one big pile.

But, of course, everyone is free to look at this any way they want. There is no right or wrong answer.

Finished Airborne Troops: Countdown to D-Day.

I was expecting a bland, generic WWII shooter. What I got was even worse. Terrible controls and annoying enemy respawns made this game a not very fun experience. Oh well. I couldn't even get a picture of the ending because it was a video that lasted all of ten seconds, so I just grabbed a pic of level select showing all of the complete.

5 hours ago, Sumez said:

Some of their earliest games were still great though. Janky? sure. But the King's Field games are fantastic IMO, and even though I'm not a big Armored Core fan, that series has a pretty religious following!

Yeah, I am actually also one who can appreciate a lot of their older stuff. Weirdly, I didn't really take to any of the "Souls" games, though. But the truth is that almost every game they put out got pretty mediocre review scores. I was honestly shocked when Demon's Souls was so universally praised when it came out.

FromSoftware had a whole decade worth of games with mediocre reviews, and then they release Demon's Souls and they're instantly a household name.

I'm giving it a 6. Just didn't really click with me. I played through the whole thing, but I kinda had to force myself to get through it. I wouldn't say it's bad, but it just didn't feel special to me in any way. Plus, I think the loads of quirky dialogue you have to sit through turned me off a bit, as well.

Beat Torpedo Range. 

Finished Sword of Vermilion. Not a bad JRPG that doesn't get a lot of attention, I think. Does get a bit repetitive after a while, but it also doesn't overstay it's welcome. Finished in about 15 hours of playtime, even with maxing out my character's level.

I'm actually embarrassed by this

I don't even know why it says "12 Games Played" because it should only be 3... and two of those games were me trying them out for a quick minute and never going back lol