Lago

If you go to play a game on your backlog and all the servers have been taken offline does that count as beating the game? Asking for a friend.

It's been a while since I posted.  I got bogged down with games I wasn't really enjoying and got disconnected with what I think is the spirit of the backlog challenge.  Playing the backlog, not necessarily beating every game on the backlog.  Thanks @Sumez for the reminder.

With that being said I have a bigger update than normal.

Games I didn't complete and didn't really enjoy:

NBA 2K23:

I have a confession to make.  I like sports games.  Especially the create-a-player mode.  Being a dominant force on the court, playing with the guys you see on TV, talking trash.  I can get totally immersed in it.  With the Eras in 2K23 and being able to play with Bird, Jordan, Kobe, Shaq, The Bad Boys of Detroit.  I was really excited.  My plan was to create a player and go through the story mode then put him in the Jordan and Bird era.

For the life of me I don't understand why you would take a basketball game and make it about everything other than basketball.  This story is just dumb.  I'll put my rant/review in spoilers just in case.

MegaMan Battle Network:

This game is solidly ok to me.  It's a product of its time.  So many random battles, and building a deck is just an absolute grind.  I'm not done with this forever, but man it will be taking a backseat to a lot of other games before I sink some more time in it. 

Live-A-Live:

You ever had a game where you're loving it and then all the sudden you're just not?  That's me and this game.  I don't not like it.  I just sat it down and don't really care if I pick it up again.

Now for some good stuff.

Arcade Paradise (PS5) Beat 3/30/2024 14 hours 8.5/10

This is games within a game.  I freakin' enjoyed the crap out of this.  It's a business sim where you turn a rundown laundromat into a full-blown arcade.  Each arcade machine is a fully playable game.  Between the arcade machines, doing laundry, and maintenance like picking up trash and unclogging the toilet you earn money to buy more arcade machines and spruce up the ol' arcade.

Each machine has goals that will boost the popularity of the machine.  Some machines have stories that unfold through email between you and customers.  There are daily goals that give pounds to buy things to mitigate some mundane tasks, like taking the cash out of the hoppers.  I kept coming back to this, and there is enough variety that it feels like an actual arcade.  That translates to it actually entertained my kids as well. We played together a lot.  Some of the easier, but grindier goals were perfect for them.  It gave them a real sense of achievement.  My daughter is an absolute beast at foosball, from the jump.  Highly Recommend.  

You guys got any tricks for powering through games you feel are just meh?  I am wrestling with two of them right now.

Abandoning my first game of the year.  I managed to snag a copy of Rune Factory 3 Special for the Switch at Wal-Mart for $10.  I was excited about the deal.  I had never heard of the game but for $10 why not.  I might come back to this game again in the future, but I am not feeling this game at all right now.  Unless I am missing something it is a dating/farming simulator.  I am going to move onto something else for now.

Mega Man 7 is finished!  This is my second favorite Mega Man game out of the series so far.  I’ve played 1-7.  I loved so much about this game, but that last boss fight with Wily.  Wow.

If you have never seen the ending to this I would suggest it.  
 

6 hours ago, Reed Rothchild said:

The Quarry

 

1. Bloodborne (9.5/10)
2. Assassin's Creed: Black Flag (8/10)
3. The Stanley Parable (7.5/10)
4. The Talos Principle (7.5/10)
5. The Quarry (7/10)
6. Pikmin 1 (6.5/10)

I’ve got this game as well.  Carryover from backlog 2023 if I am not mistaken.  I am not a fan of horror movies though. I’m curious how that’ll affect my thoughts on it.  Fingers crossed it doesn’t have a bunch of jump scares.

And finished LEGO Ninjago Movie Video Game with the kids.  Kids had a good time.  I enjoyed watching them play and jumping in.  It reminded me of when I used to have friends over and we’d have to share the controller.

The difficulty was about right and the hints helped out when the kids got stuck.  I enjoyed the little quips that were geared towards older people too.

Destroying the city as a giant kaiju after the rather lengthy credits was a nice little treat.

Working my way through the Rare Replay library.

Feel I have sufficiently played Lunar Jetman enough to mark it off the list and I do not like it at all.  
 

Loaded up Atic Atac and with trusty map in hand managed to grab all pieces of the key and escape the castle.

For a game made in 1983 this game was more forgiving than I expected.  You get a decent health bar, 3 lives, start in the room you die in, and a surprising amount of food to restore your health.  Inventory is limited to 3 items though, and you’ll need all those slots to escape.  If I didn’t have a guide I would have become hopelessly lost in this game.  I did like it though.  I found the sound effects for the footsteps amusing and liked the effect when you fall through a hole in the floor.  Also for a game made in ‘83 the rooms have a surprising amount of detail.

@the_wizard_666 The description of the game gives genres to the game.  For Jetpac it was “arcade, shooting” First time I saw that I translated it to an arcade machine in my mind for some reason.

9 minutes ago, the_wizard_666 said:

It was only released on the ZX Spectrum, the BBC Micro, and the Commodore VIC-20.  While the VIC and Spectrum both existed in North America, they were nowhere near as popular as they were in Europe.  And with Ultimate Play the Game (now Rare) being a British developer, it's just a case of "it never made it over here."  I do recall playing it in high school, but it could've been a freeware "port," an emulation, or some other thing that was prolific in the '90s.  Since I didn't have my own computer at the time, I just had whatever people downloaded on the school computers

But yeah, no arcade release whatsoever.  Just a few British computer releases, and the Rare Replay release.  Oh, and it's also on Jetpac Refuelled from the Xbox Live Arcade (coincidentally, also part of Rare Replay) as bonus content. 

Now every time a game on Rare Replay says arcade I am going to question it.

My minimal computer game knowledge is limited to the C64 and Apple IIe.  Oregon Trail, Number Munchers, and Lemonade Stand for the win.  

13 minutes ago, the_wizard_666 said:

I probably would've too, but it was never released in the arcade.  It's honestly a pretty sweet game, but I'm so damn bad at it.  Only reason I got through all 16 stages was because of the in game cheating that Rare Replay allowed.  Still, it's such an awesome game...just a pity it never really got any attention here.

Thanks for the info!  Was it released in the UK arcade?

 The thrust kept getting me.  Sometimes I’d take off like a rocket, heh. Other times not so much.

I wasn’t sure how to count this but I thought it’s a game on a compilation disc that I own. So, in the end, I decided I would count it.  With that being said I completed (played until I felt sufficient)JetPac a couple of nights ago. Jumped back in and played long enough for the picture.

It is on Rare Replay for XBox One.  It was originally released in the arcade in 1983.  This was the first time I had heard of it. As per the times the goal was high score.

If I would have seen it in the arcade I’d have put a couple of quarters in.  

Finished Like A Dragon: Ishin tonight.  The game takes forever to open up.  I almost put it down because of that and a couple of bugs that almost stopped me dead in my tracks.

Glad I didn’t though.  I ended up enjoying the game and the story. Fun times.  Going for something a little lighter next.

53 minutes ago, twiztor said:

Super Princess Peach (Nintendo DS)

i'd heard surprisingly little about this Mario spinoff title, but it caught my attention for being the only game to star Ms. Toadstool (until the upcoming Switch game releases).

i enjoyed this game, but it's pretty shallow as far as platforming games go.  interesting if underutilized emotion mechanics. level design that wasn't as intuitive as i expected (you have to "rescue" all 3 Toads in each stage, but it's generally unclear if a warp pipe/door is the actual path forward or a side path to find said Toad. i had to do a decent amount of backtracking). difficulty is nonexistent (akin to the mainline Kirby games).

post-game opens up new stages. haven't given them a play, but i'm vaguely interested. i mainly played this during my downtime at work, knocking out 1 world per day. a decent time killer, but significantly less addicting than the Mario vs DK series.

One of the things about the backlog challenge I like is seeing all the different games people are playing.

A downside is I’m usually learning about games or remembering games I had forgotten, which does not help my backlog at all.

6 hours ago, Sumez said:

Trails From Zero - Beaten 19/1

The Wikipedia article on the Trails series describes it like this: "Trails was conceived by Falcom as a goal to create the most ambitious story in video games, with company president Toshihiro Kondo considering it to be his life's work."

If nothing else, this is true entirely based on the sheer volume of these games, which so far feature 12 fully fledged entries, not counting spin-offs. But even a single game in the series is so fleshed out it's hard to really believe it, the translation alone must be a momentous effort.
Usually when playing these sorts of RPGs, I like to hang around and speak to every NPC at least once. But in these games every time the story moves forward just a bit, everyone in the game moves around and starts saying new things, which really helps create the illusion of a living city where everyone is out doing their own things. There's a lot of little stories and lore that don't really matter to the game, but helps establish Crossbell State as a place, within the continent of Zemuria where every game in the overarching Trails series takes place.

After three Trails in the Sky games, playing this one was refreshing. Finally a new set of locations, with a set of mostly new characters and a new basic story starting from scratch. Although there's a mild crossover into the back story one of the "Sky" series' secondary characters (and by the same merit, I wouldn't recommend anyone playing this game until finishing those).
What I really liked about the first Trails game is that each chapter was its own little self contained story, and there were no attempts to get into any crazy big world-ending stakes. This game is the same, and it's comforting and homey. Compared to Trails in the Sky 1 however, most of the individual chapters aren't quite as engaging, and I don't think the characters are as interesting as the ones in that game. This is basically a lesser version of that game.

Still, Trails From Azure manages to end in a satisfying manner, while also setting up more than a few loose ends that will no doubt drive the plot of the next game. And I'm honestly pretty hyped to play the sequel, just to see where it's going to take things.

This time I played the game on the Nightmare difficulty, having played the previous ones on Normal, hoping it would make the gameplay feel more involving. And it definitely made every boss fight, including really minor ones quite an ordeal, occasionally requiring quite a lot of prep work! For the first time I also actually made frequent use of the cooking system towards the end, which definitely saved my ass against the final boss. While it was definitely an improvement over the Normal difficulty, the amount of actual tactics and strategy needed for the fights isn't super interesting, and I think I'm sticking to Hard Mode going forward.

I’ve not heard of these.  I really like the aesthetic and will have to give them a try at some point.

Played through Dragon Spirit: The New Legend on NES.  If you like transforming dragons and shmups this game is for you.

I got this game for Christmas so it didn’t stay on the backlog for long. I really enjoyed this.  Also like how it tests your skills in the epilogue. If you don’t make it through it puts you on easy mode.  It’s still hard.  This is the NES we’re talking about here, but not as hard.  The dragon cutscene at the beginning is pretty epic.  I’m going to play through this again!

Side note: If you’ve ever played Brigandine: Legend of Forsena doesn’t that look like an 8 bit Cador? (2nd pic)

Side side note:  really productive day for me on the backlog.

Knocked out an easy game with my daughter this afternoon.  Mario Party Superstars.  This is my daughter’s favorite game by a mile.  If you let her pick a game she’s picking Mario Party 9/10 times.  Favorite stage Peach’s birthday cake.  I think the game is alright, but it’s great watching my kids enjoy playing as much as I do.

2 hours ago, Gloves said:

I have beaten Jak X Combat Racing. It was not a great time.

What made you decide to push through instead of just stopping?

21 hours ago, Reed Rothchild said:

My xls columns at the moment are:

• Completed (any amount of beaten)
• Abandoned (this could mean a lot of things)
• Elsewhere (ie beat the remastered Shadow Man on Switch = N64 cart is off the hook)
• Candidate (for one of the imminent future backlog challenge lists)

For the life I me I don’t know why I never thought to do this.  I’m going to start doing it.

55 minutes ago, Gaia Gensouki said:

I don't see a timestamp and don't quite understand what you mean.

I was referring to the note card with your name on it.  Technically not a timestamp, but I thought close enough.

It struck me as above and beyond and I thought it was neat.

6 hours ago, Gaia Gensouki said:

Wow. I've beaten the first game from my comically oversized backlog, i.e. Wurm - Journey to the Center of the Earth for the NES. This game is an absolutely wild mix of different genres similar to Golgo 13. You have side-scrolling tank/shooter levels, vertically scrolling shooter levels, action platformer levels and shooting gallery style levels. But like so often with these games, it's a jack of all trades, but a master of none.

This means that these different gameplay styles lack any kind of substance and get very repetitive very quickly. Some of them play very poorly and are borderline crappy. The only saving grace is that you switch so frequently between these gameplay styles that you don't really have time to get bored. Add to this a password feature and unlimited continues to make this game a whole lot more palatable. I have zero interest in replaying the long and difficult slog that is Golgo 13, but this one fares a bit better.

The different gameplay segments are linked together by story sequences that are fairly well made. Not on the level of Ninja gaiden, but still quite nice. The game's story starts off as some old sci-fi shlock about allies being abducted by underworld dwellers who start a war and you have to fight them back and find your allies etc. But near the end it actually has an interesting story twist that came as a nice surprise.

That being said, this game plays rather poorly and gets old fast. So I would give it a 5/10 on the Reed scale, i.e. "It's okay, but maybe not something you'll go out of your way to play." I would maybe add 0.5 points for the ending and the convenience features, which ultimately results in a 5.5.

1. Wurm - Journey to the Center of the Earth (5.5/10)

I love the fact that you put a timestamp on this.

50 minutes ago, Foochie776 said:

Made my modest list for the year and I’m excited. A lot of games I’ve had on here for years and some new titles from Pikmin and Kingdom Hearts which I fell I’m love with last year. 
 

Anyone have recommendations for a good Harry Potter game and a good beginner Final Fantasy game? I’ve never played much RPG’s but I’m starting to get into them so I’d love suggestions to ease into with! 

I started with Final Fantasy 7 on PS1.  Fantastic game should take 40-50 hours.

If you’re wanting beginner beginner I think Final Fantasy Mystic Quest on the SNES was specifically made for people new to RPG’s.

but my vote would definitely be 7.

Got a jump start on the new year!  I beat adventure mode in Mario Golf: Super Rush.  I didn't get a screenshot of the ending.  This game was more fun than I expected.  The first half of the game played more like a regular Mario themed golf game.  Honestly, I almost put the game down at this point as I was getting bored with it.

Then the story mode kicked in and it was so ridiculous I wanted to see what happened next.  Serious spoilers below.  Second half of the game was very entertaining.

Well my progress fell off a cliff in 2023.  Even so I still managed to beat 15 games last year, with roughly half being in my actual backlog.

This year I’m not going to be as specific.

My goal is to beat 25 games total that I already own, and beat any games I buy before November ‘24.  Hopefully, to keep my backlog from growing, to much.

Let’s All Game On.

1. Mario Golf: Super Rush (Switch) 10 hours 12/28/2023 6/10

2. Mario Party Superstars (Switch) 2 hours 1/12/2024 7/10

3. Dragon Spirit: The New Legend (NES) 2 hours 1/12/2024 8.5/10

4. Like A Dragon: Ishin (XBOX Series X) 32 hours 1/26/2024 7.5/10

5. JetPac - Rare Replay  (XBOX One) 1 Hour 1/29/2024 5/10

6. Lunar Jetman - Rare Replay (Xbox One) .5 hour 1/30/2024 3/10

7. Atic Atac - Rare Replay (Xbox One) 1 hour 2/1/2024 5/10

8. LEGO Ninjago Movie Video Game (Switch) 10 hours 2/2/2024 6/10

9. Mega Man 7 - MM Legacy Collection and SNES (PS4 & SNES) 5 hours 9/10

10. Arcade Paradise (PS5) 14 hours 8.5/10

I missed it this year.  Bummer.  I’m putting a reminder on my calendar for next year, today.  Have fun everyone!

On a bright note, I have been playing games, BUT they aren't ones I had selected for the backlog challenge.  I think next year I am going to make my list a little broader.