52 Games Challenge *2016*

[shfan]

20) The Evil Within (PS4)

New game plus replay, enjoyed it a heck of a lot more than the first time around, ammo was still fairly scarce but I didn't feel like I was getting locked in with enemies with no chance of beating them.

TEW is basically Resident Evil 4 with a different setting/characters and slightly unpolished gameplay. It has stealth, for instance, but half of the time enemies are scripted to appear and attack you at certain points in the game, making sneaking around pointless. Ammo is very scarce, once an enemy is floored it can be burned alive with a match, but matches are also single use items which you can run out of. Melee attacks are ineffective also.

I do like the game, but it's a little long-winded and does slightly outstay its welcome, but it's still a 4/5 game for me.

[kamikazekeeg]

38 - Battlefield 1 (PC) -  FINISHED/PLAYING - Just finished the campaign as it's pretty short, even playing on Hard.  Overall, one of the slightly better campaigns Battlefield has done in awhile, but only because it's treated with a little more respect and grounding...kinda...for the scenario.  Instead of one big action movie like we got with BF3 and BF4, we get about 5 or 6 little stories from different points throughout the war that takes maybe 5 or 6 hours.  It's not a bad idea, but some are pretty short and others probably should've been fleshed out more to be more interesting, like just take 3 characters and give them each 3 to 4 hour stories so you get drawn in more.  Not terrible, but it's abit lacking.  Multiplayer is great though.  Needs some tweaks here and there and they kinda shortchanged the weaponry abit, but overall one of the better Battlefields in awhile.

[telly]

Game 28 - Pokemon Picross (3DS) - 35 Hours

I finally got to area 30 after playing this game since January. Here are my thoughts.

+ I've never played a picross game before, so it was really fun to try it out for the first time. The first 5 hours or so were really enjoyable catching Pokemon and solving the puzzles. I liked the use of secret puzzles and codes to unlock rarer Pokemon to catch. The puzzle gameplay itself is fun as well, even though it's essentially Picross with Pokemon that give you abilities thrown in.

- I have a lot more negative things to say than positive. Because it's a F2P game, there are some huge gameplay issues. Basically after you catch all the Pokemon on the stage, you have to do daily 7x7 training puzzles to get enough picrites to go to the next area (unless you pay money to get them in the store). That means that the vast majority of the game is doing those crappy 7x7 puzzles for weeks on end without actually playing the game until you can finally unlock the next level and catch some new Pokemon. Like I said, it didn't take long before this game became boring, but I powered through it since it was only a couple minutes a day and easy to pick up.

Back to my list

[hawk767]

My game completions have been low as hell this year so far thanks to Overwatch, well work and my daughter had an effect too, but mostly Overwatch. Games in order of what I played earliest this year and what I know I completed. The end will probably be any console titles I've finished.

1. Ori and the Blind Forest, I loved this. The artstyle and the storytelling I thought were so well done, and even if I don't usually like the style of gameplay found in a Metroid, namely the backtracking, but I felt the depth of the platforming enhanced by the different forms of movement you unlocked, changed navigating the map enough to not have it become too tedious. The game wasn't very long either so that helped as well. I completed this in about 10 hours, give or take so afk time. Highly recommend even if only for the visuals and soundtrack.

2. Firewatch, I got this looking for an easy going and interesting adventure style game. Another game I find to be visually stunning, if a little yellow and orange. The gameplay is simple, walk around, interact with things, and pick dialogue options to say over your hand radio to a woman in a watch tower across a valley. The game is real short, I finished in about 3 hours though I also took my time a bit enjoying the scenery and environments, trying to interact with as much as I could. I really enjoyed the experience though and it was a really nice game to play towards the end of the evening while unwinding, though, no spoilers, some parts of the story get pretty... interesting.

3. You Must Build a Boat! Short little match 3 game about building a boat, finding fellows to man the boat, and sailing that boat. I actually put about 10 hours into this game but some were from playing after finishing it so I can't say how long it actually took.

4. Final Fantasy X, a big name game for me to check off of my list. I spent a lot of time throughout the summer playing this and its probably one of the big reasons I didn't complete much else throughout the year. I loved the experience. I grew up playing this only at a friends house, he was the only one I knew who owned it, and I was obsessed with it, but for some reason, I never bought it for myself. I actually played through most of this game about 3 or 4 years ago. I had bought a ps2 to play some old games, but between moving, and getting newer toys to play with I ended up dropping off the game, and sold the ps2 and the games I had for it, I was at the end game Sin fight too. Since completing it I've been going back to it off and on to farm and work my way into the late game content. I would absolutely love to eventually earn the platinum trophy for it, but I don't know if I'll be able to talk myself into trying to complete the sphere grids for every character.  So far I have about 62 hours in game I'd say I was probably around mid 50s when I actually finished off the main boss, probably around 50 when I first got to it though but decided to go about doing some of the end game content, and ended up steamrolling the final boss.

That's actually it for me so far, though there are a lot of partially completed games I'm going to be pushing to complete before the end of the year. Doom, Assassins Creed Syndicate, maybe Dying Light, Dark Souls III, Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate, among a few others. My biggest issue is there are games I'm dying to start, but wanting to complete these other titles is standing in my way!

[kashell]

I finished the 3DS version of Shantae and the Pirate's Curse. It was a blast.

[rayne315]

setting up another page as I ran out of room on my previous with the inclusion of battlefield 1 and olli olli 2 and finally filling out a few reviews that I didn't feel like writing at the time. I decided to add the beaten date information for all future additions.

link to previous page reviews 47-71:
http://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,6762.msg119949.html#msg119949

72. Mario Kart Wii (wii): played through this so me and my gf could play all the tracks together. its a Mario kart game with 24 tracks to pick from. the waggle wand really detracts from the gameplay on this but we had plenty of steering wheels to make it easier. the only track I really struggled on was the rainbow road. every now and then though there was an issue with the controller where if you tipped it more than 45 degrees it would turn the other way and we pinpointed it down to the speed at which we turned the wheel. needless to say in tight turning situations it was more of a major issue as you needed to turn supper quick to maintain speed and not hit a wall. overall id say its a 5/10. 11/05

73. Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris (PS4): this was a strange top down multiplayer tomb raider game. it worked out well though because I have a soft spot for top down games. unfortunately I did not know this so I didn't play it with anyone to check if the multiplayer was any good. surprisingly I cant recall a single glitch I ran into other than framerate issues that occurred after I beat the final boss. so I would have to say this is one of the most well polished games I have ever played. the game was relatively short (about 5-6 hours) but if I'm not mistaken this was originally a vita game so I give it the botd. certain story telling aspects I was not a fan of and one of the bosses you killed comes back in/just before the final fight which I feel was a terrible decicion but it allowed for a more varied final fight. overall I give this title a 7/10. 11/06

74. The Deadly Tower of Monsters (ps4): man this was just one of the strangest games ever. you take control of dick starspeed a character in a 70's sci-fi B movie where the director is adding commentary over what unfolds for the dvd release of the original movie. it has literally all the best parts of movies of those times you can think of. crappy Claymation, bad looking props, visisble wires holding them, etc. and everything even what would be considered lazy of game designers now a days is placed in a nice and cleaver way and described by commentary in the most elegant and funny way possible to make it very believable. it plays really nice and aside from a few glitches here and there (none major) it is a very well polished game. this game was also roughly 3-5 hours and it had a variety of things to do other than progressing the story like finding and shooting targets, jumping through hoops, finding and killing monkeys that had watches on, etc. it also had a very strange idea for its map. as you can probably guess by the name you work your way up this VERY tall tower fighting monsters along the way. but its not just straight up climbing, the tower will meander in certain dirrections in an imposible climb. overall I would have to say this game is a 7/10. 11/07

75. Secret Ponchos (ps4): unfortunately this game is now one of the many games that have been destroyed by being online only. this is an online game where you have to kill players solo or in teams with one other person but because the online community for this game has all but dried up do not expect to ever get into a match online. I left it searching for a challenger while I downloaded a different game and it took probably a good 20-30 minutes to be matched up with one other person. so I managed to be able to play half a match of this before that other person left. back when this game came to be free on ps+ I played a few matches enough to know it wasn't for me. now that there is no playing this game though I will retire it having only played a total of 9 matches according to the in game statistics. of what I can remember of the game and the current state of it I give this a 2/10. 11/07

76. Stick it to the man! (ps4): finally got around to beating this and it is an interesting game. unfortunately point and click adventures are kind of hit or miss on consoles and this game has certain aspects of point and clicks mixed with platformers and puzzlers. specifically the issue I am talking about is when you are around enemies and have to go into their mind to get powerups you will likely catch a pin and travel right next to them instead. overall I give this game a 3/10. 11/08-11/09 (completed at 12:10am)

77. Everybody's gone to the Rapture (ps4): 2 major things. 1. a friend of mine perfectly summed this up to me before I played it. "walking simulator" and 2. I never realized that this game was a college project till I got to the credits and did my normal thing of actually reading them to the best of my ability. for a college project this definitely blows my mind out of the water. there was just sooo much there. sure the gameplay was lacking but for 3:30 hours I ran through the game definitely not doing everything possible in the game nor seeing every possible location or hearing every audio log. the visuals in this game are mind numbingly great but unfortunately I do not think the paceing of the game was the best. some moments moved by so quick while others were just sooo slow. the music is my all time favorite for games opera (ist?) so it gets very high marks there. overall I think I give this game a 9/10. 11/09

78. Pokemon Alpha Sapphire (3DS): I finally sat down and decided to finish this game i started earlier in the year. Pokemon AS didnt disappoint. Pokemon X is still my favorite, but this one came in at a close second. Can't wait for Pokemon Sun & Moon to come out!  11/10

79. World of Final Fantasy (PS4): man this is really sad to say but I think this is the first RPG I have beat all year and it took me 22 hours over 3 days to do so. it was a very good game and I will always say this; stylized graphics always look better and stand up to time better than ultra realistic graphics. I'm just realy confused on why they decided to go with 3 graphics styles throughout the game. it was always very odd when the swapped to the anime styling. I wish they stuck with just one styling. gameplay was fun and spot on. the fact that they put voice acting through the entire game was very nice even all the unimportant npc's had full voice lines which really allowed me to stick with the story (I'm not a fan of reading stories and would have skipped through much of the dialougue otherwise) the main characters were opposites which was interesting but I wish they didn't make lann so dumb (although he had a few voice lines that made me chuckle). I found most of the game to be really easy and a few portions were skillless. overall I give this game a 7/10. 11/13

80. Auralux (IOS mobile): I know most people dont consider mobile games games and generally i would agree with you but this is one of those handfull of apps that i would consider a game. its a simplistic touch RTS game where you control stars that produce units at the exact same intervals and you have to command them to capture every star in the map. this game would have been a very easy beat had it not been for the fact that i made myself beat it on the supernova difficulty. which both increases the speed of the game and makes every enemy spawn 2 times as many units as they normally would. there were some very very difficult ones (ranked insane on normal mode) that litterally almost took 30+ minutes by them selves to beat and that was with me skating by in my last ditch efforts. since this was the very first mobile game i had ever found that i would consider an actual game i have to give this a 9/10. the only reason its a 9 is because when you first play it (without purchasing anything) you have to beat 5 levels to unlock speedrun mode, which if you dont have speed run mode on the game is ungodly slow. 11/17

81. Contrast (ps4): this was an interesting concept that unfortunately i have seen before in my flash game days. it was very nice to see in a 3d setting. the story was very strange and more than half the time i would have stoped helping if it were me. the main problem with this game was the number of bugs i encountered, from being teleported through the floor, to switches not working, items not being able to be picked up, the nearly the final straw being on the last level after you scale the tower it glitches out and makes it unable to be beaten right at the very end of the game (puzzle wise). the only way to fix it is to turn off the game and restart it which makes you start from the begining of the last level. the puzzles in this game were very straight forward and the most difficult ones werewhen you had to move a cart that produced light around the environment. overall i give this game a 2/10. 11/17

82. Infamous: First Light (ps4):I really didn't like this game. it was short, way to easy, and the story was terrible. the main character was really dumb, and the situations made it imposible for the enemy not to die but they managed to survive (like a 10 story free fall in a ravine). it was also extreamly short. I believe I beat the entire game in ~3 hours, which also leads to another issue I had with the game. Its map was way too small. you can literally run from one side to the other in 2-3 minutes, I somewhat wish the map was larger just to pad the length of the game. 3/10. 11/21

83. Limbo (ps4): how have I never played this game before? as an avid puzzle game player this was a very interesting game. not really all to difficult but it had a variety to the puzzles that constantly made them interesting. im also a big fan of the story playing out on mute, where it makes you somewhat feel for your character. although it didn't have too many moments like that it had enough to draw me in. this was a very short game ~1-2 hours depending on your puzzle aptitude but if I remember correctly this game was an indie game. the art style works for the game well as you are traveling through forests and caves and automated factories the black and white aesthetic makes it feel even more foreboding traveling through it. 8/10. 11/21

84. Ultratron (ps4): this is a simple joystick arena shooter where you have to kill everything that spawns in, collect the money they drop, and avoid any contact/fire. the upgrade system was a lot more complex than I would have ever given it credit for with quite a bunch to purchase but everything seemed to be a little too expensive to level up (although I was constantly spending money to buy back lost shields). occasionally upgrades drop onto the field and they do the things you would expect, increase bullet fire speed, increase damage, 2 projectiles, split projectiles, etc, the only issue I have with the upgrades are that they do not show anywhere how long they will be active for. the upgrades also last a few rounds so at first you think they are permanent then after they go away you figure it may have been because you got hit. either way with it being an infinite game I called it beat after I unlocked all characters (which I did in one life). 5/10. 11/21

85. Auralux Constelations (IOS mobile): This game is also called Auralux 2 and is the second game to auralux. it is a vast improvement over the original. not only do they make it so its not painfully slow in the beginning (they allow you to set the speed manually), they added many new planetary functions including supernovas, gas giants, rotating planets, speed and slow space, etc. not only that but they added in extra difficulty so now insane difficulty is almost unbeatable (as it should be) the only way to beat them is usually simultaneously building your planets while defending against 2-3 enemies that rarely attack each other (all done by map setup not ai changes). they also introduced a verses mode where you can compete against real players (although I recently got this app and the online is dead) unfortunately they removed my favorite part of the first game (supernova difficulty) and replaced it with time trials. it makes cense as the increased difficulty would have made some levels 100% unbeatable. this also features more levels than the first one with 14 worlds of 10-11 worlds each it will be assured to raise your apm to beat all of them. it also improved under the hood allot. on the first one I would always see what the biggest unit I could get was (they would one shot planets) but getting them would lag the game so much that you always felt it would crash, in this game they remedied that issue by making individual units disappear after so many units were on screen but dividing the total unit count to every other unit so you can get massive armies (200,000+ units) with zero lag. unfortunately this made it so you can no longer get these visibly massive units. overall I give this game a 10/10 for all the improvements it has made to the original game. btw it took me easily 10+hours to beat every map and I knew exactly what to do because of my previous experience. 11/21

86. Donkey Kong Tropical Freeze (wii u): this is definitely not your easy Mario platformer. its a platformer made for the skills of an experienced player as a lot of the level were hard to get through. the level design was very fleshed out and personable with things that would happen inside of the levels. the movements of the kongs you get are perfect and the abilities are interesting and helpful throughout the levels. the boss battles are extremely interesting and the patterns are varied with all of them requiring 9 hits instead of the 3 in other Nintendo platformers. completeing each level is a very rewarding feeling as each level is extremely varied in play style and requires you to quickly adapt to the certain situations you are in. overall this was a very, very fun game and I give it a 9/10. 11/26

87. Guacamelee! Super Turbo Champion Edition (ps4): I really ended up liking this game. it was a faster paced platformer with good fighting added in. it was definitely a difficult one also as a bunch of the bosses (especially near the end) required you not only to memorize their movements but react to each movement in a very quick amount of time and balance all your attacks to be able to beat them. this was definitely a multiple player game, but as I beat it with only myself im unsure if the difficulty rises with each additional player. it was also a longer game 5-6 hours and tested your quick ability to swap between skills. it followed along with cultural lore (I Did not look it up but it seems like the characters would exist in real life cultural stories). overall I give this game a 8/10. 11/27

88. Pix the Cat (ps4): simple arcade style game with not that much when it comes to content. you run around and pick up eggs that hatch to chicks and you walk them to the objective. after all chicks have been taken to the objective a portal appears to shrink you down to the next levels board and it all happens again. you get faster and faster all based on your performance with previous levels up to like 15-20X normal speed. you unfortunately are given a time limit not a life limit so each game only lasts 300 seconds. if you stay in the same place too long you explode killing all chicks following you or if you get caught by the chick train you will blow up. some boards to perfect require you to go back to a higher board and use the second entrance to complete. overall this really isn't my kind of game and I give this a 3.5/10. 11/27

89. Never Alone (ps4): this was an interesting puzzle platformer with a very interesting story to tell. it came from the stories of a eskimo (the exact group I cant remember) in his native tongue and translated via subtitles to English. it was great because I had never heard speech quite like it and almost every portion of the story was broken down in the cultural insights section so if you wanted to you could learn about each part of the story. its narrative was the best part of the game hands down. the puzzles were very simple and I did not run into any issue doing them (minus the moving platforms near the end of the game killing me). this game gets a 6/10 for the narrative and actually getting me to look at all the additional material for the game. 11/28

90. Dead Star (ps4): another online only game whose servers have been shut down. I went through all tutorial missions. shame too as this game looked interesting. 2/10. 11/28

91 Line Rider 2 (ds): this is an abomination of a game. almost everything about this game is a vast de-volution from the original web game. when you make tracks if you start going fast it lags if the tracks take longer to complete than 30 seconds it lags. if you use the degrading track it can sometimes break the game because it doesn't always go away so when you loop to the other side you will hit the platform that shouldn't be there. the animated portions are just beyond painful to watch as its slow, jumpy, fast, long, and at a much lower resolution than it should be at (like 720i kind of resolution on a 1080p tv bad) the story mode is both too long (50 levels )and too broken (mainly because of the formentioned degrading track) in fact every map I played that featured the degrading track in a loop I had to spend 10 more minutes than  should have just making very slight tweaks just to make a certain portion degrade instead of remaining there. the only thing it has going for it is that the lines can be manipulaterd into a curve which the original did not posses. no wonder I never heard anything about the game other than it was in development 1/10. 11/30

92. Super Mario 3d World (wii u): the both of us (me and my gf) both re-played through this game thinking we had already beaten it. unfortunately the first time we played through it we didn't have the required number of stars to even face the last level so we both forgot about not beating it. we did end up playing through the entirety of it again and almost 100%ing the whole thing with much more stars than we would have ever needed. needless to say it was a fun enough title that we wanted to play through it again. it a very nice 3d platformer with tight controls. exactly what you would expect from a 1st party Nintendo title. overall I give this a 5/10. 12/10 (I didn't even give up and make Rayne play it by himself. And i died a lot:D)

93. Imagine Detective (DS): my first foray into the little girl shovelware titles and I have to say I am impressed by it. I had always assumned these were utter trash titles but they are just mediocre titles that are clearly targeted tword younger girls. just about the same gameplay as any I-spy game with more fleshed out mini-games and an actual story (I got bored of it though). overall I give this a 4/10. 12/14

Alright this should be the last post for this year

https://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,6762.msg131488.html#msg131488

[kashell]

I finished Magic Knight Rayearth for the Super Famicom. Are there enough hours in the day to write all of these reviews?!

[rayne315]

I finished Magic Knight Rayearth for the Super Famicom. Are there enough hours in the day to write all of these reviews?!

look at the bright side your actually good at writing reviews, im not.

[kamikazekeeg]

39 - Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 (PS4) - PLAYING - It's Xenoverse with more stuff so far.  More of a "1.5" than anything and they kinda cheaped out with repeating missions since it's a lot of the same fights all over again as it always is with Dragon Ball games.  Lazy, but for DBZ fans, we are use to it lol

40 - Titanfall 2 (PC) - FINISHED/PLAYING -  I wasn't originally gonna pick this up, since I had Battlefield 1 already, but based on a few peoples push of the game to increase sales since it's going to suffer with sales where it was released, I grabbed it anyways, figuring now is the time to play since I fully expect it to die off like the first. 

The singleplayer was fairly good.  I don't know if I'd say "The Best in Years" for a shooter like some have, but at some points it's really good, particularly the last half of the game because the first half is almost kinda boring.  You hit one point, one specific level and it becomes something more from there and I dug that.  It's nothing amazing, but it's a good bit of fun.  Kinda gives me a vibe that mixes Halo with Call of Duty.  Ending is abit predictable lol

Multiplayer is also better than I expected.  I normally don't care for the fast paced shooters these day, in particular Call of Duty, but the game has more weight to it than those, so it feels better and the Titans are great.  I played abit of the first with a demo and thought it was alright and since they didn't change a ton, anyone that liked the first will probably like this one.  It's much the same, but that's not bad.  It also is supposed to have free DLC maps, so that's a good feature these days.

[kamikazekeeg]

39 - Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 (PS4) - FINISHED/PLAYING - Finished Xenoverse 2 and while there's stuff I generally liked, it's a mixed bag.  It improves on a number of things from the previous game, but so much content is just straight up re-used here that it's very clear to see how they rushed to get this game out, barely a year and a half since the first game.  If this had another year of development, and the story didn't rehash so much of the same story and missions as before, delving more into the movies, GT, or Dragon Ball original somehow, I'd be far more excited about this game. 

In the end, it's not bad, but it's real lazy.  There's so much more that they can do I think to really expand on what they got here as the best things about this game are everything dealing with character creation and customization and "What If" scenarios.  I feel like maybe it's Toei that's holding back Dragon Ball products and have been for years as it seems like we can't get anything new out of these games.  Just the same rehashed sagas every time.  Since this whole thing is not canon anyways, why not do brand new stories in this Xenoverse setting? Let someone do something actually original than just slight alterations to established stories and characters.

Oh well, if your DBZ fan, you'll probably get some enjoyment out of it, just don't buy it new and expect too much of a different game from the first.

35 - Akiba's Trip: Undead & Undressed (PS4) - FINISHED - Finished this up real quick as I was closer to the end than I thought, especially when I began skipping all the side missions.  I didn't want to abandon another game, I already had 3 this year, but I think this is a mostly poor game.  Combat is just kinda boring, fights are kinda boring, the gimmicky clothes ripping loses it's novelty in the first hour or so and some fights will just last forever, and all the side content is just tedious crap.  Even as someone that likes collecting things like the clothing or weapons, it's just so boring and hard to get fun stuff. 

 I had heard it had a great "recreation of Akihabara", but I'd probably say that is wrong, because even if it's the general shape, there's nothing to do in it.  Most shops are just the same exact shops, with there being over a dozen that all sell like 4 or 5 items, most of which are the same items.  It's just shallow crap and it's silly pervy gimmick isn't remotely entertaining enough to keep people in this game, at least it didn't for me.  I'm finding that more often than not, these silly action perv games like Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;Birth1, and Senran Kagura Shinovi Versus are just mostly tedious and dull as far as a game goes.

I was also about to say, this games "Portness" was obvious, cause I thought it was a port of an older handheld game, and that it felt and looked like one, but no, this was a game made for consoles and the Vita 3 years ago and is a sequel to a PSP game.  It feels like a PSP game updated for more modern systems lol I feel like they know this series kinda sucks, so they are turning the next sequel into a more straightforward and serious JRPG.  Kinda weird.

[kashell]

Wow...85 games this year. And yet I feel like I'm just getting started.

Anyways, I finished Aragami today. It's a fantastic game and I'm super excited to start going for the remaining trophies.

[telly]

I swear I must hold the record for the longest time anyone has taken to beat Medal of Honor Frontline. I'll finish it soon, I swear! It's tough playing it on hard mode with no checkpoints. 

[bikingjahuty]

due to character limitations per post, here is part two of my 52 games review:

45. Gigawing (Dreamcast): I feel guilty saying this about a SHMUP on the Dreamcast, but this isn't a very good game. It is a very imbalanced, haphazard shooter that has too many problems to mention, but probably the biggest is having way too many projectiles thrown at you in such a way that does not allow you to dodge them with how big your hit box is. On top of that, the game gives you unlimited continues which more or less boils down to you using up all your bombs before dying and having to use your next continue. There are definitely better SHMUPs on the Dreamcast, and this one is likely not worth the ungodly amount of money it is probably worth these days.

46. Gunbird 2 (Dreamcast): While I can say with certainty that this game is better than Gigawing (see above), it's still mediocre for the most part. It is far from perfect, but on it's own it is a competent shooter, however its biggest flaw is its length whih can be beat in around 20-minutes. At this point this game is very overpriced and I'd say skip it honestly.

47. Fast Striker (Dreamcast): While not as flashy as many other SHMUPs, this one is an exemplary example of how a SHMUP should be! Tight, accurate controls, dynamic gameplay (stronger shot, but slower ship, versus weaker shot and faster ship), and excellent stage design. The soundtrack for this game is phenomenal as well. Highly, HIGHLY recommend this homebrew title!

48. Gunblade NY (Wii): Playing this awesome 90s rail shooter on the Wii is 98% the same as I remember it in the arcade (it's been easily over 20-years since I last played it though). The only differences I notices were some of the advertisements being different in the levels, as well as the World Trade Center buildings being removed from the skyline and background. If you can get past these changes, the game is a near perfect port of the excellent arcade game!

49. L.A. Machineguns (Wii): There is a slight framerate decrease between this port and the original arcade version; I'm not sure if this was done due to hardware limitations of the Wii or difficulties porting the game to a home console, but either way it is a small compromise in the grand scheme of things. The game is still 80% pure to its arcade counterpart which is more than enough for me to relive one of the most memorable and one of my most favorite rail shooters of the late 90s arcade scene.

50. Dodonpachi (Saturn): THIS IS HOW YOU MAKE A SHOOTER! The game is ultra smooth, balanced, challenging yet fair, and incredibly varied in terms of level and enemy design. It truly deserves its place among SHMUP royalty as it is usually granted.

51. Virtua Fighter Kids (Saturn): This game is essentially Virtua Fighter 2 with Chibi characters and gameplay that has been dulled down for the sake of fitting the more light hearted feel of this game. Personally I felt like it sucked most of the charm that makes me like Virtua Fighter so much, but as a novelty it was okay I guess.

52. Virtua Fighter Remix (Saturn): This game manages to update the character models significantly over the original release whole retaining all the charm, gameplay, and frustrations of the original as well. I really like this addition, but despite it looking very rough these days, I still prefer the original. And I have to say it, FUCK YOU PAI!!!!!

53. Raiden Fighters (360): What I like to call a classic shooter, Raiden Fighters is less about a zillion projectiles on the screen and more about reflexes and timing. I thoroughly enjoyed this game and felt it was very well made overall. The soundtrack was great, the ship variety was good, and all around I had a great time with this one.

54. Raiden Fighters 2 (360): This game is more or less just like the first one albeit with new stages, new bosses and a lot more ships to choose from. Everything i liked from the first one was carried over to this game and I enjoyed it just as much.

55. Virtua Fighter 10th Anniversary (PS2): While radically different, especially in gameplay, which resembles the newer Virtua Fighter titles more, this is the best home console port of the original Virtua Fighter to date! The music and the graphics are lifted straight from the arcade and as mentioned, the gameplay is tweaked in order to provide a more refined experience and reduce the amount of cheap matches. Definitely had a lot of fin with this one.

56. Street Fighter EX3 (PS2): Definitely one of the better examples of 2D fighting game franchises that made the jump to 3D, this game plays super smooth and has an excellent, original roster of fighters. The music is a huge standout too. Only complaint about this game is the final boss (M. Bison) who is incredibly cheap. Definitely worth picking this one up.

57. Animal Crossing: Amiibo Festival (Wii U): I actually played and "beat" this game earlier in the year, but was reminded during a conversation I was having with someone about how awful this game is to jar my memory to write a review. This game is painfully simple and boring, and it's cuteness and Amiibo integration wares off in about 5-minutes, no joke. On top of that, let's all be honest, we all bought this game because of these exclusive Amiibos that came bundled with the game. I know I did at least lol.

58. Metal Black (PS2): While this shooter had some great cinematic level design and interest bonus levels, at its core it just felt like an R-Type wannabe. However, one interesting aspect is the almost surreal atmosphere of the whole game that gave me a body horror vibe the whole time. Overall, a decent game.

59. Gekirindan (PS2): I found this SHMUP to be below average for the most part; you have an enormous hit box which does not mesh with the amount of projectiles thrown at you through most of the game. I mean seriously, if you even come within an inch of an enemy bullet you will die! Graphic-wise the game looks pretty good for a SHMUP of its time period, but overall I found this one to be forgettable.

60. Virtua Cop Rebirth (PS2): While the arcade gameplay is in tact, the graphics have been updated quite a bit; I might be the only one who has a soft spot for early 3D graphics, but it is something I sort of missed while playing this more polished version. The Guncon 2 does a good enough job of reproducing the feel of playing this in an arcade, although to be honest it is only about 80% as accurate as the arcade. While not debilitating, it does become annoying at times, specifically when an enemy is hiding towards the far left of the screen; no amount of calibration I could do could correct this either. Overall it's still a great arcade port and a welcome update to the otherwise dated graphics. BTW, this review applies to both VC and VC2.

61. Thunder Force VI (PS2): For better or worse, this was the easiest Thunder Force game, but regardless it was incredibly fun. Some of my favorite parts were several subtle and not so subtle references to the previous games in the series, and the whole thing felt like a huge nostalgia trip a times, which I guess is fitting since this is the last Thunder Force game. Definitely a good time to be had here!

62. Darius Gaiden (PS2): I've heard for a long time how good the Darius series was and this seems to be everyone's favorite so i decided to see if it is as good as everyone says. I thought the gameplay and graphics were excellent and appealing; I also really liked the Choose Your Own Adventure style of level progression. Music was decent, but overall I thought this was barely above average in terms of me enjoying it. A solid shooter, but maybe not completely up my ally.

[telly]

Game 29 - Medal of Honor: Frontline (PS2) - Unknown play time, easily 25 hours

+ This game has a lot of really great things going for it. For the time, the graphics and gameplay are really good. I like how hitting different parts of the body does different damage. I liked the missions and the overall story was exciting and engaging without being too outlandish. The music was also really good.

- Since I finished the game on hard mode, I must say that the difficulty was BRUTAL. Since there are no checkpoints in MOH, I had to restart levels multiple times over after spending 36 minutes playing a level. Part of the problem is how some weapons purposely miss the target, even when aiming. the silenced pistol was a particular problem; I hated that weapon. This was probably one of the toughest games I have ever played, yet it wasn't really in a good way. It was a struggle to keep playing and beat it, that's for sure.

Back to my list

[rayne315]

yesterday was a very productive day. I managed to beat 4 games (82-85 on my list a few posts up) mainly because I didn't know just how close I was for 2 of them.

and for anyone who likes simple RTS games and has a smart phone I highly recommend getting Auralux Constelations, The first world is free and you can play the first level in every other world without paying for it. this is one of less than a handful of games on mobile phones I would actually consider a game