What Game/s are You Playing? Daily / Whenever Check :) (GAMEPLAY)

[Aussie2B]

We're still doing a lot of setting up over here with the fixed CRT. Both physically setting things up and setting up emulators and such. Oh, and after having it kick around since... I wanna say 2005, our broken spare PC Engine Duo-RX is finally fixed.

Via MAME, I played through Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time, which I had already posted about in the Beaten in 2017 topic. Also played some Super Mario World and Akumajou Dracula XX via SNES emulation. Man, am I rusty at Dracula XX. I used to be pretty damn good at that game. Though I wasn't really playing seriously.

I played a tiny bit of Puyo Pop on Neo Geo Pocket Color, thinking I'd maybe play through that for the Game Completion Challenge, but I'm not really feeling Puyo Puyo right now for whatever reason. So I think I'll just put it back on the shelf.

In The Charming Empire on Steam, I'm now up to chapter 7 or 8 in Koichiro Sera's route. I like how this route has some chapters that flow from one to another. Kei's route mostly felt like a series of disjointed vignettes.

[celerystalker]

Been playing some Tempest 2000 on Jaguar the last couple of nights. That game looks so good in S-video. About once a year I go through a love affair with that game for a few days. I love the heck out of it, but I'm pretty mediocre at it. I usually clear about 40 webs on a credit, but I start really getting killed on the yellow frame webs. I'm getting better at them, though.

The thing that always pulls me back is that a single credit often lasts upwards of an hour, which really can be exhausting to play more than one or two games when it starts getting intense. Still, like many other people, it's easily my favorite game on the console, and my personal favorite version of Tempest.

[Niku-Sama]

Donkey kong arcade. no emulation

[celerystalker]

Earlier today, I played two credits of Tempest 2000 on Jaguar. Set a new personal high score at around 780,000, but each credit lasted a good hour, which is a little exhausting for such a chaotic game.

Tonight, I decided to take a break and played through Duck Tales Remastered on PS3. I enjoyed it quite a bit. It's a very easy game, but fun to play all the same, and definity captures a Duck Tales feel. Much better than last week when I needed to be up late and played Wario Ware.

[Videogamerdaryll]

Earlier today, I played two credits of Tempest 2000 on Jaguar. Set a new personal high score at around 780,000, but each credit lasted a good hour, which is a little exhausting for such a chaotic game.

Tonight, I decided to take a break and played through Duck Tales Remastered on PS3. I enjoyed it quite a bit. It's a very easy game, but fun to play all the same, and definity captures a Duck Tales feel. Much better than last week when I needed to be up late and played Wario Ware.

Duck Tales Remastered on PS3..I need to get that...

[Videogamerdaryll]

Playing a bunch of Sega Master System Games,none working so I had to open them up and clean them..

Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (Sega Game Gear, 1992

[Aussie2B]

Hakuoki: Kyoto Winds on Vita has completely consumed my gaming attention. Which works out fine because I ran into some PC issues, which required a format, and I still haven't set everything back up, which means no Steam for now. I download my Steam games to a portable drive, but I hate how some games store their saves elsewhere.

Other than that, we had a friend stay over for a night just to hang out, so we had a ton of emulated gaming going on. I played quite a few rounds of Taisen Puzzle-Dama via MAME, and we had some intense mini-game battles in Kirby Super Star, haha.

[shadowman]

Hakuoki: Kyoto Winds on Vita has completely consumed my gaming attention. Which works out fine because I ran into some PC issues, which required a format, and I still haven't set everything back up, which means no Steam for now. I download my Steam games to a portable drive, but I hate how some games store their saves elsewhere.

How is Hakuoki? I've got it coming this week but I've not read an awful lot about it (good or bad).

Anyway, I've taken a week break from Persona 5 (which I've been loving) to play some more Vita games:
I managed to platinum PixelJunk Shooter Ultimate (it was good despite some annoying stages that slowed my progress at times)

I've restarted Guacamelee, which I have finished before on the PS4, but I wanted to get back and 100% the Vita version as I loved it so much. And its still so good. The exploration is satisfying, the visuals are lovely and the combat is brilliant (your moves combo together so well). Just heading toward Jaguar at the moment, so I'm getting closer to the end of the game. Absolutely worth playing for fans of action/platformer games or someone just looking for a good "Metroidvania" game.

I've also started F1 2011. I'm not a Formula 1 fan, but I do enjoy different racing games, and I'm working on clearing every Vita launch game so it seemed like a decent choice. I'm really liking it so far. It feels like a more arcadey feeling racing game which is good, I dislike sim based racers. Plenty of modes to work through as well so I can see it lasting me a very long time.

Lastly, I finished Army Corps of Hell this week - another launch Vita title. Its a strange game, basically using a Pikmin style combat system but the game is nowhere near the quality of Nintendo's title. Its a game that kind of forces you to grind after a while, as otherwise the game becomes insanely unfair/difficult. That said, when you hit the point where the Magi class has the best weapon, and is basically the only class you want to use for the late game stuff it actually gets better. The later levels even off difficulty wise, as its more about fighting bosses and huge waves of enemies and less about annoying trap rooms. I actually ended up enjoying the last 25% of the game while the middle part was a mix of frustration and boredom. Definitely glad I persevered though.

[Aussie2B]

I'm a newbie to Hakuoki too. Despite that I love otome visual novels, I never bothered to pick it up on PSP or 3DS (I did get the action spin-off on PSP, but that's in my backlog), and while I did get the PS3 version when it launched, I still don't have a PS3 to play it on. I'm really liking it so far. Lots of interesting historical drama and political intrigue, plus some supernatural elements, with a localization that reads nicely, and lovely art and music. The one thing that's kind of disappointing is that it doesn't have the full story in the previous releases. Since they doubled the number of routes and also incorporated fandisc content, the cost for all that added content is that it's split into two releases, and right now, there isn't even a release date for localization of the second part. This first part is almost nothing but common route, so there's barely any romance at all. I guess the second part will be totally focused on the relationships.

[Videogamerdaryll]

The Punisher (1990) (Nintendo, 1990)

NBA Jam SNES...

[celerystalker]

Last weekend played some Rough Ranger (Arcade). Pretty fun Rolling Thunder clone I've been going on about in Arcade Alley.

Played Tekken 2 (Arcade) yesterday. It's the first version of Tekken I've ever owned, as I won it for $10 with a power supply, JAMMA harness, and Namco kick harness. I was never into Tekken, but wanted the kick harness, and can use the other stuff to build someone a supergun. Anyway, it's playable, and I'm sure some friends will dig it, but I far prefer Sega's 3D fighters, and any 2D to boot.

Finally playing through Zelda: Link's Awakening on original Game Boy. It's pretty okay so far. I like that the dungeons are small.

[celerystalker]

I played through Noah's Ark on Bible Adventures for NES for the thousandth or so time. I genuinely don't care that it's an objectively bad game; I've always found it somewhat calming and therapeutic to play, just quietly collecting animals with minimal resistance. It's silly, but as a game I grew up with, it's just one that suits me at times.

[Aussie2B]

Though I was very much enjoying Hakuoki: Kyoto Winds on Vita, I hate to leave Period Cube barely touched, so I switched back to that. I'm now on Chapter/Quest 4 in Hiroya's route. I also briefly tried out some new Vita acquisitions. I popped in both Mutants Mudds Deluxe and Mutant Mudds: Super Challenge. Neither impressed me much. Even though, generally speaking, I like straightforward platformers more than Metroid-style games, I'd say Xeodrifter is the better game from that developer. Though maybe my mind would change after more time with the Mutant Mudds games. Similarly, Earth Defense Force 2 didn't really grab me. I know that franchise has a cult following, but I wasn't seeing what all the hype was about.

I decided recently to pick up a couple GBA games I've been putting off buying for years and years, and the first to show up was Donkey Kong Country 3. I love the SNES original and have played that tons, so the main draw here was to hear the brand new soundtrack. I played till I cleared the first boss (that dumb belching barrel). The new music isn't bad, nor was I ever that crazy about the SNES soundtrack, but man, does it throw me off. I'm just so accustomed to how the game sounds on SNES. The graphical changes don't do much for me (I miss Wrinkly's N64), and the added mini-games are pretty lousy. But nitpicks aside, it's a fun game in any form.

[celerystalker]

It's been kind of a crummy week for me in a lot of ways, but I finally squeezed in a little time today and finished Link's Awakening for Game Boy. Overall, I like it. The later dungeons are very tedious with gimmicks that require a lot of backtracking, and there's little to no challenge in the game. The jumping mechanic and boomerang are totally broken, allowing early access to a lot of stuff to a decent player, making dodging enemies a breeze, and the boomerang mauls everything. That said, it's still a pleasant overall experience, with useful items, piles of secrets, and quick pacing. It's the first Zelda I've enjoyed in years.

[celerystalker]

Played an old board game (Solarquest) with my wife until she was sleepy, then played some A Link to the Past on SNES for the billionth or so time. Went from new file through the fourth palace in the dark world in a couple of hours. Then, to cap it off, I played through Fatal Fury: 1st Contact on NGPC before heading off to bed myself. I have some fun stuff that'll be coming in the mail over the next couple of weeks including a couple of arcade pcbs, so that stuff'll be good. Probably finish Zelda tomorrow evening, then who knows.

[jb143]

I've been mostly playing handhelds for the past couple years due to convenience. Recently though, I started playing Skyward Sword. I bought it (and a Wii Motion Plus controller) when it was new and figured it was about time. I'm liking it so far, my only issues are with the controls. The swordplay is fine, it just bugs me to no end that they went with the gyroscope for selecting things on screen rather than the sensor bar. I constantly have to center it because my hand is not in the same position or angle each time I need to use the menu or target something. And I've even lost a battle or two because the cursor doesn't go the way I want. And I really wish there was a way to rotate the camera. A GameCube controller option would be great, other than the fact that it would negate the swordplay aspect which was the driving factor in most of the game design.

Other than those gripes I'm having fun with it so far. It's a little linear as far as Zelda games go, but at this point in my life I don't mind so much, knowing that I have limited time to put into games. If I know I'm only going to have, say, 40 minutes to play one night I'd rather not waste it just wandering around trying to figure out what to do next.

[celerystalker]

Played through A Link to the Past for the god-know-how-many-eth time Sunday and Monday, having been in the mood to play classic Zelda after finishing Link's Awakening.

Taito Memories II: Gekan was on the docket today. My son (he's 2 years old) sat on my lap to "help." We played through Night Striker (he was in charge of the shoot button) and beat it. That game, while derivative of Space Harrier, is the shit. Killer Super Scaler-style game that stands up well along the likes of Galaxy Force.

We did some Full Throttle next, which is a straight OutRun clone, but a good one at least.

Following that, we beat Chase HQ. My son was in charge of the nitros, which we naturally used immediately each stage, costing a couple of credits, but we still finished in four credits.

We played some Buggy Challenge next, and I suck at it. Next.

We finished off with beating Battle Shark on about fifty credits. My son was in charge of shooting. We died a lot toward the end. Very different playing it emulated on PS2 without the periscope on the cabinet.

I played everything else on the disc after he fell asleep, and some more Night Striker. I've really come to love big, beautiful arcade games that use tons of sprite scaling, especially GI Joe, Space Harrier, and Night Striker. I need to hook my GI Joe pcb back up in my Sunset Riders cabinet.

[Videogamerdaryll]

Messing around with my Green Xbox Debug Kit Console..I have not had the chance to even play many of the games on the system..

I need to make some videos of what's on it before selling it..

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?...1&l=efc13440b1

[Aussie2B]

I'm up to Chapter 6 in Period Cube on Vita. Maybe getting somewhat close to the end? Visual novels with longish chapters like these tend to run around 7 chapters or so, from my experience. Without spoiling anything, I think it's kinda dumb how they reveal a character as being another character, not by explicitly saying so in the story but by where the CG appears in the gallery. Talk about anticlimactic if you happen to look through the CGs you've seen and haven't pieced it together yourself already (the characters do share the same voice actor, so it's pretty obvious in that regard, but the performances for each are quite different).

I also tried out Risk of Rain on Vita. Pretty meh on it. I think I've had my fill of indies having "roguelike elements". Just make a full-fledged roguelike then. Those I enjoy, but if it's a platformer or some other kind of side-scrolling game, "roguelike elements" seems like code for "we're too lazy/lacking in creativity to actual design stages". I've just never been big on randomly generated areas in most types if games. Same reason Dragon Quest Monsters practically bored me to tears.

[Aussie2B]

I'm still on Chapter 6 of Hiroya's route in Period Cube on Vita, though I have played a little more since my last post. But this week, I've more so been playing Lone Survivor: The Director's Cut on Vita, which I started for the Game Completion Challenge but failed to beat in time, despite that I had read it's a short game. I guess I can attribute that to a combination of having a heavy workload this week, not liking the game that much, which made me less inclined to play, and kinda sucking at it. The latter two maybe are a result of me still having minimal experience with survival horror games. Maybe the genre just isn't really for me and I simply haven't played enough to come to that conclusion yet, and maybe Lone Survivor is more designed for experienced survival horror players. The main thing that's been annoying me is that I feel like I'm tending to a frickin' Tamagotchi as I'm playing. On top of the genre staples of having limited ammo and healing items and such, the protagonist is constantly whining about being hungry and sleepy, so you have to worry about food supplies too (which also heal, but you'll have to eat eventually even if you don't take damage). You can sleep as much as you want, but you have to return to the starting room in the game to do so (there are warps at least, but they're quirky and annoying in their own way), and sleeping just means you have to eat again that much sooner. So then you want to avoid sleeping, to minimize eating, but you have to sleep to save your progress. Then there's the fact that the game gets progressively darker overall as you go along (until you get out of the apartment building and into the city streets), to the point that you can barely see anything at all in the basement without turning on your flashlight. But that uses up limited batteries, plus the enemies see you then, so you want to avoid using the flashlight too. So I was basically stumbling around in the dark in the horribly irritating basement area, trying to use the game's garbage, confusing map that does not remotely work with 2D side-scrolling movement (the developer should play some Valkyrie Profile and learn how to properly do a map for a game like this). And on top of that, there was a stupid chase sequence in the basement. So yeah, that particular area really killed my momentum. Now I'm out in the city thankfully, making more consistent progress, and I think I'm nearly done.

Besides my Vita playing, I got Steam set up again, so after a month since I last played it, I've resumed The Charming Empire and have gotten up to Episode 14 of Sera's route. Lastly, I played a tiny bit of Sunset Riders via MAME.