[EVENT] The Sonic Stadium 52 Game Challenge 2024! - New Prizes every week! Current Prize: Sonic Heroes Profile gift!

[Tornado]

That's two of them! I had forgotten how much higher the highs are from the first game (as well as some minor interface improvements that have dramatic effects on the game), but it's brutally difficult at times (nevermind when you also do the hard mode playthrough) and the lows I actually would say are lower than the first game. A lot more annoying trial and error in particular, especially in the final quarter of the game. It's also not as creative, I don't think. The first game had a lot of imaginative setpieces which didn't necessarily always work but the effort was noted whereas the second is a lot more straightforward as an action title at the expense of approaching gameplay ideas that the engine/controls can't really handle well. A kind of Goldeneye vs Perfect Dark conundrum.

 

This shit is fucking peak though. They knew what they were doing making this the level in the demo. There are other parts in the game that are this good, but not that many.

[Rabid-Coot]

Lego Batman 3 Platinum https://psnprofiles.com/trophies/3140-lego-batman-3-beyond-gotham/Rabid-Coot

Lego is probably competing with Far Cry for series I've played the most without buying one.  Its a fairly standard Lego experience, once through the story and a second go around for collectibles. Post game added a little extra variety that I feel would have been worth integrating into the main story to make that part more interesting. Was cool to see some fully Lego levels for a change.

11-11 Memories Retold Platinum https://psnprofiles.com/trophies/8410-11-11-memories-retold/Rabid-Coot

Didn't know Aardman had a game dev branch. Its another shorter narative focused game, gameplay is reasonably engaging and the artstyle is uniqie even though it does distract from time to time.

Red Dead Redemption Remastered 100% base game https://psnprofiles.com/trophies/23313-red-dead-redemption/Rabid-Coot

As good as it was 13 years ago, a few things do date it like highly leathal water and having to manually advance time to start some missions but mostly feels modern still. Undead nightmare will be done later in the year after a short break but I think that out of the threads scope.

Started:

Pokemon Violet DLC

Moving Out 2

 

Finished 11 Completed 11

[Ryannumber1gamer]

Game 5 of 52: Batman Arkham Asylum: 

Completed on my Steam Deck, Arkham Asylum is a game I have a huge history with and even to this day, its possibly my all time favourite of the Arkham series. You can read more about it in my blog post here: 

But as a very quick version, Arkham Asylum still holds up immensely well to this day. Excellent level design, brilliant atmosphere, fantastic semi-linear areas to explore, a great intro that hooks you immediately, and despite the later sequels polishing it to a fine shine, the gameplay still holds up tremendously well. Cannot recommend the game enough.

Wish the challenges weren't so repetitive though.

[Agie]

Games beaten so far.

Spoiler

1. Super Mario RPG Remake

2. Kaze and the Wild Masks

3. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Fall of the Foot Clan (100%)

4. Mega Man 1

5. Mega Man 2

6. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Arcade Game

7. Twinkle Star Sprites

8. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IV: Turtles in Time (100%)

9. Sunset Riders

10. Mega Man 3

11. Mega Man 4 (sequel wars version)

12. Terminator Salvation (arcade)

13. Roll-Chan 5 (hack of Mega Man 5)

14. Kiki KaiKai

15. Roll-Chan 6 (hack of Mega Man 6)

16. Beeny

Now, this is one that was completely unplanned, but it's 99 cents, and it's very short. But I enjoyed Siactro's other games, and this one is no exception.

You play as a bouncing bee named Beeny, who is collecting honey for her friend Kiwi. Why does Kiwi need the honey? To put together the materials for his raft, because yes, that's apparently how you build a raft in this universe. That's about as much plot as the game gets, though the end has completely different gameplay where you play as Kiwi; after that, his story continues in Super Kiwi 64.

The gameplay itself is very simple; you bounce around until the very end of the stage. It's not a long playthrough; you'll beat the game within maybe an hour at most. Once you beat the levels the first time and give the honey to Kiwi, you unlock and extra level and a time attack mode. Even the time attack mode wasn't too difficult. Once you accomplish that, you unlock Toree from the Toree games, who is broken in this game...but otherwise seems to exist for bragging rights, since as far as I could see, you don't seem to get much for beating the levels as him. I think this game qualifies for 100%.

Still, a short but fun game that doesn't overstay its welcome. If you're looking for an easy, short but fun playthrough, you could spend 99 cents on much worse than this. Give it a go.

[Salamander]

I'm pretty sure that neither of my current games are going to be finished within the week, so I'll register them here as a weekly check-in:

Ongoing: Fuga: Melodies of Steel 2 (Switch) - A game I'm rather late to the party with, as it came out in summer of last year and I've kept meaning to play it but only just got around to it.  The premise of the Fuga series is that you play as a bunch of little anthro children who for various reasons are piloting a giant tank on a long march to bring peace to the world (in very broad terms).  I largely enjoyed the first, but after having to play it a second time owing to a "gotcha" true ending requirement, I wasn't hugely sold on the idea of playing a sequel; but it's fun enough.  The mechanics have been deepened a little, the plot is a whole lot more complicated, and the gameplay remains as challenging as I remember.  I think I'm about halfway through?  I'm shooting for the true ending again, which they're a little bit more transparent about this time (see this new character we just gave you, make sure to befriend her with lots of people, or else), but 100% completion would be a massive triple-playthrough undertaking (if not more), so I'll be satisfied with just making it to the end.

Spoiler

Ongoing: Picontier (Switch) - Technically this is always an ongoing as I'm playing one in-game day of it every real-life day, which feels appropriate; it's meant to be a "slow-life RPG", after all.  At the time of writing, I'm coming to the end of a long spell of ignoring the main plot in favour of wrapping up various bits of farming business and other longer-term projects - donating fruit to shrines, scrouging up materials to expand my farm facilities, moving to a new cash crop rotation plan.  I'm looking forward to venturing into a new area for the first time in a while.  I've no real idea how far through the game I am; halfway, two thirds?  I wouldn't be surprised if I was still playing it in a couple of months.  That's my choice of pace, though.

Spoiler

 

[castell-neath]

Following on from last week, for week 5 I thought I would have a go at finally completing S3&K in origins as Amy and Tails.

Some thoughts on this were that unlike in sonic 2,the hammer attack was pretty handy in this game for Hydrocity, flying battery and Lava Reef zones - especially with the pesky techno squeeks - but it also negates the elemental shield special abilities- so no fireball, bubble bounce or double jump. As such its like a sonic playthough on 1.5 difficulty as I forgot just how much I used the lightning double jump to clear pits, access short cuts etc. 

In turn, this  made me realise we sort of had the double jump (or mid air boost) since sonic 3 really which is pretty mad when i thinl about it as I havr always seen that as a"modern sonic" thing up until now.

As for my check in - no Horizon FB this week so far, but I have revisited my European Champions League season on NHL 22. I prefer this particular incarnation of the game for the simple reason that this is the last one to feature the Cardiff Devils (Let's go, De-vils!!). Won 3 games, lost 2, drawn 2 and currently sit 3rd in the league after 7 rounds. Playing with classic nhl 94 controls helps a lot...at the moment the pro controls for one touch moves etc is just beyond me, so much more practice needed there!! Enjoying it though. Its good fun!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited February 15 by castell-neath

[Ryannumber1gamer]

1 hour ago, castell-neath said:

Following on from last week, for week 5 I thought I would have a go at finally completing S3&K in origins as Amy and Tails.

Some thoughts on this were that unlike in sonic 2,the hammer attack was pretty handy in this game for Hydrocity, flying battery and Lava Reef zones - especially with the pesky techno squeeks - but it also negates the elemental shield special abilities- so no fireball, bubble bounce or double jump. As such its like a sonic playthough on 1.5 difficulty as I forgot just how much I used the lightning double jump to clear pits, access short cuts etc. 

In turn, this  made me realise we sort of had the double jump (or mid air boost) since sonic 3 really which is pretty mad when i thinl about it as I havr always seen that as a"modern sonic" thing up until now.

As for my check in - no Horizon FB this week so far, but I have revisited my European Champions League season on NHL 22. I prefer this particular incarnation of the game for the simple reason that this is the last one to feature the Cardiff Devils (Let's go, De-vils!!). Won 3 games, lost 2, drawn 2 and currently sit 3rd in the league after 7 rounds. Playing with classic nhl 94 controls helps a lot...at the moment the pro controls for one touch moves etc is just beyond me, so much more practice needed there!! Enjoying it though. Its good fun!

While I’ve put you down for the weekly check in, I can’t submit Sonic 3 and Knuckles since you’ve already submitted it before, and double entries aren’t allowed.

[castell-neath]

1 hour ago, Ryannumber1gamer said:

While I’ve put you down for the weekly check in, I can’t submit Sonic 3 and Knuckles since you’ve already submitted it before, and double entries aren’t allowed.

Ah, yes....of course it is! I've lost track already lol. Making a note on the phone to keep track gping forward. will submit another by sunday.  Cheers!!

Edited February 15 by castell-neath

[cosmichaos]

Game 4: Sonic Generations(ALL MISSIONS COMPLETED): I figured it was time to put that Xbox 360 copy of Sonic Generations to use. I've played it before on PC, but I don't think I ever finished it, and the Steam profile I played it on is dead and buried. After coming back to it, I'm still not fond of Sonic Generations, and I don't think I ever will be, but that's ok. I recognize that it is an objectively decent game, and for all it's worth I commend it. It's just not really my thing in comparison to, say, the Adventure games. 

Crisis City is still the biggest punch in the gut ever, but every other stage is decent(except Planet Wisp screw that). I remember playing a while ago and hating how Classic Sonic played, but after playing it again I think I honestly like his style more than Modern's style. Maybe it's just because of how janky the boost mechanic can be in comparison to the Spin Dash, but. 

Final verdict is that I still don't praise and worship the game, but it's good for what it is.

Although, considering I'm moving onto 06 after this... I might not be too harsh on Generations in a week or two.

Edited February 15 by cosmichaos

[Ryannumber1gamer]

An update within the same week and a big one at that. I already talked in depth with the blog posts, so I'm just gonna drop them here for my in depth thoughts on everything.

Anyways...

Games 6-9: Mega Man the Wily Wars (Mega Man 1, 2, 3 and Wily Tower): 

Blog posts featuring my thoughts: 

Mega Man 1:

 

Mega Man 2:

 

Mega Man 3:

Mega Man: The Wily Wars/Wily Tower:

 

Game 10 - Super Mario Bros (All Stars): 

 

[Agie]

Games beaten so far.

On 2/14/2024 at 9:28 PM, Agie said:

1. Super Mario RPG Remake

2. Kaze and the Wild Masks

3. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Fall of the Foot Clan (100%)

4. Mega Man 1

5. Mega Man 2

6. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Arcade Game

7. Twinkle Star Sprites

8. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IV: Turtles in Time (100%)

9. Sunset Riders

10. Mega Man 3

11. Mega Man 4 (sequel wars version)

12. Terminator Salvation (arcade)

13. Roll-Chan 5 (hack of Mega Man 5)

14. Kiki KaiKai

15. Roll-Chan 6 (hack of Mega Man 6)

16. Beeny

17. Roll-Chan World (hack of Mega Man: Dr. Wily's Revenge)

Roll is back, but so is Dr. Wily. Apparently, Wily was really stretching for ideas, because he repurposed eight Robot Masters from previous games for this adventure. The most significant thing here is the introduction of Enker. Otherwise, the game seems to be a bit of Mega Man 1 and 2, with four Robot Masters from 1 being the first four levels, and four from Mega Man 2 being the boss rush, which, I will admit, is a nice change of pace.

But the gameplay itself? Well...I think Minakuchi Engineering did what they could for their first crack at the Mega Man series, and having played Mega Man X3 years ago, I can definitely say they improved over time...but I'll be honest, I just found this one cheap, hard even by Mega Man standards. I wasn't having fun with this one.

To make matters worse...well, for some reason, my teenage self chose the unaltered version of this game to be his first forway into the series. Thank goodness I played Powered Up afterwards. Sadly, using the Roll hack doesn't make the game much more enjoyable for me. I would say try it out of curiosity, but for me? Well, I do remember covering the unaltered version of the next game for this and finding it not that bad...I wonder if I'll still feel that way.

[castell-neath]

Right, further to messing up my game list (sorry @Ryannumber1gamer - i have a tick off list sorted out now! Lol!) I'm going to be boring abd formulaic over the next few weeks and am going to stick to MS/GG sonic games from Origins. Some of which I've never played through such as Tails' Adventures, Labrynth. To kick off i'm going back to my very first sonic game - ever - S1 8bit. I actually found, and still find this, harder than S1 16bit. No rings on the bosses, the sky base zone with the lightning, jungle act 2 with insta death drops, having to search for emeralds in zones. Its a pretty tough ask...especially for a 9 year old back in 1991! Lol. Some zones are even better than the 16 bit and I wish we saw them in it in some form - Jungle, Sky Base, Bridge.  I LOVE revisiting this game. And enjoyed the play through

[ShadowXeldron]

So I've added another game to my "games finished" pile...

Ys 2 Chronicles+ (Steam, played using Proton on Linux)

This one might be cheating since I started my playthrough on the 6th of December 2023, but I only just got around to beating it today. I'm happy to say that I'm now a fan of this series! Ys 1's title screen is a little... suspect, but other than that Ys Chronicles+ is a really good pair of remakes

Of course, it wouldn't be me if I didn't end up misconfiguring something. this time, I forgot to use Proton-GE and the ending cutscene wouldn't load, so I ended up having to do the final boss twice. I have not gotten all the achievements so I definitely haven't gotten 100% completion, although at the very least I did the masochistic one where you have to level up Tarf.

Spoiler

At the very least I'll add another game onto my pile in the form of the Genesis version of Ys 3. No PAL release so I unfortunately can't try it on real hardware without importing an NTSC cartridge and modding a 60Hz region switch onto my Mega Drive (which I do not have the skills or equipment to do). I'm pretty sure it's a sidescroller like Zelda 2 rather than a top-down game which will be interesting. Probably also going to be jank-as-all-hell but to be fair most retro RPGs are like that.

 

Edited February 16 by ShadowXeldron
Clarification

[WorksOfMagic]

Took me long enough to complete it, but here's Sonic The Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles (1994).

Do I have to say anything other than it's one of Sonic's finest adventures yet?

Honestly am looking forward to replaying it through Origins. Kinda curious to see how they botched one of my favorite titles.

Edited February 16 by WorksOfMagic

[TitansCreed]

On 2/10/2024 at 5:09 PM, TitansCreed said:

Not a lot to report this week. We've started Sonic Omens over on the YT channel, and I feel this is gonna take a while to get through, so I'll bounce back to this when it's finished.
 

 

So, finished Omens this week.

Spoiler

The YT videos are going up until the 20th and my full thoughts will be in there.

Essentially tho, I liked like 90% of the game itself. I'd probably understand the story itself a bit more if I

Spoiler

knew any of Sonic X

.

That's it for this set this week. Personal life has been mega busy and I'm just playing FFXIV in my spare time. Got the next Classic fangame lined up to record however, and plans for the next Modern title as well. :D

[Danj86]

Registered Games

1. Sonic The Hedgehog: Triple Trouble 16Bit
2. The Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown  -  1st: 100% Completion
3. Klonoa: Phantasy Reverie Series P1 - Klonoa: Door to Phantomile
4. Klonoa: Phantasy Reverie Series P2 - Klonoa 2: Lunatea's Veil

New Additions

• The Pedestrian
• Another Code: Recollection P1 - Another Code: Two Memories
• Another Code: Recollection P2 - Another Code: R - A Journey into Lost Memories

Let's start with The Pedestrian. Featuring a cameo from my knee.

This is a rather charming side scrolling puzzle platformer in which you play as...well...the human you see featured in signs. You travel from sign to sign from adjacent doors, the environments looking realistic while you are traversing the signs. The signs maintaining an art style depending on what sign it is based on. It's pretty early in the game when you end up riding the subway and you can even enter computer screens, also something that looks vaguely GameBoy-esk.

The main gimmick you'll often return to is a large wall with 2 to maybe 6 different signs that you have to move and connect the paths in a pay to access the next area. It's more challenging than my half-assed description suggests. As like most good game do, it'll add new mechanics and puzzles to add further complexity and challenge as you advance. I was even thrown for a loop in the late, late part of the game. I'll spoiler tag it.

Spoiler

Having spent 85% of the game side scrolling, after completing a specific puzzle to power up a device, the device allows you to go into a POV mode. Just like how you can move signs to connect pathways, you are now basically a human carrying around your little fella to further signs. A puzzle around this time cleverly combining side scrolling and POV mechanics to access the next area.

It was a fun game but didn't really have any replay value. No secrets to find or anything like that.

Now, let's move on to an entirely different type of game, Another Code: Recollection. 

 

A game that contains two separate titles remastered with new mechanics that allow them to work on the Switch. You can't access the second game without played the first, so we start with Another Code: Two Memories. But before describing the game, this ones file system is a little more basic sadly. You don't get to save after fully completing it and no new visuals seem to appear either. The only real change I could identify was on the title screen. It was showing art related to Journey into Lost Memories, but I'm not sure if the game only did that because I had just been playing that title before moving to the title screen.

I also found all the secret memos in Two Memories but not in Journey into Lost Memories. I couldn't really comfortably suggest that those count as a 100% run since they are the only type of collectable the game offers and nothing on the UI changes to even suggest you did extra work.

But back to Two Memories, this originally being on the DS means it's a much smaller title compared to it's sequel and even though I owned the original version of both games, I never completed them, so identifying differences is an impossibility. These games are heavily narrative driven too, so if you don't care about the characters, it's just a puzzle game with really long cut-scenes between them. It's kind of funny how most of the game takes place in a mansion. So you could also call this game "Ashley's Mansion" it has a ghost too and the eccentric scientist is actually Ashley's Dad. Mind you, That's were the similarities end since the ensighting incident in Two Memories was murder. The puzzles vary, but describing them would be boring and going into details about the plot would feel like time wasting since at best, maybe a handful of people would be genuinely interested. So, moving on....

Journey into Lost Memories is next and it's funny when you think that a DS game with a sequel on the Wii couldn't be more different in how you'd play them. Yet in this remaster, they play the same. Heck, after completing the story of Two Memories, you move right on to Journey into Lost Memories. The story taking place 2 years later. This time it takes place at a resort, complete with futuristic laboratory and a cameo of the lock ness monster of all things. I could've taken a screenshot of it, but was caught off guard when it just popped out of the lake.

I hate to admit it, but the narrative was starting to grow thin to me by this point. The plot kept getting shifted from one thing to the next, each one being mundane. You get sidetracked like...4 times? while trying to bring Ashley's Dads hat to him because the idiot left it at the campsite. So I found myself skipping most dialogue which is something I almost never in games like these.

The game doesn't often let you explore either. Now it's possible Two Memories did the same and I simply never noticed or tried to access area's the game didn't want me too, but it happened too often in Journey into Lost Memories.

So that's my lucky number 7. I've gotten a couple more games and it feels strange for an old ass man to be looking forward to dressing up Princess Peach next month.

Should I have admitted that?

Edited February 17 by Danj86

[duckyfloof]

huge thanks for the check-in reward i missed!!! highly appreciated
now for the games:

Game 11: Sonic Heroes!

Last story completed

This is my first sonic game (not counting ASRT) and for whatever reason its not one i come back to often
one thing i love about this game is the spectacle, almost every level ends with some wild shit happening and the whole thing feels super exhilrating, does get a bit old when you have to beat the game FOUR TIMES but i didn't mind that much

Game 12: Sonic Advance!

Base game beat as sonic

Sorry for the weird looking screenshot, i couldnt take any screenshots within the emulator itself so i had to tab out, resulting in the joe biden cameo
Other than that, not much to say about this one, easily the blandest out of the trilogy


Game 13: Sonic Advance 2!

Base game beat as sonic

This is where it gets real good, i absolutely love the movement in this game. I may be alone on this one but i usually tend to go slow in 2d sonic games, focusing on taking higher paths and stopping for all the item boxes and such. this was NOT the case for advance 2. The game wants you to literally never stop running and it shows. The level design is a bit bullshit near the end but it isnt bad enough to harm the experience. Great stuff


Game 14: Sonic Advance 3!

All chaos emeralds, all gold medals

This one's just as good as advance 2 for the same reasons, i decided to 100% this one because the gold medals are fun and it doesnt require you to go through the game 5 times for the true ending.

Honourable mention: Metal Gear Solid
I was halfway through the final area until the game crashed and corrupted my save, booting me back to the mantis fight (which is about a quarter into the game)
I'm sorry but i am NOT doing allat again and just watched the ending on youtube
So i didn't technically "beat" it so i won't be counting it, but i had to at least mention it because of just how mad i was

To make the poor piccolo guy's job easier here's the count:
Games beaten - 14
Games completed - 11

Thanks for reading, i'll be back soon enough
 

[Spin Attaxx]

So this week I was thinking of doing something else besides Mega Man, but then I saw Ryan go through the first three Mega Man games and so I thought, "Heck it, why don't I do one of the ones few people are likely to have played?"

(EDIT: Literally one person above me played this, albeit a romhack. Perception is not my strong suit.)

GAME #3: MEGA MAN: DR. WILY'S REVENGE (ROCKMAN WORLD)

The Game Boy Mega Man games! They exist! Even if the last two are the only ones people truly care about (in a non-ironic way). I've had all five on my 3DS for years, picking them up as they came out. Over on the MaGMML3 Discord, I've seen this one get a bit of a bad rep; it's too hard, it's bullshit difficult, etc. and while it's definitely not my favourite of the Game Boy titles, it's not bad, and it's definitely not bullshit difficult. (No, that one's for another day.)

Dr. Wily's Revenge is very much "Mega Man's first Game Boy game", what with it being a hybrid of 1 and 2 without E-Tanks, and it only being six stages long. (When Ryan said Wily Tower was longer than some official Mega Man games? Yeah, this is the one.) But for what it is, I feel the game has an interesting if slightly underutilised way of combining the first game's stages with parts of the second; Elec Man, for instance, has you jumping across clouds while fighting lightning-throwing robots like in Air Man's stage, and Cut Man uses conveyors extensively like Metal Man. Ice Man and Fire Man don't quite do this, but the former has some interesting unique gimmicks in falling icicles and ice blocks that melt if you stay on them too long. Fire Man, meanwhile, only has a unique burner flame that shows up in two screens, and uses invincible falling Changkeys otherwise, though points for using Quick Man's Changkey Maker enemies.

As ever, I tried going in a random order instead of following the weakness loop, and fighting these Robot Masters, I noticed how a lot of them are easier to buster only than their NES fights. Ice Man was the first boss I fought, and while his shots still hurt a lot more than you'd expect, they're not as tricky to avoid as they initially were. Fire Man doesn't go ballistic if you're standing far away from him. You can trap Elec Man in a jumprope-esque loop where he can't shoot, and even if he does, it doesn't hurt nearly as much as it used to. And then there's Cut Man, who I swear is now the hardest boss in the game, even with his weakness.

There's not much to say about the Wily stages, there's only two of them, but I do appreciate the bait and switch it pulls with its teleporter room. You'd reasonably expect to fight the first four bosses all over again, then bam! You fight a whole new set of bosses and get their weapons too! It's a little disappointing that they don't have their own stages (would you believe me if I said Bubble Man's fight is the only place in the game that has water?!), but again, the surprise is worth it - and considering that the next game does this while repeating this teleporter setup (with issues I'll address when we get there), perhaps it's for the best. Oh, and Enker's a pretty cool guy I guess.

(As a quick aside, there's some new Mega Man figures coming out by Jada Toys; Ice Man and Fire Man are [almost] out, Cut Man and Elec Man are on the way, Guts Man and Bomb Man are a no-show so far. If not for Wave 3 featuring Wood Man alongside Bubble Man, I'd almost think there was a secret Dr. Wily's Revenge fan over there!)

The weapons are generally the same as before, but I find the Thunder Beam much less useful as it's now more prone to snaking over small targets thanks to the smaller screen. The Rolling Cutter, meanwhile, is a pretty solid weapon that tears through everything. Carry - a platform maker you get just before the first Wily stage - is a unique item, and it really comes in handy with the many blind spike drops the Wily stages throw at you (and as a safety net for a tricky disappearing block puzzle in the Wily Station).

And the Mega Man 2 weapons come in so late you seldom get to use them, but Bubble Lead is a surprisingly strong weapon, Time Stopper has a few niche uses, and the Atomic Fire has sensible ammo usage at the cost of releasing a shot when you're hurt. The Mirror Buster is also a fun weapon to play with - definitely a bit weird if you're more familiar with its Mega Man 10 iteration - but because it's the only weapon that can harm the final boss (a recurring trend in the Game Boy games), you're not likely to use it for the small time you have it.

Wow, this might be the most I've written so far in this, all for a game few people really care about, myself included. Overall, good solid first effort, which will surely be improved on in the second game and not turn out a laughing stock.

Oh, and something funny that I never experienced before; somehow, I glitched the stage select to the point where I was stuck in a loop where the boss stands in the centre of the screen while the stage select graphics keep sliding away in a slightly-glitched mess for all eternity until I reset. How I did THAT, I'll probably never know, but I tried getting a pic of it.

Edited February 25 by Spin Attaxx

[Agie]

Games beaten so far.

Spoiler

1. Super Mario RPG Remake

2. Kaze and the Wild Masks

3. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Fall of the Foot Clan (100%)

4. Mega Man 1

5. Mega Man 2

6. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Arcade Game

7. Twinkle Star Sprites

8. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IV: Turtles in Time (100%)

9. Sunset Riders

10. Mega Man 3

11. Mega Man 4 (sequel wars version)

12. Terminator Salvation (arcade)

13. Roll-Chan 5 (hack of Mega Man 5)

14. Kiki KaiKai

15. Roll-Chan 6 (hack of Mega Man 6)

16. Beeny

17. Roll-Chan World (hack of Mega Man: Dr. Wily's Revenge)

18. Roll-Chan: Mini World (hack of Game Gear Mega Man)

The original plan was to save this for last in the handheld-themed session...until I realized that the content recycling was even more flagrant here than it ever was in the Game Boy games.

The story...well, the description I got was a very basic Mega Man story, so I kinda invented my own; Dr. Wily, after already struggling with ideas in Roll-Chan World/Dr. Wily's Revenge, completely ran out of ideas here, so he repurposes Robot Masters and entire areas. The most original thing he does is that some of the Robot Masters seem to have slightly different weaknesses, and for the most part are a bit more aggresive than they were in the NES versions...but the movesets are the same in any case.

He also decided to either take over Cossack's citadel or make his own makeshift version of it. It also explodes at the end, despite an actual Wily Castle being shown. Guess that Wily Castle was there just for looks.

But uh...yeah. I have no idea what to say about this one; the unaltered version was on my bucket list for some time, and the Roll hack, well, I just like Roll. But honestly? This game is not worth the price it goes for; starting to be glad my stance on emulation has changed. Still, it's...competent. The levels...are taken straight from the NES games, for better or worse. It's a mix of Mega Man 4 and 5 for the most part, and this game offers...basically nothing new of its own.

Still, it was published by U.S. Gold, who I hear has a bad track record as a publisher, and developed by a studio called Freestyle, who I don't think I ever heard of before, and can't seem to find much of any info on them. So I guess the fact that this even came out competent is probably a miracle in itself, even if it is ripping from other games in the series.

Plus, well, it was on the Game Gear, and I would imagine at the time, putting that experience on the handheld was still a novelty. At the very least, I hope some kid who only had a Game Gear got this game and got into Mega Man through it. Still, if you played the NES games, Mega Man 4 and 5 in particular, you practically played this one.

Would I still include it in a handheld-themed Mega Man collection? Yeah, I would. But it doesn't do much to stand on its own in an age where there's no shortage of options for the NES Mega Man titles. Give it a try any way you can if you're curious, but don't blow hundreds or thousands on it.

Also, three versions of the Roll hack exist; I chose her Mega Man 11 outfit, and I'm glad I did, because it lets me pretend this game had any effect at all on later games...as insignificant as it may be.

Also, yes, I finally learned how to get proper screenshots here, so yay!

Edited February 18 by Agie

[Lady Marie]

This week, I've finally finished and completed a game! ...And it's not any of the ones I've talked about in previous updates.

Game #1: Ib (Finished & Completed)

This is a game that I've loved since middle school. My friends and I used to play this game together after school and do the voice acting for all the characters. We'd also try to pick different options in each playthrough to get as many different endings as we could. I loved this game so much, that during a long road trip in high school, I challenged myself to get every single ending in the game (which I did accomplish, but even speed running it took me a long time). 

Needless to say, I was so happy when it was announced that this game was getting an official remake for Steam. The nostalgia hit me so hard and rekindled what I love about this game and many other JRPG horror games. I'm happy I got to revisit this short, but sweet game and have a chance to support the creator. I like that they've added different puzzles, rooms, and bonus features so that anyone who played the original version will feel like they're going into it fresh. The music, characters, and art style are still just as charming as ever, and even though I knew most of the scares from past experience, I still got a chill up my spine for my first playthrough this time around (and the doll room still sends me into a panic every time). 

All in all, I'm so happy I got to come back to this game. It still fills me with so much joy and nostalgia. If anyone is interested in JRPG horror games, I highly recommend this one as a starting point!

Aside from Ib, I've still been progressing through Baldur's Gate 3, Spider-Man 2, Midnight Suns, and Virtue's Last Reward (slowly, but surely, these games will get finished).

[Covskin]

Game 3 - Captain Toad is done and dusted.

Spoiler

And yeah, damn rightThank you after the absolute nonsense that is Mummy Maze Forever. With a name like that and randomly generated levels, I assumed it was an endless mode. There was a goal to grab 5000 coins, so I tried to sweep my way through every floor of escalating difficulty getting every coin I could. Eventually, I managed it.

Then I died and was kicked back to the level select screen and I didn't get the check mark for 5000 coins. A quick Google shows me there is an ending, and its Level 50.

I'd only got to 30.

At least now I knew I didn't need to grab every god-forsaken coin on every level, but it still took me a lot more attempts to actually finish the stage. I got evey Gem, every extra goal, every Pixel Toad...but this stage left a bad taste in my mouth. No chance in hell am I going for the speed runs on each stage.

 

God of War Ragnorak is still ongoing, just got the spear weapon. Now for more side-quests!

Edited February 19 by Covskin

[NegaMix]

Checking in!

...Uh...

...Okay, so I don't actually have any progress to report, unfortunately. I just haven't had the time to sit down and get back to Spyro, or anything else, really. Hopefully I can get something done by my next check-in.

[Ryannumber1gamer]

Reminder that the profile gift switches tomorrow, so get your check ins done! 

[Fireluigi1225]

We have a double pack of mobile games today that are somehow connected despite one of them being a step away from a visual novel and the other being a fishing game. I'm gonna try to explain as much as I can so bear with me.

100%: Bear's Restaurant

Spoiler

...get it?

This game should've taken 2-3 hours as it's pretty short and linear ( @Failinheartsyou might be interested ) but I got to be on the receiving end of an emotional Muda rush so I think that's worth getting counted. You play as a cat (aptly named) and sometimes a bear (also aptly name) running a restaurant between heaven and hell. And you also get to see how all of your tenants died so if that does something for you there you go. I'm not gonna spoil anything because it's on the app store you might as well just play it if you're bored. I actually played these in reverse order and nearly everyone who appeared in this game appear in the next one, which is much lighter in tone, so imagine getting attached to all these characters and then seeing how they died. As such, I recommend playing these games in reverse order as well to any Danganronpa fans.

Speaking of...

100%: Fishing Paradiso

Spoiler

would you believe me if i said this fishing game was about dealing with the strained relations between heaven and hell and also space a little bit while having everyone and their pet mice trauma dumping on you. The fact that this game shares any blood at all with ULTRAKILL says enough. Just be warned its a slight bit grindy depending on how you upgrade and rng.

oh right i think this makes 9 complete 8 100%

I'll leave this with a few humorous images to prove that i actually played these games

Spoiler

And finally, this event in a nutshell.

Edited February 18 by Fireluigi1225

[coral_reef]

I'm just checking in this week. I'm part way through both Sonic Generations and Sonic Adventure. I'm loving them both so far, but I'll talk about them fully when I finish them.