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

[lolmonade]

My youngest & I rolled credits on Untitled Goose Game over the past weekend.  It shines as a co-op game.  We were able to have a lot of fun causing chaos together, and having an extra goose also helped get through some later areas that would have been tougher solo. 

[lolmonade]

Goodbye Volcano High is a lovely visual novel with a coming of age tale juxtaposed against a giant meteor coming for you.  Characters are well developed and feel genuine.  The personal struggles shown are relatable, if maybe a bit squeaky clean. 

Gameplay is threadbare - dialogue options that give the impression of agency/affecting the outcome.  A music rhythm minigame that has button inputs that feel unique.  There's three separate tracks (left, right, vertical) that I had to point in that direction as notes fly through.  There's also button inputs with a radial that closes in on it before timing it perfectly to the beat.  It's not complex but mixes up the rhythm just enough to avoid boredom.

If you like "one of those" games, it's worth a look.

[Stratos]

So my daughter is turning three this month and being more aware we've started playing a lot of classic games for fun. I've been playing a lot of the Mario games from Mario 3, World, Yoshi's Island, Mario 64, Galaxy, Odyssey, and 3D World. Also the OG Donkey Kong Country.

Of these I have beat Mario 64 and 3D World. Boy what a difference of opinion I've had about these games over previous plays.

Mario 64 I am now dreading returning to in the future. I thought the N64 controller would make things play better, but it just doesn't play well for me. I struggled with finer gameplay, with some of the platforming, and after the first 1/3rd of the game I was just powering through to get to the end for her. I could NOT hit the bombs with Bowser for the life of me in the last battle.

I don't know what is wrong, the controller, the port, my age, all of the above? I still dearly love the game, but something feels off. Even versus the play I did a year or so ago when 3D All Stars came out. I started playing on the Switch Online app because I was just going through the games on the apps, then remembered I have 3D All Stars. Both feel clunky and cumbersome to me. Maybe I need to bust out the N64 and try there? Like the game runs TOO good with higher framerates? Or there could be some sort of controller latency at play?

I'd love to hear what others think or have experiences with older games. For me this seems to be relegated to the N64 3D games. 2D games on NES and SNES seem to more clearly be me losing my gamer edge at these precision games.


On the other hand, Mario 3D World surprised me in a pleasant way. I have tried to play this game so many times, but always with friends and family. Because of scheduling none of these runs got farther than the beginning of world 3. But since I was the only one actively playing with a tiny cheerleader and spectator, we ran with it all the way through. And the game ramped up into some delightfully fun and devilishly challenging levels. I went from 50+ lives to my last life in the final main world. I had never done the infinite 1-up trick in any Mario game and I actually went back and did it to get more lives! And the unique powerups were all a delight along with the classics. The way it channeled older Mario games like 3 also gave it a wonderful feel.

I've yet to try Wonder, but I may not get to it until I finish 3D world and it just seems to keep on going. I'm on the second bonus world post-Bowser and I am half wondering if this game actually does run out of levels.

[GreenLillie]

So my daughter is turning three this month and being more aware we've started playing a lot of classic games for fun. I've been playing a lot of the Mario games from Mario 3, World, Yoshi's Island, Mario 64, Galaxy, Odyssey, and 3D World. Also the OG Donkey Kong Country.

Of these I have beat Mario 64 and 3D World. Boy what a difference latest total curve reviews of opinion I've had about these games over previous plays.

Mario 64 I am now dreading returning to in the future. I thought the N64 controller would make things play better, but it just doesn't play well for me. I struggled with finer gameplay, with some of the platforming, and after the first 1/3rd of the game I was just powering through to get to the end for her. I could NOT hit the bombs with Bowser for the life of me in the last battle.

I don't know what is wrong, the controller, the port, my age, all of the above? I still dearly love the game, but something feels off. Even versus the play I did a year or so ago when 3D All Stars came out. I started playing on the Switch Online app because I was just going through the games on the apps, then remembered I have 3D All Stars. Both feel clunky and cumbersome to me. Maybe I need to bust out the N64 and try there? Like the game runs TOO good with higher framerates? Or there could be some sort of controller latency at play?

I'd love to hear what others think or have experiences with older games. For me this seems to be relegated to the N64 3D games. 2D games on NES and SNES seem to more clearly be me losing my gamer edge at these precision games.


On the other hand, Mario 3D World surprised me in a pleasant way. I have tried to play this game so many times, but always with friends and family. Because of scheduling none of these runs got farther than the beginning of world 3. But since I was the only one actively playing with a tiny cheerleader and spectator, we ran with it all the way through. And the game ramped up into some delightfully fun and devilishly challenging levels. I went from 50+ lives to my last life in the final main world. I had never done the infinite 1-up trick in any Mario game and I actually went back and did it to get more lives! And the unique powerups were all a delight along with the classics. The way it channeled older Mario games like 3 also gave it a wonderful feel.

I've yet to try Wonder, but I may not get to it until I finish 3D world and it just seems to keep on going. I'm on the second bonus world post-Bowser and I am half wondering if this game actually does run out of levels.

Mario 3D worl is one of the best games I have ever played.

[azeke]

Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown (Xbox One):

Great game. Great bosses, fun movement, simple but deep enough combat, big map with all kinds different locations and challenges -- combat, platforming, puzzles, puzzle platforming (think Speed Booster rooms in Metroid games). Before game released they spent a lot promoting game's in-game screenshot system which is probably the first to be used in metroidvania, but i remembered screenshots placed on a map in Assassin's Creed or even in some of the Wii U games. But it's more useful here to remember marked places to explore later, just so you can easier understand what to do visually.

I found had to put some abilities from triggers to other buttons so i can press them in quicker succession for some of the puzzles (triggers on mine Xbox controller got somewhat sticky). Also, neutral dodge off the wall when main character jumps off the wall when you just press dodge button without direction was kinda annoying especially during challenges like Impossible Climb when you had to spend a lot of time hanging on a wall.

Some of the rooms and locations looked fantastic with great backgrounds:



Map design also has cohesive design that intuitively shows the player that there is a checkpoint or a map selling NPC nearby. At first, I never bought any of the maps and explored by myself, but for 100% had to go for a map sweep to look for map sellers all over again. Usually i was only missing one of two treasures on each segments of the map hidden behind fake walls. The only puzzle room i couldn't figure out and had to look up was 2 crushing blocks in Eternal Sands and it was kinda BS -- i spent more than an hour trying all kinds of abilities in this room trying to stop the blocks -- occasionally even glitching the game but the solution was that i needed to bring an enemy from literally across the map. I guess i should have got the hint from the background.

Speaking of glitches -- when fighting a boss, i somehow got warped outside of the arena and game just gave me an achievement for beating it. Because the boss was so cool -- i had to reload from latest checkpoint to redo the boss proper -- regretted it a bit because the boss was actually really tough -- still very fun.

There were also some minor bugs like showing me loot i have already picked up like i didn't, but nothing major or preventing me from 100%-ing the file. My game is now at 99% and the last thing i need to do is to upgrade some of my amulets to full levels but i kinda ran out of crystals currency and don't feel like grinding -- probably would only take me 10 minutes or so, but don't care enough for now. Maybe later, if Ubisoft releases story DLC or something...

Overall, a really great game -- highly recommended.

[Ian Sane]

Just got 100% in Yoku's Island Express (Switch).  I liked the demo so it had been on my radar for a bit.  I was hoping for physical release but they recently had a sale where it was only a couple bucks so I decided to just go digital for it.

It's a pinball Metroidvania.  I've been playing a lot of the reproductions of Williams pinball tables in Pinball FX so I've been on a virtual pinball kick the last few years (and real pinball when I get a chance).  I like Metroidvanias a lot but I kind of suck at them.  I usually am good at figuring out secret passages and such but tend to suck at fighting bosses which are common in the genre.  But this one essentially replaces that part of the genre with virtual pinball, which I'm reasonably good at.  The idea sounds odd in theory but the layout of the world is designed very well so it all works and the demo does a good job of, uh, demonstrating the concept.  If you like the demo, you'll like the game... unless you're really bad at pinball.

My one complaint is there are parts where you have to swing from these flowers to get to high places and the timing is tricky and if you mess up you usually fall a long ways and have to climb back up.  What I found especially frustrating about them is that there is no pinball elements involved so it requires me to be good at something that is unrelated to the skills needed for the rest of the game.  The closest comparison is probably the barrel levels in Donkey Kong Country.  I also noticed that if the game was on for a fair bit that the performance would get worse and I would start to see slowdown and extra load times.  It fixed it once I exited the game and went back in so there must be some memory leak or something.  But save points are frequent so it's easy to reset the game if it happens without losing progress.

It ended up being one of those games that once I start it it has its hooks in me so deep that I end up plowing through it as soon as my free time allows.  I liked it similar to how much I liked Metroid Zero Mission.  So if a pinball Metroidvania sounds even remotely interesting to you the demo is worth a try and then you'll probably want more.

[MaximumGaming69]

The legendary Red Dead Redemption 2. Even the Online version, but partially. Such a cool story, the environment is just breathtaking. It's just 10/10