Main ListPrevious Listbold games are games that have been beaten, previously beaten, or are unbeatable.
italicized games are in progress.
standard games are games I am not currently trying to beat.
strikethrough games are games that have been abandoned.
39.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons (NS)
Finally decided to jump into this one having finished Ryza, so good by the way. Did a bunch of stuff yesterday just short of a major goal, did the major goal this morning, so now I have next to nothing to do for the rest of today because I don't get the rewards until tomorrow. Remembering how much that stuff sucks in AC because you can only do so much in a given day. Set up a secondary game to play when I reach a point that I can't do anything else in the game. I've got a house now, Blather's museum should be built now, earning money, and trying to get enough iron nuggest to build Nook a shop. Game still seems like a village rather than a deserted island. Nothing screams deserted island so far, just feels like more of the same town building. I've sort of abandoned the game, plus it's not really a "beatable" game, so I'm just gonna mark it beat and maybe I'll come back to it. I'm on one of the last upgrades and I've got like 500,000 bells in the bank. Managed to come back and get the credits to pop after a few more days of playing.
Rating: Soft recommendation. It's good, but the gear wear mechanic sucks.
40.
Fisher Price: Perfect Fit (NES)
I should probably not count this, but I played it and I beat it. There is almost nothing to this game. Just move the item over to it's shape and hit A. Only played this because my wife insisted that I try and have our son play something on the NES to see if he could start learning to play games. He was mildly interested at first, but lost interest pretty quickly.
Rating: Hard Pass... obviously.
41.
Super Mario Bros. (NES)
I've never actually beaten SMB on the original NES. I'm sure I beat it on the SNES in All-Stars, but never the original. Anyway, decided to put this on after the other game to see if he would hit the jump button and enjoy getting Mario to jump. He did it for a few seconds, but wasn't really having it. So I played to see if he'd watch me play. I got to around World 4-2 before he got bored. Put him to nap and I finished the game.
Rating: Recommended... obviously.
42.
Luigi's Mansion 3 (NS)
I tried to play this shortly after I got it last year, but I just couldn't do it. I literally had the game on for 3 minutes before I shut it off. The intro just didn't meld with me and my expectations of a Luigi's Mansion game. I finally pushed myself to get through the intro and now I'm enjoying it. Though the piano playing ghost boss pissed me the fuck off. Relatively enjoyed this game, but I found most of the boss fights were really frustrating in some mechanical way, I think it's mostly the controls just aren't great for the aiming. I have the issue that I'll try to aim and then the controls will decide I moved Luigi, so instead of continuing where I pointed, he does a 180 and I shoot in the wrong direction. Too often I was having to look up how to beat a boss because the only way to hurt them wasn't immediately obvious. The final boss fight has a section that's timed, personally I hate that garbage. Overall it's a good game, but it definitely goes 3rd in the list of my favorite Luigi's Mansion games. The money mechanic is entirely wasted on this game. You can use money to give you extra lives or to make finding collectibles easier. I would've liked to see the money be able to be used to make the game more accessible, increasing max health, increasing suction distance/spread, etc.
Rating: Soft Recommendation
43.
Minit (NS)
Decided to play this after Luigi's Mansion 3, because I wanted something shortish to play. Overall I really enjoyed this game. Don't get me wrong, I hate the dying every 60 seconds mechanic, I do wish they had an option to turn that off maybe as an accessibility option, but that straight up takes the game from a 2 hour game to like a 20 minute game. I had to look stuff up a couple of times because I forgot where stuff was or couldn't figure out what to do. I think the cloth map that came with my game probably would've helped some had I used it.
Rating: Soft Recommendation
44.
Celeste (NS)
I finally said fuck it and decided to play this. Partly because it's always touted as such a great game, and partly because I know it's supposed to have some great accessibility options that I was interested in trying out. Accessibility options seem like they could make the game too easy, but the game still presents some challenge even with them. I had set a button to reset, thinking this would reset the current screen when I knew I was fucked... nope, it resets the entire chapter. So I unmapped that button when I accidentally reset the chapter right at the end, but rather than fighting through the whole chapter again, I turned on the accessibility options thinking it would just let me breeze to where I was. For the most part it made it pretty damned trivial, but some sections were still fairly challenging considering. I'm proud to say that I got through the entire game without needing the accessibility options, though I did use them at the aforementioned scenario. I'm mildly surprised that I played through the whole game, as it feels very Super Meat Boy, but I could only get through the first couple of worlds in SMB before I got bored to death of the gameplay loops. The game barely didn't overstay it's welcome, or in other words, it almost outstayed its welcome. I was getting quite sick of the game right there at the end, but I'm aware it was from my playing it for like 8 hours straight. I really wanted to see the story content from Chapter 9, but it requires you basically doing the entire game, so I assist moded to get the remaining crystal hearts so I could get through Chapter 9. Finishing chapter 9 unlocks the C-Sides, I did one C-side and said f it. I got what I wanted out of this game. It is very much like SMB, but it feels shorter or more reasonable because it's not quite level based like SMB. Plus you get real story which helps pull you through. Overall enjoyable, though assist mode can make the game trivial, I'm glad I beat the game without the need of assist mode.
Rating: Soft Recommendation
45.
Panel de Pon (SFC)
After finishing Celeste, I wanted to play something else and not Ring Fit because I wasn't in a position to exercise. So I loaded up the SNES Switch Online app and played this. Burned through Hard mode's story and wrecked house. I love this game.
Rating: Recommended.
46.
Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King (3DS)
So far, this game is the worst DQ game I've played. I've spent more time grinding than actually progressing in general... and I expect that to continue. As it is, I'm grinding and there is this one monster I fight that I can kill in 1 or 2 turns, but if 2-3 of him spawn they will all coincidentally spam attacks that pretty much 1-hit kill my group, too early for enemies to be this strong. I appear to have the full party now, but still I'm fairly certain the majority of this game is going to be a grind fest. This game is killing me how much of a grind fest it is, every single dungeon is grinding for hours because naturally you get to the boss 4-5 levels lower than what you need to be. I'm like level 18 at my highest character and I need my lowest character at like 21. I abandoned this game for a reason 2 years ago... came back and went and found some metal slimes and liquid metal slimes and grinded from 18 to 36, playtime shows that took like 12 hours.
Anyway, I'm further now and I just got to a dungeon with Metal Slime Kings, so I'm gonna grind that like a bad mother and then I'll continue with the story at a ridiculous level. Before I left that dungeon I hit level 47, so now I'm super over leveled for the rest of the game.
I'm gonna change my opinion on this game, because coming back to it, I didn't have much trouble where I left off at, I was just being cranky and I needed time away.
Rating: Recommended.
47.
The Last of Us: Part II (PS4)
I've been sort of hyped for this game because the last one was so memorable. As a game, I think they aren't necessarily anything special, but the writing and acting does so well, just amazingly well that you can't help but have these games stick with you. I sort of wish I had played the Remaster leading up to this to have the first game fresh in my mind. I also sort of wish I had at least read a full synopsis of the first game minimally, because there were so many things I just didn't remember, but I don't think it would've really changed how I absorbed the content. Though I do feel there were probably things I didn't notice that maybe I would've noticed. You know, people or reactions to things. As much as I'd love to talk about story and such, I'll keep my review absolutely spoiler free as best as I can. The accessibility options in this game are absolutely mindblowing, I have never seen a game with this many accessibility options. I love it, it's great, I have hearing problems and sight problems, and I find button mashing sequences to be very annoying, plus so many other things I hadn't considered that I absolutely took advantage of for this game. It's been so long since I played the original game and I don't really remember how I felt about the core mechanics of the game, but I have very little to no complaints about the core mechanics of this game. My wife watched me play a little bit and she commented on how cool it was that character hair has collision detection and doesn't just cut through your body and stuff... I didn't dare mention or show that your weapons and stuff still clip through walls though
. A lot of people's main complaint about Uncharted 4 was that it went on for too long as it was double the length of the rest of the Uncharted franchise, I expect to hear the same complaints about this game as it runs a little less than twice as long as the first entry. I know I had several times where I was like "Oh, I'm at the end, cool" and then the game went on for 3 more hours and I just kinda gave up and continued playing. It did it so much that when the game finally ended, I honestly expected there to be
more, and I think that took something away... like going to a Marvel movie and it not having an after the credits scene. I think if you hated the first game, or Uncharted games in general, this is obviously going to be overhyped BS for you. If you loved or liked the first game, you'll probably enjoy this game. This game wears its emotions right on its sleeve, and it doesn't pull its punches either. That being said, I don't feel like this game necessarily captured the same essence as the first game. Not necessarily a complaint, not necessarily a compliment either. The game does well enough being different from its predecessor whilst also not being too different... makes for a mildly refreshing experience. I'm gonna try to find a way to share my thoughts in a spoiler ridden excerpt, but I want to provide a manner to hide the content, might just do colored text here to match the site background, highlight the text to read.
Rating: Highly recommended.
48.
Happy Birthdays (NS)
I was trying to pick out a game that might entertain my kid, this seems colorful and full of animals and such so I thought it would be good. Not really, it's more of a god game, and the controls are sort of infuriating. I got all the way to ancient humans before I realized there were a lot of features to help see why certain things aren't appearing. I think maybe I would've enjoyed the game more if I had pieced that together earlier. That isn't necessarily the game's fault, as I know the game told me about it multiple times, that's on me for ignoring it. I feel like the main story is essentially a tutorial for the game, which is play god and grow all sorts of plants and animals. I think if I was interested in just playing to play and not go through the story like I normally do, I think I would enjoy this game doing the things, but the controls are a bit frustrating which is a big reason why I'm not really willing to come back to this game.
Rating: Hard Pass.
49.
Little Nightmares (PS4)
My wife has been wanting me to play this game for years. I sort of assumed it was because she thought it was a really good game, apparently it was because she wanted to see if the game would be as difficult and frustrating to me as it was to her. The answer is yes. It's a fairly short game, but the platforming mechanics combined with the terrible camera work constantly has you pressing left or right, but you move diagonally, so walking on thin platforms has you falling to your death. Couple this with infrequent checkpoints that has you walking through annoying sections repeatedly just makes this game pretty unbearable.
Rating: Hard Pass.
50.
Samsara Room (Android)
My wife every so often insists on me playing one of her escape games, this was one of those times. In general I get frustrated with these games because a lot of times they are buggy/glitchy and overall they don't direct you well. This game was mildly okay, but there were multiple times where I had to just trial and error guess because there just was no information anywhere for me to piece together the information. Not much to say, generic escape room stuff.
Rating: Hard Pass.
51.
Picross 3D: Round 2 (3DS)
I bought this game years ago while on sale or using Nintendo rewards coupons, but I was constantly waiting to finish DQ8 before I started this, now that I'm done with DQ8 I can enjoy this game to my hearts content. It's Picross, but 3D! I really don't know what to say other than that, I enjoy Picross. I don't expect to say much more about this game. I enjoy it, but it's hard to recommend given that it doesn't have a physical US release and the 3DS is region locked. Credits rolled after book 40, but after the credits you get another 15 books, plus I still haven't done the Amiibo puzzles yet. Slowly burning through the post game books and then I'll do the amiibo puzzles. I won't be updating this anymore, even though I'm still playing.
Rating: Soft pass, no physical and a high price make this an easy pass. If you can play it, I recommend the EU 3DS physical release though.
52.
Forza Horizon 4 (X1)
I saw there was a Forza Xbox Reward card, so I decided to play Forza Horizon 4. First off, there was a 10GB update, it took the better part of a day because Xbox and my ISP were both throttling so I'd get 1Mbps for 3 seconds every couple of minutes. Absolutely frustrating. I don't really know how to track my progress on this, I don't even understand the seasons thing. I did stuff in previous seasons but it says I have no progress in them, so if I leave my current season, do I have to start over? Do the seasons matter? I don't know, it just confuses me, I guess I'll try to google it. The seasons are part of the games as a service ordeal with this game, and because of that, the game has no clear end goal and nothing to pop the credits. I hit the various championship milestones and I'm calling it a day with this one, personally not a fan of games as a service, because I'm not the type of consumer to stick with one thing endlessly, I get why they do it, but it isn't for me.
Rating: Soft Recommendation.
53.
Sayonara Wild Hearts (NS)
I wanted to play something that I thought would entertain my kid, so I went with something rhythmic. This game is like a snowboarding minigame from greater games, but inside of a kaleidoscope that constantly loops electro music. Music and graphics are interesting, but I definitely can't recommend this game, especially for the cost of a physical.
Rating: Hard Pass.
54.
Wattam (PS4)
I asked my wife to pick a game and it was literally the first game she saw, so she said play this. I think maybe I just wasn't in the mood for the game, because I didn't enjoy the game that much. It captures a similar atmosphere to Katamari, same kooky Japanese soundtrack, colorful world and characters, silly nonsensical story... but it doesn't capture the same essence that Katamari had in terms of gameplay, it didn't grab you and make you want to play more and more. Katamari's gameplay loop very much has you competing against the game, this is very chill, so obviously this will be a different experience.
Rating: Soft recommendation.
55.
Gravity Ghost (PS4)
I've been interested in this game for some time. But it's a sort of puzzle platformer which isn't my favorite genre, so I've put it off. VO work is entertaining. Puzzles are pretty short and not too difficult. Game is short enough that the puzzles don't get tiresome. Story is interesting. Artwork is very meh. I enjoyed the game, but not enough to do all there is to do. I wouldn't honestly recommend the game though.
Rating: Soft pass.
56.
Battlefield 2: Modern Combat (X1BC)
I've been wanting to play through the Battlefield games because I really enjoyed Hardline, I was expecting CoD style gameplay, but boy was I mistaken. This game is squad based tactical FPS stuff. Every mission is basically wave based objectives. Overall not enjoying this game. I find that I start a mission, fail it, and then the second time I can beat it. The most recent one I'm on, I game over within about 30 seconds. Got all the way to the final mission and just kept failing because of the timer. I was so close to abandoning this game, but I put enough time and was all the way at the end, it sucks to abandon a game right at the end, but the entire game is just garbage. The controls are garbage, the ally AI is non-existent, the enemy AI is hyper intelligent, it takes an enemy one shot to kill you, but half a clip to kill them, enemies infinitely spawn, etc. The enemy AI is the most ridiculous thing, I read walkthroughs and watch videos and they are like oh, sneak up on these guys and take them out, if you can see an enemy, they can see you. You try to sneak up on a guy, as soon as he renders, doesn't matter which way he's facing, he aim hack shotguns you to the face. You can kill a guy, but if you turn just slightly, he'll respawn exactly where he was standing. This game is just plain terrible. I wound up having to find a video where a guy basically skips all combat by walking out of the combat area to win the mission.
Rating: Hard Pass, absolutely atrocious game.
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