Last Game You Finished And Your Four-ghts

The last big game I finished was A Hat in Time - however, I'm not planning to write a lot, as I re-read Cappa's original notes, and he's spot on. Maybe the Spooky Forest goes on a lot, but this was a better game overall than Yooka-Laylee, and I loved how often it broke its own mould.



The most recent game I finished (in about 4 minutes) was Treasure Hunt

This game has been in my consciousness for 30 bloody years. But I finally tracked it down, having stumbled upon a site that contains disk images of a whole bunch of educational BBC Micro software. If you don't know, as well as being the home computer that wasn't the Spectrum Commodore or Amstrad, the BBC Micro was ubiquitous in schools in the 80s.

Educational is pushing it though. Even to 6/7-year-old me, looked pretty basic compared with your Reptons and your Elites - it runs using the Teletext blocks for fuck's sake. You have to find the treasure, hence the treasure hunt. This is not the largest adventure you'll play (I think there's only about 10 screens). But, oh boy, those creens. At the start of the game, you get to choose 2 out of 6 objects (torch, spade, rope, axe, jam, dagger). There is some trading throughout the game with the NPCs (that feels bloody stupid to write about a BBC Micro school game - NPCs!) and ultimately - SPOILER ALERT - you need to obtain a key to open the treasure chest that sits in the magnificent castle you can see in the opening screenshot. Therefore, the choice of initial items is of utmost importance.

This leads to the most "80s Educational Software" sentence in history, and one that has haunted me for 3 decades.

I would give you this key for your jam but you haven't any.


EDUCATIONAL - 11/10

Good to hear that A Hat In Time "booted you right in the nostalgic tadger" too!

Treasure Hunt has the sort of length that I like from my games - here's hoping for a Switch port

Jimbob wrote:

At the start of the game, you get to choose 2 out of 6 objects (torch, spade, rope, axe, jam, dagger).

Treasure Hunt is quite clearly the Dark Souls of the BBC Micro & the Jam is the pendant.

Jimbob wrote:

I would give you this key for your jam but you haven't any.

When you realise that your tagline choice for the day was bad and wrong.

What's the lesson to be learned there, then? Always buy jam when at the shop?

I polished off Yakuza Kiwami tonight.



With this being my second Yakuza game, I didn't get the enjoyment of experiencing the surprise of having what on the surface would seem to be a serious tale of revenge and crime in Japan actually end up being centred around a burly Japanese guy playing Micro Machines, singing karaoke and being accosted by a one-eyed psychopath across the city.

The game uses the same engine and many of the same assets and models from Yakuza 0, so it didn't exactly feel like a fresh experience this time round. Still, I had lots of fun traipsing across Kamurocho and getting myself embroiled in side stories. I spent the bulk of my playthrough lost in battle with Goro Majima in the excellent Majima Everywhere side quest in which the aforementioned one-eyed psychopath would attack you at random across the city. Some of the battles were as simple as bumping into him in the street, but the increasingly ridiculous ways in which Majima would goad the protagonist Kazuma Kiryu into fighting him had me most amused.

The combat proved serviceable, much like in Yakuza 0. It's essentially a 3D Streets of Rage game in which you batter gangs with various weapons and with various combat moves. I will say that the boss battles in Kiwami proved far more frustrating than in 0 as most bosses had a health regenerating move which if you didn't knock them out of it quickly could end up restoring a vast chunk of their health. Besides the final boss and your battles with Majima, none of the fights felt as epic as some of the showdowns in 0 which ultimately led to combat being a distraction from the silly side stories and a pretty compelling main plotline.

I'm down for more Yakuza as I found the main plotline to be gripping - perhaps that's down to me being familiar with the characters, or maybe that's down to the stakes feeling much higher than in 0 - but I'll need to give it some time before I tackle Kiwami 2. These games definitely have a formula they stick to and whilst it's a solid formula, I'd experience a bit of burnout jumping right to the next game without taking a break first.

8.5

(Quick side note: if Jimbob wishes to change the title of this newly split topic, he should absolutely do so. Carry on!)

With Drunka recently playing and this being on sale on Xbox One, I thought why not play it again as I've not played it since 2016 (how is this game over 3 years old already).

It still looks great, sound design, VO is still excellent but I do feel the impact of the start and overall narrative is lost on a second go. Which is the case for a many a game like this with only a few such as SotC (12-year cap may have helped) or Journey still having an impact on second plays.

I'd still extremely recommend if you've never played it and I'd still highly rated it but if I had to do some sort of list it would be lower now on it.

Just 100%'ed the Adventure Mode in Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled, the excellent remaster of (probably) the best non-Mario Kart kart racer of all time. Gash loading times and the awkward difficulty levels aside, there's very little to grumble about here. By and large, CTR is as good as you'd remember from twenty years ago, elevated by loads of enhancements that'll make it something you'll enjoy until Crash Team Racing Nitro-Refueled comes out on the PS7, XBox -360 and the Nintendo Danger Wank in 2039. 8/10.

After beating Crash Team Racing, I moved onto a new game, Mario Party: The Top 100, which I beat in one night.

An all-star, visually enhanced, wall-to-wall collection of Mario Party minigames from the N64, GameCube, Wii and Wii U days might sound magic, but this presentation of that genius idea just lacks structure, lacks depth, and it badly lacks any sort of imagination. I've already highlighted it's biggest problem too: I've beat it in one night. Two hours, maybe, and that's my whack. I've played through the (very linear) main adventure, unlocked all the minigames, cut about the one - one! - board, and seen everything this has to offer. And what's on offer isn't all that impressive, or likely to be something I'll be chomping at the bit to come back to. A bit of a shame, actually. 6/10.

A weird idea, that one. It should work, but it sounds like actually the 'board game' bit provided a bit of much-needed pacing. Needed to be mushed up with that Animal Crossing game really.

It's main problem is being a local party game on the 3DS. Like how Mario Party DS was a technically good entry, but you couldn't actually play it in a party.

Finished this for the first time tonight.

I don't know if I will jump right back in or not for the other three routes any time soon as would be going over the same ground kinda for the first 13 or so chapters.

I very much enjoyed my time with my house and the moment I would say this is my GOTY but I was a tad disappointed with the end of the game.

Spoiler:

Most of ya on here have got the game already or getting it if you're interested in it, not much else to say on the game, unless I go more in depths spoilers on my story of world domination.  

I do think even though I've not played since it came out, I prefer Awakening to this, I just felt more connected to the characters and the one-story helps. Plus it was my first Fire Emblem and it might be like Zelda or Final Fantasy where your first is often your favourite.

PS
Bernadetta best girl
Linhardt best boy

This was a pretty fun stealth game & is worth having for Switch if you haven't played it anywhere else before, it actually reminded me a lot of the Hitman games in that it gives you a lot of tools to use but you have great freedom to complete a level in whatever way you like. Great visuals and animated cut scenes as well & it never outstayed it's welcome which is what I needed after playing Yakuza 0 for 40+ hours.

How similar is Mark of the Ninja to the old Shinobi games on the Mega Drive? Quite like the look of it.

Tbh it's not really anything like Shinobi since you never take anyone head on as it's all about sticking to the shadows to set up stealth attacks & it has a little bit of puzzle element to it, I think you'd enjoy it but maybe watch this video of the tutorial level to get a better feel for it?

Is that Kratos under that costume?

Ha! He does look a bit like Kratos there but you only see him like this in some cut scenes or if a certain style is equipped, mostly he looks like this:

Played this about a week ago, I did enjoy my 6hrs or so with it via EA Access but not sure I would ever get much more than out of a Madden game.

This one like the past few years has a story mode but this is super short, you play two NCAA games, get drafted to an NFL team and then it turns into regular manger mode with your created QB part of the roster.

Apart from the story mode, you've got manager mode which is same as you'd get in FIFA but if you only care about the regular season then you can be done in about 20 games, which I was to win the Super Bowl with the Pats.

I guess if you're in MUT or Online then could see getting more value out of it but with NFL being fewer teams and only one league it's not like a FIFA where I can start as Exeter City in League 2 and go all the way the UCL then move on to manage Alt Madrid in La Liga.

I'd like to see a proper NCAA campaign (Maybe CFL even) where you then get approached to be the head coach of an NFL team then a better one comes calling if you've got Cardinals to the play-offs then Pats want ya.


Cap Toad was almost the perfect game after a long RPG as it's just a fun cute simple game, my only real issues with it is I played a tad on Wii U like the week before this and I feel the gyro and touch contols make this a better game on that then on Switch.

Also, it does look good in the playable cutscenes things especially. This well worth downloading for the free trial.


I jumped right into Aces after Cap Toad and continues my hattrick of Switch games but I have to say this is the worst. I just found the whole game tedious, I just wanted to tennis with Mario charcters not some silly mini game on a court with a mast stuck in the middle.

For free it was fine 6hrs or so and yes it is better than Ultra Smash but that's all I got to say on this.

Metal Wolf Chaos XD

This is probably the most mental game I've ever played, you play as Michael Wilson, the 47th President of the USA (fictional relative of Woodrow Wilson ) who pilots a mobile mech suit called Metal Wolf after his VP Richard Hawk stages a Coup d'etat to take over America for himself, you are then thrust into missions that have you travelling from the west of the country all the way to the East.
None of these missions get overly complicated as you basically just go out to blow up the objectives it sets with the occasional bosses thrown in & without giving away too much there's still some that will stick in the mind like the mission on Alcatraz or the one in the Grand Canyon. It's mainly how you go about playing these missions that is the fun part as the mech has 4 - 5 weapons on each arm with only two being equipped at one time & these range from massive handguns, machine guns, AR's, bazookas, rail guns, multi-missile launchers & flame throwers plus after each mission you can invest and develop new/stronger weapons which gives you a tonne of options to play how you like.

The writing/voice acting steals the show for me though because it's just so absurd and over the top that it either had me grinning or laughing at what was said or how it was delivered, but somehow even then & if you look a little deeper at it it hits a strong political message that is scarily still relevant in 2019 (original release was 2004) especially the Starship troopers/Robocop-esque propaganda cut scenes from a News media group called DNN.

The only downside I had with this game is the audio mixing is all over the place, dialogue from characters in missions will get drowned out by you blowing shit up or vice versa so subtitles should always be on, then the DNN broadcasts will be super loud in comparison but after a while it felt silly to complain about and I just settled on how it added to the overall charm of the game. So, as long is you don't go in expecting the world with this game & realise it is your quintessential double A game that you just don't see released anymore you should be able to have fun with it for an evening or two.

I'm planning to give it a download at some point this week more than likely

masofdas wrote:

Cap Toad was almost the perfect game after a long RPG as it's just a fun cute simple game, my only real issues with it is I played a tad on Wii U like the week before this and I feel the gyro and touch contols make this a better game on that then on Switch.

...

I jumped right into Aces after Cap Toad and continues my hattrick of Switch games but I have to say this is the worst. I just found the whole game tedious, I just wanted to tennis with Mario charcters not some silly mini game on a court with a mast stuck in the middle.

For free it was fine 6hrs or so and yes it is better than Ultra Smash but that's all I got to say on this.

No gyro or touch screen? Really? That's absurd. What about if you play it in handheld?

You're probably bang on about Aces sadly. A resoundingly meh game that I'll probably trade in at some point. There are better multiplayer games.

I didn't try it in handheld mode, so those things might be in it to be fair.

Just playing on a TV on Switch and WiiU, I'd say WiiU is better.

I know you're not a handheld gamer, but surely it must have been obvious that's the optimal way to play a game that uses the touch screen on the Switch?  In the same way that SMO is a lesser experience without the shake moves and is therefore sizeably better on the big screen, it just feels to me like you hamstrung your enjoyment of this one out of principle never to play in handheld.

If I was reviewing then I would have tried in handheld mode but it was my main game after Fire Emblem.

That I was always going to play on a TV, now it does lend itself to handheld gaming, just I'd sooner play something like FAR Lone Sails in handheld.

Still if Toad in handheld play, plays how we think on Switch, then yes that might be best way to play it on Switch.

Just I would get those features and on a TV, if I played on WiiU.

I guess even SMO when the Switch Lite comes out, people will lose some of the experience and the view of that game will be based just in handheld mode.

Erica dropped during ONL at Gamescom for PS4, it was a game I was looking forward to as I do like different and thought it could be interesting (They changed the actress from the first trailer, no one has mentioned this).

Erica is an FMV (should they still be called that?) game and a very good one at that as it's well-acted and fun to make the choices, which are a tad hard to do on the touchpad as it feels like you've not got enough room, especially when opening something up. So you may want to use the playlink mobile app, I just couldn't be assed to download it.

You do make choices in this and I'm norammly someone that plays once and goes that's my story and done with, as this is only 90mins long and again a good FMV title I have played for a second time which you can watch https://youtu.be/nOtdkEIV4S0 and maybe one of you doesn't want to spend £9 or hasn't got a PS4 but doesn't mind watching a film almost.

I've not given a game a score this year and didn't really last year till the end when I scored every game I finished. This is a hard one to score if I had to as I remember with Bayo 2, it got a few 10's and one reviewer said they gave it a 10 as it's the best game of the genre and what all others should be judged.

Erica is sort of like that as this week we also got Afterlife and Telling Lies both FMV games, and I've played a few over the years and I have to say in regards to the genre Erica might be a 10/10.

It's not going to be in my Top 5 GOTY's or anything, just felt I needed to put out there.