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.
122.
Sonic Boom: Shattered Crystal (3DS)
Unfortunately for this game, it has one huge flaw that makes it a terrible game. It's the huge cost to unlock further levels and beat the game. There are 34 tokens in the entire game across the various level types, you have to earn 30 of the 34 to beat the game, which makes 100%ing the game honestly not that much more than just beating the game in general. It's infuriating. There are only like 10 levels in the entire game, but in order to beat the game, you'll need to replay those levels multiple times to collect all of the collectibles in order to earn the tokens so you can unlock levels... and this is a constant struggle from the beginning of the game. Other than that one humongous unforgivable flaw? The game is great, it plays well, the humor matches the show (which is pretty good btw) but this one flaw makes the game unenjoyable because I can't just beat the game, no, I have to go back and collect all of the collectables in 90% of the levels in order to just beat the game, you literally have to beat the game with like 91% completion in order to even visit the final level, that's just too high a cost of entry. With a decent rebalance this game could be recommendable, but it isn't because it's a slog.
Rating: Hard pass
123.
Sonic Mania (NS)
Unfortunately I really wasn't feeling playing 2D Sonic games anymore by the time I got to this game, and I relatively enjoy... well I should say when I was playing the 2D Sonic games I was enjoying them compared to the 3D Sonic games I was familiar with, post Unleashed, the 3D sonic games are mostly good so I don't know. The design of this game is really good in that it takes a lot of the original games and puts a spin on them with new mechanics to make the game feel fresh. That said, I've never really been a fan of adding new mechanics to make a game feel fresh, too often I feel it over complicates and makes the gameplay convoluted. In this case, it's a mixed bag, some areas/zones/levels are great and some are just infuriating. Chief among the infuriating things with this game is the fact that there is no accessibility option for infinite continues or infinite lives... it's a simple thing that I get goes against the original nature of these types of games back in the day, but it's a common accessibility feature these days and kind of infuriating that it doesn't exist in any manner in this game aside from the debug mode which I guess you could use to jump to any level. I feel like original Sonic games the levels didn't take 5-15 minutes to beat, I feel like that was kind of against the original design of Sonic games, but almost every level in this game is 6 minutes minimum and some take well over 12 minutes to beat.
Rating: Hard pass
124.
Top Gear Rally (N64)
I was missing a bunch of years for my goal of a game per year, so I went and found some quick games to play... racing games are generally pretty quick so easy choices. This game only has like 6 levels and all of the levels have 2-3 shortcuts that if you take you'll win handedly, but if you don't take them, you probably won't win at all. Steering is a bit wonky, but this is an N64 games, so it's kind of expected I guess. Really don't have much else to say about this game honestly.
Rating: Hard pass
125.
Top Gear Overdrive (N64)
Another game to fill out a year for my goal. This game is much more aggressive than the other game, and it seems to adapt the SF Rush concept of exploding a lot. I think this game has the same issue that if you don't take shortcuts
and leverage N2O and drifting you just can't win, especially because the 1st place dude is like a half a lap ahead of you from the start of the race. It's like the game tried to adapt the rally concept of delayed start, but then they didn't fully implement the fact that rally doesn't go by physical position but time taken, so if you overtake a driver, you didn't beat that racer by a fraction of a second, you probably beat them by 3 seconds minimum. Game was fun, but way too aggressive and honestly required absolute perfection in a lot of cases just to catch up to 1st place dude.
Rating: Hard pass
126.
Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric (Wii U)
I heard so many complaints about this game before I even started that I had just the lowest of expectations and was even preparing to have to abandon the game... but to be frank, this is one of the best Sonic games I've played yet. To be fair, it's not really a good
Sonic game, it's just a good game. The game is broken into like 3 styles, open(ish) world exploration with quests and such, normal sonic 3D gameplay but on rails essentially, and 3D beat em up platformer (kinda like the later Crash games). I heard some complaints about the humor in the game, but the humor matches the tv show (again really good) so no complaints there. I'd maybe make the complaint that Sticks really doesn't take much part in the game which is a shame. If I weren't in such a rush, I would have enjoyed taking more time with this game. I don't know that I'll go back to it or anything, but it's a real enjoyable game. That said, it also has the same Wii U issue of not letting you play with a pro controller and forcing you to play with the wii u game pad.
Rating: Soft recommendation
127.
Hot Wheels Turbo Racing (N64)
Another game to fill out a year. I needed something to play while I was waiting to get a ride home from the dealership after dropping off my car for some repairs, so I played this on my Steam Deck. Pretty short game, managed to beat it just about by the time I got home. Did the Hot Wheels Challenge, the Iron something challenge, and the left over final challenge. I think I unlocked all of the cars and everything. The only thing that's a huge bummer is that I hadn't setup Retro Achievements on my steam deck before I started playing... not that it would've mattered I think because I was playing without internet, but maybe there would've been a chance, I really don't know. Anyway, I missed out on tons of Retro Achievements and that bums me out. I don't think I'll play the game against for achievements or anything, but it's still a bummer. Really nothing else to say about this game though, just a quick Hot Wheels arcade racer game, nothing really special. The trick system is interesting and absolutely necessary to win.
Rating: Hard pass
128.
Hooters Road Trip (PS1)
Another game to fill out a year. What I find interesting, if true, is that this game released with an MSRP of $10... makes sense given how bad this game is. I wanted to be like it's ok, it's old, but maybe I can be it's ok, the developers must have been underpaid... but even then, the steering is kind of unforgiving in this game. It's almost like they expect you to be playing the game with old school atari paddles. Anyway, game is dumb and isn't worth your time.
Rating: Hard pass
129.
P.N. 03 (GCN)
Another game to fill out a year. I really didn't expect this game to be so good though. It's kind of a spiritual predecessor to Bayonetta and Vanquish, interesting also in that Jennifer Hale (Bayonetta in Bayonetta 3) voices the main character in this game.
130.
MX Unleashed (Xbox)
I started playing this to fill out a year in my list and I was thinking oh, an MX game, that will be easy. Damn, I don't know when or if it was always like that, but this game is actually quite difficult, you have to manage so much stuff with this. The soundtrack for this game is such a throwback to my youth, I used to listen to MX/ATV/Extreme Sports type music all the time as a kid, but as I grew I listened more and more to alternative which is great but not quite extreme sports music, so while I have 0 nostalgia for this game and really didn't quite enjoy my experience with this game because of just how unforgiving this game is, I enjoyed the fuck out of listening to music I haven't heard in years.
Rating: Hard pass.
131.
Aperture Desk Job (PC)
I've had this on my Steam Deck since day one because it's made to showcase the controls and such of the steam deck whilst also being Portalish. Game is kind of a non-game and it's very short, but it's Portal funny. Not really worth the time, but I'd definitely consider it part of the greater Portal universe. Game is free and I think you can play it even without Steam Deck so regardless I'm going to recommend it because there's basically no good reason to not give it a try, it's free, enjoyable, and short.
Rating: Soft recommendation
132.
The Pedestrian (XS)
Started this up because it was leaving Game Pass and was a game that had been interesting me for some time. It's a simplish puzzle platformer. I generally have the problem with puzzle platformers that early on the game is great, like fantastic, but rather than just making puzzles that just grow on the basic concepts, they add new concepts and mechanics, and for me I fall in love with the basics and when you add things that complicate it I just grow annoyed and disinterested because I don't want to learn new systems. I get that that is all puzzle platformers always, but I wind up getting burned out before halfway through. This game I burned through about half of the game and then I started having to do like 1 puzzle at a time because I would look at the puzzle, beat it, see the next puzzle and just think "Nah, I'm good" but then come back 30 minutes later and repeat the process. Overall the game is enjoyable and a good puzzle game, despite my personal issues with puzzle games in general. The end section of the game really wrinkled my brain with how it turned the puzzle platforming into story telling, like retroactively turned the game into a story and even turned that game into a completely different type of game almost. The ending itself left me a little confused, but that's the way of these indie games.
Rating: Soft recommendation.
133.
Don't Touch This Button (PS5)
I saw this game on sale and my first thought was great, someone ripped of please don't touch anything... but no, this game absolutely has nothing to do with that concept. This game is one of those "There is no game" fight the narrator type of games. You walk into a room and generally there is a message that is misdirecting you or lying to you. Real simple puzzles too, mechanics barely grow, but towards the end, like the last puzzle or two, the game really required you to remember that you can run, which isn't required before then, so it's easy to forget you can do it. Overall, it's actually quite a good game, feels like it's made by like one guy and could definitely be elevated to a great game overall I think with some good voice work and writing, but honestly still a real good game, especially for how cheap it is.
Rating: Soft recommendation.
134.
Call of Duty 2 (360)
I decided I really wanted a kind of mindless game, I've been sick non-stop for weeks and just wanted something where I really didn't need to think while playing, so my thoughts immediately jumped to Call of Duty, I'd say shooters in general, but Call of Duty is the one series I haven't really touched and own tons of the games. I had started this game like 13 years ago trying to get all 1000 achievement points which really just requires beating the game on Veteran but there was fuckery with my save file. I went and transferred all of my 360 save files to the cloud at some point so when I launched this it should've grabbed my old save file, but I wasn't sure if I even had the original save to upload to the cloud given how many 360 systems I've gone through over the years, but I was pretty confident that I've never lost any of my save files over the years. Anyway, launched the game and it had the option to continue, so I hit continue. It loaded me in the middle of a 2nd campaign mission (I think British) so I beat the level, knowing I was on veteran, but it didn't pop... and when I clicked continue to next mission it loaded me into the tutorial. So I went back to mission select and I only had that one mid campaign mission marked as beat, so I went and beat it again loading up the final section, still loaded me to the tutorial. So I went and re-beat all of the Russian campaign (on Easy, because I already had the achievements for Veteran), reloaded the end of the first British mission and beat it again, clicked continue and it just reloaded the beginning of the first british mission. At that point I realized that it doesn't count progress on a mission unless you beat it start to end, not loading in the middle or anything, so even though it somehow loaded my progress from my OG file, it didn't have any of my progression. At that point I just loaded the game on Easy and beat the first mission. At that point I was like fuck it, I'm just going to breeze through this game instead of trying to get the achievements and just played on Easy. Really unhappy with how that turned out. Game is good, story is nice and long if not a little disjointed, but it's telling the tale of real battles so it doesn't need a connected story. I've personally never been a fan of World War shooters, mostly because I just don't enjoy using World War era weapons.
Rating: Hard pass
Elden Ring Randomized (PC)
I kept getting recommended videos from Bushy on Elden Ring and eventually decided to make the effort to setup a randomizer for me so I could play through with things randomized. I've been streaming my playthrough near 100%. I say near, because I played for like 3 minutes one time and all I did was warp from one place to another, pause the game, and decide I didn't feel like streaming so I wouldn't play. It's been a very interesting experience to the point that I legitimately think I could play this over and over and over and almost never get bored. Random enemies, random bosses, random loot (so no clue what equipment I'll wind up with), random starting equipment, random merchant content, etc. It really adds a certain depth to the game when you can't really know how you'll build your character because you can't know what equipment you'll wind up with. This build first "big" weapon I found was the blasphemous blade, so I built my character around that weapon. That worked out extremely well and provided a new experience I never would've tried. Another seed for the randomizer and I don't know, I'd hope I'd find a weapon like this that I could build around, but who knows, it is randomized. I'm highly considering setting up another randomizer run just to see.
Rating:Solid Recommendation
Last Call BBS (PC)
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52 Game Challenge 2023 game 105