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!

[dhaabi]

26. Going Under || Nintendo Switch || 06.30.24



Looking back, I can't quite say why exactly I was drawn to Going Under which led me to purchase it a few years ago, but I suppose that's what will happen when so much time passes before playing it. Despite that, I was looking forward to the experience ahead. Unfortunately, my time playing was one of the rare instances of myself taking an extended break before completing the game (around 18 months), and it's been bothering me this entire time to pick up where I left off. Finally, I did that.

Upon starting, players are introduced to the player-character Jackie, the newly-hired but unpaid intern to one of many startup companies that's a part of the larger umbrella corporation Cubicle that places a major emphasis on AI, named Fizzle. Seemingly brought on to the team without purpose, Jackie is formally assigned to clear the neighboring dungeons created from other startups that have failed. At the same time, Jackie becomes a general assistant of sorts to all other Fizzle employees holding formal positions, therefore adding to her demanding workload. As a recent college graduate who's unfamiliar with professional settings, Jackie simply goes along with the odd tasks she's asked to complete, assuming that this sort of expectation is fine and shouldn't be questioned.

Throughout the course of her internship, Jackie must overcome three failed startup companies which are relevant to the real-world tech industry. I generally shy away from divulging more information when providing an overview, but I'll expand upon this time what sort of environments which players should expect. The first of three companies glorifies worker exploitation with the "side gig" form of employment many young people in the modern era find themselves working, comparable to a mix of real-world Amazon and Fiverr. Meanwhile, the second is a clear representation of Tinder and similar dating apps. Lastly, the third mocks any and all of the countless cryptocurrencies available on the market. Each of these three dungeons has their own unique design and enemy variety that stand out in fun and entertaining ways.

In just about every part of its presentation, Going Under approaches modern day office work for millennials and older Gen Z by poking fun at how trivial, unrewarding, and demeaning jobs can be. The most obvious indicator of this stance, and to my welcomed surprise, is the writing which contrasts self-defeating attitudes from those at the bottom to superfluous and self-gratifying corporate speak and buzzwords spouting from those above. While the game's writing offers plenty of laughs, it was its art style and set pieces which made a fun game even more so. Utilizing a popular visual design choice in the years leading up to its release, Going Under features characters who have colorful but unreal skin tones such as blue and orange while simultaneously having exaggerated proportions and geometric body shapes presented in a cartoon style. For anyone acquainted with popular tech industries or even certain marketing campaigns on a basic level, this sort of visual style should be familiar while feeling stale and overused.

Moreover, characters are funny while being written as caricatures full of modern workers tropes. More detailed character portraits accompany dialogue which are energetic, and the dialogue box itself is expressed as SMS messaging. Fizzle's office which acts as the hub area exemplifies the ethos of certain startup companies with its open spaces and modern architecture, complete with a playground slide to emphasize how fun they are and that work can be fun too. Contrasting to Fizzle which hasn't gone under, the failed corporations below serving as dungeons still rely on these principles but further reiterates a feeling of being captive to one's job. For example, seemingly positive motivational posters may be plastered on walls while leaky ceilings drip water onto contract workers who are physically represented by overworked monsters.

With all this said, I've yet to comment on gameplay itself. At its core, Going Under is a randomized dungeon crawler highlighting difficulty and the to-be expected repeated attempts to overcome stages. While navigating these environments, Jackie accrues two types of currency and skill experience based on which skills she's unlocked for the current run. All three elements aid Jackie as she overcomes each dungeon's three floors and final boss. For each dungeon, rooms and random alongside the enemies within them and the weapons and skills being available. I found there to be a good balance of traditional dungeon-type weapons and nontraditional ones, such as a greatsword or spear contrasting more novel weapon choices including monitors and wastebaskets. Even funnier items like potted succulents, ping pong paddles, and yoga balls may be used which reinforce the game's commentary on how certain companies either promote an alternative work environment or simply don't have a professional grasp on how to function by exceeding the budget on unnecessary purchases. Before, I mentioned how Jackie becomes the unofficial office assistant to everyone while completing the tasks they ask of her. This sort of activity relates to character growth as it enables the ability to assign a specific employee as a mentor which grants unique abilities that provide a stronger opportunity to complete dungeons.

Related to gameplay, something the game makes apparent to players is its difficulty. While the total number of dungeons is low, players will inevitably fail repeatedly in their attempts to reach and defeat the boss. Because of the game's randomized dungeon creation, the very nature of each attempt requires both skill and chance. From the game's start-up screen, difficulty options are available which I admittedly did use for two specific roadblocks I faced which had me spending hours trying to make any sort of progress without luck. That said, the game has also received several updates over the course of its development to make an already challenging game even more demanding. Personally, that sort of elevated challenge doesn't interest me, so I didn't explore it; but, I know it to have been well-received from other players looking for that extra difficulty.

In the end, a lot of amusement was brought to me while playing Going Under, but a lot of frustration did as well. I don't usually opt to play these sorts of games with randomized level structure, and I may not have even known about it prior to playing. Nevertheless, I think the game's execution in just about every way is strong, but it certainly won't be a game for everyone. Although, the aforementioned difficulty settings do allow for a much more manageable experience, should one choose to use them.

[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.

104. Dread X Collection: Don't Go Out (PC)
Oh boy, I didn't enjoy this one and I didn't quite get how you're supposed to survive, but I eventually popped into the house with a couple of survivors and just moved in a back and forth pattern so the guy was always diagonal to me so he couldn't ever get me, and that's how I lived to morning.  Kinda dumb and didn't enjoy this one.
Rating: Solid pass

105. Dread X Collection: Outsiders (PC)
I really enjoyed this one, despite having to play through it like 5 times to beat it, going around the house doing escape room stuff trying to get into the safe room in the basement... on a timer where something will murder you if you don't get it all done in time.  This is probably the most impressive and fun game in this collection.
Rating: Soft recommendation

106. Dread X Collection: Hand of Doom (PC)
This one was kind of cool if not weird that it's just you throwing gang signs to cast spells, I think I recalled enjoying this one as well, but I'm not sure I entirely remember it unfortunately, but it does make me think of games like King's Field and such despite being a completely different combat style
Rating: Soft recommendation

107. Dread X Collection: Shatter (PC)
This one was weird, just walking around and talking to people until eventually you please the giant fly in the sky.  Don't really remember much else other than that, don't even remember it being very horror so much as just fusking weird.
Rating: Soft pass

108. Dread X Collection: The Pony Factory (PC)
This one was closer to a traditional FPS game with survival horror elements, lots of enemies and such, relatively enjoyed this one minus the level based nature, never been a fan of level based stuff just deters me, don't know why.  Get through all the levels and then you've got to go and backtrack and go back the way you came to leave.
Rating: Soft pass

109. Dread X Collection: Rotgut (PC)
This one was buggy af, didn't fully understand what's to be done here except head in a direction.  Spooky stuff for sure, but nonsense really.
Rating: Solid pass

110. WWF Betrayal (GBC)
Ah yes, onto beating games just to fill out years on my game by year chart.  Crappy game boy beat em up game starring a few wwe superstars.  Couple of boss fights against other wwe superstars.  Kind of a shitty beat em up if I may say so, but also really short at like 4 levels with a plot line fitting WWE, also shitty
Rating: Solid pass

111. Disney's Lilo & Stitch: Trouble in Paradise (PSX)
Simple little platformer, reminds me of Crash Bandicoot, honestly, for a licensed game, it's quite good.  I probably didn't 100% the game, because I was just trying to hurry up and beat the game, but it was quite enjoyable... though the game is level based so it took me a bit to get through.  I'll always talk about it, something about finishing a level, it takes a lot of effort to get myself to click to start the next level, it's a natural stopping point and makes me want to be done.
Rating: Soft recommendation

112. Spy Muppets: License to Croak (GBA)
An absolutely awful licensed game.  This one sucked real bad, it's short, but it was buggy af and I think I missed a bunch of achievements that shouldn't have been missable, which could maybe be on the achievement designer, but who knows.  Game is essentially a series of mini-games with a little bit of story exposition in between.  It's interesting for Muppets fans, but I don't even know at that point it's even worthwhile.
Rating: Solid pass

113. 100 hidden cats (PC)
Another 100 hidden game.  I keep playing these and I will almost always not have much to say as they are all basically the same game.  That said, there are only so many of these so eventually I'll run out of these to write nothing about.
Rating: Soft pass

114. Need for Speed: Heat (X1)
Need for Speed: Rivals and on I constantly have this issue where I know I want to play the game eventually, but the lack of a pause button deters me so much.  This one has a pause button again, which is nice, but the game is still pretty buggy and slow and to be quite honest, the AI for the cops is fusking brutally unfair.  I get the design, don't get too big for your britches.  If you stick around too long, you will lose, because the cop cars are indestructable and basically one shot you at higher levels, makes no sense, but they just slap you around and you will lose.  I really wanted to work on the rest of the non-online achievements for the game, but so many of them are dependent on you doing a lot of high risk pursuit stuff and it's honestly just a fusking pain to get where it needs to be and if you make one mistake, you've got to start over... and in my case, I didn't even make a mistake, the game crashed and of course it doesn't autosave your heat or anything so I had to start over the pursuit process of building up to heat level 5 which takes like a half hour.  It's just a slog, I gave up at that point.  I'm going to try again eventually hopefully, but who knows.
Rating: Soft pass

115. Lilo & Stitch 2: Hämsterviel Havoc (GBA)
Decent enough mash up of feature sets, you've got puzzle/stealth levels with Lilo, action shooter levels with Stitch, and some sort of Super Mario Kart esque levels.  Game definitely sticks around a bit too long and the Lilo levels can get convoluted and difficult to understand what you're supposed to do, but not an absolutely awful game to be fair.  Still don't know that I'd recommend it though.
Rating: Soft pass

116. Perfect Dark Zero (360)
A lot of these tail end games are just filling out years for my game by year thing, but this is one that I knew I wouldn't necessarily enjoy, but I've been meaning to play since like 2008.  I played it a bit back in 2008, but I just absolutely hated that essentially I was going to finish this game having earned like 2 achievements because the achievements written for this game are relatively awful and unforgiving.  All said though, the story wasn't the worst, the gameplay was slightly lower than serviceable, definitely a let down from Perfect Dark 64, but what can you do when all the original team left part way through the development of Perfect Dark 64.  I will say I enjoyed my time well enough despite it being a level based slog, but the game is relatively short.  Would've enjoyed it more had I not been going through health issues while playing.
Rating: Soft pass

117. Feeding Frenzy (360)
I thought I had beaten this game years ago, but apparently I hadn't.  If I recall correctly this game is sort of rogue in that you have to start from the beginning every time you lose, but this time around I had no trouble sticking around and beating the game despite my recollection being that it was difficult enough that I wound up losing and having to start over pretty quickly, but maybe just a git gud moment.  Anyway, simple PopCap casual puzzle gameplay type stuff, enjoyable enough, will probably play Feeding Frenzy 2 next year, especially to fill out years as needed for my goals.
Rating: Soft pass

118. Elements of Destruction (360)
I'd been interested in this game for a long time, senseless destruction is a key part of finding a mindless game to destress so I had always been interested in this game hoping it'd fill that need.  Bought it years ago and only played it a little bit but I think I hadn't ever gotten into it.  I needed a game for a given year and this game filled a spot so I finally pushed myself to play it.  It's actually quite fun despite having a few BS achievements and some of the gameplay mechanics in the later levels can be infuriating.  All in all, the game doesn't really sate that need for mindless destruction because of the timer and honestly it's pretty easy to die and lose.  It's part of why I have potential thoughts about games like Superman, despite Superman being a good guy and probably being unable to cause destruction.  I'd want a game where it has purpose of some kind, but you're near invulnerable and just cause senseless destruction.  Like an evil Superman game.  Anyway, this game isn't the worst, but probably not worth the time as it doesn't really scratch any particular itch.
Rating: Soft pass

119. Enslaved: Odyssey to the West (360)
I've been interested in this game since it originally released, but I just never got around to playing it.  Very quickly did I see the parallels with Dragon Ball, which makes sense given both are based on the Journey to the west story (Monkey).  This game really made me want to watch Dragon Ball and buy the English translation (Monkey) of the book.  I'm pleased that Trip is voiced by Lindsey Shaw instead of Laura Bailey, really feels like a game Laura Bailey would've wound up voicing, and Lindsey Shaw does a real good job with this, wish she did more voice acting in games.  Definitely has that 360 era feel and design, but the game plays well and is lots of fun.  I think I only got frustrated when you got to Piggsy's area and the major boss in Piggsy's area, but all in all it was a real good and real fun game, just wish it had a better chapter select where you could easily go back and get missing collectibles, because it sounds like the chapter select wasn't great.  Considered buying the Piggsy DLC, because it has achievements, but I really didn't like the Piggsy character and I wasn't 100%ing the game anyway.  If I ever get the game on Steam, I'll probably give it another shot, because to be fair, I was dealing with health issues while playing the game, so I really couldn't enjoy the game as much as I probably would have.
Rating: Soft recommendation

120. Yaris (360)
Again I needed a game from a year and I was surprised to see that I had never sat down and beat this game.  Game was delisted like 15 years ago, but I grabbed it before it delisted so I have access to it. Though I've read some stuff about the game that basically you can still download and play the game since it was always free and doesn't require a license, but doesn't matter for me so I don't have to try the shenanigans.  Game is awful tbh.  The logic in the game is kind of broken, the laps are long and tedious, and there actually is a stupid level of strategy + trial and error a la old school games, but you can break the logic by hiding off the side of the screen, which is what I wound up doing to get through the game... and then even then by the time you beat the game you probably haven't earned enough credits to buy a single upgraded car, I get designing it that way so you'll play it longer or spend time in multiplayer, but it just makes the game awful in the long run.
Rating: Hard pass

121. Velvet Assassin (360)
Another game that needed to fill a year and I had again been interested in this game for a long time.  I'm pretty sure this is my own copy, but I recall my nephew getting a copy of this for christmas from my stupid older brother, and getting excited because he thought that meant he was getting an Xbox 360, but he didn't get a 360, I think to this day he still doesn't have a 360 and afaik he stepdad sold his copy at the flea market since he couldn't play it anyway.  Shit is fucked up.  Anyway, this game is basically a level based stealth kill game, kind of retroactively reminds me of Aragami, probably just as broken and jank too.  Anyway, this game was very enjoyable up until the final fight of the game, which required you to fight, with limited ammo, out of stealth, which you didn't do the entire game, and your character by design is weak/fragile and is supposed to fight in the shadows using stealth.... so the final fight of the game was infuriating and I had to basically hide in a corner and try to essentially spawn kill enemies as they rounded a corner before they could mow me down, had that final fight been better I'd be able to give it a solid recommendation, but even the stealth sections before the final fight were pretty awful as well, but I guess they were sort of preparing you to deal with non-stealth combat for the final fight, but the AI is stupid broken for non-stealth because they'll snipe you with an assault rifle from outside of the FOV the 360 is capable of drawing, so you don't even know where you're being shot from.
Rating: Soft recommendation

122. The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom (NS)
I got like all of the 2024 first party Nintendo games for like $20-30 each on Amazon and paid for them with credit I had built up over the year, which was nice, and with that I pushed myself to pick a game to start and this was the obvious choice as I want to play all the Zelda games and I hadn't played this one yet.  I still have a bunch of the older/side games to play.  Memes online led me to believe there would be a lot of throwing tables at enemies, which isn't even something you can do, which was pretty disappointing, but this game is real fun to play and there are endless ways to solves the "puzzles" of the game.  I put puzzles in quotes because even the combat is a puzzle when you can't really defend yourself and have to rely on what objects you can spawn.  I don't think I did everything there is to do in the game, but I did spend a lot of time doing side content in the game because the game was that enjoyable, and flipping the script and having Zelda save Link is a nice touch to change things up.
Rating: Solid recommendation.

123. Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor (PC)
I had started this game years ago on Xbox One, but I don't think I got very far and I had this game picked for me for one of my backlog groups.  I considered not playing the game at all, but I was like you know what, let's get all these backlog games played that were picked for me.  Game plays a lot like Batman Arkham combat wise which is pretty easy to follow and has a nice flow, add in some Assassin's Creed style parkour climbing stuff, RPG mechanics, and exploration/collectibles and this game is an absolute pleasure to play.  I wanted to spend more time in the game collecting all of the collectibles and doing side content and DLC, but I really needed to jump into the last game on my list before the end of the year, so at some point I'll need to jump back into this one.  I'm looking forward to playing the next game, but I'm concerned that it changes the paradigm and that it might not be as enjoyable.  I hope I'm wrong.
Rating: Solid recommendation

124. Blasphemous (PC)
I kept putting this game off for years because I was expecting a souls-like experience like Salt and Sacrifice and I really didn't enjoy Salt and Sacrifice and abandoned that game, I need to go back to it, but it did get abandoned.  This game however is a tough and gritty metroidvania with RPG elements, it definitely has some Souls inspiration, but it doesn't have the lose your souls stuff which makes the game a lot more forgiving in some ways.  I really enjoyed this game and look forward to getting and playing the sequel eventually, but again I didn't do all of the exploration in the game despite attempting to because I think I reached a point where I knew I wasn't going to 100% the game so I might as well just cut my losses and just go beat the boss.  It does seem like the game does let you pick up where you left off and you can keep playing without having to start over, but I think the game does have quite a bit of missable content that I missed out on, so I'd have to start over anyway, plus the game has requirements for harder modes and such for 100% so I'm not planning on doing that.
Rating: Solid recommendation.

125. Cats Hidden in Maple Hollow (PC)
100 hidden cats esque game, I say that knowing this game has 102 achievements, 100 cats and 2 non-cat achievements.  Anyway, this game was real enjoyable and was difficult enough that I think it took me a bit longer than the 100 hidden games, but weren't as difficult or unmanageable as the larger hidden object games.
Rating: Soft recommendation

LIFE RANT
I probably have more retro games to add on here, but these are the ones I know that we played through all there was to do.  My kid had this little burst where he wanted to play old games like Pac-Man and Dig-Dug, so I grabbed the Atari Collection and we played a couple of games on there.  My kid has been going through medicine changes and his whole personality changes pretty widely depending on what medicine he is on.  One had him super interested in Super Mario Bros.  One had him super interested in Pac-Man.  One had him super interested in Minecraft.  Like right now, he'll play Minecraft, but has no interest in Pac-Man.  I'd say we're trying to figure it out, but at this point we're just trying to get him back to an okay point and we'll just work with what we can, otherwise he's going into a day program at a mental health facility... this kind of stress (and I've got a bunch of different ones) is probably the big part of why I'm not doing good keeping this stuff up to date, I've basically disappeared from the forum here, disappeared from the discord I run, and have lost a lot of interest in stuff.  I should probably turn this paragraph into a rant section instead of about the game.

126. Human Cannonball (NS)
Anyway, rant over and now I'll talk about this game.  Basically you've got a cannon, the game tells you the wind speed and you've got to pick the angle at which you fire the cannon and hope your dude lands in the safety basket.  If he misses it makes a humorous sound effect, which did make me chuckle a bunch.  Real basic game, has settings to add obstacles and whatnot.
Rating: Hard pass

127. Basic Math (NS)
My kid insisted that we play this because he's back to being all about math.  It's got settings to do different kinds and levels of math.  Eventually my kid realized that if you enter the wrong answer the game corrects you and moves on to the next question, so he stopped answering the questions and kept hitting submit so the game would display the answer and move on... the problem is the game doesn't really convey it well, but it scores you so he kept getting 0s out of 10 and I'm like you lose... but he still wants to play the game anyway.
Rating: Hard pass

Next List

[telly]

Game 12 - Super Monkey Ball (GC) - 6 Hours

I love this franchise, it's so simple yet so addicting and fun. I counted this game as beat after I finished all of the beginner, advanced and expert stages. At first, it seemed to me like expert was going to be near impossible to finish, but with enough practice you kind of get in this zen state and levels that were really hard at first become a breeze later on. It's really interesting to witness. The other thing is that if you play the game enough, you'll eventually unlock unlimited continues so then it just becomes a matter of time until you can brute force your way through everything. That's what kind of happened to me on my first completion run of expert as at the time I had only gotten to floor 43 once.

Floor 36 - first continue
Floor 41 - second continue
Floor 42 - third continue
Floor 45 - fourth and fifth continue
Floor 48 - sixth and seventh continue
Floor 50 - eighth continue

I mentioned this when I reviewed the second game, but my biggest problems is that there's no camera control. You'd think the c-stick could have been used for the camera or at least a button that centers it behind your monkey. It makes some of the levels a lot harder than they needed to be. That's the only negative thing I have to say, the game is a great source of fun, both for single player and for parties.

[dhaabi]

27. Silent Hill: Origins || PlayStation 2 || 07.01.24



After having finished the original numbered titles of the Silent Hill franchise at the very end of 2022, I wasn't exactly sure when I'd be picking up where I left off with the next entry Silent Hill: Origins. Prior to playing, I knew that this entry marks a major deviation from what many fans of the series deem good, but I didn't know for what reasons and began playing without any opinions clouding my own judgment.

As the title name implies, Origins is a prequel to the debut Silent Hill meant to provide additional details to the events pertaining to the town of Silent Hill and Alessa. However, little is actually explored in how this entry's protagonist Travis connects to the story. This isn't to say that the events of Silent Hill aren't mentioned—because they certainly are—but instead that the central focus revolves around Travis's own past and traumatic experiences. At the same time, it's worth noting that the details of pre-established lore isn't strictly adhered to as some of its finer points have been altered. However, this may potentially be the fault of a third-party studio being the ones to develop the a game in the series for the first time and not fully grasping the plot. Whichever the case, there isn't really anything new Origins offers with its narrative relating to previous games, with it instead feeling like an attempt to recapture the success of the original entry to middling success. Again, Travis's own story is the game's highlight, but it is far more transparent than anything presented so far, with its big reveal being almost immediately able to be deduced once introduced.With that said, Travis doesn't seem outwardly bothered by the past he now faces while instead just going through the motions of finding a way out of Silent Hill.

Be that as it may, Origins does convey mood and atmosphere alongside exploration and puzzle-solving effectively. To clarify, nearly every staple element such as paths and entryways being obstructed, an off-putting cast appearing unexpectedly, the traversal from the fog world to the other world, and cryptic puzzles solved through collecting notes are all present. But, one major difference which Origins introduces is how exploration is accomplished. Before, player-characters have no control when they're taken from the fog world to other world, but Travis is fully capable of freely moving between the two through mirrors. While I think the mechanic is implemented well, it does negate the horror setting and fear instilled onto players, similar to my opinion of Silent Hill 4: The Room's traversal means but worsened. Nevertheless, key items in one world will be needed in the other, meaning there is more depth to puzzle-solving and player discovery and a fair balance between both sections of the game.

However, what isn't balanced is the weapon system, as hordes of monsters needing to be felled stand in Travis's way. Unlike in previous games which feature a small total number of melee weapons which remain constant in players' inventory, a large portion of combat in Origins revolves around weapon durability. To me, it seems as if the developers were wanting to instill a sense of desperation as weapons will routinely break, but this presumed sense of fear quickly diminished as I amassed a large arsenal of weapons ranging from hammers to portable TVs that allowed me to carefully consider my fighting play style in the presence of specific enemies. By the game's end, I had used and broke plenty of melee weapons but around forty still remained, so I never felt unprepared for combat or needing that I had to evade it. Disregarding weapons themselves, Travis is more than capable of using his bare fists to pummel enemies which I made liberal use of against lesser monsters. When you can punch a monster to death without much resistance, the fear meant to be conveyed becomes nearly unachievable.

On the topic of combat itself, the next major difference Origins provides are QTE sequences which some enemies trigger. For certain types of enemies, they utilize grapple attacks which the player must counteract by either quick, precise button inputs or fast-paced button-mashing. While this sort of action gameplay has aged poorly in more recent years, I myself didn't find it out-of-place as it matches the more aggressive play style Travis brings. From my assessment, enemies aren't difficult to kill and seem easier then in previous entries, but the more irritating grapple system helps balance this problem. Resulting from the grapple system, it is also easy for enemies to bombard the player in groups and especially so when in tight quarters. So, while enemies on a general level pose no considerable challenge on their own, several different situations make them a threat. However, on that note, boss segments come across as elementary, as players only need to circle around them while shooting a ranged weapon, which the game provides more than enough ammunition as melee combat will likely regularly be utilized. So, generally, I never felt incapable of fighting or outright vulnerable but instead empowered at times, largely due to the combat and aforementioned weapon systems. There is still a finite number of resources, though, so some level of item management should be employed.

With both exploration and combat alike, the game's camera system and visuals cannot be ignored. Throughout the game, a third-person camera perspective dictates our movement, but it isn't a camera which follows alongside the player's movement. Instead, viewing angles must be adjusted at the push of a button so players can properly view what's ahead of them. At first, it seems like a mediocre system but still one that's manageable. But, players will quickly find fault with it considering how Origins heavily relies on changing fixed camera angles similar to the debut entry. As a result, players will inevitably continue their movement and veer into the wrong (and often opposite) direction. Naturally, this sort of system creates aggravating enemy encounters which constantly forced me to reorient myself. Of course, this system is only made worse because, unlike in Silent Hill, these sorts of abrupt viewing angles aren't utilized with tact or in innovative ways which reveal information; instead, they're used simply for the sake of it. Simultaneously, Origins is perhaps the darkest game I've ever played, and there are no brightness options to remedy this. When exploring environments without enemies around, I felt forced to spam the action button in the hopes of discovering usable items. Regularly, this means that the item discovery prompt will be skipped over quickly which forces the player to open their menu to deduce what was collected.

To quickly round off my thoughts, Akira Yamaoka reprises their role as the game's composer, and I found both music and sound to be on par with the work of previous entries. One track in particular I remember being so absolutely terrifying to the point that I stayed still during its harsh, jarring highs and only moved onward during moments of rest. Concerning the game's visuals, little can be said due to how dark everything is. Nevertheless, I was impressed with the game's FMV sequences—especially the ones nearing the game's conclusion.

On its own, Origins provides an adequate survival horror experience with its balance of somber themes and competent gameplay. But, when analyzing the game within the context of those preceding it, it becomes more difficult to judge its quality. Some fans of the series may find fault with some of the game's liberties it takes, but I ultimately found them done sufficiently. Regardless, I finished my playthrough feeling satisfied overall, although the game's visual performance significantly worsened my time playing.

[realpoketendonl]

16. Metroid: Samus Returns (Second playthrough)
17. Metroid Fusion (Second playthrough)

I've already beaten both of these games once before, but for both of them that was almost 7 years ago. Now that I've beaten all 2D Metroid games (except for the original but I think I can be excused for that) and now that my tastes have changed, I wanted to replay these games to see how I feel about them now, and to figure out what my favourite 2D Metroids are.

Samus Returns still holds up great. The world still draws me in, and is a blast to navigate. I always feel like I'm making progress. The Melee counter, which was introduced here, still feels good. Not as smooth as the one in Dread, but it still feels good to pull off. The game is never too cryptic either thanks to the Scan Pulse, which reveals hidden passageways. A fantastic addition as far as I'm concerned. The storytelling is great: Samus comes across as powerful and no-nonsense, and it's impressive how much is conveyed without a single word of dialogue or text. And the automatic checkpoints are MASSIVELY appreciated too. Really saves a lot of annoying retreading before bosses. It's also one of the rare games where I actively find myself turning the 3D on, simply because it looks great. At most it got a bit tedious in a few places, but that may also just be my own impatience. It was a great introduction to 2D Metroid, and I still love it.

Fusion though...what the hell happened here? This was my second 2D Metroid ever and I remember loving it. But this playthrough was just not that great for me. None of the Metroid games have ever given me feelings of "oh that's bullshit!" as strongly and as often as this one. Despite what everyone says about progression being linear, which is true, it pulls cryptic stuff sometimes which is on par if not much worse than Super Metroid. But on top of that, it often just felt unfair to me. Some of the bosses and segments are brutal, and while in the other Metroid games they almost always felt fair and I felt I had powered up enough naturally that I could handle them (or it would let me heal reasonably nearby), this game sometimes felt like it was just being unreasonable. It's a shame. I was expecting this game to score high because I vividly remember how enthralled I was by its setting and setup, and I kind of thought my over-reliance on a guide and possible difficulty were because of my inexperience with the genre 7 years ago. But no. Granted, I'm typing this right after re-beating it so I might cool on it later (edit: I have a little, yeah, and I still really appreciate its setting and vibe), but I legitimately feel like this game just has issues in its design. Don't get me wrong, it's still a great game, you will never hear me say it's bad. But in the 2D Metroid lineage, despite how much I love its setting and story, it scores low for me.

Which is a good segue to what I wanted to make after re-beating these: my definitive personal 2D Metroid tier list (at least as of now):

• Metroid Dread. Fantastic. Haven't replayed it since it came out, but really itching to.
• Metroid: Samus Returns. Still feels buttery smooth to play, and the world is enthralling. A game that deserves to be played.
• Super Metroid. Even today, its atmosphere is borderline unmatched. Yes it's unfairly cryptic at times and has control issues, but what it does right more than makes up for that.
• Metroid: Zero Mission. Undeniably good and fun to play, but my main issue with it is that I find it extremely unmemorable. I played it last year, but I can barely recall anything about it.
• Metroid Fusion. I love its story concept and setting, it's extremely memorable. Almost enough to bump it up a spot. But while a lot of the gameplay is great, at some points this game legitimately pissed me off, which no other 2D Metroid (with a map) ever has to this degree as far as I can recall.
• Metroid II: Return of Samus. The lack of a map alone puts this game near the bottom. I enjoyed my playthrough, but only because I had an online map open on my laptop.
• UNRANKED: Metroid. Only one I haven't beaten yet, so I can't really rank it, but I already know it would be last or second-to-last shared with Metroid II. It just hasn't aged that gracefully. Also, again, no map.

[realpoketendonl]

18. Gunman Clive [3DS]

I've just been in the mood for short, neat games lately. Was looking through my 3DS collection and realised I had not beaten Gunman Clive yet. A little embarrassing, considering this single playthrough only took me an hour, but hey, beat it now.

I remember this game being talked about a lot during the hayday of the 3DS as a really good, short run-'n-gun platformer, impressively developed by just one guy. And looking at it 12 years after release, that all still holds true. I think it's fair to say indie games have come a long way since then, but Gunman Clive is still quality. It feels great to play. The controls are buttery smooth. I personally really don't care for anything western at all, but the art style is still nice and wholly unique. I had fun with it. I've only done one playthrough so far, but there's 3 playable characters, and I may come back to do another run with another character sometime in the future.

Unfortunately the 3DS eShop is now down of course, but the game is still available on Steam or in the HD Collection with the sequel on Switch and PS4. It's dirt cheap too: 5 bucks for the HD Collection, or 2 bucks for the first game on its own on Steam. Not on sale: that's the regular price. And at that price? I say go for it!

---EDIT---

19. K3 en de vrolijke noten [DS]

Figured I'd add this in an edit to this post as to not clog up this thread. With that said....



....hear me out.

So K3 is a Belgian pop group. They've been around for over 25 years (with a handful of member switches), and in Belgium and the Netherlands they're well known for their upbeat bubbly pop music. I'm a fan of theirs, but while anyone can enjoy their music, as a group they're mainly marketed towards children. And you know it, when you're marketed to children in the mid to late 2000s, you're getting a DS game. (Even for K3 though, their look on this box art is pretty over the top).

Which leads me to K3 en de vrolijke noten, which translates to K3 and the cheerful musical notes (Yes I know if you enter it into a translator app it can also say "K3 and the cheerful nuts", I'm sorry, nut and musical note are the same word in Dutch, I can't help it). I just wanted to play it out of curiosity, and I had it anyway. For a K3 DS shovelware game this exceeded my expectations, but that's only because my expectations were so low they were buried next to prehistoric fossils (I swear, some of the other games based on licenses owned by Studio 100, which also owns K3, have been some of the worst games I've ever played on DS and Wii). This is a minigame collection, though it is tied together with a story (which means I could and did beat it). The minigames here are basic stuff you'd expect like dressup and tile matching, but at least it functions. Inbetween the minigames though, there's also three overworlds to explore. Sure they're completely empty with nothing to find, but it's something? The music is midi versions of some of their songs, which at least isn't awful because their music is good, but it just makes me wish I was listening to their music (and even then, the songs they chose aren't the best in their repertoir). And one nitpick: in some music games they have low-poly 3D models of K3 dancing to the song, but the routine doesn't match the song until the final minigame. Yes I'm gonna be petty like that. I finished this game, I earned it.

So yeah, this should shock no one, but it's shovelware and you shouldn't play it. It's not the worst I've ever played, it might entertain little kids who like K3 for a half hour, but they deserve better. Give them a real game and put on some K3 music. Hell, I say check out one of their more recent songs (featuring the newer members) yourself. You'll get endlessly more enjoyment out of it (and I stand by a lot of their music being legitimately good): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9ZWV6SjzO0

[bikingjahuty]

32. Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble (SNES)

With the news of Donkey Kong Country Returns headed to the Switch, I decided it was time I tackle the one classic DKC game I've never beat before playing its two more modern sequels. To be clear, I've played DKC3 several times, however I've never played it for more than a couple of hours. I remember seeing this game advertised all over the place, so it's a mystery why I didn't get ultra hyped for it back in 1996. I must have been so into the N64 that it completely overshadowed one of my favorite game franchises as a kid, I'm not sure what else prevented me from beating it for almost 30-years lol.


But anyhow, DKC3's gameplay, sound, and presentation are almost as good as its predecessors. Keyword, almost. The variety and theming of enemies, levels and bosses is great, but not at the same level of DKC, and especially not as good as DKC2. The audio was also lacking noticeably, no doubt because David Wise was not involved in it. However, for what it's worth, DKC3 still has a beter OST than easily 95% of all the games of this generation regardless, which is saying something. From a gameplay perspective, everything works as it did in the previous two games, however the design of certain stages and bosses, combined with some rather gimmicky mechanics like sucking up water in the elephant's trunk and spraying it seemed superfluous and really didn't make the game anymore fun. In fact, I kind of just found these tacked on mecahnics more of an annoyance than anything. Despite this, I still really enjoyed playing DKC3 which overall had tight, well balanced controls and gameplay. The final thing I wanted to say about this game, and perhaps by biggest issue is this games lack of an identity compared to the previous two entries. Both DKC and DKC2 felt memorable and distinct with their own style and feel, whereas DKC3 seems like a thrown together greatest hits at times, that lacks a lot of the same memorable bosses, stages, and other settings that really solidified the first two DKC games as timeless masterpieces. DKC3 just seems like a sequel that was pushed out to sell a few more SNES consoles at the very tail end of its life, except everyone had moved on at that point. Don't get me wrong, I still really enjoyed DKC3, however it's without a doubt my least favorite of the classic trilogy. (7/7/24) [37/50]