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52 Games Challenge 2025!!!

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kamikazekeeg:
21 - Five Nights at Freddy's 1 (PC 2014) - BEAT - I am not doing Night 6 lol This is one of those games I want to say I like more than I do, mostly because I find some ideas of its kinda interesting, I love the animatronics, but this isn't a well designed game from its kinda rough visuals (I did find a mod that up-rezzed the images used so Night 4 and Night 5 were abit cleaner to look at which was nice), to the complete lack of any options whatsoever, my mouse could go off the screen because I'm not in fullscreen and there are no options, and button presses could be questionable at times leading to accidental longer presses of the lights which is bad for precious power saving moments. 

I also don't think I'd get through this game without a guide.  Chica and Bonnie are easy enough, Foxy I could maybe figure out because you just need to glance at him to see if he's bolting anyways, but Freddy is almost broken on Night 5, because if you don't know that he doesn't move when the camera is on, and that you have to keep him on the stage for as long as possible or he'll sit at the one camera he can get you with, forcing you to keep the door closed, sometimes as early as 2am, that is just a crap mechanic.  If you can't figure that out, you will never beat Night 5. 

That aside, it's also interesting to see how this is the game that started a franchise and that Cawthon will go on to produce 6 more games in 4 years after this lol Like they aren't crazy deep games for the most part, but it's still just mostly one dude cranking these out like crazy.  Gonna casually make way through the main games now, while keeping an eye out for the Help Wanted games to get sales as I don't really want to pay full price for them, and they are slacking on putting on sales...not doing the summer sale it seems this time, so might not be till the winter sale for them.

bikingjahuty:
86. God of War - 2005 (PS3)

Unlike some gamers my age, I was never really into G4TV for the most part. With that said, I did watch it here and there during the mid and late 2000s, however probably the biggest G4 takeaway was seeing their God of War review in 2005 which immediately sold me on the game. The promise of blood, boobs, and excellent hack and slash gameplay immediately appealed to teenage me, and shortly after I acquired my own copy. Since then, it seems like a tradition that I play God of War every 10-years or so. Surprisingly, I always forget huge chunks of this game between playthroughs which I guess in a way makes each time I revisit it feel fresh and novel. But anyhow, with the original God of War being 20-years old and my desire to finally make it to God of War 3 so can see what all the fuss is about with the modern reboot titles, I decided to play the original again.


For the most part, God of War is an excellent modern hack and slash title. The gameplay, action, and just over the top nature of practically everything you do in this game is well implemented and feels appropriate given the setting and characters of this game. Luckily, Santa Monica Studios went just beyond Kratos just using the same set of moves throughout the game and instead allows you to level up your slash attacks, as well as various other sub attacks and weapons you'll acquire throughout the game. This makes combat dynamic and fresh as you'll be employing a combination of abilities and moves depending on what sort of monsters/opponents you're up against. Some enemies are vulnerable to specific kinds of attacks or abilities which makes battles feel a lot more enjoyable than just approuching every encounter the same way. You'll be leveling up these abilities by collecting red orbs which are dropped by fallen enemies, broken statues or pots, and in various chests throughout the game. Speaking of orbs, you can also collect green and blue orbs too which help replenish HP and MP respectively. Green and Blue orbs are mostly obtained via chests and the game is pretty liberal about providing these in places where it knows you'll likely need them the most. There are also quick time events in this game, mostly implemented within the game's combat. Luckily, the need to engage in these QTE's is not forced most of the time, and does provide some minor benefits if you choose to do them. All of this creates a pretty balanced and enjoyable combat system that rarely stumbles. Unfortunately, other aspects of the gameplay outside the combat is where God of War falls short.


There is a decent amount of platforming, obstacle traversal, and puzzle solving in God of War. Truth be told, most of these non-combat gameplay elements aren't terrible, or really even bad. Most of implemented fairly well, albeit they can at times feel somewhat stiff or awkward depending on what you're doing. Unfortunately, a few of these non-combat sections, especially several towards the end of the game are downright awful to the point where I'm shocked they made it into the final game. While they aren't impossible to get through, they are beyond tedious and feel like something from an NES game in terms of how punishing and unfair they are. I guess some mascocists might find this to be a positive, but for your average person they're anything but. There are enough of these sections throughout the game to annoy the crap out of you, bit not enough to ruin the game, not even close. Pretty much every time I get to one of these annoying platforming or obstacle avoidance sections, I pretty much just grit my teeth and get through it so I can go back to enjoying the rest of the game.


The visuals in God of War are on the whole very good. character models, animations, cutscenes, level design, and backgrounds all look great for the most part. There is a nice spread of ancient greek monsters to battle against, along with other types of foes like zombie soldiers, trolls, and even a enemy that reminds me of the Anubises from The Mummy Returns. There is unfortunately I drought of bosses in God of War, which is unfortunate since the ones that are present are pretty cool looking and mostly fun to fight. My main grip with the visuals has to do with the repetitiveness of enemies and lack of variety, as well as certain environments being recycles or outstaying their welcome in other ways. Other than that, it's hard to fault anything visually in this game.


Finally, God of Wars audio is also pretty damn good. The soundtrack is appropriately epic and over the top. Its orchestral score is excellent and complements the action taking place very well. Voice acting is also pretty good, although I always found Kratos' performance to be a little hammy at times. I know part of this is likely intentional, but part of it undoubtedly feels like like a lack of skill on the part of Kratos' voice actor. Other than that, there are a lot of excellent destruction and monster noises, and just overall it's pretty good stuff to listen to.


Maybe more than beating God of War again for the third or fourth time since it came out, I'm looking forward to driving deeper into the series for the first time. The furthest I've got into the franchise was beating God of War 2 about 8 years ago. I actually remember liking that game more than the first one, but more than that I'm looking forward to playing and beating God of War 3 eventually, and then moving on to the modern reboot titles. Here's to new and hopefully very enjoyable gaming experiences with this series in the future! (8/22/25) [38/50]

bikingjahuty:
87. M.U.S.H.A. (Genesis)

I've been meaning to return to MUSHA on the Genesis for a very, very long time. Before I get into my review of MUSHA, I'll start off by saying that this game holds a fairly sentimental place in my heart. Most, but not all of the games I play, I actually physically own, including the highly sought after physical cartridge of MUSHA. I actually found my copy on my birthday back in 2011 at an independent game store I'd never been to before. In a glass case, there it was for only $40, which even at that time was a steal. I've happily owned it ever since, however it's been almost that long since I actually sat down and spent some decent time with it. Funny enough, I expected to maybe like MUSHA slightly less than I did back then, but damn I was very wrong.


You see, I've played A LOT of SHMUPs over the years. Some I've reviewed like this, but many I have not. Between 2016 and 2020 or so, I went through a massive SHMUP phase where practically every other game I was playing belonged to the genre. In that time, I realized that I'm actually not the biggest fan of old school shooters, or more specifically, most SHMUPs released before the mid 90s. There are some exceptions to this, but overall there are a lot more gameplay limitations that plagued older SHMUPs, as well as some very obnoxious gameplay elements that many of them suffer from. While MUSHA, released in 1990, does suffer from some of this, it surprisingly feels ahead of its time as well in many ways too.


Being a Compile SHMUP, many of that companies gameplay staples are present in MUSHA as well. You have primary weapons power ups, secondary weapon drops that can simultaniously power those attacks up, and also small support ships you can obtain as well. Power ups are mostly plentiful, although the game still technically maroons you when you day, which essentially means you are left with no power ups in situations where you absolutely need them to survive. While MUSHA is guilty of this old school SHMUP sin, it at least throws more your way in the form of power ups to where you are gradually able to have somewhat of a fighting chance of making it past some hectic part you just recently got obliterated in. This is way more than most SHMUPs released around the late 80s and early 90s that pretty much just say "screw you" and barely give you anything at all to make it through the situations that previously killed you. On top of that, enemy balancing and placement, projectile volume and patterns, your ships maneuverability and hit box size all complement each other fairly well, albeit not perfectly. Once again, these elements in MUSHA are definitely a step above most other shooters released during this same time, making MUSHA far more enjoyable to play whether you enjoy old school or newer SHMUPs more.


While the gameplay is good, but noticeably flawed in some ways, I have almsot nothing bad to say about MUSHA's presentation. Visually, MUSHA may have been the best looking Genesis game when it came out in 1990. I'm not even kidding. Between the awesome and unique stage and enemy designs, the kick ass anime cut scenes at the beginning and end of the game, and really good visuals effects, MUSHA was only rivaled by maybe a few PC games when it first came out. Some of the enemy designs, especially the bosses are incredible in MUSHA. Sure, there are a lot of lessor ships that get overused in this game, but overall the graphics in MUSHA are almost perfect for an early 90s console game.


Possibly even better than the visuals is MUSHA's audio, particular it's soundtrack. I know the Super Nintendo technically had superior sound quality, but I can't say there's any rock inspired music on the SNES that can even come close to sounding as raw and awesome as MUSHA's soundtrack. MUSHA's OST is high energy heavy metal pumped through the Genesis' FM sound chip to produce one of the best scores on the Genesis to this day. If you don't believe me, watch old episodes of Classic Game Room and the dude on their practically fanboys over the soundtrack the entire time. Sound effects are also good, but it's that goddamn soundtrack that steal the show to make this game's audio the stuff of legends.


I absolutely love MUSHA, and while its outdated gameplay elements do hold the game back objectively and also slightly hamper my subjective enjoyment of the game, it's still phenomenal for what it is. When it comes to SHMUPs on the Genesis, or really just classic shooters in general, MUSHA is among the very best of them. (8/22/25) [38/50]

dhaabi:
53. Vile: Exhumed || PC || 08.18.2025



For better or for worse, Vile: Exhumed is an adventure game of sorts that's gained recent news coverage for being removed from Steam just prior to its planned release. Fortunately, though, the Streisand effect is working in its favor, as it's a game that myself and many others likely would not have been made aware of otherwise.

Self-described as "a game about male entitlement," Vile: Exhumed is an intense experience about graphic, unfiltered horrors from real-life scenarios that will not be for everyone which are presented through analog horror design. To be upfront, the censorship and removal of this game from digital storefronts was invalidated and appropriately outlined on official pages and documents pertaining to it including its main webpage Vile Is Banned. It's a game that was dismissed for showcasing "sexual content with depictions of real people," though the latter claim is wholly inaccurate whereas the former regards censored nudity without any presence of sexual acts. Regardless, a large majority of the game's content is text-based which, personally, I found to be far more disturbing to read than I ever did viewing the few instances of relatively tame photos and videos.

With that said, Vile: Exhumed is a game that's difficult to discuss. Taking place in the late '90s, players are tasked with navigating a desktop PC while assuming the role of its owner. There are various programs including e-mail, notes, and access to various marketplaces and forums related to VHS and adult videos. Appropriately, various other elements trigger including e-mail alerts and pop-up ads. But to access certain programs, players must gain information from the sections already available by sifting through an array of websites and documents, meaning that progression isn't linear. With the context that the player is the desktop's owner, there is little sense that we'd not already be aware of such password knowledge, but it's a small detail that's easy to overlook. From the unlocked sections first available to players, most of what's uncovered here is just to provide insight about the general mentality for these groups of people which does also include the player-character. It's readily apparent that some of the individuals involved in these communities are generally people without merit. In time, however, more incriminating information about the player-character is learned upon gaining access to shady sites and instant messenger conversations which unveils perverse and threatening thoughts, behaviors, and meetup activity.

To put it mildly, it becomes clear that the player-character actively explores and engages in explicit, morally-obtuse sexual kinks and fixations. Which, the argument can be made that these behaviors are fine when not acted upon or heightened to a certain level, but that unfortunately is not the truth in this matter. Instead, the evidence we as the player uncover while playing as the player-character is outright unsettling. It becomes clear that this person's intimate interests are not only alarming but unequivocally dangerously violent when acted upon. There is a severely irrational delusion upheld by him that he's some important figure who's worthy of any and all attention by those he targets. Again and again evident by uncovered messages, he propositions his own dangerous fetishes for them to meet to appease his desires. But this is not just some attitude held toward one specific woman or even several women. No, it's a belief that encompasses all women whom the player-character reveres nothing more than objects to serve his twisted fantasies.

Quickly, the feeling of accomplishment upon solving a puzzle was totally lost when beginning to parse through a previously-locked section's contents. At times, it felt difficult to separate myself as the player from the player-character because it was me progressing through the narrative to uncover these unhinged, parasocial attitudes. As the player, I never knew what to expect next or just how intense the actions and thoughts described would be until they became evident. And to no surprise, I really just got the total ick when reading e-mail messages the player-character had sent to various women. Nevertheless, the game's puzzles are thoughtful enough to have maintained my interest in sifting through various pieces of information, though I think players will already be tragically invested in the game's story content plenty to see which direction the game takes to complete them regardless. If it was not evident until now, Vile: Exhumed is less about its gameplay than it is about sharing an interactive story. For what it's worth, though, navigating the PC is straightforward. Still, I know I didn't uncover everything in my playthrough based on marketing material, as I've later learned that some webpage elements were interactive despite thinking otherwise. So, there is certainly reason to explore what's available to you thoroughly for more available content and context regarding the unfolding narrative.

Ultimately, Vile: Exhumed is a game that's far less centered on glorifying violent acts committed by men and the unhealthy views they hold toward women than it is delving into the psyche of one deeply troubled and deeply sick individual. The idea that women are deserving of consent and act in ways they feel comfortable doing when and how they desire is the game's most pervasive topic, above all. And, of course, it really doesn't come as any surprise to me that a game with this sort of controversial messaging was not only wrongly targeted and removed from digital storefronts but was developed by a woman. At the same time, I admit that Vile: Exhumed is not a game that I enjoyed due to its graphic subject matter, but it is one that I'm glad to have played.

bikingjahuty:
88. Alien Soldier (Genesis)

Being a huge fan of Treasure, Alien Soldier has been on my radar for quite some time. I've known about this game for nearly two decades despite it never getting a North American release, and in that time I have yearned to eventually play this game. With my Genesis still plugged in from playing through MUSHA last night, I decided to finally fulfill my ambition of playing this supposed Treasure gem to see if it was as fun as it looked. Now that I have played through Alien Soldier, I'm a bit disappointed actually.While Alien Soldier is not the first game from Treasure I've disliked, it's one I didn't expect to dislike as much as I did. I really appreciated what they were trying to do with this game and in some ways they absolutely succeeded.

The presentation in this game, both visually and in the audio is excellent. I loved taking in all this game had to offer, from its interesting, yet short but sweet stages, it's amazing character and boss sprites, and its rockin soundtrack. Admittedly, the game reuses many of its cannon fodder enemies way too much, and some of the bosses are significantly cooler than others, but I have few complaints about this game's overall presentation. Where nearly all my grievances with Alien Soldier exist is its gameplay.

For an 16-bit, 4th console generation action game, Alien Soldier is very ambitious. The game gives you selectable weapons via selection wheel, which you'll need to cycle through to find the best tool for the job, especially with bosses. Unfortunately accessing and selecting the weapon you want can be clumsy and too slow as you take on a ton of damage in the interim. Not only that, but I lost track of how many times I accidentally selected the wrong weapon. Unfortunately the weapon gets even worse. Instead of allowing you to use a specific weapon as much as you want, weapons weaken the more you use them until you eventually are unable to use them at all. The only way to recharge them is through various power up pickups in each stage and dropped by fallen enemies. I don't know how many times I knew what weapon I needed to have the upper hand on a boss, only for that weapon to run out of juice, forcing me to use a less than optimal weapon for the task at hand. Of course, this lead to even more deaths than I wanted.

Likewise, controlling the main character can be a bit jarring as well. You have the ability to do a quick dash which is handy in getting you out of harms way in a pinch, but sometimes it puts you directly in harms way. Also, the combination of being able to hover on mid air, walk on cealings, and various other specialized movements can make doing what you're trying to do at times feel overly difficult. I thought eventually I'd get used to it or get better at controlling the main character in Alien Soldier, but unfortunately that mostly didn't happen. Luckily, the game is very generous in giving you unlimited continues and also has probably the least cumbersome password level select system in any older game I've ever played.

Alien Soldier is essentially a boss rush game where you play through a small, and I mean REALLY small section of a level that takes barely a minute to get through before you're up against a unique boss. The spaces between bosses are little more than to replenish your weapons and health, so there is little issue I have with those, but the bosses are certainly a mixed bag. Some bosses were incredibly fun to fight, while others were either ultra cheap or just very generic throw away bosses that were more tedious to fight than difficult. I'd say, a quarter of the boss encounters are very good, half are okay, and another quarter are awful in one way or another.

While not the worst Treasure game I've played, Alien Soldier might be the one I'm the most disappointed with. As I said, I lusted over this game and it's excellent 2D action gameplay for years, only to find a game that was more fun to look at and listen to than it was to play. Fortunately, I know Treasure is capable of making some insanely good games, but sadly Alien Soldier isn't one of them. (8/23/25) [32/50]

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