Main ListMore in progress games
bold games are games that have been beaten, previously beaten, or are unbeatable.
1.
Animal Crossing: Amiibo Festival (Wii U)
Given that this game is technically never ending, and I did complete a full game, I'm considering this completed. The game only requires 1 amiibo to play, the other players can use a "guest villager" to play, but any happy points you earn are not saved. Happy points saved to an amiibo do something, I don't remember what. There are no mini-games to this, no screw your friend, this game is a very peaceful and relaxing experience. I think this game would be great for kids, because the only real interactivity is placing down your figure to roll the dice and reading the little short stories of what happens to your character.
Rating: Really slow and boring, great for kids, boring for adults. Solid pass.
2.
Watch Dogs 2 (PS4)
The verdict is still out on this one. A lot of the missions and dialogue remind me of early Saints Row, which is fantastic, a little over the top, but not Saints Row 4 over the top. Maybe not even Saints Row 3 over the top. I really liked Aiden Pearce, I liked the serious tones of the original Watch Dogs. I work in the computer security field, so I'm always thinking about these types of things, so this definitely interests me. But this game, so far, seems to take everything so lightly, but while maintaining a sort of seriousness that the original had, it doesn't quite feel right. Everything is jokes, and we are haxxors, but then we are also immediately being shot at by people no warnings at all. *shrug* Still playing this game, still good. It has "Fiona Coyne" by Skylar Spence (previously Saint Pepsi) on the soundtrack, and I love that song, I've been listening to it like crazy all weekend. It took me until past beating the game to really learn how the combat can work in this game, and even then, I know I don't fully understand it. Marcus doesn't play the same way as Aidan Pearce, but if you spec him right, you can.
Rating: I rather enjoyed this game, many different ways to play the game, definite improvement over the previous title, even though I loved that one as well.
3.
Pokemon: Fire Red Version (GBA)
I decided I would do the nuzlocke challenge to make this more interesting for me. I'm getting a lot of close calls and a lot of dumb luck. I don't know if I'll stick with the nuzlocke rules, I'm perfectly fine with limiting what and where I can catch pokemon to force myself into potentially unwanted situations, but the permadeath is kind of annoying. I spent a good 20-30 minutes leveling up my Caterpie into a Butterfree, and then Brock gets a critical tackle and murderballs my Butterfree immediately, 1-hit KO. I've been keeping my own log of events, it'll probably be long enough to fill an entire post by itself, so I don't know how I want to do that. I've been logging the first pokemon I meet in an area, whether I caught it or not, and if I caught it what I named it and if it is dead (or traded). I also log close calls, deaths, and evolutions. I was trying to log who defeated Gym leaders, but I forgot to do it for Misty and Surge. Eventually the game crashed or the battery died or something and I hadn't saved in a while, so I gave up the nuzlocke run and just continued playing trying to get where I was as fast as possible.
Rating: Great remake of Red, well worth playing over Red.
4.
Tappingo (3DS)
Kind of a picross/kakuro type of puzzle game. I'm rather enjoying it, really easy to just pick up and play. I'm considering buying Tappingo 2 when I'm finished with this one, but I haven't decided yet.
Rating: Great puzzle game, but easy to get bored with/tired of playing.
5.
Azumanga Daioh Advance (GBA)
This is a Japanese game, but it's pretty easily played without knowing the language. Basically a little card game. Pretty simple even. I'm sure the game is even better if you understand the language enough to understand the dialogue, but I used a little translation guide that covered most of the dialogue.
Rating: Pretty fun little card game, makes me wonder why this type of thing isn't applied to trading cards.
6.
Gunman Clive (3DS)
I started playing this a year or two back but never finished it. Decided to start playing it again after I finished Tappingo. And I noticed I was at level 13, beat the level and decided to go look at how many levels are in the game. Apparently there are only 16 levels in the game, so I'll probably finish this same day. I don't know what I was reading, there are more like 19-20 levels in the game, but I still beat it same day. I'd be happy with a physical collection of the two games on one cart.
Rating: Fun, quick game. No fancy story or anything, easy to pick up and play. I'd recommend it.
7.
Doom (X1)
I've been off and on wanting to play this game, and I've been waiting to get it for a good price, and it finally happened. I've heard so many good things about this game from critics and friends, so I knew I wanted to jump on this one early this year. Firstly, this game plays a lot like Bulletstorm, like a ridiculous amount actually. Not bad, but at least Bulletstorm gave you different ways to kill, so it was always kind of interesting, while Doom does give you different ways to kill, they mostly play out the same way, so it kind of gets Shinobi (PS2) boring after a while killing enemies. But, you HAVE to kill enemies that way to refill your health and such. Not really annoying so much as an observation. The loading screens in this game absolutely kill me. Switching back and forth between gameplay and challenges takes several minutes, and reloading after dying takes a few minutes too, obviously loading the initial level takes a while as well, but this all may be an issue with my console or the X1 in general. I am now at a point that I'm just wrecking this game. I have a combination of runes that keeps my health and armor high and leaving me with infinite ammo.
Rating: Really great game. Unlike other shooters that encourage you to plan your shots and hide, this game requires you to be aggressive and constantly on the offensive and rarely ever on the defensive.
8.
Hyrule Warriors (Wii U)
My wife really wanted to play a game with me, so I suggested we finish Hyrule Warriors... apparently we finished it last year at some point, or the year before. So we played anyway, did the new DLC quests and did Adventure Mode for a few hours. After not playing for so long, it's a bit to go back to, especially when you can't remember how to beat the mini-bosses that plague most levels.
Rating: Still a great game definitely worth playing.
9.
Mad Max (X1)
I had been putting this game off for so long, mostly because I hadn't heard great things, the game just sort of fell off everyone's radar right after release... BUT THIS GAME IS FANTASTIC. I'm really feeling it. This game is probably going to eat up all of my time in January and kill my ratio. My wife has never seen any of the Mad Max films, so we will also be watching the whole franchise at some point while I'm playing this. Watched all 4 Mad Max movies while playing this game. Only minor complaints about this game. If you die outside of a mission or clearing a camp, you get sent back to the nearest (geolocated) stronghold, I've had situations where I'm geolocated nearest to a stronghold that would take double the time to reach because you have to go around stuff. It is a major inconvenience. I've had a lot of issues with glitching where I would climb out of my car and my car and I would get thrown halfway across the region. Thrown way too far for it to be a tiny tornado. More makeshift weapons would've been nice, or at least a sniper rifle that is usable outside of the car, but it's cool, the car one works. I had read that by the time you get to the end of the game you'd have more scrap than you would know what to do with, I must have played differently because that was not the case, but I did buy all of the car and Max upgrades, so it's okay, just need to finish the stronghold stuff. My MAJOR complaint about this game... the level system. It's actually a pretty solid level system and I have no complaints about how it works, but what I do hate is that there is essentially a level cap, but not. Once you hit Rank Road Warrior Level 10, you stop receiving Griffa Tokens, which is what you spend to actually make Max "stronger" or "leveled up". But by the time you finish the game, in my case, you have reached Rank Road Warrior Level 70, that's 60 Griffa Tokens that I COULD have distributed to my character. I feel like this was a miscalculation on their part. The Rank system should have been significantly taller, at least double in measure. They could have easily have made more categories of things to distribute points to.
Rating: One of the best games I've played in a long time. I love post-apocalyptica and cars, so this game was made for me. Definitely worth the play. The first half hour is fairly painful because the loaner car you use has 0 stats, but get past that and it's a great game.
10.
Picross 2 (GB)
This Picross game is a little weird. For starters, all of the Mario Picross puzzles are 20x20 or 30x30 or something, so they break down the puzzle into 4 smaller puzzles. And then there is a world map a la the Mario games. And some puzzles are hidden, so you have to find them. Also, some of the puzzles seem very Japanese specific and I feel would be received as inappropriate in the US. Nothing vulgar, just I think showing people bathing together and people sitting on a toilet pooping are a little inappropriate. The final puzzle consisted of 4 30x30 puzzles that consisted of 4 15x15 puzzles. So 1 huge 60x60 puzzle. I think it made a weird succubus character. Wings, tail, boobs, etc. I might go through Wario's Picross mode, but I might not. I'm fairly burnt out on picross right now and I did pop the credits by completing Mario's Picross.
Rating: Much more difficult then Mario's Picross and the puzzles are much more interesting, but absolutely 0 puzzles pertaining to anything Nintendo. I venture to guess that's why it's not called "Mario's Picross 2". Definitely a challenge for Picross enthusiasts.
11.
Fire Emblem: Awakening (3DS)
My wife got angry and deleted her save file because late in the game, she realized that she missed out on Gaius and Tharja, 2 of my favorite characters. So the choice was either let her hate Fire Emblem forever and not play games for a long time, or I play through Awakening and get her to just about where she was. It was quite the challenge given on what characters she spec'd as high as she did. Quite painful to get Sumia as the most powerful character. I'm not "beating" this game this year, but I put in a lot of time and I have beaten this game before.
Rating: Still a fantastic game, a shame that you can easily miss out on such great characters if you aren't careful. Such a pain that only Chrom can recuit characters.
12.
Fire Emblem: Fates: Revelations (3DS)
Because my wife has been playing Awakening, I've been wanting to play through Revelations some more and do all of the support stuff. I've mostly taken a break from this because Fire Emblem: Heroes just released and I still don't know who I want to build supports with.
Rating: Still the best entry in this trio of Fates titles, but definitely should be played after Conquest and Birthright.
13.
Senran Kagura: Estival Versus (PS4)
This game... It's so weird... on so many levels. The gameplay is actually quite simple and great for when you just want to play something that doesn't require much thinking. On the other hand, the gratuitous panty shots, semi-nudity, and constant clothing destruction gets a little annoying after a while. What little story this game has, seems to be reliant on previous stories, so it's really hard to follow.
Rating: Solid pass. If you are familiar with the characters and story, I'm sure you'll love the game, but it is very hard to follow without that prerequisite knowledge.
14.
Virginia (PS4)
I bought this a while back because it sounded like an interesting narrative, but there is almost no narrative here, you have to basically understand the pantomime of the game. What little context you get, and what little actual text you get, you get like 1-2 seconds to understand it all before it cuts away. Probably an easy game to get a plat for, short game and mostly you just have to play twice, but I'm not going to bother.
Rating: Solid Pass.
15.
Republique (PS4)
So I have had this in my system for a good week, but I kept putting off starting it for no good reason. I finally started and it was fantastic. This game is pretty damned dope. Story seems really interesting. Gameplay you mostly guide the main character, but rather than telling her where to move and hoping it works out like some other games might do, you can control her and move her when you want her to move. I'm really digging the gameplay mechanics. It's not frequent that I play a game that pulls me in so hard that my wife has trouble conversating with me because I'm just so damned entranced. Really great story, very much about the Orwellian big brother dystopian shit. The collectibles in the game are banned books, books seen as inappropriate (Fahrenheit 451 and such), and indie games (on floppy disks). Episode 4 feels a lot like Haunting Ground, there is even a "Deb" that chases you around and stuff. If you are going to attempt a platinum, like I was thinking about doing, plan accordingly as there is no chapter select or anything, so if you miss stuff, you're boned. A few things I had read referenced chapter select, but they were all mistaken.
Rating: Recommended. This game is so good. It's like a cross between the camera stuff in Watch_Dogs and the being a little bitch in Haunting Grounds. If you like both of those things, you'll love this game.
16.
Roundabout (PS4)
I had seen this game on sale multiple times, and I had continually passed on this game. I've recently had an obsession with bad FMV games, so I decided that I must have it (Flash sale). And the FMVs are particularly bad, but almost lovable. The main character, Georgio Monos (played by Kate Welch), is pretty fantastic with her/his facial expressions and the like. As for the game play, it's weird in concept, but in execution, a revolving limousine basically takes the basic concept of point to point missions and gives it a bit of a puzzle challenge. At one point in the game, you are forced to attempt to drive the vehicle without revolving, and the developers make it one of the most uncomfortable experiences you could have with a driving game... and I think that's hilarious and ingenious. I wouldn't call it a fantastic game by any means, I may not even recommend it, but it was a pretty good experience for me and I enjoyed it.
Rating: Reminiscent of bad Sega CD FMV games and almost exclusively point to point missions, if that sounds like your kind of game, I highly recommend it. Otherwise, give it a pass.
17.
Lifeless Planet (PS4)
I feel like I've heard about this game before, mostly just in name. A fairly interesting game. Don't know why I started playing it, and it's an alright game. You land on a "lifeless" planet, so you explore and such... for reasons and such. Game is mostly a puzzle platformer, no real action or anything. Very likely you'll die several times for no good reason. I got a trophy for "dying under mysterious circumstances", like literally, I was walking towards where I was supposed to go and I just fell over and died. I don't really get it. But the story is fairly intriguing, even though I'm pretty sure the game ends without really answering one of the big questions. I'll probably Google it and see if maybe I missed something.
Rating: Solid pass. Nothing about it is really good enough to really justify playing this game.
18.
Picross NP Vol. 1 (SNES)
I started on this right after I stopped playing Picross 2, but I just wasn't feeling this once I got to the character puzzles, so I was gonna drop it and not even count it, but I finally finished the first character puzzle and realized it was a Pokemon character, Pokemon characters on a legit SNES game? Okay, I'll keep playing. The controls for this game just don't feel right, might just be a sensitivity difference or something, but I mess up a lot because it slides one space further than I want. This game isn't particularly color-blind friendly. The different sets of puzzles have different colors spacing out the grid, so it's hard to tell the sets of 5x5.
Rating: Solid pass. I'm probably not going to play the other NP Picross games, because this one was fairly disappointing game play mechanic wise.
19.
The Unfinished Swan (PS4)
I've been moderately interested in this game for quite some time. I literally knew nothing about it. I started the game and stared at a blank white screen for a few minutes because I thought it was loading or froze and didn't realize the gameplay mechanics of the game. I suppose that's my bad. Seems very much like a child's fairy tale (a la Child of Light and such). I don't think I've noticed any rhyming so far, just what feels like children's book stuff. Seems like it may be a fairly short game with only 4 chapters and each chapter takes maybe an hour or so. But the game is a very unique puzzle game.
Rating: Very short, moderately annoying. Gonna have to say pass on this game. If you have a kid and want to play a game that your kid might enjoy watching you play, maybe give it a go. I'm not confident that a child could beat this game easily.
20.
Beyond Eyes (PS4)
Decided to play this, found out I had the wrong hdd in my ps4, swapped drives reinstalled this first, played this while everything else installed. Gameplay mechanics are a little annoying, but I understand it is on purpose to kind of give the feel of what it is like to be blind. Really great concept and execution. I had paused the game at a point thinking, oh I'm near the end of the chapter, I'll go eat and come back and finish the chapter. Turns out it was the end of the game, I really really didn't see it coming when I had paused, so it threw me. Really emotional game.
Rating: Pretty good, not too long, I'd recommend it for a short little walking sim story game.
21.
Blade Ballet (PS4)
My wife's cousin was over so we decided to play this because it was a little local multiplayer game, played it for a few hours and unlocked all of the trophies. I'd say it's kind of like Bakugan, but I know nothing about Bakugan. You each pick a robot, you get thrown in an arena, and you spin to attack each other. That's Bakugan, right? Pretty simple, quick, fun local multiplayer game. It has online multiplayer too if you care for that sort of thing.
Rating: Good fun local multiplayer game if that is something you're interested in, no real single player experience, probably hard to justify for more than maybe $5.
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