Games Beaten In 2019!

[HoshiChiri]

5. Donut County (Xbox One)

 

This is a fun game- essentially Katamari Damacy backwards- but Good Golly is this SHORT! I know I keep saying that about what I'm playing this year, but I literally bought, downloaded, and played to credits within 90 minutes. You can get more out of it by going for the achievements- and I probably will- but otherwise? Don't pay full price for this, even $12.99 is too much for the length.

[RedGamer]

I havnt posted because I havnt beat anything notable lately, but today I beat a good one so its time!

 

First I beat backyard wrestling on ps2. I actually really like this game. I know it's not the best, but its good fun trying to set up high flyers or slamming people through tables! On and setting people on fire too dont forget that.

 

Then I beat X-Men Mutant Academy on Ps1. This is a fun fighter but there's nothing too special about it. You have three specials that each have their own meter and that's the only unique thing here. I beat it with Gambit.

 

The really good game that I just beat is Power Blade on NES. This is an action platformer where you have a boomerang as a weapon. There are 7 levels and in each level you need to find your contact before you can gain access to the boss room. The difficulty on normal mode is just right because of the unlimited continues. This game is sick and I'm glad I got it. Maybe I will go for expert mode soon.

[+Charlie Cat]

I havnt posted because I havnt beat anything notable lately, but today I beat a good one so its time!

 

First I beat backyard wrestling on ps2. I actually really like this game. I know it's not the best, but its good fun trying to set up high flyers or slamming people through tables! On and setting people on fire too dont forget that.

 

 

Then I beat X-Men Mutant Academy on Ps1. This is a fun fighter but there's nothing too special about it. You have three specials that each have their own meter and that's the only unique thing here. I beat it with Gambit.

 

 

The really good game that I just beat is Power Blade on NES. This is an action platformer where you have a boomerang as a weapon. There are 7 levels and in each level you need to find your contact before you can gain access to the boss room. The difficulty on normal mode is just right because of the unlimited continues. This game is sick and I'm glad I got it. Maybe I will go for expert mode soon.

Great choices of games Justin. I was just playing Power Blade for the NES the other day. Glad to see you beat the game bro.

 

Anthony..

[HoshiChiri]

6. TurnOn (Xbox One)

 

This lil' indie game is the first console release from a tiny Russian developer called Brainy Studio. Back at PAX West (then PAX Prime) 2014, I was having lunch when a friend popped into the hotel room. He said the Expo Hall had lost power, so they kicked everyone out. While wandering the still-open parts of the show, he got stopped by a guy with a European accent who wanted him to play his game- which turned out to be about fixing a power outage. He thought the coincidence was funny. His description of the game intrigued me, so I went out and wandered the area until a guy with a European accent stopped me and asked if I wanted to play his game- I said yes, that I had in fact been looking for it, and was lead to a tiny table with a monitor and a PC on it to give the game a try. I was given a flyer promising that it would come 'soon' to Xbox 360. When the game didn't materialize, I forgot about it. Fast-forward to last year- I was cleaning out some things and found that old flyer, and decided to look up the game. Which was kind of hard, since 'turn on xbox' brings a lot of troubleshooting and starter guides... but eventually I found out the game had undergone another 2 years of development, and switched to the Xbox One- but it was out! So I bought it, with the intent to play later... and forgot again. Spotted it on my Xbox when I bought Donut County, and since that one was so short, I started it up.

 

The game is a puzzle platformer where you play a sentient electric spark from space, restoring power to a city with a really dangerous electrical layout. You move across the power lines to reach the various lights & power boxes. A few stages play more akin to an endless runner, where the spark moves on its own & you dodge red lightning symbols (you can collect green ones to refill health if needed.) Later on these two combine and the symbols start showing up in the standard stages, making timing your movement important. It's actually a lot of fun & surprisingly long for such a small team to have made... but at the same time, being such a small team means the game feels rough. I often encountered little glitches where the spark would stop moving, or lose tracking & be floating in mid-air away from any wires. Usually jumping would fix any issues- but I did have to restart one stage becuase I fell off the wire right as I completed a task and it didn't register correctly so I couldn't progress. It's also not terribly challenging- most stages it's a simple matter of systematically covering every wire to hit everything. I didn't mind, though- it gives the game a unique, relaxing feel for most stages. I recommend giving it a look, you may be pleasantly surprised.

[+thegoldenband]

14. Tennis Pro '92 (Watara Supervision)

 

This would almost be a decent little tennis game if it weren't for the fact that the programmers completely failed to implement the "no returning the opponent's serve before it bounces" rule that's been part of tennis since...

 

...well, I can't seem to find out how long ago the rule was added, but France might have had a king at the time. Anyway, it makes it possible to cheese the game trivially, but maybe that's fine. D.

 

15. Star Voyager (NES)

 

I've beaten this every year since 2016, so no new comments needed.

 

16. Krusty's Fun House (NES)

 

This would be a decent little puzzle game to chip away at, if it weren't for the designers' decision to use hardcoded passwords, forcing you to play up to 15 levels at one sitting. Instead, it's a slog with an excessive upfront commitment, questionable controls, and a limited lifestock system that adds nothing to the game. The puzzles themselves are fine, though. C-.

 

17. Conan (NES)

 

How to make a short game artificially long? Try padding it with cryptic stage completion requirements, buggy hit detection, bizarro-world controls, and unnecessary jerkitude.

 

It's a miracle this isn't worse than it is -- in fact, once you know what to do, the game is quite forgiving to the point of being easy -- but whatever cleverness is present in the stage design, there were times I really felt like I was playing Action 52 all over again.

 

I guess the original C64 and ZX Spectrum version was better...but if the sequence with the urns is truly trial and error, with no clues whatsoever in the game, that's unforgivable on any platform. D-.

[DragonGrafx-16]

I just beat Twinbee 3!!!!!

 

 

 

My Famicom to NES adapter kept crashing the game but I rigged something up with my Game Genie and the Gyromite adapter and it worked the for the entire game. I ordered a replacement adapter because I botched the Gyromite adapter and broke the plastic part where it screws in. And I also needed one that would work with a front loader NES. I had accidentally dropped my modern adapter and it must have damaged the pins that the VCR4 uses cause it would constantly crash the game. If the new one has these same issues my Game Genie is becoming a permanent Famicom adapter.

[digdugnate]

I didn't get a screenshot when I finished, but I beat FF7 (again). Having W-Summon with Knights of the Round and Mime kind of makes the final fight anticlimactic

[digdugnate]

a rare two-fer week. I also finished Yoshi's Crafted World for the Switch.

[derFunkenstein]

I didn't get a screenshot when I finished, but I beat FF7 (again). Having W-Summon with Knights of the Round and Mime kind of makes the final fight anticlimactic

It also makes that fight take like 6 hours. Here's two MORE KotR summons to sit through!

[digdugnate]

It also makes that fight take like 6 hours. Here's two MORE KotR summons to sit through!

ha! that is true. that animation was a LOT longer than i remembered from the last time i played it in the late 90s.

[+thegoldenband]

18. Dragon's Lair (NES)

 

It's not that I don't understand what the designers were trying to do, or the challenge involved in somehow creating a game that evoked the laserdisc coin-op. Believe me, I do. And I could even handle the laggy controls, the frustrating enemy placement that constantly forces you to crouch, the sprite breakup that occasionally makes projectiles go invisible, the way attacking drains your health, or the fact that platforms behave differently from almost every NES game out there.

 

All this, however, pales in comparison to the sheer, unadulterated dickishness of Dragon's Lair. Over and over again, it takes situations in which a normal game would allow you some wiggle room, some reasonable margin for error, and gives none. Moving platforms and barriers that should pause at one extreme, to allow you time to gauge your movements (and compensate for the awful lag), don't. Enemies spawn in ways designed to impede any sense of "flow", and force you to wait at awkward times.

 

The worst of all comes right before the final boss fight against Singe, where nearly pixel-perfect jumping is required to avoid an item that, if collected, makes the game essentially unwinnable. Got 7-8 extra lives in the tank? Too bad, you have to start over. And you have to replay this section every single time you face Singe (who's the one tough boss fight in the game, and a doozy -- the others are embarrassingly easy).

 

What's the point? Why make your own game so singularly unpleasant to play? It's not even that hard per se, it's just...a joyless, loveless experience with nice animation, good music, and no heart. F.

 

19. Adventures in the Magic Kingdom (NES)

 

Though an infinitely easier game, this reminded me more of Dragon's Lair than I ever would have expected, in that most of the game's challenge is memorization and it can be annoyingly dickish, especially the platforming segments. And Space Mountain proves that you can have the shallowness of an FMV game in cartridge form, as you memorize long strings of inputs meant to simulate a cockpit space shooter.

 

Where's the fun? At least the Bump 'n Jump-style racer is sort of OK. D+.

 

20. Wayne's World (NES)

 

This might be the "objectively" worst licensed NES game I've ever played, with literally nothing to recommend it except the digitized voice samples and (to a lesser extent) graphics.

 

Bad though it was, the Game Boy port is, remarkably, an improvement in every way over this Action 52-level disaster, made with the utmost in lazy cynicism by our fine feathered friends at THQ. Actually, scratch that -- some games in Action 52 play better than this, and I'm not engaging in hyperbole here. F.

[Eltigro]

First time I did this in years. Beat Blazing Lazers on the TurboGrafx-16 with no continues. It was close at the end as I was using up lives and bombs like crazy, but did it. =)

 

 

 

[envytomdead2]

Double Dragon 2600

Commando 2600 (complete all 8 levels and wrapped around to level 1

Golden Axe master system (first time since the 90's)

 

Golden Axe Genesis (first time in 10 years)

[HoshiChiri]

7. Katamari Forever (PS3)

 

I just love the Katamari games, y'know? Probably my favorite series.

[DragonGrafx-16]

First time I did this in years. Beat Blazing Lazers on the TurboGrafx-16 with no continues. It was close at the end as I was using up lives and bombs like crazy, but did it. =)

 

IMG_5644.JPG

 

IMG_5651.JPG

 

IMG_5656.JPG

I've gotten pretty close to beating it but I have the Japanese version (GunHed) and that version has infinite conitnues. One rare example where the Japanese version of the game is easier than the western one.

[DragonGrafx-16]

First time I did this in years. Beat Blazing Lazers on the TurboGrafx-16 with no continues. It was close at the end as I was using up lives and bombs like crazy, but did it. =)

 

IMG_5644.JPG

 

IMG_5651.JPG

 

IMG_5656.JPG

Wait does that say 53 lives? How in the hell? lol I usually have around 8-9 on the last stage... unless Blazing Lazers just gives them away and they are harder to get in GunHed. Or was it just some crazy bonus for beating the game?

Edited April 29, 2019 by DragonGrafx-16

[Eltigro]

Wait does that say 53 lives? How in the hell? lol I usually have around 8-9 on the last stage... unless Blazing Lazers just gives them away and they are harder to get in GunHed.

 

 

Yep... I had 3. Then killed the boss and it gave me a big points bonus and 50 lives. I think. I didn't know it was going to happen so I wasn't watching that close. I was expecting it at any moment to set me back to a previous point and start over on the boss, but I grabbed enough of those flashing orbs to keep getting respawns where I was.

[RedGamer]

I'm back with a bunch of new games beat. Lots of fighting games so let's get those out of the way.

 

Samurai Shodown SNES

This was a decent fighting game for the console, but after playing on the MVS so much I cant really get into it. I beat it on the standard difficulty.

 

Guilty Gear X Ps2

I really enjoyed this one. I picked Millia and beat it on the standard difficulty. Nothing too special other the art style and characters. I really like the GG series.

 

Guilty Gear X2 Ps2

After beating the first one I played through the second one and used Testament. Again, this is a good game, but it's really just more of the same. I beat this on the standard difficulty as well.

 

Guilty Gear Xrd rev 2 Ps4

This game looks beautiful, but was easier then the other games. I used I-no and beat this on one of the harder difficulties.

 

Capcom Fighting Evolution Ps2

I managed to 1cc this game on the hardest difficulty with Hauzer and Bison. Yet another standard fighting game with not much to offer other then characters from Red Earth. Maybe I've just been too spoiled with my snk fighters lol.

 

Moving on to NES games!

Mickeys safari in letterland

This was a game for babies, but I spent the time to beat it so I'm counting it. It's a platformer where you look for letters. Make it to the end and you get one. Complete 26 levels and you win. It's all very straightforward.

 

Jackal

This was a very fun tank style game that seemed to use a bunch of strategies that I would normally use for shmups. The last level was difficult, but other then that this game was a breeze. It took me 2 tries to beat it.

 

Rush N Attack

This game is amazing. It's very difficult and your pace is very important to memorize the game. Thankfully the last level is the easiest so it's all downhill if you can make it there. I really recommend this game if you want a challenge. It took me all day to beat this one.

 

Dragon Spirit

This is the last game for now and it's a shmup where you are a dragon. There are 9 levels and each level has one part except the last which is three parts. Again, this game is really easy other then the last level.

 

Hopefully I can post as I beat games next time so I will have more to say instead of waiting a month and posting all at once.

[+thegoldenband]

Rush N Attack

This game is amazing. It's very difficult and your pace is very important to memorize the game. Thankfully the last level is the easiest so it's all downhill if you can make it there. I really recommend this game if you want a challenge. It took me all day to beat this one.

Screenshot_20190521-125739_Instagram.jpg

 

Heh, I just beat this too, so I guess I'll post my thoughts:

 

--

 

21. Rush 'n Attack (NES)

 

Nice production values for the time, but it's basically Kung Fu with weapons and one-hit kills -- and when your soldier's most dangerous foes are the ladders in his environment, something's gone wrong with your game design! C.

 

--

 

Agreed that the last level is a total pushover, BTW. I got to the point where I could no-death the first three levels and sometimes the fourth, but the fifth was a real bottleneck and the boss fight in that level is borderline unfair.

 

Obviously I put the time in to memorize the game and the enemy spawns, but I was frustrated by the ladder issue. I also didn't love that the game doesn't encourage improvisation or "flow" -- you really have to stick to a very specific script to win, since your soldier isn't resilient or fluid enough to deal with the unexpected.

 

I can't count how many times I jumped toward a jumping soldier to kill him, only to have an enemy grunt immediately spawn where I was going to land, with no way to do anything about it. It's not a game that would reward high score play either, since there are a bunch of places where you could just put a rock on your turbo button and kill respawning enemies non-stop.

 

BTW I was thinking about taking on Jackal next, or maybe Heavy Barrel. They're two of about 64 games on my NES replay list -- which sounds like a lot, but it was around 100 not so long ago. Then again there are a couple games that I wonder if I'm even capable of beating legit, especially Ikari Warriors...

[+thegoldenband]

22. Bonk's Adventure (NES)

 

Another game from my replay list, Bonk is one of those easy-but-annoying experiences that make you wonder why you're getting aggravated by a game that's basically a cakewalk (I got a 1CC pretty easily). I don't much like the way Bonk controls in this port; I haven't played the TurboGrafx-16 version enough to know whether I'm not going to be a fan of the series in general. C-.

 

23. Heavy Barrel (NES)

 

This, on the other hand, is a fairly classy little overhead run-'n-gun that's only let down by some graphical shortcomings -- slightly low frame rate, flicker issues -- and a hint of instability: the game crashed twice on me, once just as I beat the final boss (I think so, anyway; I replayed the game either way). The music also bugs out whenever the digitized voice heralds your assembly of the title weapon: "HEBLY BLEAH!", or something.

 

Still, it's one of the fairest games of its kind I've played in a while, and I really like the way the keys-and-chests mechanic plays out -- it offers you options, and there isn't only one correct choice. B+.

 

24. Contra (NES)

 

In all these years I don't think I'd ever gotten around to beating this without the Konami code. So, now I have. A.

 

25. Wit's (Famicom)

 

Cute little update of Surround/Snake that doesn't overstay its welcome and adds a couple new twists that actually work well. It's video game junk food, I suppose, but there's a place for that. C+.

[+thegoldenband]

26. Jackal (NES)

 

Quality free-roaming overhead vehicle shooter whose only real flaw is a skewed difficulty curve: after five stages of easy pickings, the last suddenly develops a fetish for sneak-attack enemy placement. Still, this is a tight game that plays very well even in 1P. B+.

 

27. Whomp 'em (NES)

 

I think I like this one a bit more than it deserves, since its "Mega Man with a spear" gameplay doesn't have the nuance or balance that Capcom's series brings to the table. Probably nostalgia talking? Still, it's a good, solid action platformer that only made me swear on occasion. B.

 

28. Commando (NES)

 

Playing this game on real hardware for the first time in maybe 25 years -- or maybe closer to 30 (gulp) -- I noticed two things. One, I'm shocked that my aging reflexes were able to tear through Commando in only 45 minutes, and only continuing a very few times (maybe three).

 

Second, this game is a blast to play. Sure, it may be a technical mess with sprites flickering and disappearing everywhere, and at times it seems one screen glitch away from a hard crash. But I can't think of any game besides Robotron that manages to get the 360-degree-shooting action formula so right -- and if you're in the mood for depth, you can always look for the game's secrets.

 

Maybe your character's hitbox flatters the player too much; maybe it's too easy to just charge ahead at all times. But doggone it, there wasn't a single time my guy got iced in Commando that I felt like I had anyone but myself to blame. I think Commando is early Famicom gaming at its finest, weirdest, and most fun. A.

[mbd30]

26. Jackal (NES)

 

Quality free-roaming overhead vehicle shooter whose only real flaw is a skewed difficulty curve: after five stages of easy pickings, the last suddenly develops a fetish for sneak-attack enemy placement. Still, this is a tight game that plays very well even in 1P. B+.

 

Level 5 isn't all that easy either, especially if you're trying to rescue all the POWs. Even level 3 is a bit of a difficulty spike for the average player. I don't think I ever made it past level 3 as a kid.

[Montrealer]

Just got done with FF III DS.

Good stuff. Story doesn't matter much since this is a remake of a primitive Famicon RPG. Orphan boy raised by village elder hears the voice of a crystal, sets off to save the crystals and the world.

I'm not big on job/class systems usually but I tremendously enjoyed this one. There are specific parts of the game that are near impossible without the right jobs and I really appreciate that this gave me the direction I required to look for the better party combinations.

I found a strat which almost breaks the game and I was able to beat it with fairly low levels and 0 grinding other than walking around and exploring the dungeons thoroughly and it felt pretty rewarding to have this shit figured out without guides. It involves using a seemingly unpopular job, and I went looking for tips and strategies after I beat the game (just to compare) and no one mentions it anywhere.

[+thegoldenband]

Had a run of quality games, and now things have turned the other way:

 

29. The Little Mermaid (NES)

 

Contrary to the warm reviews it sometimes gets, I think this is a poorly-designed and joyless affair -- very easy, and yet not pleasant to play. The game loves to put you in situations where you can't get the power-up items you need to freely open chests, etc. The controls and character movement never feel as good as they should, while the boss battles are one-dimensional and dull. How the Genesis game has such a poor reputation and this one goes unscathed is a mystery to me. D-.

 

30. The Adventures of Gilligan's Island (NES)

 

I've seen this described as one of the worst games on the NES, which certainly isn't true. If nothing else, its adventure elements are rational enough that I didn't feel tempted to turn to a walkthrough, which is a welcome change from RPGs where you spend hours backtracking to find that one NPC whose dialogue triggers your next event.

 

But man, is it a slog -- especially the last level, which really lays bare the fact that 90% of the game is nothing more than a series of fetch quests. And the game has no flow: besides the fact that it's an escort mission start to finish, you're also peppered with quicksand and other materials designed to slow you down. Something about Gilligan's Island reminds me of Atari 2600 games like Adventure, SwordQuest, Tomarc the Barbarian -- and, thanks to those Gilligan-snaring pits, E.T. D.

 

31. Major League Baseball (NES)

 

I remembered this from my childhood as the epitome of a bad baseball game, and I guess it pretty much is. Ugly, glitchy, and inconsistent, with disastrously poor fielding and a questionable AI, this certainly has few redeeming values. Worse yet it offers nothing but a single-game mode, after which it dumps you back to the title screen without fanfare.

 

So how is it that, in the course of playing through Major League Baseball tonight, I actually had fun? Well, it is still baseball, after all -- and winning is also fun. (7-3 as the Red Sox over the Mets in World Series mode, if you're curious.) D-.

[GameGirl420]

I beat Simpsons the arcade game recently! It actually wasn't that hard either.