Beaten In 2025

[AceAerosmith]

I'm trying to do better than the lousy 5 games I finished last year.

1.Injustice:Gods Among Us (Story mode)(PS4) 01/13/25
2.Destiny 2 (Main Campaign) (PS4) 01/14/25
3.Uncharted 4:A Thief's End (PS4) 01/23/25
4.Madden 16 (Won the Super Bowl. Meh.)(PS4) 02/17/25
5.Yakuza 6 - The Song Of Life (PS4) 04/18/25
6.Mafia III - The Definitive Edition (PS4) 05/11/25
7.Call Of Duty - Black Ops III (PS4) 05/18/25
8.Watch Dogs:Legion (PS4) 06/10/25
9.Days Gone (PS4) 07/25/25
10.Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons (PS4) 08/03/25
11.Marvel's Spider-Man (PS4) 08/17/25
12.Ghostbusters - The Video Game (PS3) 08/25/25
13.DMC: Devil May Cry (PS3) 10/21/25
14.Call Of Duty 4 - Modern Warfare (PS3) 11/24/25
15.Syphon Filter - Dark Mirror (PS2) 12/30/25

[SpaceHarrier]

1. New Pokemon Snap
2. Final Fantasy VII Rebirth

[Aussie2B]

1. PixelJunk Monsters Deluxe (PSP) 2/2

A much slower start to the year compared to last year, but February 2nd is coincidentally the same day I beat my first game of 2023. Still doing more in this one, so I don't think I'll be moving on to something new for a bit.

[Az]

1. Knuckle Bash 2 [Bootleg] (Arcade) 01/02
2. Mortal Kombat 11: Aftermath [DLC] (Xbox One) 01/03
3. Double Dragon III (NES) 01/19
4. Hyper Street Fighter II (Arcade) 01/07
5. Retromania Wrestling (Xbox One) 01/30
6. The Punisher (Arcade) 02/04
7. Final Ventetta [Boss Rush] (Xbox One) 02/07
8. Call of Duty - Black Ops: Cold War (Xbox One) 02/20
9. Marvel Super Heroes VS Street Fighter (Arcade) 03/02
10. Power Rangers: Battle for the Grid (PS4) 03/09
11. Battletoads (NES) 03/23
12. Double Dragon IV (Xbox One) 03/30
13. Battletoads (Arcade) 04/08
14. Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves [Arcade & EoST] (Series X) 04/28
15. Mortal Kombat 1 (Series X) 06/29
16. Double Dragon Gaiden (Xbox One) 08/12
17. Raging Justice (Xbox One) 09/10
18. Saint's Row (Xbox 360) 09/18
19. Strikers 1945 (Xbox One) 10/3
20. Super Cyborg (Xbox One) 10/4
21. Sengoku (Mega CD) 10/22

[Aussie2B]

1. PixelJunk Monsters Deluxe (PSP) 2/2
2. Cabal (NES) 4/2

Decided to revisit an old favorite. I beat Cabal back in the '00s, but it was so long ago that it doesn't even appear on my list of everything I've beaten, which is comprehensive back to late 2005. Now I'll have an actual documented clear, instead of relying on memory.

[Az]

Decided to revisit an old favorite. I beat Cabal back in the '00s

How is NES Cabal? I really enjoy that type of genre (whatever it's called) but I've never touched the NES port.

[Aussie2B]

I typically see the genre described as "shooting gallery" games, but sometimes it's just "Cabal clones" (or they're compared to some other point of reference, like Wild Guns). But there are so few games in the genre that I don't think there's a solid consensus.

I don't think I've ever actually played the original arcade version of Cabal (despite playing much more obscure shooting gallery games on MAME, like Nix's Pirates), let alone any of the many computer ports, so I don't know how good of a port the NES version is compared to the original or other ports. But I love it all the same. The controls feel really smooth to me, and it's a blast tearing up the landscape and picking off the enemies. Rare handled the NES port, and I'm usually pretty pleased with their work on the system.

[Aussie2B]

1. PixelJunk Monsters Deluxe (PSP) 2/2
2. Cabal (NES) 4/2
3. Operation Wolf (NES) 4/10

I may have beaten Cabal just recently, but that's a game I've beaten in the past too. Operation Wolf is the first US-released NES game I've beaten for the first time in well over a decade. That said, I did beat the Famicom version of Kid Dracula for the first time just a couple years ago.

[Aussie2B]

1. PixelJunk Monsters Deluxe (PSP) 2/2
2. Cabal (NES) 4/2
3. Operation Wolf (NES) 4/10
4. London Detective Mysteria (Vita) 6/10

It only took me 6+ years from when I originally started, haha, but I finally cleared a route in London Detective Mysteria. Interesting unintentional pattern I've got going here. The first two games I beat this year were exactly two months apart, and now the third and fourth are exactly two months apart as well. Definitely not on track to have many beaten this year, but oh well. That's to be expected when I get on a visual novel kick.

[Az]

11. Battletoads (NES) 03/23
12. Double Dragon IV (Xbox One) 03/30
13. Battletoads (Arcade) 04/08
14. Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves [Arcade & EoST] (Series X) 04/28
15. Mortal Kombat 1 (Series X) 06/29

I will never touch NES Battletoads again for the rest of my life. It's criminal to have sold that trash to unsuspecting kids.

[Aussie2B]

1. PixelJunk Monsters Deluxe (PSP) 2/2
2. Cabal (NES) 4/2
3. Operation Wolf (NES) 4/10
4. London Detective Mysteria (Vita) 6/10
5. Yukar From The Abyss (Switch) 8/29

I don't imagine there are many people who can say this is the first game they ever beat on Switch, haha, but here it is for me. Of course, it's not exclusive to Switch, so I'll get to my first exclusive later on.

[Aussie2B]

1. PixelJunk Monsters Deluxe (PSP) 2/2
2. Cabal (NES) 4/2
3. Operation Wolf (NES) 4/10
4. London Detective Mysteria (Vita) 6/10
5. Yukar From The Abyss (Switch) 8/29
6. Tail Concerto (PlayStation) 10/16

Always a joy to replay Tail Concerto. Hopefully it won't take me another 8 years to get around to the next time.

[Az]

One last update to round out the year that I forgot to post.

16. Double Dragon Gaiden (Xbox One) 08/12
17. Raging Justice (Xbox One) 09/10
18. Saint's Row (Xbox 360) 09/18
19. Strikers 1945 (Xbox One) 10/3
20. Super Cyborg (Xbox One) 10/4
21. Sengoku (Mega CD) 10/22

I was initially put off by Double Dragon Gaiden due to the art style. Picked it up on sale and after giving it some time I've warmed up to it. It's enjoyable, the brawling engine is good and it has a lot of well done fanservice that I'm sure would never be included by bigger development team. I still dislike the art style and think it would be much better if done in virtually any other theme.

I finished Saint's Row using my original game save from when I first picked it up almost 20 years ago. Damn I'm old. I've now seen all the story beats so I don't see myself going back to this ever again unless it's to farm an achievement or something. It's not bad, just clunky compared to any of the other games in the series.

I'm torn on Sengoku. When judged as a game by itself it's unpolished and a bit garbage. As a Neo-Geo port it's surprisingly well done and faithful to the arcade original especially when compared to the few other Neo ports to the platform. You lose the second player, some animation frames, and a lot of the nifty scaling tricks from the arcade, but everything else seems to be intact and the load times are handled as well as possible. Most of the bad aspects of it are from the source material rather than the porting job or CD hardware.