52 Games Challenge 2023!!!

[Cartagia]

37. Eggman Game || Browser || 12.03.23



At random, someone I know sent me a link to play Eggman Game. So, I did.

In truth, there is little depth to Eggman Game, and I imagine many wouldn't even classify it as a game. Still, I'll explain what it is. As one side of the screen, an anthropomorphic cartoon egg stands, mouth agape. At the opposite side, a basket of eggs is set. At the top of the screen, the straightforward prompt "FEED EGGS" tasks players. So, naturally, players must feed the cartoon egg one inanimate egg at a time by dragging them. That one task alone makes up the entire gameplay.

Like many at this point would imagine without any additional context, the game is a joke. There is no reason behind why eggs are being fed to the titular Eggman, but we're doing it, nonetheless. Furthering some absurdist work even more so, a pop-up appears at random with accompanied speech stating "[random number] eggs," as if that's the player's score. However, that number is entirely arbitrary and devoid of all sense, as it fluctuates from highs to lows and no where close to the actual number of eggs which have been fed. The number appearing could relate to how many eggs are needing to be fed, but it changes too often for players to confirm that thought.

At one point early on once Eggman has been fed a few eggs, the basket becomes emptied. A different prompt then asks if the player would like the buy more. No matter what the player's written response is, eggs are gained.

I didn't expect the game to reach a conclusion, but it does, unexpectedly. At some randomized point, "41 eggs" appears in the pop-up prompt, and the player is congratulated by Eggman dancing to the middle of the screen, pulling down his bottom half as if they're pants, and flashing the player. The game then resets.

Partway into my time playing, I realized that Eggman Game is part of a comedy sketch in Tim Robinson's comedy show I Think You Should Leave. I've seen the particular sketch featuring this non-game game but had completely forgotten about it, so playing Eggman Game was a fun reminder, with the quality of the game being objectively, yet intentionally, bad.

That one egg was worth 40 eggs?

[dhaabi]

37. Eggman Game || Browser || 12.03.23

That one egg was worth 40 eggs?

I didn't mention it specifically, but after the basket of eggs replenishes, you gain 80 eggs. The first egg that's fed to Eggman drops the total egg count to 40. You gotta love it.

Congrats big boy

For anyone wanting context, here you go.

[kashell]

63. .hack//Outbreak

I was able to knock out one more big game before the year's end. The third entry/disc in .hack continues with all of the good, bad and ugly since the start. This time, the only new additions are a new server, new Grunties to race, and the ability for Grunties to hop from portal to portal in a field. Kite also learned a new Drain ability that ups the chance of rare items. And I guess there's Terajima Ryoko joining Kite's list of friends. Otherwise, same old stuff. And once again, I don't mind. I can put my brain on the shelf while I go through the motions when the story isn't developing. Speaking of, I feel like I have more questions than answer this time. I hope the final entry wraps it up all nicely, but that's another game for another time. I need to figure out what to play going into the new year!

[dhaabi]

38. The Most Searched Playground || Browser || 12.12.23



The other day, I saw that Google had another interactive game titled The Most Searched Playground available on their homepage. After realizing it was a simple hidden object game, I decided to spend a few minutes playing.

To be brief, The Most Searched Playground references some of 2023's top worldwide searches to be used as a hidden object game. Despite the game's short length and basic gameplay, I had hoped that there would have been a little more depth to it, but that isn't the case. In fact, The Most Searched Playground isn't even particularly fun to play but instead quite simple even for something as straightforward as a game of its genre. For the majority of objects, finding them doesn't offer any challenge, which is partly due to how the large map is divided into districts of sorts. So, to check off well over half of the items, all that's required is to skim through the list of objects to find and to casually glance at the map. For many of these objects, they are a focal point to the illustration, so there is seldom any requirement to carefully inspect through the map's finer details which would instead offer some degree of a challenge. Alongside many objects being focal points, there are more than several which can be found even fully zoomed out as they act as monumental landmarks. In total, I would estimate that only about 6 or 7 objects weren't in plain view.

On the list of objects to find, a brief description as to what the object is pops up but disappears quickly. Only after finding all five objects in its section does this information reappear, and when that happens, more information about each object is given along with a few hyperlinks to Google search results pages or YouTube links. Some specific object information is in the form of charts which show comparison data to similar queries, but one or two aren't complete. For instance, one object to find is this year's most searched for Pokémon, Pikachu, which includes a chart graphing data of the three runner-up electric rodent Pokémon search trends. While that is interesting to see, the chart completely ignores Pikachu's data, so there's no actual visual information to compare that data point, meaning its relationship to Pikachu is worthless.

Despite the game being short and simple, I noticed a constant problem with clicking an object—or any part of the map, really—and it automatically zooming in instead of being controller by the player. This is complemented by any hidden object successfully being found yielding a forced zoom-in, which always inconvenienced me as I'd have to zoom out and regain my visual understanding of the map. There is also a button to mute audio, but there is none.

Overall, The Most Searched Playground offers a sub-par experience for a game of its genre. Had the majority of items offered some degree of challenge to find, it'd be different, but obviously that element is going to define the success of this type of game.

[dhaabi]

39. Casual Birder || Playdate || 12.13.23



Continuing to play through the included games in Playdate's library as they're unlocked weekly, I was interested in playing through the adventure style game Casual Birder. I had seen some brief gameplay along with thoughts for it prior to my playthrough, so I was hoping for it to be as good as I thought it'd be.

As the game begins, you play as the unnamed protagonist who's new in town and is pretty much regarded as an all-around loser, made fun of by kids and adults both. In fact, there's a running joke how he's a kid lacking any real-world experience, when in fact he's 35 years old. Regardless, you as the player-character get talked into taking photos of the area's birds which is a serious hobby among the townspeople. In fact, the annual bird photography contest is upcoming, although it's revealed how, in recent years, it's become besmirched by a local gang of sorts who roam the streets. Perhaps it was actually our intention to document birds when we moved into town, as the details regarding our motive isn't really ever explained, or perhaps I'm just forgetting, which means—either way—it's not that important.

While the story itself is serviceable, the dialogue is a case of love it or hate it. Dialogue has the qualities of adult child speech, which the protagonist is a grown man who doesn't feel like an adult and it's brought out by his speech and field notes he writes for each bird documented. There are many instances where text is formatted in ways such as, "Ummmmm haha idk...," which is an actual line. To describe it in a less degrading way, dialogue is written as wholesome "adulting" speech, which isn't a stylistic choice I connected with.

Apart from the game's writing, the gameplay itself adopts a classic adventure formula in which the player needs to achieve minor accomplishments to unlock new areas and items to be used in specific ways at specific moments. Casual Birder is nothing out of the ordinary, but these types of games are fun for what little is offered. None of the roadblocks to reach the story's conclusion felt obtuse, although one did require more thinking than I anticipated—or perhaps it was just a moment of myself not reading into the finer details provided through NPC dialogue. As we're tasked to photograph birds, the D-pad is used to move the camera's point of exposure while the Playdate's crank adjusts the camera's focus. During a few instances, the camera would be selected to take a shot, but the subject wouldn't immediately appear at all, even as a blur. During those moments, the focus settings would need to be adjusted for the subject to appear normal. Of course, this wasn't a major issue as it was solved with a simple follow-up action, but it is worth noting.

In total, there are 27 birds to find. About half are easy to locate and photograph, with around ten at most requiring thought and more player involvement. For about five or so, unlocking their conditions to come out of hiding were genuinely difficult to solve, as certain tools or items must be used. The player never knows which bird is where or what some of the requirements are to unlock them, so finding every bird becomes a little bit of a guessing game, or, for those keen on trying out every possibility while inspecting the environment with a careful eye, a lot of investigative thinking. At around twenty birds photographed, I used a guide to find the remaining ones. Even though a guide was used, documenting all 27 was enjoyable. With that said, it's worth mentioning that not every bird needs to be photographed for the story to conclude. And, after the credits end, the save file can be loaded only one action away from initiating the end sequence, so it's easy to go back and explore the town environment.

To be brief, Casual Birder offers a bite-sized adventure experience of about two hours, which I feel is a genre greatly suited for the Playdate system. Its gameplay is fun enough, although I imagine there are many who won't connect with the story and writing elements.

[bikingjahuty]

5. Yakuza (PS2) - ABANDONED

I decided i was finally going to jump into the Yakuza series after putting it off for a very long time. I debated doing this since I only have the first two Yakuza games on the PS2, and not their "vastly superior" remakes on the PS4. I decided to just give the older versions a shot despite what many online say about ignoring the PS2 games and just playing the Kiwami games instead. I played Yakuza on the PS2 for a little over and hour, and while there were some things I was liking about it, I was mostly struggling to stay engaged. I really want to like this series and get into it, and I figured the best chance of this happening is if I just play the better remakes instead of settling for the older PS2 versions. Once I acquire the first Kiwami game, I'll jump back into these games, but for now the PS2 version is going back on the shelf. (12/17/23)

[ignition365]

I played 2 on ps2 after kiwami, it is a good choice to wait. 

[kashell]

Here's a list of games I dropped this year.

1. Avalon Code
2. The Caligula Effect: Overdose
3. Jeanne d'Arc
4. Shadow Madness
5. Octopath Traveler II
6. Hollow Knight
7. Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions - iOS version
8. Indivisible
9. Radiant Silvergun
10. Lunar Knights

[tripredacus]

56. Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;Birth1

I completed my first ever JRPG-type game. I didn't get to do everything there was to do in the first playthrough, there were some items and quests left before the ending. I had to use a walkthough at some point, primarily just the item location list portion because the *pedia in the game is not that great to use. It lists dungeons and what monsters are in them, and then the monsters and which items they drop, but no option to search by item. There are also no sorting options in any of the inventory or store screens, so it was just faster to have a the drop list up on another screen. I didn't use the walkthrough portion of it, but I did read what the requirements for the "Good" Ending were, and made sure the Shares were at 20% for each CPU and that others were at 0. Now there is a new game+ type thing, but basically you just load your save game from the last game and you start over... BUT you have to change all of your equipment and set up the skill assignments again.

I got over-levelled mid-way through the campaign because I stopped focusing on the story events and started trying to get the items for the recipes. So aside from bosses and the colosseum, I ended up at a point where the normal monsters would either miss or do 0 damage. I did some colosseum stuff and in there you can fight level 999 monsters, but you obviously can't do anything there. The game only goes to level 99 by default but with DLCs you can get to 999. I only have 2 of the DLCs so that also may be why I couldn't finish all of the quests.

The gameplay is fine, there were no bugs. Music was ok. All the characters being anthromorphised game consoles or game companies... or games were neat. Like Lastation is Playstation, Compa is Compile Heart, and there there was Tekken. Not sure who CyberConnect2 was supposed to represent. Lots of in-jokes and a few laughs were had. Played with Japanese dialog and English sub-titles.

[dhaabi]

40. Pick Pack Pup || Playdate || 12.18.23



As a match-three puzzle game, Pick Pack Pup is the first Playdate game which I wasn't sure if it'd offer a worthwhile experience. Still, I set out to play it.

In spite of its simple gameplay and straightforward genre, I was pleased to see that there is a lot of variety throughout Pick Pack Pup's stages. Sometimes, the goal is to pack a certain number of items in larger groups greater than three. Other times, the goal is to move product as fast as possible, such as shipping a high number of one type of item in a short span of time. There are also unusual objectives such as having shipped boxes comprised of three or more like-items align the entire playing field perimeter. Partway into the game, a trash compactor which destroys the bottom row of items is introduced that sets off automatically every twenty seconds. It's also worth mentioning how, for the game's chief gameplay, the crank isn't used at all but instead the D-pad.

Along the above mentioned, plenty of other smaller objective types task the player which are varied enough to require different types of strategy and play. At times, the player's approach to solving the puzzle requires methodical thought, whereas other times it's about quick reactions under short time constraints. Like many puzzle games, forming combos is paramount. Depending on the task, this is sometimes easier said than done, because groups of items do not automatically exit the playing field once combined. Instead, the field is cleared all at once upon the player's input. So, it is easy for the player to be barred from forming groups and to be left with isolated items, since grouped items cannot be moved.

Something of a surprise while playing is that there is actually a Story Mode comprised of thirty stages. It is in this mode where stages have the most variety because objectives widely differ from another depending on what the company you work for is wanting in that moment. It wasn't until after I had tried out all of the game's modes did I realize that Story Mode stages can be replayed, which I didn't think to be true. This availability isn't explained nor seems apparent, but all that's required is to use the D-pad while hovering over its menu selection. With that explained, there are four other modes available: Infinity Mode, Chill Mode, Danger Zone, and Time Attack. Unfortunately, none of these additional modes feel as substantial and interesting as Story Mode, at least for me. Instead of the player beating a set objective, these modes instead are all about personal records. If one were to hand off the Playdate to someone else, I could then see these other modes being fun to play since a competitive element would be introduced.

Having mentioned the Story Mode, they are simple yet offer a casual, lighthearted tone. The context regarding us as the player-character is that we work for a shipping fulfillment center similar to real-world Amazon. In fact, by the game's end, it's quite apparent the game is specifically referencing Amazon due to narrative events. At that time, there is also a jab at SpaceX, so no billionaire is safe from this game's ridicule and distaste for the ultra elite. Simply put, Pick Pack Pup is complete with an inoffensive anti-corporate tone as it highlights the faults with capitalism and consumer culture. Instead of animated cutscenes, narrative is told in the form of a comic book in which the crank scrolls through its panels. While the crank isn't used elsewhere, I was glad to see it incorporated somehow.

While Story Mode is serviceable while offering the most fun puzzles, I found Pick Pack Pup to not be as timeless as some other games within the puzzle genre, although it is much more in-depth than its match-three sub-genre contemporaries. I can't see myself really going back to play this, but I could be wrong. Like I mentioned above, the idea of competing with a second player by taking turns seems like it could be a little fun to pass some time.

[telekill]

With so little time left in the year, I was lucky to have finished Final Fantasy 7 Remake (PS5). I really enjoyed the replay, reminding me of the smaller details of the story in time for the sequel to release. The lion's share of my completions were definitely retro collections. I expect that trend to continue as I expand out in the Jurassic Park collection and the Tomb Raider Trilogy remaster collection next year. First off, the list of 27 completed games:

Completed: 27
Sonic Origins Plus (PS5)
 - Sonic 1 (Genesis)
 - Sonic 2 (Genesis)
 - Sonic CD (Sega CD)
 - Sonic 3 & Knuckles (Genesis) [Counting as 2 games]
 - Sonic 1 (Game Gear)
 - Sonic 2 (Game Gear)
 - Sonic Chaos (Game Gear)
 - Sonic Triple Trouble (Game Gear)
 - Sonic Spinball (Game Gear)
Mortal Kombat 11 Ultimate (PS5)
TMNT Cowabunga Collection (PS4)
 - TMNT 2 (NES)
 - TMNT 3 (NES)
 - TMNT 4 (SNES)
 - TMNT HH (Genesis)
 - TMNT (Arcade)
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (PS5) -- [Counting as 2]
 - Main Game
 - Hearts of Stone
Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order (PS5)
Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (Switch)
Texas ChainSaw Massacre (PS5)
Tomb Raider 2013 DE (PS4)
Rise of the Tomb Raider (PS4)
Jurassic Park (Game Gear)
Carrion (PS5)
Jurassic Park 30th Anniversary Collection (PS5)
 - Jurassic Park (Genesis) - Completed both Grant & Raptor scenarios
Final Fantasy VII Remake (PS5)


Next up is what I'm planning to play in 2024. It will be a much lighter year.

Planning to Play in 2024:
God of War Ragnarok (PS5)
Star Wars: Jedi Survivor (PS5)
Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth (PS5)
Tomb Raider Trilogy Remaster (PS5)
Jurassic Park 30th Anniversary Collection (PS5)
 - Jurassic Park Rampage Edition (Genesis)
 - Jurassic Park (SNES)
 - Jurassic Park 2 Chaos Continues (SNES)
Resident Evil 5 (PS4)
ICO (PS2)
Uncharted: Nathan Drake Collection (PS4)
 - Uncharted 2 (PS3)

[telly]

Game 22 - Kardboard Kings (Switch) - 4 Hours

Karboard Kings is one of the more interesting games I've played this year. At it's core, you assume the role of a business owner attempting to ressurect your father's trading card game store, which is all centered around the hot new game called Warlock. The funny thing is, you never actually play Warlock yourself! This game is all about making a profit by adopting the buy, low, sell high core mantra of a business management sim... just with trading cards. I was quickly sucked in by a charming aesthetic with beautiful cards and appealing graphics set to a delightful soundtrack. In the first few hours, you feel like a wheeling dealing machine as you hunt for cards online and put them in your shop to rake in the cash. There is also a reputation system anchored by a supporting cast of fun interesting characters that will ask you to buy or sell specific cards for them, or ask you trivia about the game. Your reputation increases your customer base, but increasing rep means you can't rip people off and put profits first, which was a nice balance. The game has a binder that you can fill in with cards from each new set as it releases, which adds a fun collectable challenge too. You can also host drafts, clearance nights and tournaments which really make you feel like a card store owner.

What holds the game back somewhat are its length, features, challenge, and story. Trying to tame and master an ever-changing market sounds interesting at first, but the the training wheels never really come off over what is a brief 4-hour main campaign. You have access to a news feed that will tell you exactly which kinds of cards will be going up and down, and it will always be right. While you do have do to some long-term investing (for example, buying a card that is banned so you can sell it when it becomes unbanned), you will pretty much always know what to do for the following couple of days which removes a lot of the agency of the game. Also, I found that pretty much every card will go up in price eventually, so if a card dips before you could sell it, just hold on to it and it will eventually go up again or at least break even. This removes a lot of the risk-taking thrill of the game. You would think there would be some really interesting psychology mechanic with your customer base regarding purchasing decisions but they will buy/reject your cards at random and you have no feedback to build off of to make your shop better. On that point, it would have been really nice to be able to unlock some physical upgrades for your shop rather than cosmetic plants and rugs. Only 6 slots to sell cards with no room to expand was disappointing, for example. Lastly, the dialogue was trying way to hard to be funny and just came off as awkward, and the story was kind of bad; it was over so quickly I didn't believe that I finished the game.

The last thing I will add is that the game is better played on PC rather than the Switch. It wasn't really modified for a controller so there's a lot of dragging a cursor over to select options in the game when many of the buttons (that go unused) could have suited just fine.

In summary, Kardboard Kings is an innovative, charming and adorable lite business sim, that I really enjoyed, even though I feel like it could have been so much more.

[kashell]

64. World of Horror

I've finished enough scenarios and seen the good ending a few times, so I think I can consider this complete. That said, I plan to replay it again next October (along with Ikai) because it's a solid, spooky, and creative title. The way it captures the essence of Junji Ito, H.P. Lovecraft, super-retro presentation, rogue-like, and classic turn-based RPG is splendid. The way the frights and creeps are described with the written word and detailed yet pixelated presentation makes the "horror" aspect miles above things like modern Silent Hills and Resident Evils. I just wish there was a tad more leniency with the randomness. It can feel like you're on a momentum-filled run and then BOOM, something causes it to spiral (IYKYK) downwards. Still, that same gameplay loop makes it perfect for quick romps. I have a lot more to discover, but like I said, that's for next year. For now, I plan to get a review going while everything is still fresh in my mind.

[dhaabi]

41. Cube Escape: Seasons || Mobile || 12.19.23



Having known about the Cube Escape series for perhaps five years now, I've only ever seen extensive playthroughs online for most while not having played any myself. I knew they were accessible on the Google Play Store but contained ads which is why I've avoided playing them myself, but I decided to finally try the first entry Cube Escape: Seasons to see how inconvenient those ads actually were.

Adopting an escape-the-room style take on the puzzle genre, Cube Escape: Seasons requires players to interact with the environment, changing the one room available to them in subtle ways by collecting items and having them connect with others. Of course, as a puzzle game, the criteria to progress are not all that simple or straightforward. At times, you as the player may have an idea as to what to do to achieve the next major step, but the action to reach that goal is a tad cryptic, although not always. It's also worth pointing out that the game and its sparse narrative are divided into four sections spanning two decades, in which player action changes the outcome for sections taking place later in time.

With that understanding, the entire game across all four sections takes place in one singular room, although its form and some of the items within it change. It's an interesting design choice because many larger puzzle elements such as the fireplace and sink are present in all four sections but are not all used. So, some interactive set pieces seem to exist to have the player think in novel ways, or simply it is done to confuse the player. Nevertheless, despite the limited size of the room you're in, there are numerous items to interact with to help you make sense of this strange void which seems cut off from the outside world aside from one window that felt both taunting and threatening.

Admittedly, I did need to reference a walkthrough at two separate points of the game where I found myself stuck for prolonged periods. For the second instance, it was a moment of myself knowing what to do but not how to trigger the event. This is in spite of having watched full playthroughs many years ago, as I had only retained a loose understanding of the narrative which is already a little vague. I'll mention the topic of ads now, since it is important to address. For at least a year or two, I knew most of the free Cube Escape games were free with ads on this digital storefront. What was an incredibly fortunate surprise, however, is that each of these games can be played without ads, so long as the in-game hint system isn't used. Numerous walkthroughs exist elsewhere online, so finding any answers outside of the game itself is never difficult.

While I believe the puzzle design is consistently strong, there are two aspects I wish were changed. First, as I was playing with a mobile device, I found one puzzle involving clock hands to be quite tedious as the wrong hand would often be selected, which meant that I'd have to cycle through the entire clock again while hoping the correct hand would move. For problems like these with touch screens, the issue may be due to finger size, screen sensitivity, or simple mis-clicking, but none of those reasons were the case; instead, the clock hands' movement was just inconsistent. Second, I wish the few musical puzzle elements maintained their sound upon moving about the room. One puzzle requires playing music and then walking away (and it's at the very end), so I wasn't expecting that kind of step to be taken and was confused. Needless to say, this was the aforementioned puzzle where I didn't know how to trigger an event.

Apart from its gameplay, Cube Escape: Seasons's limited text and instruction commands a dark atmosphere with themes of mental illness and murder throughout. An opportunity for a second chance arises somehow, through the form of altering the timeline itself. I'm not quite sure where to mention this so will do so here, but I must mention how excited I was at the references to TV show Twin Peaks. At the very beginning at the menu screen, somber piano keys play over strings, taking the same tones with a simplified melody clearly written with "Laura's Theme" in mind. Twin Peaks is referenced in countless other works across all sorts of mediums, and it's always a treat to see when previously unaware.

All things considered, I'm definitely looking forward to play through more games within the series. Puzzle games like these often test a player's imagination and creativity to reaching obtuse solutions which I'm not the best at and will reference a guide if enough time has past, but the experience is often rewarding, and Cube Escape: Seasons is no exception.

[Cartagia]

I beat Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia this morning.  It's a remake of the second game in the franchise, Fire Emblem Gaiden.  I really like the dual campaigns, but I felt like maybe they weren't super well balanced, with one half feeling way easier than the other.  It was still a fun playthrough, with only a couple of difficulty spikes, and those were pretty easily mitigated through a tiny bit of grinding.  It's still got that tinge of over-melodramatic anime storytelling I don't love, but it is a good game overall.