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.
89.
Xeodrifter (PS4)
I wanted to play something short and different after playing Nioh, just as a sort of palate cleanser. How long to beat listed this as like a 3 hour game, so I figured 2 streams tops and I'd be through. Managed to get through in one go with a bit over an hour. I watched a short review of it or something and was like oh yeah, this will be quick and easy... and it was. Boss fights were largely the same with some minor changes. Gameplay mechanics were actually quite good, but the game is just too short. Like I'd dub this game a microvania or something because it's just so small. Some of the mechanics were a little tough to get used to and some of the fights felt cheap, but overall a really good short game.
Rating: Soft recommendation.
90.
New Pokemon Snap (NS)
I got this on the cheap with a deal at Gamestop, my wife immediately was like "Oh, I'm gonna play it" and then immediately abandoned it because she said it was too stressful. I kinda laughed at that and was like "That's the whole shtick with the game, you make multiple runs through the level and try to get better pics". I remember the original game having a lot of "lure pokemon over here and they'll do a thing" and I feel like this game didn't have much of that, but I also might need to look into guides or something. That said, this game didn't capture my attention like the OG game did, and that might be because I was more attached to pokemon back then and I knew all of the pokemon back then and now, I just don't. It's not a bad game, but it's just not for me.
Rating: Soft pass.
91.
Strider (NES)
I, both, had not intended on playing any Strider games and not intended on doing a Strider franchise run... but someone suggested I play Strider on PS4, so I started that game. But I also decided, hey, if I'm going to play one Strider game, I might as well play them all. There was no clear cut list out there of Strider content, so I had to make my own list. Strider (Arcade), Strider (NES), Strider Returns (Gen), Strider 2 (PS1), and Strider (PS4) seems to be the full list. While I could've started with Strider Arcade, I decided to save that for when I hit Strider 2 and play the PS1 version. Now I did play these games all back to back, so hopefully I can keep things well separated. The whole series is very hack and slash platformer, but this and the reboot are the only Metroidvania-esque titles in the franchise. A bit like Xeodrifter in that you have to go back to "base" to swap locations, but you constantly revisit locations to gather new skills and reach previously inaccessible areas. This game suffers from all of the lack of QoL of an NES game, so I won't hold that against it, but I will say the Triangle Jump (wall jump) was just too difficult, and it's unfortunate they couldn't have designed that to work better. I literally spent the better part of 20 minutes trying to get past the wall jump sections before I unlocked the Jump skill. That was literally the hardest part of the game, had that been better I'd say this is a fantastic game, but that alone nearly had me abandon the game.
Rating: Soft pass.
92.
Strider Returns: Journey from Darkness (Gen)
This is the non-canon, non-Capcom produced sequel to Strider. As such, I probably could've skipped over this entry, but I decided to go for it. It felt very Western 16-bit era, which is an era of games I never really got into growing up. This game didn't play like the previous one, it was stage based, and very much felt like it was made by someone else. It's not a bad game per se, but it deserves to be non-canon
Rating: Hard pass
93.
Strider (PS1)
Started this one immediately after the last one. Definitely plays arcade style. Some sections are arcade hard, where you can tell it's designed to just eat up your quarters, luckily game has infinite continues and just places you at the last checkpoint constantly, you just lose your score. So I got a good way through the game and kept getting game over at this couple of sections of platforming that were just painfully difficult. I see a lot of stuff in this that I've seen in the 2014 Strider reboot, so it's kind of cool to see how a lot of stuff was before it was reimagined. No metroidvania elements as the game is just a straight arcade game. I feel like this is one of the few instances where the "inferior" console port winds up being a better game... yes I know the NES release wasn't an arcade port, but you know what I'm getting at. Regardless, this game isn't necessarily bad, it just suffers from the terrible design decisions that came with arcade games to make players waste money... that said, the fact that it has infinite continues makes the game at least playable.
Rating: Soft pass.
94.
Strider 2 (PS1)
This one was the best of the Strider games mostly in quality of life, as Strider (NES) was quite a good game, just the triangle jump ruined it. That said, I'm not a huge fan of games with sprites thrown into a 3D world, also not a huge fan of 2.5D stuff in general as it is. That all said, game is pretty short and straight forward. 5 levels each with 6 scenarios for a total of 30ish "levels", most levels are super short. This one didn't suffer from the same arcade design flaws, but it also had infinite continues which again is very nice.
Rating: Soft pass.
95.
Shadow of the Ninja (NSO)
So I don't think I've talked about this yet, but one of my lesser advertised goals is attempting to play a game from every year starting back at some random year. I don't pick a random year as much as I'm starting from whatever year is the oldest I happen to be playing anyway. At this point I was missing 1990 and I just didn't know what to play. I had a few ideas of what to go with, but this one was on NSO so I decided to go with it. I'm also missing 1994 I believe, so I might play something NES/SNES on NSO for that as well. This seemed at least mildly relevant to me playing the Strider games. I don't believe the character you choose makes a difference really, just a choice. Not a great game, but not a bad game per se. Just a level based action platformer. Not really a fan of health carrying over from level to level and not healing, but eh that's just QoL stuff. Overall not really worth your time though.
Rating: Hard pass.
96.
Mega Man Zero 2 (NS)
I started this around my Strider franchise run, I think after I started, but I can't quite remember. I got towards the end of this game and then put off finishing it because I wanted a clean run through the Strider franchise with no games breaking the run, but then stuff happened and I still haven't beaten Strider 2014. This time around I made sure I took advantage of the Casual Scenario mode because while most of Mega Man Zero was a great game, the final boss was just painfully difficult and I just wasn't having it. Casual Scenario really lightened the difficulty by getting rid of most instant death things (spikes, fire, etc), lowered damage taken, and raised damage dealt. It honestly turned the game from "normal" difficulty to "very easy" difficulty, takes away a bit of the fun from the challenge, but definitely makes the game more "enjoyable". A lot of reuse in terms of enemy bosses, which wasn't something I was expecting from a Mega Man game as they usually introduce new bosses each game, but not a huge deal. Story is definitely a continuation of a tale, whereas I feel like Mega Man [X] doesn't feel like a cohesive overarching story. Overall more enjoyable, thanks to Scenario Assist, but I'm sure Zero would've been too.
Rating: Soft recommendation.
97.
Mega Man Zero 3 (NS)
Jumped straight into this one after Zero 2. First thing I noticed in this game was the chips, I won't go too much into it, but there are 3 chip slots, and it works out perfectly. Head chip has one where it auto charges both weapons so you don't have to press and hold... oh my god is this the greatest thing ever. Charging shots in games is always my bane, it hurts my hand to press and hold and let go and repeat over and over, maybe I'm pressing too hard, maybe I'm not good at the motions without being too hard, that's on me, but I just can't do that stuff without hurting myself, so this was a fucking saving grace. The body chip is for your elemental stuff and some other things. Foot chip has a bunch of different stuff, but they have an equip all chip for the foot so just have that on, I don't know if that's a casual assist thing or what, but this stuff is fantastic. Now casual scenario mode on 2 made the game too easy, almost unenjoyably easy, not a hard play, but just kinda too easy to enjoy. This game, the bosses were hard enough and even the final boss was hard enough that with casual mode, I had some challenge... so that said, without casual mode, I probably would've been mad like with Zero 1. So I'm gonna have to give this a conditional ranking like 1.
Rating: Soft recommendation, Solid recommendation with Casual Scenario.
98.
Strider (PS4)
This game man. I started this at the recommendation of a guy on discord. It'd been on my shortlist of Metroidvania games to play. Honestly, didn't enjoy this one. It suffers from the same shit I hate in Mega Man, and that's the charged shot shit, at least Mega Man usually lets you remap controls so I can minimize the pain I get in my hands... this game however does not. So I get to suffer in excruciating and violent agony. Also, this game has difficulty options, but you can only set it at new game and can never change it, which is just BS. It's one of my most hated features, don't even offer difficulty at that point. I get all the way to the end, want to change the difficulty but then I have to start over? Might as well abandon the game at that point. So I powered through despite wanting to break something. Controls are infuriatingly confusing, in that I kept pressing the wrong buttons because it wasn't intuitive. I also didn't use many/any special attacks until the end of the game because it was never clearly conveyed, I forgot it existed, and I didn't really need it... until the final section before the final boss. I died like 10 times and got so sweaty that I needed to take my shirt off to get through that final section. The final bosses weren't as hard as that final elevator leading to the boss. Game's map glitches out and doesn't work 90% of the time. There is no fast travel, so if you want to explore before the final boss and collect everything, it's gonna take a while. Plus, there is no post-game exploration, so you gotta do everything pre-final boss if you care... which I am not about with a broken map and no fast travel. The game also suffers from what I dub XBLA era design, which I just don't care for. I don't know how to explain it, but the design patterns, choices, and even art style feel like something out of mid aughts XBLA games, which I always have trouble enjoying. It's an okay game, that right at the end showed its true colors and became a not so good game.
Rating: Soft pass.
99.
Claymates (NSO)
I chose this game, to be quite honest, solely because it was released in 1994 and I needed a 1994 game for my weird goal for the year. I definitely wouldn't call it necessarily a good game, but it has some interesting things going on. Normal-ish platforming gameplay where you change forms to different animals which have different skills and such, pretty straight forward, but between levels you've got little puzzles to do to move to the next level. Platforming is pretty basic and not that noteworthy to be honest. The puzzle stuff between levels was unexpected and thus frustrating, but it's a novel concept and if I had been in the mood for it I probably would've enjoyed that.
Rating: Hard pass.
100.
Hades (X1/XS/Cloud)
I'm gonna preface this review with the statement that Xbox claims I played this game for roughly 100 hours. Game club game #5 after my 2 picks were ultimately ignored.
Anyway, lots to unpack with this one. I played mostly on Series X which played pretty well, but achievements just wouldn't work no matter what I tried. I also played quite a bit on Xbox One X so I could get achievements to unlock, most just unlocked, but it took a lot of closing the game, turning off my xbox, turning it back on, loading the game, and then loading a save. A lot of achievements however required you to meet the requirements for the achievement all over again to get it to pop, so that wasn't fun. I also played some on XCloud because I wanted to lay down while playing. I hurt myself at work, still not recovered, might be a hernia, not fun. That said, Series X played best, but no achievements; Xcloud played second best and achievements worked, but it is linked to having useable internet and my bedroom is a wifi deadspot; Xbox One X plays the worst, still playable, but noticeable lag at parts where I'm concerned the game is going to crash and achievements work. Moving on from technical issues, the game is quite good. The story is great and the characters are likeable enough to push you to keep playing. The dialogue between characters seems plentiful to the point that even dying you have the conversations to look forward to. That said, the gameplay is pretty solid, but I feel there isn't enough of a persistence feature for me personally. Even the inclusion of "God Mode" wasn't accessible enough for my tastes. God mode just ads 20% damage reduction which increases by 2% every time you die to a max of 80% damage reduction total. I found that at 50-60% damage reduction I had little issue completing the game. I found at 80% damage reduction it took too long to die when I wanted to kill myself, so that said, it might be good enough in that it forces you to play through several (30) failed escape attempts before you hit max, encouraging you to take in the world and the characters before you can "beat" the game. So yeah, I will say God mode is good in that it makes the game get easier every time you fail, up to a point that the game should still maintain a level of challenge without offering you the potential non-fun of being invincible as I know from experience that that can actually ruin the fun of a game. But that said, "God mode" feels misleading and potentially makes you feel bad for using it, I however highly suggest using it, but that's me not being a true fan of roguelike in general. 1 successful escape gets you to take in the whole experience, 10 additional escapes gets you to the end credits and completes the main story, an additional 10 escapes + a lot of other goofy as requires that will honestly take you like 70 escapes total gets you the epilogue, and finally another 5-10 escapes gets you the rest of the bond with all of the characters. I did the first escape and said to myself that I cared enough about the story that I wanted to get the credits to pop. I got the credits to pop and said I care enough about this story that I want to get to the epilogue. I got another couple of runs and said to myself "I'm close, I'll keep going", and then did that another like 6 times, until I eventually got the epilogue, during this point I started getting sick of the game, the gameplay loop, and even the characters. I then proceeded to play a little bit more to try and tie up some stuff that I was close to finishing, but I finally said no and turned it off. Having taken in the whole Hades experience, I'd say escape once and decide at that point if you care to see the story through, if so, proceed. At that point, do the ten additional escapes to get the rest of the story, and then stop playing. Maybe watch a youtube video of the epilogue. If you really love the game and don't mind the loop, go for it, play to your hearts content, but know that the epilogue is so small and honestly so obvious, it isn't worth the time you have to sink to get to it. If this game had 2 additional things, I think this would be nearly the perfect experience for me in terms of rogue-like. 1) More persistence, let me have the ability to buy even more starting health, or armor, or damage resistance; let me be able to start with a couple of boons of my choice; let me upgrade my weapons to be stronger and stuff and not just these simple aspects. Matter of fact let me use multiple aspects. 2) When I buy/unlock cosmetic stuff, let me display it all. Some of it doesn't make sense to do that and that's fine, but let me display multiple paintings instead of replacing one another. If I could display all simultaneously, I'd be more willing to put in the time to unlock it all. I reached towards the end of the game and I had tons of darkness and gems and I was only using the gems to convert to higher quality items for other stuff, which is a great use of otherwise useless resources, but I just felt like I was accumulating stuff for no good reason.
Rating: Soft recommendation... Solid if you care about Greek mythology.
101.
Xena: Warrior Princess (PS1)
I was talking to my wife about picking a new game to play after being done with Hades. My wife said she has a suggestion, but I can't laugh or whatever. I said ok. She suggested this and I was immediately like Ok, I don't know why you think I'd laugh, I'll play it, you just gotta sit there with me. So in one 3 hour stream I managed to playthrough all of this game. Riffed on it pretty hard, lots of laughs, but my mic's sensitivity didn't save correctly so the game's audio has some bad echo to it. Gameplay isn't great, but isn't the worst. Story seems non-sensical, but it's Xena. Most fights are pretty infuriating. Some levels are pretty infuriating too, especially since you can have a checkpoint, but it's a one time use checkpoint where if you die again you have to start the level over. That said, levels are like 5 minutes max. Final boss was the most infuriating thing because if you fail on the final boss, you have to redo all of the pre-final boss boss fight stuff again. It was good fun to play this with my wife, so this was an enjoyable experience for me, and I may look fondly back at it, but it's not a good game, and I don't recommend it. It doesn't even have the official actor's voices. I don't think I mentioned it originally, but the facial expressions in the cutscenes are pretty amazing and if anything meme worthy. Definitely makes me feel like it could be made into a good LEGO game.
Rating: Hard pass
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