Beat a Game Already, 2022 console edition
31-Dec-21 7:24pm
#1 Slickriven
Beat a Game Already, 2022 console edition - open to anyone to join (or drop) at anytime. Just let me know if you're joining so I can get your console info.
Here's the spreadsheet for '22
Link to 2021's Thread for reference
image 2nd Amendment - FPS or 3rd Person Shooters
image Bear & Bird - 3D platformers and/or collect-a-thons
image BFFL - primarily cooperative games (with a friend)
image Bo Knows - sports games - complete a single season, generally human only sports
image Cross the Streams - cross-over games like: Mario & Sonic, Street Fighter x Tekken, etc
image Destroy the Core - SHMUP's
image Girly Power - games with female leads OR targeted towards children or feminine audiences
image Grown-Ass Man - challenging games
image Guybrush Threepwood - games from the point-&-click, text adventure, or walking simulator genres
image Heavy Machine Gun - run n' gun games
image Hyrulian Hero - action/adventure titles, similar to the Zelda franchise
image JRPG - JRPGs, duh
image Metroidvania - open ended 2D platformers that focus on backtracking
image Ninja Gayden - 3D hack-and-slash titles
image Now You're Playing with Plastic - games using non-standard controllers (Light-Gun, musical instrument, steering wheel, dance-pad, etc)
image Pile Drivin' - belt-scrolling brawler/beat 'em ups
image Puzzler - puzzle games
image Quarter Muncher Card - games from the pinball, classic arcade or card battle genres
image Quest for Peace - predominately superhero focused titles
image Raccoon City - survival horror games
image Race Drivin' - racing games, generally motorized
image Sasori Vader - games in the Star Wars or overall space universes
image Shining Ogre Fire Tactics (S.O.F.T.) - strategy titles, tactical RPGs, RTS, etc
image Street Fightin' - 1-on-1 fighters - beat standard arcade mode with 2+ characters OR beat 10+ match story mode
image Super Mayrio Platform - platforming games, similar to the core Mario titles
image Vault Boy - open world and/or Western RPGs
image You're Winner - games with <55 review OR user score on Metacritic, or justify how your game sucked
#1 Slickriven
This topic had many older posts which were moved here: http://gametz.com/Vi... |
Beat a Game Already, 2022 console edition - open to anyone to join (or drop) at anytime. Just let me know if you're joining so I can get your console info.
Here's the spreadsheet for '22
Link to 2021's Thread for reference
LEADER BOARDS
Total Games Beaten: 1618 Top Users 1. WithinTemptation - 247 2. SupremeSarna - 202 3. benstylus - 132 4. ErickRPG - 126 5. LegendRko25 - 85 6. Slickriven - 80 7. Renaissance2K - 73 8. Bleed_DukeBlue - 70 9. DemonAlcohol - 58 10 BloodPuppetX - 54 ---------------------------------------------- Total Systems Covered: 330/625(52.80%) Top Users 1. Renaissance2K - 29 2. Slickriven - 26 3. benstylus - 21 4. SupremeSarna - 20 5. Bleed_DukeBlue - 17 6. Incubus421 - 14 7. WithinTemptation - 12 7. ErickRPG, Razeak, SailorNeoRune - 12 ---------------------------------------------- Total Badges Earned: 156 Top Users 1. WithinTemptation - 27 2. Bleed_DukeBlue - 27 3. SupremeSarna - 21 4. Slickriven - 20 5. LegendRko25, Incubus421 - 11 ---------------------------------------------- |
USER LISTS
This section to be updated at end of each month initially Antipop - 4/21 (19%) Archer - 5/6 (83%) benstylus - 21/24 (88%) Best1989 - 5/12 (42%) Bleed_DukeBlue - 17/17() BloodPuppetX - 3/13 (23%) buster4252 - 10/19 (53%) Cevil - 8/11 (73%) DarkFact - 2/2 () Dasgessabel - 2/5 (40%) DemonAlcohol - 6/6 () DragonmasterDX - 8/33 (24%) EB - 5/10 (50%) ErickRPG - 12/14 (86%) FlamingToastJPN - 2/15 (13%) Frank - 6/28 (21%) Gypsy - 11/26 (42%) HeavyD814Life - 4/5 (80%) incubus421 - 14/18 (78%) Kommie - 8/12 (67%) legendrko25 - 5/6 (83%) nonamesleft - 3/6 (50%) PizzaTheHut - 7/8 (88%) Razeak - 12/33 (36%) Renaissance2K - 29/36 (81%) Rokubungi - 9/24 (38%) RollySoup - 3/6 (50%) RVM - 4/4 () SailorNeoRune - 12/22 (55%) Scott - 8/20 (40%) SilverOwl - 2/7 (29%) Slickriven - 26/26 () SupremeSarna - 20/20 () TalonJedi87 - 4/6 (67%) tonymack21 - 8/24 (33%) WithinTemptation - 12/12 () non-active: GamersLyf - 0/17 (%) akfa - 1/4 (25%) Bonham2 - 1/1 (100% - ??) d3vanj - 1/2 (50%) Lunar - 5/33 (15%) sharif - 5/40 (13%) |
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"RULES"
1. Have fun 2. Beat games - proof NOT required via an image, but lying is lame and you won't 'win' anything for beating the most games 3. IF you are interested in badges, when you beat a game for 1, include something like 'Counts towards badge X' OR 'Earns me badge X, first game was Y' 4. IF you don't care about badges, then I will not be handing them out 5. No monthly leaderboards will exist in '22, I will post in the thread maybe around mid month and after month's end the top 5 or so participants 6. DLC generally doesn't count towards badges and any 1 game can only count towards a single badge Rule addendum: Going forward (after July 15th), badges for anyone who cares, will only be credited for beating 2 completely unique titles. Rule addendum: If you beat a title multiple times on different consoles then it needs to be <air-quote> LONGER </air-quote> in nature and not a fighting game or overall short title for me to list it for multiple consoles. It also could only count as 1 title for a badge, per the prior addendum listed above. |
ICONS & BADGES
Key - 50% of systems covered, - 100% of systems covered, - 0 games beat, - 5 games beat, - 10 games beat (additional gold stars for 20, 30, 40, 60, etc), - 50 games beat, - 100 games, - 150 games, - 200 games, - top user in systems completed, - top user in games beaten, - badge leader |
Badges, note 2 games required for each
image 2nd Amendment - FPS or 3rd Person Shooters
image Bear & Bird - 3D platformers and/or collect-a-thons
image BFFL - primarily cooperative games (with a friend)
image Bo Knows - sports games - complete a single season, generally human only sports
image Cross the Streams - cross-over games like: Mario & Sonic, Street Fighter x Tekken, etc
image Destroy the Core - SHMUP's
image Girly Power - games with female leads OR targeted towards children or feminine audiences
image Grown-Ass Man - challenging games
image Guybrush Threepwood - games from the point-&-click, text adventure, or walking simulator genres
image Heavy Machine Gun - run n' gun games
image Hyrulian Hero - action/adventure titles, similar to the Zelda franchise
image JRPG - JRPGs, duh
image Metroidvania - open ended 2D platformers that focus on backtracking
image Ninja Gayden - 3D hack-and-slash titles
image Now You're Playing with Plastic - games using non-standard controllers (Light-Gun, musical instrument, steering wheel, dance-pad, etc)
image Pile Drivin' - belt-scrolling brawler/beat 'em ups
image Puzzler - puzzle games
image Quarter Muncher Card - games from the pinball, classic arcade or card battle genres
image Quest for Peace - predominately superhero focused titles
image Raccoon City - survival horror games
image Race Drivin' - racing games, generally motorized
image Sasori Vader - games in the Star Wars or overall space universes
image Shining Ogre Fire Tactics (S.O.F.T.) - strategy titles, tactical RPGs, RTS, etc
image Street Fightin' - 1-on-1 fighters - beat standard arcade mode with 2+ characters OR beat 10+ match story mode
image Super Mayrio Platform - platforming games, similar to the core Mario titles
image Vault Boy - open world and/or Western RPGs
image You're Winner - games with <55 review OR user score on Metacritic, or justify how your game sucked
12-Nov-22 2:24am
#21 buster4252
Sorry haven't posted here in a while been working like crazy 12 hours a day 6 days a week but harvest is finally starting to slow down. It's been hard trying to squeeze in a bit of gaming but I managed to beat Tales of Berseria on PS4 and it counts as half of the girl power badge.
#21 buster4252
Sorry haven't posted here in a while been working like crazy 12 hours a day 6 days a week but harvest is finally starting to slow down. It's been hard trying to squeeze in a bit of gaming but I managed to beat Tales of Berseria on PS4 and it counts as half of the girl power badge.
12-Nov-22 2:10pm
#23 Heavyd814life
Haven't posted in a while...
#13: Soul Hackers 2
It's fine. Cool combat, but it's a drag and it's lacking in so many areas.
#14: Deliver Us The Moon
Awesome sci-fi puzzle-adventure game. This is a walking simulator done right.
#15: The Red Lantern
Unique story-driven roguelite set in Alaska. Definitely the best new game I've played so far this year.
#16: Disciples: Liberation
Better than it has any right to be. 80+ hours and I never got tired of exploring the overworld and crushing the turn-based battles. The story is pretty standard fantasy fare, but I enjoyed it!
#17: We Are OFK
Very, very niche but I enjoyed it. Sick art style and an amazing soundtrack.
Currently working on The Chant and the new Saints Row. The Chant is awesome so far - gonna jump back into it tonight - and Saints Row is...not as bad as I thought it'd be. I'm really in the mood for something sandbox-y so it's scratching that itch for me right now. Only 2 hours in so let's see if I'm still into it after 10.
#23 Heavyd814life
Haven't posted in a while...
#13: Soul Hackers 2
It's fine. Cool combat, but it's a drag and it's lacking in so many areas.
#14: Deliver Us The Moon
Awesome sci-fi puzzle-adventure game. This is a walking simulator done right.
#15: The Red Lantern
Unique story-driven roguelite set in Alaska. Definitely the best new game I've played so far this year.
#16: Disciples: Liberation
Better than it has any right to be. 80+ hours and I never got tired of exploring the overworld and crushing the turn-based battles. The story is pretty standard fantasy fare, but I enjoyed it!
#17: We Are OFK
Very, very niche but I enjoyed it. Sick art style and an amazing soundtrack.
Currently working on The Chant and the new Saints Row. The Chant is awesome so far - gonna jump back into it tonight - and Saints Row is...not as bad as I thought it'd be. I'm really in the mood for something sandbox-y so it's scratching that itch for me right now. Only 2 hours in so let's see if I'm still into it after 10.
12-Nov-22 9:43pm
#24 Kommie
Not sure when your last updated but I beat Resident Evil 3 Remake on recently
Also add to my consoles.....
Just beat Scorn I will post a wordy detail tomorrow about it. Short version: No. Do not play this.
#24 Kommie
Not sure when your last updated but I beat Resident Evil 3 Remake on recently
Also add to my consoles.....
Just beat Scorn I will post a wordy detail tomorrow about it. Short version: No. Do not play this.
14-Nov-22 6:57pm
#27 TalonJedi87
#24-God of War
So many fond memories for me here. I’ve now beaten this game over a dozen times in it’s 17 year existence and while it’s become rough around the edges control wise and has a fixed camera that hinders more than it helps at times, the story and soundtrack alone with memorable characters shines on thru any muck along the way. Next stop in the Kratos chronology, Ghost of Sparta!
#27 TalonJedi87
#24-God of War
So many fond memories for me here. I’ve now beaten this game over a dozen times in it’s 17 year existence and while it’s become rough around the edges control wise and has a fixed camera that hinders more than it helps at times, the story and soundtrack alone with memorable characters shines on thru any muck along the way. Next stop in the Kratos chronology, Ghost of Sparta!
14-Nov-22 7:02pm
#28 SupremeSarna
Sorry, @Scott , but I liked The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages better.
[imgt]https://i.imgur.com/...[/imgt]
I don’t know if it’s a Linked Game thing, but OoA has way more character and story than OoS. They found a way to differentiate the time travel from Ocarina of Time by having you travel hundreds of years, so you meet characters’ ancestors and explore a geographically different land. In some cases, you cause bootstrap paradoxes, where Link in the past was the originator of something that he was seeking in the present. They even fixed the problem with warping in ALttP: Not only are there way more warp panels spread across Labrynna, but you get an upgrade later that lets you ignore the obnoxious patch of sparkles.
Onox in OoS was a generic villain with no real presence in the game; Veran is a malevolent trickster who possesses people and casts spells, making her way more interesting. The focus on puzzles over battle results in really satisfying brain teasers, especially on Crescent Island and Zora’s Domain. Some of the bosses are hit or miss, like the first one being pretty gimmicky, but others are good. The Great Moblin was much funnier in OoS as well, as his role is diminished here.
I strongly recommend Ages over Seasons. By comparison, Ages felt like a passion project while Seasons felt like the other one they had to make to have the dual-release Miyamoto ordered.
#28 SupremeSarna
Sorry, @Scott , but I liked The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages better.
[imgt]https://i.imgur.com/...[/imgt]
I don’t know if it’s a Linked Game thing, but OoA has way more character and story than OoS. They found a way to differentiate the time travel from Ocarina of Time by having you travel hundreds of years, so you meet characters’ ancestors and explore a geographically different land. In some cases, you cause bootstrap paradoxes, where Link in the past was the originator of something that he was seeking in the present. They even fixed the problem with warping in ALttP: Not only are there way more warp panels spread across Labrynna, but you get an upgrade later that lets you ignore the obnoxious patch of sparkles.
Onox in OoS was a generic villain with no real presence in the game; Veran is a malevolent trickster who possesses people and casts spells, making her way more interesting. The focus on puzzles over battle results in really satisfying brain teasers, especially on Crescent Island and Zora’s Domain. Some of the bosses are hit or miss, like the first one being pretty gimmicky, but others are good. The Great Moblin was much funnier in OoS as well, as his role is diminished here.
I strongly recommend Ages over Seasons. By comparison, Ages felt like a passion project while Seasons felt like the other one they had to make to have the dual-release Miyamoto ordered.
14-Nov-22 7:52pm
#29 BloodPuppetX
@SupremeSarna, it was actually supposed to be a trilogy:
https://en.wikipedia...
I did prefer Ages back when I originally played them, but that’s probably just because I played that one first. (Though it appears you did the opposite. I just mean that it felt really good to be playing a new 2D Zelda at the time I played Ages,)
#29 BloodPuppetX
@SupremeSarna, it was actually supposed to be a trilogy:
https://en.wikipedia...
I did prefer Ages back when I originally played them, but that’s probably just because I played that one first. (Though it appears you did the opposite. I just mean that it felt really good to be playing a new 2D Zelda at the time I played Ages,)
14-Nov-22 8:22pm
#30 SupremeSarna
BloodPuppetX wrote:
@SupremeSarna, it was actually supposed to be a trilogy: https://en.wikipedia... I did prefer Ages back when I originally played them, but that’s probably just because I played that one first. (Though it appears you did the opposite. I just mean that it felt really good to be playing a new 2D Zelda at the time I played Ages,)
Even better: It was conceived as six games (remakes of Zelda 1 and 2, plus four original titles). But that’s a ludicrous amount of work, so I’m glad they did what they did. I feel bad for Farore, though, as she’s stuck as a cashier for optional passwords.
#30 SupremeSarna
BloodPuppetX wrote:
@SupremeSarna, it was actually supposed to be a trilogy: https://en.wikipedia... I did prefer Ages back when I originally played them, but that’s probably just because I played that one first. (Though it appears you did the opposite. I just mean that it felt really good to be playing a new 2D Zelda at the time I played Ages,)
Even better: It was conceived as six games (remakes of Zelda 1 and 2, plus four original titles). But that’s a ludicrous amount of work, so I’m glad they did what they did. I feel bad for Farore, though, as she’s stuck as a cashier for optional passwords.
14-Nov-22 8:53pm
#31 Renaissance2K
I finished two more games recently, starting with the PC version of Deathsmiles.
Collector's Editions of games have always been around in one way or another, but they seemed to go nuts during the seventh generation of gaming when publishers were doing whatever they could to squeeze more and more money out of a game sale. First, they increased the price of a new physical game to $60. Then, the small tokens of paid downloadable content ballooned into massive investments that sometimes cost more than the game itself, albeit providing a fraction of the content. Most memorably, there was no shortage of gigantic boxes on store shelves filled with cheaply-made trinkets, additional discs, exclusive content, artwork, and in some rare and special occasions, well-endowed mousepads.
The limited edition release of Deathsmiles for the Xbox 360 didn't feature any emboobed PC peripherals, but it did include a sharp-looking purple faceplate that piqued my interest, despite knowing absolutely nothing about the game. Like, literally nothing. It could have been an accounting simulator for all I knew, but I doubted that considering how much praise the game was already getting.
When the game arrived and I played it for the first time, I was greeted by a shooter unlike anything I had ever seen before. This was my first encounter with Cave, the famed developer celebrated what I now know as "bullet hell" shooters that set aside the metered rationing of old school sh'mups like my beloved Raiden in favor of full-on chaos. Instead of piloting weaponized spaceships, you're controlling superpowered witches, but this is far from a cute-em-up. You spend the entire game destroying beautifully-rendered grotesque monsters through mystical environments as a wild soundtrack blasts in the background. And sweet Christmas, there's a lot of bright pink bullets to dodge. I've never done drugs, but the one hour where I blitzed through the main campaign as Rosa must come pretty close to what it feels like.
The Deathsmiles soundtrack is pretty bizarre, but it had its share of standout tracks, which is why I ended up revisiting it as part of this year's 30-Day VGM Challenge video. The original 360 game is long gone, but Deathsmiles and its sequel have been ported to a ton of platforms, including Steam and the Steam Deck, which is where I ended up buying it. Scaling effects and pixelation make the game look a whole lot worse than I remember (though I was much less anal about that sort of thing way back then), but playing through again - this time with Sakura, at the behest of the corresponding Steam community - was every bit as much of a head trip so many years later.
And then, last night, in the middle of the night, I finally finished Lunar: Eternal Blue for the Sega CD, which I started back in January.
Our friend @Lunar posted about his "Lunar New Year" concept - using the annual holiday as an excuse to play through a game from the Lunar franchise - a few years back. Since then, I've taken it as an opportunity to play through the original Lunar: The Silver Star on the Sega CD, followed by Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete for the PlayStation. I was briefly introduced to the latter over twenty years ago, but the more hardcore mechanics and anime-heavy presentation ended up being a tricky pill to swallow. Revisiting them recently, though, showed me why the franchise is so beloved.
Rather than play through another port of Silver Star, I decided to play the game's Sega CD sequel, both to see where the story goes and to put my newly-modded Sega Nomad through its paces. Part of Silver Star's charm for me was how simple it was. Despite the occasional cutscene, it resembled, of all things, Final Fantasy Mystic Quest with its predictable characters, booming (and heavily period-appropriate) soundtrack, and relatively simple mechanics obfuscated by a barely-functional menu. Eternal Blue, in contrast, is much more fleshed out and cinematic. The characters and cutscenes are more developed, the battle system is better-explained, and the demands the game makes of you are much broader.
At no time is this more clear than when you're dungeon crawling. Eternal Blue's dungeons are sprawling, filled with lots of branching paths and dead ends that take a lot of time to explore comprehensively. Most significant dungeons also feature a travel mechanic/obstacle - tube elevators, lava rafters, ice chutes, etc. - that needs to be decoded to ultimately make it to the final boss. After spending upwards of an hour smacking your compass, the bosses at the end of the dungeon were sometimes a lot trickier to crack than their predecessor's counterparts. Lunar's big battle gimmick is how your enemies telegraph what attack they're about to use. It was bonus information in the original Lunar, but this time around, it's downright essential to respond to your foe's incoming move in the endgame, once the bad guys finally hide their stride.
Eternal Blue took me a long time to finish. Despite being able to play and save anywhere, booting a Sega CD game on a bulky Nomad is nowhere near as seamless as resuming a game session on a Switch, so progress felt slow. As much of a conceptual leap as it was over Silver Star, I still missed the characters and the colors of its PlayStation cousin. Losing a chunk of progress about halfway through the game after a particularly gnarly dungeon crawl wasn't much fun either, but that's not the game's fault. Things moved a whole lot faster once I started playing the game at home, and I was pretty satisfied with the game's climax, though it involved having my face kicked in by the final boss more times than I'd like to admit.
- Akumajō Densetsu, Akumajō Dracula, Castlevania II: Simon's Quest, Ninja Gaiden II: The Dark Sword of Chaos, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III: The Manhattan Project
- Crysis Remastered, Deathsmiles, Gris, Mass Effect 2, Stray, Subsurface Circular, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Manhattan Missions
- Alien Soldier, Lunar: Eternal Blue, Robo Aleste, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Hyperstone Heist
- Valis: The Fantasm Soldier
-
CD -
- Gradius III, Kirby Super Star, Super Castlevania IV, Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IV: Turtles in Time, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tournament Fighters
- Out of this World
-
- NBA Jam: Tournament Edition
-
-
- Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, Castlevania Chronicles, Rockman Complete Works 2: Dr. Wily No Nazo, Tekken 2
- Banjo-Kazooie, WipEout 64
- Dynamite Cop
-
-
- The Castlevania Adventure, Castlevania Legends, Kid Icarus: Of Myths and Monsters, Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Fall of the Foot Clan, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: Back from the Sewers, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III: Radical Rescue
- Castlevania II: Belmont's Revenge via Konami GB Collection Volume 4, TMNT, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2: Battle Nexus
- Ultimate Spider-Man
- LEGO Rock Band, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Arcade Attack
- Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles
-
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Smash-Up
- Need for Speed: Most Wanted
-
- 3D Classics: Kid Icarus, Ridge Racer 3D, Steel Diver, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
- Freedom Planet
- Astro's Playroom, Horizon: Zero Dawn, Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered
-
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge
- Diablo II Resurrected
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Brothers Unite, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Portal Power
-
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Misc. - E.T. the Extra-terrestrial (Atari 2600), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Battle for the City (Plug & Play)
Unique Systems Covered: 25/36
Total Games Beaten: 66
#31 Renaissance2K
I finished two more games recently, starting with the PC version of Deathsmiles.
Collector's Editions of games have always been around in one way or another, but they seemed to go nuts during the seventh generation of gaming when publishers were doing whatever they could to squeeze more and more money out of a game sale. First, they increased the price of a new physical game to $60. Then, the small tokens of paid downloadable content ballooned into massive investments that sometimes cost more than the game itself, albeit providing a fraction of the content. Most memorably, there was no shortage of gigantic boxes on store shelves filled with cheaply-made trinkets, additional discs, exclusive content, artwork, and in some rare and special occasions, well-endowed mousepads.
The limited edition release of Deathsmiles for the Xbox 360 didn't feature any emboobed PC peripherals, but it did include a sharp-looking purple faceplate that piqued my interest, despite knowing absolutely nothing about the game. Like, literally nothing. It could have been an accounting simulator for all I knew, but I doubted that considering how much praise the game was already getting.
When the game arrived and I played it for the first time, I was greeted by a shooter unlike anything I had ever seen before. This was my first encounter with Cave, the famed developer celebrated what I now know as "bullet hell" shooters that set aside the metered rationing of old school sh'mups like my beloved Raiden in favor of full-on chaos. Instead of piloting weaponized spaceships, you're controlling superpowered witches, but this is far from a cute-em-up. You spend the entire game destroying beautifully-rendered grotesque monsters through mystical environments as a wild soundtrack blasts in the background. And sweet Christmas, there's a lot of bright pink bullets to dodge. I've never done drugs, but the one hour where I blitzed through the main campaign as Rosa must come pretty close to what it feels like.
The Deathsmiles soundtrack is pretty bizarre, but it had its share of standout tracks, which is why I ended up revisiting it as part of this year's 30-Day VGM Challenge video. The original 360 game is long gone, but Deathsmiles and its sequel have been ported to a ton of platforms, including Steam and the Steam Deck, which is where I ended up buying it. Scaling effects and pixelation make the game look a whole lot worse than I remember (though I was much less anal about that sort of thing way back then), but playing through again - this time with Sakura, at the behest of the corresponding Steam community - was every bit as much of a head trip so many years later.
And then, last night, in the middle of the night, I finally finished Lunar: Eternal Blue for the Sega CD, which I started back in January.
Our friend @Lunar posted about his "Lunar New Year" concept - using the annual holiday as an excuse to play through a game from the Lunar franchise - a few years back. Since then, I've taken it as an opportunity to play through the original Lunar: The Silver Star on the Sega CD, followed by Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete for the PlayStation. I was briefly introduced to the latter over twenty years ago, but the more hardcore mechanics and anime-heavy presentation ended up being a tricky pill to swallow. Revisiting them recently, though, showed me why the franchise is so beloved.
Rather than play through another port of Silver Star, I decided to play the game's Sega CD sequel, both to see where the story goes and to put my newly-modded Sega Nomad through its paces. Part of Silver Star's charm for me was how simple it was. Despite the occasional cutscene, it resembled, of all things, Final Fantasy Mystic Quest with its predictable characters, booming (and heavily period-appropriate) soundtrack, and relatively simple mechanics obfuscated by a barely-functional menu. Eternal Blue, in contrast, is much more fleshed out and cinematic. The characters and cutscenes are more developed, the battle system is better-explained, and the demands the game makes of you are much broader.
At no time is this more clear than when you're dungeon crawling. Eternal Blue's dungeons are sprawling, filled with lots of branching paths and dead ends that take a lot of time to explore comprehensively. Most significant dungeons also feature a travel mechanic/obstacle - tube elevators, lava rafters, ice chutes, etc. - that needs to be decoded to ultimately make it to the final boss. After spending upwards of an hour smacking your compass, the bosses at the end of the dungeon were sometimes a lot trickier to crack than their predecessor's counterparts. Lunar's big battle gimmick is how your enemies telegraph what attack they're about to use. It was bonus information in the original Lunar, but this time around, it's downright essential to respond to your foe's incoming move in the endgame, once the bad guys finally hide their stride.
Eternal Blue took me a long time to finish. Despite being able to play and save anywhere, booting a Sega CD game on a bulky Nomad is nowhere near as seamless as resuming a game session on a Switch, so progress felt slow. As much of a conceptual leap as it was over Silver Star, I still missed the characters and the colors of its PlayStation cousin. Losing a chunk of progress about halfway through the game after a particularly gnarly dungeon crawl wasn't much fun either, but that's not the game's fault. Things moved a whole lot faster once I started playing the game at home, and I was pretty satisfied with the game's climax, though it involved having my face kicked in by the final boss more times than I'd like to admit.
- Akumajō Densetsu, Akumajō Dracula, Castlevania II: Simon's Quest, Ninja Gaiden II: The Dark Sword of Chaos, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III: The Manhattan Project
- Crysis Remastered, Deathsmiles, Gris, Mass Effect 2, Stray, Subsurface Circular, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Manhattan Missions
- Alien Soldier, Lunar: Eternal Blue, Robo Aleste, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Hyperstone Heist
- Valis: The Fantasm Soldier
-
CD -
- Gradius III, Kirby Super Star, Super Castlevania IV, Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IV: Turtles in Time, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tournament Fighters
- Out of this World
-
- NBA Jam: Tournament Edition
-
-
- Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, Castlevania Chronicles, Rockman Complete Works 2: Dr. Wily No Nazo, Tekken 2
- Banjo-Kazooie, WipEout 64
- Dynamite Cop
-
-
- The Castlevania Adventure, Castlevania Legends, Kid Icarus: Of Myths and Monsters, Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Fall of the Foot Clan, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: Back from the Sewers, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III: Radical Rescue
- Castlevania II: Belmont's Revenge via Konami GB Collection Volume 4, TMNT, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2: Battle Nexus
- Ultimate Spider-Man
- LEGO Rock Band, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Arcade Attack
- Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles
-
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Smash-Up
- Need for Speed: Most Wanted
-
- 3D Classics: Kid Icarus, Ridge Racer 3D, Steel Diver, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
- Freedom Planet
- Astro's Playroom, Horizon: Zero Dawn, Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered
-
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge
- Diablo II Resurrected
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Brothers Unite, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Portal Power
-
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Misc. - E.T. the Extra-terrestrial (Atari 2600), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Battle for the City (Plug & Play)
Unique Systems Covered: 25/36
Total Games Beaten: 66
15-Nov-22 8:40am
#32 Scott
SupremeSarna wrote:
Sorry, @Scott , but I liked The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages better. I don’t know if it’s a Linked Game thing, but OoA has way more character and story than OoS. They found a way to differentiate the time travel from Ocarina of Time by having you travel hundreds of years, so you meet characters’ ancestors and explore a geographically different land. In some cases, you cause bootstrap paradoxes, where Link in the past was the originator of something that he was seeking in the present. They even fixed the problem with warping in ALttP: Not only are there way more warp panels spread across Labrynna, but you get an upgrade later that lets you ignore the obnoxious patch of sparkles. Onox in OoS was a generic villain with no real presence in the game; Veran is a malevolent trickster who possesses people and casts spells, making her way more interesting. The focus on puzzles over battle results in really satisfying brain teasers, especially on Crescent Island and Zora’s Domain. Some of the bosses are hit or miss, like the first one being pretty gimmicky, but others are good. The Great Moblin was much funnier in OoS as well, as his role is diminished here. I strongly recommend Ages over Seasons. By comparison, Ages felt like a passion project while Seasons felt like the other one they had to make to have the dual-release Miyamoto ordered.
I love both games, and honestly think they're fairly close in quality. But if I have to compare them and pick a favorite, it's easily Seasons for me. Mostly because I prefer the unique season changing mechanic over time travel, but also because I like how it's more focused on combat than puzzles. Subrosia is also a pretty cool area they included, I enjoyed the extra 'world' to explore. I do agree that Onox is a fairly weak villain though. It's perfectly understandable if you prefer Ages, but I think you're being WAY too hard on Seasons here. They're both fairly comparable games.
The fact that you played Ages second as a linked game does make a difference, you get more story that way, not to mention the big finale which you probably now associate with Ages, when really it belongs to both games. I usually recommend playing both of them twice, in each order. There are bits of story and little bonuses in both that you'll only get if playing each one as the 2nd, linked game.
#32 Scott
SupremeSarna wrote:
Sorry, @Scott , but I liked The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages better. I don’t know if it’s a Linked Game thing, but OoA has way more character and story than OoS. They found a way to differentiate the time travel from Ocarina of Time by having you travel hundreds of years, so you meet characters’ ancestors and explore a geographically different land. In some cases, you cause bootstrap paradoxes, where Link in the past was the originator of something that he was seeking in the present. They even fixed the problem with warping in ALttP: Not only are there way more warp panels spread across Labrynna, but you get an upgrade later that lets you ignore the obnoxious patch of sparkles. Onox in OoS was a generic villain with no real presence in the game; Veran is a malevolent trickster who possesses people and casts spells, making her way more interesting. The focus on puzzles over battle results in really satisfying brain teasers, especially on Crescent Island and Zora’s Domain. Some of the bosses are hit or miss, like the first one being pretty gimmicky, but others are good. The Great Moblin was much funnier in OoS as well, as his role is diminished here. I strongly recommend Ages over Seasons. By comparison, Ages felt like a passion project while Seasons felt like the other one they had to make to have the dual-release Miyamoto ordered.
I love both games, and honestly think they're fairly close in quality. But if I have to compare them and pick a favorite, it's easily Seasons for me. Mostly because I prefer the unique season changing mechanic over time travel, but also because I like how it's more focused on combat than puzzles. Subrosia is also a pretty cool area they included, I enjoyed the extra 'world' to explore. I do agree that Onox is a fairly weak villain though. It's perfectly understandable if you prefer Ages, but I think you're being WAY too hard on Seasons here. They're both fairly comparable games.
The fact that you played Ages second as a linked game does make a difference, you get more story that way, not to mention the big finale which you probably now associate with Ages, when really it belongs to both games. I usually recommend playing both of them twice, in each order. There are bits of story and little bonuses in both that you'll only get if playing each one as the 2nd, linked game.
15-Nov-22 10:51am
#33 SupremeSarna
Scott wrote:
I love both games, and honestly think they're fairly close in quality. But if I have to compare them and pick a favorite, it's easily Seasons for me. Mostly because I prefer the unique season changing mechanic over time travel, but also because I like how it's more focused on combat than puzzles. Subrosia is also a pretty cool area they included, I enjoyed the extra 'world' to explore. I do agree that Onox is a fairly weak villain though. It's perfectly understandable if you prefer Ages, but I think you're being WAY too hard on Seasons here. They're both fairly comparable games. The fact that you played Ages second as a linked game does make a difference, you get more story that way, not to mention the big finale which you probably now associate with Ages, when really it belongs to both games. I usually recommend playing both of them twice, in each order. There are bits of story and little bonuses in both that you'll only get if playing each one as the 2nd, linked game.
I knew a handful of things were tied to the linked game, like the entire Twinrova plot and Zelda’s mere existence, plus the Donkey Kong reference. So I’m not counting those as Ages-exclusive. But the fact that Ages has Ralph, a pathetic but dutiful hero wannabe, and the manipulable Queen Ambi adds to its cast of characters. Every once in a while you’ll catch up with one of them and see a bit of growth from them, or Ambi will build more of the Black Tower, or something like that. The female Maku Tree also left more of an impression, as she has much more personality than the sleepy male version in OoS.
In OoS, I liked the stuff with Moosh, Ricky, Dimitri, the Great Moblin, and the Subrosian girl you “date,” as well as the pirate skeleton bell quest. Thing is, most of not all of those characters reappear in OoA with a slight difference regardless of linking. They’re both good games, and I’ll play them in the reverse order someday, but Ages felt to me like it had something the Seasons lacked.
#33 SupremeSarna
Scott wrote:
I love both games, and honestly think they're fairly close in quality. But if I have to compare them and pick a favorite, it's easily Seasons for me. Mostly because I prefer the unique season changing mechanic over time travel, but also because I like how it's more focused on combat than puzzles. Subrosia is also a pretty cool area they included, I enjoyed the extra 'world' to explore. I do agree that Onox is a fairly weak villain though. It's perfectly understandable if you prefer Ages, but I think you're being WAY too hard on Seasons here. They're both fairly comparable games. The fact that you played Ages second as a linked game does make a difference, you get more story that way, not to mention the big finale which you probably now associate with Ages, when really it belongs to both games. I usually recommend playing both of them twice, in each order. There are bits of story and little bonuses in both that you'll only get if playing each one as the 2nd, linked game.
I knew a handful of things were tied to the linked game, like the entire Twinrova plot and Zelda’s mere existence, plus the Donkey Kong reference. So I’m not counting those as Ages-exclusive. But the fact that Ages has Ralph, a pathetic but dutiful hero wannabe, and the manipulable Queen Ambi adds to its cast of characters. Every once in a while you’ll catch up with one of them and see a bit of growth from them, or Ambi will build more of the Black Tower, or something like that. The female Maku Tree also left more of an impression, as she has much more personality than the sleepy male version in OoS.
In OoS, I liked the stuff with Moosh, Ricky, Dimitri, the Great Moblin, and the Subrosian girl you “date,” as well as the pirate skeleton bell quest. Thing is, most of not all of those characters reappear in OoA with a slight difference regardless of linking. They’re both good games, and I’ll play them in the reverse order someday, but Ages felt to me like it had something the Seasons lacked.
15-Nov-22 11:16am
#34 Scott
@SupremeSarna It's been a few years now since my last playthrough, so my memories are a bit fuzzy. But I'm pretty sure those characters only reappeared in OoA because of the linked game. Or at least, there was more to them because it was a linked game. When you get around to playing the games in the opposite order, you'll see the same sort of thing, with characters from OoA reappearing in OoS and having more story/development.
#34 Scott
@SupremeSarna It's been a few years now since my last playthrough, so my memories are a bit fuzzy. But I'm pretty sure those characters only reappeared in OoA because of the linked game. Or at least, there was more to them because it was a linked game. When you get around to playing the games in the opposite order, you'll see the same sort of thing, with characters from OoA reappearing in OoS and having more story/development.
15-Nov-22 12:17pm
#35 SupremeSarna
@Scott That makes sense, I suppose. But one thing's for sure: Minish Cap is better than both!
#35 SupremeSarna
@Scott That makes sense, I suppose. But one thing's for sure: Minish Cap is better than both!
15-Nov-22 12:58pm
#36 Scott
I liked Minish Cap a lot the first time I played it around 2006, but not as much when I finally replayed it a couple years back.
#36 Scott
I liked Minish Cap a lot the first time I played it around 2006, but not as much when I finally replayed it a couple years back.
15-Nov-22 1:14pm
#37 BloodPuppetX
Speaking of Zelda, NL ranked their favorite dungeons:
https://www.nintendo...
Forest Temple at #1. That was the dungeon that forced me to buy a strategy guide back before I had internet. I think I missed a Poe that was hiding in a painting or something.
#37 BloodPuppetX
Speaking of Zelda, NL ranked their favorite dungeons:
https://www.nintendo...
Forest Temple at #1. That was the dungeon that forced me to buy a strategy guide back before I had internet. I think I missed a Poe that was hiding in a painting or something.
15-Nov-22 1:16pm
#38 Scott
I love the Forest Temple, definitely can't argue with it being #1. The Shadow Temple, however, wasn't nearly as good as I remembered it being when I last replayed OoT.
#38 Scott
I love the Forest Temple, definitely can't argue with it being #1. The Shadow Temple, however, wasn't nearly as good as I remembered it being when I last replayed OoT.
15-Nov-22 3:52pm
#39 PizzaTheHutt
SupremeSarna wrote:
@Scott That makes sense, I suppose. But one thing's for sure: Minish Cap is better than both!
For the longest time this was my favorite Zelda game. Period. It might still be, I dunno, I don't like having to rank stuff like that because there's only a few in the series that I liked enough to play all the way through.
#39 PizzaTheHutt
SupremeSarna wrote:
@Scott That makes sense, I suppose. But one thing's for sure: Minish Cap is better than both!
For the longest time this was my favorite Zelda game. Period. It might still be, I dunno, I don't like having to rank stuff like that because there's only a few in the series that I liked enough to play all the way through.
15-Nov-22 9:58pm
#40 TalonJedi87
#25-God of War Ghost of Sparta
I blew through this one so quick I forgot how short it was. Probably shorter than the OG GoW 2005 but it was sweet while it lasted. I enjoyed the whole brotherly love side of Kratos even though they kicked each others butts a few times along the way. It also makes it’s due of the secret 2005 cutscene in the 2005 GoW you get when beating the game on god mode which is nice as they revolves an entire game around Kratos’ quest to find his lost brother. The final boss Thanatos was still a chump though. He’s got nothing on Hades. Next stop, God of War II ! (Which will probably take me a bit longer since it’s about 10-12 hours from what I recall)
#40 TalonJedi87
#25-God of War Ghost of Sparta
I blew through this one so quick I forgot how short it was. Probably shorter than the OG GoW 2005 but it was sweet while it lasted. I enjoyed the whole brotherly love side of Kratos even though they kicked each others butts a few times along the way. It also makes it’s due of the secret 2005 cutscene in the 2005 GoW you get when beating the game on god mode which is nice as they revolves an entire game around Kratos’ quest to find his lost brother. The final boss Thanatos was still a chump though. He’s got nothing on Hades. Next stop, God of War II ! (Which will probably take me a bit longer since it’s about 10-12 hours from what I recall)
16-Nov-22 11:35am
#41 Scott
I beat Castlevania. It wasn't nearly as difficult as I remembered.
NES - Ninja Gaiden, Contra, Marble Madness, Ninja Gaiden II: The Dark Sword of Chaos, Castlevania
SNES - Super Castlevania IV
N64 -
GC -
Wii -
Wii U - The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD
Switch - Metroid Dread, Ori and the Will of the Wisps, Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker, Kirby and the Forgotten Land, SteamWorld Dig, Steamworld Dig 2, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge, Shovel Knight: Shovel of Hope, SteamWorld Heist, Splatoon 3
GB -
GBC -
GBA - The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords
DS - Pokemon Black
3DS -
360 - Banjo-Kazooie
XB1 -
PS1 -
PS2 -
PS4 -
PSP -
GEN - Castlevania: Bloodlines
8/19 - Unique systems
21 - Total games
Badges
Metroidvania - Metroid Dread, Ori and the Will of the Wisps
Grown-Ass Man - Ninja Gaiden, Contra, Castlevania: Bloodlines, Castlevania
Bear & Bird - Banjo-Kazooie, Kirby and the Forgotten Land
Hyrulian Hero - The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD, The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords
#41 Scott
I beat Castlevania. It wasn't nearly as difficult as I remembered.
NES - Ninja Gaiden, Contra, Marble Madness, Ninja Gaiden II: The Dark Sword of Chaos, Castlevania
SNES - Super Castlevania IV
N64 -
GC -
Wii -
Wii U - The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD
Switch - Metroid Dread, Ori and the Will of the Wisps, Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker, Kirby and the Forgotten Land, SteamWorld Dig, Steamworld Dig 2, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge, Shovel Knight: Shovel of Hope, SteamWorld Heist, Splatoon 3
GB -
GBC -
GBA - The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords
DS - Pokemon Black
3DS -
360 - Banjo-Kazooie
XB1 -
PS1 -
PS2 -
PS4 -
PSP -
GEN - Castlevania: Bloodlines
8/19 - Unique systems
21 - Total games
Badges
Metroidvania - Metroid Dread, Ori and the Will of the Wisps
Grown-Ass Man - Ninja Gaiden, Contra, Castlevania: Bloodlines, Castlevania
Bear & Bird - Banjo-Kazooie, Kirby and the Forgotten Land
Hyrulian Hero - The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD, The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords
Beat a Game Already, 2022 console edition