52 Games Challenge 2020

[bikingjahuty]

19. Gundam Wing: Endless Duel (SNES)

First and foremost, yes, this is a Super Famicom game technically since it never got release outside Japan, but for the same of consistency and because it's essentially the same system as the SNES, I'm categorizing this as an SNES game. Now, on to the review!


Like many young nerds in the late 90s and early 2000s, I was introduced to anime via a little programming block on Cartoon Network called Toonami. I think everyone at this point with any degree of nerd cred, and certainly anyone who was into anime in the 90s and 2000s knows what Toonami is, but it was my gateway into anime and introduced me to many anime series I've come to love and appreciate ever since. One of those series was Gundam, with Gundam Wing being my introduction to the series. Beyond DBZ, Gundam Wing was probably my 2nd favorite anime for a moment in the late 90s and I would have done anything to get more Gundam at the time, but unfortunately we were very limited at that time to any anime whatsoever. I love the whole concept of giant mechs with laser swords, laser guns, and giant epic, scifi battles in space. When I found out there was a video games based off the series I nearly lost my shit!


I first found out about Gundam Wing: Endless Duel from a friend of mine in middle school who was actually Japanese, and other than having lived the first 5-years of his life there, frequently went back to visit family that still lived there. Nearly everytime he'd return to the states he'd bring along with him a bunch of awesome import video games that I could have only dreamt of owning at the time. Around the height of Gundam Wing's popularity in the west, I went over to his house one afternoon and was beyond shocked to not only find out there was a Gundam Wing video game, but that my friend actually owned it! My friend and I played Gundam Wing: Endless Duel only briefly since my friend, whom had not only been aware of Gundam Wing for half his life, but had also played the crap out of Endless Duel years before I'd even known what Gundam was, didn't want to play it long due to boredom with it. So while I've technically played Gundam Wing:Endless Duel, my actually experience with it is ultra limited and it's been easily over a decade since I've played it at all, via emulation. I decided it was time to sink some serious time into playing it and see how this game stacks up after all these years, and the west finally getting many of the Gundam titles that Japan now gets given the series' worldwide recognition and popularity.

My first impressions of Gundam Wing: Endless Duel is that it feels like the precursor to what would eventually become Gundam Battle Assault, which to this day is my favorite Gundam-based title (well, technically the 2nd one is, but I also love the first one). This is absolutely a good thing, and the fact that I'm drawing parallels between a game released on a 16-bit console and one released on a much more powerful, disc based 32-bit consoles speaks volumes to the quality of Endless Duel.

First and foremost, the visual presentation of Endless Duel is excellent. It's certainly up there with some of the better looking games on the SNES which is definitely a huge compliment given how good so many SNES games look. The sprites of the mobile suits are very detailed and articulate, very accurately capturing the look of the suits from he show. Likewise, the stages all are very well done, and have dynamic effects in them to make them feel like more than just a backdrop that you're fighting in front of; things movie, lights flash, other mobile suites move and blink, it's very impressive stuff. Also, there are character sprites for the various characters in the anime, as well as a very cool intro that is very high quality.

Regarding the sound in Endless Duel, it has a very catchy OST, one that not only embodies how amazing music can sound coming from the SNES, but also captures the sound and feel of the show. In fact, there is a 16-bit version of the opening theme from the show which sounds just as good minus the vocals of TWO-MIX. The sound effects are also great, with all the laser, blaster, thruster, and mechanical noises you'd expect Gundams to make, many of which sound like they were lifted straight from the show.

While definitely above average overall, the gameplay of Endless Duel is probably its weakest area. The game is fairly fast paced and doesn't stutter from framerate issues or lag of any kind, which makes the fighting feel fluid much like Street Fighter Turbo or Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. Also, the controls, while definitely not perfect, are for the most part easy to figure out and responsive. Where the game isn't as good is no counter to blocking and a fairly imbalanced damage system. There is also a special move meter which allows depletes at varying amounts depending if you're doing a normal special move and a super move. You refill it by landing basic attacks on your opponent. Pulling off the special moves is fairly reliable, although I found it to be far easier to pull them off with certain suits over others. The gameplay is certainly with its flaws, but overall it adds to the enjoyment of playing this game.

Like any licensed game, one's subjective enjoyment is going to be based heavily on your appreciation of the source material. While Gundam Wing: Endless Duel and a Super Famicom to play it on would have been towards the top of my birthday and Christmas list when I was 13, it's now a game and series that I only have a minor interest in now. Sadly my anime fandom, especially for newer anime, has diminished greatly as I've aged. I tried watching Gundam Wing 7 or 8 years ago for the first time since it originally aired on Toonami and remember struggling to get through it due to how melodramatic and silly it was much of the time. When I was a kid I probably cared far more for the epic mech battles far more than what was going on in the plot, however it takes more than flashy Gundam battles now to keep me entertained, and so with that my interest in Gundam Wing isn't even close to what it was.

Still, I'm able to enjoy this game not only as a pretty good 16-bit fighter, but also as a game that I would have adored growing up, and envied my friend greatly for having. I can't imagine I'll ever play Endless Duel again, but I'm glad I did replay it just so I can scratch a desire off my childhood list of things I wish I could have done when I was younger.

Gameplay: 7/10
Sound: 8/10
Graphics: 9/10
Fun: 10/20
Overall: 34/50

[bikingjahuty]

20. Command and Conquer (PC)

My experience with the CnC series is pretty limited. I didn't have a PC capable of running CnC games until the late 90s, however my first experience playing the game was Red Alert at a friends house. i remember it was so different than anything I'd ever played, and the whole concept of controlling an army of troops, tanks and other vehicles was something really cool to me at the time. A few years later when I did have a PC it was around he time that Tiberium Sun came out and I ended up getting it for Christmas the year it came out. Tiberium Sun was the CnC game I played the most and remember thinking it was really fun when I was a kid. However, despite all of this I never played the original CnC game and it's been a long time goal of mine to play it on PC as it was intended.


Well, I finally sat my ass down, played around with patches and configurations for the better part of an evening, and finally played the game that started it all. And sadly, this isn't a game I was able to get into and just felt really bored with during my time with it. The game wasn't bad by any means, but I found its simplicity to what I was used to with other RTS games to be just too underwhelming for me to get into. While there is a degree of strategy involved while progressing through the game, it just felt like a lot of build, deploy, build, deploy, build deploy. I greater emphasis on the narrative might have helped out more, but sadly it was too antiquated of an experience for me to get into.


In my few hours with the game I did really like the music and it's very mid 90s, attitude filled sound. It definitely captured the feel of the period it originally came out in. I'm pretty sure had I played this game back in the 90s I'd have a greater appreciation for this game and even on nostalgia alone I might have been able to enjoy my time with Command and Conquer more. Unfortunately this is an experience I'll probably never revisit, and I hope I don't feel the same way about the other pre-2000s titles.


 Overall: Abandoned

[Cartagia]

Do you plan on trying the remaster when it comes out?

[kamikazekeeg]

11 - Animal Crossing: New Horizons (Switch 2020) - ENDLESS - I am fairly loaded with games right now, but I needed something more casual to play after beating Doom and some big action/rpg games coming up, something chill I can play while watching stuff, so figured I would play some Animal Crossing.  I was never "excited" for the game, though I did play the original a good bit back in the day, but seeing some peoples reactions to it were like if you got amped for "taking a nap" or "having a mug of cocoa" lol Still, as a time waster game, it's been nice so far.  I put it as endless as there's no real story or ending, you just keep doing stuff, but I'll probably casually play it for a good while.

[bikingjahuty]

Do you plan on trying the remaster when it comes out?

I probably will at some point, but I'm in no rush to play it.

[shfan]

Snack World (Switch) - abandoned

I really like this game, a randomly-generated dungeon action RPG with quirky Level 5 charm, the problem is that it's a grinder, which in many circumstances would be great, but I have so little time at the minute that it's not good to be playing something with no sense of progress. I'll be trying to play more beatable games, having already beaten a 50 hour dungeon game this year.

[justin8301]

10. Sonic Adventure 2 (Dreamcast) - 3/22
The whole time I was playing the first Sonic Adventure, I was thinking to myself just how much I hated the “open world” part of the game. 15 minutes into Sonic Adventure 2 and I was sad they took it out. Even though the game just felt like it was missing something, it was still a ton of fun; the controls were better, the camera was betterish, and the levels were better. Everything was just a step up from the previous game. Beat 3/22


11. Horizon Zero Dawn (PS4) - 3/29
I really wanted to love this game, I had planned on going for a platinum trophy on it, but for some reason I couldn’t get into it. It wasn’t a bad game at all, it was actually pretty good; I just didn’t connect with it like I did God of War or Last of Us, it felt a little disconnected at points and I had trouble playing it for long sessions. Beat 3/30

[bikingjahuty]

21. Klonoa: Door to Phantomile (PS1)

One of the sad realities I've come to know as a video game collector is that the majority of very rare, expensive, sought after games rarely live up to their hype and price. I've owned some very rare and expensive games over the years and only a handful of them I felt were actually worth the cost of entry, or at least their reputation of being an excellent, hidden gem were warranted and true.


Luckily for me I found my copy of Klonoa for only $3 years ago at a now defunct used media store I used to frequently hunt for games at. At the time I think it was an $80 game or so, so finding it for only $3 made me insanely happy. Out of curiosity I just looked up the current going rate for this game and it's hovering around $200+ for a complete copy! Even without knowing how dramatically the price of Klonoa on the PS1 had gone up, I honestly went in expecting it to be another one of their overrated, overpriced retro games that I'd probably consider selling as soon as I beat it or gave up trying. To my complete surprise and delight it was not just another game the internet has built up as being falsely amazing, but actually is an amazing game!


Klonoa: Door to Phantomile is a 2.5D platformer where your range of motion is on a 2D plane, however the platforms you walk and jump on and background have the appearance of being in a 3D space. In a lot of ways Klonoa reminded me of a mixture of Kirby 64 and Nights into Dreams, but is absolutely its own thing which I will elaborate on shortly. But visually Klonoa is a pretty creative, colorful game with fun backgrounds and level design that make each stage feel unique and distinct from the last stage you got through. The game is broken up into 6 stages with each one being divided into two levels. These levels all feel different, even the ones that take place in the same stage. Despite this variety in each levels look, style, and layout, Klonoa is in some ways not the most visually impressive game.


While all the characters and bosses are certainly unique looking and well designed, graphically this isn't the best looking game. It is an early 3D game and even for the time it came out there were far better looking platformers not just on the PS1, but also on the Saturn, N64 and PC. Where Klonoa lacks variety is in your standard enemy types of which there are maybe a dozen in the entire game. It would have been nice to have them mixed up a bit more, but for what you're using the enemies for it isn't a really big deal when there is so much variety elsewhere in the game. Overall the style and presentation of Klonoa is pretty good despite the somewhat below average presentation.


Klonoa is a nice sounding game as well. Going along with the adorable aesthetic, the cast of characters all speak in a made up language that sounds like baby noises and 90s cartoon characters speaking Japanese. While this might not be the best way to describe it, it isn't annoying, but is actually very endearing and certainly makes the character voices and dialogue memorable. Given that their language is fictional, the dialogue is all subbed which I think was the right thing to do for this game. The music of Klonoa is also excellent with some very, very pleasant songs that play during the game's stages, all sounding like they belong in this game 100%. Klonoa's OST has an almost dreamlike quality, which again is 100% appropriate for this game, and also makes this game that much more enjoyable to play.


The gameplay of Klonoa is pretty good overall as well. Being a 2.5D game, you're mostly moving left or right and either jumping or using a ring punch to grab enemies. Grabbing enemies is a core mechanic of this game as you'll be using enemies to not only throw at other enemies and bosses to destroy them, but also to help propel your jumps to get to higher platforms, as well as throwing enemies to activate far away switches or grab out of reach items. This mechanic works pretty well throughout the game, however in some of the more technical or time limited areas, these mechanics can show their flaws, mostly in their difficulty to execute fluidly and quickly. Despite this, they mostly work well and do very little to detract from how well the game plays.


You will also be completing a variety of optional tasks throughout each stage including collecting gems to earn extra lives and saving local inhabitants, of which there are six in each level. The boss fights in Klonoa: Door to Phantomile are also pretty fun for the most part, and each one feels distinct and challenging in its own way compared to the previous one. However, the boss fights highlight something about Klonoa that could be seen as good or bad depending on your point of view, and that's the game's difficulty. Klonoa definitely falls on the easier end of the video game platformer genre difficulty spectrum; the first half of the game is a breeze for the most part, and the second half is only slightly more challenging save a few areas in the final few levels, and the last few bosses. But even at its most difficult Klonoa is a pretty easy game, which you can get through in just a few hours. One final thing about the gameplay that I enjoyed is that decreased length; I appreciate games that don't outstay their welcome, which I feel like Klonoa is probably a perfect length given the type of game it is, as well as the game's story. Oh yeah, did I mention this game has a story?!


Yes, Klonoa is one of the few platformers I've ever played that actually has an engaging, interesting, and genuinely heartfelt story. When I first started playing Klonoa I expected it to pretty much be your standard cookie cutter mid/late 90s platformer story similar to what we got in Mario, Banjo-Kazooie, or Crash where the story is given little attention beyond giving you a reason to reach the end of the game. Not Klonoa. Klonoa starts out very similar to those aforementioned games, but the deeper into the game you get, the more the story takes various twists and turns, as well as actually develops Klonoa's character and several other side characters as well. There are several points in the last third of the game that genuinely gut punched me in the feels, and the ending actually made me tear up; if you would have told me I'd shed a tear during this game before I starting playing it I'd likely have laughed at you and called you insane. No, this game has an excellent story on par with some of the better kids movies I've watched during my life, which essentially means it's not going to win any awards, but it well written and delivered impactfully enough to leave a mark on you once it's all over.


While Klonoa: Door to Phantomile might not be the most well made platformer during the late 90s era of 2.5D and 3D platformers, for me it was certainly one of the most memorable and enjoyable ones I've ever played. Between the heartfelt story and variety of unexpected twists, and the cute, colorful, and lighthearted look of the game, it was hard for me not to completely fall in love with Klonoa's charm. Even playing this game for the first time ever 20-years after it originally came out, I really, really enjoyed it. I'm going to go as far as to say I enjoyed it at least just as much as I do Super Mario 64 which is the best platformer I've ever played, and also one of the best games I've ever played. Admittedly, Klonoa is not as good as Super Mario 64, but in terms of my personal enjoyment of Klonoa it's right up there with Super Mario 64 which is saying a lot! (4/1/20)

Presentation: 7/10
Gameplay: 8/10
Sound: 8/10
Fun: 17/20
Overall: 40/50

[kamikazekeeg]

12 - Resident Evil 3 (PC 2020) - BEAT - While I was never expecting this to live up to the Resident Evil 2 Remake, it is unfortunate that the game comes across more like a DLC campaign than standalone sequel.  It's not bad at all, I enjoyed my run through the story, its doing much the same gameplay and visually its still quality, it just doesn't have the same level of content and detail.  Like they got rid of some of the zombie gore, you could kinda tear apart zombies more viscerally in RE2, but not here, and while I like the combat dodge against certain creatures, I almost never used it against zombies because I found it super hard to get the timing with how fast their lunge is.

I can't say how the game is in comparison to the original version, I never played it much and don't remember it, though I know it is lacking a few things.  I understand RE3 was meant to be a quick sequel to pump out back in the day, but I think they should've spent more time with this game, because it being done by the B-Team is sorta obvious. 

If you are a Resident Evil fan, you'll still totally like it, it's fun, it just may not be the best version of the game it could've been and that Resistance multiplayer doesn't seem to be very good, so the price its at now is hard to justify, though I'll  probably end up getting 20 to 30 hours out of the game anyways with replays through the story and to get the unlockables, much like I did with RE2R.

[bikingjahuty]

22. Mr. Driller (Dreamcast)

Mr. Driller has been a game that more people have recommended than I can remember. It's a puzzle game that I knew very little about other than from the back it looks like some sort of stack em' up puzzle game like Tetris or Puyo Puyo. Having finally sat down and played it, I have to say I expected a little more given the amount of praise this game has got from people I know, but for what it was Mr. Driller is a decent puzzle game with some pretty unique elements.


As stated, Mr. Driller is a puzzle game where you play the game's protagonist, Mr. Driller and have to drill away blocks of varying size so they fall on other blocks, ideally of the same color in order to gain points. The more blocks of the same color connect, the more points you earn, with a minimum of four same colored blocks needed for the blocks to produce a higher score per block. There are also brown blocks that vanish after connecting four of them as well, bit the only difference with these is they require more oxygen to break. Yes, this game requires oxygen as a way of forcing the playing to act quickly while breaking blocks. These oxygen pickups are randomly placed between blocks that you must obtain before your oxygen meter hits 0% and you lose a life. You can also lose a life by accidentally having a block fall on you from above, typically from a combination of blocks connecting, but a miscalculated odd block out leading to your demise.


The gameplay system is pretty fun overall, however I found the way that blocks decide to fall to be somewhat inconsistent to what I'm used to in games like Tetris. This is how the game is designed, but it was still something that took some getting used to, and even when I did I didn't care for it all that much. I found the oxygen system to be a unique, fun way of creating a time constraint in the game, as well as penalizing you for breaking brown blocks by depleting more oxygen. As you can imagine the further down you go, the less oxygen pickups there are, and also there are less same block clusters for you to combine to clear out more blocks.


Visually Mr. Driller is not a paragon of graphical excellent by any means, although it was never meant to be. This is a stack em' up, block based puzzle game that you could easily port to a calculator, and in fact was ported to the Gameboy if I'm not mistaken. There are colorful backgrounds and menus, but overall this is a game that does not focus on the visuals, but does enough with them to make this game mostly pleasing to look at. The same can be said in the audio department; there isn't any story or dialogue here, nor did there ever need to be. There's just catchy little songs that play as you descend deeper and deeper into your puzzle, with the songs being fairly catchy.


Despite Mr. Driller being a pretty competent, well put together game, it just didn't hold my interest for long. I was mostly enjoying my time with it, but it certainly was not one of those puzzle games that I had trouble putting down. It was certainly more of a game that I feel like I played, thought it was pretty good, and am likely content with never playing it again. Sadly, I do not share the same opinion of Mr. Driller that several local collectors and game store employees have. In the end, it's an alright puzzle game that i'd recommend people at least try out and see if they like it. (4/3/20)

Presentation: 5/10
Sound: 7/10
Gameplay: 7/10
Fun: 11/20
Overall: 30/50

[Cartagia]

12 - Resident Evil 3 (PC 2020) - BEAT - While I was never expecting this to live up to the Resident Evil 2 Remake, it is unfortunate that the game comes across more like a DLC campaign than standalone sequel.  It's not bad at all, I enjoyed my run through the story, its doing much the same gameplay and visually its still quality, it just doesn't have the same level of content and detail.  Like they got rid of some of the zombie gore, you could kinda tear apart zombies more viscerally in RE2, but not here, and while I like the combat dodge against certain creatures, I almost never used it against zombies because I found it super hard to get the timing with how fast their lunge is.

I can't say how the game is in comparison to the original version, I never played it much and don't remember it, though I know it is lacking a few things.  I understand RE3 was meant to be a quick sequel to pump out back in the day, but I think they should've spent more time with this game, because it being done by the B-Team is sorta obvious. 

The "expansion" feeling is very much in line with the original game.  While I haven't played this one yet, all the reviews seem to point to most of the shortcomings originating from the original game - RE3 was never as good as the first two games, and while it's nice to have an updated version it's just not nearly as essential as those.  I pre-ordered REmake2, but I'm definitely going to wait for the price drop on REmak3.

[kamikazekeeg]

The "expansion" feeling is very much in line with the original game.  While I haven't played this one yet, all the reviews seem to point to most of the shortcomings originating from the original game - RE3 was never as good as the first two games, and while it's nice to have an updated version it's just not nearly as essential as those.  I pre-ordered REmake2, but I'm definitely going to wait for the price drop on REmak3.

Yeah even if you are a fan of RE2R, I would wait on a good sale for RE3R.  I don't think Resistance adds much value and the only replay value for the game is difficulties and buying unlockables from the challenges you do as you play through the game.  Like I'll probably in the end get like 20 hours out of my time with the game by replaying it a few times, but it doesn't offer the same replay value as RE2R did with the two campaigns and two variations of each campaign.  Not too mention the DLC they added, which I don't think RE3R will get.

[telly]

Game 7 - Dark Souls: Remastered (PS4) – 43 Hours – level 86

This was a very tough game for me to review. This is another one of those games that has a huge following and is beloved by many. After beating it, I dug heavily though the wiki reading about all the characters and lore I could. I also watched several analysis videos on both the bosses, areas, and overall story to get a better understanding of the game. I think this game is excellent, but it does have flaws, which are presented below.

I think this game’s strongest suit was its controls (minus trying to platform and jump). You move at a nice pace, swinging weapons feels good, and you can build your class to be as nimble/protected as you like. The game is hard as hell, but you feel so accomplished when you finally overcome that one big boss you’ve been struggling for hours to defeat. I swear there were some issues with hit detection, which I complained about in Demon’s Souls, but it can help you as well, so it’s fine. Outside of the controls, the gameplay is also excellent. There’s an incredibly deep customization of your characters which was fun to experiment with. The framerate was buttery smooth as well. I liked the new game plus idea, because this game feels like the sort of thing to play multiple times. After watching a few videos I realized there was a fair amount of content, bosses and secret areas that I missed, and I was immediately tempted to start playing all over again to fight those bosses right away. That’s a testament to how entertaining the game is.

One of the things I loved about Dark Souls was the equally breathtaking and disgusting environments. I felt like this was a major improvement over Demon’s Souls. I loved the beautiful yet completely empty Anor Londo, the mysterious DarkRoot Garden, and the tense and terrifying Catacombs and New Londo Ruins (the latter made me feel a squeamish while exploring, believe it or not.) That said, there are some areas that I felt were not the best. Blighttown felt like a reskin of the Valley of Defilement from Demon’s Souls, and the Valley of Drakes, Demon Ruins, and Lost Izalith areas felt very bland and forgettable.

Something I had heard about at length regarding this game was the brutally tense and lonely atmosphere. And I will agree, that was certainly present, but there were equal parts immersion-killing goofiness in the form of the multiplayer elements. The loneliness of the game completely clashes with all the countless bloodstains and phantoms of people playing alongside you, all the silly messages with “praise the sun!” and other jokes, the helpful allies you can summon into the game at your will, the weird ragdoll physics of the dead bodies… you can see where I’m going with this. Not that it’s bad, it’s just… not at all what I was expecting. It reminded me of Resident Evil 4. Equal parts scary, creepy, funny, and campy.

On that note, I’m not sure how I felt about the multiplayer elements. I wanted to make sure to turn them on, as I felt it was an important part of the overall experience. The messages and bloodstains left by other players were very helpful in beating the game. I’m just not the biggest fan of being invaded by other players. Thankfully you can avoid it by staying hollowed, but if you do return to human form, you have no control over when or who the game decides to have invade you, and it can make an already frustrating game even more frustrating.

I definitely liked the music in this game though. And I liked how the game takes what I call the “Shadow of the Colossus” approach, with very little music in the overworld but swelling to a massive orchestral and choral score during the boss fights. I had to take another listen after beating the game though because I was too focused on the boss fights to really pay attention. The sound design is pretty trash, though, but that’s more of a minor complaint for me.

I think the thing I was most conflicted with about Dark Souls upon finishing it was the storytelling. I went thought this game completely blind, so I had only a very loose grasp on what I was doing or what the story was even about. After finishing the game, I watched a plot synopsis that only used information found in the game, and it furthered a lot of my understanding of the story elements. Most of my concerns were addressed, but it’s still unclear to me how elements of this story is told to the player in-game, specifically how the lead up story with Gwyn is revealed to the player, and the results of your decisions at the end of the game. And I’m not sure if the faceless generic protagonist that you play as really helps or hurts the overall narrative. I sense that I will come back to play this game later on as a new game+, so if I do that I will probably use a walkthrough to try and complete as much as possible and then I might get a better grasp on things. So for now, I think the story presentation is a little sloppy, and I honestly think it tells the player too little, but that opinion could change with another playthrough or two.

[ignition365]

Main List
Previous List

bold 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.

101. Sonic Adventure 2: Battle (GCN)
Started this one up as 100, but took a break from it so it wasn't game 100 on my list, and I'm glad I did that.  This game is one of the worst games I've ever played.  Consistently throughout the game did I phase through walls and just die, the game had no sense of targeting so I'd fall off the level when trying to land on grinding rails, frustrating instant death mechanics, enemies that could instant kill you somehow invalidating invulnerability after taking damage, and just generally poor game/level design.  Again, I get shit from people who claim I didn't beat the game because I didn't 100% beat the game, I'm very confused by this, beating a game is beating a game, not completing a game.  Just a terrible game
Rating: Hard pass.

102. Super Mario 64 (NS)
Got the Super Mario 3D All-stars collection in the mail and decided to play some of Mario 64, then decided might as well beat it.  Just as good and frustrating as I remember.  No octagonal gates makes directional inputs feel off.  Using a joystick for the c buttons feels odd.  No option for invert on sticks, absolutely terrible.  Game aged incredibly poorly, but it's totally playable.  Game is using the release that patched out most glitches so can't beat the game with like 16 stars.  I still love this game and at least like 4 of its levels, I tolerate most, and hate a bunch.  Getting thrown from levels is frustrating, accidentally collecting stars while working on other stars is also frustrating.  I have a lot of complaints, but I don't regret my time revisiting this game.
Rating: Soft recommendation

103. Sonic Heroes (GCN)
This actually isn't supposed to be next on the list, but I'm still doing extra content in Pokemon Picross, so Sonic Advance games get to wait.  I might actually wind up playing these simultaneously with how I balance handheld and console games, so we'll see.  Though I've got a lot of handheld Sonic games before the next console title... which I think is Shadow.  Anyway, this game is terrible.  I loaded up the game and created a save slot and started story mode.  Beat the first level, but it actively said "Continue without saving" because I didn't go into options and load my created save file before starting story mode.  WTF, so I had to redo the first level.  Game still has the terrible oh you phased through a wall and now you're dead issue. Got all the way to the final level, got all the way to the end of the final level, but didn't understand that you have to hold B to speed up on the grinding rails, because the icon implies to mash B, not hold B, so I died and got a game over.  I nearly abandoned the game right there.  I used Action Replay to beat that level because fuck redoing that terrible level because of the game's inability to properly convey what to do.  Final boss was bullshit instant death mechanics out the wazoo.  I spent more time standing around waiting for an opportunity to make a jump so I didn't instant die than anything else.  Honestly, I was like can't get worse than SA2, but they outdid themselves.
Rating: Hardest of passes.

104. Ring Fit Adventure (NS)
I've heard so much from folks using this as a daily exercise routine and getting good results.  Then pandemic and scalping happened.  Now they are being produced again and I'm glad to say I got one of my own and I'm giving this a go.  It's a decent workout for me, I'm playing in silent mode, because I'm adamantly not a fan of running in place.  I have a bad knee, so even silent mode is quite trying because you're doing squats instead of running in place, hopefully this can work as a sort of rehab for my bad knee.  So, I had stopped playing this for like a month, felt like it had only been like a week, but apparently it had been like a month.  My wife finally decided to start playing it and that encouraged me to hop back into  it.  I watched her play and realized that I was overdoing my squats for silent mode and that's what was killing my knees, now that I'm doing lazy squats (as I like to call them, or really you're just teabagging  ) it isn't so bad.  So now I'm putting in 10-20 minutes each day and progressing through story mode.  I think I'm currently level 19 and my difficulty level is 17, working my way up.  Now I'm up at level 30 something and difficulty level 22, so I'm up with my wife, and we're both about the same place in the adventure mode, we're just constantly try to either keep up or get ahead of each other.  I'm really only going to update this every other week or so.  I'm at level 60 something and difficulty 27, I'm doing about 2 hours a day which works out to about 40 minutes of active exercise.  At this point, I'm about level 100 and I blew out my knee the other day, so I'm dialing it back as best I can and laying off of knee exercises as well.  I'm currently at world 19 out of 23 I think, and I'm at the tail end of that world, so getting closer and closer to "beating" the game, I know the game keeps going afterward and I'll probably keep playing as it's good exercise, I've lost 3-5 lbs already.  I'm level 171 and still difficulty level 27 and putting in about 30 minutes of active exercise daily.  Once I beat World 23, I'll mark it as beat and stop updating this though. Finally beat the game.  Level 220ish, 30.5 hours of exercise, and I've lost roughly 10lb.  Going to plan on still doing this every day, but I won't be updating anymore.
Rating: Highly recommended.

105. Word Search by POWGI (PS Vita)
More POWGI puzzle games!  Just a generic word search game, nothing special.  This one is taking me forever to finish.  It's got like 400 word search puzzles.  I'm nearly done with it.  I don't know that I want this game to be 104 though, so I may take my time with this so Ringfit can be 104.
Rating: Hard pass.

106. One Word by POWGI (PS Vita)
Another POWGI game.  I just couldn't care with this one, it's a word search, but you only get the letters for the word you want, my eyes aren't good with that, so this was a miserable experience.
Rating: Hard pass.

107. Shin Megami Tensei: Persona (PSP)
I've finally decided to start my franchise run of the Persona series.  Mind you, if I hate this so much, I may not, but it's the plan.  I beat my 104 goal, so I've got 3 months with no real goal in mind, so I've decided to aim for longer games, and what's longer than Persona? So far, really enjoying the game.  I'm having no problem whatsoever playing this and only thing, I normally have a handheld and a console game going, but I'm playing this on what would be my console game time.  Throw some anime on the TV and play away.  I'm really not a fan of the fact that RPGs increment the gameplay timer when the game is paused.  I'm *really* not a fan of the fact that this RPG increments the gameplay timer when the system is in standby mode.  So it claims I'm at 200 hours of gameplay, really have no clue how long this game is taking me because of that.  Pretty much had no trouble with this game until near the end.  I had two issues.  1) Gaining spell cards has been an ordeal for me because I've been consistently underleveled for gaining cards the entire game, so I've been having to grind not to beat bosses, but to be able to be high enough level to gain spell cards 2) This dungeon I've made it to is so bullshit.  So many enemies with instant death mechanics, only 2 people in my party... and if you run into a group of succubus kiss your evening goodbye, you can't kill them, they spam charm, and you can't run away... it's a recipe for an immediate gameover. 3) You can't run away.  Here's hoping future games fix this issue? Overall I really enjoyed the game, but it got real bullshit near the end.
Rating: Really soft recommendation.

108. Tracks (X1)
I went on Xbox yesterday to do my Rewards stuff for the week, and I noticed there were a bunch of new Monthly cards to do (Worth roughly 12,500 reward points overall).  The gist of them is earn up to 10,000 achievement points and get up to 10,000 reward points, point for point.  So I went looking for games with quick and easy achievements, about an hour in this game nets you the full 1,000 points, so I went ahead and played the game through pretty much all of it's base content.  I'm going to wind up playing through a lot of games, and I don't know if I'll count them because I'm not "beating" them so much as just earning as many achievements as I can.  Game probably is pretty entertaining, but it just doesn't seem like much to it.  Game's purpose is probably play to play.
Rating: Hard pass... I guess

109. Minit (X1)
More games played just to boost gamerscore to get MS Rewards points.  Saw that this one can get 1000 in an hour or so, so I spent my evening last night playing through this and getting all of the achievements.  Really enjoyable game, makes me consider giving Majora's Mask a try, but this is in small repeatable bursts whereas Majora it's 3 "days" instead of 60 seconds.  One day... one day.  I don't remember what I gave this game when I played it earlier this year, but I'm gonna go with a good ole highly recommended because it's just such an enjoyable game.
Rating: Highly recommended.

110. Fractured Minds (X1)
Saw that this one can get the 1000 points in like 20-30 minutes so I gave this one a go.  I had been ignoring it for the longest time because it looked like it was going to be a spooky game.  spoiler: it's not.  It's an artsy, emotionally driven game, won indie awards and such.  I normally love these types of games, but this was pretty bad.  Like I definitely recommend it for the points, but it's just not worth your time otherwise.
Rating: Hard pass.

111. Minecraft (X1)
I was thinking about not adding this one, but I did play it for quite a bit, got all of the achievements on one version and then went and played an older version trying to get more achievements.  The achievement world thing is very interesting and I won't say quickly, but easily can net you the full near 3000 achievement points, which is great for the Xbox Hall of Fame thing.  I'm sitting at like 9080 achievement points earned this month for this thing which is great.  Today starts a new achievement week with Rewards so I'll probably go do PixARK's trial to get the 1000 points from that since allegedly that works.  I may not write about it because it's a trial and I think I'm not actually playing the game similar to some of the other games I just got points from and didn't actually play.
Rating: It's minecraft, of course it's recommended.

112. Super Mario Maker 2 (NS)
I wasn't intending on beating this game or even counting it.  I loaded this up to sort of give my kid the opportunity to start playing video games.  I was intending on making simple levels for him and then handing him a tiny switch controller for him to play.  The game doesn't let you swap controllers quickly or anything, which is a huge bummer.  The kid's tiny controller doesn't have all of the buttons necessary to make levels so I have to use my controller to make levels, shut off my controller, turn on his controller, hand him his controller. and then hope he doesn't press the quit level button because you can't easily restart the level with his controller.  I kind of gave up on it quickly and just proceeded to play through the game while he watched.
Rating: Recommended... but not for what I wanted.

113. What Remains of Edith Finch (X1)
Another game being played because it's got easy achievements, relatively quick too.  Maybe 3-4 hours and you get the full 1000 points with minor skill needed for one achievement.  I've played this game before and I love the story.  I think when I last played the game I didn't have a kid, so Gregory's story really fucked me up.  Yeah, I played it almost a year before my kid was born.  I know the Gregory story messed with me last time too, but it really fucked with me this time because as much as my kid makes me angry (on purpose I'd bet) it would destroy me for something like that to happen.  Anyway, I really enjoy this game's story, having already done all the things before it doesn't have a lot of replay value though.  It's definitely one of those games where I think physical serves better because beat the game, sell the game, instead of beat the game and be stuck with this digital download that you're never going to use again.  It's my big issue with digital in general.
Rating: For Game Pass, absolutely recommended.  For buying, gotta say it's a toss up, super soft pass or recommendation.

114. Super Mario Sunshine (NS)
I wasn't really intending on counting this game, but I'm playing it quite a bit when spending time with my kid so I'll probably wind up beating it at some point, might as well track it.  I played it for a bit after finishing Super Mario 64 but I just wasn't feeling it.  Having taken some time away from it and coming back after SMM2, I'm sort of enjoying my time with it.  I'm remembering how the controls are still pretty frustrating.  The switch controller still isn't very good.  You lose the pressure sensitive buttons and mario doesn't "walk" well so you run or you don't run, walking is such hit or miss garbage.  I died 15-20 times on one galaxy precursor space no fludd having platforming segments.  I remember for the longest time I didn't know Yoshi was in this game because I never recalled seeing it advertised and I kept not getting far enough to unlock Yoshi.  I also remember once getting Yoshi it being pretty frustrating to control for some of the stuff, but I'm curious if I'm getting that mixed up with Galaxy.  We'll see.  I was getting it confused with Galaxy for sure, but Yoshi is frustrating because it's almost certainly tied to water areas which is instant death for Yoshi, and getting Yoshi isn't like SNES just hitting a box, you gotta go find the specific fruit he wants.  It was a pain but 100% completed this game, collected all shines and blue coins and such.
Rating: Recommended

115. Super Mario World (NSO)
Decided to play this because my kid keeps yelling for more pod games, no clue what he's trying to say, but I know he means Mario.  Normally when I play this, I go through the warps and beat it in like 15 minutes, but I decided to go through as much as I could bother.  Beat all the world's main bosses, got through the special world, and beat Bowser through the front door.  Probably ended around 70-80 exits.
Rating: Highly recommended, obviously

116. Super Mario Bros. The Lost Levels (NSO)
Someone on Discord was talking shit about how SMB2 (USA) is the best Mario game and that SMB2 (JP) was the worst Mario game.  I disagree, I had never beaten SMB2 (JP) but I could honestly say SMB2 (USA) is my least favorite Mario game hands down (at least of the games I've played).  Their argument was the JP was too hard, like ridiculously deviously hard.  So I beat it in about an hour.  I did use warp pipes, I'll admit that, and I obviously looked up the correct paths for the boss levels, but the game was super enjoyable.  I then tried to play USA, and I got bored before I got to the second level.  I mean USA isn't even a Mario game.
Rating: Soft recommendation

117. Captain Toad's Treasure Tracker (NS)
I mean technically, I don't know how much I should count this as beat.  I beat Episode 1, credits rolled.  Episode 2 unlocked which is playing through a new set of like 20 levels as Toadette instead of Toad.  I'm gonna count it for now, if I go back this year and beat the rest of Episode 2, I probably won't count it separately.  It's a puzzle game.  I'm not a huge fan of this type of puzzle game, I get pretty bored pretty quickly with this type of thing.
Rating: Soft pass.

118. Afterparty (X1)
I had been interested in this game for some time, I saw it was getting delisted on Halloween so I decided to prioritize playing it and got my wife to sit with me while I played it, handed her the controller on occasion to help with decisions and stuff.  Game is pretty interesting, they don't really ever explain why they went to hell specifically, but I gather that pretty much everyone goes to hell regardless, so I won't dwell on that too much.  Sounds like the bad ending leaves it open for a sequel.  Honestly, I really enjoyed this game.  I would've liked different dialogue choices I think, but you're playing a character and are stuck with what the writers decided are what the characters would possibly say, so whatever.  Enjoyable regardless, and got quite a few chuckles out of it.
Rating: Really soft recommendation.

119. Party Hard (PS4)
Here's my annual complain about my neighbor entry.  My neighbor had a huge Halloween party on Halloween.  Invited tons of people, had a pinata, huddled up on a bonfire, and blared music all night long.  Normally, I would stay up all night long, super angry, and just trying to find something to use up my time until they yield and I can sleep.  Normally, that's playing Party Hard and living vicariously through the protagonist.  But I just couldn't do it because it didn't matter what I did, I could hear and feel their music over anything I did.  We have no noise ordinances and I can't call the cops or do a lawsuit unless I can prove monetary loss/cost due to the nuisance.  We're due to be annexed in the next few years at which point we will have a noise ordinance, but ACAB and they don't actually enforce the noise ordinances anyway.  Anyway, I spent the next day playing this game because I was still angry about the ordeal, I had already beaten this game, but I hadn't done the extra bonus levels, so I played through and beat all of the bonus levels.  Some pretty tough, some pretty fun, some just outlandishly random to beat.  Enjoyable as always.  Anyway, went to the furthest room in my house from the neighbor, blared a white noise machine, had my work computer on being loud fanned af, turned on some fans, and managed to have a miserable nights sleep due to all the elements.
Rating: Biased Recommendation.

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[droaa]

Whewie.  I am in a conundrum.  Do i count Resident Evil 6 multiple times because of the multiple campaigns, or just consider it one game?  I am inclined to say count it multiple times.

In my opinion, I count it all as one game given that all 3 campaigns as different as they may be are all within the same realm in terms of story. I think as each campaign as 3 pieces of the overall game rather that 3 separate campaigns.