What games did you complete? 2022 Edition

[Boothjan]

Spoiler

1. The Gunk - XSX Game Pass - 01/01/22 - 7.5/10

2. Gears 5 - XSX - 04/01/22 - 8/10

 

3. It Takes Two - XSX - 08/01/22

 

How often is a game's release preceded by a promising trailer, and then that game only goes on to live up to the hype and expectation?  It Takes Two is a bona fide gem - a co-op adventure that is never anything other than pure fun.  The best thing about it is that every single level introduces a new mechanic for each of the two characters - sometimes more than one - and every single one of them is a triumph.  The imagination and execution from start to finish is quite superb.

 

It Takes Two is pretty self explanatory - a 2 player co-op game.  There is no option to play solo because the key element of the whole game is team work, and it's team work you can only accomplish with another human, be it with a 2nd controller on the same console, or online.  The story and characters in this adventure are the only negative and I'll expand on this further.  Cody and May are a married couple who are on the verge of divorce, and both worry about the impact this will have on their young daughter, Rose who inadvertently changes her parents into clay dolls.  What ensues is a mixture of Toy Story and Honey I Shrunk the Kids as Cody and May have to traverse a wonderful assortment of levels, essentially gigantic fantasy versions of their home as they put their differences aside to work together to get through them.

 

So to this story and these characters - I think it's misjudged, to put it mildly.  I have no issues whatsoever with subjects such as divorce being raised in a video game - it's a part of life (I've been through it myself) and as long as such subjects are told well, I don't think anything should be taboo.  The problem here is that it simply isn't told well, but a hindrance and instead is a distraction from the brilliance of the game play.  It's not like cut scenes intrude too often - if anything they're a welcome break from each hectic level - but it does grate that the story behind the action is so ill-judged and awkward.  It also doesn't help that neither Cody nor May are particularly likeable characters either, although neither of them are as bad as the magic 'book of love' that will appear in pretty much every cut scene.  I hate him.

 

However, it would be wrong to ignore the utter brilliance of the actual gameplay.  Honestly, it's just brilliant.  What is remarkable is the variety of different gaming mechanics on show.  From Cody throwing nails for May to hammer into a wall to make platforms to reach high areas, to Cody flying a plane whilst May fights a squirrel on the wings mimicking a 2D fighting game, to both characters utilising gardening tools to combat some dastardly plants etc etc, none of the ideas seem to outstay their welcome, and they're all so different that repetition never once sets in.  I think the game is the perfect length too.  

 

It Takes Two might just be that game that you can recommend to that person in your life who just doesn't 'get' your hobby, because it's so accessible without being too easy, and will require real teamwork to get through, none of which ever feels like a chore.  Because it's such TREMENDOUS fun.  I played this with my 11 year old daughter.  Also, my 15 year old stepdaughter played it with her boyfriend - all 4 of us chose different levels as our favourites, and all 4 of us have been waxing lyrical about the entire experience to others.

 

It Takes Two is an absolute triumph for co-op gaming - the best co-op game I have ever played.  Not even the poor characters and incredibly ropey story can detract from the sheer quality of the gameplay.  This is brilliant.

 

9/10

[Quest]

Clock Tower - The First Fear (PS1)

 

 

Bunch of girls get adopted from the local orphanage and head off to a big owd spooky mansion in the woods. It goes about as well as you'd expect and within five minutes you're getting chased around by some little dickhead with a pair of scissors. It's much more of a point-n-click than the post-Resi action of Clock Tower 3, the only other game in the series I'd played up 'til now, but it has the basics of the same hide and seek gameplay loop.

 

The Argento/Simonetti influence is pretty blatant throughout. They didn't even try to disguise the fact that the main character is just Jennifer Connelly in Phenomena, but they did a solid job of evoking the right tone with such a limited palette.

 

An enjoyable evening's gaming, really. It's very short -  you could probably run through it in half hour if you know what you're doing - but there are multiple endings, many of which you'll stumble into as a result of the trial and error nature of the game. 

 

Finger Flashing (PS1)

 

 

One of maybe sixteen million landfill Japanese puzzle games made for the PS1. You play a little mage walking up a road. Heading towards you are some monsters - hitting x kills the red ones, square kills the blue and circle kills the green. Hit a monster with the wrong spell and it makes more of them. 

 

This is an annoying, overly difficult game and I hate it, but for some reason I kept returning for further punishment. I'll consider it completed because I make the rules and who the fuck is finishing games like this? I don't even know if there is an ending.

 

January

 

11/01 - Clock Tower - The First Fear (PS1)

11/01 - Finger Flashing (PS1)

10/01 - Mon Amour (Switch)

10/01- Psy-O-Blade (Mega Drive)

08/01 - Romeo + Juliet (Mac)

08/01 - BLACK BIRD (Switch)

04/01 - The Pedestrian (Series X)

03/01 - Paper Mario: The Origami King (Switch)

03/01 - Sonic Generations (Series X)

01/01 - How We Know We're Alive (Mac)

[strawdonkey]

On 03/01/2022 at 23:55, strawdonkey said:

2021/65a. Star Hunter DX (Space Cadet, 1CC, 19.3mil)

01. The Artful Escape

02. Rhythm Doctor

03. Monolith

 

Imagine Enter The Gungeon, only instead of enemies firing a glob of bullets at you, they fire Real Actual Bullet Patterns. Let's compare:

 

Enter the Gungeon:

 

- Everything is guns

- Many of the guns are crap

- Does not reference the Nimbus

 

Monolith:

 

- Everything is weird and  a cat sells you guns

- Almost all of the guns are quite good

- Defeating a miniboss displays the message "THE NIMBUS HAS BEEN BROKEN"

Jokes aside, I played a bunch of Gungeon but there were just so many unsatisfying runs - be it all the guns being shit, not having enough keys for the Mezzanine, etc. Monolith very rarely does this - it's a room-by-room roguelike shooter too but the complex bullet patterns are predictable, and that allows them to stick a bunch more on screen at once. This is especially true for the later bosses, as they'll be putting tons on screen at all times and it's always about finding the appropriate lane to squeeze in to.

 

There's five floors to Monolith, but after your first 5F clear you earn a seal, and have to find the other three to gain access to the sixth floor and the True Last Boss. It got to a point where I was able to reliably get the 5F clear and was getting my teeth kicked in on the sixth floor, but part of this is down to the fact that there's no shop or powerups on the final floor, meaning that you really need to come through the first five relatively unscathed so that you're prepared for the end. 

 

Getting access to the other three seals is also really interesting - one of them is just purchsed from the main lobby shopkeeper, but the other two are really interesting one-time fights and a real step up from anything else you've seen at that point.

 

So yeah - if you liked ETG or Nuclear Throne, you'll probably like this too. If you didn't quite get on with those, this might just be the game that you're looking for in the genre, as it's different enough to fix almost all of the problems I had with it. Though it is still really difficult, as the 21+ hours I spent on it would suggest...

https://store.steampowered.com/app/603960/Monolith/

Oh yeah and there's DLC, so look forward to that in this thread at a later date!

[James Lyon]

First game of the year. I took a break from endless Forza Horizon accolade chasing when I saw this had been added to Game Pass.

 

It's hard to explain in words, but you're effectively moving around and zooming in and out of a set of four graphic novel type panels to connect elements of the pictures together. Like something that makes up one part of a picture can be joined to something similar in another panel to make a new path.

 

The game can be as befuddling as that explanation at times but I found it soon clicked. It's a fascinating feat with some neat visual tricks and worth a couple of plays through to get how it all works once you know the puzzles. Conveniently there are achievements to provide incentive for that including one where you have to complete the game in under 30 minutes, appropriately called But Why. Naturally, I did it and enjoyed it all. Seriously, there's nothing like it out there. You've 'Gorogoa' play this game (geddit!?).

[keptbybees]

2 games down to start of the year:

 

1: There is No Game: Wrong Dimension (PC)

 

I played the demo/first version of this last year and loved concept. Then I was reminded that there was a full game version available after looking over the final 2021 completed games lists, where a couple of people on the forum had played it and liked it. Picked it up in the Steam Sale and went through the game in just a few days.  I'm not sure how I'd classify the gameplay, I guess Point and Click puzzle game. It even has a great section which pays homage to the classic Point and Click games of the 90's, including a direct Monkey Island reference. The script is well written and genuinely funny, it also moves at a good pace between the different sections/ideas. There was only one puzzle that I was stuck on for a while which seemed a little obtuse, but some of that was down to the way I initially approached it, and one section towards the end which I found really annoying due to the controls (see spoiler box below). Overall, really good and highly recommended to puzzle/Point and Click fans.

 

Spoiler

The section in question was where you had to keep Mr. Glitch away from the task bar while the creator was typing. I found it really hard to grab them and the hitbox for them seemed to not be very consistent making the process much more frustrating then it needed to be, but It is definitely only a minor blemish.

 

2: The Pedestrian (PC - Gamepass)

 

I hadn't heard much about the content of this game but after a friend of mine said good things about it I decided to give it a go, especially with it being on game pass. The aim is to help your character to get through various puzzle screens which take place upon a variety of signs which in some cases you can move around the screen as the orientation is important. These puzzles are set out as a journey with the backgrounds showing the change in locations as you move on through the game. These are very well done and there are some lovely touches implemented for how the puzzles are presented, the flow in changing backgrounds also helps give a sense of progress to what is really a series of set puzzle rooms. It also introduces the different elements well in the main, I only had some issues getting the paint mechanic, and again introduces these elements at a good rate.

 

I can't remember where I read it but I've seen it said before that the mark of a good puzzle game is one that aids you in solving them whilst still giving you the satisfaction of feeling you overcame the puzzle through your own workings. The Pedestrian isn't too difficult but had a lot of those satisfying 'a-ha' moments when I'd finally worked out something that had me stumped for a while. The game is fairly short (about 4 hours) but this feels about right and it is easy to drop in and out of. There are no manual saves, but the checkpoints are pretty well spaced and you never lose too much progress when restarting.

[Darren]

The year's off to a good start!

 

1. The Forgotten City

 

As others have said, this is a delight. A time loop detective story done absolutely right. I was thinking about it when I wasn't playing it, which is always a good sign that a game's got its hooks in you.

 

2. Gorogoa

 

I played this a few years ago (on Switch or Vita, I can't remember which) but now it's on Game Pass so I did it again. It's a brilliant graphical puzzle game that seems mind-bending at first, but soon clicks, even as it constantly throws surprising new twists into the mix right up to the end.

 

3. Firewatch

 

This was another that quickly got its hooks into me. It's a first-person story-driven adventure and the story is really good! So I feel like I don't want to say much about it. If you have Game Pass, give it a go.

 

Spoiler

1. The Forgotten City

2. Gorogoa

3. Firewatch

 

[Varsity]

This thread keeps giving me more games to start up lol, stop finishing games people!!! 

[Quest]

Wolf Fang - Kuuga 2001 (PS1)

 

 

PS1 release of a 1991 Data East arcade game, an autoscrolling hybrid run-and-gun/shoot-em-up thing. 

 

This is some good shit. If you ever wanted to slide down a dusty hillside in a big blue mech whilst firing rockets wildly into the air, this is the game for you. Plus, you get to build said mech from a bunch of parts at the beginning of the game AND choose branching paths across the distant-future Australasia of 2001, leading to a fistful of different endings. 

 

13/01 - Wolf Fang - Kuuga 2001 (PS1)

11/01 - Clock Tower - The First Fear (PS1)

11/01 - Finger Flashing (PS1)

10/01 - Mon Amour (Switch)

10/01- Psy-O-Blade (Mega Drive)

08/01 - Romeo + Juliet (Mac)

08/01 - BLACK BIRD (Switch)

04/01 - The Pedestrian (Series X)

03/01 - Paper Mario: The Origami King (Switch)

03/01 - Sonic Generations (Series X)

01/01 - How We Know We're Alive (Mac)

[Quest]

Finished another one. Had to sit around waiting for a delayed train for a few hours, so I bombed through all of this in a single session on my old DS Lite.

 

Densetsu no Stafy (GBA)

 

 

Nintendo-published platformer developed by Tose. The Kirby influence is pretty apparent in how breezy and adorable everything is, but there's more of an emphasis on light fetch-quests and mini games, a good half of which are seem to be variations on Breakout for some reason. Still, Starfy himself has a nice moveset of spin-dashes and glides so it never feels like a chore, and was enjoyable enough that I might eventually check out some of the follow-ups.

 

January:

Spoiler

13/01 - Densetsu no Stafy (GBA)

13/01 - Wolf Fang - Kuuga 2001 (PS1)

11/01 - Clock Tower - The First Fear (PS1)

11/01 - Finger Flashing (PS1)

10/01 - Mon Amour (Switch)

10/01- Psy-O-Blade (Mega Drive)

08/01 - Romeo + Juliet (Mac)

08/01 - BLACK BIRD (Switch)

04/01 - The Pedestrian (Series X)

03/01 - Paper Mario: The Origami King (Switch)

03/01 - Sonic Generations (Series X)

01/01 - How We Know We're Alive (Mac)

 

[BabelRich]

11/01 - Rise of the Tomb Raider

 

Thank you Epic. Missed this originally and been waiting for it to maybe come back on to one of the subscription services but thanks to my brand new middling PC and Epic's bottomless pockets I was finally able to chalk it off. 

 

Gameplay is very much a continuation from the reboot i.e. Uncharted with a British accent. It's fine; melee combat feels very mushy and unfocused but gunplay is tidy enough if a bit too frequent.

 

I remember Jeff Goldblum asking about the reboot if they thought their Tomb Raider game might actually contain, y'know' some tombs to raid; well thankfully Jeff a welcome addition to Rise is bigger more puzzley tombs. There are only 9 but they are a highlight of the game for me.

 

Another nice addition (subtraction?) is the reduction in torture porn. Gone are most of Lara's grizzly death cut-scenes, replaced with bog standard death animations. They still put the poor girl through some shit but it's mostly just everything she touches collapsing.

 

The acting is good but the story is pretty pants. Lara wants to proved MacGuffin exists to absolve her father. Twist you see coming a mile off. Team up with people who know you're after MacGuffin they protect because you're not quite as bad as the other guys who are after it. Another twist so telegraphed it arrived on 1880's note paper just after the Delorean was hit by lightning. Unsatisfying end.

 

Glad I played it, but liked the first one better 7/10.

 

 

Spoiler

07/01 - Sam & Max Beyond Time and Space 9/10

 

[MikeF]

Let’s see how many games I can finish this year. I’m putting them in 2 categories. These being Platinum / 100% achieved and just finishing the game

 

January

Little Nightmares 2 PS5 - Platinum

Dirt 5 PS4 - Platinum

Dirt 5 PS5 - Platinum

The Long Reach PS4 - Platinum

Uncharted The Lost Legacy PS4 - Platinum 

Resident Evil Village PS5 - Platinum 

Outlast PS4 - 100%
Cyberpunk 2077 PS4 - Platinum

 

[RubberJohnny]

First Game of the year:

 

Gorogoa - Really enjoyed this and mainlined it in one session (it's only like an hour, 90 minutes or so), basically a point and click adventure, this is something that would only really work in 2D, with your character jumping into images, between different scales, real and imaginary scenes and so on.

[Jamie John]

15 minutes ago, MikeF said:

Let’s see how many games I can finish this year. I’m putting them in 2 categories. These being Platinum / 100% achieved and just finishing the game

 

January

Little Nightmares 2 PS5 - Platinum

Dirt 5 PS4 - Platinum

Dirt 5 PS5 - Platinum

The Long Reach PS4 - Platinum

Uncharted The Lost Legacy PS4 - Platinum 

Resident Evil Village PS5 - Platinum 

Outlast PS4 - 100%
Cyberpunk 2077 PS4 - Platinum

 

 

Blimey. I take it you started playing some of these last year?

[spanx]

3. The Forgotten City

 

Well I have started the year well, three games already complete. This was a strange one, really wasn’t sure after the first couple of hours but it eventually gripped me. And wow, very glad I stuck with it, just a wonderfully designed small world, quite simple but also rewarding when you get an aha moment. 
 

Controls and graphics wise it’s a bit ropey but can be very beautiful, and I thought the sound work and voice acting was pretty good throughout. 
 

Got the “canon ending” so might go back and see if I can get some of the others. 
 

8/10

 

previously, etc…

Spoiler

Completed

 

1.Return of the Obra Dinn (02/01)

2.The Artful Escape (08/01)

3.The Forgotten City (13/01)

 

Playing

 

1.Flight Simulator

2.Shapez.io

3.Forza Horizon 5

 

Abandoned

 

1.Halo Infinite (03/01)

2.The Outer Wilds (09/01)

 

[gossi the dog]

11/01 - Song of Memories (PS4) - rather odd visual novel combined with RPG elements and rhythm action battles. However, you only get to see the RPG elements if you unlock a characters extended storyline. I didn't and so ended up with the standard group ending, no RPG elements and the grand total of two battles. I spent over an hour trying to correct my choices to unlock an extended ending, failed and can't be bothered to go back. So in a way abandoned but I did see the end credits after the standard ending so counting as complete.

[ImmaculateClump]

Nekotosakana - 1cc

[matt0]

Mortal Shell (Xbox One)

 

Played it as a warm up for Elden Ring - I wanted a souls-like I was reasonably confident I could finish relatively quickly. It's good, but "just" good in a genre defined by titans. Things like enemy placement and design, level design and interconnectedness, bosses etc. pale in comparison to Dark Souls. The environments do look fantastic most of the time, although I found the hub area borderline impossible to navigate as it's all barely distinguishable forest paths. It's pretty short, took me just under 20 hours, but I reckon if you're a Souls veteran you could polish it off in half the time. Combat has some weird redundancy issues as there's a parry - with inscrutable timing, I thought it was just me but reading online it seems nobody could figure it out, even Sekiro masters... - but your block is a one shot ability on a cool down and is effectively a parry too. Then a huge amount of the character abilities and objects give you buffs and enemy debuffs that only trigger on parrying so... *blows raspberry*

 

Lots of morbid, abstract world building which I appreciated, obscure item purposes to figure out, clever interactions with NPCs, surprise twists and game changing decisions to be made. As far as these lesser souls-likes go It didn't get under my skin like Ashen did, but I still had a good time.

 

 

[Quest]

14/01 - Bulk Slash (Saturn)

 

 

Easily among the more impressive 3D action games on the Saturn, at least of those I've played over the years. You pilot a big mech that can snap between walker and plane forms, taking on simple objectives that largely amount to blowing up all robots great and small. Go here, shoot that up, go over there, do the same, repeat until sirens start blaring and the big boss turns up for a ruckus. 

The controls take a bit of getting used to but I think this has aged really well. It runs at a fair clip, the music's all S-tier heat and it has this vibrant mid-90s presentation that still appeals. Each stage has a unique navigator to be found who'll help with locating objectives and give some gameplay bonuses. They're largely familiar anime tropes of the era but they do add a bit of flavour to each playthrough.

 

Special mention to the fan translation here. As an action game with simple objectives it would've been playable to non-Japanese speakers already, but it's nice to see a translation team really go hard on nailing the tone so authentically. 

 

January:

Spoiler

14/01 - Bulk Slash (Saturn)

13/01 - Densetsu no Stafy (GBA)

13/01 - Wolf Fang - Kuuga 2001 (PS1)

11/01 - Clock Tower - The First Fear (PS1)

11/01 - Finger Flashing (PS1)

10/01 - Mon Amour (Switch)

10/01- Psy-O-Blade (Mega Drive)

08/01 - Romeo + Juliet (Mac)

08/01 - BLACK BIRD (Switch)

04/01 - The Pedestrian (Series X)

03/01 - Paper Mario: The Origami King (Switch)

03/01 - Sonic Generations (Series X)

01/01 - How We Know We're Alive (Mac)

 

[bear]

Costume Quest:Grubbins on Ice

 

 

Its another two hours of Costume Quest but with a winter setting. I'm glad I didn't jump straight from the main game to this as they don't do anything to really expand on the  mechanics of the main game. Theres a few spots where you use the suit powers from the main game again but its very straightforward. I'm glad I've finally Costume Quest off my to-do list. I've had the game installed on my 360, Xboxone S, Xboxone X and most recently Series X for over ten years without actually playing it until recently. 

6/10

 

 

 

[MikeF]

January

Little Nightmares 2 PS5 - Platinum

Dirt 5 PS4 - Platinum

Dirt 5 PS5 - Platinum

The Long Reach PS4 - Platinum

Uncharted The Lost Legacy PS4 - Platinum 

Resident Evil Village PS5 - Platinum 

Outlast PS4 - 100%
Cyberpunk 2077 PS4 - Platinum

Greak Memories of Azur PS5 - Completed main game, speedrun trophy means that's as far as I am going so its completed as far as I am concerened

[Jackson]

Sonic Mania

Really enjoyed it but it the last few levels all blurred into one slog. Cool music though!

[Gambit]

14/01 - Resident Evil 3

 

Maybe controversial opinion....but I really want Capcom to ditch the first person and go back to third person, making a new game in this style rather than remaking their old catalogue. Started off quite frustrating, but once the Nemesis didn't chase you around constantly it became pretty great. Another controversial opinion, but I found Mr X ruined RE2 for me. I like the puzzles and regular enemies, I don't want to keep doing laps around tables in order to avoid a giant monster man. God, I hope they don't add that mechanic to the rumoured RE4 remake.

 

Anyway, RE3. Good bit of RE nonsense from an era where it was proper B movie schlock. 

 

8/10

 

Spoiler

January

5/1 - Starfox 64

 

[Varsity]

28 minutes ago, Gambit said:

14/01 - Resident Evil 3

 

Maybe controversial opinion....but I really want Capcom to ditch the first person and go back to third person, making a new game in this style rather than remaking their old catalogue.

 

 

Agree tbh. Working my way through village still atm and while I'm now used to the first person perspective it still feels very janky and sluggish in places. 

 

[strawdonkey]

On 11/01/2022 at 10:17, strawdonkey said:

2021/65a. Star Hunter DX (Space Cadet, 1CC, 19.3mil)

01. The Artful Escape

02. Rhythm Doctor

03. Monolith

04. Higurashi When They Cry - Ch.2 Watanagashi

 

Man what the fuck. This series took a real turn.

 

So much of this game is just setup, or nonsense. It focuses on a group of teenagers in a remote village, and easily the first half of the game is 95% fluff and 5% Actual Important Stuff. And then it just... changes gears and is constant madness. I'll write some spoilers tomorrow, becuase trying to explain any of this without spoiling it is basically impossible.

 

But I'm absolutely riveted. It's page-turning, thriller horror nonsense and I absolutely love it. Also there's absolutely no game there unless "controlling how fast the text scrolls" counts as a game... Maybe there'll be a decision in a few games time and it will fuck me up entirely.

 

[edit] absolutely packed with spoilers:

 

Spoiler

Not kidding

Spoiler

The first game has you digging into an incident that happens at a Dam construction project. A couple of your friends attempt to murder you, you escape and kill them in self-defence before committing suicide under the influence of a mystery substance. You know, regular small village stuff.

 

This second game, it's presumably an alternate timeline since you're kind of alive again. There's a ton of scene-setting where you observe a bunch of teenagers doing stupid shit, with tiny moments of really important stuff that you'll totally miss to begin with. This game also introduces a new character, who's the twin sister of one of your regular crew; to begin with it's sold that they'r ethe same person, as other than some slight sprite differences both sisters act in a way that heavily suggests they're the same person; then you run in to both of them at once just as you're becoming absolutely convinced that they're the same person and it's pitched brilliantly.

 

Then, things start getting weird; you sneak in to a warehouse and find some worrying historical stuff, then one of your the people you snuck in with shows up in a barrel having been set on fire, another one having apparently taken their own life, then other figures from around the village who were related to the trespass start to disappear night by night.

 

Then the police casually drop the info that your classmate is the heir to a yakuza family, anyone you tell about trespassing in the storehouse vanishes, and the game culminates with you discovering that she claims to have been possessed by a demon and has been performing ritual sacrifice with all the people from the village who disappeared. 

 

For reference, within the first few acts you play in a boardgame tournament and sabotage your classmates' curry in home economics class. To say that things escalate quickly is an understatement.

I did a bit more reading up on what's in the series - there's eight games total (I previously thought there were only six). The first four are considered the "Question Arc" and the last four are considered the "Answer Arc" and I can only assume that means that the next two games, at least, are going to be utterly insane. There's still a ton of things that need more fleshing out.

 

 

[Sprite Machine]

1.) Lego City Undercover - PC - 2017 (2013)

Completed all the story levels in about ten hours... then spent another thirty or so hours attempting to 100% everything. Gave up around 90% because, my god, it becomes a slog. I don't know why I keep doing this to myself with Lego games - I think it's because there's no well-defined cut-off point where you stop seeing new and clever level design and just get to the tedious collectathons; it's all mingled together so you never know whether to stop or keep looking for the next thing. I had to stop, it was sucking the life out of me.

 

Lego City Undercover answers the burning question of "can a Lego game still be good even if it's not based on a film or franchise property", and the answer is... "nyeeaah... sort of". It gets a pass for having a stonkingly good script that's actually really funny while still being kid-friendly. The jobs/disguises aren't as memorable as donning a superhero suit or playing as a Jedi/wizard, but they're fine. Just to navigate in interesting ways, you end up with weird shit like a farmer who can float using a chicken. It's a bit stop/start, there's too many little unskippable animations and cutscenes, and the co-op mode has obviously been put in as an afterthought as you play a duplicate of the main dude. But I enjoyed it a fair bit before it started getting tedious. Probably the biggest and most 'stuff-filled' Lego game I've played, although I've got a few newer ones still to try.

[Gambit]

15/01 - The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles

 

About 4 months later, I finally wrap up this epic collection. Love the new characters, setting and the plot all came together perfectly in the final case of the second game. With that said, I feel like I'm not in a place in my life anymore where I can sit down and blast through it in the same way I was with the original Phoenix Wright stuff on DS. Hence why it's taken me ages to get through them. It's just a bit too long and meandering in places. Needed to be a bit more tighter and it would've been challenging for all my awards of last year. As it stands, it's good, and I hope there's more of this type of game....but man....it's loooooooong.

 

7/10

 

Spoiler

January

05/01 - Starfox 64

14/01 - Resident Evil 3

 

[ImmaculateClump]

Moon Dancer - Normal 1cc

 

Spoiler

Nekotosakana - 1cc

[Quest]

 15/01 - Shinobi III (Mega Drive)

 

 

While there's undoubtedly some of that ever so deadly nostalgia at work, there aren't many Mega Drive games I still find as engrossing from start to finish as this. A relentless rush of action scenes that has you galloping across the windswept plains, striding through the blazing forest, decking a house-sized mutant in the sewer and, well, errr, doing some radical ninja surfing. It was 1993 after all, and these are the things that dreams are made of when you're nine (and also when you're very much no longer nine). 

 

Just a light easy mode run this time around as I'm a bit flu-addled and brain-fogged right now. Might try to finish off something more sedate like New Pokemon Snap.

 

January:

Spoiler

15/01 - Shinobi III (Mega Drive)

14/01 - Bulk Slash (Saturn)

13/01 - Densetsu no Stafy (GBA)

13/01 - Wolf Fang - Kuuga 2001 (PS1)

11/01 - Clock Tower - The First Fear (PS1)

11/01 - Finger Flashing (PS1)

10/01 - Mon Amour (Switch)

10/01- Psy-O-Blade (Mega Drive)

08/01 - Romeo + Juliet (Mac)

08/01 - BLACK BIRD (Switch)

04/01 - The Pedestrian (Series X)

03/01 - Paper Mario: The Origami King (Switch)

03/01 - Sonic Generations (Series X)

01/01 - How We Know We're Alive (Mac)

 

[ImmaculateClump]

Moon Dancer - Hard 1cc (no miss)

 

Spoiler

Nekotosakana - 1cc

Moon Dancer - Normal 1cc

[Unofficial Who]

Jan

 

16/01 The Forgotten City (PC) I like time loop games in theory. But in practice I find them frustrating things, massive puzzle boxes with too many moving parts that need to be kept in mind with all your progress getting wiped at the start of each loop. The Forgotten City does everything right. In some respects it's like The Outer Wilds where the knowledge retained is the most essential tool in your inventory. But then the game does some other clever things which I'm not going to spoil here to reduce and even negate the usual frustration one deals with in games of this sort. There's a lot of talking heads and until you become invested in the characters it's a bit of overload but given the limited population of the city you spend subsequent runs learning more and more. If I had played this earlier it would have been in my top three for game of the year, if you have GamePass you owe it to yourself to give it a shot. This will be remembered as one of the greats in digital narrative design.

 

 

Earlier this month

09/01 Mr Driller Drill Land (PC)

07/01 Olija (PC)

07/01 It's a Knockout! (C64) 

02/01 Katamari Damacy REROLL (PC)

 

Abandoned games

04/01 YIIK: A Postmodern RPG