Topic: What is the last game you beat? Thoughts/impressions?

[Luigi Dude]

Blazing Chrome (Switch)

So yeah, this game is basically Contra, but that's a good thing because it's awesome.  Bloodstained got so much attention for bringing Castlevania back since IGA was involved, but Blazing Chrome should really get the same attention since it managed to do the same for Contra, without any former Konami employees involved making what this games team did even more impressive in my eyes.  The level design in top notch and they really nailed gameplay.  The sprite work is also amazing and legit looks like what a true 32-bit game from the mid 90's would have looked like.

Seriously, anyone that misses Contra should not ignore this game. 


Oniken (Switch)

So the developer behind Blazing Chrome is a Brazilian indie studio called Joymasher.  This is actually their first game that originally came out in 2012, but it also on Switch, with some sale having it for only a few dollars.  After playing this it's no surprise they would eventually make something as awesome as Blazing Chrome.  Like that game, they completely nailed the look and feel of late 80's/early 90's NES action games.  It reminds me a lot of Vice: Project Doom which I played for the first time on the NES Switch Online last summer.  It's really hard and some of the latter levels will get you cussing, but the game saves after each stage so I'd say it's more fair then the NES actions games it takes inspiration from.

So yeah, Joymasher is the real deal.  Oniken and Blazing Chrome show these guys know what made these older action games so great and have been able to faithfully replicate the experience.  I should also add they made another game called Odallus that is between Oniken and Blazing Chrome, but this one I'm a little more mixed about.


Odallus: The Dark Call (Switch)

I actually beat this game last summer but since I recently finish Oniken and Blazing Chrome, might as well give my thoughts on there other game as well.  If Blazing Chrome was their take on Contra, this game was their Castlevania.  My only problem is they're trying to do both older level based Castlevania with some Metroidvania elements and it doesn't work as well.  Some of the levels feel kind of barren and the exploration not very rewarding.  One level in particular I don't know if it's the Switch port or the other versions have the same problem but feels like it wasn't even programed properly with some spot literally making you fall through the floor and the boss causing the screen to start glitching like crazy.

Now I will say about this game, once you beat it you unlock a Veteran mode which does greatly improve it.  Levels not only have more enemies, they increased the variety as well with several new ones that will only appear on Veteran.  They also added some new parts to the levels as well, like in one where you just randomly find better armor in Normal, there's an actually challenging platforming section to get it this time.  I went and did some research on this game and Veteran mode is something that was added later after the original debut, so it makes sense it improves the biggest issue by making levels more action packed with a greater variety of enemies.  Veteran mode also has most of your ability upgrades found in the early levels so you can't easily miss them like on Normal, making exploration not feel as tedious as Normal mode was. 

Of course the really glitchy water level was still glitchy, so hopefully that's been patched since I played it last summer, because that level alone will sadly turn a lot of people off.  I mean it's still beatable, but you just have to be prepared to put up with some BS, which is too bad because the rest of the game on Veteran mode at least is a great Castlevania style action game.

[ejamer]

Xeodrifter (3DS) - Great budget title; it's short and has less enemy diversity than I would like... but is quick and fun to play. I'm ok with bite-sized games, and this is a good one.

[Ian Sane]

ICO (PS2)

Been a while since I beat a game.  ICO is one of those titles that I intended to get shortly after getting a PS2 because I had heard good things.  But I never got around to it and then thought I should get the PS3 version that comes with Shadow of the Colossus but never got around to that either.  Finally I got it for Christmas from my brother.  I didn't get a PS2 until 2007 but still we're talking 12 years of procrastinating on a game that is easy to find used for a cheap price.

It's a great game and a very unique one.  I can't quite think of any game that plays like it.  The game is essentially a puzzle platformer where you need to figure out how to get from point A to point B.  You're trying to help this princess escape a castle and she is a lot more limited in what abilities she has so you need to get to point B and then figure out how to provide a path that she can maneuver.  It's quite short and could probably be beaten in a weekend but as an adult that fits my schedule quite well.

My one complaint is that the combat isn't very fun and seems tacked on, like the designers felt a game has to have combat.  If you go too far away from the princess, and at some scripted points, these shadow guys appear to take her away and you need to fight them.  These parts are pretty much just hacking away at enemies and are pretty tedious.  Also remember this game is from 2001 and 3D cameras were still pretty rough.  The game uses a fixed camera angle in each room but you can rotate it with the right analog stick.  But this isn't a full 3D camera, it moves on a swivel as if you are actually turning a positioned camera and it will eventually stop in either direction.  For the most part this isn't an issue with platforming as it shows a good angle for each jump but it becomes a problem when fighting these shadow guys.  They will grab the princess and fly her to a portal that they're spawning from and you need to pull her out before she completely sinks in or it's Game Over.  Often these damn portals are off camera and you have to blindly guess where they are and the time is tight enough that you will not get there in time unless you take the most direct route.  I felt that was quite cheap and irritating.  Personally I would have been quite content if the game was just about the puzzle platforming without any enemies.

The last hour or so does not let you save.  It still has checkpoints so you don't have to do the entire segment over again if you die but you obviously can't turn your PS2 off.  I came upon this part about 10 minutes before I was planning on cooking dinner so I had to delay my meal while I finished the game.  This doesn't ruin the game but it is something to be aware of if you play so that you can plan your schedule ahead of time.  The game also required me to look at the manual to figure things out, including how you save which is not obvious.

I seem to be pointing out a lot of flaws but I really enjoyed this game a lot.  It's hard to describe what makes it good as the gameplay is just fun and requires a lot of thinking.

[M.K.Ultra]

ICO (PS2)
I seem to be pointing out a lot of flaws but I really enjoyed this game a lot.  It's hard to describe what makes it good as the gameplay is just fun and requires a lot of thinking.

Are planning to play Shadow of the Colossus and/or The Last Guardian next? I highly recommend both if you enjoyed ICO.

[Ian Sane]

ICO (PS2)
I seem to be pointing out a lot of flaws but I really enjoyed this game a lot.  It's hard to describe what makes it good as the gameplay is just fun and requires a lot of thinking.

Are planning to play Shadow of the Colossus and/or The Last Guardian next? I highly recommend both if you enjoyed ICO.

I don't have a PS4 so no Last Guardian for the time being.  My brother has the PS2 version of Shadow of the Colossus so I could borrow it from him some time.

[Ian Sane]

Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker (Wii U)

Bought this one off a friend quite a while ago.  I think this is honestly the first time I've played my Wii U since Breath of the Wild came out.  Had to do an update which I can't stand about recent console generations.  I dread the next time I turn on my PS3.

Anyway, Captain Toad initially seemed very short since I had the credits rolling after a few hours.  Ah, turns out there are multiple episodes so the game is much longer than it originally lets on.  I finished the game for real today on what I think is the second weekend playing it.  There are some bonus levels still to do but they require a ridiculous amount of Gems (optional collectables in each level) to unlock and the levels remaining are existing levels with new challenges.  I found myself feeling like I wasn't having fun anymore so I decided to stop.  I've beaten the game and that's sufficient.  I don't typically do 100% because I get bored or the extras are too difficult.

I liked it.  It's a good thinking game but also requires some timing and reflexes to complete.  At times your instinct is to just jump like in a Mario game but you can't so you have unlearn what you've been doing for so long.  I still want to play it actually, I just don't have more new levels aside from the remixed bonus ones.  My only real complaint is that there is some touchscreen stuff that you need to do with enemies breathing down your neck and I find that to be a huge pain.  I'm assuming the Switch version provides some way to do that with normal controls with no touchscreen in docked mode.  Also the camera moves with the motion of the gamepad so if you don't hold the controller still the camera will move on you.  You can also control the camera with the second analog stick, which is what I did, but you can't turn off the motion camera if you decide to not use it which is the typical Wii era bullshit that drove me nuts for 10 years.  I made it work and still had fun so it didn't break the game but there is no excuse for that nonsense.

[Luigi Dude]

Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker (Wii U)

Bought this one off a friend quite a while ago.  I think this is honestly the first time I've played my Wii U since Breath of the Wild came out.  Had to do an update which I can't stand about recent console generations.  I dread the next time I turn on my PS3.

Anyway, Captain Toad initially seemed very short since I had the credits rolling after a few hours.  Ah, turns out there are multiple episodes so the game is much longer than it originally lets on.  I finished the game for real today on what I think is the second weekend playing it.  There are some bonus levels still to do but they require a ridiculous amount of Gems (optional collectables in each level) to unlock and the levels remaining are existing levels with new challenges.  I found myself feeling like I wasn't having fun anymore so I decided to stop.  I've beaten the game and that's sufficient.  I don't typically do 100% because I get bored or the extras are too difficult.

I would say Captain Toad is the kind of game I think is greatly enhanced by going for 100%.  There's a lot a secrets and tricks through the levels that you wont even notice just by playing it regularly.  Of course be warned, if you 100% the game you'll unlock the final level which is insanely difficult.  It consist of 50 rooms that are randomly generated each time you play so memorization will not help you.  It basically becomes a Roguelike at this point and the later half of rooms are intense because you have to think fast because they have a lot of enemies as well as those mummy's chasing you the whole time.

So this game does have a lot of value to it if your looking for a good challenge.

[TOPHATANT123]

Captain Toad is probably the only game I've 100%'ed and I had a blast. I'd be happy if we got a sequel at some point

[ejamer]

...
Of course be warned, if you 100% the game you'll unlock the final level which is insanely difficult.  It consist of 50 rooms that are randomly generated each time you play so memorization will not help you.  It basically becomes a Roguelike at this point and the later half of rooms are intense because you have to think fast because they have a lot of enemies as well as those mummy's chasing you the whole time.
...

I remember playing the game all the way through, and feel like we probably got everything... but don't recall this roguelike part. Might have to go back and replay, because that sounds like fun. (Captain Toad in general was pretty fun and creative; I didn't find the main game to be difficult though, so it was kind of an "empty calories" experience as far as I can remember.)

[Luigi Dude]

I remember playing the game all the way through, and feel like we probably got everything... but don't recall this roguelike part. Might have to go back and replay, because that sounds like fun. (Captain Toad in general was pretty fun and creative; I didn't find the main game to be difficult though, so it was kind of an "empty calories" experience as far as I can remember.)

It was called Mummy-Me Maze Forever.  You had to collect all the Super Gems for each level, and do all the Bonus Objectives for each level as well to unlock it.  It's this games equivalent to Perfect Run or Champions Road, but I'd say it's even harder since you can't memorize it since the block layout always changes, and you can't use a certain character or Tanooki suit to help.  It's also a lot longer then the other final levels since on average a successful run will take around 15 minutes to complete.  So if you've spent over 10 minutes and have reached the 40's then die, it's back to the first room.

I'd say about 1/3 of my total playtime on Captain Toad came from this level alone.

[ejamer]

I remember playing the game all the way through, and feel like we probably got everything... but don't recall this roguelike part. Might have to go back and replay, because that sounds like fun. (Captain Toad in general was pretty fun and creative; I didn't find the main game to be difficult though, so it was kind of an "empty calories" experience as far as I can remember.)

It was called Mummy-Me Maze Forever.  You had to collect all the Super Gems for each level, and do all the Bonus Objectives for each level as well to unlock it.  It's this games equivalent to Perfect Run or Champions Road, but I'd say it's even harder since you can't memorize it since the block layout always changes, and you can't use a certain character or Tanooki suit to help.  It's also a lot longer then the other final levels since on average a successful run will take around 15 minutes to complete.  So if you've spent over 10 minutes and have reached the 40's then die, it's back to the first room.

I'd say about 1/3 of my total playtime on Captain Toad came from this level alone.

That does ring a bell... but maybe we didn't actually play it very much after unlocking it.
By that point, I think we were all Toaded out.

[GK]

Oninaki - Switch

It's uhh something of a mixed bag. Not sure if it's the odd pacing of the writing or what but I keep getting the feeling that this game came out before it should have. The gameplay isn't terrible once you find your favorite daemons/attacks & grind their levels a bit. Heck, once I got my fav (Zaav) to around level 5 or 6 he becomes OP when manifesting against bosses at 200% affinity. 

As for the ending? Might be one of the most disappointing endings I ever got. Looked online & the other ones don't look much better. Can't say I feel the desire to 100% things at the moment but I did unlock all of Zaav's memories at least. Found the backstories of your daemons more interesting than the main plot myself so if I do jump back in it'll be to unlock a few others.

[TOPHATANT123]

Daemon X Machina - Switch

I'm a lover of mechs and the target audience for a game like this. I ended up having fun and the game does have a base gameplay that feels good. The graphical style is also really nice, it's stylised in all the right ways and there's a little bit of environmental destruction although not nearly enough. There are plenty of things you could criticise about the game. The main gameplay loop shoots for something like Monster Hunter but it misses the mark, many of the weapons you find look cool but aren't very effective, and there's little rhyme or reason to the pieces of equipment you collect. There's some sort of attachment system I couldn't get the hang of and the pre-misson buffs felt pointless. Most of the skill tree doesn't change how you play.

Add to that the fact that the story is a complete mess. Not even a good mess, the way anime can be sometimes, a bad mess. The game has something like 11 different factions all with their own motivations and politics. It has like 36 named/voiced characters each with their own motivations. The game throws characters at you seemingly at random and some of the important story moments are told to you through text messages. It doesn't attempt to make sense, takes its self too seriously and things just happen. There is a version of this that could have been incredible over the top dumb anime nonsense, but this sadly isn't that. Like I said, boosting around and firing missiles is fun, and the bosses are pretty cool, but you'll only want to play a few missions at a time as the gameplay loop isn't quite there.

Persona Q - 3DS

I'm not a huge fan of Etrian Odyssey and I'm a believer that the SMT series is superior, but I was willing to give this a go. The battle system has some improvements over Etrian Odyssey and the fusion system is a more interesting system for gaining skills than EOs skill tree. I still came away from the game a little sour though. The game has some incredibly annoying puzzles and frustrating dungeon design that had me pulling up gamefaqs. Far more annoying puzzles than I've ever encountered in Etrian Odyssey, the game will want you to go into rooms in a specific order and without a guide I wouldn't have had the patience to finish it. The bosses are annoying and usually have no weakness, and I gave up doing side quests because they offered so little experience. The game gives you a bunch of characters without a way to catch them up in levels and gaining experience is painfully slow. So for the most part you'll be sticking with the same squad with some minor experimentation.

The characters regress into caricatures without the nuance of Persona 3 and 4. I hate Teddy in this game even though I liked him in P4. If you want to see the two casts interact you'll have a better time playing Persona 4 Arena Ultimax, where it at least attempts to add something to the canon, rather than coming off as official fan fiction. The story of Q has approximately two interesting story moments and for a lengthy RPG it's not good enough. Maybe Etrian Odyssey isn't for me, but I would have a hard time recommending Q.

[NWR_insanolord]

I don't finish a lot of games, but SteamWorld Heist really grabbed me and I just finished off the final boss. Of course, after priding myself on getting all the stars on every mission, one of my characters died when the boss had only 4 HP remaining and cost me one, so I know I'll end up going back and fixing that.

The Switch has an incredible lineup of indie games, but I truly believe this game stands with titles like Celeste and Stardew Valley as among the very best examples on the system. Playing a turn-based strategy game from the side-on perspective really changes how you think about it, and the game offers enough different weapon types and special abilities to keep it fresh the whole way through. SteamWorld Dig got a sequel, which is also great, and I really hope Image & Form is able to go back and make a sequel to Heist that expands upon it to the same degree.

[Order.RSS]

I don't finish a lot of games, but SteamWorld Heist really grabbed me and I just finished off the final boss. Of course, after priding myself on getting all the stars on every mission, one of my characters died when the boss had only 4 HP remaining and cost me one, so I know I'll end up going back and fixing that.

Yeah this is a good game, writing's decent too. Did you use all of the characters Insano? I kinda found myself sticking to a rotation of maybe the first 6 or so, there were 2 or 3 I almost never used because they arrived either underleveled or just seemed weaker.

[MagicCow64]

More Stadia!

I didn't realize that my pro sub would hold after I canceled, but saw that there were additional free games added.


Zombie Army 4:

For some reason I thought this was a horror spin-off of a sniper game, so I was very nonplussed to discover that this is yet another horde-mode dealie with an attendantly hideous load-out interface and garish score overlay. Terrible experience, tapped out after a half hour.

The Turing Test

More of my jam in the puzzle game vein, but ultimately feels kinda undercooked and rinky dink in production. The problem with these Portal wannabes is that they never have as good a core gimmick as Portal did. In this case, the line-of-sight energy transfers, is fairly ho-hum and overly straightforward. It kind of feels like one of those physical puzzles where you move a ring through knots, but easy.

Also, another strange choice for this streaming platform, with its low production value and lack of any other potential Stadia benefit.

Speaking of Portal-likes,

Superliminal (PC):

Another undercooked indie Portal wannabe! This time the gimmick is perspectival, where any object you pick up can be up- or down-sized depending where you release it in the environment in relation to your POV. It's a neat tech trick at first but it runs out of interesting applications pretty quickly. There are some divergences into other ancillary mechanics, but none of them are particularly interesting or well developed. And like the Turing Test above, it reeks of being cobbled together with a small pool of assets in a generic engine.

[Adrock]

Battle Princess Madelyn (Switch)

Short version: I can't really recommend this game.

I finished Battle Princess Madelyn even though it wasn't great. Story Mode was longer than it should be (by the developer's own admission) but still not that long. I wanted to finish a game because I have too many games and I keeping buying games on sale. Also, I just got my digital code for Indivisible which I didn't know I was getting (I thought I was only getting the collector's edition physical version which I will now not open).

I didn't do a full count, but I think Battle Princess Madelyn was made by like five people including the audio. That said, I can see where some of the jankiness came from. Anyway, I doubt anyone here particularly cares about this game, but if you're skimming, I tried to make it easier by bolding some things. Some minor spoilers, no specifics.

What I liked:

1. The music is excellent.
2. Some sprite work is pretty good, notably Madelyn herself. Operative word: some.
3. Core gameplay is fine (besides aforementioned jank, more on that below)

What I disliked:

1. Some enemies take a lot of hits which makes them feel bullet spongey. Seemed unnecessary. You can upgrade weapons twice yet that never felt like it made a big difference. I only played Story Mode so I don't know if Arcade Mode is different.
2. Lots of backtracking, but it isn't fun. You never get like running shoes or anything later in the game. There's one warp point per areas called a Travel Stone, and you can immediately fast travel there via the menu. Walking through the actual areas multiple times is a chore.
3. Inconsistent art. The cutscene art is anime inspired; the dialog box character portraits are a completely different art style. Why? Blossom Tales: The Sleeping King did something similar. I don't get it.
4. Story is pretty generic, sometimes confusing which is odd because that's what Casual Bit Games partially sold the game on in the Kickstarter. Apparently, this is one of the issues that arose from being a Kickstarter game due to stretch goals and whatnot. Casual Bit Games even made a Director's Cut "Royal Edition" that cuts the story mode and revamps the Arcade Mode.
5. The game has weird difficulty spikes. This is especially odd considering the lead developer and CEO of Casual Bit Games specifically made this game for his four-year old daughter. The game is named after her.
6. Final boss out of no where. There's no lead up. I thought there was more dungeon because you fight like three early bosses at the end of a room. Seemed like there would be a gauntlet of every previous boss. Nope. After three of those, you walk up some stairs and Uh-Oh Spaghetti-O, now you're in the final boss room. Then, when the real final boss appears:

7. Madelyn is actually kind of annoying. Her dialog liberally uses sarcasm. Felt forced, particularly in the way some people think being sarcastic is a personality type.
8. 16-bit era non-Nintendo jank/lack of polish:

• The game often just doesn't tell you things. If you're standing in front of an NPC who gives you an item, you automatically get the item. Was it important? Maybe. If you're fast enough, you can get out of the way and see the item, and maybe you know what it is. Sometimes, you'll get a key, and you don't know which door it opens. Keep going up to doors until you find the right one.
• The map is in the pause menu. There's no dedicated map button. The Select button (-) does nothing.
• There's no onscreen indicator for money on the gameplay screen. That is also in the menu, under items.
• Platforms are poorly defined. Some blend in with the background. Can you jump on it? Maybe. You can pass through some of floors while others you can't. Sometimes, they're the same floor and only part of it can be passed through. **** that noise.
• Unfair deaths/jumps. You take a leap of faith downward and into a bed of spikes. This happens more often than it should because the game only sometimes tells you jumping somewhere will clearly kill you (skull indicators floating up from bottomless pits).
• There are areas that lets you pass through the floor, but the only thing down there is a bed of spikes you can't see until you fall and land on it. Like, why the **** would you even allow me to do that especially when there are floors that I can't pass through? Just make that floor one I can't pass through.
• There's water that kills you that is separate from water that doesn't kill you. Instead of floating a little bit on the surface, you Great-Bay-in-Melee sink right to the bottom.
• You can skip certain scripted "cutscenes" incidentally (e.g. you arrive in a new area and decide to go left instead of right). You can complete the whole area, beat the boss and everything. The game never accounts for you doing that. If you then go right, you still have to watch the "cutscene" (in quotes because it's all dialog boxes) except it doesn't make sense anymore.
• Flinch is some of the most infuriating bullshit in the game. You cover a lot of distance, the duration of losing control of Madelyn feels long (compared to other games), and invincibility frames don't count if you land on a bed of spikes.
• The warp system is some of the jankiest **** I've ever seen in a video game. The first five areas lead into each other. You get there by walking, and you can warp to any of them from each of the five area's Travel Stone (once you visit the area the first time). The main castle gets a special warp later in the game called the Switchbot that lets you visit five other standalone areas. You can only warp to those five new standalone areas from the main castle, but if you do the side quests, you still have to go back to the original five connected areas several times. That's just an egregious, unnecessary clownfuck amount of backtracking. On top of that, when you warp to one of the five standalone areas, that area's Travel Stone can only go to the main castle. That means, you have to warp to the castle, just to warp somewhere else. Typing this all out makes me want to punch something.
• There are like 12 different NPCs that use the same sprite (a little girl wearing a pink dress), each says she'll give you a reward for beating "a certain boss". Trying to figure out which boss corresponds to which little girl is way more complicated than it should be. I believe the one in each area corresponds to the area boss. It wasn't immediately clear since there were like four in the main castle, and that's like the first area of the game.
• A lot of the side quests involve you rescuing an NPC at the request of another NPC. They tell you the area and nothing else (i.e. no landmarks, no screenshots). You just have to walk around until you find them. Sometimes they don't even trigger right away. You have to leave the area then come back presumably to allow everything to reset.
• The "Quest Log" poorly tracks side quests. It merely lists the area of the NPC who gave the quest and a short summary of what to do. However, there's no indicator once a quest is completed. It's only removed from the list once you talk to the NPC again. I also encountered some bugs such as the selection not matching the description, a quest was listed but no one gave it to me, and finally, a quest that remained on the list permanently despite completing it.
• Numerous grammatical errors, mostly missing apostrophes.
• Numerous bugs. I completed a quest without obtaining the item. I even looked up a let's play on Youtube because I couldn't find the item. He encountered a different bug in which the item appeared in his inventory without him doing the quest.
• Some speaking NPCs don't have a character portrait. The in-game sprite is used in the dialog box instead. That inconsistency is really noticeable. There aren't that many unique NPCs, many use the same sprites. If they had a character portrait for that sprite, the same one could have been used for each NPC using that sprite. It's such an odd choice. I don't like calling developers lazy. It felt more like indifference like "We could fix it, but we don't care enough to do so."
• A new game mechanic is introduced fairly late into the game (and you only use it in one other place). You have to pogo off of enemies by attacking downward with certain weapons in order to scale a mountainside so if you miss a jump (you will), you likely fall all the way to the bottom. Also, the enemies move. Not fast, but still.
• Lots of dead ends and areas that look like you can access but can’t. This wastes a lot of time, and it’s just bad game design.
• Hitboxes are weirdly inconsistent. Sometimes, a saw should decapitate you. Other times, an arrow that you swear shouldn't hit you, does and you flinch into a bottomless pit or bed of spikes.
• Some mild control issues. The game won't always detect jump inputs close to edges. You can still move forward, but jumping won't register so you walk right off a ledge and often into a bottomless pit, bed of spikes etc. You probably don't need to get right up to the edge to make most jumps. Still not a good look though.
• Options is only available on the title screen/main menu, not accessible in-game via the pause menu.

[NWR_insanolord]

I don't finish a lot of games, but SteamWorld Heist really grabbed me and I just finished off the final boss. Of course, after priding myself on getting all the stars on every mission, one of my characters died when the boss had only 4 HP remaining and cost me one, so I know I'll end up going back and fixing that.

Yeah this is a good game, writing's decent too. Did you use all of the characters Insano? I kinda found myself sticking to a rotation of maybe the first 6 or so, there were 2 or 3 I almost never used because they arrived either underleveled or just seemed weaker.

I mostly stuck with the same crew. They were always the highest leveled ones I had and I was used to their abilities. I forget her name, but the one with the Kill Shot power was incredibly useful once you got the hang of planning around that ability.

[Ian Sane]

So I just completed Mario's Picross on the Game Boy.  The ending is basically "Congratulations!"  Not even a Mario cameo.  But you don't play a Picross game for a story.  It's a great game and very addictive.  Though at the end the puzzles became hard enough that you had to make educated guesses as to what spaces to clear and couldn't systematically solve the puzzle through elimination.  Each puzzle has a 30 minute time limit and if you guess incorrect spaces you lose time, starting with two minutes and exponentially increasing with each wrong guess.  There is a flaw in that after failing a puzzle you can just try it again and I can remember a few key spaces that I successfully guessed on.  So while I failed a few puzzles towards the end as they got harder I never failed any twice because I could use what I learned from the previous attempt.  I don't know how you get around that though and today if you really wanted to cheat you could take a photo with your phone and use that as a reference for your second attempt, or literally pause the game and look at your photo to figure things out without the timer going.  You can't really fault a game for not anticipating future tech and of course there is Game FAQs for anyone that really wants to cheat anyway.

I don't think I would recommend this to everyone as I don't think it has universal appeal.  My brother for example was completely turned off.  So look up Picross as a concept and see if you like it and if you do, you'll enjoy this game.

[Khushrenada]

Though at the end the puzzles became hard enough that you had to make educated guesses as to what spaces to clear and couldn't systematically solve the puzzle through elimination.  Each puzzle has a 30 minute time limit and if you guess incorrect spaces you lose time, starting with two minutes and exponentially increasing with each wrong guess. 

I played this last year around August/September and I have to disagree with this assessment. There are no puzzles that require the user to guess a bit and hope they put in the right input for a square. All the puzzles can be solved logically and through careful deduction. I remember facing some puzzles where it seemed like there just wasn't enough information or wondered if I just had to start guessing away. I wondered if the early age of this game meant that some puzzles were just impossible/broken because it seemed like I'd hit these dead end loops with no progress. However, eventually after sometimes going through each row and column a few times with careful examination I'd begin to find one square here and then one square there until finally you'd reach or figure out one that broke open the puzzle and you could then rapidly piece the rest together. It was like a detective constantly searching for the next clue to break crack the case. What I learned was that sometimes figuring out a square that should be empty was just as important as figuring out one that should be filled and those empty squares could be more tricky because they required using logic from a couple other parts of the puzzle.

My big complaint against the game was the automatic time deduction from a mistake. Sometimes, I just pressed the wrong button or didn't let go of a button in time as I filled in a row and then got the penalty. Like, I would have corrected it on my own but didn't get the chance. I liked that Time Trials finally got rid of that feature. I've actually been playing this game again and the Time Trials because I also found it weird that the game never stated if you completed all the Time Trial puzzles. Plus it presents them in a random order so I wasn't ever sure if I did see or complete them all. I just started to recognize a couple of the images again so I figured I had done them all. Now, I've gotten the list of the Time Trial puzzles and checking them off when I complete them. It's beginning to look like I have gone through them all but I wish the game had given some notice on that.

I know some reviewers have knocked the game for only being limited to the 15 X 15 size grids when newer Picross games will have 15 x 20 or larger but I was fine with that. I kind of like the smaller grids because I don't always want to spend 40+ minutes on one puzzle. Plus, they seemed to include some of the most diabolical 15 x 15 puzzles in the game so you will still be challenged. Had a couple where I was definitely racing the clock and a few times the clock did beat me (although that was often from rushing and getting a time penalty for a wrong square [WHICH I WOULD HAVE CORRECTED WITHOUT YOU GAME!!!]) Like Ian Sane said, I'd just take a moment to remember some things (usually the border / outside rows and columns if solved) and then quickly fill those again from memory after restarting and go from there resulting in my finishing the puzzle up on that second go around.

Still, a solid, solid game and a Game Boy that title that isn't hampered in anyway from the hardware limitations. With the SNES Online Switch program bringing over some Japanese only titles, it highlights some of the missed opportunity for the 3DS GB VC. There were 2 other Mario Picross titles for the system released in Japan only and it's a shame they couldn't have been ported over and included in the VC now like Sin and Punishment 64 or Earthbound Beginnings finally were. The feeling is that the GB VC sales just weren't there or that popular to justify such a thing but I also don't think the cost would or should have been that high to have done those ports. Oh well.

[Ian Sane]

I'm with you on the time deduction for the wrong button.  There were some where it went down to the wire but I failed because losing two minutes when you had a weird moment where you crossed buttons in your mind made all the difference.  Also since the penalty increases, when you press the wrong button could make a big difference.  Maybe I legitimately made a true mistake early on and it cost me two minutes.  Then the wrong button press costs me four minutes.  The two minute was a deserved penalty but the much more costly four minute one wasn't.  I also noticed that the d-pad on my SNES controller (I played it on the Super Game Boy) is a little stiff because sometimes I would press the d-pad to move the cursor and then pressed the "chisel" button and then get punished for a wrong guess when I didn't mean that spot, just the cursor didn't move when I expected it to.

I wasn't sure what the Time Trial was doing though and that it had unique puzzles.  I played this game in two segments where I played about half the puzzles months ago so I couldn't remember if I had seen those Time Trial puzzles before or not.  Since there are more I will probably get back into it.

For some of the more difficult puzzles I suspect I lack the patience to solve puzzles beyond the typical approach I take.  I tend to look at one line at a time.  If I can't eliminate more possibilities in one line I go to another.  I am bad however at planning moves in any strategy game multiple moves ahead so if I have to look at two lines at once and eliminate spots that way I'm screwed and I think the game moved in that direction towards the end.  I actually feel like this needed three conditions: chiseled, identified empty space, and hypothetical.  I would make marks of hypothetical empty spaces to determine pieces that had to be chiseled no matter what but I had to remember to go back and erase them because there were indistinguishable from identified empty spaces.  If I could do that I could probably solve multiple lines since I can mark down the hypothetical situations and eliminate them.

[Adrock]

Mutant Mudds Deluxe (Switch)

Short version: It's good. I recommend the game if you like platformers and some mild shooting.

I completed everything in the regular game and what I presume was DLC outside of the collection. Mutant Mudds becomes really challenging. Some of that difficulty is due to being restricted to one power-up at a time as Max (the blond kid). You also have to unlock the powerups: Power Shot, Extended Hover, and Vertical Boost. I kept wondering why Grannie wouldn't just let you take all of the powerups considering mutant alien mud creatures have invaded earth, and there's no narrative reason for this (plot is pretty thin as is, not a criticism). If you could take all three powerups even halfway through the base game, the regular levels would be fairly easy. You have to complete 16 levels minimum (by collecting 1600 Golden Diamonds, 100 per level) to unlock Vertical Boost.

A few criticisms:

• Whenever you want to switch powerups, you have to go back to Grannie's Attic. The ability to change powerups really should be done on the level select screen via the pause menu.
• There's no "restart from last checkpoint" option, the checkpoint being either the beginning of the level or the one checkpoint per level. Sometimes you get hit off a platform and have to fall all the way to the to the pit at the bottom to trigger a death. If you got to the checkpoint, you can't just quit the level or it resets the checkpoint and you start at the beginning of the level again. I don't understand why all modern games don't have this option.
• There are some weird hitboxes which can work for or against you depending on the situation. Sometimes, it's like a single pixel and you're either completely safe or totally getting insta-killed.

Anyway, despite the difficulty, Mutant Mudds never felt especially unfair. Even the Game Boy/Virtual Boy inspired G-Land/V-Land stages are merely tough but fair. Sometimes you don't get the right cycle of enemy movement and platform movement (e.g. disappearing/reappearing blocks, vertically moving blocks etc), and there's no way to proceed without either just taking damage or waiting for the cycle to get close enough (if it even does). I noticed occasional input lag though that may be the wireless controller. I used the Switch Super Nintendo controller. which may also have the same D-pad issue as the Pro Controller in which it sometimes registers an up input when you didn't press up. Caused many deaths, nothing too major though.

Once you collect all the Golden Diamonds and Water Sprites, you get to play as Grannie. I doubt anyone cares about spoilers for this game, but I'll play it safe. At this point, you do get to use all the powerups all at once. You can unlock the CGA-Land stages within the regular stages (per cursory googling, CGA stands for "Color Graphics Adapter" which makes sense given the color palette). Most of the CGA-Land stages suck a cornucopia of dicks (in terms of difficulty, not quality). Hope you enjoy dying a lot. The "Ghost" levels similarly suck a cornucopia of dicks. I said "****" a lot playing through them. I'm not sure they can be beaten with the standard loadout or even with only one powerup. I played a few with the standard loadout then quickly stopped doing that because I don’t hate myself.

In conclusion, I considered jumping into Mutant Mudds Super Challenge. I figured I'd never play it if I didn't do so immediately since I'm used to the game's mechanics. Upon booting it up, I realized I have to play as Max with the standard loadout again which I am not used to anymore. Will I play Mutant Mudds Super Challenge?

[TOPHATANT123]

Deadly Premonition Origins (Switch)
There's not a lot to say about Deadly Premonition that hasn't already been said. The graphics are horrible, the sound design is hilarious and the controls are awful. Despite this the game tells a fantastic story with an insane sense of humour. It feels like a crossover between Resident Evil and Sims 2 for DS. The game's ending left an impression on me and I doubt I will forget this game anytime soon.

Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 Final Mix (PS4)
To get right into it, my main gripe with this game is the combat. It's bad and frustrating. You walk up to enemies and spam the attack button over and over until they die. Often you will need to heal or dodge, but the gameplay has a huge over reliance on spamming the X button. The game has magic and summons but from my experience I found these to be completely useless, doing either little or no damage. Better to save the MP for healing and reliably pressing X.

There's no satisfaction in clearing a room of enemies as they
immediately spawn in again like it's the end room of the facility level in Goldeneye.

There isn't much in the way of character progression. Maybe once or twice you'll switch out Goofy's equipment, or mess around with the skills that are set. But for the most part these enhancements are imperceivable and don't change how the game is played.

The story has moments of Nomura insanity, but not nearly enough for my tastes. Hopefully he will be less restrained in next installments.

[GK]

Shantae and the Pirate's Curse (WiiU)

After hearing about the new Shantae coming out I'd figure I'd take a step into the ol' backlog & finish this one up. I hear this one's considered one of the best of the series though I'm not as sure for now so I'll call it a tie with Risky's Revenge. My biggest gripe might be that last dungeon was driving me nuts. Maybe I've been away from 2D platformers for too long, but I had more trouble getting to the final boss than actually beating 'em.

Final rundown:
playtime: 9hours 26mins
heart squids: 25/32
dark magic: 12/20

Usually I don't bother to 100% things but if I try Pirate mode, who knows.

[Luigi Dude]

Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom (Switch)

As a fan of the series I finally played the newest installment, which funny enough started development as an indie homage before eventually being turned into the real thing.  The developers are huge fans of the series and it certainly shows since it's filled with references and callbacks.  They certainly wanted to leave their own mark on the series, with this game easily being the largest installment, taking me over 20 hours to complete and 100%.

Of course I do think they kind of over did it at times.  For starters the game starts you as a human before turning you into a Pigman, within the first 10-15 minutes.  The Pig has the worst combat ability and is the least fun character to play as.  You then play as the pig for the next several hours, mostly using his abilities for puzzles which some are pretty fun, but this whole section shouldn't have been as long as it was.  Especially when the Pig transformation ends up being pretty worthless during the second half of the game, so it's like, why put so much attention on this things that just drags out the beginning if it's not even going to be that important in the end?

The second transformation turns you into a Snake and that's when things get better since the Snake can crawl on walls and spit venom.  This vastly improves the quality of puzzles and gameplay for the next section.  After that you got the Toad Man transformation and can finally use your sword again.  Now combat is fun again, and the Toad's main ability involving his tongue opens up even more creative puzzles.  The next section is easily the most polished because of that and it's no surprise is the most universally loved part of the game.

The next section though after you get the Lion Man starts to feel kind of rough.  The game suddenly gets obsessed with trail and error puzzles, with pretty cheap enemy placements at time as well.  Now I didn't mind it as much since the game is very generous with checkpoints so it's not like you lose a ton of progress.  But still, it's annoying to get cheap shot by offscreen enemies or suddenly die because of a moving platform you had less then a second to react to.

The rest of the game is more or less like this.  Some really great puzzles and idea's followed by some not so great ones.  Like there's a shooting section that's clearly inspired by Wonder Boy III: Monster Lair, but man does your character have a ridiculously big hit box.  Some parts get a ton of projectiles on screen and it's almost impossible to avoid getting hit at times.  Of course once again the game is pretty generous with checkpoints, so even when I died during this section it wasn't that big a loss but it does make a lot of the actions sections feel almost pointless since it's kind of easy to just tank your way through to the next checkpoint and hardly feels like your skills are even being tested.

There is a haunted mansion toward the end though which is easily my favorite part of the game.  It feels like a giant Zelda dungeon with one giant puzzle that connected to a ton of smaller ones.  I personally loved it but I've seen quite a few online that hated this section.  Some of the puzzles are pretty obtuse, which I didn't mind but can certainly see why others would.  I did have a problem with the cheap ghost enemies that can shoot you from offscreen, which killed me quite a few times.  Once again the game has a ton of check points so it was still easy for me to get back to were I was to complete the puzzles, but for the love of ****, stop putting in cheap enemies if they don't even need to be there.

This also brings up another thing that drove me crazy.  The game has some great bosses that are creative and challenging, but if you die twice, on the third try the game will constantly give you hearts throughout the fight.  They don't even ask you if you want help or give an option like the Super Guide, they just automatically start giving you hearts throughout the fight.  I tried looking in options if there's a way to turn it off and didn't see one either.  Seriously, it's like the developers are saying if you die twice to a boss you're not good enough and must need some help.  Just seems kind of condescending to me, which is rather weird since they have no problem putting in some rather obtuse puzzles that you need to do before reaching the bosses and they give you no hints on those.  So they're going to make it hard to get to the boss but once you're at the boss they will make it easier whether you want it or not?  Come on guys, be a little more consistence in the design of the game.

This leads me to the ending which was then just a little anti-climatic since you gain an ability is great to use and the final area starts with some great obstacles and fights that use it, but then it ends up being pretty short.  The final boss also ends up being one of the easiest in the game, which is kind of disappointing since previous Wonder Boy games usually go all out in their final boss fights.

Overall though I still had a good time with it.  There's a lot of great puzzles, which the classic Zelda fan in me loved.  The game needed some better polish though.  The developers where clearly huge fans and had a ton of idea's but probably should have cut a few of them to make sure the remaining ones were more refined.

Oh and I can't forget about the music.  They got Yuzo Koshiro, Motoi Sakuraba, Michiru Yamane, Keiki Kobayashi, and Takeshi Yanagawa all to contribute.  The results are nothing short of spectacular.  Here's a few tracks from just the early parts of the game.

Title Theme
Fields
Misty Woods
Boss Battle  (My personal favorite)