Monthend Video Game Wrap-Up: August 2019

~ Game Over ~

PictoQuest (Switch) – This picross RPG came out of nowhere, and I fell for it so hard. Like, so hard. Truth be told, it’s not really special in any way and is a little too short, but it’s a solid game. The RPG mechanics make things a little more exciting, but thankfully never come even close to getting in the way. Unlike Jupiter’s Picross games, it has more than three music tracks, and some of them are legit bangers. The graphics are cute and colourful, and the puzzle solutions have a vague fantasy theme. It’s good! But there are only like 100 puzzles and I devoured them in no time.

Dragon Quest Builders 2 (Switch) – This may be a perfect sequel: all of the good stuff from the first stuck around, and everything less good was either fixed or removed altogether. Hammer durability is gone. You can unlock infinite stocks of common materials. Bosses are somewhat less tedious. Enemy contact damage is gone. I just wish I had more creativity, so that I could truly enjoy the free-build island and post-game. Alas, I don’t really have time for it anyway. Rest assured though, this is definitely one of the best video games of 2019.

Command & Conquer ‘95 (PC) – Remember when I started replaying this a few years ago? I randomly felt the need to pick it up again so I did. And then I cheated to get past the level I was stuck on, which I’m reasonably sure is impossible to clear legitimately (GDI mission 11, if you’re interested). I tried about 25 times, so I feel like I gave it more than a fair shake. Anyway, I went on to clear the rest of the GDI campaign, and I think this marks the first time I’ve finished any C&C campaign. Don’t plan on playing NOD; I may just go into a sequel.

Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End (PS4) – I’ve never had even a slight interest in the Uncharted series, but here we are. I’ve now played through the last one. It’s… perfectly fine. Needed more puzzles. I’m kind of over the “follow-the-grips” style of climbing gameplay these days. Breath of the Wild ruined me by letting me free-climb everything. The shooting parts are also… fine. It seems like trying to stealth your way through is not an actual viable strategy, but rather a way to take out the first two guys of an encounter without getting shot at. It’s like The Last Of Us, where stealth exists, but the developers really just want you to shoot everyone. AMERICA! GUNS!

Peggle (PC) – Technically I only played around half the game, as it was a co-op run, switching off after beating or failing a stage. And… I failed a lot. I’m not great at Peggle. Though I have to say it’s a surprisingly good casual time-waster. We sat and played for four hours straight. Might have been longer if it hadn’t been a work night and I had to go home to bed. 

~ Progress Notes ~

DOOM II (Switch) – Got brickwall’d on “Tricks & Traps”. SO MANY Hell Princes.

Pixel Puzzle Collection (iOS) – 75.6% complete

Pic-A-Pix Pieces (Switch) – 10.5/20 panels complete

Final Fantasy X HD Remaster (PS4) – Sidequesting before entering Sin.

Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate (Switch) – Just plugging away at quests.

Kindergarten (PC) – Completed two storylines.

Superbeat XONiC (Switch) – Did the first planet of mission mode and a bunch of free play.

Bastion (Switch) – Did maybe like seven or eight levels.

Monthend Video Game Wrap-Up: July 2019

~ Game Over ~

Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate (Switch) – I have now technically finished the multiplayer component, having defeated the final boss and removed my HR limit. But of course there are still tons of quests left to complete, and even a handful of monsters I haven’t fought yet. How much more will I actually play? Probably at least once a week or so until the current season of The Bachelorette wraps up, at least, since that’s the night when my brother and I get together to play.

Detroit: Become Human (PS4) – While I didn’t really like the previous QuanticDream games (Heavy Rain was legit bad and Beyond: Two Souls just felt like work), Detroit was a lot more enjoyable for me. I’m still not into the QTE gameplay style and the plot was just a mountain of tropes, but the characters were interesting and I enjoyed their stories. Also, it achieved that rare feat of making me feel like my decisions actually meant something. It may just be because there are flowcharts of all the possible story branches for each chapter, but I’ll give Detroit the point for it all the same.

Detroit: Become Human (PS4) – A second run was conducted… for science!! That is to say, I played again and made a lot of really bad decisions in an effort to make life terrible (or end) for as many characters as possible. And it was BRUTAL.

Picross S3 (Switch) – I completed all of Mega Picross mode. Which makes it the first Picross S title that I’ve actually finished to 100%. Neat! I’d feel more compelled to do these Mega puzzles if they were unique, instead of being slightly harder tweaks of the regular puzzles.

Kid Tripp (Switch) – Picked it up on sale for 80 cents, on a recommendation from Talk Nintendo Podcast. Even for less than a dollar, it didn’t really jive with me. It’s a side-scrolling runner, which is fine, but it’s also quite hard and has limited lives for some reason.

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night (Switch) – I was really getting into this, and then about an hour away from beating it, I got Dragon Quest Builders 2, and all that momentum vanished. But then I picked it back up just before the end of the month and powered through. It’s a very good game! Though also very rough around the edges. I’d love to play it through again and try out some different powers (I found some I liked and just stuck with them), but I just can’t see myself being able to make time for it anytime soon.

~ Progress Notes ~

Pixel Puzzle Collection (iOS) – 59.6% completion rate

Dragon Quest Builders 2 (Switch) – Cleared Skelkatraz

Super Mario Maker 2 (Switch) – About 50% castle built in story mode

Secret of Mana (Switch) – Next destination: Pandora Ruins.

Fishing Star! World Tour (Switch) – At the boss of “world 3”

Pic-A-Pix Pieces (Switch) – About halfway done? I think?

Dr. Mario World (iOS) – Haven’t even finished the tutorial, tbh

Pokémon GO (iOS) – Shoutouts to the new Team GO Rocket mechanic.

Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End (PS4) – Solved a Jesus-based light puzzle

Monthend Video Game Wrap-Up: June 2019

~ Game Over ~

Castle of Heart (Switch) – I wrote a full review of this one.

Refunct (Switch) – I liked the screenshots, and decided why not spend the $2.50? Well, it’s… an incredibly simple game. Jump across the platforms to the beacon. Watch more platforms rise out of the water, and then jump to the new beacon. Repeat a couple dozen times until complete. It took me about half an hour to 100%, but it was a nice, relaxing game. I’d happily buy a sequel with a stronger focus on puzzles.

Mutant Mudds Super Challenge (Switch) – It’s Mutant Mudds again, but this time it’s hard as nails. More spikes than you can shake a stick at, and way more situations that require pixel-perfect movement and/or timing. Also, bosses that actually get easier as you go. And a fancy new death counter. I died just under 250 times before completing the game. Though I didn’t manage to find even one hidden character. *shrug*

A Hole New World (Switch) – An alright game that I bought because it looks (visually) a lot like Shovel Knight. It plays kind of like a linear Mega Man, where you get a new power from each boss, but you are forced on a track from Stage 1 to Stage 7. Levels are huge and ripe for exploring, but all of your attacks (until the last stage) have weird trajectories, which makes dealing with monsters more cumbersome than it needs to be. Also the final boss has so much life and you have so little life that it feels really unfair, and I could not defeat him. In the end, I’m glad I got this for like 75% off, as I really didn’t like it as much as I was hoping to.

Final Fantasy Adventure (Switch) – I rented this once, waaaaaay back in grade 7, and I think I got to somewhere around Medusa? All I remember about it was walking an infinity symbol around two trees in the desert to make a cave open. It’s a somewhat obtuse game that doesn’t always direct you all that well, and having to constantly switch weapons was annoying, but I would say that I actually quite enjoyed my time with it. It’s a very ambitious Game Boy game, and certainly a lot longer than I expected. 

Final Fantasy IX (PS1) – I really like this game, but am honestly a little disappointed by how linear it is. You don’t get even a boat until halfway through disc three! Glad I got around to replaying it, as I’ve never gone back after my first run. I like the chocobo treasure hunting mini-game, but the chocobo hot-and-cold minigame is so tedious if you don’t cheat. The final boss track is so good but I would very much like a version with the weird moaning removed please.

Dragon Quest Builders (PS4) – This is more or less the game that convinced me to buy a PS4, so it makes me sad that I took nearly three years to really dig in and finish it. I played the first two chapters at launch, and then it got lost in the shuffle somewhere. But now I’ve gotten to the end, and what a spectacular ride it was. In fact, I liked it so much that I kept playing for all the trophies, which meant completely replaying three of the game’s four chapters. The in-game speedrun challenges for each chapter are surprisingly fun, and I’m thinking that if I were to try doing a for-real speedrun, this would be my game. But I lack the motivation, equipment, and free time for that kind of thing, so.

~ Progress Notes ~

Pixel Puzzle Collection (iOS) – 45.0% complete

Dauntless (PS4) – My guy is level 22, however much that matters.

Secret of Mana (Switch) – Working through Elinee’s castle

Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate (Switch) – Apparently I’ve barely played G-rank

Detroit: Become Human (PS4) – On chapter “The Stratford Tower” (about ? of the way)

Picross S3 (Switch) – A little more than halfway through Mega Picross mode

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night (Switch) – 22% map completion.

Super Mario Maker 2 (Switch) – Made one stage and played through 50 on infinite mode.

Rocksmith (PS4) – Back on the guitar now that school’s out for the summer.

Nintendo @ E3 2019

It’s that time of year again, E3 time. The time when all the big video game companies (and small video game companies too) come out to show off their upcoming wares. The most hyped week of commercials in all the year.

Like I always do, I’m going to write up a list of my thoughts on all the stuff that Nintendo showed off in their big presentation. “Why just Nintendo?” you ask. Because that’s where my heart is. Other companies show off neat stuff from time to time, but when it comes down to it, I always get the most excited about the new Nintendo games. And I find that this gets more true with each passing year, as video games in general become less and less exciting to me.

To be 100% honest, the most exciting non-tendo announcment for me so far has been the FF8 remaster. Because of course it is. So let’s get on to the show.

Smash DLC – YES DQ HEROES

DQXIS – I have it on PS4, no need for a re-buy. Even if there is more content. The last thing DQXI needs in more content.

Bowser Mix-up – That was a fun skit

Luigi Mansion 3 – Down To Play… You can never leave…? is it the Hotel California? I like the Gooigi angle. King Boo is in the trailer… So is he not the main villain? No release date is weird.

Dark Crystal Tactics – I like the look of this strategy RPG, but man I strongly dislike The Dark Crystal

Link’s Awakening – Just hook it to my veins! Releasing in September!?!? Whaaaaaat I had it budgeted for December! And it now has some sort of custom dungeon builder? Weird, but it could be cool.

Trials of Mana – HOLY FARTS all I wanted was an official translation of Seiken 3 and SquareEnix gives me THIS instead? What have I done to deserve something so beautiful??? I’m not worthy!

Collection of Mana – Oh hey it’s that official translation of Seiken 3 that I wanted. Plus two other games. Neat! Wait what… AVAILABLE TODAY!?!?

Witcher 3 – I want to care, but I don’t have the time (see the last three bullets)

Fire Emblem Three Houses – I don’t even want to care about this one. Sorry, Fire Emblem. You’re not for me.

Resident Evil 5 & 6 – Neat. I might buy 5 again, when it goes on sale. I really like RE5. Six, less so. I don’t know why there was a bit about making some actors play RE1 in a spooky house, though. Why should we be more excited to play RE on the go than anything else?

No More Heroes 3 – YESSSS  (less so to the 2020 release date, but I can wait)

Contra Rogue Corps – I’m happy that there’s a new Contra game… But it’s not for me. Because it looks bad. Really bad.

Contra Anniversary Collection – Meh. But I would rather have this than Rogue Corps.

Daemon x Machina – Yep, still hype for this. Even after the demo failed to impress most other people. But how can this also come out in September?

Panzer Dragoon – You’re not Star Fox. Looks lame.

Pokemon Sword and Shield – Pokeball Plus functionality… I don’t care. Nessa is cute tho.

Astral Chain – Extradimensional attack.. That’s enough for me, I’m sold. It looks so sweet. I absolutely can’t wait for this one. So it’s good that it comes out in August!

Empire of Sin – Nothing about this is appealing to me

Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3 – I’d like to play this, but I think the rest of my 2019 video game budget has been allocated already. And it seems like it would lose a lot to play it all by my lonesome.

Cadence of Hyrule – It looks cool, but I’m going to wait on reviews for this one.

Mario and Sonic Olympic Something – Feh.

Animal Crossing – I was done with Animal Crossing after New Leaf. This isn’t looking like it’s going to change my mind. So I really don’t mind the delay.

Sizzle Reel – I think the only thing in there that I’m legit interested in is Doom Eternal. And I am VERY interested in Doom Eternal. Maybe the Crystal Chronicles remake. Stranger Things 3 still looks lame 🙁

MORE Smash DLC – Banjo and Kazooie! This is ALMOST as good as the DQ heroes! It just makes me sad that there are no BK games on Switch.

Monthend Video Game Wrap-Up: May 2019

~ Game Over ~

3D Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (3DS) – I don’t really know what to say. It took me probably just as long to get through Chemical Plant Zone as it did every other level combined. Plus, despite all my efforts, I just don’t find Sonic very fun. Almost thirty years I’ve been trying to like Sonic games, but I can’t get there. Sonic 2 in particular has excellent art and great music, but it’s just not fun. #SonicWasAlwaysBad.

METAGAL (Switch) – A blatant Mega Man ripoff, but it’s actually pretty good! While the key art is a bit ugly, the in-game visuals are really nice, and the controls are surprisingly tight. METAGAL is also a few stages short of a full Mega Man, but makes up for that by being unexpectedly difficult and ranking you on your performance to encourage replays. My only major complaint is that special weapons are all tied to the same (very short) energy bar, and while it refills automatically, it harshly limits your use of anything but your basic shot.

Picross S3 (Switch) – It feels like ages since the last Picross (it was October of last year), so it was nice to have a new set of puzzles to hack away at. It’s more or less exactly the same as the last two in the S series, but this one has a cool new Colour Picross mode where you solve puzzles with multiple colours. And it comes complete with animated solutions! I don’t think Jupiter has done those since the Super Famicom days! Though why they’re only in Colour Picross mode, I’ll never know.

Mutant Mudds (Switch) – I bought the Mutant Mudds Collection. Again. For $4. And then I proceeded to play through all the first game’s original content in a single sitting. Then I did all of the “Deluxe” version content in another (Ghost and Granny levels). I really like Mutant Mudds, but I hate those few jumps where you have to fall then jetpack in under an overhang to a tunnel that is exactly your character’s height. I don’t know if I described it very well, but if you’ve played the game, you know exactly what I’m talking about.

My Lovely Daughter (Switch) – A game about giving life, and then taking it away in the most macabre ways imaginable. Well, sort of. I wrote a whole big thing. Go read it maybe?

~ Progress Notes ~

Final Fantasy IX (PS1) – Cleared Ipsen’s Castle (w/ gold chocobo!).

BOXBOY! + BOXGIRL! (Switch) – Up to World 12.

Castle of Heart (Switch) – Finished Chapter 1.

Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Switch) – Handful of shrines, started Zora quest line.

Pixel Puzzle Collection (iOS) – 18% complete

Dauntless (PS4) – I don’t even know how to gauge progress here.

Mutant Mudds Super Challenge (Switch) – Completed World 2

Monthend Video Game Wrap-Up: April 2019

~ Game Over ~

Pokémon Ultra Sun (3DS) – I took to playing this on the very long bus rides home from school, and finally finished up the main story. Let me tell you: limiting your team to poison-types makes the game much harder than it needs to be. There’s a bunch of post-game content to play, but I may just put a bow on it here, as I wasn’t even really feeling the main game to begin with.

Yoshi’s Crafted World (Switch) – While it seems like everyone I listen to on the internet thinks this is the best Yoshi game since the original Yoshi’s Island, I still like Woolly World more. You can’t have Yoshi wear a Mega Man costume in Crafted World. But Crafted World is great! I played it far longer than necessary, breaking my rule of not attempting to go for a 100% clear in a Yoshi game. It’s just so much more possible than ever before.

Mega Man 2 (NES) – Played through during a retro gaming get-together evening. My reputation was tarnished by requiring three continues, but I did make it past the disappearing blocks in Heat Man’s stage without Item-2 for the first time in… forever? Also I had no idea that using a continue takes away any E-Tanks you’ve collected, which is super lame. Just another argument for why Mega Man 3 is a better game.

Universal Paperclips (iOS) – I was looking for recommendations on good idle/clicker games, and this is the first one I went for. Bad news first: it will not serve as a good way to while away a few minutes here and there, as I finished it in a day. Good news: It is in fact a very cool clicker/idle game. It changes up a lot as you play, and makes you think about managing your resources in different ways all throughout. I also like that it does have a definitive ending, it just came a little too soon (that’s what she said).

Labo VR (Switch) – I purchased the basic kit, which comes with the VR Goggles and Blaster. There’s only one real game there, and then a couple dozen neat little toys. The Blaster game is a fun rail shooter and it takes some applied effort to score all the gold medals. The real draw of Labo VR, however, was using it to play Breath of the Wild in VR (which is really just 3D mode).

~Progress Notes~

Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Switch) – Cleared Vah Rudania.

METAGAL (Switch) – Cleared the 4 initial stages.

Final Fantasy IX (PS1) – Up to the start of Disc 3.

Mechstermination Force (Switch) – 7 mechs down out of ???

Resident Evil 4 (PS4) – Up to Chapter 2.

Picross S3 (Switch) – I’ve done maybe half the puzzles?

BOXBOY! + BOXGIRL! (Switch) – Completed the first 5 worlds.

Monthend Video Game Wrap-Up: March 2019

~ Game Over ~

Super Mario Bros 2 (NES) – Came out on Switch’s NES Online service last month. Several months too late, I might add. Because I just like playing a little Mario 2 here and there, I took both warps to skip pretty close to the ending, and finished in like 45 minutes? Then I watched a warpless speedrun that took under 25. I felt so much shame. 

Resident Evil 2 (PS4) – Did an easy-mode Leon B practice run for S+, and actually took longer than I did on Claire A, which is weird because the B scenarios are shorter (but tougher). Clearly I needed that practice run to study and learn the remixed route.

Dragon Quest XI (PS4) – I got to the end! But then it turned out that “the end” is only the end for those who seek to put in the minimum required effort. The post-game is absolutely crammed with things to do and actual significant story content. It’s wild, and it’s where DQXI actually becomes moderately difficult. The main story is probably the easiest DQ has ever been; my party didn’t wipe once, and it was rare that any characters even died (stupid Whack). But the claws have come out and there’s still so much more to go, I guess I’ll keep at ‘er…

Deer Man (PC) – A game that I purchased for a dollar, because the promo image made it seem spooky. It was, ever so briefly, but then quickly transitioned into a short story about protecting wildlife. Not the worst way to spend a dollar and twenty-five minutes.

Blaster Master Zero 2 (Switch) – A terrific follow-up to what is still one of my favourite games on Switch. I don’t know that it’s better than the original, but it’s certainly at least as good. It feels like the top-down segments are less important this time around, but I really like the game’s overall structure and how there are a dozen little planetoids that act as self-contained challenges. I fully intend to write a review of this one too, so stay tuned for that.

~ Write-offs ~

Cosmic Cavern 3671 (PC) – It’s kinda like Dig Dug and/or Boulder Dash (full disclosure: I’ve never played Boulder Dash), but not really fun at all. I played it for literally three minutes before chucking it in the Steam equivalent of a trash bin. Although, now I am left with the mystery of where it even came from. Probably one of those IndieGala bundles.

Cloudbuilt (PC) – I last played this in August of 2016 and deduced that it was too hard for me. Also it doesn’t run quite well enough on my machine. I don’t know why I didn’t uninstall it and write it off back then. Although 2016 was a very different time. Long before Switch and the Curse of Too Many Games.

Chiptune Champion (PC) – Now that I have a guitar and Rocksmith, other rhythm games seem so… empty. I really like the chiptune soundtrack to this one, but my keyboard is not designed to be held and strummed like a guitar. Putting this one in the bin.

Glittermitten Grove (PC) – The follow-up to Frog Fractions that just didn’t have the same pull. If Steam is to be believed, I played this thing for ten hours, but never finished it and spent most of that time waiting for it to click for me. Better off just playing Frog Fractions again.

~ Progress Notes ~

Downwell (Switch) – I can get to level 2 now, but those ghosts are tricky and relentless.

Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Switch) – Picked up my half-complete Master Mode run.

Final Fantasy IX (PS1) – Played up to Burmecia (end of Disc 1).

Pokémon Ultra Sun (3DS) – Picked up to finally finish it. Collecting Mina’s flower petals.

Fitness Boxing (Switch) and Rocksmith (PS4) – Assume I’m always playing these.

Nindies Spotlight – Mar 20/19

Hey, a new Nindies presentation. I actually wasn’t going to bother watching this but then I heard some rumblings online that it was pretty incredible. So I pulled it up on the ol’ YouTube and WOW do I ever have opinions.

Cuphead – I’m happy, ever so happy that Cuphead is coming to Switch. What seemed impossible up until now has been made into actual reality now that Nintendo and Microsoft are BFFs. The thing is, I’m not going to buy it, at least not right away. I’ve already had my fill (ha!) of Cuphead, and I feel no need to revisit it yet. Stellar game, tho.

The Red Lantern – I don’t know if this is something I’d actually play, but the idea of a survival game set out in Alaska where you’re in command of dogsled is very interesting. Also, bear attacks. I need to know more though. If it plops you in the snow as says “have at ‘er” I’ll be all over that, but I’ll probably skip it if it’s a more linear, story-focused kind of game.

Darkwood – I’ve heard good things about this. Stories that absolutely piqued my interest. It’s a procedurally-generated survival horror dealie, but I’m not in love with the top-down perspective. I don’t know why, either, as I’m perfectly fine with it for many other games. This is exactly the kind of game that I need a demo for, just to get a feel for it before I commit my $25 to the cause.

RAD – A new Double Fine game. I’ve been down this road enough times that I know how Double Fine games work: I end up liking everything about them except for the act of playing them. And RAD… it definitely seems like it’ll fit that description. Run around in a post-apocalyptic cartoon Hellscape! Create a trail of flowers and grass wherever you go like in Okami! Mutate your guy to do cool things! And even though I like all those bullet points… it looks a little shallow and maybe boring. We’ll have to see. 

Stranger Things 3 – I’d like to start by saying that I really have no interest in playing this game; it doesn’t look very good in any way. However, the visual style is reminding me of something very specific and I cannot for the life of me figure out what it is and it’s driving me BATTY. I can’t wait for the day when I’m in the shower and randomly realize what it is.

Blaster Master Zero 2 – You remember how excited I was about the Link’s Awakening remake? Well I am almost as excited about this sequel that was announced and released during this presentation. If you’ll take a moment to recall, I thought very highly of Blaster Master Zero, and in fact pronounced it to be one of my favourite games of 2017. To be included on that list with the likes of RE7, Breath of the Wild, and Mario Odyssey is no small feat. Obviously I immediately opened my phone to Nintendo’s online store and purchased this right away. I’m sure that by the time this post is published I will have already finished BMZ2 (Future Ryan Sez: It’s freakin’ awesome!), but as of writing time I am dying to actually have a few spare moments to dig into it.

Cadence of Hyrule – I never had any intention of playing Crypt of the Necrodancer. I don’t like roguelikes. I tried. Lord did I ever try, but they just don’t work for me. HOWEVER. Now that Necrodancer is getting a Zelda-themed sequel? Yeah I’m in for giving this one a shot. And I think it’ll be a little more palatable than the scores of various Mystery Dungeons that I played, being that it’s rhythm-based. Also the Zelda branding suggests it will probably get dumbed down for the unwashed masses. Which, in this one very specific case, I see as a net positive. 

Like with the last Nintendo Direct, I’m just going to round up the titles of all the things I have no interest in here. These include: Overland, My Friend Pedro, Neo Cab, Katana ZERO, Creature in the Well, Bloodroots, Pine, Super Crate Box, Nuclear Throne, Ultra Bugs, and Swimsanity!. That isn’t to say that any of these games looked bad or unworthy of my attention (although truthfully, Neo Cab seems terminally boring), but in this age of Too Many Games, one needs to know how to write things off at a glance. You’ll lose your mind if you try to take an interest in everything, because there’s not enough time in the world for that.

Monthend Video Game Wrap-Up: February 2019

~ Game Over ~

Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes (Switch) – While it is a little very different from previous games, it’s still very much No More Heroes: rough and somewhat tedious gameplay, a completely insane story, and more style than the rest of the video game industry combined. I adore Suda51’s work, and this game is no exception. It’s a great love letter to/takedown of video games, the people who make them, and the people who play them. Plus it suggests that No More Heroes 3 is in development as explicitly as possible without actually saying so. Hooray!

Resident Evil 2 (PS4) – I think this is a very good remake, about as good as I could have hoped for. But it’s just so darn hard! Monsters are unbelievably resistant to bullets, especially bosses. RE games usually like to scare you into thinking you won’t have enough ammo to go around, and this is the one that delivers on it. What kind of zombie head doesn’t explode after seven or eight bullets? And friggin’ Mr. X who appears in the A games this time and follows you around mercilessly. After clearing Leon A and Claire B, I spent a lot of time watching speedruns to learn tricks and strats, and managed to get an S+ on Claire’s A scenario. Nice!

Reverie: Sweet As Edition (Switch) – The gameplay is very reminiscent of early Zeldas, with a visual style and sense of humour somewhat reminiscent of the Earthbound series. It’s pretty good! I was having a very good time up until the final dungeon, where I found that I could get stuck in puzzles very easily, and had to save and quit at least a dozen times to warp back to the dungeon entrance. A little more QA time could have gone a long way. Also the post-game bonus dungeon was just a battle gauntlet. Weak.

Daemon X Machina: Prototype Missions (Switch) – Technically speaking, this is a demo, probably just the first four missions of the full game. But it has its own icon and subtitle, so I’ll act like it’s an independent thing. People seem to be strongly disliking it, but I had fun. It’s a bit rough, but that’s why they released this demo and are asking for feedback.

Kirby’s Adventure (NES) – It finally showed up in Switch’s NES Online library, and I have a sworn duty to play through Kirby’s Adventure every time it’s re-released on a new Nintendo machine. So I did that. I recorded a whole Let’s Play series on this a few years ago. I don’t think there’s anything left for me to say about it.

~ Progress Notes ~

Pokémon: Let’s Go, Pikachu! (Switch) – Picked up briefly to catch Mewtwo and battle Green.

Dragon Marked For Death (Switch) – Cleared about a dozen quests. V little story content.

Star Ocean (SNES) – Defeated what I thought would be the final boss, but wasn’t.

Downwell (Switch) – A very fast little roguelike where I can’t get past level 2.

Tetris 99 (Switch) – My best placing is #7. Not too shabby considering I’m bad at Tetris.

Dragon Quest XI (PS4) – Collecting magic orbs, have four of six.

Rocksmith (PS4) – One day I will be good at guitars. Maybe.

Fitness Boxing (Switch) – Continuing to keep a pace of at least 4 days per week.

2018 Video Games Statistics Bonanza!

It’s that time of year again, where I spend a bunch of words reflecting on the previous year. Mostly in the form of what video games I played in said year. Also, there’s a bunch of statistics in this post! Whoo, statistics!

First, let’s take a look at how many games came into my possession throughout 2018. The grand total adds up to a whopping… 102. Wait, really? That seems low. *checks spreadsheet again* Yeah, it’s 102. Slightly more if you break up games like Mega Man X Legacy Collection into their component parts. But for the sake of keeping the total number lower, I’m going to classify any collections that all exist as the same piece of software as a single game. I was hoping to keep it under 100, but then Xmas hit and between gifted eShop cards and lots of games on sale… Maybe next year!

To break that number down further, only 57 of those games were actually paid for. No, I didn’t steal/pirate any of them. The other 45 games that I tracked at a cost of zero were either legitimately free, given to me as a gift, purchased with money I received as a gift, or games that were free through PS Plus. It’ll be a shame to lose those last ones when I stop subscribing, but between the ones I played and the dozens of online hours I logged in Monster Hunter World, that $70 annual subscription was absolutely worth it.

As an aside, I only got eleven games on disc/cartridge last year. It seemed like a surprisingly low number to me at first, but the percentage (11%) is actually on par with those of 2017 and 2016 (13% and 8%). I guess I’m a digital kind of guy after all!

What really brought my total games number down is that I only bought one bundle of Steam games last year, which was a Leisure Suit Larry bundle for $5. I’d say it was worth it. Although I haven’t made time to play any of them yet… I also only paid for DLC for a single game in 2018, and that was the Fighters Pass for Super Smash Bros Ultimate, which was an absolutely necessary expense.

On the less responsible side of things, I purchased exactly five games that I already own. You know, that’s actually not too bad! (Last year it was a staggering 18!) But I’d credit that restraint entirely to the fact that Nintendo and Sony have more or less stopped re-releasing their classic games on current consoles. Virtual Console and PS1 Classics are dead, and so less of my money goes towards re-buying the same games over and over again. I was never not going to buy Dark Souls Remastered on Switch, though. Pretty sure I would have died without a copy of Dark Souls I can play anywhere.

As far as per-system numbers go, here’s the breakdown: Switch obviously has a massive lead with 46 games, and PS4 with a respectable second place at 31 games. PC rolls into third with a more humble 16. 3DS, PS3 and iOS have a three-way tie for last place with a meager three games each.

And now, the moment you’ve all been waiting for: let’s find out exactly how worthwhile it was to amass all of these video games! In numerical terms, anyway. I played some real stinkers last  year, so quality is not a factor.

I played… an impressive 66 of the games I got in 2018. That’s 65%! Not a bad number at all! But it may be slightly misleading, because it’s just counting any game that I booted up at least once. There are at least a few on there that I played one short session of and never got around to coming back to. For example: Space Dave!, which is a really cool game, but I guarantee that I’ve spent less than 5 minutes total with it. 

Of those 66 games, I beat 42 of them, which gives us a nice, healthy 41%. “Beaten” means that I’ve played a game all the way through to the end. “The end” generally meaning that I got to the point where the credits rolled, or the game gave me a congratulatory message, or something like that. The point where the game made it clear that I was free to stop playing it and wouldn’t lose any sleep at night over unfinished business.

More nebulous is the “finished” category, which rolls in at 36 games, or 35%. Finished can mean all sorts of things. Sometimes it’s because the game has no ending and I decided to stop playing it. Sometimes it’s because the game was not to my liking and I decided to stop playing it. Sometimes it’s because there was so much more game to enjoy even after the ending, and I continued to play until I’d had my fill. Sometimes beaten and finished are exactly the same thing! In any case, it basically just means that I made the decision that I was done with a game.

And because no discussion of statistics would be complete without a chart full of numbers… here’s a chart! It’s full of numbers! (Keeping in mind that the 2016/2017 played/beaten/finished numbers have continued to update through 2018.)

2018 2017 2016
Games Obtained 102 148 184
Purchased 57 122 171
Free/Gifted/Etc. 45 26 13
Games Played 66 (65%) 88 (59%) 83 (45%)
Games Beaten 42 (41%) 50 (34%) 48 (26%)
Games Finished 36 (35%) 45 (30%) 50 (27%)
Switch 46 36 0
PS4 31 33 17
3DS 3 15 30
PC / Steam 16 40 86
Other 6 24 51

Full List of Games Beaten in 2018

2018 Releases

  • Monster Hunter World
  • Kirby Star Allies
  • Part-Time UFO
  • Into the Breach
  • Agatha Knife
  • Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon
  • Shaq Fu: A Legend Reborn
  • The Awesome Adventures of Captain Spirit
  • The Messenger
  • Mega Man 11
  • Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate
  • Picross S2
  • Kemono Friends Picross
  • Hollow
  • Slayaway Camp: Butcher’s Cut
  • WarioWare Gold
  • Marvel’s Spider-Man
  • Xenoblade Chronicles 2: Torna ~ The Golden Country
  • MechaNika
  • Pokémon: Let’s Go, Pikachu!
  • Super Smash Bros Ultimate
  • Iconoclasts
  • GRIS
  • The Missing: JJ Macfield and the Island of Memories

Previous year releases

  • Xenoblade Chronicles 2
  • Rhythm Thief and the Emperor’s Treasure
  • Danganronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls
  • Mr Pumpkin Adventure
  • Uncanny Valley
  • RIME
  • Thimbleweed Park
  • Knack
  • Shantae Half-Genie Hero: Pirate Queen’s Quest
  • The Count Lucanor
  • Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes
  • Horizon: Zero Dawn
  • Beyond: Two Souls
  • Fran Bow
  • I Am Setsuna
  • Tales of Berseria
  • Heavy Rain
  • Batman: The Telltale Series
  • Final Fantasy XV
  • Mega Man X7
  • The Silver Case
  • Bayonetta
  • Metal Gear Solid V: The Pahntom Pain
  • Burly Men at Sea

Replays

  • Mega Man X
  • Super Mario RPG
  • The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
  • Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards
  • Yoshi’s Island
  • Mega Man 4
  • Mega Man 10
  • Mega Man 8
  • Mega Man 5
  • Mega Man
  • Mega Man 7
  • Mega Man 2
  • Mega Man 3
  • Mega Man X2
  • Mega Man X3
  • Mega Man X4
  • Mega Man X5
  • Mega Man X6
  • The Legend of Zelda
  • Mega Man X8
  • Mega Man 9
  • Mega Man 6
  • The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D