Monthend – Page 7

Monthend Video Game Wrap-Up: March 2020

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Murder by Numbers (Switch) – I was sold on this as a mash up of detectivin’ and picrossin’. It only really delivered on the nonograms, and all the detective work was done by the story. That said, the story was charming and the dialogue was generally very well-written. I still think I’d rather just have the puzzles without all the text boxes in-between.

Mega Man Zero (GBA) – Via the Zero/ZX Legacy Collection. Still adore it all these years later. Played the vanilla mode because I like it rough. Busted my butt to get an A rank on every mission, even though it means nothing, just makes me feel like a big man. Not the biggest man, because S ranks are a thing, but they’re basically impossible for an old fart like me to achieve. Besides, I already did a perfect S run back in high school when I was stubborn enough to do something like that.

Monthend Video Game Wrap-Up: February 2020

Turok (Switch) – A real bait-and-switch, since I grew up knowing the N64 subtitle “Dinosaur Hunter”, but really you’re mostly killing people and the occasional velociraptor. Aside from that, I really liked this game. It’s a lot like DOOM, but in 3D and has lots of platforming. The biggest failing is that the first boss (and only the first boss) is almost impossibly difficult. I burned through seven of my nine lives in that fight.

Timesplitters 2 (GC) – Co-oped the story mode, and it was a wonderful nostalgia trip. Maybe it’s just me, but it seems like big studios don’t really make shooters like this any more. Specifically, ones with big maze-like levels, varied objectives, and a willingness to be unapologetically weird. And it’s the last one that matters the most to me. I’m less turned off by murdering hundreds of people when they’re over-the-top cartoons.

Monthend Video Game Wrap-Up: January 2020

Remember back in the day when I used to write a little blurb for each of these? I don’t think it’s going to be a regular thing again, but… Man, I played a large variety of video games in January. Considering that AGDQ sapped up a lot of my free time and school is eating away the rest of it… You start to realize that most of these games are either very short, or carried over from last month.

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Mega Man X (SNES) – The opening video game of the year, as per usual. Short writeup here.

Mega Man Legends (PS1) – I really do adore this game. Sadly, every time I go back to replay it, the… unfortunate control scheme gets harder and harder to re-acclimatize to. And the stupid racing game is impossible but I want the Shining Laser. Wah wah wah gamer tears.

Army Men Air Attack (PS1) – I kind of wish I’d played this back when it was new, as I think I would have really enjoyed it then. Looking at it now, it’s an amusing little curio almost certainly lost to time. What I found most odd about it is that there’s a massive difficulty spike right in the middle of the game. If you can tough it through missions six to nine, it’s smooth sailing to the end. Also the co-pilot voice clips are super repetitive and annoying.

Monthend Video Game Wrap-Up: December 2019

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Spyro 3: Year of the Dragon (PS4) – So, it’s really weird that the final boss battle (and then the real final boss) had absolutely no fnafare at all. You just walk in the door and then the fight begins. No cutscene, no dialogue, nothing. Very jarring considering how much “story” the rest of the game had. Also, now that the trilogy is over, I think I’m happily done with all things Spyro for the rest of my life. 85% of my enjoyment with these games was watching the scoreboards fill up with 100%s.

Trover Saves the Universe (Switch) – I think I would have liked this more if I had played it in VR, because then it would look really good next to all the shallow mini-games. Like when you find that exceedingly rare mobile game that’s legitimately good. But compared to the other games on my Switch? It’s merely fine. But it’s a great barometer for measuring how long you can stand an unfiltered Justin Roiland. I can go for a little over an hour and a half.

Shovel Knight: King of Cards (Switch) – What an excellent way to close out the Shovel Knight series. King Knight takes a little while to get used to, but once you figure out how he works, it’s so much fun. Couple that with some of the best and most varied stage design in the series, and you’ve got an absolute treasure. It’s just too bad that the Joustus card game is no fun at all.

Monthend Video Game Wrap-Up: November 2019

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Star Fox (SNES) – Ran the easy route. A good way to burn half an hour.

Pixel Puzzle Collection (iOS) – Wrote this. Still playing for 200%.

Luigi’s Mansion 3 (Switch) – Having come fresh off Dark Moon, which I felt was a little lacking in certain areas, Luigi’s Mansion 3 looks like a damn masterpiece. It’s obviously not perfect, but I’m willing to suggest that it may even be better than the original. If absolutely nothing else, the cutscenes may very well be the best that Nintendo’s ever produced. LM3 is a wonderful cartoon of a game, and if it weren’t like 17 hours long I’d jump right back in for a replay.

Monthend Video Game Wrap-Up: October 2019

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Link’s Awakening (Switch) – A wonderful shot-for-shot remake of my favourite Zelda game. Honestly, I think I would have liked to see a little more changed/added to it, to really justify the choice to remake it. The new presentation and quality-of-life tweaks were great though, so I really shouldn’t complain. Excellent game. Had a strong urge to dive right into a replay after finishing it, but there’s so much else to do!

Transistor (Switch) – Transistor is clearly the follow-up to Bastion, and it was better than Bastion in nearly every way. The story was more complex and interesting, the characters were more than mechanical puppets, the gameplay was deeper but never overwhelming. I wasn’t a huge fan of the more sterile visual style, but I suppose that was kind of the point.

Monthend Video Game Wrap-Up: September 2019

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Final Fantasy X HD Remaster (PS4) – I’ve never really played FFX before, and I have to say… This is an excellent game! The story was fun and surprisingly emotional, and the battle system is really something else. Definitely a top tier FF. At least if you’re playing casually or maybe even speedrunning. The most important thing I took away from it is that going for 100% or really any of the post-game is a fool’s errand and nobody should ever bother trying. I don’t think I’ve ever spent so much time grinding in any other single video game. Post-game content is not fun here.

Bastion (Switch) – This is another game that has a very good reputation but I’d never played it until now. I am less excited about this one. Not that it isn’t good… I just think I would have got more out of it back in 2011 before indie games got real big. I liked the unique storytelling, though the gameplay felt a little hollow and I can’t really articulate why.

Spyro the Dragon (PS4) – I guess September is like “discover beloved older games month” for me. And I’ve listed them here in descending order of how much I like them. Honestly I don’t really get why people dig Spyro so much. It’s fine, I guess. But really you mostly just walk forward and gather gems and dragons. It’s like if Super Mario 64’s power stars were just sitting out for you to collect at your leisure. Also the bosses are all really terrible. I really grew to enjoy the flight levels, at least. And it’s a spectacularly pretty remake.

~ Progress Notes ~

Pixel Puzzle Collection (iOS) – 90.2%

Super Kirby Clash (Switch) – Levelled to 59

Astral Chain (Switch) – Currently on File 07

Monster Hunter World: Iceborne (Switch) – Up to the Acidic Glavenus quest

Yoshi’s Island (SNES) – World 2-8

Pic-A-Pix Pieces (Switch) – 14/20 panels complete

Spyro 2: Ripto’s Rage! (PS4) – About halfway done, as the gems fly.

Zelda: Link’s Awakening (Switch) – Cleared Level 8

Monthend Video Game Wrap-Up: August 2019

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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

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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

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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.