Games Beaten In 2012!

[+thegoldenband]

59. Blackthorne (Sega 32X)

 

Beat this tonight, after playing it off and on for a couple weeks. I'll probably write more in the review thread over at Sega-16, but basically, I think this game is wildly overrated, and hardly deserves to be cited as a pearl of the 32X library (or if it does deserve it, then that's pretty damning for the 32X). The pace is sluggish, the gameplay is repetitive and plagued with slowdown, the puzzles are trivial, the sound is buggy, and the overall aesthetic is off-putting at best.

 

I'd give it a C, and that might even be a bit generous.

[Christophero Sly]

59. Blackthorne (Sega 32X)

 

Beat this tonight, after playing it off and on for a couple weeks. I'll probably write more in the review thread over at Sega-16, but basically, I think this game is wildly overrated, and hardly deserves to be cited as a pearl of the 32X library (or if it does deserve it, then that's pretty damning for the 32X). The pace is sluggish, the gameplay is repetitive and plagued with slowdown, the puzzles are trivial, the sound is buggy, and the overall aesthetic is off-putting at best.

 

I'd give it a C, and that might even be a bit generous.

 

I played Blackthrone on the PC(DOS), not the 32X, but I agree with you just the same; it's overrated. It sounds like the DOS version plays a little smoother than the 32X, but you're right on about the unappealing aesthetic and tedious gameplay. You often hear Blackthorne mentioned in the same breath as two games I love, Flashback and Out of this World, but it's nowhere near as enjoyable as either of those two gems.

Edited October 19, 2012 by Christophero Sly

[Cybergoth]

I've played through Mass Effect 2 now and am currently installing Mass Effect 3

[+thegoldenband]

60. Shadow Blasters (Genesis)

 

On the surface, this seems like a decent action platformer in the lineage of NES games like Mega Man, Shadow of the Ninja, Whomp 'Em, et al. To help you overlook the weak graphics, it's got decent tunes, reasonably good controls, and some nice perks -- four different characters, a kind of leveling-up system (collect items to improve your stats), and stage select. But then you discover the difficulty curve...

 

...which starts at sea level and goes downhill from there. Some have complained that Shadow Blasters offers unlimited continues, but if I'm able to 1CC/1LC the game on Hard on my second playthrough ever, is that really the issue?

 

Admittedly, those unlimited continues did help me learn the game on my first playthrough, mainly in figuring out the final boss fight -- which, since I mentioned it, is like a dance at parochial school: just orbit in each other's vicinity without actually touching, and you won't get in any trouble.

 

I'll give it a generous C- since, outside of its extreme lack of long-term value, it's inoffensive and might bring a beginning player some joy.

[+thegoldenband]

61. Gain Ground (Genesis)

 

This, on the other hand, is one of my favorite games in the Genesis library. Bizarrely enough, I'd never played it on anything but co-op before, and had also only ever played Easy difficulty (which we beat earlier this year).

 

But it's the kind of game where the main challenge is in learning each character's strength and how to approach each stage, so Hard didn't change too much; if anything it simplifies matters since you no longer have to avoid killing all the enemies in order to rescue your comrades.

 

OTOH the dynamics of the game totally change in single-player mode, since you can no longer rely on having two complementary characters (i.e. one fast-moving, short-range fighter to clear out the first wave of nearby enemies, and one slow-moving artillery type to nail the foes at the back without risk).

 

Anyway, this is an absolute classic that accomplishes everything it sets out to do, so the Sega-16 rating is absolutely correct: 10/10, or A+. (On another site it might get docked a bit for the lo-fi graphics and abortive ending, but why quibble?)

[Christophero Sly]

The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker

 

The presentation and core gameplay of Wind Waker are unimpeachable. However, I feel that the game contains some notable technical and design flaws. The camera is awful, auto-jump and auto-climb should be outlawed, and my play-time would have been cut by at least a quarter had I been able to skip all the incidental, repetitious cutscenes and dialog. Seriously, how many chests do I have to watch this kid open? The final 1/3 of the game is plagued by tedium. No way did I have the patience to hunt down all the sunken treasures, or complete the more monotonous side quests, like trading with all the merchants. The adolescent nature of the game didn't really appeal to me either. The game has some charming moments, to be sure, but it just wasn't the sort of thing I could get immersed in, and that lack of immersion probably exacerbated the tedium I felt in the later stages of the game.

 

But like I said, the presentation and core gameplay are top-notch. Flaws aside, Wind Waker is still a fun, high-quality game. B+

[+thegoldenband]

62. Onslaught (Genesis)

 

Beat Amateur/Tutor mode last night, and Professional/Human mode today, albeit using two very different approaches.

 

I'm planning to review this hybrid platformer/strategy/tube shooter for Sega-16, so I'll refrain from saying anything except: uggggggh. F.

[Punisher5.0]

Just beat Ninja Combat for Neo Geo AES last night.

[Christophero Sly]

From Russia With Love (GC)

 

A solid action game with a nice mix of gameplay, ranging from driving missions to third-person cover shooting. It's technically sound, if not impressive, with a number of first-rate setpieces. However, it was very linear, the story was thin, and there were a few design aspects that I wasn't crazy about, but plenty of semi-hidden objectives and a upgrade/customization scheme kept me invested. B.

[+thegoldenband]

Took out three Game Boy games while the power was out:

 

63. Jimmy Connors Tennis (Game Boy)

 

Decent groundstroke mechanics that reward attacking play, but undermined by ridiculously slow serving, shoddy programming, and repetitive gameplay (you take on the same opponent over and over again). Looks like a rush job, but it does encourage you to play a bit like Connors ca. 1991: retrieve improbable overheads, take big cuts at powderpuff serves from well inside the baseline, and win points with artless but punishing half-volleys. C-.

 

64. Go! Go! Tank (Game Boy)

 

You're a plane, and your job is to get the eponymous tank to a fortress at the end of the level. You use a hook attached to the bottom of your plane to move blocks around, remodeling the landscape so that the tank doesn't endlessly crash into walls (or fall into irretrievable pits). Meanwhile, enemies shoot at you and otherwise harass you. Great concept, but the execution is overly frustrating, thanks to finicky timing and occasional cheap hits from edge-spawning enemies on a small screen. C+.

 

65. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Fall of the Foot Clan (Game Boy)

 

Competent action-platformer offers a stage select from the beginning -- but also offers a better ending than the one I got if you play through from start to finish with no GAME OVERs, so that adds some necessary challenge and I'll probably revisit it. Still, I thought this was just OK, and was disappointed by the lack of differentiation between the turtles. B-.

[Cybergoth]

So, that took a couple of days, but I now finished Breath of Fire (GBA version played on the Gamecube) twice to get both endings. Aiming for the better one is definitely a must!

 

Capcom games beaten in 2012: Bionic Commando, Legendary Wings, Bionic Commando Rearmed, Mega Man 2, Last Duel, Duck Tales, Strider, Ghouls 'n Ghosts, Forgotten Worlds, Tiger Road, Black Tiger, Gargoyle's Quest, Chip 'n Dale - Rescue Rangers, Little Nemo - The Dream Master, Mega Man 3, Final Fight, Mercs, Mega Twins, Block Block, Three Wonders, The Little Mermaid, 1941: Counter Attack, Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts, Talespin, Mega Man 4, Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo HD Remix, Magic Sword, Darkwing Duck, The Magical Quest starring Mickey Mouse, Mega Man 5, Mickey's Dangerous Chase, Quiz & Dragons, Varth, Eco Fighters, Aladdin & Breath of Fire

[+thegoldenband]

66. Marvel's X-Men (NES) (aka Uncanny X-Men)

 

Is it a good game? Heck, no, at least not by any traditional definition. But it's not quite as bad as claimed, either, and the Electric Frankfurter makes a good case for why. Pity about the forced two-player mode, though. D.

[+thegoldenband]

67. The Itchy & Scratchy Game (Genesis)

 

On Easy, this game is a mindless but low-stakes romp, where the only real challenge is picking out your preferred method of dispatching Scratchy, and figuring out the mechanics of a couple tricky boss fights. Sure, the collision detection is a little wonky and you get cheated out of an attack now and then, but it can be completed, easily, in under a half-hour.

 

On Medium, it's more challenging, largely because Scratchy's miniature underlings can now harm you. The tricky boss fights now become a pain in the ass, but only one of them (the pirate ship) is really annoying, and unlimited continues make the hurt go away. Right around here, you realize that there's no real reason to explore any of the stages; just pick a spot and wail on Scratchy until he dies. It took me just shy of 40 minutes.

 

On Difficult, it's a cheap, frustrating SOB, because now you do only a fraction of the damage you did before, and Scratchy takes upwards of 30-40 hits to kill. Meanwhile you take more damage, though that might've already happened on Medium. And now you really can't explore, since you've got your hands full just getting enough hits on Scratchy before time runs out, especially on earlier stages where the time limit is very tight. The only good option is to find a short platform that's vertically offset and nail Scratchy in mid-air whenever he shows up.

 

And then you have the boss fights, which are now tedious at best, hair-pullingly aggravating at worst. You can only hurt Scratchy with special items (projectiles), so in order to be sure of having enough, you have to farm his underlings to get 40+ items. But it's impossible to do that within the time limit and have enough time left over to kill Scratchy, so you have to sacrifice a life and dedicate it just to item farming.

 

Now, you have to hit Scratchy 30-40 times. That's not too bad in some of the boss fights, and some are still embarrassingly easy (the underwater and Western stages come to mind). But the medieval, pirate ship, and construction site stages are all maddening, because you're constantly put in situations where either it's impossible to attack without getting hit, or impossible to dodge Scratchy's attack at all. And you can't take a cautious approach, because of the time limit.

 

Of course, there are tricks in each case; otherwise I wouldn't be posting in this thread. But it's basically a quintessential example of a game that takes the wrong approach to Hard mode: crank up the required number of hits, force the player to engage in tedious item collection and exploit patterns, and generally make the game unfun. (And consequently, this time it took about 2 hours to beat.)

 

A much better idea would've been to find some way to encourage the player to explore the stages; maybe they could've had Scratchy take the same amount of damage, but only from limited-use items? That would've at least added something other than red tape and frustration, but maybe the problem is more fundamental. D+.

[DestinedCruz]

Rygar (NES)

 

Picked it up last week because I'd never owned it before now and knocked it out this weekend. Very impressed with the game in general, but that last boss was both stupid and stupid hard.

[Christophero Sly]

Batman: Arkham Asylum (360)

 

A very good game. I can identify some missed opportunities and plenty things that could be improved, but taken "as-is", it's difficult to discern any significant flaws in this game. The only one that really stands out to me is the disjointed ending. It didn't make much sense, it felt abrupt, and just didn't meet my expectations for the kind of grand finale that this game had been building up to. A-

[jvgs]

Sonic Adventure and The Typing of the Dead. I've been playing some Dreamcast lately.

[doomwaves]

Contra - NES

 

Yes, I used the cheat..

 

Fun, but really a take it or leave it game for me.

[+thegoldenband]

68. Greendog: The Beached Surfer Dude (Genesis)

 

This island platformer has a very strange ending -- at first I thought I was about to get hit with another level, but I guess they were leaving the door open for a sequel. I'd played it very briefly in 2010, and then made it to Jamaica last week in my first session, before beating it in a second attempt tonight in a little over an hour.

 

There's no doubt Greendog is flawed, with slightly sketchy jumping controls, obnoxious skateboarding levels that don't add anything positive to the game, obvious bugs in the music code, and a fetish for traps that send the player back to the start of the stage. In truth, it's a basically short, easy game with a few, brief, tooth-grindingly difficult parts.

 

And yet none of that matters much. Partly it's the amiable vibe, and partly it's good stage design that successfully minimizes aggravation. But either way, Greendog is enjoyable enough that its pleasures (mostly) outweigh its annoyances. B.

[DestinedCruz]

Super Mario Land (Gameboy)

I've owned the game for 22 years, even gotten to the final boss countless times but I finally only just beat it today. Only died three times too due to stupid jumps. A with many pluses.

[Cybergoth]

Super Mario Land (Gameboy)

I've owned the game for 22 years, even gotten to the final boss countless times but I finally only just beat it today. Only died three times too due to stupid jumps. A with many pluses.

 

I used to beat it regularly just to get to hear the ending music

[Christophero Sly]

Super Mario Land (Gameboy)

I've owned the game for 22 years, even gotten to the final boss countless times but I finally only just beat it today. Only died three times too due to stupid jumps. A with many pluses.

Right on! This game has too many critics. I'm glad to see someone else enjoys it as much as I do.

[Christophero Sly]

L.A. Noire (360)

 

Truth be told, this isn't a game; it's a movie. Actually, a pretty good one. The plot is decent, the dialogue is crisp, the voice acting is superb, and the technology behind it all is very impressive. But this is supposed to be, you know, a "game", and there's just not enough of that here. The actions sequences are so brief and rudimentary that they contribute nothing of significance, and the core concepts of evidence gathering and interrogation upon which this game is built, while interesting, haven't been implemented in a way that challenges the player's natural analytical abilities. Instead, you're just stuck playing along with a series of increasingly arbitrary contrivances in a very linear fashion. Frankly, what little gameplay there is becomes so stale and repetitive by the halfway point that you kind of wish that the game would drop the pretense that you're contributing anything of importance and just get on with the show.

 

Hard to rate this one. The story is maybe a B; gameplay a D. How about I make it easy, average it out, and give the whole thing a C?

[Cybergoth]

Mass Effect 3 (360)

 

Whoa! Best game ever! By far - In fact I'd go on saying that Mass Effect as a whole is even greater than Star Wars now. :thumbsup:

 

Regarding the "End" Controversy - actually the whole game felt like a 40 hour end-sequence

 

In my first try I did something goofy by shooting the Catalyst - now that was a bad ending!

 

Other than that I was fine with the "green" ending (having the free directors cut DLC installed). I just hope I can have *my* Shepard in Mass Effect 4 as well, whatever they're saying now and whatever story tweak is needed for that. I can't live without her!

[twoquickcapri]

12. Turbo Outrun (FM Towns Marty)

 

The game was surprising easy. Beat it on normal the first try and than moved it to the hardest level and finshed it again in one try.

[doomwaves]

3) Halo: Combat Evolved - Xbox

 

Yea yea, I know, get with it doomwaves..

 

I started this a long time ago, then got so enthralled with muiltiplayer on this & all the releases thereafter...

 

Restarted it this week, and finished it yesterday.

 

4) Doom - Atari Jaguar

 

I've beaten Doom countless times, but this was my first time giving it a go all the way thru on the Jag..

 

No Cyberdemons or Spiderdemons? A couple of new levels, and a couple levels are completely different.

 

All this is old news.

 

Oh well.. I enjoyed it.

Edited November 17, 2012 by doomwaves