52 Games Challenge 2022

[kashell]

15. Kirby and the Forgotten Land (Switch) 3/29/22

Game 15, Kirby and the Forgotten Land. NOW THAT’S HOW YOU DO A KIRBY GAME!!!!! Hands down best Kirby game of all time. It’s everything it needed to be and nothing more; charming, goofy, crazy and just a ton of fun. Can I just take a minute and talk about the level design…? That Funhouse level just might be the single best level in a 3D platformer ever; if you know, you know.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CbtXt7qNaKp/

I'm playing it now. It's a goddamn masterpiece.

[justin8301]

15. Kirby and the Forgotten Land (Switch) 3/29/22

Game 15, Kirby and the Forgotten Land. NOW THAT’S HOW YOU DO A KIRBY GAME!!!!! Hands down best Kirby game of all time. It’s everything it needed to be and nothing more; charming, goofy, crazy and just a ton of fun. Can I just take a minute and talk about the level design…? That Funhouse level just might be the single best level in a 3D platformer ever; if you know, you know.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CbtXt7qNaKp/

I'm playing it now. It's a goddamn masterpiece.

I 100% agree!!. Also I LOVE reading people complain about it being too easy... like dude.. have you ever played a Kirby game before...

[kashell]

15. Kirby and the Forgotten Land (Switch) 3/29/22

Game 15, Kirby and the Forgotten Land. NOW THAT’S HOW YOU DO A KIRBY GAME!!!!! Hands down best Kirby game of all time. It’s everything it needed to be and nothing more; charming, goofy, crazy and just a ton of fun. Can I just take a minute and talk about the level design…? That Funhouse level just might be the single best level in a 3D platformer ever; if you know, you know.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CbtXt7qNaKp/

I'm playing it now. It's a goddamn masterpiece.

I 100% agree!!. Also I LOVE reading people complain about it being too easy... like dude.. have you ever played a Kirby game before...

People have to find something to complain about. I mean, if you're not complaining about something trivial can you really consider yourself a gamer?

[justin8301]

People have to find something to complain about. I mean, if you're not complaining about something trivial can you really consider yourself a gamer?

[telly]

Game 4 - Ratchet & Clank (PS4) - 11 Hours

It's funny how playing a 130+ hour game can make a shorter game like this feel like it passed by in an instant.  I'm a huge fan of the Ratchet & Clank games on the PS2, but haven't really played any of the newer entries. This game feels very similar to those old games and is quite a lot of fun to play. However, while the gameplay was enjoyable, it's not as good as the first three games. Everything including the weapons, planets, minigames, and story felt more watered down, and not up to the same high standard set by the series 20 years ago. Of course, that might just be nostalgia talking. There are some really great things about this game like the gameplay, plenty of secrets to find, well-designed environments, and decent music.

Speaking of nostalgia, this game is one of those weird reboots where all the characters are re-established and yet it's done incredibly poorly because I imagine the developers assumed you would know who they are? I dunno. Dr. Nefarious and Quark felt particularly shoehorned into the game.

[justin8301]

16. Uncharted 2: Among Thieves (PS4) 4/2/22

Ok, I could sit here and talk about how amazing this game is, but by this point I’m guessing pretty much everyone knows it. So instead, I want to bring up something that no one seems to talk about in this game… Do people in real life really just catch someone by the hand who just jumped off a cliff? It happened like 6 times in this game and every time I was just like; nah, don’t believe it… With all the crazy shit that happens in this game, I have no idea why that’s the hill I picked to die on... but here we are lol.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Cb3z6m3tiYn/

[justin8301]

17. Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards (N64)

UGH I’m really torn on this one. So, since I played this for the first time immediately after Forgotten Land I wasn’t really a fan at first, it just kinda seems bland; but as I continued with it I started to see how it was special. There are a lot of things that have become standard for Kirby that started in this one. The move 2.5D was actually kinda awesome; BUT… and this is a big but… They decided to pull that “The real last boss is locked behind collecting all the shards” bullshit… I really hate that, just let me beat the game the way I want to beat it.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Cb4AICSNuJ6/

[kashell]

21. Kirby and the Forgotten Land

Game of the year, so far. The craftsmanship and level of TLC put into this game is just...*chef's kiss*

EDIT: 100% completion!!

[Cartagia]

March Update

Games Beat in March
Elden Ring (PS5) - Beat on Mar. 26.  Nearly 150 hours of playtime, and played pretty much every day for the entire month.  Almost certainly going to be my GotY, but still not my favorite FromSoft game - that still goes to Bloodborne.  It's probably about 1/4 too long, which makes the reused enemies, tomb biomes, etc stand out a bit too much.

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (Switch) - Beat on Mar. 27.  Had some friends get the new track packs, so I busted out MK8 for my Switch.  I'd previously unlocked and beat everything on Wii U, and had nothing done on this version.  Crushed a Grand Prix mode just to shake off the rust and remember the controls.

Contra - NES Version (Switch) - Beat on Mar. 27.  Hadn't played this in a while.  Save scummed my through, but this was the first time I could really see how actually doable it is if you practice enough.  Spent a lot of time watching a studying enemy patterns and movement.

Slay the Spire (PC) - Beat on Mar. 31.  Fun deck building roguelike.  Didn't take as long to hit credits as I expected, but it also encourages further playthroughs.  I may pick it back up with a different character later this year.

[dhaabi]

05. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt || PlayStation 4 || 04.04.22

As someone who has been slightly interested in some Western-style RPGs, I went a long time without ever actually playing one. After a fair amount of internal back-and-forth consideration in determining if I really want to dedicate the time involved to complete it, I finally went forward and began playing The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.

Like I mentioned, The Witcher 3 fulfills the slot in being the first Western-style RPG I played; at the same time, it's also one of the first open-world games I've experienced first-hand. With that said, I felt overwhelmed as I began my playthrough, as the direction I could take seemed endless. Well, I talked to this person and they're offering a contract for me to hunt. But there's this area not too far away that hasn't been explored yet that looks like there would be something of some interest there. Oh, and my quest log of existing tasks already has a few notable items worth doing too. Not to mention, there is the main story to consider. After about ten hours of play time, I finally began feeling more at ease with everything offered and would play secondary quests and exploration before advancing a considerable amount of the main story.

In terms of plot, there is one main focus throughout the majority of the game: find Ciri. However, something so simple in concept is anything but in execution. Taking the role of series protagonist Geralt, the player-character finds themself traversing across three large regions to accomplish this goal. Throughout the journey, Geralt is faced with plenty of problems that stand in his way which range from solving everyday problems of the common people to tackling political turmoil. Being unfamiliar with the series outside of this entry, there is a lot of lore and history to experience and read. On that note, it is to my understanding that the developers CD Projekt Red (CDPR) were given licensing rights to explore the franchise, which began as books. With that in mind, as the game progresses, more and more connections are made to existing lore—Geralt encounters many characters whom he's history with along with referencing events that have taken place in previous installments. While the games themselves are not canon, and with no understanding of the series outside of The Witcher 3, the success CDPR had in adapting the source material into a game while creating a scenario this engaging was easy to see.

As an action-RPG, the game largely controls and plays well, and I certainly had a lot of fun with combat. While having played on the Normal difficulty (with Hard and Very Hard following), I did not find much challenge throughout my lengthy playthrough apart from the beginning hours. As a witcher, Geralt is well-versed in hunting, swordplay, and general fighting, and, as the player advances in character development, an array of abilities may be upgraded in the form of a skill tree to adjust for varying play styles. With accompanying battle elements such as bombs, arrows, oils (temporary buffs), and signs (magic), there was little cause for me to explore all of these possible options. In fact, I mostly only relied upon one of the five signs throughout my entire playthrough. While I've looked at the differences which each difficulty setting brings, and, having talked to someone who's beaten the game on the Very Hard setting, it still does not seem resolute in needing to rely upon these skills and tactics. For both of us, relying upon the shield sign Quen was all that was necessary, although the use of oils certainly does aid in longer fights. Coupled with defensive fighting and dodging, there was little to worry about.

However, The Witcher 3 is not a game without faults. In fact, it has many. Being accustomed to games of smaller scale, I'm generally used to games functioning without issue. But, with a title so expansive as this one, there are bugs aplenty even after at least two dozen patches and years of post-development. As someone who tries to complete games as much as possible, my biggest complaints are with several of the quests. I believe that, upon finally finishing the base game and two DLC campaigns, there were three quests which were bugged and could not be advanced. Instead of taking the time to solve one bugged quest in particular, CDPR simply added an in-game apology letter in a chest to be looted. For a Hearts of Stone quest, CDPR is on record to saying the player should just create a new game+ file for the quest to work. In both of these instances, quality and user-friendly solutions were certainly offered. Aside from these major problems, general issues such as the player-character becoming stuck, animation clipping, incorrect NPC spawning, inactive enemy AI, and game crashes are common. I will note, though, that at around 80 hours of playing, my game crashed and was reporting that my save data had been corrupted. Fortunately, my save data was fine, but those were a few worrying minutes, for sure.

Aside from general development issues, I also saw issue with menu organization and UX. Understanding how quests, print material, and inventory items were organized was impossible. Criteria for each of these sections are generally updated, yet there is no consistency in how they're placed within menus. Additionally, how glossary entries function certainly needs attention. Entries are regularly updates, yet there is no menu notification for which entries have new information. With as much lore as the game offers, it was disappointing to see all these segments of the game so underdeveloped and without the player in mind.

In spite of these shortcomings, The Witcher 3 offers an amazing playing experience overall. Yes, Geralt can slay archgriffins without issue yet meet his demise upon falling 10 feet below, but the sense of exploring every corner of the world was truly wondrous to me as someone foreign to these types of gaming experiences. It really felt as if anything could be just a short distance away. I didn't mention this before since I've only played the game once, but I've gone on to watch some videos detailing how open and varying quest outcomes may be, and the detail to possibilities in player choice is definitely commendable and a highlight worth mentioning.

[kashell]

22. Song of Horror

This was one of the best new survival horror games I ever played. Great atmosphere, story telling, characters, etc. The puzzles got really obtuse near the end - a guide is essentially a requirement. It's odd that the characters know exactly what to pick up for solving them, too. These and other issues keep it from perfection but it's still a quality game.

[justin8301]

18. Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception (PS4) 4/8/22

I know this one isn’t considered one of the best of the series but to me, its just as good as the rest; crazy twists and turns, amazing dialog and utterly outrageous action. God, I fucking love this franchise.

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

[vivigamer]

18. Resident Evill 3 Remake (PS4 on PS5 - Spectator) 08/04/2022
My friend beat Resident Evil 3 Remake last night, overall I liek it a lot but it is very clear the remake didn't have the ambittion put into the previous release. Cut content & Nenemsis just being a set-piece rather than stalking you for the majority of the game really holds the game back. But as a short action romp... sure it's decent!

I've made a point to re-play the original RE3 to show my friend the difference - Plus, I haven't played it in years and regard it as one of my favouriet RE titles. So that is what we will play before he takes on Code Veronica X on Xbox One.

[gngtiger]

4: Super Mario Galaxy 2 (Started July 2021, completed 4/9/2022)

It was nice being able to replay literally my favorite video game of all time! Why is it better than the first? Well, because of the green stars you need to 100% the game instead of having to replay the whole thing as Luigi. Yoshi's also a worthwhile addition. Funny enough, the final level (The Perfect Run) only took me 5/6 tries to complete when it took me over a hundred the first time I tried, and I needed my sister as the second player to slow down enemies. This game is magic in its purest form, plain and simple. There are probably better games out there I have yet to try (such as Ocarina of Time). But for now, I believe this to be as good as a video game can truly be.

[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.

46. Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage (NS)
Started this up right after finishing the first Spyro game.  I didn't intend on 100%'ing this game because I didn't like the upgrade system and having to go back to levels because things can't be obtained in a single run through... but I did, I went back and got all of the gems and all of the orbs.  I then went into the final area and got all 10 tokens (which wasn't that hard I guess) and you unlock Theater mode (watch cut scenes) and maybe infinite ultra fireball?  Stuff like this falls into that category of things that would've been helpful before but are unhelpful now that I've 100%'d the game.  Really sullies the experience and honestly makes me consider not 100%'ing the 3rd game, the first game didn't really give you anything, but I think you wound up with a different cut scene ending, which is definitely cooler than what 2 gave you.  Story is still weird and I don't quite get if Spyro is supposed to be special or not.  Overall I enjoyed this game, but I like solid collectathon games.  It just took some time to get into the changes and new characters and such.
Rating: Soft pass

47. Lake (XS)
Started this game a long time ago and have been slow playing it.  Just playing it whenever I feel like it because it's so easy to just pick up and play and the achievements are pretty straight forward.  Plus the game is super chill and kinda nice to play.  Not really a fan of the soundtrack given it's all country music, but podunk town, so what can ya do.  Game is kinda glitchy and buggy, game is pretty straight forward with minor deviations.  I've gotten 2 of the 3 endings so far, just need to go back and play for another 15 minutes or so to get the last ending.  Game is annoying in that you can't skip dialogue, so for repeat conversations it's really annoying.  Running is real slow, walking is slower.  Town is pretty small and not much there, so I'm kind of hoping this is a "prototype" for a bigger game down the line, but I'm probably being too hopeful there.
Rating: Soft pass

48. Spyro 3: Year of the Dragon (NS)
Started this one up after finishing the 2nd game.  Right off the back I notice that you start the game with the upgrades you had at the end of the last game, so that's a step in the right direction.  I've not done much yet, but I'm hoping this means that I can 100% complete a level in one go, but we'll see.  Additionally this game seems to bring back the dragon collecting/freeing aspect of the first game which is take it or leave it.  It also seems to take on the Super Mario 64 thing of needing so many freed dragons before you can open up new levels.  This again is a take it or leave it thing that doesn't bother me so much.  Played again after writing this last part and found that in a lot of cases you can't 100% a level in one go because you need to "unlock" a secondary character before you can do their part.  I've been 100%ing things as I can still so it's entirely likely that I'll 100% the entire collection here, but I'm mostly just waiting for something to make me go Nope, don't care.  I don't know if I'm burnt out, if this game in particular is just uninspiring, or something else, but I can't even get through a single level 100% without falling asleep when playing this game.  I've been on one level for 3 days now and I'm probably like 90% done with the level, most levels I can get 100% inside of like 30 minutes, but this level is just taking me forever and a half.  Racing levels in this game are one of those things where you have to be absolutely perfect to beat it and even being perfect, if the other racers do good, you have no chance... but on top of that, after like 10 times trying, I managed to get into 2nd place in the 2nd lap, so really easy chance of winning, but the game glitched and put me in 3rd place even though the 3rd place guy was nowhere near me, so I passed the 1st place guy and moved into 2nd place, but there were no other racers to pass for the 3rd lap, so I lost.  Then the game crashed.  So I said fuck it, I'm not 100%ing this game, I'm doing bare minimum just to get it over with.  Managed to get to the final boss real quick, but you need 100 dragon eggs to initiate.  So I'm grinding for eggs now, I'm at 97 eggs at the moment, so I'll finish the game right quick later today.  This is going to be the hard pass entry in the series, if only because it was so shit quality.  Hopefully that speaks to Toys for Bob and not Insomniac and the other entries in the series.  Finally finished the game, overall completion for this one isn't very high because of the issues, but overall completion for the trilogy is like 94%, so good job making the trilogy flop right at the end.
Rating: Hard pass

49. Spider-man (2600)
We watched No Way Home and then binge watched the Raimi films (getting ready to watch the Webb films) and watching Spider-man always makes me want to start a Spider-man franchise run, but as soon as we stop watching Spider-man movies, the urge goes away and I do something else.  So I commited to start before we finished watching the Spider-man movies.  This being an Atari 2600 game, it's one level and just loops with a higher difficulty.  I beat the first level, so that's really sufficient to call the game beat.
Rating: Hard pass

50. The Amazing Spider-man (GB)
Started this one up next as it's the next Spider-man game.  Levels seem to loop between side scroller and wall climber.  Not really much to add on this one.  Each level ends with a different villain with Spider-man trying to find MJ.  The web swinging, jumping, and attacking, just about all of the controls are frustrating and difficult to understand and perform.  Surely it's a side effect of the times, but it just makes the game unenjoyable.  I imagine web swinging in Spider-man games didn't get good until the 3D games, and probably not even the early ones either.
Rating: Hard pass

51. The Amazing Spider-man 2 (GB)
Started this one up immediately after the previous one, not even knowing if this is supposed to be the next entry in the franchise run, but it's not a big deal as I'm sure there is no continuity between the games.  This one is completely different from the previous entry, it's almost metroidvania in that you have to go to specific areas and pickup specific items to unlock the ability to go to other areas, I wouldn't call it metroidvania though, as it's not powerups and what not, it's just key collecting essentially, you know, duke nukem style.  This game has the same frustrating controls though, so I had to look up stuff and even after looking up stuff I still had issues with like jumping, wall crawling, etc.  Couldn't tell if enemies/bosses had life bars like the previous game so that made fights frustrating because I didn't know how close I was from winning.
Rating: Hard pass

52. Spider-man: The Video Game (ARC)
Started this up because I had just downloaded all of the arcade games on my computer and tested it on the computer before transferring anything to my Vita.  Part of testing was testing the RetroAchievements for the game.  Spent a while playing the first level over and over trying to get the achievements to work.  Eventually I went and read Retroachievements documentation to find that the only arcade emulator that it supports is FinalBurn Neo, which I wasn't using.  Swapped over to FinalBurn Neo, worked out some issues with loading and got in and played through the game.  Overall a pretty decent arcade game.  Difficulty ramps up towards the end, but overall a good game.  I think the inclusion of Namor and Hawkeye are weird for the game, but what do I know.  Seems like DareDevil and idk Punisher would be good for this game.  Arcade games are short, but they are good fun with friends so it's hard for me not to recommend any arcade style beat em ups that are at least decent.
Rating: Soft recommendation.

53. The Amazing Spider-Man 3: Invasion of the Spider-Slayers (GB)
Geez that title sure is a mouthful.  This game is terrible, it tries to do too many complicated things too often for how bad the controls are for the game.  There are even levels that are literally walk right and fall into a hole, yay you win.  So it's so wildly varied in the quality of this game, from bad bad to difficult bad.  This game is just straight up unenjoyable.
Rating: Hard pass

54. Spider-Man: Return of the Sinister Six (GG)
I went back and forth on which version of this to play.  I wanted to do NES, because Nintendo, but apparently it's the worst version of the game.  Then I wanted to do SMS because it looked the nicest and plays the best, but after starting up using RetroAchievements I found this game has no achievements, but the GG version does, so I went with that one.  Another bland Spider-man game.   I think I've only enjoyed the beat em up games so far really, I'm not gonna play the Venom games this year or as part of this franchise run because I've played them before and there are no real version differences between SNES and GEN.  Just largely a forgettable game to be honest.
Rating: Hard pass

55. Spider-Man and the X-Men: Arcade's Revenge (SNES)
I think I've had this game for a long time, like a real long time, like maybe from my childhood but I've never really played it.  Found a walkthrough and started playing it, got real confused and then realized the walkthrough was just absolutely wrong on so many levels, and had to go search for a new walkthrough which took a bit I guess because they were all either wrong or just left out so much information.  Gambit is tough to play as and I couldn't figure out how to refill his cards, so I had to use cheats for that because I didn't get it.  Wolverine's Juggernaut level was miserable, like I tried all cheats and that level is like 5 minutes of you must be perfect or you lose, which sucks butt.  A health bar for the enemies would've been great and made the level at least moderately tolerable.  I was legitimately about to abandon this game over that level if I had failed again, it was just a huge time sink.  Cyclops levels were pretty fun Mega Man style levels.  Storm's level were mostly underwater levels, but Storm's character model was too big, like she should've been scaled down a bit because it made navigation a pain.  Spider-man was mostly okay, but there were too many instances where the web slinging was difficult in general.
Rating: Hard pass

56. The Amazing Spider-Man: Lethal Foes (SFC)
Had to go find a rom for this one as I didn't already have it.  It's a beat em up platformer, so it really doesn't need to be translated, that said there is a translation patch out there, but I guess the translation patch doesn't work with Retro Achievements unfortunately, so I played in the unpatched version to get achievements, not really sure what the story is, but really does it matter, all Spider-man games are the same plot basically.  Also, there are no cheats for this game, so I actually played through this one fairly legitimately (still used save states and rewind, but who cares).  This is actually a really pleasant game, part beat em up, part platformer.  and the game plays pretty damned well, it's a shame it never left Japan as it's a pretty good game.  Honestly, I'd give it a soft recommendation just for the fact that it's a great import game to try.
Rating: Soft recommendation.

57. Spider-Man (SNES)
I played this game a ton as a kid, but I don't think I ever got past the first couple of levels, like maybe I beat the first level and that was about it.  I forgot the controls, so I had a lot of trouble even early on, especially with the doc ock fight and I recall that being a pretty simple fight as a kid.  Even later in the game I had lots of trouble with the grenades and stuff and not hitting my target when it looks like it should.  I just played it and I already don't remember much other than the first level.
Rating: Hard pass

58. The Amazing Spider-Man vs. the Kingpin (SCD)
This one wrinkled my brain a lot, because there are no walkthroughs for this specific version and the walkthroughs for Genesis sound like a completely different game.  So my expectation was to go back and play the Genesis version afterward to figure out if they are actually completely different games.  They aren't, the SCD version just has multiple versions of a given level so you can have a different playthrough each time you boot up, early procedural generation concepts (not procedural generation, just concepts)  So overall the same gameplay and structure, just the levels might be different, but exact same story and stuff.  Cutscenes and acting were pretty bad, like Wand of Gamelon bad.  Spider-mans face looked more Deadpool than Spiderman, super big eyes.
Rating: Soft pass

59. The Amazing Spider-Man: Web of Fire (32X)
The web swinging in this one is the first good web swinging game so far, just smooth swinging.  Animation is interesting, almost looks like the digitized stuff from Mortal Kombat.  I can see how this game was a generational gap.  The gameplay did have some frustrating controls, but most of the 2D spider-man games do.  Game is really short at less than an hour.  The final section of the final level was a real pain, took me multiple attempts and even when I finally did do it I only had a few seconds to spare.
Rating: Hard pass

60. Spider-Man (GBC)
I don't know why I did this to myself.  Everything I read this game is just the handheld version of the N64/PSX game, but it's an entirely different game with an entirely different plot.  And it's sequel is billed as a sequel to the N64/PSX game, but the events of the GBC version, it's like no, they are completely different games, just list them as different games.  So I'm having to go through and see if there are other instances like this and see what I'm going to play and not play.  Like Web of Shadows or something, there are 3 different version of the game, 3D open world, 2D beat em up, and 2D Metroidvania.  In theory they all tell the exact same story, so I don't think I could bother playing 3 times, but at least they are three completely different games gameplay wise.  Anyway, this game is interesting in that you've got one overworld and like 4 areas, New York streets, subway, sewer, and the docks, and you just travel back and forth to places based on what you need to do.  And that's not the bad because the game is pretty short so it's not a ton of back tracking, but it's got that Dark Souls nonsense of go the right way or waste your time.  That aside, the combat is super annoying because enemies will follow you endlessly and respawn constantly, and a lot of the fights are bullshit.
Rating: Hard pass

61. Spider-Man 2: The Sinister Six (GBC)
This one is a bit more straight forward with it's level structure.  Every level is essentially the same concept, unlock some doors, fight a boss.  Pretty straight forward and pretty quick.  Better than the previous game, but the game glitches out like crazy when you enable infinite health for some reason.
Rating: Hard pass

62. SUPERHOT: Mind Control Delete (XS)
I started this game up last year before I got injured, abandoned it because I wanted to save the achievements for an achievement week or month, and then I got injured and stopped streaming and I was committed to finishing this game on stream.  So since this game was finally leaving Game Pass, it was my push to start streaming again... we'll see if I can keep it up or if I just give up again.  I didn't actually write anything up on this game last year unfortunately and what I had left on this game wasn't a ton, though it did make for a 3 hour stream, so I've got that going for me.  It took me a bit to get back into the game and remember all of the systems.  The original game was just play, but this update (or whatever) added hacks and upgrades and stuff that change the gameplay and the things you can do, had to work to remember the useful things and the things I like to have.  All I had left in the game was to do the end, but I didn't realize so I was doing optional nodes and that took up a lot of my time last night, because they are tough.  I beat two tough nodes and then went and did the final set of stuff where you have to use specific hacks.  The ending is very interesting and I think follows the same kind of concepts the original went for but upped it a notch.  It's a very fun game and a novel concept, what amounts to puzzle based FPS, but especially on the tougher levels the concept can get stale (like most puzzle games in general) to the point that I nearly gave up playing entirely on what I didn't realize was an optional level.  Luckily I beat the optional level on the attempt I decided was my final attempt, otherwise this would've been 1 more stream or abandoned entirely.  Despite my complaints, it is a fun game and it does have replayability with some of it's side levels like the infinite one.
Rating: Soft recommendation

63. James Bond 007: The Duel (GEN)
I had been thinking about doing a James Bond franchise run but kind of hesitated because I'm already working on so many franchise runs right now and I've been ditching them as I reach more recent consoles that are harder to emulate.  I actually tried to play the 5200 version of James Bond (not this game) but I couldn't get the game to actually start, so I said meh and started this one.  I abandoned this one pretty quick because I couldn't find the last hostage on the first level and didn't quite get the game.  Decided to look up a walkthrough and the only one I could find was an SMS walkthrough, which reads like a completely different game altogether, like a more complex game which is weird because Gen should be more complex, but whatever.  Guide obviously didn't help, but I played again for shiggles and I managed to figure it out, so maybe I was just tired last night when I gave it a try.  Standard run and gun game, every level is the same concept, find and free hostages, disarm a bomb, and then escape.  Thinking about it, it's probably not disarm bomb, but set bomb because after you mess with the bomb you have a timer to exit the level.  Anyway, not a great game, but it's ok.  Simple enough that it didn't outstay its welcome, pretty short too, so not bad overall.  I still wouldn't actually recommend the game though.
Rating: Soft pass

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