Games Beaten In 2021.

[Gibstov]

Gun (PS2)

 

Another game beaten, sorry for two posts so close together, I was playing both of these games in tandem.  I don't have much to say about Gun, other than I found it more frustrating then fun.

[+jgkspsx]

Beat Afterburner on the 32X for the first time in years. Admittedly on Easy and with six lives. I never said I was good.

Pretty sure this is my highest score ever:

 

 

Also beat Virtua Fighter 2 with Pai for the R-Zone for this rewarding victory screen:

 

And Jedi Adventure for this equally exciting one:

 

And Indy 500 for this slightly less sarcastically rewarding one:

 

[Hwlngmad]

Not going to brag or anything regarding these titles, but I did beat the 'Battleship' on the 3DS and 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Arcade Attack' on the DS recently.

[Razzie.P]

Shinobi and Batman, both for NES.

 

Those are currently up for the NES High Score club if anyone's interested in playing along.

[+jgkspsx]

Beat Galaxy Force II (arcade) on the 3DS, with the difficulty turned all the way down in every way. The New 3DS isn’t quite up to the control scheme, I feel - I pretty much had to choose between firing guns, missiles, and changing speeds much of the time. A dual shock etc. would be much better suited to the job.

 

 

I also cleared mode 2 of Klustar (Game Boy Color):

 

[+thegoldenband]

16. Shaq Fu (Game Boy)

 

The thing people usually say about Shaq Fu -- i.e. that all you have to do is crouch and kick your opponent to death -- isn't actually true. Or at least, it's not true when you play the Genesis version on Expert difficulty, when the game becomes a highly tactical fighter that'll hand your ass to you if you attempt anything so crude.

 

But, on the other hand, it is true of this Game Boy version. Within 30 minutes of picking the game up, I beat Normal difficulty without losing a match, and then beat Hard difficulty without even losing a round, all by crouching and kicking/punching (more punching, actually). So, it's a sad affair, with decent controls, nice animation, and no meaningful gameplay. D-.

 

17. Double Dribble: 5 on 5 (Game Boy)

 

Turn the NES game up to its highest difficulty level and it cheats in every possible way, stealing the ball at will and always outrunning your players. The answer in that version is to pound 3-point shots from unlikely locations, and win a war of attrition.

 

The Game Boy version, by contrast, plays a bit fairer: instead of beating it with glitchy field goals, I beat Level 3 (the max difficulty) with simple passing and dunking. But it's still a weirdly unsatisfying game with a cluttered playfield, and while I eventually adapted enough so that I wasn't constantly getting dinged for back passing or going out of bounds, I never did figure out how to pick up a stray ball. C-.

 

18. Monster Truck (Game Boy)

 

This Japan-only release got savaged by a well-known YouTube reviewer, who deemed it unplayable because he didn't actually figure out how to play it -- though in fairness the "rules" are obscure: you have to approach obstacles at slow speed (under 40kph), and deal with opposing cars in your lane by tucking your nose under them and flipping them to kingdom come.

 

Of course, it's still not very good, with a speedometer that lags and gameplay that drags -- at least until you get the better engines, whereupon you begin hauling ass across the countryside. A bad version of Excitebike, sure: but it is playable. Easy, even. D.

[+thegoldenband]

19. Un Indien dans la Ville (Game Boy)

 

Amazing what a simple lookaround button -- hold Select, pan the camera -- can do for what would otherwise be a frustratingly cheap Euro platformer. Instead, it's a rather decent Euro platformer, though with the "easy, but hard, but easy" problem typical of those releases. C+.

 

20. 4 Mile Island Adventure (MC-10)

 

Average-quality text adventure, with one or two clever moments but a disturbing lack of goodies in the game's many couches. Hard to imagine paying for something so humdrum and type-in-able, though it'd be OK if it came as part of a bunch of games on one disk. C.

 

21. Rambo: First Blood Part II (Master System)

 

Despite Rambo's ponderousness and inability to shoot backwards, this is vastly better than the NES port of Ikari Warriors -- of which this is essentially a clone, right down to the "stay too long in one place and get bombarded from offscreen" noodge.

 

If a game starts out punishingly hard, but rapidly unveils itself with a methodical, tactical approach, I guess that means it's at least decent, a few minor annoyances aside. Morose but memorable tunes, too. B.

 

22. Mega Man II (Game Boy)

 

Everything they say about it is true. Still pretty playable, though. C-.

[newtmonkey]

Dark Souls III (PC)

Finally completed this tonight after putting it off for months due to getting frustrated with the Lothric/Lorian battle... but ended up defeating them on my third attempt and finding out that it was the second-to-last boss encounter.  I then went on to defeat the final boss on my second attempt with not much trouble.

 

I played through the game as a melee character focusing on heavy swords and really enjoyed it.  I still have the "The Ringed City" DLC to play through, but I'm just happy to have finally completed this game.  With that, I've finished the entire series (including Demon's Souls on PS3 but NOT Bloodborne as I don't have [nor do I want] a PS4).

 

I've already got a new character going in DS1 so I'll be playing through the series again I'm sure haha.

[+thegoldenband]

23. Double Dragon III: The Rosetta Stone (Game Boy)

 

Reasonable port of a terrible game. Most of the time, instead of having tactics, you simply can't hit the enemy unless you either run down an invisible clock first, or get knocked down yourself. That's not a beat-'em-up, it's couples counseling for sadists. D-.

 

24. Snoopy's Magic Show (Game Boy)

 

This early release got trashed by a well-known Game Boy reviewer on YouTube, but I think it's not so bad. Sure, it gets frustrating on higher stages, but usually the answer is to play better or smarter.

 

However, there are a few stages where success or failure comes down to the RNG smiling on you. And the slowdown gets pervasive, which can be both a plus (when it gives you more leeway to execute actions) and a minus (when the game speed shifts abruptly). And the license is meaningless, with nothing at all especially Peanutty about any aspect of this Magic Show. Still, it's not every day a Game Boy puzzle game doesn't overstay its welcome. C+.

[TheGameCollector]

I was so busy last year I didn't even post but I'm back this year.

 

1. Mega Man for NES (save state cheated a little only at beginnings of levels or right before boss rooms)

2. Final Fight 2 on Super Nintendo (easy mode - beat it on my first try with 2 of the characters (just not Mike Haggar))

3. leaked Xbox 360 version of Goldeneye 007 (on Agent mode) using an RGH Xbox 360 (which means no save file)

4. Power Rangers: Battle for the Grid (Collector's Edition) for Switch (with each character + story mode without buying any DLC beyond what it came with)

5. Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee - New N' Tasty for Switch. (Easy mode 100%)

6. Oddworld New N' Tasty for PS4. (with Alf's Escape DLC done) (Easy mode 100%)

7. Shadow Blasters for Genesis (cheated with save states. mainly on the last couple levels)

8. Jurassic Park for Genesis (only as the Raptor - with total save state abuse. On this one no matter how you cut it, CHEATING!)

9. Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie for Genesis (on my first try, just with the Red Ranger)

10. Pokemon Sun for 3DS (beat the Pokemon League, caught Tapu Koko, saved the game, just haven't filled my Pokemon collection, but hey I saw the credits roll so it's minimally beaten)

11. Bubsy: The Woolies Strike Back for PS4 (beat all the levels, didn't get every goal)

12. Final Fantasy III for Super Nintendo (which we now know as Final Fantasy VI) (first time legit. No Game Genie this time!)

 

Only listing stuff that I've never beaten before (unless I cheated before and did it legit this time (FF6) or only beat one mode before but completed more.)

I decided to go ahead and list the stuff I cheated through, just being honest so you can see what I played but struggled with as at this point I probably won't go back and try to do better at any of those this year.

[TheGameCollector]

13. Pokemon Moon for 3DS (same status as Pokemon Sun - beat the Pokemon League, caught Tapu Koko, saved the game, just haven't filled my Pokemon collection, but hey I saw the credits roll so it's minimally beaten)

[Schala]

!. Harmful Park on the PSone.

2. Link's Awakening on the GBC

3.Gokujou Parodius

[newtmonkey]

Dark Souls: Remastered (PC)

This is my third time through Dark Souls, though the first two times were on PS3.  In a fit of nostalgia I played through as a Pyromancer, as this was the class I used when I first beat the game on PS3.  This time I decided to make the ultimate Pyro and it was a lot of fun really exploring this class.

 

I completed the DLC as well, which is something I'd never done before (I was unable to beat the final DLC boss on PS3).

 

What more can be said about this amazing game?  Excellent exploration, combat, atmosphere, and character building.  You'd think it wouldn't be good for replays due to being somewhat linear and long, but playing as a different class can really change how the game plays—and plus, there are so many secrets all over the place you almost always end up finding something new on a replay.

 

It's not perfect of course.  The final 15% of the game pales in comparison to the first 85% with some seemingly half-finished locations (the run from Crystal Caves to Demon Ruins and Lost Izalith is a real drag) and by far the worst boss in the game, the Bed of Chaos, which relies heavily on luck even when you know exactly how to defeat it.

 

On the other hand, the DLC areas and bosses are all excellent.

 

10/10 game for sure.

Edited May 31, 2021 by newtmonkey

[+jgkspsx]

I beat GG Aleste Normal Mode (which is to say easy mode) with no continues and a final score of 1452180. I was going to play it for five minutes but the ShotTriggers practice mode has taught me the levels so well I breezed through the first two and decided to go for it. It took me about an hour all told. At one point it dumped extra lives on me; maybe when I crossed the million mark, and I went from two lives to 9. If not for that and the generous dispensing of extra ships throughout I wouldn’t have beaten the game.

 

Confidentially, between you and me, I think this is the first real shmup I’ve beaten on real hardware. It has got to be one of the easiest shmups people take seriously, but man is it a ride. It is dazzling and fun for every single minute except for a moon base that slightly overstays its welcome.

[TheGameCollector]

14. Pokemon Ultra Sun for 3DS (same status as Pokemon Sun and Moon - beat the Pokemon League, saved the game, just haven't filled my Pokemon collection, but hey I saw the credits roll so it's minimally beaten)

[+thegoldenband]

25. An Adventure in Jerusalem (MC-10)

 

Oddball text adventure with a slight religious subtext. As often happens, we struggled more with the parser than the puzzles, and the lack of bidirectionality in a few cases -- go south, and you inexplicably can't go back north -- was an annoyance, even if (as it turns out) only a temporary one. Also, it overuses the "lost woods" topography, where all directions and locations are interchangeable except for one perfect path: the third time that tired device showed up, we groaned aloud.

 

But it entertained us for 2 hours -- which would've been 90 minutes if "PUSH _____" worked, instead of requiring "MOVE _____". (On the other hand it would've been back up to 2 hours if the designer had bothered to write a real third act, instead of rushing through the last few treasures.) n/a 

26. Whip Rush (Genesis)

 

This game is...oh, what's the word for it...right, I remember: fun! Whip Rush won't win awards for exceptional graphics or sound, but when so many games feel like work, such that the main reward is the satisfaction of having beaten them rather than the gameplay itself, it's nice to have a shooter/shmup that's a pleasure to play.

 

It's not perfect -- too many bosses with extendable trap-your-ship arms, always a cheap device -- but it's certainly very good indeed, and I appreciate the largely bell-shaped difficulty curve (and enemy aggression that scales according to your powered-up-ness). I beat it on all three difficulties, and might even consider a 1CC on Hard, something I don't usually bother with. A-.

27. Earthquake (MC-10)

 

Nearly lost us right away when neither "S", nor "SOUTH", nor "GO S" worked. Turns out it has to be "GO SOUTH", or more accurately "GO SO" since it only counts the first two letters. That gets old fast: hadn't the designers played any other text adventures? Supporting single-letter direction commands with N/E/W/S/U/D isn't an optional bonus, it's a necessity.

 

Anyway, Earthquake was marketed as one for the kids, which is sort of hard to feature since the parser can be pretty obtuse. And once again we found ourselves struggling more with the parser and interface ("Wait, we can go up now?") than the puzzles. Still, it's cute, reasonably logical, and has the right amount of red herrings: mmm, ice cream. n/a

28. Out of This World (Genesis)

 

One of my all-time favorite games, but I really do prefer the grandeur of the SNES soundtrack, even at the expense of some slowdown. (Actually I think the slowdown almost adds to the atmosphere, and it certainly makes timing a few things easier.)

 

This version runs briskly but that FM sound just isn't the same, the colors get really wonky in some areas, and a few spots seem oddly unforgiving: I knew what to do, but apparently had to get it exactly right in non-obvious ways. But, of course, it's still a masterpiece at heart. A-.
 

[+thegoldenband]

29. AHHA! Another Haunted House Adventure (MC-10)

 

Here's how to write a text adventure and have your players hate you: make 90% of the game (and its areas) a red herring, and require the player to SAY an unclued magic word to beat the game. Ugh. n/a

 

30. Valis (Genesis)

 

The...text...in...the...cutscenes...is...so...slow. Not a great game, janky and too easy (I 1CC'd it on my first try), but the artwork and music have some appeal, and the stage design isn't totally loveless. As video game junk food, one could do worse. D+.

 

31. Valis III (Genesis)

 

Everyone says this is better. It's not -- the second half in particular is borderline garbage, with anime girls and a grandiose storyline to distract from the awful stage design, joyless gameplay, and crude boss fights. I don't even like the presentation as much as the first game. D-.

[newtmonkey]

Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin (PC)

This was my second time through this, but first through SotFS (first time through was on vanilla DS2 on the PS3).

 

I did like this game back when I played through it first upon release, but remember being annoyed with several areas and finding it to be a bit of a disappointment compared with DS1.  However, I really enjoyed the game this time around... the changes and balance tweaks they made in SotFS really helped make frustrating areas a bit easier and easy areas a bit more challenging.  I also appreciated the graphical improvements over vanilla DS2, and it was nice indeed playing at a stable 60 fps and higher resolution than the PS3 version I'd played before.

 

The structure of the game is perhaps a bit simpler than in DS1, in which areas were often connected to two or three other areas once you found the shortcuts.  In DS2, it's more like a hub with each area extending separately from that hub... I guess more like Demon's Souls than DS1.  Even so, I liked it.  You often have two or three areas to explore at any given time, and if one "spoke" off the hub becomes too difficult, you can just go explore another spoke.  I really enjoyed each and every area and boss, with the exception of Black Gulch which was pure torture even though I knew exactly what to do.

 

I started out as a cleric but ultimately converted into a pyromancer by the end of the game, and dabbled in hex magic for enemies resistant to fire.

 

Because this was my first time playing SotFS, I did beat all the DLC content that comes included with the game.  Those are some very tough areas for a spellcaster character, but it was a lot of fun figuring it all out.  I ended up doing nearly everything in the game except for defeating a few optional bosses (I'll keep my save and probably will go back and defeat these also at some point).

 

All in all, from start to finish including all the DLC areas and most of the optional bosses, this time around took just about 80 hours to complete (and that's having known where exactly to go through most of the game due to having finished it before).  Massive game!

[newtmonkey]

On 6/20/2021 at 12:53 PM, thegoldenband said:

Valis

I'm with you 100% on this series.  I've tried to play the MD and PCE versions of the games, and am always disappointed at the level design which consists often of just a flat piece of ground you run on killing the same enemies over and over.  I usually just give up out of boredom, they are too long for what they are.  There's really nothing to these games other than decent music and anime babes as far as I can tell.

[+thegoldenband]

32. The Flintstones (Genesis)

 

Could have been a very good or even excellent little action-platformer, but there are too many cheap shots and bottlenecks in the stage design, and a ton of slowdown to boot. A few of the boss fights are above-average, though, which stands out if you've been playing the Valis series lately. C.

 

33. Syd of Valis (Genesis)

 

Slippery controls, boss fights that penalize you for attempting clever play, obviously broken hit detection, and the "too hard/too easy" difficulty curve that always connotes a game that wasn't playtested properly. It could be worse, but not by that much. D-.

 

34. Dr. Livingston: In Search of... (MC-10)

 

Homebrew MC-10 port of a text adventure first seen on TRS-80 Model I, and maybe Apple II as well. I'm not a big fan of randomness in text adventures, especially when you're being scored on the number of moves you take -- and especially especially when exits from certain rooms randomly do or don't work, which makes mapping the game a headache (and getting a perfect score an exercise in hoping the RNG blesses you). It's got moments of cleverness, but not really enough to compensate for its hassles. n/a

[+jgkspsx]

Warriors of Fate (Arcade)

 

(thanks to a WHOLE LOT of continues)

[Skippy B. Coyote]

Omifreakingosh I just one credit cleared Contra on the NES! No cheat codes, no savestates, and no continues! I haven't felt this accomplished beating a game in a veeeeeery long time!

 

 

 

 

 

That makes Contra game #50 that I've beaten this year, and since the year is halfway over and I haven't really posted at all in the thread yet this year here's my recap for the year up to now:

 

Skippy's Games Beaten in 2021
1. Doom: Doom Zero (Nintendo Switch)
2. Contra: The Alien Wars (Game Boy)
3. Alien: Isolation (Nintendo Switch)
4. Metroid II: Return of Samus (Game Boy)
5. Super Metroid (Super Nintendo)
6. Star Fox (Super Nintendo)
7. Super Castlevania IV (Super Nintendo)
8. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Hyperstone Heist (Sega Genesis)
9. Kid Dracula (Game Boy)
10. Streets of Rage 2 (Sega Genesis)
11. Dead Space 2 (Xbox 360)
12. Lunar: The Silver Star (Sega CD)
13. Sonic the Hedgehog (Sega Genesis)
14. Lords of Thunder (Sega CD)
15. Mortal Kombat (Sega Genesis)
16. Sonic CD (Sega CD)
17. Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (Sega Genesis)
18. Sonic the Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles (Sega Genesis)
19. Samurai Shodown (Sega Genesis)
20. Street Fighter II': Special Champion Edition (Sega Genesis)
21. Super Street Fighter II (Sega Genesis)
22. Tomb Raider (PlayStation)
23. Aliens (Arcade)
24. Alien vs Predator (Arcade)
25. Metal Slug (Neo Geo MVS)
26. Tomb Raider II (PlayStation)
27. The Last Blade (Neo Geo AES)
28. The Last Blade 2 (Neo Geo AES)
29. Windjammers (Neo Geo MVS)
30. Mortal Kombat II (Sega Genesis)
31. Inside (Nintendo Switch)
32. Stories Untold (Nintendo Switch)
33. Doom: Syringe (Nintendo Switch)
34. Castlevania (NES)
35. Ori and the Blind Forest (Nintendo Switch)
36. Samurai Shodown II (Neo Geo AES)
37. Ori and the Will of the Wisps (Nintendo Switch)
38. Altered Beast (Arcade)
39. Doom [Classic] (Nintendo Switch)
40. Dungeons & Dragons: Tower of Doom (Arcade)
41. The King of Dragons (Arcade)
42. Doom II (Nintendo Switch)
43. Garou: Mark of the Wolves (Neo Geo MVS)
44. Winds of Change (Nintendo Switch)
45. Super Mario Bros. (NES)
46. Doom 64 (Nintendo Switch)
47. Metroid (NES)
48. Bust-A-Move Again (Neo Geo MVS)
49. DOOM Eternal (Nintendo Switch)
50. Contra (NES)

[HoshiChiri]

3. Yakuza 5 (PS4)

 

Wow, it has been awhile since I rolled credits on something- it's been a busy few months, to put it mildly!

 

Anyway- as always, great fun with this series. I adore rythmn games, so I spent WAY too much time on Haruka's chapter. I was a little disappointed with the ending- very much a 'but what happens to them?!' moment. At least I know there's one more game to try for closure. It'll be a bit though... I actually rushed the ending a bit to wrap things up before Saturday. Because I'm supposed to pick up my PS5 Saturday! Ichiban awaits! ?

[Wilco]

I finally got around to hooking up my N64 and playing majora’s mask for the first time in ages, just beat it yesterday with all the masks for the first time. 
 

It’s definitely my favorite Zelda game in the series, and maybe my new favorite game of all time. I absolutely love the time aspect and the creativity required to do everything as fast as possible, and the darker tones are a nice bonus as well. The story is also incredibly well written, at times it seemed more like I was watching a movie than playing a game, which I usually don’t like but I really didn’t mind it with this game. 
 

Thankfully the exploit to use the fierce deity mask outside of boss battles is very easy to pull off, it was a great bonus for completing the game. 

[newtmonkey]

Breath of Fire II (SFC)

Finished!  A massive improvement over the dull BOF1 in every way.

 

It's fairly difficult for most of the game, but in a fair way that rewards careful use of battle formations, spells, abilities, and consumables (I found myself using basic healing items all throughout the game, including during the final battle!).  The dungeons and towns are far more complex and interesting than in BOF1, with some interesting gimmicks and scenarios keeping things fresh.  Finally, you get access to overworld transportation that heavily reduces or outright eliminates random encounters fairly early into the game, making it a lot easier to backtrack and find treasures.  I really enjoyed the fishing minigame this time around, and had fun traveling the world fishing for powerful equipment.

 

It's not all amazing though.  The random encounter rate is still way too high, but you can use a cheap consumable to reduce the rate somewhat if it really gets annoying.  More annoyingly, I found that debuffing spells were completely useless as they hardly ever work on bosses—you are much better off buffing your own characters instead.

 

Other than that, I really enjoyed playing through this one.  It's balanced quite well as I was able to complete it without having to stop to grind EXP or GP at all.  Definitely worth playing!

 

Edited July 11, 2021 by newtmonkey