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52 Games Challenge 2025!!!

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bikingjahuty:
72. Gitaroo Man (PS2)

Occasionally I'll play a game that is so damn charming that it allows me to enjoy it despite other major flaws the game might have. Gitaroo Man on the PS2 falls firmly into this category. The game just has so much personality and such a unique identity that i find myself enamored with it despite Gitaroo Man's borderline bad rhythm gameplay. There are two main phases in this game, attack and defend, and while the defend phase is fine, it's the attack phase that really makes this game way harder to get through than it should be. Essentially you have to aim the left analogue stick on the controller in a specified direction on the screen while pressing the circle button on timed notes. There is some margin for error, but especially during reverb or sudden pitch changes, keeping your analogue stick going in the right direction is an act of futility. Overall, it's a very poorly implemented system that would otherwise ruin this game if not for its outstanding audio and visuals.


While gameplay in a rhythm game is obviously very important, in many ways its only as good as its soundtrack. In Gitaroo Man's case, the soundtrack is near perfect with nearly every song being catchy and memorable. Particularly the game's main song, The Legendary Theme, is such an amazing song that pops up several times throughout. The audio is made even better by the quirky, hilarious voice acting from the various characters in this game, all of which fit in perfectly with the theme and visuals of this game.


Speaking of Gitaroo Man's visuals, they are also incredible. The entire game is done in this unique, cartoonish art style that is very vibrant and colorful, The level of imagination and creativity in pretty much every character, setting, antagonist, and prety much everything in between is truly special. My only regret is not being able to appreciate it more since my attention is almost always on the button prompts as I'm playing. There are also various inspirational messages and quotes throughout Gitaroo Man which only add even more to the game's undeniable charm and presence.


It really is unfortunate that Gitaroo Man's gameplay is so meh because if it were even slightly better, this game would be knocking on the door of my all time favorite games. Despite its gameplay issues, it's still a game I thoroughly enjoy going back to replay every so often and I game that never ceases to make me smile. (6/28/25) [38/50]

telly:
Game 12 - Bloodborne (PS4) - 26 Hours

In my opinion you can break down three types of difficulty in games. 1) Classic difficulty, where the challenge is based on gameplay, combat, bosses, and so on; 2) progression-based difficulty, where the challenge is figuring out where to go and how to move forward in a game's story, and 3) story-based difficulty, where the challenge is understanding what's the story the game is trying to tell you.

Bloodborne, along with the entire Souls series, is famously difficult in all three of these major areas. Going into this game, I knew that while my tolerance for classic difficulty is pretty high, I absolutely hate not knowing where to go in a game, and if the story is obscure or hidden, I tend to just ignore it. I did enjoy Dark Souls and Demon's Souls particularly with the fluid, responsive yet difficult gameplay and the beautiful and exquisite worldbuilding... but really, really didn’t like the storytelling. Even though this game is different in name, Bloodborne in the broad strokes is essentially the exact same as these previous games, including pretty much all of the gameplay, leveling and boss structure, weapon and character upgrades, stats, storytelling philosophy, you name it. Just with a different name and look.

The one change I liked the most was the inclusion of the gun - I used it to counter enemy attacks way more than I did parrying and riposting in previous games. I also tried out some of the randomly generated areas too and found them to be pretty enjoyable. I also think the game has been way more optimized since it first came out. I experienced a very smooth game with minimal downtime from loading. I actually didn't have that much trouble with the difficulty. I played this game in offline mode, whereas Demon’s and Dark Souls I played online. In offline mode I used some of the available hunter companions to bring them in to the boss fights with me, which may have made them a bit easier, mostly because they just soak up hits for you while you can get in for damage. Other than a few hiccups here and there, I found my progression in the game to be relatively smooth, which was good because honestly I was kind of anxious to finish it and move on.

Alas, most of the differences in this game actually made me enjoy it less than other FromSoftware-developed games. To be completely honest, I really didn't like the world of Bloodborne. It was too grey and messy for my taste, with the level design feeling more slapdash and random than usual. I got really tired of coffins, weird status and gravestones literally everywhere no matter how much they made sense. I very much liked the variety offered in previous games. That said, I didn't explore every nook and cranny but I found that this game felt very same-y and after a while it just got boring. Some of the gameplay tweaks also felt like a step back. The change to finite-use health potions over replenishable Estus Flasks led to a lot of backtracking to previous levels to grind out low-level enemies to replenish my supply, which got old very quickly.

I'll perfectly admit that I'm just not hardcore to get into the story. I also think it hurt my experience that I didn't play online this time around. I just get so frustrated at the lack of any real explanation and I just couldn't be bothered to investigate further beyond the very basic "the worlds messed up, you gotta save it" because there's no way of telling whether my conclusions are correct or not. I tried looking up story explanations online but that didn’t help me either. When the best-referenced explanation on the internet was only about 1/3rd evidence-based and 2/3rds speculation and interpretation, I knew this story just wasn't something I was going to enjoy. To me stories that are designed like a puzzle to solve are fine if the pieces are hidden in the game, but when there are so many pieces missing I just can't see how anyone can come to a reasonable conclusion. It severely limited my experience of this game and combined with an art style that just didn't do it for me this game just really wasn't my cup of tea.

If you really love this game's story and world, I can totally see why it would click for some. Just doesn't do it for me, though I do feel pretty alone in this regard. Maybe I'll restart the story and try for one of the other endings someday, or the old hunters DLC, and I might think better of the game by then. It just wasn’t a very pleasant experience I’m afraid.

bikingjahuty:
73. Street Fighter 6 (PS5)

I've been a huge Street Fighter fan since SF2 was relatively new in arcades, however the series really clicked with me when Super Street Fighter 2 came out. That game specifically is one of my all time favorite fighting games to this day, especially its Turbo release. Over the decades, I've enjoyed most of the new mainline entries in the series despite Capcom's efforts to monetize practically everything in the game. What keeps me coming back in the amazing gameplay and characters I've grown up with my entire life loving. In some ways, Street Fighter 6 carries on the tradition of quality the series is well known for, but in others it really dropped the ball and took the series in the wrong direction.


Let's get one thing clear, SF6's gameplay is AWESOME! It is probably among the most balanced, well implemented, and polished fighting systems I've had the pleasure of playing in a bit. While the game is very tutorial heavy and the UI is trash, what really matters is the fighting gameplay and mechanics which I have a hard time faulting. It's easy to see, even from someone who doesn't play this game competitively, how it could easily be one of the most competitive fighting games ever released. There are also copious amounts of unlockables, mostly in the form of artwork and cutscenes, but it still adds value to what is already a very fun game to play.


Not nearly as good as SF6's gameplay is its audio. The music in SF6 is fine for the most part. There are a few tracks that I found catchy and appropriately upbeat for a game like this, but others that were downright annoying. The voice acting is equally a mixed bag where some of the performances are pretty good while others are just awful (and not good-awful, just awful-awful). All together, the noises you'll hear in SF6 is decent, if not pretty good at times, but there are many SF games will way better audio, especially in the OST department.


Finally we get to SF6's weakest area and honestly the aspect of it that kept me from wanting to play this game until it was cheap enough for me to justify buying it. Putting it bluntly, I hate the art direction of SF6. I never thought in a million years that the Street Fighter franchise would fall victim to the Fortnite/Zoomer shooter art aesthetic, along with all of its annoying cliches, but here we are. Nearly every returning SF character looks worse than they ever have in this game, while literally every new character to the series looks like crap from an artistic, design point of view. None of them make me go, "oh wow, that character looks so cool! I think I'll play as them!" In fact, my reaction to all the new fighters in SF6 is exactly the opposite. Thank goodness the in game graphics, including the stage graphics make up for the ugly character design, at times even make you forget all about it as you're playing as Manon or God forbid Marisa. Whoever was the art director for this game needs to be shown the door at Capcom HQ and banned from ever returning though since this game odes nothing to further the legacy of this series, and if anything sets it back some.


But even with my disdain for the art direction, I still do enjoy this game quite a bit and had a good time with it as I played it's various single player modes. For me though, classic Arcade mode is always where these games are at their best and really showed me how on top of their game Capcom still is when designing fighting games (from a gameplay standpoint at least). Here's hoping whenever SF7 eventually comes out, all or most of these crappy new characters are thrown away and are replaced by iconic, interesting designs like what we've got in pretty much every other SF game, minus a few of course. (6/28/25) [35/50]

bizzgeburt:
07 - Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance II (2006) [DE] (PlayStation2)
https://vgcollect.com/item/117707

I like playing through series of games in a row, so after beating the evil undead warlord witch in Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance with an forrest-elven sorceress, I was eager to continue the adventure around the city of Baldur's Gate threatened by an even more evil and powerful Alliance of foes yet to reveal itself! This time, I was using the human warrior class, Dorn …

In Dark Alliance II, the story kinda directly continues where the prequel ended - with the heroes of the first game stepping through the last shadowrealm gate into unknown Terrain - before being charmingly captured by the next bigger boss of baddies, a vampire Lord this time, one with a odd spleen for white clothing. This is where the scenery switches to our handpicked hero (Dorn), who, on his way to Baldur's Gate, stumbles upon a merchant caravan recently raided by Goblins …
The plot in Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance II thickens way faster and contains way more twists compared to it's prequel. It even ends with another twist like in the 1st game, but I can't remember a third part of this series (correct me, if you know of one - thx). The storyline seems a lot more captivating to me, though the presentation itself isn't really a big leap from the 1st. part.

In many ways, this game outshines it's prequel: a weapon and armor crafting system was implemented, you can choose between more different heroes, boasting a huge lot more talents and abilities than before. Graphics seem to have been boosted a little bit. All in all, Dark Alliance II plays a lot longer than the 1st part, whith optional areas being gained access to over time and many dungeons being a lot bigger. Besides those additions and improvements, the gameplay itself hasn't really changed.
Sidenote: I for myself consider the dungeons' background themes an improvement too, but that goes down to personal taste of music. Especially the House Bloodmore theme kinda got me  8)

Imo this game is great for what it is. During it's time it gave consolero's like me one of the first few titles with legit top view dungeon crawling/slashing rpg-ish action. And by today's gameplay standards it still makes a proper, medium-sized gauntlet-like to enjoy when overwhelmed by vast modern open worlds and countless possibilities. What I personally like in D&D-based videogames, is, that every attribute is based on the original D&D rules of the actual edition during that time. This makes fighting Goblins or Trolls the same annoying experience every time!  ;D gotta love it

Another one finished in 25, on to the next one... !  8)

marvelvscapcom2:
44. NFL Street [PS2] - finished July 1st 2025



My Childhood

NFL Street was a core building block of my childhood. Back in the days when AOL discs littered the carpets of the 1 bedroom apartments of gamers. The days of yellow pages ordering that meat lover pizza from the local joint Timmy's pizza. The soft buzz of a CRT.  Back when tvs were smaller yet weighed 200x more.  But what was big was what was inside the tv... EA Big.  A company that was a subsidiary of EA as an umbrella of sports dominance. Known for making the SSX games, and many other street games for each sport.  But NFL Street was the most critically beloved of them all.  This was very much a walk down the cobblestoned pavements of memory lane.


The games intro brings nostalgia right away.  But while I beat NFL Street 2 maybe 20 times as a kid.  I never beat NFL Street 1.  And now I know why.  The game is fun, a catalyst for the greatest arcade football franchise of all time but it's also so damn poorly paced.  And is riddled with flaws.  Which sadly knock it off its pedestal at the end. But otherwise its an epic epic game.

No pads, no rules, just backyard beef, as we stiff armed my homework into eternal grief.  My PS2 hummed like a streetlight fight, while Ray Lewis trucked kids into parental oversight.  From adolescence to adult essence.  We digress into what made it special and not so.

It was bling era. MTV. Mike Jones.  The game is a window into that simpler time. 

Premise

So you basically form a team of new comers. The intent is to build a squad good enough to challenge not only every NFL team (you'll see how redundant that is) but also every afc and nfc championship team (theirs 8) and if you do.  You get privilege to face the NFL Legends. Who essentially are jacked up HOF athletes with higher stats than anyone else.

Where the game is bliss is its rpg element system and the challenges.   Challenges will be presented. For example "stiff arm 2 times and score on your first play" and if you do that. It awards you development points.  Which can be used to upgrade players.  This cycle always changes because the challenges vary so wildly.  Not as wildly as nfl street 2 which perfects this formula.  (Please always note that nfl street 2 is another league of game far greater than this one) but these rpg upgrade elements really allow for a fun time.  If the game were just these. Itd be flawless.  You get to watch your team develop from project kids to essentially better than nfl stars.  You can physically feel and see the impact your upgrades have on field.  If you max a speed stat. He will be lightning while your other guys are molases on grass.  This formula makes the game a wild arcadey blast of building up your squad.


Gameplay is smooth.  I actually prefer its simplicity over 2. 2 added gamebreaker 2. Which is unnecessary and redundant.  Otherwise NFL Street 2 added so much depth and trimmed the fat off nfl street 1.  But the game is good mechanics wise.  Just a bit hard.  But now heres the flaws of the game.


REPETITION

Howlongtobeat.com has this game pegged to 10 hours.  It seems users go on there to simply lie about how fast they can beat a game.  Semi annoying.  Here is the truth.   In order to face the legends. You have to beat 8 all star teams from each conference.  If that was it? Climb the ladder and beat the greats? perfection.  Itd still be a long grind.  But no..  you must beat all 32 nfl teams to even face the 8 conference all stars.  Thats 40 games.  The games are to 36 points. So thats not a short game.  It's roughly 5 to 6 touchdowns.  For lack of a better word.  This is just damn redundant.  You didn't need to beat 4 teams in a row to get the allstar battle.  The allstar battle is all the best players anyway. That proves you are ready for the legends.  The rest is pure bloat.   Even if you do these games in 15 minutes each (doesnt always happen) the game is at least 20 hours of bloat.  It gave me carpal tunnel lol.  And that is NOT including the hustle of the challenges.  Some of those are massively drawn out. Most include beating those very same teams in games to 36, 40 and even 100.   So what you get is a game that had potential to be borderline flawless. But made you go through a marathon where a sprint was more appropriate. It becomes so repetitive facing the same teams on the same fields with no mix up.  The challenges alone are 10 hours minimum of gaming if you seek to actually max your teams stats.  NFL Street 2 eliminates the team nonsense and keeps it just as I said. Challenges only. It's flawless. To beat the entire league 3 times over? Yeah im sapped out.

Overall the fun building style of nfl street 1 is a beauty. And without it crawling with that formula. Nfl street 2 wouldn't have been able to run with it. It's a colorful window in 2000w hip hop culture. But it needed brevity.

Overall - 85/100

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