Beaten in 2015

[JSoup]

Continuing the tradition, here is this years topics. Keep track of your beaten games and have a nice discussion as well.

Previous years:
2003 (http://forum.digitpress.com/forum/showthread.php?23724-What-have-you-beaten-this-year-2003), 2005 (http://forum.digitpress.com/forum/showthread.php?51796-Beaten-In-2005), 2006 (http://forum.digitpress.com/forum/showthread.php?76644-Beaten-in-2006), 2007 (http://forum.digitpress.com/forum/showthread.php?94816-Beaten-in-2007), 2008 (http://forum.digitpress.com/forum/showthread.php?110989-Beaten-in-2008), 2009 (http://forum.digitpress.com/forum/showthread.php?126342-Beaten-in-2009), 2010 (http://forum.digitpress.com/forum/showthread.php?139708-Beaten-in-2010), 2011 (http://forum.digitpress.com/forum/showthread.php?150161-Beaten-in-2011), 2012 (http://forum.digitpress.com/forum/showthread.php?159063-Beaten-in-2012), 2013 (http://forum.digitpress.com/forum/showthread.php?165621-Beaten-in-2013) & 2014 (http://forum.digitpress.com/forum/showthread.php?170509-Beaten-in-2014).

[Rickstilwell1]

Last year I was on a roll in the beginning but then it slowed down a lot due to all the long RPGs. Still, lots of progress was made. Here's hoping we all make lots of game progress this new year!

1. Final Fantasy VII - PS1
2. Suikoden II - PS1
3. Incredible Crisis - PS1
4. Oddworld: Abe's Exoddus - PS1
5. The Legend of Dragoon - PS1
6. Keith Courage in Alpha Zones - TG16
7. Tetris - CD-I
8. Final Fantasy Mystic Quest - SNES
9. Donkey Kong Land III - GB
10. Donkey Kong 64 - N64
11. Pokemon Red Version - GB
12. Mole Mania - GB
13. Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3 - GB
14. Pokemon Yellow Version - GB
15. The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening DX - GBC
16. Yoshi's Safari - SNES
17. King's Field II - PS1

[Collector_Gaming]

I guess I'll start it off.

Alan Wake 1/2 PC

I technically beat it last year but I wanted to finish american nightmare and those 2 extra levels that came with the original game. Which I just finished

The game was Alright. Graphically it was really good. Sound was really good. The story was really good. But there was one thing that bugged the shit out of me. and the extra levels proved my point.

The game is retardedly hard! And I mean retardedly hard!
I had it set on normal. Everything just felt like alot of trial and error. Almost felt like I was playing a modernized NES Game when it came to difficulty.
Another thing I found annoying. But maybe I am just dumb. Is the whole flashlight thing wasn't quite spelled out to me in the beginning. Like I would keep shooting at enemies trying to figure out why they wouldn't die or take so many shots to kill..... Until towards the end then I was like "oh...... thats what I am suppose to do with that." which made things a little easier but still retardedly hard!

I get some people like that kinda thing but its a story driven game... Not a classic style platformer I would expect a little more of helping hand here but whatever.

7/10

[AceAerosmith]

1. Vegas Stakes (SNES) 01/13/15 - Won $10,000,000. Yay.
2. Super Star Wars (SNES) 01/13/15
3. Revolution X (SNES) 01/17/15
4. Quake 4 (360) 02/09/15
5. Star Wars: Episode I - Battle For Naboo (N64) 02/14/15

[ProjectCamaro]

Sniper Elite III - Xbox One

[Nionel]

1. D4: Dark Dreams Don't Die

This was an interesting game. I was a little disappointed by how short it was, but I guess it's to be expected with this type of game. Here's hoping that more episodes get made in the future, because I am interested to see where the story will go.

[Emperor Megas]

Mass Effect - normal difficulty (XBOX360) 01/15
Bioshock - normal difficulty (XBOX360) 01/27

[Arkanoid_Katamari]

1. Cruis'n USA - N64

I needed a break from Majora's Mask. This games a fun arcade port, but what throws me off is that you tour across country racing in different spots, but there's like 18 races in California, and maybe 7 in the rest of the country. Plus they shoulda done a race in nyc, instead they ended the game in Washington dc

[Nionel]

1. D4: Dark Dreams Don't Die
2. Pokemon Alpha Sapphire

I was actually really surprised by this game. I was never a huge fan of Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald on the GBA, but something about this game just feels a lot better, and I'm not sure what it is. The game feels even more polished than 2012's Pokemon X and Y. This game certainly has my hoping for something big in the new Pokemon games, espeially if they can polish this engine within just one year.

[fahlim003]

I've cleared the first phase of Resident Evil 2 on Dreamcast this evening. I plan to go through Claire B to go with Leon A since the idea of the game is fresh in my mind. I recently picked it up although it's not my first time going through - a few years ago I downloaded and recorded a playable beta build of the game for PlayStation and got as far as the entry to the sewers that time around. For whatever reason I abandoned it there so I'm satisfied to have seen it through to completion this time. As with a lot of Capcom conversions, not much frills in the DC release but improved resolution, textures/models, and loading all work for me. Leon A was completed in 4:26 with a C rank and 21 saves. A good game I have thus far enjoyed.

[Emperor Megas]

Mass Effect - normal difficulty (XBOX360) 01/15
Bioshock - normal difficulty (XBOX360) 01/27

[Aussie2B]

1. Donkey Kong Country (SNES) 1/14
2. planetarian ~the reverie of a little planet~ (PC) 1/28

I wasn't very good about documenting what I played/beat last year, although, to be honest, I played extremely little and beat even less so there wasn't much to document. I probably played games less in 2014 than I have in any year since, like, the early 90s when I didn't own or have access to any systems for a brief window. But I'm hoping to play, beat, and record more this year.

In honor of the 20th anniversary of the release of Donkey Kong Country, which I acquired on launch day, I decided to give it a replay, and for the first time in those 20 years, I got 101%. It's not a difficult feat, but it feels like a pretty notable accomplishment to me (I had always messed up on that secret within a secret, so I never got higher than 100%). I hope my grandma would be happy that I'm still enjoying her gift to me all these years later. That's a guesstimate on when I beat it, though. I know it was around a couple weeks ago, but I don't remember the precise date and probably got it slightly off. Tonight I completed planetarian, which I nabbed on Steam just recently. I also backed the Clannad localization Kickstarter, so I've been in a Key kind of mood. planetarian isn't so much a "game" really; they call it a "kinetic novel". Unlike other visual novels, there are no choices to be made whatsoever. It's purely a point A to point B story to sit and read, with accompanying visuals, music, and voice acting. I think I prefer visual novels that offer multiple options, routes, and endings, but this was enjoyable too.

[bb_hood]

NES games beaten in 2015:
Jan:
Sweet Home

Feb:
Zelda Outlands
Destiny of an Emperor
Rockman
Rockman 2
Rockman 3
Rockman 4
Rockman 5
Rockman 6
Ducktales
Ducktales 2
Chip & Dale Rescue Rangers
Chip & Dale 2
Darkwing Duck
Adventures of Lolo
Adventures of Lolo 2

March:
Adventures of Lolo 3
Kirby's Adventure (100%)
Metroid
Kid Icarus
Spelunker
Bionic Commando
Strider
Gun.Smoke
1943
Maniac Mansion (Razor/Bernard, Jeff/Michael)
Super Mario Bros. (both quests, no warps)
Super Mario Bros. 2 (no warps)
Super Mario Bros. 3 (no warps)
CastleVania
CastleVania 2
Milon's Secret Castle

April
CastleVania 3
Contra
Super C
Gyruss
Jackal
Contra Force
Hi no Tori (Phoenix)

[Darkwing]

Super Metroid.



I didn't get to play it growing up; I only had the original Metroid, which I consider a "Nintendo Power game." Drew my own map as I played it each time, but I never did beat it. I've owned this one for a few years now, but hadn't gotten around to it. What a damn good game it is. Finished in around seven hours, so I got the second-best ending. Definitely a top 5 SNES game.

[Leo_A]

Command & Conquer for the PC is my first game to be completed in 2015.

[KlytusImBored]

Tales of Hearts R (1/18/2015)

This was my introduction to the Tales series. I've loved JRPGs my whole life, but for some reason never got into the Tales series. That is going to change now - I really enjoyed it. I went and picked up Tales of Vespieria since that seems to be the best judging by series regulars. If I like that one, then I'll probably try to collect the whole series.

[Captain_N77]

JAN
01) Cadash(TG16)

FEB
02) Contra(NES)

Well last year I finished 52 games, which averages out to 1 per week. So far this year I'm averaging 1 per month!

Cadash was fun, but nothing amazing. It was surprisingly short. I did like the world and little stories in the game.

Contra! Well, I had finished this as a kid using the Konami code, but wanted to dust off my copy and see if I could do it legit. I think it was my 4th try this morning and I was able to do it using only 1 continue. It's crazy how the game seemed unbeatable without the code as a kid, but took me less than 2 hours to do it now. Anyways, such a fun game and a true classic.

[Arkanoid_Katamari]

1. Cruis'n USA - N64

This games super short, kinda fun arcade racer, what confused me was most of the races are in California, and there's like 6 more across the U.S. and the tour ends in Washington Dc. His about a NYC track?

Oh well.

[Arkanoid_Katamari]

1. Cruis'n USA - N64
2. Alice: Madness Returns - 360
3. Forza Horizon 2 - 360

Stay away from fh 2 on 360, it's so short and disappointing. I think the Xbox One version is way better. Why do they hafta screw me??? Alice is an awesome game, I recommend it to everyone. It's weird and looks awesome, cool platforming but it does suffer at times from the monotony found in some hack n slash games. It's worth trudging through the battles, though. The story gets pretty crazy, and the gameplay does vary enough to keep it interesting, considering its a pretty long game.

[Tanooki]

I took down Adventure Time Why'd You Steal Our Garbage Ice King?! about a week ago. That game is just the right length with not an annoying level of backtracking that it's a real pleasure to play. I know the next in the line is a very well broken diablo light/zelda clone that failed, but I did see the third release took this style again but finally did it right so I have to get that eventually.

I haven't finished anything else this year though, but it's rare I finish much so this is a good start. I have no idea if I will finish the game I'm on now with 3DS or another I plan on getting in a couple months but we'll see as RPGs are easier for me on the small screen to commit to. Plus I need to quit being lazy about Kirby and Zelda on 3DS.

[The 1 2 P]

So far the only games I've beaten in 2015 are:

Halo: The Master Chief Collection(XBO)
The Walking Dead: Season 2 ep. 1(360)
" " ep. 2(360)
" " ep. 3(360)
" " ep. 4(360)
" " ep. 5(360)

I just haven't had as much time for gaming as I use to but currently I'm working on finishing Batman: Arkham City on 360 and Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare on Xbox One.

[Collector_Gaming]

Alan Wake 1/2 PC
Lego Batman 2 3/1 PC

Very fun game as all the lego series are!

[Emperor Megas]

Mass Effect - normal difficulty (XBOX360) 01/15
Bioshock - normal difficulty (XBOX360) 01/27
Bayonetta - normal difficulty (XBOX360) 03/02

I can't believe that I let these games marinate on my shelf for years. I honestly didn't realize just how amazing the 7th gen's offerings were. Bayonetta was just SO fun and over the top. So much fan service and off the wall camp. This game was an absolute BLAST.

[Arkanoid_Katamari]

Cruis'n USA - N64
Alice: Madness Returns - 360
Forza Horizon 2 - 360
Crash Bandicoot - PS1

I finally finished this classic, it's awesome, every playstation fan should play this. It's one game as a kid I never finished, I beat the others but never got to this one. Platforming classic, for sure.

[JSoup]

Late posting this.

1. Costume Quest 2 (Rebeat)

Pretty much the same as the Steam version, just slower.

[Captain_N77]

JAN
01) Cadash(TG16)

FEB
02) Contra(NES)
03) Bad Dudes(NES)
Knocked this one out a few weeks back. Fun, but not amazing or anything. I had a good time with it and definitely enjoyed the cheese.

MAR
04) Rival Turf(SNES)
I had rented this as a youngster and picked it up for my collection a few months ago. Played it with my brother and was kinda surprised at it's challenge. We played it again yesterday when he came by and made it further, but unfortunately our second attempt had to be cut short. So I sat down earlier with the intention of beating it and after a few tries made it. Definitely not on par with Final Fight or Streets of Rage, but still an enjoyable beat-em-up. Cool music and I really enjoyed the stadium level. Also enjoyed the cheese with this one.

[Emperor Megas]

Mass Effect - normal difficulty (XBOX360) 01/15
Bioshock - normal difficulty (XBOX360) 01/27
Bayonetta - normal difficulty (XBOX360) 03/02
The Walking Dead: Survival Instinct - (XBOX360) 03/09

[JSoup]

Looks like it's been a slow year so far for most of us.

1. Costume Quest 2 (Rebeat)

2. SigCorp - Holiday Special #2

Much shorter than the last one, but with plenty of creepy hooks. Looking forward to the next chapter. I'll be honest, it doesn't seem like this needed to be standalone. It's vastly shorter than the first one and is more of a museum than an actual game. I'm guessing the dev team ran out of time on part one or otherwise thought it was too long, so the split took place.

[Captain_N77]

@JSoup: Yes, it does seem like a slow year.

JAN
01) Cadash(TG16)

FEB
02) Contra(NES)
03) Bad Dudes(NES)

MAR
04) Rival Turf(SNES)
05) Macross 2036(PCE-CD)

Challenging at first when I played it last week for a few hours. Then today I boot it up and finish it(normal difficulty) on my first try. Very fun shmup with great music and some nice graphics. I like the powerup system and some of the boss battles. It's no Macross Scrambled Valkyrie(to me), but still a heck of a game.

[bb_hood]

Looks like it's been a slow year so far for most of us.



Not for me. Got soooo much snow last month, spent alot of time inside playing nintendo. Beat 23 nes games (so far) including Lolo 3 which took forever.
Actually got more snow this year then ever before in recorded history (or so they say..).

[Rickstilwell1]

I wouldn't say that. I've just been playing longer games. And I've been going into great detail into their completion. Raising the levels of all the characters, completing a game with each available character etc. and then not listing it here until I do.

[JSoup]

1. Costume Quest 2 (Rebeat)
2. SigCorp - Holiday Special #2

3. LEGO Batman 3: Beyond Gotham

I...what? It's not bad, really, has all the stuff I expected to see. Neat mini-models, clever stages, good music and funny references. It's just....really short story wise and the focus on Batman didn't seem needed. It's not the worst TT LEGO game I've played (and even the worst was still pretty good), but it's just not what I expected.

[FUZZY PICKLES!!!]

I'd figured I might as well keep this updated throughout 2015. I'll be editing this post each time I beat a game thought I might add an additional commentary should I feel like it towards a game:

1. F-zero X

By completion, I mean reaching the credits (or an equivalent if it's technically impossible to beat the game ala SimCity SNES).

[JSoup]

I'll be editing this post each time I beat a game

Don't feel like you have to, though. I know other forums limit these topics to one post per person, but we generally encourage list posting and open conversation. :D

[Rickstilwell1]

6. Keith Courage in Alpha Zones - TG16

I finally got a TurboGrafx-16 system again and actually took the time to play this game, completing it for the first time. Really it is an easy platformer considering you have unlimited continues. All it comes down to after that is trial and error as not to fall into the spike pits which kill you.

[Captain_N77]

JAN
01) Cadash(TG16)

FEB
02) Contra(NES)
03) Bad Dudes(NES)

MAR
04) Rival Turf(SNES)
05) Macross 2036(PCE-CD)

06) Metal Slug Advance(GBA)
My brother gave me this for Christmas years ago and I just now popped it in the GBA the other day. Finished it a few hours ago. Really fun little game. Not very difficult, but the last boss was a step up in difficulty compared to the rest of the game. There are a lot of collectibles throughout the game, but I'm not really interested in going back to collect them all.

[Dashopepper]

I made it through 3 games last weekend! It was nice to finally get around to some games I've been meaning to play.

Road Runner: Death Valley Rally (SNES) - Tying up some loose ends from my childhood. I also used infinite lives cheat. Ok game, some massive levels but gets cheap and confusing at the end hence the cheat.

Maniac Mansion (NES) - Tried to solve a lot of the puzzles myself but ended up using a guide for a lot of it. I can see the appeal of tooling around in the world 25 years ago but I thought I would really like it and found it kind of so-so.

The Space Adventure - Cobra: The Legendary Bandit (Sega CD) - I finally played a Sega CD game! I have 30+ Sega CD games and decided to play this one for something a bit different then what I'm used to playing. And wow is this "game" different. I'm not a follower of Anime but there seems to be a shocking amount of nudity, profanity and violence especially for a game from '95. Some parts were tedious but I liked the story (minus the ending) and world and found it very engaging and fun.

[bb_hood]

Maniac Mansion (NES) - Tried to solve a lot of the puzzles myself but ended up using a guide for a lot of it. I can see the appeal of tooling around in the world 25 years ago but I thought I would really like it and found it kind of so-so.



I beat Maniac Mansion twice yesterday myself, 1st with Razor and Bernard then with Michael and Jeff. I diddnt need to use a guide at all.
Its one of my personal favorites, some of the best music on the nes.
Plus you can put a hamster in the microwave... you tuna head.

[AceAerosmith]

1. Vegas Stakes (SNES) 01/13/15 - Won $10,000,000. Yay.
2. Super Star Wars (SNES) 01/13/15
3. Revolution X (SNES) 01/17/15
4. Quake 4 (360) 02/09/15
5. Star Wars: Episode I - Battle For Naboo (N64) 02/14/15
6. Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor (XB1) 03/25/15
7. Monster Madness - Battle For Suburbia (360) 03/30/15
8. Red Faction: Guerrilla (360) 04/06/15
9. Call of Juarez (360) 04/09/15

[Arkanoid_Katamari]

1. Cruis'n USA - N64
2. Alice: Madness Returns
3. Crash Bandicoot - PS1
4. Monster Party - NES

This is a great 8bit platformer. Prolly one of the weirdest, also. Very weird and funny, good gameplay, cool music, lotsa boss fights, altho lotsa them r pretty easy and one doesn't even fight u at all, its still very fun, and one I'll recommend to ppl now. What other game can u fight a fried shrimp tempura that then turns into an onion ring and then into a weird shush kabob? Strange

[Cornelius]

Never posted in these threads that I remember, but always thought I should.

Jan or Feb (can't remember)
Fallout NV and all DLC - I was playing this for a long long time.

March 29th
Zelda Link Between Worlds
Psychonauts

In a possible first for me, I finished two games in the same day. I managed to snag a Majora's Mask N3DS a few days ago, and finished ALBW on it (that head tracking is pretty nifty). This is probably the easiest Zelda game I've finished. I've been in a bad habit of looking stuff up when stuck the past few years, but for this game only looked up the location of one MaiMai, and I was stumped on how to get them out of trees and wound up looking up getting the boots. For Psychonauts I also avoided getting help, but I didn't get using the 'mental door' thing on people outside the mental institution and was totally stumped. Dumb. Anyway, Psychonauts was a weird mix of really creative stuff, surprising and new feeling level design/concepts, and... just not as much of a fun factor as it should have had. Not sure why. And then that last level, Meat Circus, was completely out of proportion in difficulty compared to the rest of the game.

[Leo_A]

Command & Conquer and Command & Conquer Red Alert are the only two games I've beat so far this year.

[Captain_N77]

JAN
01) Cadash(TG16)

FEB
02) Contra(NES)
03) Bad Dudes(NES)

MAR
04) Rival Turf(SNES)
05) Macross 2036(PCE-CD)
06) Metal Slug Advance(GBA)

07) Kirby: Triple Deluxe(3DS)
Been a while since I played a Kirby game all the way through. Really enjoyed the game and it's got me wanting some more classic Kirby action. I actually played the game in 3D mode the entire time thanks to the super stable 3D with the New 3DS XL. Very cool game.

[bb_hood]

Just beat Milon's Secret Castle, such a hard game. For the longest time I thought this was just unplayable garbage, but its actually really fun.

[Nintendork]

I suppose I will try to keep tabs of my gaming achievements here as well.

Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker, Wii U (main game, still working through bonus levels; no Toad amiibo at this time for amiibo specific objectives)

These games were defeated during a live stream on my Twitch channel.
Legend of Zelda: Link to the Past, SNES
Pilotwings, SNES
Super Mario Bros., NES
Super Mario Bros. 2, NES

[JSoup]

1. Costume Quest 2 (Rebeat)
2. SigCorp - Holiday Special #2
3. LEGO Batman 3: Beyond Gotham

4. Half-Life 2

HUH. People have been crowing about this game since I was in high school, but I never got around to playing it until now. It's amazing that it's a 10 year old game that still completely holds up and looks great. The balance is amazing too, plenty of challenge, but at no point did I feel like I was facing something unfair. So, yeah, guess I'm in the Half-Life 3 waiting camp now.

[Arkanoid_Katamari]

1. Cruis'n USA - N64
2. Alice: Madness Returns - 360
3. Forza Horizon 2 - 360
4. Crash Bandicoot - PS1
5. Monster Party - NES
6. Mega Man 2 - NES

I finally finished Dr. Wilys castle after putting it off, it's hard as hell, my thumbs hurt, I used a lotta F bombs, but damn wat a good game.

[Captain_N77]

JAN
01) Cadash(TG16)

FEB
02) Contra(NES)
03) Bad Dudes(NES)

MAR
04) Rival Turf(SNES)
05) Macross 2036(PCE-CD)
06) Metal Slug Advance(GBA)
07) Kirby: Triple Deluxe(3DS)

APR
08) Yoshi’s New Island(3DS)
Clearing out a bit of the 3DS backlog here. This is definitely a fun game, but the final level felt fetch-questish and really broke up the flow of the game. Otherwise it is a fun game, with hardly any real challenge until you're at the final stages. I guess there would be plenty of challenge if you cared about unlocking everything by grabbing every star/red coin/flower, but that type of thing has never interested me(in this game or New Super Mario Bros).

[bb_hood]

Just beat Contra Force for NES. This game has serious issues, mainly the super-slowdown that Konami seemingly built right in. This alone is the main challenge to the game, it will slow down then speed up when you dont expect it and you can mess up as a result. If you have played this game I am sure you know what im talking about. Also, sometimes the screen wont scroll properly, and you have to backtrack inorder to progress. Once in level 3 right before the boss the screen diddnt scroll correctly and I couldnt even reach the boss, there was a huge gap where the ground was supposed to be.

If you can deal with the slow pace its actually a really good game. It has really good music and it plays like a mix between gradius and contra. You can power up your guys like in gradius. The game has 5 levels and the only really challenging part is the last boss. All the bosses seem to take like a million hits, which is weird because everything else in the game dies from one shot.

[JSoup]

1. Costume Quest 2 (Rebeat)
2. SigCorp - Holiday Special #2
3. LEGO Batman 3: Beyond Gotham
4. Half-Life 2

5. Half-Life 2: Episode 1

Was pretty obvious from the start that this wasn't going to be as long as the first game. Played a bit more like a sightseeing adventure than the first one. Still good.

[JSoup]

1. Costume Quest 2 (Rebeat)
2. SigCorp - Holiday Special #2
3. LEGO Batman 3: Beyond Gotham
4. Half-Life 2
5. Half-Life 2: Episode 1

6. Half-Life 2: Episode 2

Much longer than episode 1 and a bit more challenging. No spoilers, but one of the battles I actually found to be rather unreasonable, but still strangely manageable. And that ending has me on the Half-Life 3/Episode 3 hype train. Good stuff.

[JSoup]

1. Costume Quest 2 (Rebeat)
2. SigCorp - Holiday Special #2
3. LEGO Batman 3: Beyond Gotham
4. Half-Life 2
5. Half-Life 2: Episode 1
6. Half-Life 2: Episode 2

7. Half-Life 2: Lost Coast

Was surprised at how short this was, until I did some searching and found out it's a tech demo of sorts. Still, short and sweet. The commentary is pretty interesting, even if the tech is old.

[JSoup]

1. Costume Quest 2 (Rebeat)
2. SigCorp - Holiday Special #2
3. LEGO Batman 3: Beyond Gotham
4. Half-Life 2
5. Half-Life 2: Episode 1
6. Half-Life 2: Episode 2
7. Half-Life 2: Lost Coast

8. Blackwell Epiphany

Wow. Just...wow. Went from being typical Blackwell, to sad, to FUCKING SCARY, to typical Blackwell again, to some crazy stuff to REALLY sad. Pretty amazing stuff and I really think it (and the four games before it) are worth the time and money.

[JSoup]

1. Costume Quest 2 (Rebeat)
2. SigCorp - Holiday Special #2
3. LEGO Batman 3: Beyond Gotham
4. Half-Life 2
5. Half-Life 2: Episode 1
6. Half-Life 2: Episode 2
7. Half-Life 2: Lost Coast
8. Blackwell Epiphany

9. KINGDOM HEARTS 358/2 Days HD

Not the formal game, just a full collection of all the mini-movies and stuff. Great overview of a game that's not at all fun to play.

[Emperor Megas]

Mass Effect - normal difficulty (XBOX360) 01/15
Bioshock - normal difficulty (XBOX360) 01/27
Bayonetta - normal difficulty (XBOX360) 03/02
The Walking Dead: Survival Instinct - (XBOX360) 03/09
Castlevania: The Lords of Shadow - Warrior difficulty (XBOX360) 04/20

Castlevania: The Lords of Shadow was amazing. I was completely surprised by the quality of it. The visuals, gameplay, voice work, music, story, I thought it was all top notch. I'm not used to really good 3D Castlevania games is the thing. They went with that Dante's Inferno style of gameplay that I love in action games. On a side note, I was sort of surprised to see an all Latino staff roll after ending the game. I just ever see that.

[Leo_A]

Finished the Japanese Super Mario Bros. 2 last night on the Wii U (Super Mario Bros: The Lost Levels, to us Westerners). That includes World 9, which requires the use of no warping throughout the main 8 worlds.

I'd like to say that I didn't use save states, but there's just no way that a normal human being could do this one in its original Famicom form without those, at least without many dozens of hours of practice and hair pulling. At least on the All-Stars version, many things have been eased and you're given a fighting chance (Such as the save system, for the most notable change).

Left to do now is a play through using Luigi, since as I recall, this is the game that introduced his now characteristic floaty physics. Then afterwards, six additional play throughs (using warp pipes to speed the process) to unlock the secret World A-D levels, which requires beating level 8-4, eight times in total.

Hard to imagine being able to beat this one in its original Famicom form, without save states. Nintendo of America was wise to pass this one over I think, although I'm sure that there's a few aliens out there that have managed the feat after many hours of practice. Feels at times like a bad Super Mario World hack.

And playing it via off-screen play made it even more frustrating since there's just enough lag here to annoy in a tough platformer like this one.

[Rickstilwell1]

Finished the Japanese Super Mario Bros. 2 last night on the Wii U (Super Mario Bros: The Lost Levels, to us Westerners). That includes World 9, which requires the use of no warping throughout the main 8 worlds.

I'd like to say that I didn't use save states, but there's just no way that a normal human being could do this one in its original Famicom form without those, at least without many dozens of hours of practice and hair pulling. At least on the All-Stars version, many things have been eased and you're given a fighting chance (Such as the save system, for the most notable change).

Left to do now is a play through using Luigi, since as I recall, this is the game that introduced his now characteristic floaty physics. Then afterwards, six additional play throughs (using warp pipes to speed the process) to unlock the secret World A-D levels, which requires beating level 8-4, eight times in total.

Hard to imagine being able to beat this one in its original Famicom form, without save states. Nintendo of America was wise to pass this one over I think, although I'm sure that there's a few aliens out there that have managed the feat after many hours of practice. Feels at times like a bad Super Mario World hack.

And playing it via off-screen play made it even more frustrating since there's just enough lag here to annoy in a tough platformer like this one.

I manage to pull that game off all the time due to having played the All-Stars version so much as a kid. I find World 8-3 to be the toughest level in the game before the A,B,C, and D worlds which you unlock by beating the game at least 8 times. So usually if I have to repeat a world by using continues it's #8. Notice those stars that appear on the title screen every time you beat the game? Once you have 8 of them, you can use a code to access world A and do a half-length second quest from there. Normally the FDS wrote the number of times beaten directly to the disk, so you normally didn't have to do this all at once. Luckily the Wii also keeps track of this data. With emulators and roms, the FDS files aren't written to as you play, so you have to rely on savestates to keep this progress. With Repros and the old Powerpak you're SOL and have to do it all in one power-on of the system. I think the Everdrive added savestate support turning it into a non-issue there.

[AceAerosmith]

1. Vegas Stakes (SNES) 01/13/15 - Won $10,000,000. Yay.
2. Super Star Wars (SNES) 01/13/15
3. Revolution X (SNES) 01/17/15
4. Quake 4 (360) 02/09/15
5. Star Wars: Episode I - Battle For Naboo (N64) 02/14/15
6. Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor (XB1) 03/25/15
7. Monster Madness - Battle For Suburbia (360) 03/30/15
8. Red Faction: Guerrilla (360) 04/06/15
9. Call of Juarez (360) 04/09/15
10. Bionic Commando (360) 04/26/15
11. Dragon Age: Origins (360) 05/08/15
12. Shadow of Destiny (D ending) (PS2) 05/26/15

[otaku]

finished Halo 3 ODST last weekend. And Halo anniversary edition as well. Still need to play reach and 4 before the new title launches. Might replay #2 also. Its been awhile and I love this franchise.

[Leo_A]

There's a YouTube channel called Gamexplain, and they've been going through each bit of footage of Mario Maker that Nintendo has shown off. One of the supposedly new things to the Super Mario Bros. formula is underwater flagpoles at the end of stages.

If they think that's new, they never played World 9 in The Lost Levels...


Notice those stars that appear on the title screen every time you beat the game? Once you have 8 of them, you can use a code to access world A and do a half-length second quest from there. Normally the FDS wrote the number of times beaten directly to the disk, so you normally didn't have to do this all at once. Luckily the Wii also keeps track of this data.

The Wii U version (I upgraded my old Wii VC download to the full Wii U version) also saves your progress. I reloaded my last save state and then proceeded to restart the game, and sure enough, the 1 star I've earned so far was still present on the title screen.

I knew about Worlds A-D and the unlock criteria, but this is the first I've heard of a code to access it after I earn 8 stars. What's the code that I have to input [Edit: Looked it up, hold A while pressing start]? I just figured I'd reach it at the end of my 8th time through the game, either after 8-4 if I used warps, or 9-4 if I didn't (Although come to think of it, World 9 loops normally, so I should've known there was something more to it than that).

Thanks :)

[wizardofwor1975]

I beat Soldiers of Fortune for the Sega Genesis this year using my trusty Genistick controller. I really liked the original game on the Amiga which was called, "The Chaos Engine." The Genny version though was not to shabby. Not to shabby at all. Never played the SNES version though. Maybe I'll give it a shot this year as well.

[Emperor Megas]

Mass Effect - normal difficulty (XBOX360) 01/15
Bioshock - normal difficulty (XBOX360) 01/27
Bayonetta - normal difficulty (XBOX360) 03/02
The Walking Dead: Survival Instinct - (XBOX360) 03/09
Castlevania: The Lords of Shadow - Warrior difficulty (XBOX360) 04/20
The Last Of Us - normal difficulty (PS3) 04/29


The Last Of Us was really, REALLY good. It's a very emotional and unsettling game. In fact I haven't been this immersed in a game since the first three Silent Hill games. I remember someone here talking about problems with the controls, but I thought they were excellent. The only real issue I had with the game were a number of bugs and glitches.

Early on there was a bug where Ellie and Tess literally disappeared from sight. It was after exiting the first corporate building, where there's a safe in the book store. Tess' flash light was still visible, and she would still talk, but neither could be seen, and I was invincible until the end of the stage, which actually worked out really well for me. There were several other times that Ellie vanished when she was near by and talking, and there was another stand out glitch where Henry was standing on an invisible platform 6 feet in the air after exiting the house where the wild dog are frolicking.

[JSoup]

1. Costume Quest 2 (Rebeat)
2. SigCorp - Holiday Special #2
3. LEGO Batman 3: Beyond Gotham
4. Half-Life 2
5. Half-Life 2: Episode 1
6. Half-Life 2: Episode 2
7. Half-Life 2: Lost Coast
8. Blackwell Epiphany
9. KINGDOM HEARTS 358/2 Days HD

10. Broken Age

So, yeah, there it is. All and all, very enjoyable. Love the voice work, loved the music, loved...most of the puzzles. Didn't feel like the story really finished itself in a way that I liked. If you watch the credits, the threads are all tied up, but....I don't know, I think I could have preferred that be playable.

[Aussie2B]

1. Donkey Kong Country (SNES) 1/14
2. planetarian ~the reverie of a little planet~ (PC) 1/28
3. No, Thank You!!! (PC) 4/28

Fair warning here, if anyone is like "Oh, I've never heard of that game, lemme look it up", No, Thank You!!! is very much an adult game, so be careful, haha. Anyway, I fully cleared my first route in the game. The game is billed as a comedy, and it's definitely laugh out loud funny a lot of the time, but man, it got really dark too, more so than I was expecting. All sorts of interesting stuff with yakuza, detectives, going off on missions, and solving cases. They could cut out the romance and sex and it'd still be a really solid visual novel. It's not my usual sort of thing; I typically play galge and otoge, usually clean ones at that, but I'm glad I gave this one a shot. I started up another character's route, and I'm loving what they do with subsequent playthroughs too. There are all these little lines and scenes added throughout the common route that weren't there before, and they're piecing everything together, even things that I didn't realize I didn't know. I'm still using the skip function on read text, but I like how it gets interrupted now and then with interesting new tidbits of story. Definitely makes replaying feel more worthwhile than to simply hook up with a different character.

[Arkanoid_Katamari]

1. Cruis'n USA - N64
2. Alice: Madness Returns - 360
3. Forza Horizon 2 - 360
4. Crash Bandicoot - PS1
5. Monster Party - NES
6. Mega Man 2 - NES
7. Little Big Planet - PS3

You've prolly heard of this series, they're some of the best modern sidescrollers. Sony exclusives, fantastic level design, gorgeous graphics with puzzles, collectible items, tons of levels online, creative gaming at its best. Give these a try, it's an amazing platformer franchise that holds up to any of its equivalents. I miss the days when systems were defined by the big platformer franchises. It was Mario or Sonic. Crash or... Mario.

[JSoup]

1. Costume Quest 2 (Rebeat)
2. SigCorp - Holiday Special #2
3. LEGO Batman 3: Beyond Gotham
4. Half-Life 2
5. Half-Life 2: Episode 1
6. Half-Life 2: Episode 2
7. Half-Life 2: Lost Coast
8. Blackwell Epiphany
9. KINGDOM HEARTS 358/2 Days HD
10. Broken Age

11. Nelson Tethers: Puzzle Agent

I was expecting a difficult to control copy of the PC version. What I was a slightly fiddly version that is shorter and has a different ending with a few new puzzles, some of them actually challenging.

[Aussie2B]

1. Donkey Kong Country (SNES) 1/14
2. planetarian ~the reverie of a little planet~ (PC) 1/28
3. No, Thank You!!! (PC) 4/28
4. Touch My Katamari (Vita) 5/8

I'm still not finished with the prior game, but I picked up the Vita Katamari on a whim a couple months ago on an extremely rare occasion in which I actually entered a GameStop (I didn't even know there was a Katamari game on the system until I saw it there, haha) and I just the other day finally gave it a try. It was fun, so I just rolled with it, to make a bad pun, and kept playing. I still have plenty more to do in it too. The stage count is pretty minimal, but it feels a little more grind-y than the other Katamari games I've beaten. Like usually you can pick up a cousin and a gift in each stage the first time you visit it, but here you have to clear the stage first, then the cousin will appear the next time, then after you get the cousin, the gift will show up the next time around. So, yeah, they're really trying to force a lot of replaying of the stages to make people not feel disappointed with the length/content. There's also all the candy business, which is basically a currency system. I can foresee myself repeating stages just to earn more to buy all the stuff available in the shops (and there are trophies for doing so). There doesn't seem to be a full item collection, though. Rather, there's just 10 rare "curio" items per stage that are documented. It's kind of a shame, I always found it amusing reading all the descriptions of everything. It gave more personality and life to the stages, emphasizing the chaos you're bringing by rolling a path of destruction through everything, haha. Oh well. Certainly not the best Katamari game, but pretty much all of them past We <3 Katamari are just going through the motions anyway. But it's still a fun formula, even if it is indeed just a formula at this point.

[dreamcaster]

Tetris Attack (SNES) - beat the Stage Clear to roll the credits.

One of the best puzzlers of all time. Mostly easy enough but the final round of levels was quite tough.

[GREEN00]

Finished these recently,

Bayonetta 2
The World Ends With You (an all-time classic. fantastic)
Final Fantasy V (PS1. Has aged with grace, and is superior to FF8, 9, 12, & 13)

[Arkanoid_Katamari]

1. Cruis'n USA - N64
2. Alice: Madness Returns - 360
3. Forza Horizon 2 - 360
4. Crash Bandicoot - PS1
5. Monster Party - NES
6. Mega Man 2 - NES
7. Little Big Planet - PS3
8. The Simpsons - MAME Arcade

[Captain_N77]

JAN
01) Cadash(TG16)

FEB
02) Contra(NES)
03) Bad Dudes(NES)

MAR
04) Rival Turf(SNES)
05) Macross 2036(PCE-CD)
06) Metal Slug Advance(GBA)
07) Kirby: Triple Deluxe(3DS)

APR
08) Yoshi’s New Island(3DS)

MAY
09) Talespin(NES)
10) Legendary Axe II(TG16)

This was a really fun, simple hack n slash sidescroller. For some reason I had lower expectations, but it turns out to be a pretty cool game. The last 2 levels get pretty cheap, especially the last level. I don't care for it when games let you level up weapons/health, but then lose it when you die. Also, platforms that drop from under you, platforms that appear to be there but really aren't, all mixed in with identical true platforms is just cheap; especially when it drops you down 4 screens and you have to rescale the heights again. Other than that old school cheapness, it's fun to play. I dig the aesthetics and music too.

11) Air Zonk(TG16)

Really fun and unique shmup. I loved the weird weapon powerups and the art style of the game. Got disproportionately hard at the end, but not too too bad. Things get a little busy on screen and sometimes it was hard to tell your shots from your enemies, or your shots and allies from enemies.

[FieryReign]

Recently beat Ocarina of Time and Amazing Spider-man on 3ds. I remember beating Zelda to 100% completion back in the day, I just don't have the patience these days. Didn't even bother with the fishing minigame. After awhile I just wanted the game to be over with already. Same with Spider-Man, no way I'm going back through and looking for all those magazines/tech pieces and taking pics of every single character model. I have too many other games to play.

[Rickstilwell1]

7. Tetris - CD-I

I managed to play this one all the way through from Level 0 to Level 9 where the pace is so fast it is pretty much impossible to keep up. According to the back of the box, there are only 10 stages so this means counting 0 Level 9 is the final stage. I consider it done.

8. Final Fantasy Mystic Quest - SNES

For what they consider a beginner's RPG there are still a few somewhat challenging boss fights, but the ability to keep re-trying any fight you lose makes it much easier than most games in the genre. Not a bad little game.

[Collector_Gaming]

Alan Wake 1/2 PC
Lego Batman 2 3/1 PC
Forza Horizon 2 5/30 XBOX 360 (and also the F&F2 expansion)

No story what so ever. The game is bugged to high heaven (I read that the 360 versions are a hit or miss because this game was geared towards the XBOXONE more so it almost feels like we got the beta format of the game.). For reason my copy the barn finds didn't even work which is stupid. The music while its ok its nothing that makes me wanna look into the artists and get that track or other tracks to my itunes list. The games AI scheme was retarded imo.
Like who the fuck came up with the idea of "no matter what there will always be a AI car faster then you and the AI learns from you and becomes you essentially" I mean really. And when you upgrade... so does the rest of the pack..... So in the end it made upgrading your car completely pointless. Only I guess to finish races faster.
I am actually very disapointed in this game because of who made this game and the franchise its apart of.... If this was apart of say the dying Need For Speed Franchise... then so be it. They been in hot water for the past almost decade and we get it. But no... THIS IS FUCKING FORZA!.

Horrible.

3/10

[JSoup]

1. Costume Quest 2 (Rebeat)
2. SigCorp - Holiday Special #2
3. LEGO Batman 3: Beyond Gotham
4. Half-Life 2
5. Half-Life 2: Episode 1
6. Half-Life 2: Episode 2
7. Half-Life 2: Lost Coast
8. Blackwell Epiphany
9. KINGDOM HEARTS 358/2 Days HD
10. Broken Age
11. Nelson Tethers: Puzzle Agent

12. Contrast

What a horribly put together game. The concept is interesting and the story is OK, the gameplay is just awful. Highly twitchy, very glitchy, one of the first games I've played since I was ten that had me actually yelling at the TV in frustration. Do not recommend.