52 Games Challenge 2026!!!

[Cartagia]

32 - Donkey Kong Bananza (Switch 2 2025) - BEAT - I'm gonna be honest on this...I'm a little mixed on this game.  Broadly, it's a fun time.  Tunneling is cool, there's fun mechanics, lots of colors, music, silly characters, there's a lot here as a game to do, it is a solid 3D platformer, it's good stuff.  That being said, it sorta does some of what I didn't love with Super Mario Odyssey (This is the same team, where instead of each level having like...10, maybe 20 distinct collectibles like how things were back in the day, each level has anywhere from like 30 to I think 60, and there's nearly 800 in this game, just like Odyssey.  After awhile, the grind to find them starts to get fairly tedious and this includes things like the Fossils, which are used to buy cosmetics, so there's a TON to find here.

It's not poorly handled compared to like Donkey Kong 64, but I realized by a certain point, I think it's abit over halfway through the game, that I was getting abit burnt out finding everything.  You spend so much time just spamming R1, because it's the sonar clap which will show banana's and fossils buried around for you to dig or maybe find a way around, so much is just spamming that and you want to upgrade that as fast as possible along with terrain strength so you can find things better. 

It didn't help that the bosses are kinda lame.  They look cool, but nearly every single one is really easy.  They also re-use a number of the bosses fights twice, with one even getting used a third time.  It's like halfway through they gave up on bosses, it's very unsatisfying especially when they are super easy.  The finale section of the game perked me up, but it was such a weird turn I did not ever expect, it's kinda baffling, kinda fun, I don't know, it's weird.

Game needs some optimization too, like real bad.  It's generally quite smooth, but effects heavy levels like the Ice Layer, and Storm Layer, and then certain boss fights and things where lots of explosions happen cause serious frame drops, like going from 60 to 30 or something, it's bad.

I don't know, I'm generally on board with open world 3D platformer games and I did have a good time, this a good game, but I hit a point in the last third of the game I kinda just wanted to get through the story and sorta pushed my way through.  I have so much to do and collect and there's decent post-game content added also, this is a hefty as heck game.

Also screw that one Rambi racing level, it's objectively the worst level and feels awful to play lol

I'm not finished yet, but this is exactly how I feel about the game.  Cool, bright, fun, tight controls.  Way too long.  I was beating a level, going back and getting every banana, but around Layer 1000 it started getting a little tedious, but I figured the game was wrapping up.  There were eight more layers to go.

[dhaabi]

33. I Was Seen as the Weakest Hero but I Can Secretly Edit the Metadata of the World || Browser || 09.06.2026



For a while, I've been wanting to play some sort of game revolving around language or words. I've had a couple of more premium games in mind that I own, but a game jam project with the same focus caught my attention lately, so I decided to play it instead. And that game would be I Was Seen as the Weakest Hero but I Can Secretly Edit the Metadata of the World.

In short, I Was Seen as the Weakest Hero is an adventure game with branching narrative paths, granting players the direct means to alter outcomes by weighing different possibilities in real-time before submitting the final change. Presented like a children's storybook of sorts with its simple illustrations, each screen introduces a brief story segment. There is a maximum sentence word count, however, so players are required to reduce the total number of words being used by marking some out in a way that maintains a full sentence structure with meaning so that the story can progress in some way. With such a gameplay mechanic, what once was one story outcome may transform to something wildly different, and it's made all more effective by the game's emphasis on humor. No matter what sentences are formed, there ultimately are two major paths to take with various differences in the smaller details. Describing the game in such a way implies little to be discovered, but that's not quite true despite the game's scope, and it's fun to experiment with removing certain words in a way that even alters their category as parts of speech such as transforming what once was originally an adjective into a noun.

As its title name implies, the game is centered around a hero named Gallafrey on a journey. However, whether they're a hero or not is entirely dependent on the player's choices. Perhaps his title is something else waiting to be discovered, or maybe he doesn't even remember his name. Yet, while there is a lot of freedom awarded to players to craft their own narrative, there is, in a sense, a right way to play. Once the story concludes or is unable to advance due to the player's failings, the end screen appears alongside scoring criteria. Not every possible action is achievable in a playthrough, so scores are designed in a way that's based on a pass and fail grading system or sorts. The severity of these choices depends on how many points are either lost or gained, and it's a small but fun inclusion to incentivize players to play as efficiently or poorly as they can. Of course, it's also worth mentioning that there are limits to how the story can advance. There's been plenty of feedback from its community about how certain sentences can be created in accordance to the writing that's already present without allowing the plot to be advanced in a certain way, though it's possible that updates could be published in the future to allow these new possibilities. Still, I found what's currently available to be plenty while offering a rewarding experience.

Alongside the grading score, a line of text stating how more options can be taken appears upon reaching the game's end. So for some time, I assumed that the game was keeping track of my progress in exploring story paths. I may be incorrect, but I don't think that sort of capability is actually implemented. I've made a strong effect to see as many scenarios that are possible while carefully removing words and experimenting with the results, and I do think I've exhausted all possibilities. Nevertheless, the message doesn't update. Instead, I think it's merely there to inform first-time players that various paths can be explored. Whether or not the message does update (meaning I've missed something), the presence of even a slightly more detailed metric that states how many story segments have been experienced out of the total figure would better allow players to play through the game repeatedly to discover new outcomes.

Before playing, I had already watched enough gameplay to know that I Was Seen as the Weakest Hero but I Can Secretly Edit the Metadata of the World would be a game I'd enjoy. That fact didn't diminish the enjoyment experienced, though.

[kamikazekeeg]

35 - Wardogs (PC EA 2026) - ENDLESS - This is one of those games I've been waiting to see for awhile, a large scale shooter with unique mechanics that isn't so hardcore that it's kinda just unfun, or too much of a military sim.  This game straddles that line perfectly of being kinda like an ARMA or Squad, but can be abit quicker to jump into with more freedom like Battlefield.  Battlefield I love, but it has had its issues, Hell Let Loose is too much of a running sim a lot of the time to me, I've never been that into Squad or Arma, but this has a lot going for it.

The game is built a little bit like an extraction shooter, in that you need money to buy gear, which then you go out, fight, and earn money by either supporting, reviving, or killing.  You can earn money in a ton of different ways.  Do you like base building? You can just spend a whole lot of time focused on just that, building up the base locations, building FOB's, it's like Battlefield 1 fortifications if you could build anywhere.  Do you just love flying? You can be a transport helicopter, delivering supplies to FOB's, delivering people (It's often the main way people get to the frontlines if there's not a spawn vehicle set up). You can also have Little Birds equipped with machine guns or rockets and become kind of a nightmare to deal with.  Just want to run around and shoot? There's all sorts of action for that from infantry to vehicles.

It's got a heck of a learning curve, figuring out how everything works, the building, where to build, the mechanics with scoring, dealing with the "F" interact system that can scroll for multiple options depending on what you are looking at, it's a lot, I died a lot of dumb deaths lol But it's a real solid shooter that has had a great start, I hope they can continue to support it long term in a very positive way.  Some games start out great and then missteps happen and it crumbles before hitting 1.0.

[realpoketendonl]

23. El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron HD Remaster



What a title. I initially heard about this game from a YouTuber I follow and then picked it up once on a deep sale. I got it because it looked interesting and I like 3D action games, but now that I've beaten it, eh....

El Shaddai clearly wants to be seen as deep and artsy above anything else. And to be fair, some of the visuals do look pretty and kind of intriguing. The problem for me is that that takes priority over almost everything else, which doesn't result in an interesting game for me.

Gameplay ain't anything special. Combat feels a tad simplistic. How deep can you expect a combat system to get with only one attack button? Moving and platforming is often switched up with new things in the world, but in practice never evolves past basic platforming which I found a tad dull. The story feels a bit up its own ass for me, so concerned with dumping important sounding lore on you that it forgets to create an intriguing storyline or engaging distinct characters. On a few occasions the artsiness also gets in the way of gameplay for me, like when I can't distinguish what is and isn't solid ground, or when I lose to a boss and the game just carries on without communicating at all what actually happened or what it expects of me.

Maybe I could excuse it a tad more if the game was mostly about just experiencing the cool visuals, which admittedly can be cool. But this is still also trying to be a 3D action game, and for me, it kind of has its priorities backwards. I stuck with it because I wasn't actively hating my time with it and I prefer to beat games rather than drop them, but I was glad this one was done so I could move on to something else. It's not bad, but to me, it was just a little dull. Personally, I'd say skip this one. There's much better 3D action games out there to try.

(Also, shoutout to some of the lazy aspects of this port. The Switch menu icon is hideous. It looks like a homebrew app. And the pause screen just shows you a QR code that leads to the manual on their website. Why couldn't you just put some settings or a reminder of the controls there?? Why a freaking QR code??)

[ssj4yamgeta]

13: SoulCalibur III (PS2)

Since I recently finished up my PS2 ROM archive and got PCSX2 up and running, I decided to revisit what I consider to be the greatest fighting game ever made. It had been well over a decade since I last played it, because I was dirt poor in my late teens and early 20s, which meant 6th gen lasted 10 years for me. This resulted in me getting burnt out on my 6th-gen games and constantly chasing new releases from the time I could afford an XBOX 360 until just a few years ago. Now I'm gradually going back and revisiting those classics. And I dare say, this one still lives up to my memories. I played through Story Mode with Cassandra, Mitsurugi, Siegfried, and Tira until I finally unlocked my old main, Sophitia. I then played through hers next and thoroughly enjoyed getting reacquainted with her. The game is still beautiful, especially by PS2 standards. Certain stages like the burning mansion hallway, and Abyss' final boss stage with all the meteors and the solar eclipse, make you wonder how they got this game to run on a PS2 in 2005. The only thing that looks slightly dated is the plastic-y skin textures on the character models, but they still look great in spite of it. And for single player content in a fighting game, this game is unsurpassed. Besides Story Mode, there's also Survival, Arcade, Missions, Tournaments, Character Creation (this was the game that popularized character creation in non-rpg games), a Museum with tons of different categories, and an RTS mode. Yes, this fighting game has a full frickin' RTS campaign built into it. The Story Mode routes are multiple choice as well, which gives the mode a high level of replayability, as you can play through it again with a character you've used before and have a different experience.

The game's biggest flaw is it being somewhat unbalanced, which was definitely more obvious to me now that I've expanded my knowledge of this genre of games. Setsuka in particular is a murder machine who can outmatch most other characters with sheer speed alone, landing a strike the instant you drop your guard and well before your own quick strike animation makes contact. I've heard there's an arcade-only version of this game called SoulCalibur III Arcade Edition where they rebalanced the roster, so I'll have to see if I can track down a ROM of that. Despite the balance issues, though, the game still holds up.

Rating: 9/10 (Outstanding)

Completed:

Tomb Raider II (Evercade)
Tomb Raider III (Evercade)
Mafia: The Old Country (PS5)
Gundam Breaker 4 (PS5)
Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection (PS5)
Resident Evil: Code Veronica X (Gamecube)
Final Fantasy IV Advance (GBA)
Dragon Ball FighterZ (XBOX One)
Virtua Fighter 2 (Genesis)
Street Fighter 2: Special Champion Edition (Genesis)
Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation Remastered (PS4)
Injustice: Gods Among Us Ultimate Edition (PS4)
SoulCalibur III (PS2)

In Progress:

Nioh (PS4)
Farmagia (Switch)
Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen (PS4)

[bikingjahuty]

54. Super Mario Galaxy 2 (Switch)

Despite how impossibly huge my backlog is, even I'm surprised that it took me this long to finally play and beat Super Mario Galaxy 2 (SMG2). I received SMG2 as a gift in 2010, maybe 2011, and since then I've always had the intention of playing it. One year went by, then another, then another. Before I knew it, over a decade had gone by and I still hadn't played the sequel to one of the best games I'd ever played. That's right, Super Mario Galaxy isn't just one of the most fun, amazing games I've ever played, but also one that's near and dear to my heart. I went through a period between about 2004 and 2007 where I barely played video games at all. Super Mario Galaxy was one of the key games that reoriented back into video games and led me on the long, long love affair with gaming that still continues on to this day. So yeah, now it probably makes more sense why it's a bit surprising I've never played SMG2 up until recently. Well, I did, and well, it's good, really good, but not as good as its predecessor.


Despite being a top tier platformer and video game in general, it's hard not to feel like SMG2 is just reheated leftovers from the night before, albeit with a dash of pepper added. SMG2 struggles to carve out its own distinct identity in any way. In fact, if you showed me any given galaxy stage in SMG2 and asked me to identify whether it's from the first game or that game, I couldn't tell you. Levels and challenges are practically taken from the first SMG, remixed and rearranged, and then repackaged with minor tweaks to make it slightly original. There are several additions to SMG2's gameplay and presentation that do distinguish it, with the biggest one undoubtedly being the addition of Yoshi and a playable companion. Unfortunately these Yoshi gameplay segments are among my least favorite parts of SMG2, but I still wouldn't call them bad. In fact, if I had been playing this game on the Wii, I may feel very different about playing as Yoshi or doing the various other gameplay elements that rely on the Switch's gyroscopic controls. Spoiler, they're kinda annoying.


Playing as Yoshi, aiming his tongue, and utilizing various Yoshi power ups heavily reply on the gyroscopic controls. This involves tilting the controller to aim a cursor that allows Yoshi to latch on to orgs that Yoshi can uses to cross and ascend parts of galaxy stages. If these were the only places you had to use the Switch's gyro controls, that might be forgivable, but there are many others. There are sections where you have to control a ball like you're playing Monkey Ball, there are glider racing sections where a bird holds Mario and you're forced to navigate through obstacle heavy courses by tilting the controller in various directions. These sections aren't terrible, but I definitely found them to be the low point of SMG2. Unfortunately, they're not the only issue I have with SMG2.


Most stages and challenges in SMG2 are tightly crafted and well made. Unfortunately, there are several areas in certain galaxies that just aren't that fun, mostly because of either how unpolished they are, or what you're doing just seems somewhat tedious. Don't get me wrong, these mediocre stages are a small minority of SMG2'S stages, but there are enough of them combined with the crappy gyro control sections make Galaxy 2's gameplay just slightly, but still noticeably less than perfect.


Despite these criticisms, which are absolutely minor, SMG2's gameplay does actually have a slight edge on the first game, it's difficulty. An unfortunate reality of most modern Mario games is they can be a tad on the easy side, at least up until near the end of the game. Fortunately, SMG2 remains fairly difficult all throughout the game, with slight spikes here and there, and as expected, towards the end of the game too. Now, I'm not saying SMG2 is like the Dark Souls of Mario games or anything like that, but it's baseline difficulty is noticeably higher than most modern 3D Mario games. What's nice is the overwhelming majority of this difficulty feels like it's by design and not a side effect of the mediocre and annoying aspects of the game I previously touched on. Overall, the gameplay in SMG2 is nearly as tight and enjoyable as the first SMG, but still noticeably lacking in most gameplay aspects.


As mentioned, SMG2 feels heavily like a retread of the first Galaxy game, and this is probably most evident in the game's visuals and overall presentation. Most of the visuals in SMG2 are borrowed assets from the first game, completely or mostly unaltered from its predecessor. One pretty noteworthy exception to this is the many new bosses present in SMG2. I know we're talking about the visuals, but I have to take a sec to say the bosses in SMG2 might be more fun to fight than the bosses in the first SMG overall. They're also more visually memorable and interesting as well, mostly. Despite the arguably cooler bosses, I still stand by what I said about SMG2 lacking a distinct identity of its own. A big part of this has to do with Nintendo putting in the bare minimum to give you a reason for why Mario is once again treking across the cosmos. And yep, you already guessed it; you gotta rescue Princess Peach once again from the clutches of Bowser. That's literally it. Combine this with the recycled visuals, galaxy styles and aesthetics, reused assets, and almost not even having Rosalina in this game, and yeah, you have a game that at times feels more like a glorified expansion than a true sequel to the first Galaxy.


The recycling of assets extends to the game's music as well. Obviously, this isn't a bad thing by any means given how good the music and overall audio presentation was in the first SMG. I actually wasn't sure if any of the tracks in SMG2 were original to this game specifically, but I suppose if there were some, they blended well with the quality of the many songs from the original Galaxy game that are reused in SMG2.


There is no question in my mind, both while playing SMG2 and after beating it, that I enjoy the first game more. The first Galaxy is better in nearly every way, and on a more personal level, it will never hold the same special spot that SMG has for me. Beyond my own personal nostalgia for that game, the story, setting, and just the novelty of how mind blowing the original Super Mario Galaxy was in 2007 just isn't present in this sequel. Still, despite those shortcomings, you'd be absolutely hard pressed to find a better platformer anywhere else. I'd highly recommend SMG2, even if it does give me a massive dose deja vu. (9/19/26) [41/50]

[realpoketendonl]

24. Katamari Damacy REROLL

La laaaa lalalalala la la la Katamari Damacy!

I had never played a Katamari game before, even though it's one of the biggest example of "quirky" games, for the lack of a better word. So when Reroll was on sale, I figured it was worth a try. I enjoyed it enough for what it was, but it didn't really wow me that much. I feel like Katamari works best as a game if you don't really know too much about what to expect. But at this point it's such common knowledge what Katamari is, that it kind of lacked that wow factor for me. I had seen the King of All Cosmos before, I knew what the gimmick was and how it would evolve as the game continued, and sadly that deflates the experience a tiny bit when that's a major part of the game's appeal.

That doesn't mean it's not still fun. Rolling stuff up, seeing your Katamari grow, seeing how some objects react or what objects are there, it's charming. It's a clever concept executed well and with plenty of quirky charm.

Still, there were also a few annoyances I wasn't expecting. Early on in levels, when your Katamari is not that big yet, I think the camera is too close to you, making it hard to orient yourself and figure out where you can go to keep growing. I also got stuck a few times, which even caused me to lose a level once. Sometimes the Katamari moves slower than I was expecting, and I feel like some of the final levels, which can be as long as 25 minutes, simply go on too long.

Overall, I'm glad to have experienced Katamari for myself. If anything it feels good to tick it off the list. However, I don't really see myself coming back to this one to be honest. It did not grab me quite on that level. There's a good chance I would've enjoyed it more if I wasn't already familiar with its quirky weirdness, but that's the downside of success I suppose.

But yes, whenever someone brings it up I will still happily go la laaaa lalalalala la la la Katamari Damacy!

[bikingjahuty]

55. Ultra Street Fighter II: The Final Challengers (Switch)

Like most people who bought a Switch at launch in 2017, I primarily bought the console for Breath of the Wild. However, after several months of Breath of the Wild consuming my free time and life, it was time to find another game to justify my expensive new console purchase. Enter Ultra Street Fighter II: The New Challengers! I can't remember if it was the second game I bought for the Switch, but if it wasn't, it was certainly one of the first games I bought for it. Street Fighter II is one of those games where you could release a slightly different version of it tomorrow and I'd still get hyped for it even though the game is now 35 years old. I've been a fan of most Street Fighter II updates and iterations over the years, but when the "Ultra" version was announced, my expectations and hype were sky high. While this is a very good version of Street Fighter II, I feel like the Ultra in the title does oversell this game just a bit.


By far the most distinctive way Ultra distinguishes itself from vanilla II, Super II, or Hyper II, is it completely overhauled visuals. Replacing the original handdrawn sprites of characters and stages from previous entries, Capcom instead used digitally illustrated art that while looking more crisp and polished that the older versions of Street Fighter II, don't necessarily look better. And don't get me wrong, these swapped out sprites and updated stage backgrounds do look good, but at least for me, they also strip this game of the charm and timelessness of Street Fighter II, especially updated versions released on arcade platforms like the CPS2.


The audio is also overhauled and while they sound very similar to their older version counterparts, they have a more modern texture and sound to them, which after decades of playing the various versions of Street Fighter II, just don't hit my ear right. I mean, they sound fine for the most part, but they just don't have that X factor that was present in most older versions, updates, and ports of the previous Street Fighter games.


Luckily, depending on how you look at it, Ultra Street Fighter II also you to toggle both the visuals and audio between the new modern look and sound, or the old style. I played through the game in both and to no surprise I loved the classic sprite look way, way more. Even the two new additions to the Street Fighter II roster, Evil Ryo and Violent Ken are rendered in the old school style of graphics when toggled to this retro option. However, this is hardly some massive display of effort on Capcom's part, since aside from moves and speed, these two new characters look like simple color pallet swaps of their original counterparts. With all that said, it's easy to write of Ultra Street Fighter II as just another minimally updated version of Street Fighter II in a long line of other updates, especially when playing and listening to the game in retro mode. But within the gameplay there are some meaningful differences, however not all of them are good.


Probably the closest cousin to Ultra Street Fighter II is it's Super Turbo version, with the huge exception of being able to control what speed the game plays at. Ultra plays mostly at the same speed as the Turbo 2 setting in the aforementioned game. However, one thing that sets Ultra apart from that game, as well as any other version of Street FIghter II I can think of is its difficulty.


Ultra Street Fighter II is probably the easiest version of Street Fighter II ever made, at least on the default normal difficulty. Seriously, if I play practically any other version of Street Fighter 2, opponents such as Chun Li, Balrog, and M. Bison always give me a ton of trouble. However, I was able to pretty much breeze through Ultra  twice within an hour. Only turning the difficulty up really makes the game start to feel like the older, sprite-based versions of Street Fighter II in terms of difficulty. For some, this is going to be a positive thing since it technically makes the game more accessible to newcomers, but at least for me, it undermines what was a highly balanced and polished level of default difficulty in those odler releases of 2.


Aside from the noticeably easier difficulty, Ultra II possesses the same ultra tight, well made controls of its various predecessors. Special moves are easy and intuitive to pull off, movement controls are pretty much top notch, and just about everything else feels as polished as you'd expect. The two new characters which I mentioned earlier are also fun alternative versions of Ryo and Ken respectively that I enjoyed playing as.


Sadly, I'm going to have to disagree with Ultra Street Fighter II being the ultimate way to play this classic game. Between Super Street Fighter II (both vanilla and turbo) and Hyper released in the early 2000s, those games perfected Street Fighter II in nearly every possible way. Ultra didn't really need to exist beyond giving the world a more "polished" presentation of a game everyone was already familiar with. Still, I'm not going to say Ultra is pointless or bad, because it's 100% the opposite. Wile I'd say there are better ways of playing Street Fighter II, Ultra stands as a perfectly satisfactory and enjoyable release of Street Fighter 2 with some fun additions exclusively added to this version. it absolutely stands as a great way to experience this excellent series of games and one I enjoyed quite a bit, even if I was trying to make it look and feel more like those older versions I definitely prefer. (9/20/26) [38/50]

[ssj4yamgeta]

14: Injustice 2: Legendary Edition (PS4)

This game does what all sequels should do: take the first game and make everything bigger and better. Once again there is a robust story mode roughly 4 hours long, and the writing seems quite a bit better this time. It also seems like they made all of the characters easier to play, I didn't have as hard of a time with this one as I did with the first game. Supplementing the story mode is the excellent Multiverse Mode, which functions like the Towers of Time in Mortal Kombat 11. Its stages reset every few hours or so and reward you with Mother Boxes (lootboxes) for playing, which allows you to unlock new gear for the game's massive roster of 38 characters. Speaking of that, Injustice 2 features an insane amount of character customization, allowing you to change any character's headgear/cape, torso, arms, and legs. Similar to Diablo, the pieces you get have rarities and randomly-generated stat boosts as well. I've pretty much settled on Black Adam as my main, so I've been doing a few of the easier multiverse towers to level him up and get him some cool gear. Already got him a cool crown and some armor plating on top of his suit.

Oddly enough I remember hearing that a lot of people didn't like Injustice 2 as much as the first game. It probably has something to do with the lootboxes, but they're very easy to get without spending money, at least in the Legendary Edition. I actually like this game more. As far as what I didn't like, Injustice 2 does one of my least favorite things in fighting games: removing characters that were in the previous game. I was disappointed that Zod and Deathstroke were gone, as those were two of my favorites from Injustice. Aside from that, it would have been nice to have Power Girl as a full character with her own slot, moveset, and customizations instead of her just being an alternate skin for Supergirl. And finally, it would have been nice to have Nuclear Man in the game. Yeah I know he's considered one of the worst villains in the Superman movies, but he's one of my favorites. He was also way more intimidating than anything in Superman 3, even if he did go catatonic when not in direct sunlight and his other superpowers were yelling and growing his fingernails.

Rating: 8/10 (Excellent)

Completed:

Tomb Raider II (Evercade)
Tomb Raider III (Evercade)
Mafia: The Old Country (PS5)
Gundam Breaker 4 (PS5)
Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection (PS5)
Resident Evil: Code Veronica X (Gamecube)
Final Fantasy IV Advance (GBA)
Dragon Ball FighterZ (XBOX One)
Virtua Fighter 2 (Genesis)
Street Fighter 2: Special Champion Edition (Genesis)
Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation Remastered (PS4)
Injustice: Gods Among Us Ultimate Edition (PS4)
SoulCalibur III (PS2)
Injustice 2: Legendary Edition (PS4)

In Progress:

Nioh (PS4)
Farmagia (Switch)
Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen (PS4)

[dhaabi]

34. Nier Replicant ver.1.22474487139... || PlayStation 4 || 09.15.2026



Over eight years ago, I started playing Nier for PlayStation 3 but couldn't find the time to devote myself to a full playthrough and didn't progress very far at all. But now after all this time later, I've revisited the game through its remastered version Nier Replicant ver.1.22474487139... for PlayStation 4, and I'm glad to have finally done so. I normally avoid playing remastered versions unless there's good reason to visit them, yet this is one of those few instances when it's worthwhile since a considerable amount of new content that was originally planned but ultimately dropped has been added. For all intents and purposes, the original game is obsolete.

As an action-RPG, Nier greatly emphasizes its action gameplay foremost above all else with its fast-paced hack-n-slash combat. This half of gameplay is admittedly repetitive on its own despite its flashy presentation with dashes, spins, and exaggerated leaps, though players quickly become able to utilize magic spells to be used in tandem. While there are around ten types of magic ranging from defensive to AoE, the first and most basic type acquired is a rapid-fire ranged attack that draws upon twin-stick shooter gameplay that I imagine most will have active at all times considering how versatile it is. But no matter what players choose, it's possible to upgrade both the effectiveness of weapons and magic by various metrics through the game's pseudo-equipment system with two open slots assigned to each component of combat, and the system allows for each individual item to be customized uniquely. In theory, this level of customization grants players the opportunity to change how they engage with combat depending on each encounter, an act that's especially easy by how straightforward it is to change weapons—but in practice, I seldom modified how each combat component was upgraded, and I only ever changed weapons when a stronger option was gained.

Be that as it may, elements of action and RPG are not all that define Nier. In fact, the game deviates in unexpected and often exciting ways that maintain player interest across the game's fairly lengthy campaign. In one section of the game specifically, visuals are removed altogether with only a black screen remaining, and the player engages in a text adventure complete with various challenges such as riddles and a blind dungeon crawl. However, this is perhaps the most extreme example to highlight. Shooter gameplay was briefly mentioned above, and that style of play extends to entire gameplay sections as well. There are times when the camera perspective shifts from its normal third-person view to an isometric, top-down, or even first-person view. Sometimes the actual gameplay remains unchanged during these segments, but other times the immediate focus is on avoiding enemies' long-ranged attacks with bullet hell- or even rail shooter-styled play. Needless to say, Nier sets out to explore other forms of interactivity in ways that feels complementary to its overt action. And these changes extend to general exploration too, separate from combat. One of my favorite design choices is how the camera shifts when entering the majority of non-combat room environments to a 2D perspective, as if the player is peering into some dollhouse.

Now, to describe the story of Nier as simple would be disengenous, because it just isn't true. First, Nier is a continution one of specific ending of several to another series, Drakengard. That barrier alone would still be approachable, but the overarching lore for this game alone extends across an expansive multimedia franchise consisting of novelizations (scattered across supplemental material from in-person and online events as well as strategy guides and video releases), stage plays and orchestral performances, franchise collaborations, a now-defunct mobile game, drama CDs, and creator interviews. And yes, the implication that these secondary sources contain exclusive narrative content to better understand what's presented in the game alone is intentional. Of course, the general story progression taken from the events of the game on their own from start to finish are relatively straightforward to understand, but a wealth of information is outright withheld from the player even by its full conclusion. It's a reality that's unfortunate on some level since players will inevitably have questions wanting to be answered once the final credits roll, although I don't particularly take issue with questions since not all questions require to be answered to still enjoy a piece of media.

With that disclosure having been made, the story that is presented in-game is fulfilling, though how it's ultimately presented does bear problems. To be succinct, Nier's narrative is one that spans across millennium. Taking the role of the self-insert protagonist, players explore an unforgiving world exemplified by its dark fairy tale aesthetic in an effort to save their sister from dying to a cursed disease. It's a story that only ever has one goal, and the protagonist's efforts to accomplish it knows no bounds as he's willing to conquer anything and anyone that stands to prevent them. By all accounts, Nier is a mature game that's characterized by a series of bleak events and character deaths. To summarize its themes in one word, humanity seems most-fitting, though despair is also appropriate. Unfortunately, though, the full in-game story requires numerous completed playthroughs—five in total, though players can easily obtain two endings from one playthrough—to be revealed. After the first full playthrough, the following four are abbreviated, but they're still lengthy and largely unwelcoming in practice. In each, some level of added context and even subtle changes to minor story elements are presented which do add layers of depth and understanding, but they altogether vary little from another. Simultaneously, the game only ever truly evolves across these playthroughs during the fifth and final run, but the gameplay persists being predominantly static. Nevertheless, the game's structure certainly could have been adjusted to lower the number of playthroughs required, though I do recognize the importance of how storytelling was presented in this manner.

Meanwhile, there is one other aspect of Nier that I believe immensely defines a playthrough experience: music. Each song is impressive on its own by establishing the mood and complementing on-screen events as they draw upon and blend classical and new-age styles as one. Even in tense songs to characterize any action unfolding, there is underlying sadness to it all. But still, the soundtrack weaves in-and-out of this sadness in varying and often contrasting ways such as harsh, metallic dissonance to more ethereal, gentle melodies. And while the music itself is composed in such grand manner, it's the inclusion and emphasis on accompanying vocals for the majority of tracks that elevate the musical experience even further. Instrument and voice capture a wide spectrum of emotions together, and they're made more effective during key moments due to the decision for some songs having multiple arrangements. There is also much to be said about the process of lyric writing throughout the game. To be brief, the majority of songs featuring vocals draw upon numerous languages such as Gaelic, Japanese, Portuguese, and Italian, but they're not performed in those exact languages. Instead, lyrics were crafted by studying the phonetic sounds of each and combining them in unique ways while using one language as a base, and they all assemble into this beautiful and idyllic melody. That a fictional language referred to as Chaos Language was also constructed for a small number of songs demonstrates how profound all the effort put in to the game's music is.

After all this time, I'm a bit displeased that I'm only now finally playing through Nier despite owning it for all these years. Its story feels more mature than a lot of other games of its era, and I'm enjoying my time reading through some of the supplemental material that directly relates to this title entry specifically. I've actually already played the sequel entry nearly a decade ago, though I am interested in revisiting it in some way again—perhaps as a spectator. At the same time, I'm wanting to learn more about the Drakengard series that Nier is a sequel to, though I don't envision myself actually playing those games anytime soon.

[bikingjahuty]

56. Batsugun (Switch)

Having played a ton of SHMUPs over the years, it's fun seeing how the genre as a whole has evolved over time. Occasionally, you'll encounter a game that serves almost as the missing link between one era of SHMUPs and another. One such game is the legendary SHMUP developer Toaplan's very last SHMUP before the company went defunct in 1994. At face value, Batsugun almost resembles a modern Cave bullet hell SHMUP, and that's not by accident. The DNA of games like Dodonpachi, Mushihimesama, and various other famous SHMUPs that Cave would go on to develop over the course of the mid to late 90s can be seen in Batsugun. That's because many of the former team at Toaplan would go on to found Cave, and as they say, the rest is history.


Being a progenitor to many Cave SHMUPs, Batsugun is as good as it sounds, mostly. The gameplay in this game is fast, fluid and surprisingly very balanced and well designed for an early 90s shooter. Even when compared to other Toaplan STG titles developed around the same time period, Batsugun definitely stands above those in nearly every possible way. The gameplay is about what you'd expect; blast everything in sight with an almost screen filling shot you progressively power up while using bombs to help clear the screen faster and also save your ass in the more hectic scenarios you'll frequently encounter. Unfortunately, Batsugun's gameplay isn't perfect and the game design doesn't always lend itself to giving you all the tools you need to get out of certain tight situations you'll frequently find yourself in. On top of that, the later bosses especially throw an obscene amount of bullets at you that I'm not entirely convinced are even possible to dodge sometimes. Of course, crazy SHMUP savants have proven me completely wrong, but outside the absolutely obsessed with way, way more time that what I have, no one is going to be able to dodge many of the projectiles headed your way.


Even better than the gameplay is Batsugun's visual presentation. This game was made during the era where sprite based artwork had practically been perfected and Toaplan had some very, very good artists working for them. In fact, I can confidently say that maybe with the exception of Hyperduel, Batsugun is probably the best looking SHMUP released during the early 90s. FPS is consistent and smooth, colors are vibrant, there many excellent looking enemies and bosses, animations are great, and damage effects are genuinely impressive. The graphics and visual presentation in Batsugun are an absolute labor of love and are practically flawless in my book.


The audio is also very good as well. The game has an excellent, catchy early 90s arcade sound to it and a variety of high energy tracks that really go well with the crazy SHMUP action taking place on the screen. Unfortunately, there aren't many tracks in this game and while i do acknowledge how well dome the OST is, it's not necessarily one of the better ones I've heard from a SHMUP from this era. Still, the audio is definitely good and absolutely contributes to how great Batsugun is.


It's been a long time since I last played through Batsugun and part of me was a bit worried I wouldn't enjoy it as much as I did nearly a decade ago when I discovered this great title. But luckily here I am and I still acknowledge how great of a shooter this game is. While Cave would improve upon the formula laid out in Batsugun greatly in Dodonpachi, ESP Ra De and various other games they'd go on to develop, it definitely doesn't negate Batsugun as a game you should go out and play. If you haven't played it, just go do it, it's awesome! (9/22/26) [34/50]

[telly]

Game 20 - Tales of Graces f Remastered (PS5) - 53 Hours

I honestly don't have a lot to say about this game. It's a really solid entry in the Tales series, and while it just barely skirts by my top 3, it's definitely up there. 

Since this game came out before Xillia, the restricted combat movement can be a little annoying, but the gameplay overall is excellent and allows for a lot of customization. I especially liked the lack of MP which allows you to fully abuse spells to the max, particularly healing spells. The game still has a lot of challenge even with this limitation removed so it felt like nothing but positive.

The main story is a very cliche power of friendship story, with no real surprises, but it does a serviceable job nonetheless. I liked the themes explored in the epilogue more so than the main story. One thing I felt with this game is that I actually liked all of the main characters this time around! Typically in a Tales Game there's always one character that I just can't stand.

In summary, Tales of Graces f is an entry that doesn't really do anything amazing for the series, but at the same time there isn't anything that's bad.