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# 1 -
Posted on 9/3/2020 16:59:58
I sometimes get too focused on all of the games I want to play that I forget to stop and reflect on the ones I've actually finished. So I decided to start this thread to recap what I played last month to perform that reflection. Feel free to post your own thoughts / experiences with the games I've listed here and / or recap your own progress If the interest is there, we can make this a recurring thread and give ourselves a nice pat on the back each month! I hadn't played this game in a loooooong time. There's not much to say on this one, it's just an old Pinball game for the NES. It's not bad for what it is, but nothing to write home about either. I was really disappointed in this one. I remember seeing this one in Nintendo Power when I was a kid and it looked awesome. I'm a sucker for a good beat 'em up, but this one just wasn't very good. It did have some neat ideas with the minigames and special moves, but the slow movement, shoddy hit detection, and obnoxious enemies really grated on me after a while. I randomly decided to try this one out and I was fully engaged from the get-go. The battle system was great, lots of fun and tons of action. But maybe halfway or so through the game, I started to lose interest in it. The story was rather meh and the characters felt very generic with hardly any development. The battle system started to show its annoyances the further I progressed and while the skill grid was actually kinda cool, I started to hit some road blocks since certain required items were extremely rare enemy drops. So there I was, about 20-25 hours in and in the conundrum I often find myself in. Should I continue since I've already made such progress or throw in the towel and move on? I decided to persevere and eh, it didn't really get any better. Don't get me wrong, this isn't a bad game by any means and I gave it a 7/10 on here. It's just a game that had too much bloat and not enough interesting story bits for me. I received the original Gargoyle's Quest for Christmas one year and enjoyed the heck out of it. It was a tough, but really fun platformer with some mild RPG elements. I felt like I was long overdue for playing the sequel, so I finally did it. In terms of gameplay, this is more or less the same as the original, just with better graphics. It had a bit more content than the first game, but it's still a fairly short experience overall. I didn't have a SNES growing up, but I had friends and family that did and I managed to play a fair amount of Super Mario Kart...although it was mostly just the multiplayer portion. I wanted to actually play through the single player mode, so that's what I did...at least all of the "main" cups. This is a classic and is still worth checking out. This game mainly ended up in my collection because it was really cheap. I love twin stick / roguelike shooter games...but I'm not exactly great at them. I had heard this one was a little bit easier than, say, Enter the Gungeon, so I thought it was worth a try. I was able to complete a full run in about two hours (which includes the time from my failed runs) and it had a nice difficulty overall. It was tough, but fair and I seemed to gradually improve my skills enough to prevent frustration. I'll probably give this one another go in the future, but I'm also in interested in the "Tournament Mode", which basically lets you generate a dungeon and have you and your friends compete for the highest score. When I first read about this game in Nintendo Power, I was immediately intrigued by two things: 1) Enix (who had released one of my favorite games at the time, Dragon Warrior); 2) DINOSAURS! But, alas, as I mentioned before, I didn't have a SNES. So roughly 25 years later, I finally played through it. This is a really weird game with a wacky difficulty level. It had some frustrating parts, but also some levels, even super late in the game, that were basically without any sort of challenge. It was fun to evolve into all sorts of different critters, but I couldn't help but feel it was missing...something. Now this game caught me by surprise. I dismissed it upon release as a kiddy adventure kinda game. It wasn't until recently that I found out it's basically a 3D Mario clone. I tried it out and I was hooked. There are lots of different challenges in the game and if you're a platformer fan like me, this is something you should definitely check out. Oh my, where to begin on this one. Like many, my interest was piqued with the release of the first trailer for Death Stranding. But just days before its release, I didn't really know much about it. I had it preordered, but after the review embargo lifted and I was able to skim through a few, I decided to cancel it. I just wasn't sure if I wanted to play what sounded like a giant fetch quest for 30+ hours. A few months later, the game dropped in price and I decided to snag a copy. Then it sat on my shelf a few months more until I finally decided to give it a try. And...man. I was hooked! This game sunk its claws into me awfully deep and I used every evening to play for 2 or 3 hours at a time, which is very unusual for me. I rolled through the game in just a hair under 40 hours and aside from a few (somewhat) frustrating battles, I loved every minute of it. I had hoped for something a little more from the story that never arrived, but it was still an enjoyable narrative that left me with plenty to ponder over. But the gameplay...I don't know how it worked, but it did. I had a blast figuring out how to make my deliveries and tried to help out with the optional ones at every opportunity along the way. This is certainly not a game for everyone, but if you have any interest in it at all, I encourage you to give it a shot and you might be pleasantly surprised like I was. I don't know why, but I love these games. And yet, I've played through the first one several times, but I had never actually finished the sequel. Well, mission accomplished. These are fun little puzzle-y kinda games where you play pranks on your neighbor. Definitely worth picking up for a couple of bucks when they go on sale. Ah, Spore. I've had this in my GOG library for a while now and I had never even installed it. I know it didn't quite live up to the hype upon its release, but I still had a bit of fun with it. It started to lose some of its luster as the hours wore on, but it's amazing how large the scope was for this sucker. Looking Ahead For whatever reason, I seem to flail around after completing a game that really hooked me, as was the case with Death Stranding. I'm writing this on 9/3, so it's now been a few days since I finished it up, but I'm struggling to find my next "big" game. I've become mildly addicted to Vampire: The Masquerade - Redemption, which is a game I've already beaten, but I'll probably stick with it. I'm not sure what's next, though I have a bit of a hankerin' for some strategy. Possible options include Shining Force III: Scenario 3, Tactics Ogre, and Impossible Creatures. I might also take this time to knock out some shorter items like Tacoma and Shelter 2. And then there are the horror bounties with Death Mark, Little Nightmares, and Corpse Killer that all sound fun. We shall see...
Post Edited on 9/3/2020 17:00:53
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# 2 -
Posted on 9/3/2020 23:18:18
I played through Dragon Warrior on the NES (via retroarch so I could use retroachievements) this past month, mostly because I have a hard time with sleep these days. The grind was great for boring me to unconsciousness since I was going for a max level playthrough, and also because there was an achievement for it. Really digging the whole retroachievements thing though. Adds new life to older games for me. Tempted to play through each supported game and see if I can get 'em all 100% achieved. |
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# 3 -
Posted on 9/4/2020 14:12:18
I loved Poi! I had the same first impression but it ended up being so much fun and absurdly charming. I've messed around a bit with the Retroarch thing but haven't entirely figured it out. I'll have to give that a better go cause it's a fantastic idea. |
