52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!

[realpoketendonl]

14. Lula 3D [PC]

Lula 3D is a 2005 adventure game. It's also rated AO (or for my fellow Europeans: VERY 18+), so I won't go into too much detail. I will say this: gameplay-wise it's dull and (if you don't abuse a guide) insanely tedious, but I was just playing this to get a laugh out of it. And a few times, I did get a laugh out of it (be it intentional or not). But many other times I was just kinda bored, and a few early sections in particular were shockingly drab and depressing for the tone the game sets out with. Also, in the final sections of the game I got a few random voice clips in German, the game's original language, which tells me the publishers weren't expecting many people to actually beat this. (Still not the oddest bug I've encountered this year tho: that honour still goes to the random hordes of clowns in Dr. Trolley's Problem.) I recommend the brutalmoose video on this game on YouTube (if you're over 18), but unless you're morbidly curious or really enjoy really odd games like me, don't even bother playing this. But hey, a game beaten is a game beaten.

[kashell]

47. X-Men Arcade Game - Dazzler

Oh, Dazzler. Dazzler, Dazzler, Dazzler. Other than Cyclops, she's not as fun to play. I will say that she has a fun outfit that screams the early 90s. So there's that. It's easy to be reminded of why no one ever played as her. Her mutant power just isn't as useful as the others. Her power can be useful if timed right, but this is an arcade game where you're button mashing your way to victory. Ain't nobody got time for strategy. Still, it was my first time playing her through to the end. So, yay?

[kamikazekeeg]

18 - Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree (PS5 2024) - BEAT - Gonna be honest about this, but I was kinda disappointed with this DLC.  I think it leans way too far into the worst aspects of Elden Ring and gave me a DLC experience that might be one where I don't like fighting any of the bosses.  The Shadow Blessing mechanic adds an insane challenge to this game it didn't need, the map is far too massive, so much of it empty and while visually cool, is a chore to explore with often little to find, and what is found, barely worthwhile.  There's some annoyances with the camera in certain fights and while this doesn't affect me personally, apparently the PC version has performance issues.

I know people will play this, with no hit runs, using a banana, while blindfolded, but that's not me.  This DLC is specifically made for like the top 15% most hardcore of the playerbase and kinda no one else it feels like.  I've played all their other games and their DLC and never had this rough of a time, it's wild lol It makes me so desperate for them to not do Elden Ring 2 next, I need things scaled back down like with DS3 and BB.

*EDIT* Random note to add, but I almost rage quit the DLC for good at the final boss, because I thought it was too insane, until I was reminded reading something to not use summons, which jacks up the bosses health lol Completely forgot that was a thing.  Just use a Mimic if you need help in any of the fights.

[telekill]

11 - Dino Crisis 2 (PS1) -- After all these years, Dino Crisis 2 still remains an incredibly fun game. The story could definitely use some expansion and tweaking, but the gameplay and presentation are spot on. Primary enemies need a bit more variation as well as you'll be killing hordes of velociraptors and oviraptors with the occasionall smattering of different dinos in the mix. The ability to run and shoot was a step above Resident Evil. The locations are far better and more varried in the second game over the first, but again, warrants expansion.

One of my favorite areas was the underwater lab where you take on small crocodile sized mososaurs. The feel of a gravity difference was spot on and the underwater wave effect for the visuals was well executed.

Recharge, shop and save stations were well done and welcome. Unlike Resident Evil, no need to worry about storage outside of health items.

The occasional run and gun is separated out with the occasional drive and shoot. Jeeps, tanks and boats all play a role in this game, though you're on rails generally.

The game took me about 3 1/2 hrs to beat on normal.

I can only hope that Capcom one day remakes the first, sees success and remakes the second. If they were to remake even just the first and release an outrageous collector's edition with Regina statue, I may actually be tempted.

[realpoketendonl]

15. A Snake's Tale [PC (Linux) / itch.io]

Continuing our trail through small indie games I got in charity bundles on itch.io, we have A Snake's Tale (which I keep mistyping as Tail, but no, it's Tale). This is a puzzle game with snakes on a grid, that you have to move around to get your snake to the goal. It's kind of like that physical puzzle game Rush Hour, which I played a lot as a kid, only the cars are longer and can bend. It's a cute idea. The game has a decent amount of levels, and different snakes with different gimmicks to spice stuff up from time to time. I found it to be a relaxing game to quickly spend a few minutes in. Most of the game is not too hard: with enough fidgeting you'll beat most levels eventually. I do have to admit though that the final puzzle was too much for me and I needed a little help to get started. But oh well. Either way, it's a cute game. Worth at least a look.
Also: it has a native Linux version, which I massively appreciate. Always gotta shout that out.

[kashell]

48. Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising

Before playing this, I gave Hundred Heroes a test run on Switch. It wasn't good because the load times were too much to deal with. So, I decided to swap it for the PlayStation 5 version. In the interim, I figured it would be good to play Rising so that I could get some more insight on the story and get some additional bonuses for when I restart. Rising itself was fine. It's a 2.5D action-RPG that, at first, reminded me of Valkyrie Profile. Once that veneer wore off, it was just another palette cleanser of a game that was easy to finish. There was plenty of clunking and junking, but nothing I couldn't handle. The platinum required less outside farming than I thought would be necessary. CJ, Isha, and Garoo ended up becoming a likable trio that I look forward to seeing down the road. Best of all, the loading times were non-existent. I hope that carries over into the main campaign, too.

[telekill]

12. Dino Crisis (PS1) -- After having a blast with the second game, I decided to go back to the first and give it another go as it had been quite a few years. I'm always talking this series up so I thought it'd be interesting to see how the game has held up. Well, it was still a blast, but not nearly as fun as the second game.

The sequel has far more emphasis on action with running and gunning. There's no shortage of ammo as you can refill at nearly any time with shop/save stations throughout the game. With the first, it's far more like Resident Evil where you have to figure out codes... a lot of codes. Many puzzles were duplicated, especially the DDK discs that needed two of each kind as well as the ID cards. Now, from a laboratory standpoint, this makes perfect sense for 1990's security, but it does tend to get a bit old in the last half of the game. Sure, there are a couple puzzles to do in the second game as well, but the first has far more of them.

What the first game does better is choices of action between Rick and Gail. You'll be asked to side with one of them a handful of times throughout the game with different scenarios adding quite a bit of replayability. This is also where a total of 3 different endings comes in. Want to unlock everything? You have to replay the game 3x getting all three endings on the same save file. Classic Shinji Mikami... emulating RE1 and 2 pretty well.

That said, I preferred the more action oriented gun-fest of the second. Both games are fun in their own way, but it was definitely the second game where Dino Crisis moved more into it's own thing instead of being a mix of Resident Evil and Jurassic Park.

Fingers crossed that Capcom moves forward with giving both games the Remake treatment. Time will tell... but if it doesn't happen... I can always revisit the classic PS1 games on disc.

[telly]

Game 11 - Super Paper Mario (wii) - 18 Hours

First, there a lot of clashing opinions about this game on the internet. I went into it thinking that this game was kind of misunderstood, and I honestly wanted to give it a fair shot. Unfortunately, I really didn't end up liking this game very much. Thinking back I actually enjoyed Color Splash more and I critiqued that game extensively.

There are some elements in this game that do retain the Paper Mario feel, particularly the characters and dialogue. Several of the games worlds are downright brilliant. I loved the nerd and caveman levels in particular. Some of the puzzles were really fun to solve, and I liked the main hub town which has a lot of secrets and collectables to uncover. Lastly, there were a few levels where I did enjoy the gameplay, particularly in Chapter 7. Other than those things, I think that's where my praise ends for this game.

Super Paper Mario was the first in what has been a longstanding attempt to remove the RPG components from the series as much as possible, a trend that continues even with the new releases. At it's core, the main reason why I don't like this game is that it attempts to combine the RPG foundation of Paper Mario with a platformer, and as a result it doesn't succeed very well in either. From an RPG side, well frankly the game isn't much of an RPG at all anymore. There are no badges or choices to make upon leveling up like in previous games, which was very dissapointing. The game is a linear set of levels with no interconnected word. Other than the main hub town, there are very little holdovers from the game's RPG origins. I wouldn't mind it so much if the platforming were fun, but this game plays like an watered down, clunky, and awkward version of regular Mario. Part of it is that the power-ups remain shackled to an RPG design and they're some of the worst in the series. Most powerups just heal you or give you exp/money. The only ones that really "power" you up is the 8-bit Mario, which was clunky and awkward, and the Star, which mainly used for setpieces with a lot of enemies and don't feel very organic. The main gameplay/upgrade change are the Pixls and that you can play as Peach, Bowser and Luigi. I don't know if there is another Mario game where that happens, which was cool, but I wish there was more story between the 4 characters. The Pixls are fun, but between 8 of them and 4 story characters you have to do a lot of changing between all of them to make it through the game which was a little tedious after a while.

On the topic of gampeplay, the 3D aspect of this game really perplexes me. I don't know why they thought restricting the game to 2D and then acting like the 3D change is this huge thing because if you look at any other game in the series.... they all operate on the same 3D plane. It's just the camera angles that are making the big difference in how you experience all the levels. Not to mention that every 3D space you enter is essentially a long corridor without anything truly interesting. The 3D is really just a modality to introduce puzzles like hiding pipes, ledges or platforms and it felt very superficial. I also dispised the timer for using 3D mode, it was so annoying that I would just let Mario take damage so I could keep exploring the world in 3D. There's no really gameplay reason why that timer exists. And coming from Alundra the problems of trying to hit enemies in 3D space was very all to fresh in my mind.

Lastly, the character design is also some of the worst I've ever seen in a Mario game. Most of the NPCs are indescribable cardboard cutouts made up of the strangest shapes imaginable and they look amaturish while clashing with the generally nice environmental design. It's like truly baffling, a couple of characters nonwithstanding.

I'm sad that Super Paper Mario was not a very enjoyable experience for me, although it was a pretty easy game to play through. I just need to play Sticker Star and Origami King next!