52 Games Challenge 2023!!!

[telly]

Game 8 - The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess HD (Wii U) - 41 Hours

While everyone has been talking about Tears of the Kingdom, I've been playing through an older Zelda title that I don't hear a lot of fans talk about very often. My theory is that because the original used Wii controls that were unpopular, and the HD remake is still isolated on a system that was unpopular, Twilight Princess just doesn't get the same amount of attention as other Zelda games. My prediction is that people will get another shot to play this with the game's 20th (and Zelda's 40th) anniversary in a few years.

It's a shame, because I actually thought this game was excellent. It's essentially Ocarina of Time 2.0, and I actually prefer TP over it, though it has been a 10 year gap between the two. Everything that made OoT great is in this game, but with some nice additions that I really appreciated. I found that Midna was a far more interesting and entertaining side character than Navi ever was. I liked what the wolf added to the game, though it's mostly front loaded in the beginning of the adventure and afterwards you only go into wolf form a handful of times. It felt like the wolf was primarily used for side content, teleporting, and the convoluted formalities that you must complete before starting the next dungeon of the game with the "scent tracking". The wolf mechanics tied nicely into some darker elements that I really appreciated, particularly in the music and monster design. Reminded me a lot of Ueda's work on Shadow of the Colossus and ICO. I thought some of the dungeons were really interesting, like the snowy mansion and the temple in the sky. It's probably not fair to view this more favorably to OoT because a lot of this game is pretty much a copy-paste, including most of the items, the different races, the music, and the puzzle/monster designs. But there was enough unique stuff in there that made it stand out to me in a good way.

There were some things that I didn't like. For me, controlling your horse was really difficult and I kept running into walls especially in tighter corridors. The game teaches you a handful of different sword techniques but you don't really need to use them: I only used these techniques a dozen times over the course of the game and only for particular enemies. I know that there was some rebalancing of the game's story progression requirements over the original that I'm not familiar with. I did have a glitch with the tears of light section of the game that I thought broke my save file, and I had to consult on Reddit to figure that out, so that was fun... Lastly, I found the final boss battle to be pretty disappointing, with a lot of borrowing from previous Zelda titles and it wasn't very exciting.

[bikingjahuty]

23. Fatal Fury (PS2)

I've played the original Fatal Fury numerous times over the years, but probably never for more than 10-minutes at a time. I decided today was the day that I tackle this game from start to finish...and well, i certainly have very mixed feelings about it. First off, I get that Fatal Fury is a very early example of an arcade tournament fighter, even predating Street Fighter 2 by a few months, but holy crap has the gameplay in Fatal Fury aged terribly! Not only is this game plagued with balancing, hit detection, and control issues, but the whole two plane combat style in each stage is beyond annoying to deal with. You literally have to cheese your way through most battles, because playing this game as you would Street Fighter 2, or even Mortal Kombat will get you killed really fast. It's also worth pointing out that you're only given 3 playable characters, which is a real drag, considering there are multiple non playable characters that should have been available to play as. I guess they didn't allow those characters to be chosen since it would go against the games story narrative, but Fatal Fury would have benefited way more had they chosen a bigger roster over a shallow, mostly forgettable storyline. However, I found it hard to outright hate this game since there is so much to love about Fatal Fury still, particularly its presentation and sound. The audio is pretty good and has that undeniable early 90s arcade sound to it, however the visuals are on par with Street Fighter 2, maybe even surpassing it in many ways. The character sprite art is also pretty good for its time. And while I knocked on it earlier, it is cool there is a story between fights as you work your way up towards fighting the boss of South Town, Geese Howard. While I can't see myself ever really wanting to go back and play the original Fatal Fury, I'm glad I at least gave it the time it deserves as being a pioneer in the fighting game genre. I'm just so thankful the series improved dramatically with later installments. (6/22/23) [28/50]

[bikingjahuty]

24. Fatal Fury 2 (PS2)

With some extra downtime today, I decided I'd just go right ahead and start playing the second Fatal Fury game, which I've probably played once or twice already in my life, but it's not a game I can remember ever playing for any significant amount of time. Anyhow, Fatal Fury 2 is a marked improvement over the first Fatal Fury game in nearly every way. And this is despite some annoying things like the stupid two combat planes and noticeable character balancing issues making a return, albeit in a more refined state. No, Fatal Fury 2 looks better, sounds better, and more importantly plays better than the first game. The gameplay especially was something that I appreciated since it really dampened my enjoyment while playing the original Fatal Fury, and really squashed any desire I had to ever play it again. Luckily I not only enjoyed my time playing Fatal Fury 2 for the most part, but it felt good to have a fighting game more akin to what I've been used to in the modern area. Hit detection is way better, move execution is improved, and as I mentioned, balancing is improved, but still flawed. There are also way more characters to choose from. Stages are also something noteworthy as they show off a level of detail and are even more dynamic and cool looking than what we got in Vanilla Street Fighter 2. Speaking of Street Fighter 2, it had been such a long time since I played the original version of that game that I decided to play it right after beating Fatal Fury 2 to see if I actually liked SNK's game more than the iconic Capcom tournament fighter. More on that in a moment though. But yes, Fatal Fury 2 is definitely a game I'll be playing more of, unlike its predecessor. (6/22/23) [33/50]

25. Street Fighter 2 (PS4)

As I mentioned, I decided to play the original Street Fighter 2 because of how much I enjoyed Fatal Fury 2, and because it's been A LONG time since I played the vanilla version; typically when I play Street Fighter 2, I play one of its more advanced, polished version, preferably one released on the CPS2 platform such as Super Street Fighter 2. But i decided to go back to the original since no matter how much i enjoyed Fatal Fury 2, there is no way in hell I'll love that game even close to how much I love some of the more advanced versions of Street Fighter 2. But anyhow, Street Fighter 2 is still a remarkably fun game to play, and it's actually mind blowing how fluid, easy, and deep the controls and gameplay is over 30-years later. I was very young when Street Fighter 2 came out, but I can imagine it was a revelation to anyone who'd played any fighting games prior to it given how amazing it plays. Visually I feel it's still a very attractive game, although compared to Fatal Fury 2, I actually think it's slightly inferior, especially the stages. I will give the character sprites artwork point to Street Fighter 2 though. Audio is definitely on par with Fatal Fury 2, although it has to be said that Street Fighter 2's soundtrack has definitely stood the test of time as being far more iconic than anything we got in any Fatal Fury entry. Still, it's amazing that they are so close in quality when comparing the two from the perspective of when they both came out. With all that said, Street Fighter 2 is still clearly the superior fighting game, even with the lack of features and refinements it would get throughout the years. Still, it's crazy SNK got as close as they did with Fata Fury 2 with snatching the crown away from Capcom, but as we all know, they'd be trying to play catchup over the years while never truly surpassing what Capcom created. (6/22/23) [35/50]

[bikingjahuty]

26. Fatal Fury Special (PS2)

Essentially everything I said about Fatal Fury 2 applies to Fatal Fury Special because, well, they're essentially the same game. Aside from a larger character roster and a slight bump in gameplay speed, as well as some very subtle changes to stages, this is essentially the same game through and through. Obviously with those additions I'd say this is the version to play, however I struggled to give this game an extra point just based off those changes alone. Obviously the expanded roster is biggest change, but I feel like it falls short of justifying this being a whole point better than 2 despite me saying 2 is essentially obsolete because of Special. Regardless, yeah, good game, and yeah...play this one, not 2. (6/22/23) [33/50]

[bikingjahuty]

27. Jurassic Park Arcade - 2015 (Arcade)

I hit up a small local arcade that surprisingly has a decent selection of titles. The two games I played the most were House of the Dead (a game I've beat a hundred times, but still love), and Raw Thrill's 2015 rail shooter Jurassic Park Arcade. This is the second time I've played through JP Arcade, the first being probably 6 or 7 years ago when I first started seeing the machine pop up in arcades, bowling allies and movie theaters. JP Arcade is a pretty lightgun rail shooter that has you going through three stages with 3 chapters each. Each stage has you going on what feels like a roller coaster ride where your objective is to capture some rare, iconic dinosaur by the final chapter of the stage. Being a rail shooter, everything that happens is scripted and you're pretty much just along for the ride. While I appreciate lightgun games that don't require reloads and just have you holding down the fire button and blasting everything, it's annoying when you're encouraged to do this 90% of the game, but a few select areas switch it up and want you to be more judicious about what you shoot. This works find for most light gun games that require you to shoot off screen to reload and you're not mowing things down with a machine gun. In JP Arcade there are areas where friendly NPC's can be shot and you lose health whenever you do this. I found these areas cheap and frustrating and they seemed to pop up often enough to where the game got probably an extra 2 credits out of me just from doing this. Also, the mechanics of shooting certain enemy types is not well suited given specific scenarios you find yourself in which is also frustrating. Visually, however, JP Arcade mostly looks great and has some cool, vibrant colors and a variety of setting where you'll be battling the games pretty diverse set of dinosaurs. I also found it cool battling what is essentially the boss dino for each stage throughout each chapter rather than just battling them in the final chapter only. Audio is probably the weakest area of JP Arcade, mostly because ether the game's OST was so faint I couldn't hear it, or there was no OST playing throughout most of the game, just dino roars, screeching, an NPCs talking to you. However, these sound effects, as well as the sound your guns and their various powerups make were pretty cool and impactful. Still, the lack of an OST or at least a memorable one certainly was something I noticed and missed during this game. When it comes to Jurassic Park rail shooters, this one falls in the middle between the 1994 rail shooter and the much better The Lost World arcade cab from Sega released in 1997. I know this is one for JP3 made by Konami, but unfortunately I've never seen this game ever, but would love to play it someday. So yeah, certainly worth playing, but it's probably not a game I'm going to flip out over next time I see it in an arcade as I often do when I see rail shooters like House of the Dead or Time Crisis 2. (6/23/23) [31/50]

[bikingjahuty]

28. Wayne Gretzky 3D Hockey (N64)

I was born in and lived in Colorado most of my life, and the Colorado Avalanche winning the Stanley Cup their first season in my home state instantly made me a hockey fan and an Avs fan for life. I was only 8 years old when they won the Stanley Cup the first time, and it left such an impression on me I began obsessing over NHL hockey, joined a street hockey league, and of course wanted to play as many hockey video games as I could get my hands on. I believe the first hockey video game I played was NHL 95 or 96 on the Genesis which I played at a friend's house. However the first hockey game I owned was Wayne Gretzky 3D Hockey for the N64. Wayne Gretzky 3D Hockey was the second N64 game I ever owned (first was Super Mario 64) and I remember enjoying it a decent amount as a kid, although it lacked the staying power of most other games I'd own and play on the console. Going back and replaying it now, I'm definitely reminded why. As one of the first 3D hockey games, Wayne Gretzky 3D Hockey is a decent effort, however its overly simplistic gameplay and clunky controls make this game serviceable at best in terms of actually playing it. You pretty much just swerve all over the ice in the direction of the other team's net and taking a shot on net will result in goal about 25% of the time without fail. This negates the need for passing and other strategy commonly found in hockey games, even back then. The audio is pretty good with an entertaining announcer, some catchy menu music, and sounds from the players and crowd. One thing that is not pretty good however, are the graphics and visuals. The N64 is commonly criticized for having ugly graphics, and while I disagree with this on many accounts, I will never defend the way Wayne Gretzky 3D Hockey looks. This game looks pretty freakin bad, and lacks polish and detail found in most other N64 games. I can forgive it for being an early N64 game and because it was the early days of 3D gaming in general, but it's still pretty awful to look at. Still, despite all its many flaws and issues, this game has a massive nostalgia factor for me and also given its short 2-minute periods, its digestible enough in small playthrough to be entertaining without making you want to blow your brains out. So yeah, I wouldn't recommend this game to anyone for the most part, but for me it's definitely one of those special games given the time it was released and my own coming of age as a hockey fan around that time. (6/24/23) [25/50]

[bikingjahuty]

29. Fatal Fury 3 (PS2)

Unless I'm mistaken, I've never actually played Fatal Fury 3 prior to yesterday. I started playing it and found myself really into it with its adventure style storyline and progression system where you make your way through South Town fighting various people while unlocking the mystery behind some ancient scrolls. It's nothing incredible, but it added something to my enjoyment of the game that I was not expecting, which was just further enhanced by unique cutscenes and dialogue depending on who you selected. However, the real marked improvement in 3 over all of its predecessors is its gameplay, which was faster, easier to control, and also more dynamic than any previous Fatal Fury game I'd played. Again, my only gripe with this game is the multiple planes of fighting which makes a return with 3 planes instead of just two. While this might sound like a massive strike against the game, it actually has been tone downed somewhat and simply serves more as a way of side stepping attacks and doing certain special movies. I'd still prefer if it wasn't in there, but it was less bothersome to me than any of the previous games. I would have also scored the gameplay slightly higher if not for more annoying balancing issues involving certain characters being downright cheap, while others being pretty ineffective overall against certain characters. It's not terrible, but certainly diminished some of my enjoyment while playing. Other than that, this game looks INCREDIBLE! The stage design and overall graphics are just on another level, particularly a few which rival anything anyone else was doing at the time, even other SNK games. The OST is also particularly good and catchy. Despite its flaws, I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed playing Fatal Fury 3 and it's one I definitely want to play more of in the future! (6/24/23) [37/50]

[dhaabi]

20. Toem || PlayStation 5 || 06.23.23



On a whim, I came across Toem and seemed interested in what this short game with camera mechanics has to offer. While playing, I was pleasantly surprised that story content DLC was also available as part of a free update some time ago, so my thoughts also relate to the Balto campaign.

With a simple narrative, Toem tells the story of our unnamed protagonist setting off on some coming-of-age expedition. As the story begins, the protagonist's grandmother anticpates the player-character to travel to a mountain town to experience the sights of Toem. The journey requires several bus rides with lengthy stops in between, so we're greatly encouraged to interact with the environment and its people, which players will soon learn is required. Just before leaving, the grandmother gifts us a camera to document our travels which serves as the core gameplay mechanic for Toem.

Throughout our travels, the protagonist is limited to move one town at a time. To continue travel toward reaching Toem, we must earn bus stamps which are awarded by helping locals or accomplishing certain tasks which nearly all involve utilizing your newly-gifted camera as the protagonist explores each area. While many of these tasks are simple such as photographing a certain item or event that is hinted at, others are a little more complex and not as straightforward in what the objective is. Nevertheless, the game is simply and easy to understand, even when wanting to fully complete everything the game offers. Each area has a set number of total tasks to complete, but only half are required to advance the story. At any time, areas may be revisited, but moving forward will always require a certain number of tasks to be completed. As Toem has a short length of 3-4 hours, there is little reason for anyone who is enjoying their experience to avoid completing each task.

In addition to fulfilling tasks, our camera can be used at any time for any reason the player sees fit. Another side objective is to catalog each area's local fauna. For new players, there is some challenge in completing this goal, as some animals only appear after certain criteria has been achieved. However, as I mentioned before, the camera serves as the game's dedicated camera mode, so documenting any aspect of the game is certainly doable. As would expect from a game like this, the camera mode also offers filter and framing options, although I did not utilize them.

As a 3D adventure game, Toem is enjoyable for what is sets out to accomplish. Exploring each area is enjoyable, with NPCs and the general mood being lighthearted and fun, which is ultimately complemented by relaxing and carefree gameplay. Each town has around 15 single-screen maps that interconnect without a dedicated map system, so learning each area's layout is important. Set from an isometric point-of-view, viewing angles are fully rotational which help bring depth to what would otherwise be a one-dimensional level design. While playing the Balto content after completing the base game, I was pleased with some minor depth added to level exploration accomplished by a day/night system.

For what it sets out to accomplish, Toem successfully does so, although there are some minor criticisms I'll make. As a game focused on photography, I was dissatisfied with the quality some photos have, which is ironic. At times, subject matter can be out-of-focus or even blurry. Additionally, there are a handful of tasks which require a selfie to be taken. When first trying to complete one of these tasks, I set up a tripod which is available. I left the area to properly complete the task by showing the photo to the task-giver, but the objective would not change to a completed status. Repeatedly, I tried this but without success. I only realized much later that there is a dedicated selfie mode which for some reason is the only manner the player can accomplish this set of objectives, which simply does not make sense. There is one other detail I'll briefly mention here, which is that music defaults to being non-looped. If the player ignores changing this setting, tracks will play once with silence following.

Ultimately, my time playing Toem was enjoyed, as the game sets out to provide a more laid-back gameplay experience. Personally, I was heavily reminded of the game A Short Hike while playing, so if you've played through it and want to playing something similar, Toem is a perfect suggestion, I think.

[tripredacus]

19. E.Y.E. Divine Cybermancy

This is quite an interesting game to say the least. It is an FPS/RPG type game with a slight choices matter thing going on. At least (supposedly) you can make 1 of 3 choices at a certain point, siding with a particular group during a mission that leads to different "endings" or the way the last levels play out. One of the main issues I have read about is the story not being quite as clear as one would want. There is a lot of lore around and even an archives you can go read about everything... BUT when those three choices are given it is kind of out of the blue. A character or faction you haven't really interacted with want you to join them. Perhaps it is because the entire game is translated from another language. All spoken dialogue is not English and it is possible that there are some translation errors that do not really get the point across properly. In my playthrough I just sided with my Mentor because those dialog choices were what I was doing the entire time.

Now I put ending in quotes above because there is no real ending. When you finish the game, it just starts from the beginning. Think of it like a "New Game +" type thing but I don't think it is like that. I think the game is just endless. In fact, during the game, there are some dialog hints that you (the player character) is continually repeating the past/present constantly. Not that there is time travel or anything. After the big mission in the HQ it becomes clear that it is a recreation of a memory. It was already done before. They talk about getting some artifact, this artifact is in the cave. It is a book you can read but it is during a boss battle so there really isn't time to do so. This artifact is in the main HQ lobby at the beginning and end of the game. So there is disjointed time happening, or some levels of the MQ are memories. And the entire game is just repeating over and over. I suspect that if you go through the game a second time, it will just start over again, so not really a New Game+ type thing. You do keep all your levels, exp and skills, so you could potentially max out everything eventually.

The movement is very slow. Run speed is not actually that much faster than walking, but the game puts on a motion blur when you run making you think it is. So better to just walk everywhere. Then again, the levels are ginormous! Way more space than enemies or things to do. Everything is way too big, especially the HQ. There is no map that I am aware of, so sometimes it could take me 1-3 hours to do a level because of the amount of walking that is needed to be done.

Gunplay is ok. ADS is not hold, and some guns have 2 ADS/zoom levels. Makes an issue in some situations when using snipers in mid-range situations. I went through the whole thing using the starting pistol and the Boscoe sniper rifle for almost everything. The boscoe is fine for hipfire also, head-shot damage is appropriate. Only need the large sniper (I forget the name, the .50) for one particular level that has the very large monsters in an open area. There is a lean function, I never used it. Healing is wierd since you can kill yourself with the medkit. There is a sanity function where you can go crazy and start shooting randomly, so switch to the sword if that starts. Supposedly you can cure it but I didn't know how to do that when it happened to me.

Almost everyone can die. I found 1 robot that couldn't, but even the game tells you to be careful when you enter HQ. Even early on you could probably kill those guys if you wanted to, but on first playthough you probably wouldn't make it. In my attempt, I had found I basically made my character wrong. It has a class system, and what I thought I wanted turned out to not be what I needed. I needed more on hacking skills and I was built for sniper. But sniper can't solve everything. There are no cheats in the modern version of the game. There is a console but the cheats do not work. I got to a point where I had to hack something and I couldn't do it. I found some strats so I had an idea of how to do it, but my skill was too low. I was at a point of doing this hack or quitting the game. So there was a save editor I used to give myself the better hacking skills. Once I go that up then the game got a lot easier.

Then I found out that if you hack things, you don't get money. So you could hack everything and beat the game that way, but you won't get as much money.

Anyways, it is an interesting game and I ended up liking it more than I thought.

[bikingjahuty]

30. Virtua Fighter 5: Ultimate Showdown (PS5)

The Virtua Fighter series holds a very special place in my heart. I fell in love with the pioneering 3D fighter in the mid 90s, particularly on the Saturn which I played at friends' houses since I wouldn't own my own Saturn until the 2000s. I particularly loved the first two Virtua Fighter games which just oozed with 90s Sega specialness. Still to this day, Virtua Fighter and Virtua Fighter 2 are among my most nostalgic video games I've ever played. While I've played some of the newer Virtua Fighter games over the years, none of them left the same impression on me that the first two did despite better graphics and much more refined, tight gameplay. The newest entry, Virtua Fighter 5: Ultimate Showdown has been on my list of games to play for a very long time, and recently I bought it on sale on PSN. After playing it for several hours and beating it multiple times with multiple characters, I must say that I was surprised by VF5:US, both in good ways and not so good ways.


I'll start with VF5:US's strongest asset, its gameplay. I mean, holy crap! I have only ever played a handful of fighting games with more polished, refined and just near perfect gameplay and controls, and they all belong to more well known franchises. Virtua Fighter 5: Ultimate Showdown's gameplay is the definition of deep and refined, while also being engaging and fun. It's almost unreal playing this game given how well it controls. I have to also mention that being used to the far more over the top gameplay style of games like King of Fighters and Tekken, I had to pretty much retrain myself to be more strategic and focus on my opponents timing versus going all out like I typically do in fighting games. But yes, VF5:US's gameplay is freakin unreal with how good it is. The visuals are also top notch with some amazing character models, stages, and various other effects which really make this an impressive looking game. My only gripe is many of the stages feel somewhat uninspired and just aren't as memorable as stages you see in other fighting games. Still, many of them are pretty and scenic at the very least. Audio is unfortunately nothing to write home about, but it's good enough and fits well with the style of game this is. Characters are all voice acted, and while none are stellar at delivering their lines, they're still entertaining to say the least. With all that said, you might be wondering what the big deal is and why I'm not throwing VF5:US into the elite group of best fighting games I've ever played. Well, the main thing that holds it back from that in my book, is well, me.


Objectively, yes, Virtua Fighter 5: Ultimate Showdown is one of the best fighting games I've played in a long time, particularly due to its gameplay. However, while I did enjoy myself mostly while playing this game, I found myself kinda wishing I was playing another modern fighting game I like more, such as the newer Mortal Kombat games. While this probably sounds like slander to some, newer VF such doesn't do it for me the way that the older games do despite those games being objectively worse. I just feel like I've moved on from the Virtua Fighter series to an extent and found other franchises that I enjoy playing more. It's much more grounded, realistic gameplay just don't gel with me more over the top fighting games, both newer and older titles. So what really brought my score of VF5:US down was my own personal enjoyment of the game despite how great it is in many ways. Had I taken to this games commendable traits more it would have scored higher, but at is my scores are 40% my own subjective enjoyment of a game and 60% how good the game is from a more objective point of view. With all that said, if someone said Virtua Fighter 5: Ultimate Showdown was one of the best fighting games ever made, I'd completely respect that opinion and even sympathize with it, but for me personally, it's just not as fun or memorable as so many other fighting games I've played, including some of the older VF titles. (6/26/23) [36/50]

[tripredacus]

I've updated my key again, to use red text for abandoned games to help myself with reading it easier. I bookmark my game list post to read on other computers I don't log into the site with.

20. Blood and Bacon
This is an FPS that is advertised as a co-op game but it can be played in single player. The humor is fine but the pacing of the game is bad. The story portions (in-between levels) are too slow and the actual gameplay is too fast. It may be because I am adept at FPS games. The shooting is fine and the physics are interesting. The other issue is that the regular animal enemies are too easy for the most part as long as you are using the correct guns, and the boss enemies are either annoying minigames or have way too much HP in comparison. I got to level 50 which ended up being a repeat boss level, same as level 40 I think. There is no way to real evade the attacks from the two large warthog bosses. I decided to ditch this because I had no real interest in playing it anymore.

21. Baseball Stars 2
I was excited to try this game after seeing and reading so much about it. Unfortunately it is not a game for me. The gameplay ended up being tedious and I wasn't having any fun. The game also does not do any sort of stat accumulation, it always just shows their "historical" stats. A potential positive is that the Steam version looks like it would be easily modded.

22. Arma II
I seem to be moving toward more FPS recently so decided to try this one finally. Immediately this had a Blade of Darkness feel to it to me aka way too many controls. For what controls were there, the UX for interacting is completely foreign to standard FP games, where you use Mouse1 to interact with items and then wheel to choose from a menu. This may be because you would not be in a situation where you could shoot and interact at the same time. There is also no jump button. The first thing you get to do in the game is get shot by invisible enemies and die, but its ok because it was just a dream I guess. Then you are on an aircraft carrier for your briefing. And in here I am finding it extremely confusing as to what to do. The game gives you objectives (talk to x) but it doesn't really introduce the characters on the ship to you. It also doesn't tell you where these people are (no indicator) so you talk to everyone. Then the next task is do X (interact with some non-person) and again it doesn't tell you what that is, or where it is. So I spent most of my time trying to push the Harrier jet off the side of the aircraft carrier using the pull tractor. It doesn't work, there are invisible walls. You can move the helicopters but they can kill the soldiers and its game over if you shoot them during target practice or drive over them with the tractor. The shooting is not good and the movement is "realistic" and I can already tell that I'm not going to be bothering playing this one.

So we'll see what's next. Surely there is something else on my backlog I will like to play.

[kashell]

39. Mega Man 3

I took a small break from Final Fantasy XVI to play one of my favorites. It took some time to get the muscle memory back, but it happened around the halfway point. I played it as part of the Legacy Collection on Switch so I took advantage of save states. There's still a sense of accomplishment one gets after finishing not only these boss robots, but the resurrected ones from Mega Man 2. Always a good time going through classic blue bomber!

[undertakerprime]

39. Mega Man 3

I took a small break from Final Fantasy XVI to play one of my favorites. It took some time to get the muscle memory back, but it happened around the halfway point. I played it as part of the Legacy Collection on Switch so I took advantage of save states. There's still a sense of accomplishment one gets after finishing not only these boss robots, but the resurrected ones from Mega Man 2. Always a good time going through classic blue bomber!

That’s what I’ve been doing too 
I got the first Legacy Collection last year and played through all six games. Got Legacy Collection 2 earlier this year and finished 7, 9, and 10 (haven’t bothered with 8 yet since I don’t like it very much). Then went back and finished MM5 again, since it’s one of my favorites. Currently working on MM6.

[kashell]

39. Mega Man 3

I took a small break from Final Fantasy XVI to play one of my favorites. It took some time to get the muscle memory back, but it happened around the halfway point. I played it as part of the Legacy Collection on Switch so I took advantage of save states. There's still a sense of accomplishment one gets after finishing not only these boss robots, but the resurrected ones from Mega Man 2. Always a good time going through classic blue bomber!

That’s what I’ve been doing too 
I got the first Legacy Collection last year and played through all six games. Got Legacy Collection 2 earlier this year and finished 7, 9, and 10 (haven’t bothered with 8 yet since I don’t like it very much). Then went back and finished MM5 again, since it’s one of my favorites. Currently working on MM6.

Nice! MM6 is the one I played the most growing up. Up to that point, all of my friends would lend me a Mega Man game and I'd lend them something else on NES in return. MM6, however, was a Christmas gift so I naturally played the hell out of it. That might be the next one I get into since it's been so long.

[dhaabi]

21. The Gardens Between || PlayStation 5 || 06.25.23



Knowing little about The Gardens Between prior to beginning my playthrough, I only was aware that some element of controlling time was a core gameplay mechanic in this puzzle game. More-or-less, that's all the game offers, too.

As an interactive on-rail puzzle game, The Gardens Between tasks players with the simple goal of reaching each stage's end. However, accomplishing this goal isn't always so straightforward. As I mentioned before, the main gameplay element allows players to freely control time backward or forward on a whim by utilizing the analog stick. That said, players have no direct control over the player-characters themselves, as they instead move along a predetermined path trajectory. Just as the player-characters move as time shifts, so does the environment, which is paramount to being controlled in such a way that grants successful passage to the stage's end. In reaching the path, one character is able to influence specific elements positions separately from everything else in the environment. Once that element has been placed, it then moves along as it would have naturally as time again moves forward for all.

While the pair of player-characters both need to reach the stage end, properly solving the stage puzzle requires bringing an energy source to the gate. However, this is easier said than done. While many elements change as the passage of time moves, some serve as helpful tools while others oppositely. Regarding the energy source in particular, it is required to take advantage of certain creatures that transport the energy along the path while avoiding others which steal it. On that note, at some point, the game's puzzles do challenge the player further by forcing some path segments only reachable after losing energy to then later regain it.

Early in my playthrough, there were times when I thought that the puzzle difficulty was quite low. Throughout the first few set of stages, there seemed to only ever be two choices, with the solution being obvious. However, puzzles around this point steadily become more complex with the solution not being apparent. Often, puzzles soon require numerous steps of shifting time back and forth to move across the path trajectory in a specific way. Eventually, players can interact with more than one element which influences the path. At times, the two characters will separate as the path diverges, which requires the use of interacting with multiple stage components simultaneously. Additionally, the path will become broken which requires the player to somehow repair it or finding an alternative route.

With stages built on a 2D plane in a 3D environment, the pair of player-characters move in a specific manner depending the environment outcome before them. Often, stages are designed so that the player climbs atop a mountain of sorts. Across each stage, environments are littered with various items placed as set pieces, with the items relating to the pair's friendship, home life, and childhood. On that note, I'll briefly mention the game's narrative. The story is straightforward and at a minimum, but it revolves around the friendship between two childhood friends as one is forced to move away, with the game's events leading up to the move itself. So, with that explained, the environment design does an adequate job at representing their relationship and troubles.

For the remainder of The Gardens Between's design, there is little else to say. The game features no voice acting or written dialogue, so the narrative is told abstractly through its visuals. After each set of stages, a small, mostly still scene is presented that conveys the friendship shared between our two protagonists, but I found their inclusion to not be as successful as they could have been, although this may relate to the lack of any dialogue whatsoever. Personally, I didn't find anything too noteworthy concerning the art or sound design, but I did greatly enjoy the choice of color palette filled with gradients.

In the end, The Gardens Between offers a decent puzzle experience. The puzzles aren't too challenging even toward the game's end, and most players should be able to solve even the most perplexing ones through a few acts of trial-and-error. Thinking about it, The Gardens Between may be best approachable for those new to the genre or those who don't feel confident solving puzzles. There are around 25 stages, and I imagine most players would be able to complete the game around 3-4 hours of play.