Messages

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General / Re: 52 Games Challenge 2025!!!

« on: July 17, 2025, 03:04:33 pm »

50. Kirby's Block Ball

Fine fine fine. One more Kirby for the year. For now. Unlike Mass Attack, Block Ball on the original Game Boy is a breakout style game that is easy to pick up and play and doesn't have silly touch-screen controls. To keep things "Kirby", there are various stages, enemies, abilities, and other Kirby-isms to keep it a Kirby game. So, that stuff combined with the breakout structure actually makes this a fun, quick romp. I know that breakout style games can get redundant but this one has just enough variety. The boss stage music absolutely still slaps.

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General / Re: 52 Games Challenge 2025!!!

« on: July 10, 2025, 08:01:21 am »

49. Kirby Mass Attack

I've gotten the Kirby out of my system for the year. All it took was my stubbornness of getting through this game (and lots of cursing along the way). I didn't like this game the first time I finished it. Now, that dislike has evolved to something closer to loathe. Seriously, screw this game. This was the biggest let down of the DS titles. Anything that relies solely on touch screen controls can get all the way wrecked. Kirby deserved better. Also, any of the Nintendo mascots would have worked just as well for this. At least the game is pretty to look at it.

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General / Re: 52 Games Challenge 2025!!!

« on: July 02, 2025, 12:56:12 pm »

48. Kirby Super Star Ultra

The Kirby kick continues. I didn't do all the things here. Instead, I picked up an old profile to get to 100%. I had to finish the True Arena and Meta Knights' adventure to reach 100%. But, for funsies, I decided to also do another round of Milky Way Wishes and The Great Cave Offensive. I got all treasures in the latter, for those wondering. This game is pure cuteness and fun personified. I loved the game on Super Nintendo and I love it here on the Nintendo DS.

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General / Re: 52 Games Challenge 2025!!!

« on: June 23, 2025, 06:23:02 pm »

47. Kirby's Dream Land 3

A long day of meetings had me reaching for the device with all the installed games again, and for some more Kirby action. If I had to describe the game in one word, it'd be "unconventional". But, that's not necessarily a bad thing. The game looks and plays and just overall feels very different from Super Star (which came about a year before; the game that kind of set the precedent for the series going forward) and has a lot of randomness to it. It also has one of the most calming graphical looks which really juxtaposes the game's surprisingly dark tones. There's a creepiness to the doppelganger Kirby that walks around at random, and the final boss looks like it shoots blood. Also, the mini-games are no joke. Thankful for save states being a thing because trying to guess the number of Gordos in a split second is insane. I'm not sure how the hell we did this as kids back in the day.

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General / Re: 52 Games Challenge 2025!!!

« on: June 23, 2025, 08:32:02 am »

46. Kirby's Dream Land 2

I got one of those portable devices that comes preloaded with a bunch of games from various consoles. I decided to hop into the time machine and play Kirby's Dream Land 2. I love Kirby and I love nostalgia, but it's crazy to see just how basic things were back in the day compared to now. The aspect that separated this from Kirby's Adventure was being introduced to Rick, Kine, and Coo. Depending on the friend Kirby is paired with, the abilities would look different. It was necessary to have right animal friend with the right ability to get the Rainbow Drops which were scattered in the various worlds. If you miss one, you get the bad ending. If you get them all, you unlock the final bosses and get the good ending.

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General / Re: 52 Games Challenge 2025!!!

« on: June 22, 2025, 08:00:45 pm »

45. Mario Party Superstars

We played this enough throughout the weekend to a point where I'm counting it. Good times. Easy to get into. Extra fun to win.

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General / Re: 52 Games Challenge 2025!!!

« on: June 20, 2025, 11:24:43 am »

44. The Devil in Me

This has been my favorite of the Until Dawn-esque games. I'm a big fan of true crime, and The Devil in the White City was my very first true crime read. So, seeing a game that pays homage to it was awesome. The story felt really disjointed at times and I have a ton of questions, but overall vibes and spooks were the best. I can see myself doing a replay of this one in the future making different choices. I highly recommend this.

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General / Re: 52 Games Challenge 2025!!!

« on: June 15, 2025, 07:48:29 pm »

43. House of Ashes

It's always fun to play games like this with groups. I played The Quarry with the same group last year. This might be my least favorite of these games from these developers, but I still think it's a good game. It was a unique period drama since it took place in 2003 or so. That was such a weird time for politics, and life in general. The enemies weren't as scary and there wasn't as much intrigue, but I did like the characters. I managed to save all but one. I'll probably go through a wiki to see all of the possible routes. Up next is The Devil in Me!

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General / Re: 52 Games Challenge 2025!!!

« on: June 12, 2025, 09:36:14 pm »

42. Spirit Hunter: Death Mark II - True Ending

It didn't long to get this. I'm glad I did because it put a pretty, red ribbon on top of the good ending.

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General / Re: 52 Games Challenge 2025!!!

« on: June 12, 2025, 08:38:01 pm »

40. Spirit Hunter: Death Mark II - Bad Ending
41. Spirit Hunter: Death Mark II - Good Ending/platinum

The Spirit Hunter series continues to do all the things I loved from the start. This time, it does it better thanks to a cleaner interface and easier navigation. I got the Bad Ending first just to get a trophy related to it. After getting the Good Ending, I got the platinum. Still, I after finishing the EX Chapter, I'm thinking I'll go through the steps to get the True Ending. The mysteries (which were chilling, gory, gruesome, horrific, and all of that lovely stuff) were mostly solved, but the case wasn't quite closed. I'll be getting a good ol' review ready for this game and I'm excited about it.

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General / Re: 52 Games Challenge 2025!!!

« on: June 03, 2025, 08:59:12 am »

39. Guilty Gear Strive - Testament

Just in time for Pride Month, I finished the game again with Testament, who has been characterized as they/them. And I think I finally found my footing. This was my favorite run through in the arcade mode. I figured out some good combos, learned some new ones afterwards, and had a lot of fun. I might go through the game again with Bridgette just to keep with the spirit of the month, but dare I say that I finally found my new main with Testament? I'll mess around some more later in the training mode to officially confirm.

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General / Re: 52 Games Challenge 2025!!!

« on: May 28, 2025, 08:03:52 am »

38. Guilty Gear Strive - Ky Kiske

I might have been spoiled by Slayer's absolute brutality. Ky is fun, and has a good projectile game, but his attacks don't have that oomph of the vampire dandy. On the other hand, I keep seeing chatter about Slayer being "broken" so maybe that's something to consider. Anyways! Another playthrough down. It was fun. I've always liked Ky and his arsenal of lightning abilities.

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General / Re: 52 Games Challenge 2025!!!

« on: May 26, 2025, 09:36:20 pm »

37. Lunar: Silver Star Story

The first game in the Lunar Remastered collection has been completed. I'm still bitter about a random, silly, highly missable change that the developers implemented AT THE VERY START of the game that caused me to miss two -TWO!!!- bromides, but since I was playing on Switch/a non-trophy console, I'll let it slide. I guess that's what I get for following the old Working Designs guide from back in the day. Speaking of, a good chunk of that translation was kept in this version. The jokes rarely landed (one of the enemies was called Nipple Yanker) but the serious moments still held up. Really, it was the characters and their interactions that made me fall in love with them all over again. Even Alex, one of the more dull MCs, seemed to have more to say this go-around. Mia, Jessica, Kyle, Nash and Nall all kept the dialogue flowing naturally. Two very important changes that really made this a smooth playthrough were better item management and the ability to speed up battles. Thanks to that second feature, training for the final battles was much more streamlined. And as a result, a lot more fun. So yeah - good times with this one. It'll be a while before I do the new version of Lunar 2 since I finished it a few years ago on the PlayStation.

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General / Re: 52 Games Challenge 2025!!!

« on: May 13, 2025, 06:44:38 pm »

36. Guilty Gear Strive - Slayer

Ahhh yeah! Guilty Gear, baybee! I had no idea that they had this on the Switch, but here we are! After messing with the tutorial and some of the missions, I decided to go through arcade mode as my boy Slayer. While my usual main (Venom) isn't in the game, seeing Slayer and a very massive roster of new and old faces makes up for it. Slayer will inevitably become my new main as I continue to play this. With this little romp over, I think I'm going to return to the tutorials so I can fully learn all of the ins and outs of Strive. Because, as always, there's A LOT going on in this fighter.

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General / Re: 52 Games Challenge 2025!!!

« on: May 12, 2025, 12:52:40 pm »

35. Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes - platinum'd

It's fitting that I took a little over 100 hours to finish a game with the word "hundred" in its title. Whew. What a journey this one was. The hours could have been cut down if I decided to not get all of the trophies, but me being me, I went for it. I really wanted an RPG to just sink my teeth into, chill with, and escape. That's what Hundred Heroes provided. Still, some parts of the game felt undercooked. The story was one of those parts. Things never, ever felt serious. Even during the "serious" moments, it seemed like one of the key players had to make a joke. The villain was kind of a goofball, too. For now, that's my only complaint with the game because it otherwise provided a traditional RPG journey that was equal parts contemporary and nostalgic. As for my next big game, that's going to take some time to figure out. Hundred Heroes was A LOT so I plan on palette cleansing a bit before diving into the next RPG.