Games Beaten In 2016!

[+thegoldenband]

Hark, it's the attack of the unlicensed NES puzzle games...

 

34. Puzzle (NES)

 

It's, uh, a game about solving sliding-block puzzles, plus some RPS thrown in. Modest ambitions, but it doesn't quite live up to them, with slightly off-kilter controls and too many indistinguishable pieces. D.

 

35. Tiles of Fate (NES)

 

I've been playing Shisenshou, a tile-matching game on the Game Boy, a lot this year. Tiles of Fate is like that, but with a time limit, gimmicky power-ups, puzzles that can't always be solved without the aforementioned power-ups, and a nasty habit of treating the pause button as a quit button when you're stuck and need to use a power-up. Oh yeah, and a "conquer all of China" theme, which IIRC was grafted on to replace nudity when the game was localized.

 

All in all, I'd stick with the GB game, which plays and looks better and is more fun. (And why didn't they Americanize the tiles? Trying to parse poorly-drawn Chinese characters on a time limit is a drag.) D.

 

36. Dudes with Attitude (NES)

37. Trolls on Treasure Island (NES)

 

Now these are actual games, albeit with the world's corniest themes and licensing. Balls, or trolls, bounce back and forth and change colors to match the jewels they need to harvest.

 

Infinite continues and quick level restarts help alleviate a few irritations, mainly situations that demand pinpoint precision but don't offer enough visual feedback to make it possible. Also, the mandatory 2-player levels are either really clever (since a single player can just barely work both sets of controls in time) or really stupid (if the above "cleverness" is just luck, and they didn't think through the odds that anyone playing an unlicensed puzzle game would be able to find a willing collaborator).

 

Trolls is basically Dudes 2, or really more of a reskinned expansion pack, so they both get the same grade: C.

[Skippy B. Coyote]

It's been about a month and a half since I last updated my list for this thread, and I've got a quite a few games to add!

 

 

30. Sonic Blast (Sega Master System)

 

It's laggy and a little clunky, but it's still Sonic! A fun game that took me most of a morning to play through, since some of the puzzles in the game took quite a while to figure out, but it was definitely worth playing. Even with the notorious SMS lag it was still a really enjoyable little adventure with challenging bosses and great graphics for an 8-bit system.

 

 

31. Sonic the Hedgehog (Sega Master System)

 

Another Sonic game on the Master System, this one really took me by surprise. While it does look and sound like Sonic the gameplay is more akin to a Super Mario game, and by that I mean rather than focus on speed it's more about tricky precision platforming. I think it took me a good 4 or 5 tries before I was able to beat it, but I think it was gaming time well spent. The first Sonic the Hedgehog for the SMS is a very different game than the first Sonic for the Genesis, but both are quite good in their own right. I do like the Genesis version better, but I'll probably still play through this one again at some point.

 

 

32. The House of the Dead III (Nintendo Wii)

 

I had beaten The House of the Dead 2 on the House of the Dead 2 & 3 Return compilation for the Wii several times in the past, but it wasn't until just last month that I managed to conquer the third game in the series. I could make it to the final boss without much difficulty, but the speed and precision required to finish off the last boss was just too much for my wrist and trigger finger to handle before hand cramps eventually lost me the battle. Last month though I was able to power through the hand cramps and put the nail in the coffin on this one, and I have to say that it was an extremely satisfying experience doing so! I had been wanting to beat The House of the Dead III for a really long time and I'm very happy to have finally done it!

 

 

33. Orcs & Elves (Nintendo DS)

 

A real hidden gem of the DS library! After what an abysmal experience I had trying to play (or rather, figure out how to play) the critically acclaimed The Dark Spire for the DS I wasn't expecting much from Id Software's take on the first person dungeon crawling genre, but man was I ever pleasantly surprised! Orcs & Elves is everything that I wished The Dark Spire was and I couldn't recommend it more highly. It's fast paced and chalked full of action, has a great high fantasy story with lots of humorous dialog, and the gameplay mechanics and controls are all thoroughly explained as you go along; making the whole experience very approachable for people such as myself who aren't generally into RPGs. This is just an all around wonderful game that I'm sure I will go back to play through many times over!

 

 

34. The House of the Dead: Overkill (Nintendo Wii)

 

June was a good month for shooting zombies with light guns this year, and The House of the Dead: Overkill was a phenomenal take on the genre. From the campy B-movie story line to the extreme amounts of profanity and adult content, this game just oozed style in the best kind of way. The shooting action was fantastic too, so if you're in the market for a very adult oriented light gun game then this is definitely one to pick up. I think I beat it at least 4 times on both regular and Directors Cut mode until I had unlocked everything there was to unlock, because that's just how good of a game it is.

 

 

35. Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles (Nintendo Wii)

 

More zombie annihilating light gun action! I've always a been a huge fan of the Resident Evil series all the way back to the first game on the original PlayStation, and with my love of light gun shooters you can probably imagine how much I enjoyed this game. It was another one of those "Play through it half a dozen times until you've unlocked everything" sort of experiences for me, and I feel like every minute of it was gaming time well spent. It's games like this that really make me love the Wii.

 

 

36. Dead Space: Extraction (Nintendo Wii)

 

Saving the best light gun shooter in the Wii for last, next up is Dead Space: Extraction! I don't think any other light gun game on any system has ever come even remotely close to matching the depth of the story and gameplay in this one, and those looking for a truly deep, immersive, and downright terrifying light gun gaming experience absolutely owe it to themselves to play Dead Space: Extraction. Also, while I generally prefer to play light gun games on the Wii using either a Nyko Perfect Shot (or two of them, in the case of House of the Dead: Overkill's "Dual Wield" mode) or the CTA Sure Shot Shotgun this happens to be one of the few light gun games for the Wii that I think is best played with the official Nintendo Wii Zapper accessory. A lot of the gameplay mechanics and on-screen cues are designed with the Zapper in mind, making Dead Space: Extraction without a doubt the best game to make use of Nintendo's official Wii Zapper accessory; and possibly the finest light gun game ever created for any system period.

 

 

37. Metroid II: Return of Samus (Game Boy)

 

I was laid out sick for the better part of a week not long ago, and I decided to use the downtime to revisit an old favorite game on the Game Boy. Metroid II is just one of those "must own" titles for the original Game Boy and without a doubt one of the best adventure and exploration based games on the system. At this point I've played through it enough times that I don't even need to make or reference a map anymore, but it's still just as fun as ever to spent half a dozen or more hours wandering the dark and mysterious catacombs of SR388. The environments are varied and interesting to look at, as are the enemies and power up selections (especially when played on the Game Boy Color, since the custom color palette programmed into the system for Metroid II really spruces up the visuals). The additions of a save battery to save your game at checkpoints along the way and health & missile refill stations fix pretty much everything that made the original Metroid on the NES often frustrating, making the Game Boy sequel just a wonderful gaming experience through and through. And believe it or not, 25 years after the game's initial release the original save game battery in my cartridge still works just fine! That's some serious staying power.

 

 

38. Xenon 2: Megablast (Game Boy)

 

The last one for now! I had been wanting to get my hands on a nice condition copy of Xenon 2 for a reasonable price for a good year or two, so when one finally popped up on eBay last week I snagged it faster than you can say "Sold!" As luck would have it, the game was well worth the wait and I ended up spending all morning today playing it until I was able to beat the game on Easy mode. It's just an all around fantastic shoot 'em up, with great graphics, loads of 8-bit charm, and a really unique upgrade system that adds a lot of strategy and challenge to the game. It took me a good 5 or 6 tries before I was able to beat the game, largely because that's how many tries it took me to find the right strategy for which weapons and power ups to buy from the shop that you can visit after each boss and sub-boss. Getting to choose your own upgrading path gives the game a great deal of variety and allows not only for every player to choose the equipment that best suits their own individual play style, but it also gives the game a great deal of variety and replayability; since you can experiment with different weapon loadouts every time you play. All in all I think Xenon 2 is just a fantastic game and a definite "must own" title for any Game Boy owner who is a fan of vertical scrolling spaceship shooters.

[Cybergoth]

During the last few weeks I played twice through Genma Onimusha (XBOX) and also beat the Oni Spirits mini game

 

Capcom games beaten in 2016: Mega Man Battle Network, One Piece Mansion & Genma Onimusha

 

Addendum: I finished another two playthroughs on hard mode, so I also have the Panda costume unlocked now

[+thegoldenband]

38. Shisenshou: Match Mania (Game Boy)

 

This is another one that got a negative review from Game Boy World, which claimed the graphics in this tile-matching game were too hard to make out. I didn't have that issue, though, and found the game sufficiently addictive to solve all 50 puzzles (and beat all five rounds of the game's not-so-challenging Challenge mode). Then again, it's also an easy game to play while watching TV with one's spouse, so the time I put into it may reflect that. B.

 

39. Dracula Unleashed (Sega CD)

 

My wife and I started working on this point 'n' click FMV adventure back in 2011 and got stuck, then restarted last year and got sidetracked, before finally putting a stake in it this week.

 

Like any game of its type, it's very frustrating when you aren't making progress and can't figure out what you're doing wrong, and occasionally the game is ambiguous without meaning to be: as it turns out, we weren't stuck in 2011, but simply misunderstood an event cue that wasn't clearly worded (we kept trying to attend a funeral and couldn't understand why nothing was happening, but we were a day early).

 

That said, if we saw fit to see it through -- even though it took half a decade! -- that says something about the game's goals and quality. B.

 

40. Simple 1500 Series Vol. 9 - The Chess (PlayStation)

 

The only coverage in English available for this Japanese budget title is a YouTube video that achieves a quick victory, and the uploader claims in the comments that the game only has one level. After I beat the game on default settings last night, though, I found it hard to believe I'd eaten the whole enchilada.

 

Well, after a laborious menu translation, I confirmed that the game actually has three difficulty levels (so the uploader is wrong), and as I suspected I'd only beaten Beginner mode. So, I played and beat Intermediate and Advanced today, the latter with both the white and black pieces.

 

"The Chess" isn't as strong as a 32-bit era chess title should be, and most of my victories were won with ease. But beating it with Black on Advanced was tricky -- the game has an eye for tricky combinations where it sacrifices a piece for three pawns, and I got nailed by a few of those before finally cashing in on my fourth or fifth attempt. Still, it's clearly not as strong as Chessmaster.

 

Otherwise, "The Chess" suffers from an acute lack of bells and whistles, but since it retailed for the equivalent of $15 in Japan (which would probably be about $11-12 here), it does a passable job of offering a chess experience on a budget. Bonus points for the appealingly goofy music. C.

[+wongojack]

I finished Rygar for Lynx! It's a port of the arcade game (unlike the NES version which is more of an adaptation). 23 levels and no continues. Really the game becomes an exercise in not dying when you get your power ups which is harder than expected. It's a nice feeling to have completed this one.

 

Some tips for Rygar

If you are going for high score or completion, the strategies are about the same. The game has a finite ending with no ability to continue past the ending, so you can increase your score by ensuring that you kill every enemy on screen, but really the bonuses provided by power ups and random treasures are what is going to push your score higher. I'm probably not the foremost expert, but it seems to me that score is going to be a random outcome only slightly influenced by your gameplay. Expert players would probably find a score battle pointless. A speed competition would better demonstrate one's mastery of Rygar.

 

The power ups are the key, so familiarize yourself with them here: http://atariage.com/manual_page.php?SystemID=LYNX&SoftwareLabelID=1882&maxPages=16&currentPage=9

 

The obvious best power up to have is the Double Points bonus. This more than anything else will determine if you will have success. When I was trying to beat the game, I would play through the first 3 levels. If I could make it through without dying and had the Double Points bonus then I knew I would have a good game. If I had no bonuses, I would usually restart with the Lynx's handy restart option. The games can kind of take a long time, so you will want some kind of restart strategy.

 

Level 3 and level 19 are two that really take some memorization, so practice 3 and get a pattern down for yourself and try to get to 19 with a bunch of lives remaining. For level 3, there are 3 sets of platforms floating in water. There are multiple platforms in each set. The 3rd set is tough, but I got through it consistently by killing the first 2 or 3 dragons mid jump then at the longest jump, I would let myself bounce on top of the dragons past the platforms. You might not be able to bounce all the way beyond the last little floating platform, but you can get almost there. Get to a safe spot and then kill all the dragons you just bounced over. If you have the Tiger Power it makes this section a bit easier, but that is easily the rarest power in the game. It was for me anyway.

 

Level 19 is going to kill you because they place jumping fireballs right on platforms you need to use. They are also often offscreen when you jump so you can't really time your jump to avoid the fireballs. Once you have the "jump at the last second" mechanic down, you'll probably find that you can sometimes bounce on the fireballs when they are descending IF you hit them from above. There are also dragons in this stage that you can bounce on, but I mostly went with a strategy of "reach this board with as many men as possible."

 

As far as extra men are concerned, the reward is not consistent. Meaning, it isn't every 50k that you get an extra life. Instead the points seem to be spaced out subjectively. For example, once I reached 1 million points, the next extra man I noticed was at 2 million. This means that regardless of when you score your points (level 3 or level 18), you basically have the same number of extra men available. What is up to you and the randomness of the game is how quickly you accumulate those men. I found this reassuring because it meant that if I died early, I could still have a chance to finish the game. I didn't need to farm points on early/easier levels. What discouraged me more is if I lost a key power up upon death.

 

There are some levels where you really can farm points. There is one middle-ish (8, 9, 10, etc) level where there are a BUNCH of Lava Men, but you can farm some good points on any level with Lava Men. At first, you will want to kill the Lava Men as soon as you see them, but if you let them start shooting their fireballs, you will realize that you can increase your end-of-level Repulse bonus by shooting those fireballs - they count as an enemy. Where there is a dense set of 2 lava men, you can really increase the Repulse bonus in a hurry by shooting the double fireballs they shoot at you. Occasionally there is a single Lava Man who shoots at 2x the normal rate which is also an excellent chance for points. In some levels this can increase the Repulse bonus to what I think is the max - 25,500. If you have the Double Points bonus, you'll get double points for each fireball AND double points for the end of level Repulse bonus. Watch out that you don't run out of time though.

 

Another level where you can really drive your Repulse bonus high is a level in the early teens where there are at least 5-7 Rhinos. Hit them each 8 times to kill them. You'll get double points for killing them and you'll drive up the end level bonus. I think you get an increase in your repulse bonus for each hit on any enemy, so there are a lot of hits to dish out in this one.

 

About running out of time . . . There is a giant sentient comet of death that comes for you if you run out of time. It will come from the left and kill you. It moves much faster than you, so be near the exit when time runs out. You can bounce on this thing safely however, so a few times, I was able to jump on a tree and jump again on top of it to sort of ride the thing to the end of the level safely. This was a known exploit in the arcade game as well according to my MAME notes.

 

I couldn't make sense of when I'd get a power up. The treasures seemed mostly consistent (and useless except for Time). The power ups on the other hand were hard to predict. As I mentioned above, level 3 was my deciding point. If I had seen no power ups by the end of level 3, I would quit and try to get the Double Points or any power up early in my next run.

 

The manual says that the "?" treasure ranges between 1,000 - 75,000 points, but I swear it can be even larger. If you have Double Points and get a big random reward from a "?" - that can really drive up your extra men (especially early).

 

The end game boss was pretty lame. I won't spoil what little challenge there is by giving you tips to defeat it. If you've played a game where you have to hit/shoot a boss before, you'll figure it out. I think he's supposed to be an elephant, but he looked like a giant Indian lion with an 80s/90s hair band haricut.

[bugcatcher88]

I finished Batman: Arhkam Origins Blackgate on 3DS a few days ago. I bought it in early June and finally got around to finishing it. I liked the dark, gritty atmosphere, but found the boss battles to be confusing and infuriating (especially the Penguin fight). Overall, I thought it was an ok game.

[madhatter667]

Ooh ooh...

Got one.

The Last of Us. Just finished the main story. Gonna work on the Left Behind story next.

[Skippy B. Coyote]

39. Jack Nicklaus Golf (Game Boy)

A really surprisingly good game, and one that has gone on to beat out Mario Golf for the Game Boy Color and Mario Golf: Advance Tour for the GBA to become my new favorite handheld golf game. I'm utterly puzzled as to why this game never seems to come up on anyone's list of recommended Game Boy/Color games, because it's by far the most intricate, well designed, and full featured golf game on the original Game Boy and in many ways superior to Mario Golf for the Game Boy Color if you're not into the whole RPG story mode that the Mario games are focused on. There are four different 18 hole courses to play in Jack Nicklaus Golf, three of which are accurate pseudo-3D recreations of real life golf courses, and you have the option to play Stroke or Skins play against a large assortment of computer opponents of varying skill levels; playing against as many as 3 other opponents per game. The game gives you just the right amount of information necessary to estimate your shots, and everything about the game just seems way ahead of it's time. If you're into golf games and you own a Game Boy/Pocket/Color then definitely see if you can track down a copy of Jack Nicklaus Golf. I assure you that you won't be disappointed!


40. T2: The Arcade Game (Game Boy)

It's hard to believe that the infamous LJN could have made a game this good, let alone that a light gun game for the Game Boy could be worth playing, but I've been getting my light gun shooting fix on the go with T2 for a couple weeks now and have been enjoying it immensely. At this point I've beaten the game 3 times (the first time around getting the bad ending, and the second and third times getting the good ending by destroying all objects in the Cyberdyne labs level) and I'm sure that I'll go back and play through it many more times just because it's so darn fun and can be beaten in 20 minutes or so once you get the hang of it. The only complaint I could really make about T2: The Arcade Game for the Game Boy is that it really needs to be played on a Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance, or a GameCube's Game Boy Player. On earlier monochrome hardware like the original Game Boy, Game Boy Pocket, and Super Game Boy the graphics are just too detailed to be able to clearly make out everything happening on the screen without having the enemies often blend into the background; but when played on a GBC, GBA, or Game Boy Player the enemies and your aiming reticle are all automatically colored a different color than the background so that you can clearly see what is going on and where everything is. It's still a darn tough game even with the visual enhancements of later hardware, but definitely one I'd recommend picking up for any Game Boy fan looking for a fun, unique, and well crafted shooting challenge.


41. Pong: The Next Level (Game Boy Color)

There's really not a whole lot to say about this one. It's the original Pong plus three other variations with stylized backgrounds, power-ups, and various field hazards to add some variety to the game. There are three different difficulty levels for playing against the computer plus link cable multiplayer support, but with just half an hour or so of practice I was able to beat the computer in tournament mode (which is all four Pong variations back to back) on the hardest setting. This game certainly wouldn't have been worth it's retail price when it was new, but if you happen to stumble on a loose cart for a couple dollars then I think you'll get your money's worth of fun out of it.


42. Aliens: Thanatos Encounter (Game Boy Color)

This week marked the 30th anniversary of the theatrical release of the movie Aliens, and since the Alien series is by far my all time favorite movie franchise I just had to play at least one Aliens game this week. I had actually started playing Thanatos Encounter twice before but never managed to get more than halfway through the game's 15 levels because, to be totally blunt, this game is refrickendiculously hard. Don't get me wrong, it's still an enjoyable and fairly well designed game, but as far as top down shooters go this one is right up there with the top down stages in Contra games like Operation C in terms of difficulty. Fortunately there is an Easy mode, which is what I ended up playing through Aliens: Thanatos Encounter on this time. There were still a few punishingly hard levels that took numerous tries to beat even on Easy, but I did make it through them eventually and never felt frustrated to the point of wanting to give up like I have during previous play through attempts on Normal difficulty. If you're a fan of both Aliens and the Game Boy Color then I think Thanatos Encounter is definitely worth checking out, since the designers really nailed the theme with everything from Pulse Rifles to Smart Guns, Flamethrowers, and Power Loaders at your disposal and a wide variety of nicely rendered Xenomorphs to aim them at; just be prepared for a serious challenge and a whole lot of time spent reentering passwords at the Continue screen to try again on the later levels.

 

 

43. Gremlins 2: The New Batch (Game Boy)

 

Gremlins 2 is, in short, four levels of platforming Hell. I suppose the first two levels actually aren't all that bad, but Stage 3 and Stage 4 are just nightmarish; and by "nightmarish" I mean the kind of stuff that Mega Man wakes up in a cold sweat dreaming about. I think the only reason that I actually like this game is because I used to own it and play it all the time as a kid, but back then I could never get back the third stage (with good reason). If you're a fan of the Gremlins movies and like exorbitantly difficult platformers then this could be one worth checking out, but for everyone else I'd recommend looking elsewhere for your Game Boy platforming fix. There are plenty of good platformers on the system that won't drive you to the brink of insanity and demand absolutely flawless perfection on the last level and final boss fight to beat, but suffice it to say this isn't one of them. I took a couple pictures of the ending for this one, because I wasn't sure that anyone would believe that I actually beat it without invoking the almighty power of the Game Genie if I didn't include pics.

 

 

[Cybergoth]

I took quite some time, but after playing 6 weeks nothing but Wasteland 2 (PS4), I finished this beast today. I don't think I'll do a 2nd playthrough any time soon

[Skippy B. Coyote]

It's been just shy of a month since my last update, and since then I've managed to add 7 more games to my list for the year!


44. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Reflex Edition (Nintendo Wii)

Though many may disagree, I'm not ashamed to admit that I consider the original Call of Duty: Modern Warfare to be the third best first-person shooter of all time; just behind The Ultimate Doom at #1 and Duke Nukem 3D at #2. The first time I played through Modern Warfare it was the Xbox 360 version, but after playing through the Wii version three times in the past month I think that I can pretty safely say that I think the Wii port is the best version of this neo-classic FPS. Once you get a feel for the motion controls (set to Advanced sensitivity ideally) the speed and precision of aiming with the Wii remote and nunchuck is just miles ahead of the dual analog stick controls on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions. This is one game that definitely deserves a place in the library of any Wii owner who enjoys military themed first-person shooters.


45. Jurassic Park (Game Boy)

This is one of those games that used to drive me nuts a kid, because back then I could never get past the T-Rex fight at the end of the second level. I still thought it was a pretty cool game back then though, and since I've been on a licensed games kick lately I decided this morning that it was time to reedem myself for the failings of my youth and finally add Jurassic Park to my list of games beaten. It ended up being a much less difficult game than I remembered it being, though I will say that some of the platforming segments towards the end of level 5 did get pretty nerve wracking. Ultimately it took me about 3 hours time to beat this one, and when I finally got to the end of the last level I was completely out of continues and on my very last life with just a sliver of health left. All in all I'd say it was a good game that fans of the movie will likely enjoy, with a rockin' soundtrack and enough challenge and variety to the game's 6 levels to keep you entertained for the three hours or so it'll take to beat. Fun stuff!


46. Time Crisis (PlayStation)

I consider myself pretty proficient at light gun games, having beaten The House of the Dead 2 & 3 as well as House of the Dead: Overkill, Dead Space: Extraction, and Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles already this year, but holy cow did it ever take some practice to beat Time Crisis even on Easy mode! It took me weeks of daily practice to beat this game, and ultimately I ended up having to ditch my fairly-accurate-but-not-quite-perfect Nyko Super Cobra light gun to go out and buy an official Namco GunCon light gun to do it. This game demands God-like speed and accuracy to beat even on the Easy setting, and the only PlayStation light gun I know of that has the kind of precision accuracy needed is Namco's own GunCon that originally came bundled with the game. Nothing less will suffice. That said, once I did get a GunCon and spent a day or so practicing with it I was able to beat the arcade Story mode in Time Crisis on Easy and—after a few more days of practice—the extra PlayStation exclusive Special Mission as well. The funny thing is that, in spite of this game's demanding difficulty level, I've still enjoyed every minute that I've spent playing it and haven't grown the least bit tired of it yet. Time Crisis is just one of those classic light gun games that is so well designed that it never seems to get old, just be sure to pick up an arcade stick or a driving controller foot pedal to plug into the second port on the PlayStation to get the authentic arcade experience; since using the button on the GunCon to duck and reload just doesn't work nearly as well as a foot pedal.


47. Centipede: Infestation (Nintendo Wii)

I really wasn't expecting much going into this game, but as a huge fan of the original Centipede (to the point that I own a Centipede bartop arcade machine) I just had to give it a try. What I discovered is that Centipede: Infestation was absolutely awesome beyond anything that I had expected! It was especially surprisingly given how lackluster of a game the Centipede remake for the original PlayStation was, but wow did WayForward ever knock it out of the park with Centipede: Infestation! Basically, the game can be described as a mashup of Centipede and Robotron 2084 in a 3D environment with the addition of a variety of weapons and a really creative (and remarkably touching) story told through anime style cutscenes between each of the games 30 some odd levels. It can be played with the Wii remote and nunchuck, but for the best experience I recommend going with the full on Robotron style twin stick controls using the Wii Classic Controller. The left stick moves your guy, the right stick shoots in whatever direction you point it, the A/B/X/Y buttons select weapons, and the L button unleashes a stomp attack that squishes or knocks back waves of bugs that get too close. I could probably fill up a good 4 or 5 paragraphs about how incredibly awesome Centipede: Infestation is and what a brilliant homage it pays to the original Centipede, keeping the same hectic gameplay feel intact while making some really enjoyable modern additions, but to save thread space I'll just leave it at "If you own a Wii and you like the original Centipede then you need to play this game".


48. Spider: The Video Game (PlayStation)

This is a game that I had the demo disk for as a kid and really wanted the full version of, but never ended up getting it until earlier this month some 19 odd years later. After playing through Spider I can safely say that it looks and feels just as awesome to play as I remember the demo being when I was a wee little one, though I will say that the full game is way harder than I remember the demo being. It's a darn difficult game that demands near flawless platforming through some pretty long levels with no checkpoints, and one or two hits from anything in the game is enough to lose you a life and send your little cybernetic arachnid back to the start of the level to try again. Fortunately there are unlimited continues though, which somewhat makes up for the slightly absurd difficulty level. Still, I'm incredibly happy to have finally gotten my hands on this gaming relic that I coveted so highly in my youth and I'd certainly recommend it for PlayStation fans looking for a unique and very cool platformer. I mean really, how many games let you play as a spider equipped with a machine gun and rocket launcher? That is just way too awesome!


49. Sonic Advance (Game Boy Advance)

Sonic Advance was, at the time of it's release, viewed by many to be the best darn Sonic the Hedgehog game to come along since the original Sega Genesis / Mega Drive series. And you know what? It still is. Sonic experienced one heck of a renaissance on the Game Boy Advance with a trilogy of Sonic Advance games, bringing the blue blur and friends back to their high speed 2D platforming roots, and they're all absolutely wonderful games that any Sonic fan would do well to pick up. The only complaint I could possibly make about Sonic Advance is that the special stages are a bit too difficult for my tastes, but the rest of the game is just a joy to behold. There's really nothing more that needs to be said about this one. If you like the original Sonic series on the Genesis then you'll love Sonic Advance!


50. The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening DX (Game Boy Color)

This game is, hands down, my all time favorite handheld game. I had the original black and white version of Link's Awakening as a kid and played through it dozens of times over, but it wasn't until a few years ago that I picked up the colorized DX version. As brilliant, marvelous, and any number of other praise laden adjectives the original Link's Awakening was, I have to admit that the addition of color and a couple charming extras made Link's Awakening DX the unquestionably definitive version of this game. Maybe it's just because I grew up with it, but everything about this game seems perfect to me. The size of the world, the challenge level of the puzzles, the hilariously offbeat writing and cast of characters, and the heartstring tugging ending that still—to this day—makes my eyes get all misty every time I see it. To me Link's Awakening DX isn't just the best Zelda game, it's the best Game Boy / Game Boy Color game bar none.

Edited August 22, 2016 by Jin

[Cybergoth]

Finished Resident Evil: Survivor 2 (PS2) in most modes and for most endings.

 

This is one game I couldn't 100% though, for one tough reason: I had a stroke last week, about 1-2 hours after playing it and now no longer can force myself to touch it. Certainly not the games fault, just a casualty of bad timing. I had a good recovery since, so please don't worry about me, I will continue with my quest

 

Capcom games beaten in 2016: Mega Man Battle Network, One Piece Mansion, Genma Onimusha & Resident Evil: Survivor 2

[+wongojack]

/\/\ The above post makes me feel silly talking about video games. Please take care, and I'm glad you've recovered.

 

I finished Beyond: Two Souls on the PS3, and I thought it was amazing. A truly great experiment into interactive storytelling. If you like Sci Fi and Espionage TV shows, you owe it to yourself to give it a try. On the other hand, if you MUST shoot people in the face when playing video games, you should probably stay away. This is much more of a vehicle to tell a story than a frag engine.

[+thegoldenband]

^Agreed. Best wishes to you for a speedy and continued recovery, M.

 

As for me beating games:

 

41. V-Tennis (PlayStation)

 

This early 3D tennis title -- clearly modeled on Super Tennis for SNES -- has one of the easiest career modes I've ever played. However, it follows that with an unexpected exhibition match against Mattox, the single toughest opponent I've ever faced in a tennis game, with a 250+ kph serve that's nearly impossible to return. Unlike Super Tennis, if you play as a female character you still get an exhibition match -- this time against Aversa, who has the same bullet serve and a similar but slightly different game. Beat either of those foes, and you unlock them.

 

In most tennis games you can return just about everything, so it's kind of nice that V-Tennis actually mirrors the frustration and seeming randomness of facing an opponent with a monster serve. In addition, the ball dynamics are reasonably good and the controls OK. But all that can't quite make up for the pathetically easy main game, nor the fact that much of the difficulty of the final match comes from the dark-red court surface that makes it nearly impossible to see the ball's shadow. C-.

 

42. Double Dragon II (Game Boy)

 

It took me less than a day to complete this portable beat-'em-up on all three difficulties, so I don't remember much except that it's too easy, the gameplay mostly consists of spamming the same attacks repeatedly, and I liked the first one better. D+.

 

And speaking of "I liked the first one better"...

 

43. Smurfs 2: Smurfs Travel the World (Genesis)

 

Had to play this PAL exclusive in emulation since it crashes partway through the third level when played at 60Hz: repro buyers, beware!

 

I liked the first 16-bit game a fair bit, and the SMS versions even more. But the nail in the coffin of this licensed platformer is the designers' stupid decision to only give out a password after every two continents, or six levels, which turns the game into a tedious slog. Combine that with "creative" level design whose rewards aren't proportionate to its frustrations, plus slippery controls (that often leave you walking straight off the edge of a platform even as you're hitting the jump button), and -- despite the game's attractive graphics and decent sound -- you've got a disappointing effort. D+.

[madhatter667]

Bad Dudes vs. Dragon Ninja. So cheesy. Lol.

[mbd30]

I beat all 50 stages of NES RoadBlasters for the NintendoAge weekly contests. It's a good time.

 

[Skippy B. Coyote]

I got waaaaay behind on my posts this time, so instead of my usual paragraph or two writeup for each game I'm going to limit myself to three sentences or less per game this time around. Ten games incoming!

 

 

51. Area 51 (PlayStation)

 

I think it's rather fitting that Area 51 should be my 51st game beaten this year! Once I got my hands on an authentic Japanese import Konami Hyper Blaster I knew I had to give this one a go. It's was just as fantastic of a game as I remembered it being and it played way better with the official Konami light gun than any of the third party light guns I've used, mostly due to increased accuracy when using the official light gun that it was made for.

 

 

52. Crypt Killer (PlayStation)

 

Another game that I did a play through of using my recently acquired Konami Hyper Blaster, and while the Hyper Blaster didn't make this very tough game any easier I still had a great time playing through it. Crypt Killer is definitely a "must own" game for any light gun game fan with a PlayStation.

 

 

53. Mazes of Fate (Game Boy Advance)

 

After going through the 30 some odd hour quest over the course of a mere 5 days I can safely say that Mazes of Fate is my new all time favorite RPG! They took everything that was amazing about Eye of the Beholder back in the day and modernized it on the Game Boy Advance, and the result is an absolute masterpiece of western style RPG design. If you're into first-person dungeon crawling RPGs then Mazes of Fate for the GBA is a game that you need in your library!

 

 

54. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (Game Boy Advance)

 

Do you like the Diablo I & II games and the Lord of the Rings movies? If you said "Yes" to both then this is the game for you. It's like the team behind Diablo over at Blizzard studios got together with Peter Jackson to make a game, and the result was glorious.

 

 

55. Need for Speed Underground 2 (Game Boy Advance)

 

It's a real tossup between this game and Mario Kart: Super Circuit for my favorite racing game on the GBA, and in the graphics category NFS Underground 2 wins for sure. Not only is it one of the most visually impressive games on the GBA due to it's striking polygonal graphics that will leave you scratching your head and wondering "How the heck did they do that!?", but it also plays extremely well and is loaded with car customization options, mini games galore, and a large variety of courses and events to compete in. Need for Speed Underground 2 is Game Boy street racing at it's finest!

 

 

56. Dementium: The Ward (Nintendo DS)

 

I had already beaten Dementium II earlier in the year, but with fall and the Halloween season rapidly approaching it seemed like a good time to go back and play through the original. Both Dementium I & II play like a cross between Doom 3 and Silent Hill, and I have no qualms about saying that they're both first-person horror masterpieces for the Nintendo DS.

 

57. Adventure (Atari 2600)

 

While the Dementium games may be neo-classics, there aren't many action adventure genre games that are truer classics than the original Adventure. The decision to include randomized item and enemy placement in game mode 3 gives Adventure endless replay value, and I don't think I need to tell anyone here that it's an essential game for any Atari 2600 owner's collection. Adventure also happens to be my wife's favorite Atari 2600 game, and it was watching her play it last week that made me decide to spend some time playing it again myself.

 

 

58. Alien Brigade (Atari 7800)

 

I suppose I always assumed that the NES or Master System would be the 8-bit systems with the best looking and playing light gun games of the era, but after playing through Alien Brigade this week I'm very pleased to admit that I was wrong! This game looks and plays absolutely astounding, and frankly it puts every other 8-bit light gun game to shame by comparison. If you own an Atari 7800 then this game is alone is worth the price of picking up a Best Electronics Atari Light Gun to play it with!

 

 

59. Dark Chambers (Atari 7800)

 

Dark Chambers might not be quite the masterpiece of Atari 7800 game design that Alien Brigade is, but it was still a lot of fun to spend a couple hours parked on the couch with the misses doing a co-op play through of it. Think of it like "Gauntlet Lite" and you'll have a good idea of what to expect. Very easy difficulty, not a lot of variety, but still an enjoyable way to pass a few hours dungeon crawling either by yourself or with a friend or significant other who is into high fantasy gaming.

 

 

60. Dark Chambers (Atari 2600)

 

Later in the day after my wife and I completed our co-op play through of the Atari 7800 version of Dark Chambers we decided to give the 2600 version a go, and surprisingly we both agreed that the 2600 version was definitely the better of the two. The levels were bigger and far more challenging on the 2600 (we burned through a LOT of continues on the last 4 levels, whereas neither of us died even once in the Atari 7800 version) and there really is a certain "Wow!" factor to seeing a Gauntlet style game actually running on the Atari 2600; and running very well no less! It took about two and a half hours for the misses and I to play through Dark Chambers for the 2600 from beginning to end on the standard Intermediate difficulty, but we both came away from it feeling like it was time well spent on a very unique and technically impressive Atari 2600 game.

[mikey.shake]

Finally dug my Super Game Boy back out and forgot how much fun I had playing those games as a kid...

 

Super Mario Land

​This one got a lot of playtime for me back in the day. I didn't have an NES, and pre-SNES, this was my best alternative for a Mario fix. And it's still great. It's a fun, light little trifle in a lot of ways. Like if you described a Mario game to a great video game designer without them ever having seen one and this is what they came up with. (Ha, maybe Gunpei Yokoi never actually got around to playing SMB...) I was amazed how much I remembered after 20 years.

 

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Fall Of The Foot Clan

I remember playing this one a lot on the school bus in '91-'92. I never had it, but friends did, and I loved my side-scrolling beat 'em ups. Funny thing.. I was an American kid living in Vienna during that time, hanging out with a lot of other US and UK kids. I picked up a copy of this game for $5 without really even looking at it, only to notice later it was the Teenage Mutant HERO Turtles version. Like the one I played as a kid may have been...

[Cybergoth]

During rehab I sank almost 100 hours into Mega Man Battle Network 2 (WiiU), so I managed to add all 5 stars to its title screen for completing/collecting everything the game has to offer

 

Thanks for the kind words guys, I'm glad I didn't nuke the thread. Game on!

 

Capcom games beaten in 2016: Mega Man Battle Network, One Piece Mansion, Genma Onimusha, Resident Evil: Survivor 2 & Mega Man Battle Network 2

[+atari2600land]

1. (and probably only one) : New Super Mario Bros. 2 (3DS) - This was Hell. Last time I touched it was years ago. I went back to World 1 to refamiliarize myself with the controls. Even then it was hard. Then I got to the last save point: 6-4. Beat 6-4 and 6-5 and got to the castle. It took me about 10 or so tries. First time that I killed Bowser, I thought, this was too easy. And that SHOULD have been the actual end. But most of those 10 lives was trying to beat the last stupid Bowser and lava flowing up stage. What irks me is each time I died, when I got to Bowser, it played the same animation over and over again, knocking 30 or so seconds away from actual playing time. And I only did id because I had the helping (almost) invincibility leaf. If only they could have made that dumb leaf invincible to LAVA, then it would have been a much better (and easier) game. I was yelling and screaming at the dumb game. Scared the cat away.

Edited September 29, 2016 by atari2600land

[+thegoldenband]

44. Overlord (NES)

 

This game has a reputation as one of the hardest on the NES, but it turns out that a simple (and rather obvious) strategy makes it trivial to defeat in under 10 minutes, even on the hardest difficulty. The basic idea came from a speedrun at TASVideos, but the method for winning the final battle was something I came up with on my own.

 

Since I've never really played the game as it was intended, it's hard for me to grade -- but then, what's the point of learning it "properly" anyway? The main game is notoriously unfair and unbalanced, so I have no incentive to master it when I can literally drive a tank through the hole in the game design. n/a

 

45. World Court Tennis (TurboGrafx-16)

 

The game's goofy RPG mode suffers from a hilariously bad localization, but that doesn't take the shine off the excellent tennis engine, a direct clone of Family Tennis for the Famicom. I think Family Tennis may be the better game since it offers a proper World Tour mode, but I appreciate the Dragon Warrior spoof in this one. B+.

 

46. Wayne's World (Game Boy)

 

A very short, easy game that's frustratingly hard until you figure out the key trick to each stage -- and that "trick" is usually "Exactly what do I need to do to overcome the game's lousy controls and erratic platform detection?" At least it's decent-looking, but 15 minutes of gameplay is sad even by 1990s portable gaming standards. D-.

[Cybergoth]

Spent a week unlocking almost everything in Auto Modellista (PS2). I'm only missing two badges which'd require me to grind through another 150 races for no apparent reason - I've already made the 1st place for every available race at least thrice

 

Capcom games beaten in 2016: Mega Man Battle Network, One Piece Mansion, Genma Onimusha, Resident Evil: Survivor 2, Mega Man Battle Network 2 & Auto Modellista

 

[+atari2600land]

2. Super Mario Land.

This game is hard as well. Especially the final fight between two (!) bosses. I was down to 13 lives left (At my peak I had 20) when I finally defeated the second enemy, amazingly not getting small in the process.

[Silverfleet]

I've run through four games so far this year:

 

Golden Axe (Arcade via MAME on my Wii):

I was bored the other day and wanted to run through Golden Axe, so I popped this on. I like the ending on this one, where all the enemies escape the arcade and the heroes run after them!

 

Golden Axe II (Genesis):

I kept rolling after beating the 1st one and ran through Golden Axe II. I used to have a lot of trouble with this game as a kid, but it was no problem now.

 

Chiki Chiki Boys (Genesis):

Love this game. I bought it when I was a kid at KB Toys out of the bargain bin because I liked the cover, and that turned out to be a great decision. One of my favorite platform hack and slash games, and a ton of fun to play.

 

Street Fighter II: Special Champion Edition (Genesis):

Does this even count? I played through with Ken, so I had to watch him get married at the end.

 

Adding a few more to the list. It's been a busy year.

 

Double Dragon II (NES, Japanese Version)

Played this with a friend via my hacked Wii at a bachelor party a couple weeks ago. I haven't beaten this one since I bought it new almost 30 years ago.

 

DuckTales (NES)

This one's fun to run through every once in a while. I usually do once a year for the nostalgic feels.

 

Golden Axe II (Genesis)

Ran through this one a couple months back. Such an awesome game, and the music RULES. One of the metal bands that covers game music really needs to get in on this one.

 

Jackal (NES)

This one I'm proud of. I've been trying to beat this game since I picked it up over 25 years ago, and I never could, until last night!!!

[Punisher5.0]

Resident Evil 2 on Vita

 

Xeodrifter on Vita

 

Resogun on Vita

 

Currently working Podracer and RE2 for N64 and RE1 on Vita.

[+thegoldenband]

47. Vigilante (TurboGrafx-16)

 

I didn't like the SMS port, and I don't like this TurboGrafx version one bit more. It's like Kung Fu with none of the fun, the bosses take too much punishment, and yet it's too easy. D.

 

48. Star Voyager (NES)

 

To my surprise I was able to beat this famously difficult descendant of Star Raiders within 24 hours of starting work on it, though the Internet helped me to understand what was going on. If it were a VCS game -- no, not that VCS game -- it'd be easier to put up with the weak presentation and simplistic, unforgiving combat; as an NES game, it feels underdone, but not nearly as hard as people claim. D+.

 

49. Super Mario Bros. (NES)

 

I was testing how much lag was present in various emulation setups I use (answer: way too much), and used Super Mario Bros. as my test platform, which led me to bust out my NES for the first time in ages. However, my game crashed about 5-10 minutes in, proving once and for all that my 72-pin connector just wasn't going to cut it.

 

So, I bought a Blinking Light Win online. It arrived quickly, I installed it, and it works perfectly. I played SMB again to confirm that the installation would hold up, and -- though I hadn't played much SMB in ages -- ended up beating the whole game on my first try, without warps, continues, or the 1UP turtle trick. Turns out I'm a pretty good player when you take away the lag! A.