General and Gaming > General

52 Games Challenge 2026!!!

<< < (8/56) > >>

ssj4yamgeta:
1: Tomb Raider II

The first game was rough, but thankfully the second game was a massive improvement. By itself, getting rid of the horrible single-use save crystal system and replacing it with a save-anywhere system was such a massive improvement that it made the game playable without resulting to save states (though I still used them to avoid sitting through a loading screen every time I died). TR2 was also a considerable improvement both visually and in level design. There were two levels in particular, Barkhang Monastery and Temple of Xian, that I actually enjoyed playing and look back on fondly. I feel like TR2 will be the high point of the original trilogy. Now on to TR3, which I'm already 2 levels into... and brought back the damn save crystals... yeah, not looking forward to this one.

Completed:

Tomb Raider II

In Progress:

Tomb Raider III (Evercade)
Mafia: The Old Country (PS5)
Final Fantasy IV Advance (PC via emulation)

bikingjahuty:
6. Castlevania (NES)


I'd originally given up on Castlevania yesterday due to how little fun I was having just prior to getting to the Death boss. After trying years ago to beat this game, and once again the other day, I fully realized once more that I'm not a fan of the first Castlevania game, or really most NES games for that matter. Still, a little voice in my head kept on egging me to return to it, if for nothing else than to say, "yep, I beat the original Castlevania." And stubbornly, that's what I chose to do. However, after beating Castlevania, I somewhat wish I hadn't.


Like most "hard" NES games, the game's difficulty stems more from gameplay limitations of the time, poor game design, and just really outdated mechanics. Castlevania is a prime example of this, and this game drives me crazy even when it's not at its most relentlessly difficult. Moving is very stiff and slow, jumping and even basic platforming is overly difficult, navigating stairs sucks, and certain sections of this game feel very half baked in terms of their design. This game is a literal test of patience and endurance over how many cheap shots and needless deaths the player can endure before wanting to turn the console off and just walk away. The gameplay isn't all bad however, but whatever it does right, it easily does two or three other things wrong.


The presentation in Castlevania is fantastic and I adore the gothic horror art direction of the game and how well the artists at Konami portrayed this with 8 bit pixels. Bosses and enemies are mostly all great and memorable, and there is a level of detail not seen in many other NES games for the time. The soundtrack is also very memorable and catchy and goes so well with everything else going on. In many ways, Castlevania's presentation really carries it and makes it a standout game on the NES.


While I am happy in a way that I beat Castlevania, I didn't necessarily feel a sense of accomplishment or even really relief. I was just sort of pissed off and a little annoyed with myself that I just HAD to go back and play this game again. I didn't enjoy it when I played and dropped it yesterday, and I enjoyed it even less getting through the rest of the game, include two of the most obnoxiously annoying bosses in the entire game. I definitely don't plan on playing Castlevania ever again and will instead spend my time with the newer entries that definitely refined nearly everything from the first game. (1/7/26) [29/50]

bizzgeburt:
01 - uDraw GameTablet - uDraw Studio: Instant Artist [DE] (PlayStation3)
https://vgcollect.com/item/286773

Hardware: PlayStation 3 fat + uDraw GameTablet
Playtime: About 10 hours

I swapped this item and game along with Pictionary Plus, that I played and reviewed a few weeks ago. uDraw Studio: Instant Artist seems to be the must-have title to compliment the uDraw GameTablet and I enjoyed this game far more than Pictionary Plus.

The bundle uDraw GameTablet - uDraw Studio: Instant Artist was released in Germany on march 6th 2012 by publisher THQ. The game uDraw Studio: Instant Artist itself is the sequel to uDraw Studio and was delevoped by Pipeworks Software, a company based in Eugene/Oregon founded in 1999. Bought by Foundation 9 in april 2005 and then bought by Digital Bros in september 2014, and then again bought by Northern Pacific Group in february 2018 and renamed Pipeworks Studios, this company is responsible for developing a few known games such as Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones for PSP, Devil May Cry, Devil May Cry 2 and Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening for Xbox360 and PS3 or Zumba Fitness for Xbox360, Wii and PS3, amongst some lesser known partially licensed titles.
uDraw Studio: Instant Artist is essentially a digital art studio to use the uDraw GameTablet as intended - for drawing.

Logically, the core gameplay-element (is gameplay even the correct term?) is the quite impressive drawing-editor, where you pick your tools, colors and so on and start drawing something. Being somewhat graphically skilled since childhood, this "game" actually appealed to me. It takes a little while to get used to the tablet's attached pen, but I was slightly blown away by the capabilities of this graphic drawing editor. The color palette to choose from offers literally endless options and there are more than enough useful and sometimes funny tools to choose from, such as pen, brush, spray can, paint bucket, and many more. This is where uDraw Studio: Instant Artist really shines in comparison to Pictionary Plus with it's own very simplified editor.
You can either use all those functions freely in the free drawing mode, or absolve a digital art course, or try out some of the minigames and drawing puzzles in the so called artist camp section. The drawing-with-numbers puzzle felt specifically relaxing and cozy within this section. I don't know if this was intentional, but one of the minigames (Alien Swatter) seems to be a modern ripoff of the fly swatting minigame in Mario Paint - C'mon, how dope is this please?  :o

Graphics (menu, layout, minigames) are all humble and basic, and a game like this doesn't require anything more sophisticated. At the end of the day, the player's own paintings and creations are ment to build the graphical heart of uDraw Studio: Instant Artist. And, given all the different tools and options, it is really possible to create impressive pictures with depth, lighting and effects. It takes some practice though.

Same as with graphics and similar to Pictionary Plus, the music in uDraw Studio: Instant Artist is not worth examining in detail. But let me at least point out who's credited with this unmemorable, highly generic drivel: Michael Jones, American freelance composer and sound engineer, who already composed the soundtrack to uDraw Studio and actually won the 2021 MPSE Golden Reel Award for outstanding achievement in audio editing (game Audio) with his contribution to Call of Duty: Vanguard. I guess he himself doesn't consider this particular soundtrack as one of the milestones of his career...

Nevertheless and thanks to it's fine working editor, I totally enjoyed playing uDraw Studio: Instant Artist and am looking foward to getting more uDraw-titles to tinker with this funky uDraw GameTablet.

First game finished in 2026 - on to the next one  8)

ssj4yamgeta:
2: Mafia: The Old Country
THIS is how you make a cinematic game. Straight to the point, no pointless busywork, no grind, absolutely nothing that distracts from the main story. If Rockstar is working on Red Dead Redemption 3, they need to learn some lessons from this game. It feels like RDR2 if that game was story-focused, had cars, and took place in Italy. And because there's absolutely nothing unnecessary to get in the way, it's a much more enjoyable experience. Mafia: The Old Country does more with its 11-hour run time than most modern games do with 70. Thoroughly enjoyed it, looking forward to playing it again some time.

Completed:

Tomb Raider II (Evercade)
Mafia: The Old Country (PS5)

In Progress:

Tomb Raider III (Evercade)
Final Fantasy IV Advance (PC via emulation)

realpoketendonl:
2. Chaos Faction*
3. Chaos Faction 2



Well these certainly weren't games I was planning to add to the list this year, but here we are. Chaos Faction is a Flash game from back in the day that I liked a lot as a kid. I remember beating it on a school computer, with a friend watching, and I felt so cool when I did. I was surprised to find that Chaos Faction and its sequel were ported to native PC and rereleased together as Chaos Faction Legacy Collection on Steam. Hell, I didn't even know Chaos Faction had a sequel. But for nostalgia's sake, I decide to give them both a go again. Flash games are odd in general: do they even count for this? Well, I say they do. Sure, many of them are 5-minute long crap, but there were also some genuine gems on Flash, sometimes with substantial amounts of content. And I don't see how Flash games are that different from bite-sized experiences that we still see on platforms like Steam, itch or even the Nintendo eShop nowadays. So as far as I'm concerned, they count.

Starting with Chaos Faction 1, I played through the game again, and usually when I play through games for the second time I do count them with an asterisk here, so that's what I'm doing. This is pretty much a 1-to-1 port of the original Flash game. Almost to a fault: they didn't even bother to include built-in controller or Steam Deck support, so I had to manually map the buttons. That's a bit cheap guys, but thankfully the game is simple enough that mapping the buttons is easy. Apart from that, the only difference is some music and sound effects which I'm assuming is because in the original release they didn't have the rights (I mean, it was still an online Flash game).

Chaos Faction is a platform fighter. You jump around, attack your opponent, and collect items to attack your opponent harder. It's pretty simple stuff, but for a Flash game in the mid-2000s, this was legitimately good. Among the endless piles of junk and extremely basic or repetitive stuff on Flash game sites at the time (or, well, the Flash game sites I frequented as a kid), this game was a breath of fresh air. It's hectic, but with some strategy and skill to it. However, you really need to see it in that context of Flash games of the time. If you're looking for a platform fighter, there are so many options out there nowadays that are far better. The campaign mode has 15 stages and I beat it in half an hour. It's fun to look back on and still pretty enjoyable to me, but if you're not nostalgic for it like I am, there's probably little here to make it worth searching out. (And let's be real, if you're curious, you can also just try it through Flashpoint first.)

It's sequel, Chaos Faction 2, I played through for the first time. It also only has 15 levels in its campaign mode so that also didn't take too long to beat. Compared to Chaos Faction 1, there are some clear improvements here. More variety in the challenges per level, there's actual hitstun this time, movesets are expanded a little, in addition of course to the new skins, stages and items. It's clear some effort and skill went into this, and it's probably objectively the better game. However, my views on it are similar to Chaos Faction 1: if you're not nostalgic for these titles, they probably won't wow you. There's some fun to be had in these games, for sure. Including in multiplayer. Some of the items, if aimed right, can be blunt 1-hit kills, which creates a fun chaotic dynamic of trying to run for them and creating some "What was that?!" moments. If you're looking for a smooth, fast, hectic game with Flash-feeling fun, this'll do the trick. But I just find it difficult to see people who don't know already know these games really fall in love them.

So yeah, Chaos Faction was fun to go back to, and I'm sure I will again in the future when I'm feeling nostalgic again. But should you search them out? Well, if you're nostalgic for the mid-2000s Flash game era, maybe give them a try through Flashpoint, or support the developers by buying it if you want to (I mean, I'm assuming they're getting a cut). But otherwise, eh, as much as I will always have a soft spot for these games, you'll probably be all right skipping these.

(Also, if you haven't heard of Flashpoint yet: it's an archival project intended to archive as many Flash-based games and applications as possible, and make them playable on modern hardware. Do check them out and support them, they do great work: https://flashpointarchive.org/ )

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page

[*] Previous page