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52 Games Challenge 2025!!!
bikingjahuty:
127. Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves (PS5)
Like most long time Fatal Fury fans, I was very excited to hear a new game in the series was finally being made after over two decades since the last installment. Not only that, but the game that proceeded City of the Wolves, Mark of the Wolves has remained the gold standard for the Fatal Fury series since its release in the late 90s. To say City of the Wolves had some big shoes to fill was an understatement, however if SNK has proven anything since the late 2000s, it's that they still know how to make some incredible games, albeit with a few stinkers thrown in here and there too. Of course, I preorder City of the Wolves as soon as I could and was counting down the days until its release...and then there were some last minute character announcements that really threw a cold bucket of water on my enthusiasm for this game.
Ronaldo and Ganacci as characters in a fighting game might go down as one of the most odd and most stupid decisions a publisher has ever made. But what made their inclusions even more of a bitter pill to swallow was the omission of two Fatal Fury staples, Joe and Andy, and making them paid DLC characters. This massive fumble on SNK's part was enough for me to cancel my preorder and deciding I wasn't going to buy this game until I could do so for under $30. Less than a year after City of the Wolves was released, I finally was able to pick it up for that price and see if maybe I was too harsh on this game initially. While I do think maybe my anger about a real life pro soccer player and some rando Bosnian DJ being made into Fatal Fury characters was a bit excessive, I have no regrets about waiting to pick this game up until it was much cheaper.
My main issue with City of the Wolves is how restrictive its gameplay is. Sure, you can play the game however you want to in terms of your style. However, the game is clearly designed for a specific type of play style, specifically a much more defensive one that heavily relies on counters, rather than just aggressively pushing your opponent. Especially with the KOF series and Fatal Fury, I absolutely prefer to play these games more aggressively, so needing to play more defensively to have a shot felt very weird for me. I played this game a ton and beat it with many of the characters, but the entire time, I still wished the game allowed me to play much more offensively and still be mostly competitive. And I mean, this kind of works against mid and lower level CPU controlled characters, but against experienced players and harder CPU opponents, you're pretty much screwed.
Despite City of the Wolves punishing more aggressive play styles and favoring more defensive ones, I thought the rev meter and SPG system were good mechanics, although I felt like neither tilted or balanced matches as much as maybe they should. This made them feel a little superfluous, but they still offered some fun variation to the gameplay compared to most other modern fighting games, SNK titles included. I also felt like character balancing was definitely considered heavily when making this game, but again, pigeon holing people into a few play styles sorta sucked a lot of the fun out of what could have otherwise been a much more enjoyable game to play.
While the gameplay of City of the Wolves does leave a lot on the table, the visual presentation mostly does not. City of the Wolves is a mostly detailed, vivid looking game with mostly great character designs, stages, and animations. This game heavily reminds me of Street Fighter IV's art style which is a huge compliment towards this game. Also, stages are pretty memorable for the most part, with a few being a little on the stale side. One issue I did have with the visuals has to do with the cutscenes that play out between matches. These are mostly done using semi-still images of the in game character models in certain poses as dialogue plays. Doing these cut scenes like this just felt a little lazy and also dampened my desire to unlock them all like I did in games like KOF 14 which had lots of hand drawn, fully animated cutscenes for many characters. There are some animated cutscenes, mostly character endings, but these still play out in a somewhat uninteresting way as montages of stills, rather than fully animated scenes.
While the visuals are mostly praiseworthy, the audio is not. In fact, City of the Wolves' audio is probably the game's weakest quality. The english voice acting us umm,,,not great, but luckily you can just switch over to Japanese audio which fixes this issue. No, my main issue with the audio is action the soundtrack which mostly just sounds stale and uninteresting. I don't think there was a single track in this game that caught my attention or made me go, "whoa! This song sounds awesome!" That's a real shame since most Fatal Fury games have great soundtracks, or at least a song or two that really catches my ear when I'm playing them. Unless I'm forgetting a specific older game, City of the Wolves might have the worst soundtrack in the series, which is really too bad.
I have to say, even with choosing to wait for City of the Wolves, I'm still a bit disappointed in it. By no means do I think this is a bad game, or even think it's unfun; rather, I feel like after a 25 year wait, this game just isn't as good as we all wished it would have been. It didn't even necessarily have to be better than Mark of the Wolves, just better than the majority of other Fatal Fury games. Instead, it's a game I'd place somewhere in the middle of the series in terms of how good it is. I also think if you are a more defensive minded fighting game player, who really enjoys punishing opponents with counters and reversals, you will probably enjoy City of the Wolves more than I did. I liked this game, but it's just too bad I didn't like it maybe just a bit more. (12/25/25) [33/50]
bikingjahuty:
After opening presents with my wife, having breakfast, and calling some family, I had a pretty low key, relaxing day. I took advantage of it by playing a lot of the new games I got for Christmas, but mainly I spent a ton of time today playing the following.
128. Demon's Tilt (Switch)
I've been wanting to try out Demon's Tilt for quite some time seeing how I'm a pretty big pinball guy. I love playing real pins on location when I can as well as virtual pins on the PC and console. Speaking of virtual pinball, I've learned to adapt to the inherent lack of any analogue, tactile sensations of hitting a physical metal ball around a physical playfield. There is always some level of delay and while virtual pinball doesn't necessarily provide a 1:1 substitute for the real thing, it at least scratches the itch most of the time when certain tables aren't available. I mention all this to preface some of my thoughts and feelings on Demon's Tilt, which was a fun game for the most part, but certainly lacking when it comes to an original virtual pinball game.
Demon's Tilt is definitely more about spectacle than gameplay. Being a highly stylized, retro inspired game, I feel like Demon's Tilt wants to wow you with its neon bullets that fill the playfield when you hit a specific target or complete certain shots. Or, certain targets in the form of beasts or a priestess in the middle of the 2nd level of the playfield changing throughout the game is also there to provide a level of entertainment. And for the most part, this all works pretty well. Being essentially three playfields stacks on each other to make a single game, Demon's Title has a lot of see and experience as you play longer and longer. Unfortunately, you will see 95% of what Demon's Tilt has to offer visually by the time you reach the 100 million to 200 million point range. Once seeing certain events happen on the playfield for the dozens time begins to wear off, you're left with gameplay that isn't terrible or even bad, but certainly not amazing either.
When I mentioned the delay and sometimes questionable physics of virtually all virtual pins, Demon's Tilt is no different, and if anything felt a bit worse. The delay when using flippers was very difficult to get used to and even after 3 hours or playing, I still didn't feel completely used to it. Likewise, the physics in this game felt all over the place, making actions like performing consistent shots fairly difficult. Not that there are a lot of great shots in this game. Some of the best real pinball machines gained their accliamed status due to how well they shoot and how well the playfield, ramps, and other features are laid out. Unfortunately the devs behind Demon's Tilt missed the memo on this and there are very few good or even satisfying shots in this game. You pretty much are just aiming the ball at the same dozen or so targets with a few ramps and other minor shots thrown in.
Finally, the audio in Demon's Tilt is pretty good. The music in this game is definitely a retro throwback similar to its visuals. The sounds in this game harken back to various 16 bit games from the 90s, as do the pixel graphics that make up the visuals. There are some catchy songs that all fir in pretty well with what's going on. Speaking of going along with the visuals and action, there are some good call outs and other sound effects that definitely add to how enjoyable Demon's Tilt can be.
While I enjoyed Demon's Tilt and kept on running into the "One more game" trap while playing, this game's visual charm that dips its toes into bullet hell chaos at times does wear off the more you play the game. When that begins to happen, you are left with a game that will mostly make you wish you were playing most other real pins that have been made over the past 30 years. Even if that means playing those other pins digitally. Still, as a fun way to spend a few hours, Demon's Tilt is certainly worth it. (12/25/25) [33/50]
kashell:
82. Mega Man X4 - X
I went this long without finishing my favorite Mega Man without X? Shame on me. I had an hour or so to kill on Christmas Eve so I decided to pop this in my Switch 2 and do the things. It was fun as always.
83. Final Fantasy VIII Remastered - platinum'd
The journey towards 150 platinum trophies continues with this misunderstood entry in the famous series. I don't care what anyone says: I love this game: story, characters, villains,experimental the gameplay was with the GFs, the Junctions, the Drawing, the weapon crafting, and more. I love how it takes place in a setting that looks very much like our own world. I love all the plot reveals, the music that comes with them, and the way it utilizes the best card mini-game in the franchise to totally bust the game wide open. If you know what you're doing, then it doesn't take long to turn Squall (and Quistis) into a dynamic duo. My final party was Squall, Quistis (best character/girl/waifu/whatever) and Irvine. Aside from the ridiculous Obel Lake sidequest, I had a ton of fun getting this platinum. The final dungeon is worthy of its own side story.
kashell:
I posted my full list on the first page. It includes dropped titles and demos.
It was a tough year. Thanks the gods for gaming!
bikingjahuty:
129. Xeno Crisis (Switch)
For Christmas I had asked my wife for the Bitmap Bureau Collection, mostly just for one game included on it, Xeno Crisis. I fell down an indie game rabbit hole a few months ago and Xeno Crisis was one of the titles that really stood out to me as a game I really wanted to own and play. It's scifi overhead run and gun gameplay looked amazing and there were just so many things about it that looks fun as hell. Luckily, my wife ended up coming through on Christmas and getting me the collection and I finally had a chance today to see if this game was as incredible as it looked. Sadly, the answer to that would end up being a disappointing no.
Xeno Crisis references so many scifi and horror franchises, both related to gaming and movies, it will make your head spin. I'd say a large portion of this game will make you think of the Aliens franchise, but there is so much more than that. There is some Resident Evil, Tremors, Half Life, Metal Gear, and The Thing thrown in as well, and probably a few I'm forgetting. It all comes across as pretty insane, but at the same time really entertaining since you never know what will come up next. The only problem is that most of these cool references are delivered in such a high degree of repetition, in fairly lackluster looking stages that it is a bit lost on the player, at least it was for me. Luckily, there are some really awesome boss encounters in the game that make up for the kinda meh stages and overly used enemies.
The audio in Xeno Crisis is also pretty good. Music is all well done and has that 16 bit retro sound to it, which fits in with the sprite based action visuals. There are the expected weapon and action sound effects as well which all have a pretty good crispness to them too. Overall, the sound composition isn't the greatest, but it is far from the worst. I guess it can at times feel a bit on the generic side while not doing anything offense or bad at the same time. But yeah, the audio is definitely fairly good for the most part.
Presentation wise, Xeno Crisis does a pretty good job, and it is what really attracted me to the game. However, the Smash TV style gameplay that looks like it was applied the Aliens IP also really inspired me to want to get this game too. Unfortunately, the totally unbalanced gameplay that will constantly throw way more at you than you can manage is what began to diminish my enjoyment of Xeno Crisis only a few stages in. This was only compounded by the fact that you can literally run out of ammo in a game that more or less requires you to constantly be leaning on the fire button to even remorely have a chance of surviving. Oh, and then to add insult to injury, the game gives you like three continues before making you start all over from the very beginning of the game again. There is a way to remedy some of this by activating the unlimited ammo and continues cheat, which is what I did. However, while I thought I'd fixed a few of this games biggest flaws, I was met with the game's worst ending and also denied fighting what may be the coolest boss in the game as a result.
Not necessarily because I used cheat, but because I dared to use even a single continue, which come in the form of Elixers. I won't spoil anything, but you will not get to see the good endings of this game unless you 1cc the entire thing, which seems unimaginable given how bonkers the default gameplay is. Even if I played this game religiously for months, the incredibly haphazard, unbalanced gameplay would likely not allow me to even reach the fourth or fifth stage before needing to use a continue. However, I'd likely have gone insane from how repetitive and tedious this game could be as a result before that happened. Due to all that, the bad ending I received for using continues was pretty much the final slap in the face to what was otherwise a a fairly monotonous game with some good, entertaining aspects thrown in.
I certainly don't hate Xeno Crisis, but it is just a flawed game in so many ways that it would be hard for me to recommend it to someone looking for a cool, fun retro throwback action game. There are definitely pieces there that tease what could have been a much better game, but honestly these positive aspects are not utilized or designed well enough to make this game better than a one and done experience that you're better off using cheats to experience than torturing yourself through a sloppily difficult game with enough tedium to induce comatose. (12/27/25) [29/50]