52 Games Challenge 2022

[bikingjahuty]

18. Star Wars Rebel Assault and Star Wars Rebel Assault II (PC)

It's been a while since I abandoned a game, but it was bound to happen sooner or later. I have always wanted to try out these old Star Wars games, particularly Rebel Assault II which I neighbor kid growing up had on his computer; I actually watched him pretty much beat the game one afternoon and at least at the time I thought it was awesome. Unfortunately playing these games myself years later I now realize that these are two of the worst Star Wars games ever made, or at least two of the worst ones I've certainly played. Really, the biggest flaws of both games are its terrible controls and gameplay. Like just being able to clear the first few stages in both games felt nearly impossible for me based on how touchy they were, how bad the hit detection was, and just how awful pretty much everything was about the gameplay. I tried a joystick and also a mouse, yet both made it just a difficult to control my ship through an asteroid field or when trying to avoid other obstacles. I know countless people have beat these games since the 90s, but honestly the controls were so bad that the thought of trying to fight them and overcome them for even another hour felt unbearable. Rebel Assault II has slightly better controls...sort of, but it too becomes a complete shitshow within the first few stages. It's really too bad because artistically and storywise I really think these games look great, and they have fully licensed OSTs too. I guess I'll just watch some other poor soul play these on youtube to enjoy these aspects of the game because I'm sure as hell not suffering another minute with these two games. (2/13/22) ABANDONED

[gngtiger]

2: Banjo-Kazooie (Completed 12/12/22)

Because of a cramped schedule, I don't think I will realistically be able to complete 52 games by 2023. Maybe 26 instead. Anyway, I had wanted this for Christmas, and put a download code for the 360 version on my Amazon wishlist. Because they didn't have any in stock, my grandmother gave me the cash for it instead as one of her Christmas gifts to me. It was so worth it. The entire game is a joy to play through (except for the gosh dang quiz show and some of Rusty Bucket Bay) and I had a lot of fun with it. I'm hoping to explore more of Rare's catalog and try Banjo-Tooie as well! One weird thing is that for the Stop N Swap unlockables, the game disables saving and disables you from entering the online leaderboards. I'd be miffed if the content went towards Banjo-Tooie, but in the 360 version, it goes toward Nuts and Bolts instead, which I have heard is not great. The original was a wholesome, funny, and gorgeous treat.

9/10 play the dang game  if you haven't already.

[dhaabi]

03. Bug Fables: The Everlasting Sapling || Nintendo Switch || 02.12.22

I don't remember exactly what about Bug Fables: The Everlasting Sapling initially caught my attention. However, I ended up pre-ordering the physical edition some time ago and received my copy last fall. And, without a doubt, I'm so glad that the game is a part of my collection.

At its core, Bug Fables offers a story like many others—a group of three heroes unexpectedly band together to take part in an adventure to reclaim lost artifacts for their queen with trouble being introduced throughout the quest. However, the story is told from the expansive world of bugs. With plenty of detail, the Bug Fable's kingdom of Bugaria and greater world is rich with history and lore. Quite quickly, I became interested what all was crafted for this story. Over time, the world unfolds as research is found for the player to read, which touches on topics such as The Day of Awakening. Before, bugs were not sentient and civilized. And, even now, not all bugs are. Only after this event were some bugs graced with being awakened which also provided an enriched lifespan, as lesser bugs still exist and are feral.

As an RPG, the game offers simplified mechanics that requires more strategy than one would think. With a battle system centered around low health and damage output, players soon realize how each and every player turn has major influence on the battle outcome and more so for boss encounters. Each of the game's three party members have a personalized skill set and role that is crucial to exploit, such as aerial attacker, buff/debuffer, and tank. Alongside their varied skills to consider, the player must also consider the party member's positioning while in battle. Positioning affects attack and defense in addition to aspects such as a member relaying their turn onto their allies at the cost of diminished strength.

Overall, Bug Fables is not difficult. However, a higher difficulty setting can be toggled on and off at any point which, when on, yields greater experience and currency gained. The game actively encourages the player to be challenged in regards to boss encounters as well. For sure, the boss fighters throughout hard mode are challenging and require near-perfect strategy and item management. Throughout my time with hard mode, my party fell numerous times as the challenge was surely felt. At the same time, secret codes may be found after accomplishing specific optional end-game goals that provide a much more challenging experience upon starting a subsequent playthrough.

Surprisingly, there is much more content than I had imagined. With a ~25-hour campaign, completionist times can top 50 hours, such as with my playthrough. Offering dozens of side-quests, the world of Bug Fables provides much more lore and backstory when pursuing these optional ventures. Toward the end of my time playing, I greatly wanted for there to be more story-related content for there to explore, as the world introduced maintained my interest the entire time. Throughout the narrative and optional content, the cast of party members has explorable backstories as well, which allowed for interesting characters to become even more greatly developed.

In brief, I would highly recommend Bug Fables to anyone looking for a more unconventional take on the RPG genre for its world alone. Also, it is important to note that Bug Fables was greatly inspired by Paper Mario, from its art style to battle mechanics. However, I haven't played any Paper Mario entry, so I cannot personally attest to how accurate or successful the final product in this regard was, but I have read others' opinions stating that Bug Fables is the best Paper Mario entry to-date.

[bikingjahuty]

18. SSX (PS2)

Leading up to the PS2's release I was hyped beyond measure for the console to come out, so much so I couldn't wait to play pretty much every launch game or game that was supposed to come out around launch. Luckily I ended up getting a PS2 on Christmas Eve 2000 which allowed me to play so many of these games I'd lusted over for months before getting my PS2. One of those games was SSX. I never owned SSX growing up, but it is one I rented a couple of times from my local Blockbuster or Hollywood Video. Back in the late 90s and early 2000s I definitely thought Snowboarding was way cooler than I do now and at least at the time the best Snowboarding game I'd played was 1080 on the N64. I remember thinking the game was pretty fun, but I thought it would be cool to go back and replay it to see how I feel about it now.


SSX is, umm, alright. It certainly was a very good looking game for its time and probably the best Snowboarding game ever made in 2000. However, this isn't saying much. The main issue with SSX is its gameplay which while not broken and occasionally really fun, is mostly poorly designed and implemented. For one, pulling tricks off and also doing things like hitting your opponents is very clunky and stiff, and what makes this even worse is the terrible level design in half the stages. While all of the stages look cool and have a lot of novelty to them like obstacles, hazards, loops, and other craziness that made this game stand out, many of these things are there at the expense of the game just feeling slopping and annoying to get through. In fact, the best parts of SSX are when you just feel like you're just snowboarding like you normally would and not dodging pinball flippers (yes, you just read that) or giant pillars that shoot up from the ground. This is why the first few levels are the best while the later levels are definitely the worst. As for the OST and sound, this game has a pretty memorably announcer and the characters also have distinct voice actors that really fit well with the characters, however the soundtrack is the most generic early 2000s video game OST you'll ever hear. Overall, the sound is just fairly unremarkable with some noteworthy standouts here and there. If not for the nostalgia of being 13 and playing this game on a Friday night I don't think I'd enjoy this game as much as I do, and even then I enjoy this game a decent amount less than i did over 20-years ago. Still, this one is decent for a quick hit of nostalgia for me and a game that has personal meaning to me if nothing else than a game I was massively hyped for leading up to the PS2's debut. (2/15/22) [31/50]

[bikingjahuty]

19. King of Fighters XV (PS5)

This has been my most anticipated games for a long time and I finally was able to grab my copy of it today (no thanks to Gamestop fucking up my preorder, but I digress). While KOF 15 is a very fun game and has a lot of benefits over its predecessor, I unfortunately found it to be an inferior game.


Firat and foremost I feel like both games are equel when it comes to visuals and audio. While XV's character models look way better than XIV's, its stages do not. Both games are voice acted well, however I guess XV has slightly more cutscenes to show this off. The OST in both games is very comparable, however I slightly prefer what XIV had to offer more. The real tiebreaker between XV and XIV is the gameplay between the two games. XIV's gameplay definitely streamlined the controls way more than any previous KOF game, making the game overall more accessible to newcomers and beginners, while also keeping it very deep and competitive at the same time. This accessibility was cranked up even more in XV, however it was done slightly at the cost of the game feeling way different than any KOF game before it. They made it way to easy to do crazy combos and specials, which might sound like a good thing, however it just really threw me off personally and also I found myself screwing up combos and specials I previous knew how to perform due to the new mechanics. Despite this the gameplay is very similar still to XIV and most people will probably have a hard time telling the different. Another noteworthy advantage XIV has over its sequel were the vast amount of unlockables in that game that rewarded many playthroughs with all the characters and certain combinations of characters. While there are abut 50 movies you can unlock by playing KOF XV, it pales in comparison to the hundreds of photos and other cool unlockables you earned after being every new stage. Before I wrap up this mini review I think its also important to address the rosters between the two games. KOF XIV had more characters, however i felt XV had a much higher quality roster in bringing back so many classic favorites for the first time in years. It was awesome being able to play as Chris, Blue Mary, or Ash again. King of Fighters XV is an excellent game, however I didn't find it to be an imporvement on the previous game in the franchise like I was hoping, and I feel like bes case scenario it's just as good as XIV all things considered. i hope my opinion of XV improves with time in the same way certain other KOF entries have, but for now it's definitely not superior to XIV and half a dozen other KOF games. (2/17/22) [35/50]

[kashell]

15. The Misadventures of Tron Bonne

This was a cute, fun game that had major Saturday cartoon/kids anime vibes with a touch of mature humor thrown at random. I liked this more than both MMLs because of the variety and the (sometimes) smoother controls.

[kamikazekeeg]

6 - Horizon: Zero Dawn: The Frozen Wilds - BEAT - Since I held off on Horizon: Forbidden West till later on so that I don't burn myself out on open world games before Elden Ring comes out, and I decided against a replay of the first game, I just didn't love it enough for that, I thought I'd at least dive into the DLC, The Frozen Wilds, since it's basically just a smaller chunk of the main game, and I never got around to playing it, so it's all new.  Took me like 5 to 8 hours to beat, skipping over a number of side quests, but I enjoyed myself...After like the first hour of trying to relearn the entire game.   All the mechanics, trying to remember what weapons to use because there's multiple ones with multiple ammo types, how to properly deal with the robots, everything my inventory is filled with, it was abit off putting returning to a game like this after about 4 years or so away from it and then just jumping head long into it.

The DLC itself is good, it's just more of the main game, a new area that opens up in the corner that is decently sized.  I think the robot bears were the main new enemy types and are fairly annoying to fight.  Honestly I felt like the combat in this game was a tad rough at times, the dodge in particular sucks, it's very stiff compared to like a FromSoft styled one, and some enemies have absurd attacks that I just don't know if you can dodge properly...Nothing is bad though.  Playing through this with the PS5 improvements was so nice, it looks fantastic, and while the first game was a never a favorite of mine (Thought it was just fine when I played it), I am interested to get into the sequel, see the visual improvements, see how much the gameplay has improved, and the expanded mobility stuff such as underwater aspects and a glider, because I feel like at this point almost any open world game should just offer a glider for the convenience and I wanted one bad playing this DLC lol

[justin8301]

8. Pokemon Legends: Arceus (Switch) 2/19/22

OK… So, I’m a bit torn on this one. I feel like it had SO much potential but, in the end, it just felt a little empty or hollow. You could clearly see the direction the developers are taking the game in and I’m excited to see how the franchise evolves but there were a few things that missed the mark this time. My biggest complaint was how they locked the main story progression behind the ranking system; in an open world game, if I want to progress under leveled, I should be able to. Another thing is the lack of trainer battles, I mean it makes sense within the story that there aren’t many trainers yet, but it just made the open world parts seem kind of void. I know a lot of people had issues with the graphics/art direction of the game, but I thought it worked pretty well. Overall I thought the game was somewhere between not bad and kinda ok, it didn’t blow me away but it did just enough for me to not quit playing it.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CaLrEqVtpep/

[justin8301]

9. Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary (XSX) 2/20/2022

So here’s another one that everyone is surprised to find out I’ve never played and after finally finishing it, I kinda have to say… meh. I mean I guess I get it, when this was originally released it would have been pretty groundbreaking, but it really just falls flat today. I mean there’s no bosses, the whole second half of the game was basically the first half backwards, and don’t get me started on how the last section of the game was you on a fucking warthog, which has to be one of the most frustrating vehicles in a game ever. But, I will have to say the soundtrack is epic and honestly made the whole thing worth it.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CaOUFlDNQEY/

[bikingjahuty]

9. Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary (XSX) 2/20/2022

So here’s another one that everyone is surprised to find out I’ve never played and after finally finishing it, I kinda have to say… meh. I mean I guess I get it, when this was originally released it would have been pretty groundbreaking, but it really just falls flat today. I mean there’s no bosses, the whole second half of the game was basically the first half backwards, and don’t get me started on how the last section of the game was you on a fucking warthog, which has to be one of the most frustrating vehicles in a game ever. But, I will have to say the soundtrack is epic and honestly made the whole thing worth it.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CaOUFlDNQEY/

Halo is a very fun FPS, but I never understood how it blew up into this massive hit. Halo 2 was definitely better, but I'd still place many other FPS games released before and during Halo and Halo 2's release that are way better, and have stood the test of time better too.

[kamikazekeeg]

9. Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary (XSX) 2/20/2022

So here’s another one that everyone is surprised to find out I’ve never played and after finally finishing it, I kinda have to say… meh. I mean I guess I get it, when this was originally released it would have been pretty groundbreaking, but it really just falls flat today. I mean there’s no bosses, the whole second half of the game was basically the first half backwards, and don’t get me started on how the last section of the game was you on a fucking warthog, which has to be one of the most frustrating vehicles in a game ever. But, I will have to say the soundtrack is epic and honestly made the whole thing worth it.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CaOUFlDNQEY/

For the time, the campaign was pretty impressive, it has a lot of scale and scope to it, even if it's a fairly straightforward game, I don't know if there were many other shooters like that at the time when it came out.  I can absolutely see it not aging well because of that though, as a lot of that world is gonna feel kinda empty and basic at this point.  Halo Infinite sorta feels like the full realization of the original game in that way. 

What made that game was the multiplayer.  That was probably the first time I had gotten that hooked to a multiplayer experience, me and my buddies routinely spending every weekend we could doing Halo LAN parties, full 4 xbox/tv setup at their place, playing from night to morning, it was such a great time lol

[justin8301]

What made that game was the multiplayer.

I can totally see how that was kinda what drove the games success

[tripredacus]

3. Far Cry New Dawn
Liked this a bit more than Far Cry 4. The guns are better but it is obvious that the higher tier guns are better than the lower tier ones. Interestingly enough, a rank 1 pistol does 0 damage to a rank 3 enemy. Also rank 3 and 4 enemies do not get any better guns to use than the rank 1 enemies do, but their aiming ability increases. There is even a note you can find (in the prison I think) that one of them wrote about how they have to use low end weapons even after they get promoted. So the only way you can get any higher rank weapon is either to make it yourself or the couple times you get it from a mission.

The guns are kind of strange in this game. Many of the guns are hitscan, including all of the shotguns that I had tried. There is no range limitation to the shotguns, you can shoot someone across the map with them. But they are not that effective at range despite that. The snipers and rifles are not hit-scan but their range is still quite good where it seems that way. You can use tracers easily to hit distant enemies. The snipers were not good in my experience and I would use a rifle or SMG set to single-shot for it instead.

Driving is still terrible, but none of the driving missions actually required you to be in the car. The autodrive option is a lot faster speed than Far Cry 4. Despite the game showing a red warning banner if you kill a civilian (it happens often in autodrive) there does not seem to be any actual penalty for it except in a mission where you have to rescue hostages. There is no karma system. The animals weren't that bad, there is no situation where an animal can stunlock you indefinitely. There are wolves and dogs (and pigs) that are in packs but they are not as overwhelming as the Dholes and Wolves from FC4.

There are 8 companions but there are only 2 actually useful ones. The archer from New Eden makes animals not attack you, and the Doge will mark enemies and items. The dude with the shotgun and the overall feel of the game gave me The Walking Dead flashbacks. The game tracks kills of all of the companions and there is an upgrade system for your skills and guns once you unlock tier 4. There does not seem like there is an upgrade or stat limit but it may be too soon to tell. For example I levelled up the amount of medkits I could carry 15 times. And it would appear that you may be able to farm perk points forever even after you complete the challenges because you get a perk point every time you free a hostage. It would be interesting to see what happens when you push this game to its limits.

[Cartagia]

What made that game was the multiplayer.

I can totally see how that was kinda what drove the games success

Don't forget that it basically perfected FPS controls on a console. That alone made people want to pick up and play in a way that hadn't been done since Goldeneye - which it blew out of the water.

[kashell]

16. Gungnir

In continuing with the theme of second chances, I attempted to finish Gungnir on PSP. I watched the credits roll this morning. I'm proud I finished it because it's one of the most difficult strategy RPGs out there. But, it's difficult for all the wrong reasons. Constant uphill battles. Enemy troops outnumbering yours. No opportunity to train new units. Possible permadeath. Equipment capacity limits. The list goes on. I love Sting! and their Department of Heaven Series but this one was almost as bad as Knights in the Nightmare.