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52 Games Challenge 2026!!!
supremeusername:
15. Digger T. Rock | 1990 | Rare Replay Collection | Xbox Series X | 3/14:
I'm not gonna trip, this game is pretty ass. Seemed to be pretty cool too at first glance. The few Snapshot challenges I played in the Rare Replay collection had featured this game. I had the impression that it would be like Dig Dug, but with NES level structures and a wider emphasis on navigation -- which is more or less what it is. Controls feel simple enough to use... until you get further in and see Digger slip off ledges trying to place a ladder, or get stuck trying to climb over a rock, or lose a life because he can't decide whether to throw a rock or use the shovel at an enemy. I then realized what I was in for.
In Rare fashion, a lot of their earlier catalog LOVES to challenge you; sometimes for the worse reasons. Battletoads is challenging -- maybe downright unfair with its difficulty -- but it never feels cheap. The challenge of Digger T. Rock comes from enemies that will endlessly spawn and falls that you cannot gauge if its a couple of blocks steep or a dozen. The camera is very close to your character, so you can't really tell what's below you. You can use ladders to safely climb down, but they're limited use. It all boils down to trial-and-error. There is a way to get unlimited ladders in like the 3rd level or something, but I never figured out how. Unless you have the patience to constantly get killed over and over just to figure out where you need to go, you're going to need a walkthrough. I didn't want to start pulling hairs, so I gave in and used one.
As you can probably tell, I'm not big on Rare's earlier catalog. I can recognize however that Cobra Triangle and Snake Rattle 'N' Roll are better looking, playing games than this -- and both had been released before this game! This takes the crown from Gunfright as the worse in the Rare Replay collection thus far. Grade: F+
kashell:
28. SaGa Frontier Remastered - Lute
New Game Plus. Recruit my faves. Do a smidge of stat grinding and glimmering in the Shrike Bio Lab. And boom. Done. I like Lute as a character but his scenario feels very tacked on at the last minute. The info dump by Hamilton near the end feels a bit forced. But eh. Details. Another character down. Up next is my boy Blue.
supremeusername:
16. Jurassic: The Hunted | 2009 | Xbox 360 | 3/22:
This is one of those games that I felt pretty unsure about going in. I'm not into dinosaurs, why would I buy this? Let's start with the facts: Jurassic: The Hunted is not a good game. It's extremely short, jank, not visually appealing, random ass story, corny B-movie dialogue, and definitely a product of its era. Yet, I had fun playing through this mess -- way more than I expected.
The dinosaurs of this game are well-recreated and believable. I mean, most of them just dart towards you as a form of attack, but it's thrilling and sometimes scary. You face the dinky dinosaurs mainly, with the much larger ones saved as boss fights. Levels are pretty varied and will most of the time introduce a new weapon for you to play around with. There are turret sections and even closed-off areas where you have to defend and repair barricades that the dinosaurs will try to tear down, similar to Call of Duty Zombies. I never felt bored with this game, which doesn't say much considering the campaign is like 2 hours long but still.
I would even consider Jurassic: The Hunted to be in the 'C' tier level of games I've played this year... if it wasn't for one glaring issue. This game runs horribly. This is one of the worse optimized games I have ever played. The first time I booted this game up, I had thought about getting rid of it because I thought my copy of the game was defective. I don't know if it's because I have one of the oldest Xbox 360s that hasn't red-ringed or what! I had to use the Adreneline ability more often to slow down time; not because it looked cool but because I couldn't aim with all the framedrops into the mid-10s. I guess that's just part of the 'Jurassic: The Hunted experience'. Grade: D
2ko:
5. Rune Factory A Fantasy Harvest Moon - Meh. The series has potential. But the execution of the first game was just very medium all around. Combat for the most part is just spamming the attack button. Some enemies will require a more "hit and run" style, which I found to be a lot more engaging as you had to actually somewhat think about what you were doing, but those enemies were few and far between. The bosses were fine though and required some thought and preparation to take down.
My biggest "gripe" was that forging weapons and accessories are locked behind upgrading your house which takes a while to do. I was about 3/4 of my way through the main story before I got it. The problem with this was that you need to craft strong weapons and accessories to get through the last few dungeons, but in order to craft them you need to level up those skills. So you are kind of forced to grind mining ores and making weapons for a few hours to level up before you can make any more progress. If they just gave you access to this mechanic earlier on you could level it up naturally as you explore and grow your character. Ideally, you would be able to do it from the start so you can naturally level these skills as you play instead of stopping everything to grind.
I also played the EN version, which after checking the JP version has super compressed audio. A bit of a shame.
Overall, a very mediocre/average game. Nothing special, but it gets enough right to make it enjoyable as a whole. I'd give it a solid 5.
Games still in progress: Pokemon Diamond (DS), Metaphor Refantazio (PS5), Octopath Traveler (Switch)
telly:
Game 6 - Gauntlet: Dark Legacy (GC) - 2-player co-op, 20 Hours
After many bottles of beer, a friend and I were finally able to finish this game, which I've had on my "want-to-finish" list for years ever since I picked it up for the first time in college about 10 years ago. This game is great for couch co-op with your buddies. While graphically it leaves a lot to be desired, it's the gameplay, music, and great sound effects and voice work (in a silly way) that wins you over. This is a pretty deep game too that actually requires quite a bit of coordination and effort. I had to keep a log of all the Runestones, secret weapons, and other gameplay tricks and secrets that you may miss if you don't have the manual or pause a significant amount of time between play sessions like we were doing. Nonetheless, it's a really fun game and I'm glad I stuck with it after all this time. Will probably keep quoting the characters and announcer for a bit afterwards however!
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