Posts : 1671 Points : 1704 Join date : 2015-01-12 Age : 37 Location : Swindon
Subject: Re: Last Game You Finished And Your Four-ghts Sun 5 Apr 2020 - 0:08
I'm not a big Resi fan - not a big horror fan tbh - but 3.5 hours? I'm seeing 6-10 hours from those that reviewed it. I can see why it will receive criticism for being shorter than RE2: Remake, but Capcom will be aware of PS5/Series X arriving later this year. That's my reason for why they may have "rushed" it, and I guess there's the option to drop extra content. Mas, do you think they will do RE4 next, or a spin-off one like Code Veronica or Zero?
I've just rolled credits on this bad boy...
Super Paper Mario:
I was largely unsure whether I'd get through this wordy labyrinth of an RPG because it's all over the place. On the one hand, it's classic Nintendo with eight worlds tied to a hub world (itself split between Flipside and Flopside) but while it looks like the Gamecube sequel to Thousand Year Door it plays more like New Super Mario Bros. There are RPG elements; you level up, you have hit points, you have a party of four; but there's certainly a feeling of heightened accessibility or "let's disguise some of that". The game could easily have been played with an NES pad - you'll only be using the 1,2 and + buttons along with the D-pad. But the gameplay remains satisfying, albeit a little painful. Having to go into a menu to change character could have been mapped to a button.
You'll be navigating Mario, Peach, Luigi, and Bowser through 2D levels, flipping into 3D to solve puzzles and to (mostly) avoid combat scenarios. It works well, but some of the characters aren't balanced enough. Mario can flip to 3D, Luigi can jump two or three times higher than Mario, Peach can use her umbrella to drift across large gaps while Bowser can breathe fire. Given Bowser's attacks are twice as powerful as Mario's jumps, it can be quite an easy game. The final boss was very simple when using Ol' Spiky Back. That said, it's immense fun playing as the non-Mario characters. A Bowser platformer would be mayhem and Nintendo could easily find a new franchise there - he's hilarious in this and constantly throws jabs at Mario.
Which brings me onto the humour. I don't think its quite as sharp as Superstar Saga or TTYD, but there are some genuinely laugh-out-loud moments. There is a lot of mustache-based joking at Luigi's expense, a whole world that sees Nintendo poke fun at nerdy fans and some excellent insight into Bowser's minions. When Gary Goomba immediately betrays his Koopa Troopa pals to work for Count Bleck, and they say "Gary, how could you?" - it's just, ridiculous.
I beat the game in 22 hours and did refer to a guide on some of the worlds because there's a huge reliance on mazes and identical room design. "Go through door, appear in room that looks the same, use 3D to discover what's different, reveal door, rinse and repeat". I'm not sure I'd enjoy a brand new Paper Mario in this style, as there's a lot of backtracking, but given the game is 13 years old, it wasn't that bad.
What has aged VERY well, is the graphical style. There's a distinctly more futuristic twist on the classic Paper Mario formula so some of the characters don't have as much humanity to them - it's all very odd. But because it's all in 2D with thick bordering, it looks great compared to the fuzzy haze of other Wii games.
I think I would recommend this, because while there are some uninspired levels and REAMS of text to get through, it's full of memorable moments. And Bowser is great fun to play around with! 8.5/10
masofdas The Next Aonuma
Posts : 23970 Points : 24368 Join date : 2013-01-18 Age : 34 Location : VITA Island
Subject: Re: Last Game You Finished And Your Four-ghts Sun 5 Apr 2020 - 9:53
Interesting as I almsot cancelled my RE3 as reviews I read weren't great and most were saying 4-5hrs. I only really kept the pre-order as being home for 3 weeks wanted something new to play also it's Res Evil and I easily just sold it on eBay where I actually made £4 profit.
RE4 would be the next logical one if going for another remake but I think we see Res Evil 8 next.
Crumpy Andy Zeta Metroid
Posts : 4919 Points : 4931 Join date : 2013-01-15 Age : 32 Location : The South
Subject: Re: Last Game You Finished And Your Four-ghts Sun 5 Apr 2020 - 12:47
@Balla, I played Digimon years ago m8, don’t go making claims that we don’t care
I play too much to be arsed posting here most of the time, but I have to say I was very impressed with Castlevania Symphony of the Night. I’d never played it before but that game hasn’t aged a day. Brilliant from start to finish and I’d have happily played it far longer. 9/10
Check it out if you’ve never gotten around to it.
JayMoyles Galactic Nova
Posts : 15889 Points : 15055 Join date : 2013-01-21 Age : 31 Location : The Shibuya River
Subject: Re: Last Game You Finished And Your Four-ghts Sun 5 Apr 2020 - 21:33
A rare correct Andy opinion. He's growing, people, he's growing.
I finished Pikuniku!
I picked this up for the princely sum of 89p so I didn't have much to lose, but I must say I enjoyed my time with this.
You play as that red fella in the middle of the picture I linked. Your goal is to help the weird and wonderful inhabitants of the world by stopping a sinister company utilising robots to harvest all the natural resources of the world. The plot sounds much heavier than it actually is - the writing is irreverent and quirky throughout, but it's never annoying. I did wonder if the goofy sense of humour would wear on me, but the silliness of the writing held up, but your mileage may very.
The platforming is perfectly fine, if not a little finicky at bits. Your jump is somewhat floaty and it can be difficult to land some of the trickier jumps. The game also relies on you pushing various objects onto switches in some areas, and I found the physics of these objects to be a bit wonky. However, the game wasn't frustrating and some of the mechanics the game introduces, like a grapple hook style swinging mechanics, are very satisfying and makes traversing each level to be enjoyable.
For 89p, it was well worth my time and was a fine little game. 7/10.
gjones Disciple of Scullion
Posts : 1671 Points : 1704 Join date : 2015-01-12 Age : 37 Location : Swindon
Subject: Re: Last Game You Finished And Your Four-ghts Tue 7 Apr 2020 - 0:43
Gone Home
I picked this up for free on the critically acclaimed and widely adored Epic Store.
Perhaps I'm playing it at the wrong time given how narrative has improved since 2013, but I'm struggling to see what the fuss is about with this one. Wandering around an empty house finding notes is nothing new - opening drawers and rotating items definitely put me back in my Shenmue nostalgia zone. I just feel that Shenmue's world felt more captivating thirteen years earlier and Life is Strange nailed the whole "reliving your teenage years if you were a teenage girl in suburban America" a thousand times better than Gone Home.
It seems all the reviews I'm reading after completing it (it was only 2 hours long) pertain to American writers feeling or recognising the characters portrayed in it. Graphically, and particularly gameplay-wise, it's barely a game but I can see its influence on titles that followed (ie. Everybody's Gone to the Rapture and the aforementioned Life is Strange). This just felt too barebones an experience.
4/10
masofdas The Next Aonuma
Posts : 23970 Points : 24368 Join date : 2013-01-18 Age : 34 Location : VITA Island
Subject: Re: Last Game You Finished And Your Four-ghts Tue 7 Apr 2020 - 9:02
Not often you see Andy right about something and gJones being wrong.
OrangeRakoon Disciple of Greener
Posts : 1556 Points : 1560 Join date : 2015-05-06 Age : 32 Location : Reading, UK
Subject: Re: Last Game You Finished And Your Four-ghts Tue 7 Apr 2020 - 11:07
That's a fair review of cyber sleuth balla - glad that you got past those difficulty spikes!
Balladeer DIVINE LONELINESS
Posts : 26411 Points : 25246 Join date : 2013-01-16 Age : 35 Location : Admintown
Subject: Re: Last Game You Finished And Your Four-ghts Tue 7 Apr 2020 - 19:54
Woo, people do care! Yep, I remember a couple of absolutely brutal bosses: the penultimate chapter boss proper springs to mind. Turned it down like a shot for that. Then the final boss was a walkover!
Glad to see GJones enjoying SPM too. 8.5 perhaps feels a bit kind to me: a lot of the 'aren't games ridiculous sometimes' moments turned into... well, into the game being ridiculous itself. That said, you're bang on about the humour and the script. Those games were so well written: I really do miss that era.
Treesmurf Dry Metal Baby Princess
Posts : 4192 Points : 4194 Join date : 2013-01-17 Age : 34 Location : Manneh
Subject: Re: Last Game You Finished And Your Four-ghts Wed 8 Apr 2020 - 20:51
I still have really fond memories of Super Paper Mario, I think I need to give it another play through but a 8.5 sounds bang on from what I remember.
Curious to see how Gone Home compares to something like Edith Finch as I've often heard the two mentioned together, perhaps should have played Gone Home first from the sounds of it to avoid disappointing comparisons.
The Cappuccino Kid Mani Mani Statue
Posts : 6721 Points : 6881 Join date : 2013-02-25 Age : 105 Location : East of Mombasa
Subject: Re: Last Game You Finished And Your Four-ghts Sat 11 Apr 2020 - 23:19
Out Of Print Archive uploaded Issue 22 of N64 Magazine, one of the very few issues of N64 Magazine that I didn’t buy. It’s typically good stuff, though I momentarily stopped at their review of WCW/NWO Revenge ( https://www.outofprintarchive.com/articles/reviews/N64/WCWvsNWORevenge-N64mag22-4.html ). Mark Green concludes his review by stating “so, go and buy WWF Warzone instead, do you hear?”. Hmm.
That called for me to fire WCW/NWO Revenge on, and complete the Championship modes for both the Tag Team and World Heavyweight Championships. I hadn’t done this in years, and I wasn’t surprised that I had just as much fun in April 2020 as I did in November 1998. As a photograph of WCW at it’s very best, I think Revenge is truly exquisite. Nostalgia is a factor, aye, but I haven’t tired of the simple-to-master gameplay, the stacked roster, the canny reversals, none of it. It’s a brilliant middle ground between the sheer mentalness of stuff like WWF In Your House and the funeral dirge that is the WWE 2K series. If you’ve played it, you completely understand what I’m talking about. WWF No Mercy and Virtual Pro Wrestling 2 get the plaudits, but Revenge is as fun. 75%, my hoop. 9/10.
gjones Disciple of Scullion
Posts : 1671 Points : 1704 Join date : 2015-01-12 Age : 37 Location : Swindon
Subject: Re: Last Game You Finished And Your Four-ghts Sun 12 Apr 2020 - 15:57
LOVED Revenge. It was the first game I bought with my own money - at £49.99 it still managed to be worth every penny. Always found it odd that N64 Magazine were so off the mark with their wrestling reviews because Warzone and Attitude were horrible games. Nobody could pull off the actual moves in the Acclaim games, due to ridiculous combo combinations - they were designed like traditional fighting games. World Tour and Revenge felt like wrestling games with their big, chunky characters and the fact you had to grab the opponent before doing a move on them. The roster on Revenge was immense, looking back. Although I usually used AKI/THQ Man - wasn't Suicide based on that character in TNA? I might go back myself and give Revenge a bash - I had a lot of time for that game. A lot of my friends who had no interest in wrestling put hours into Revenge's multiplayer too.
The Cappuccino Kid Mani Mani Statue
Posts : 6721 Points : 6881 Join date : 2013-02-25 Age : 105 Location : East of Mombasa
Subject: Re: Last Game You Finished And Your Four-ghts Sun 12 Apr 2020 - 18:00
I'm not sure if Suicide was based off of AKI Man, I've never heard that before though. I think all those fictional wrestlers were just made for fun, but they retain the moveset and characteristics of wrestlers that had already been developed for Virtual Pro Wrestling 64, such as Mitsuharu Misawa, Jun Akiyama and Akira Taue. They just couldn't be called that, or feature those likenesses and All Japan Pro Wrestling license, of course.
Revenge is well worth giving a bash.
Kriken Layton's Apprentice
Posts : 286 Points : 286 Join date : 2019-02-06
Subject: Re: Last Game You Finished And Your Four-ghts Sun 12 Apr 2020 - 19:51
Donkey Kong: Tropical Freeze. Feels weird to have played through all the Donkey Kong Country games now. It's another great entry in the series, but I didn't find myself quite as obsessed with it like I was with Returns (which I beat on Wii and then more fully beat on 3DS right after). I tried to collect Kong letters when I could but I don't have a great deal of the collectables, and at the moment I don't really fancy going back through the game to get them all. Have other stuff I wanna play.
Also had a re-playthrough of Sacred Stones, Eirika's route. Did plan on doing the other one but I think I've also had a fill of this game too. In the series, it's just pretty okay, and I want to get to the Tellius series.
Balladeer DIVINE LONELINESS
Posts : 26411 Points : 25246 Join date : 2013-01-16 Age : 35 Location : Admintown
Subject: Re: Last Game You Finished And Your Four-ghts Mon 13 Apr 2020 - 12:35
I'm... glad you enjoyed DKCTF, Kriken? I think? Hope you loved the soundtrack at least.
Kriken Layton's Apprentice
Posts : 286 Points : 286 Join date : 2019-02-06
Subject: Re: Last Game You Finished And Your Four-ghts Mon 13 Apr 2020 - 14:27
"it's another great entry in the series"
Balladeer DIVINE LONELINESS
Posts : 26411 Points : 25246 Join date : 2013-01-16 Age : 35 Location : Admintown
Subject: Re: Last Game You Finished And Your Four-ghts Mon 13 Apr 2020 - 14:52
Yes, but the rest of the post made that feel like damning with faint praise. Anyway, if you did enjoy it then that's the important thing!
gjones Disciple of Scullion
Posts : 1671 Points : 1704 Join date : 2015-01-12 Age : 37 Location : Swindon
Subject: Re: Last Game You Finished And Your Four-ghts Mon 13 Apr 2020 - 20:36
This is a fun little platformer - emphasis on the word 'little'. At 5 stages it's a short affair, but it's a good game to perfect and it took me a few goes. Getting your head around the flying concept (losing the ability to fly when Kirby's taken a breath) takes some adjusting but I like that it's half-jumpy, half-shooty. I'm sure many on here have played this but I'm playing some Kirby in between bouts of Donkey Kong Country Returns, which is ruddy concrete in comparison. 7/10
JayMoyles Galactic Nova
Posts : 15889 Points : 15055 Join date : 2013-01-21 Age : 31 Location : The Shibuya River
Subject: Re: Last Game You Finished And Your Four-ghts Mon 13 Apr 2020 - 22:16
Kriken wrote:
Also had a re-playthrough of Sacred Stones, Eirika's route. Did plan on doing the other one but I think I've also had a fill of this game too. In the series, it's just pretty okay, and I want to get to the Tellius series.
Have you played the Tellius FE games before, Kriken? I'm jealous of you if you've not!
Kriken Layton's Apprentice
Posts : 286 Points : 286 Join date : 2019-02-06
Subject: Re: Last Game You Finished And Your Four-ghts Mon 13 Apr 2020 - 23:19
I guess to give more context to my feelings on Tropical Freeze, while I thought it was great and an improvement over Returns in some ways - like the bosses seem better, more dynamic and interactive, and all the bonuses stages are different in some little way - it didn't have nearly as much as an impact on me. It's like a Galaxy-Galaxy 2 kind of thing - the latter is often considered the better game, but the former is more beloved because it had a fresher and more memorable impact.
Another thing is that I played DKC Returns on Dolphin at 1080p. It looked really nice. While Tropical Freeze looks better in some ways, it was the 720p Wii U version I was playing. So I wasn't as wowed by the improved visuals.
While I haven't explored the unlockable levels yet, it felt like the 'base' game of Tropical Freeze was easier than Returns. There were fewer mine cart levels which are the ones I really enjoyed and could be brutal. The rocket-barrel levels were made a lot easier too with you being able to take an additional hit - probably a reasonable change but I dunno, I kind of missed how brutal they were. Really felt accomplished when I got through them.
As for the music... It's good. Did have my noisy niece and nephew in the room while I was playing most of the game so that may have made it hard to appreciate at times, but honestly from what I caught of it I think, at least at this moment, I preferred the music in Returns. It did lean heavily on remixes which I was a bit internally critical of, but they were some really good remixes.
Then I also had a considerable amount of hype going into the game, since I really liked Returns and I was hearing from people that Tropical Freeze is even better. It might be, and my feelings on it may change in future when I play it more (and play more of it), but yeah I'd have to say I did have more fun on Returns.
JayMoyles wrote:
Have you played the Tellius FE games before, Kriken? I'm jealous of you if you've not!
Not yet. Looking forward to them.
Buskalilly Galactic Nova
Posts : 15010 Points : 15188 Join date : 2013-02-25 Age : 34 Location : Nagano
Subject: Re: Last Game You Finished And Your Four-ghts Tue 14 Apr 2020 - 8:30
Pokemon Black
Kinda. I've finished it as much as I did back in the day, which is to say I beat the Elite Four and the final showdown with N and Ghetsis. I remember that if I go back to the Elite Four now, I can re-challenge them at much higher levels. I think originally I bounced off at this point and never really went back. This time, I've started the quest to retrace my steps through the game, do the stuff I missed and round up the baddies. Hopefully this will be enough grinding for the final battle. So proper thoughts when I've done that.
That all being said . . . I've said got my Pokemon Y sat there wanting to be played . . .
Balladeer DIVINE LONELINESS
Posts : 26411 Points : 25246 Join date : 2013-01-16 Age : 35 Location : Admintown
Subject: Re: Last Game You Finished And Your Four-ghts Thu 16 Apr 2020 - 18:59
Kriken wrote:
I guess to give more context to my feelings on Tropical Freeze, while I thought it was great and an improvement over Returns in some ways - like the bosses seem better, more dynamic and interactive, and all the bonuses stages are different in some little way - it didn't have nearly as much as an impact on me. It's like a Galaxy-Galaxy 2 kind of thing - the latter is often considered the better game, but the former is more beloved because it had a fresher and more memorable impact.
Ah, see I never had that. Maybe because, er, I didn't find DKCR that memorable. I understand it though.
Kriken wrote:
While I haven't explored the unlockable levels yet, it felt like the 'base' game of Tropical Freeze was easier than Returns. There were fewer mine cart levels which are the ones I really enjoyed and could be brutal. The rocket-barrel levels were made a lot easier too with you being able to take an additional hit - probably a reasonable change but I dunno, I kind of missed how brutal they were. Really felt accomplished when I got through them.
I did have this actually. In retrospect it's probably good for my heart, but I did feel like the brutal barrel bits were more rewarding in Returns.
Kriken wrote:
As for the music... It's good. Did have my noisy niece and nephew in the room while I was playing most of the game so that may have made it hard to appreciate at times, but honestly from what I caught of it I think, at least at this moment, I preferred the music in Returns. It did lean heavily on remixes which I was a bit internally critical of, but they were some really good remixes.
The Cappuccino Kid Mani Mani Statue
Posts : 6721 Points : 6881 Join date : 2013-02-25 Age : 105 Location : East of Mombasa
Subject: Re: Last Game You Finished And Your Four-ghts Fri 17 Apr 2020 - 13:15
Some good stuff getting finished lately. I liked Tropical Freeze and Pokemon Black a lot, and I've got a huge soft spot for Kirby's Dream Land, seeing as it was the first game I ever played!
~
Completed the Career Mode in Tony Hawk Pro Skater 2 on PlayStation. I know you can unlock Spiderman and a load of other characters, cheats and secrets if you finish it over and over again, but one time will do me. That’s because it was well harder than I remembered! I thought I was going to blast through this in one cosy afternoon - no chance, it took me many hours and many tries! That’ll just be because I’m rubbish at it though.
Anyway, happily, it’s still a quality game. The things that probably earned it its 98% Metacritic score - like the Park Editor, Create-A-Skater and the new tricks to boost your combos - don’t really stand out anymore, but the level design and their goals still do. The gameplay is classic stuff - demanding yet varied, and always fun. The soundtrack was never better. It fitted the two-minute gameplay formula perfectly, and it’s almost definitely the greatest licensed soundtrack that has ever featured in a computer game (asides from Rock Band and that, natch).
Tony’s Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 on the PS2 was always my preferred game in the series, and I lost interest when it started becoming all about Bam Margera fannying about in a golf buggy. Yet returning to 2 - a much purer and tighter game, and before they started running out of ideas - made for a superb playthrough. Still stands up, 8/10.
gjones Disciple of Scullion
Posts : 1671 Points : 1704 Join date : 2015-01-12 Age : 37 Location : Swindon
Subject: Re: Last Game You Finished And Your Four-ghts Fri 17 Apr 2020 - 13:27
THPS2 was incredible. I haven't played it recently but did play THPS3 on a PS2 emulator, and that has held up really well. You're right about the 2-minute spells of pure joy, with the perfect soundtrack to boot. I owned it on the Dreamcast at the time and recall it being the best version (it looked slightly better if anything). Not sure it deserves the crazy Metacritic score it has, but that's due to it getting 10/10s at the time (and rightly so). I was always curious about the Xbox version which I don't believe arrived in the UK, but 2 is definitely my favourite (3 probably being the better game).
OrangeRakoon Disciple of Greener
Posts : 1556 Points : 1560 Join date : 2015-05-06 Age : 32 Location : Reading, UK
Subject: Re: Last Game You Finished And Your Four-ghts Fri 17 Apr 2020 - 15:17
I think 3 is the best, but both are fantastic and genuinely hold up - they deserve it when they're included in top 100 games lists and the like
The Cappuccino Kid Mani Mani Statue
Posts : 6721 Points : 6881 Join date : 2013-02-25 Age : 105 Location : East of Mombasa
Subject: Re: Last Game You Finished And Your Four-ghts Fri 17 Apr 2020 - 18:57
I'd been keeping an eye out for the Dreamcast version of Tony Hawk's 2, but never come across it. I've had the N64 version since the days where the GameCube was current, and while it's the same basic game, it's a big step back from this PlayStation version. I've heard about the XBox one, but haven't seen or tried it. The Game Boy Advance has a pretty good version of Tony Hawk's 2. It's everywhere.
Glad to see that others think they hold up too.
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Subject: Re: Last Game You Finished And Your Four-ghts
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Sun 5 Apr 2020 - 0:08
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Yep, I remember a couple of absolutely brutal bosses: the penultimate chapter boss proper springs to mind. Turned it down like a shot for that. Then the final boss was a walkover!
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I understand it though.