Beaten In 2023

[Az]

22. Kasumi Ninja (Atari Jaguar) 10/30
23. Final Vendetta (Xbox One) 11/18
24. Champion Wrestler (Arcade) 11/19
25. Dead Rising 2: Case Zero (Xbox 360) 11/23
26. Saturday Night Slam Masters (Genesis) 12/03
27. Ultra Vortek (Atari Jaguar) 12/10

Champion Wrestler was an odd duck. I had never played it before, first match I lost by TKO when the timer ran out. Restarted the game and proceeded to get a 1CC...(!). It's very basic (along the lines of Mat Mania or NES Pro Wrestling) but it's still enjoyable.. Slam Masters left me underwhelmed. The whole thing was just Final Fight with less screen real estate. Maybe the tag match spinoff that has a dedicated grapple button fares a bit better.

Both Ultra Vortek and Kasumi Ninja were nice to play for the first time. Both require you to play on a higher difficulty level to face the final boss and get a real ending. Ultra Vortek has possibly the shittiest method of padding by making you play 3-in-1 endurance matches against all black "shadow" clones of existing characters, all while against a drab brick wall background. I can enjoy both for being trashy diversions but I'd say the joke would lose it's punchline if I had actually paid $50 each for them back in the day.

[Az]

28. Return of Double Dragon (SFC) 12/26

Managed to sneak one last entry in before the end of the year.

The recent rerelease of Super Double Dragon and Double Dragon Advance piqued my interest because SDD has an option to increase the game speed up to x2 (all while keeping music and sounds at regular speed). I was debating on buying it so I went back and played the original for a refresher. I had never played the superior SFC version, so I tried the "Kencho Hacks" version of it along with patching some Game Genie codes in to arrange the music back to the US release. The Kencho Hacks version has some great quality-of-life improvements that make the game a lot better; normal blocking, easier weapon swaps, changed control scheme, just all around positives.

However, I had forgot how much of a slog SDD is. It's in such an unfinished state that it makes it feel like a homebrew demo or prototype. I'm sure the adjustable speed in the modern release probably makes the game much better, but not enough to make me want to play it more than once every few years. Long, flat, boring stages combined with fighting the same 3 enemies over and over just don't cut it. There's a hundred fan-made OBOR mods that are better than SDD in every way.

[Aussie2B]

1. SWAT Police (Arcade via MAME) 2/2
2. Gurumin: A Monstrous Adventure (PSP) 2/7
3. Barney's Hide & Seek Game (Genesis) 2/24
4. Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake (MSX via Vita Metal Gear Solid HD Collection) 3/8
5. TwinBee Da! (PSP) 3/10
6. Detana! TwinBee (PSP) 3/13
7. TwinBee Yahho! (PSP) 3/16
8. TwinBee (PSP) 3/19
9. Brain Lord (SNES) 4/27
10. Akumajou Special: Boku Dracula-kun (FC/NES) 5/8
11. BoxBoxBoy! (3DS) 5/16
12. Code:Realize ~Guardian of Rebirth~ (Vita) 6/26
13. Mario Kart: Super Circuit (GBA) 7/24
14. Dance Dance Revolution: Disney Dancing Museum (N64) 10/13
15. Fuga: Melodies of Steel (PC) 10/27
16. Phobos Dere .GB (GB) 11/6
17. Imagine Figure Skater (DS) 12/6
18. Gaia Seed: Project Seed Trap (PlayStation via Vita PSOne Classics) 12/30

I squeezed in one last beaten game too. I could've counted it earlier, as you get a credits roll even after clearing the first four stages in Practice mode, and getting credits is usually my bar for considering a game beaten, but that would just feel like cheating here. So I'm counting the day I actually earned an ending by completing all seven stages.