Last game you finished and your thoughts

I fixed it a little bit more   

Sorry to sort of ignore the rest of the reviews but I don't have anything to say on CoL, I thought Sonic Gen was crushingly average-boring (apart from City Escape and the remixed versions of the song) and I love the AA games.

It's Mass Effect I need to discuss! I don't have any problem with the whole Shepard not living happily ever after thing, my issue lies solely with how poorly the last chunk of game plays out. I'll spoiler box my specific points in case people don't wanna hear the whole shebang.

Spoiler:

Those are just a few of my biggest issues with the end, there were more but they fixed quite a bit with the extended cut. Other than the ending I have no issues with the games at all, I love them and will continue to replay them and get to know the other characters a bit better each time. I just wish the end didn't upset me so much.

Yeah I oversimplified what I said, I meant intelligent organics, the first cycle would've been far before cavemen.

Yeah they could of been Intelligent but they weren't humans, haven't films taught you anything we always save the day some how.

Spoiler:

I guess I'm just the kind of need who's happy to think that way and fill in the blanks myself so I wasn't annoyed by the ending.

I already posted about it last time, but after finishing persona 4 golden a second time and this time getting what is often referred to as the golden ending I just wanted to throw out a few more newly formed thoughts.  First, the epilogue really brought things to a great close in my opinion, as well done as the original ending was having that brief reunion at the end just wrapped things up very satisfyingly.  

Now for the spoiler stuff, don't open if you don't know who the murderer is and don't want to.

Spoiler:

All up my view of the game only improved after that second playthrough. Alas I messed up when shooting to fight the super boss and missed being able to activate it so that'll have to wait for the next playthrough.

Looks like I'm the second one on the forum to finish Kirby Triple Deluxe



I went into this expecting a platformer light on challenge and innovation, but heavy on collectables and production values.  That was more or less exactly what I got: it's a very pretty game with effective use of 3D and hummable tunes, and it has both Sun Stones and keychains to collect, but the Hypernova ability actually provides a spattering of innovation, and the last few extra levels aren't exactly easy (or wouldn't be if your health bar wasn't about as large as Kirby's gob).  The obstacles that push you into the screen will make you go "ooh" the first time, and scream all the other times.

My other criticism would be that on some levels, the theme has a tendency to jump around a bit between star doors, making the levels feel disjointed.  But then there's a lot of good stuff done in those levels.  And there are a handful of new copy abilities, if you're interested in that sort of thing: I was awfully keen on the Bell, but I'm afraid that I breezed through the last few bosses as an Archer.  It'd probably be much more challenging if you tried beating every boss without an ability.

It's a decent length, with a bundle of side modes that I've touched once and will probably never touch again.  The same goes for key-chain collecting, I'm afraid.

7/10

Feel The Magic: XY/XX (i.e. Project Rub)



I picked this up the middle of the night last night when I was feeling restless. I had gotten to the final boss rush, Nightmare, which I got to many years ago and then couldn't quite beat. And I beat it! And the levels that come after it.

I have the American version of the game because I had an American DS, and this was the first game I'd gotten for it alongside SM64DS. As such I have quite fond memories of it. I only ever stopped because of the irritating difficulty spike (I hate boss rushes). That said, it's just so different: the OST, the art style, the utterly ridiculous premise. It was pretty clever and I had a lot of fun with it in spite of the fact that it was kind of annoying.

6.5/10

Zelda II

Without save states as well.  

As a kid, this was the first NES (or "Nintendo" as we called it then) game I ever saw. Owning an Acorn Electron and Amstrad CPC, I wasn't aware that games could actually be fun for more than 5 minutes. When I got my own NES, it was one of the first games I got for it. Then a few years later everyone decided it was rubbish.
There are things I'm glad don't exist any more in Zelda games; the lives system, the knockback... but there's definitely a sense of challange and always the possibility of a surprise discovery. Also it turns out it's one of the few games I'm actually better at as a grown-up.
8.8/10 including a Nostalgia +1 Bonus

Zelda II is one of those games that I couldn't finish as a teenager and have since gone back to to do just that. Very satisfying, although my skills have probably improved more due to NES Remix II than anything else! 

In other news:

Inazuma Eleven 3: Lightning Bolt

Initially more of the same but there are enough slight quirks to make it technically the best of the trilogy. The storyline is as involving as ever and the stylus-driven footy, bonkers as it is, remains pure fun. The last chapter or two felt very RPG-like as well, with what can only be described as a penultimate dungeon before battling a very tough boss. In short, if you've ignored Inazuma before, there's no reason to jump on now. If you're a fan, well, let's play football!

8/10

XY/XX is one of those I never finished.  The unicycle level did for me repeatedly, until I gave up.

Child of Light (after everyone else)



UbiSoft has not generally treated Nintendo gamers well.  Openly producing dross on Wii to fund their efforts on other consoles; delaying a complete game for no given reason; and recently, holding a game until they can flog it to the biggest audience.  How I wish that I couldn't give a toss whether they supported the Wii U or not.  Alas, I do: this and RLegends make two of my top five Wii U games that Ubi have made.

Babby's first JRPG?  The simplified equipment, very simple skill trees, and generally low difficulty level might suggest as such.  But this is a fairytale, after all, a story told to an invisible child: is it not appropriate?  And it is well told: a beautiful art style, a lovely soundtrack (apart from the first credits song), and even the "rhyming" had grown on me by the end.

And battles, while not hard per se, are actually surprisingly complex, what with the time bar and firefly maintenance and party members.  I do wish they'd allowed a party of three, but I used almost all of my characters regularly (not you Tristis) so it wasn't too much of a problem.  And outside of battles, the freedom of flight, illusory though it was, felt wonderful.

Problems?  Well, it's short, but given that it's available on the eShop for £12 (I think), that's barely a criticism.  The puzzles are even easier than the battles, revolving around tricks the Zelda games have  -ed; but they're so charmingly presented, and over so soon, that it's hard to be too annoyed.  No, the biggest problem the game has is that it makes me want a sequel... and if Ubi release one, it's unlikely to come to the Wii U.

9/10

balla wrote:

UbiSoft has not generally treated Nintendo gamers well.

I'm going to disagree on that, regardless of their business choices they have still delivered top notch games on Nintendo systems so I'd say they have treated us well in that regard.........I can't help but feel that some Nintendo fans being ungrateful or worse holding a grudge towards Ubi has made the situation worse.

I thought you might. Beggars can't be choosers, is that it? If we look at it that way, we lose all right to complain about shitty practices. As for gratitude, I'm pretty sure Ubi don't give two figs so long as their games sell.

Yeah, I'd say relative to the other big publishers, Ubisoft have done a pretty good job, and I do appreciate how they were very committed to Wii U before launch with a lot of exciting exclusives like ZombiU and Rayman Legends. Nintendo didn't pay them off for this support either, which makes it even better, though it's a shame Rayman Legends got treated as it did when Wii U had a less than spectacular launch.

Balladeer wrote:

I thought you might.  Beggars can't be choosers, is that it?  If we look at it that way, we lose all right to complain about shitty practices.  As for gratitude, I'm pretty sure Ubi don't give two figs so long as their games sell.

I wasn't saying don't complain, I'm just tired of the folk who haven't stopped or moved on from it (not saying that you're one of these people) as for delayed games there is no getting past that it sucks when it happens but the way I see it they did give a good reason (watch_dogs) or it was just completely out of their hands (RLegends) heck even the devs were noticeably annoyed about it as well.

The Starship Damrey

There's "Leaving things for the player to discover" and there's "Setting out to be obscure".

Damrey was one I had my eye on but the reviews weren't great. Thanks for confirming!

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Kirby Triple Deluxe

Split into three, yada yada yada. The Story Mode is bite-size classic Kirby until you either a) jump into the background or b) get a Hypernova fruit, and become a Super Sucker 500. It's good, but it'd be better twice as long. Kirby Fighters is a pared-down Smash Bros. with just Kirbies - fun but slight. The Dedede Drum thing - whose name I can't be bothered to Google - is OK. It's a fun package but not a lasting one for me.

7.5/10

Double posting (  ) to let y'all know that I finished

Retro City Rampage DX

Expected it to be great: full of yummy retro nods and pop culture references, with some cracking gameplay. The former was certainly true - the many, many gaming references were fun to find. The gameplay, however, left a lot to be desired for me. It boils down to a set of minigames tied loosely together by a meandering narrative. The difficulty curve is foul: some sections are harder than Colossus's erection, but the very next one could be easier than Kerry Katona. When it all works you have a fantastic game - it's just that that didn't happen often enough for me.

6/10

I'm typing this as the credits roll in Pokémon Y.

It didn't disappoint. I think it's the best refinement of the franchise since the Game Boy Colour days, and I feel it really lays the foundations for something truly special in the future. Not too difficult and not too long, just right for me. 9/10.

You feeling okay Cappa that's 9/10 for a JRPG.

Pokémon is the exception to an altogether Fritzl-ly genre.

I'm curious: why so, Cappa? What makes Pokémon so much better than other JRPGs? Is it just that you're not controlling a group of anime rejects, or because it's less numerical than most of the genre (a bit, not much), or what?

I was going to say pokemon can be a really deep JRPG if you go in to EV stats etc

Balladeer wrote:

I'm curious: why so, Cappa?  What makes Pokémon so much better than other JRPGs?  Is it just that you're not controlling a group of anime rejects, or because it's less numerical than most of the genre (a bit, not much), or what?

What makes Super Mario so much better than other platformers? What makes The Legend of Zelda so much better than other action-adventure games? I could go into it and discuss things like accessibility, depth and addictiveness, but it doesn't need an explanation: some games are just much better than others.

~

In an unprecedented event, I completed two games yesterday! After playing it in bits every so often, I finally sat down for a monster 3:43 gaming session (easily my longest since the heydey of the WWE games on PS2), and reached the credits of Lego City Undercover. Overall, I really enjoyed it - it was refreshing to play a just-for-laughs open-world game on a Nintendo system. Good variety, great voicework, tons to do, deservedly regarded as one of the Wii U's best games. 8/10.