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

[Ryannumber1gamer]

Another big update from me this week. I already wrote lengthy blog posts for everything, so I'll make it quick. Be sure to check the blogs out!

11. Super Mario Bros: The Lost Levels (100%). 

(Note the World 4-D to prove its Lost Levels and not the original game). 

12. Super Mario Bros 2: Mario Madness (100%):

13. Super Mario Bros 3 (100%): 

14. Kirby's Adventure (100%): 

15. Mega Man 4 (100%):

 

 

[Endoian]

Hello to all those who are still doing their pending games, I am going to do my Check-in this week, this will be game number 6, honestly it is my first time playing it, I hope I have a lot of fun, the game is "Sonic Advance", I hope to finish it soon if my time allows me, finish and check-in soon, see you and take care guys, byeee.

[Stasis]

This was my first experience playing Mario. Very basic but it's fun to play to pass an hour, not sure if I prefer this to Super Mario Land.

100%

[Tornado]

Unfortunately the 3rd game is not peak at any point really. It's not bad but the game spins its wheels for about 2/3rds of its length as it does this "vignette flashback" thing when, really, none of the characters in Syphon Filter (as charming as they are) are really that interesting where you want to know how they all met or whatever in the past. There's some cool new ideas in this one (there's a lot more heavy use of scripting in this one that wasn't in the prior ones) but there's also a lot of ones that simply exceed the abilities of the game engine. The level design in general is also more straightforward, weaker and much muddier/darker. The bright colors of burning subway tunnels and striking lecture halls of the first game seem a distant memory for most of 3. The art style is also changed to be less stylized for the character models and it easily looks worse in-game even if the FMV finally is more than "in-engine stuff prerendered on a PC."

Amusingly they remade the ending for the second game shot-for-shot as the intro for the 3rd game as their idea to show this off:

But didn't rerecord any of the dialog so it still has the insane pacing that the Syphon Filter PSX games all had.

 

 

 

 

It also suffers from Yellow Paint circa 2001:

The first game was pretty good at narrative/diegetic level design and objective signposting. Nothing perhaps like Half Life maybe, but "there's something just above your field of view sparking, so maybe try shooting it" or "turn on your flashlight" kind of thing. The second game had some of that but also kind of frequently just forced you to figure shit out and hopefully it came to you naturally. This one has almost none of the diegetic stuff (other than the final boss) and instead puts stuff on the head basically everything whenever you get near it, even when it is basic controls several levels in; but then frequently puts the player in a lurch for some things anyway. "Jump here." "Administer antidote" "Free hostage" "Climb down"

 

The main failing, though, is the structure. Because the story keeps jumping around between points of views a lot of neat ideas (like the rifle that shoots through walls) are brought up and then dropped and then brought up again in a very incohesive way. Whereas in the first two games you'd frequently go on multi-part elaborate narrative setpieces where you retained ammo/weapons/armor/health from level to level and be constantly going forward, this game keeps jumping around between different character perspectives and different events so every time you do snap back to a scene you were at earlier everything is reset. Even the big, multi-part narrative flashback that starts just before the end of the second act is somewhat undercut by the game making sure to shower you in flak jackets at the start of every level and just after every checkpoint; not only severely undercutting the difficulty but breaking one of the few parts of the game that had hte level of immersion of the first two. In the second game it was sometimes frustrating to find that you didn't explore the area well enough so you don't have the required gun/tool to finish the final section of a level or make it easy, but I feel there had to be a way to do it that's better than "give the player the gun to defeat the final boss 45 seconds before you get to the final boss." It makes the game feel like it was more substantial before and was cut down before release (which, releasing so late into the PSX's life and only being on one disc, maybe it was).

 

As a parting gift to the only parts of the franchise I'm interested in looking into again (PS2 games are junk), I present some fun moments

Spoiler

 

And remark with lament that there will never again be a game with a weapon as fundamentally, laughably overpowered as the Syphon Filter air taser; a weapon whose only conceit to game balance is that the game frequently implements unarmored enemy encounters around the fundamental desire the player has to set people on fire with it (even though it takes a third as long to merely incapacitate enemies) and thus put themselves in danger in the process from other enemies.

[Gavvie]

Check in time, though hopefully by the end of this week I'll have something completed:

• Dead Space - On Chapter 10, should get this done next week because I'm getting through two chapters a week.
• A Little to the Left - On Chapter 3 here. Fun little puzzle game, shouldn't take too much longer to finish.
• Persona 3 Reload - Beat the Priestess.
• Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney - On Chapter 2.
• Final Fantasy XVI - About 60% through. I'm trying to get this done before FFVII Rebirth comes out next week. Not sure whether or not I'll manage it, but it's fun trying!

[SuperSonicFan Gui]

I finished sonic mania plus with all characters 100%

[Covskin]

Game 4 Finished - Ori and the Blind Forest Definitive Edition

This has been a game I've had on my to-do list for years and I finally picked it up for Switch. It was absolutely worth my self-imposed wait, this is a wonderful game. I was actually expecting it to be a bit bigger for some reason (probably after I was caught off-guard by Hollow Knight's size a couple of years back) but I'm glad it wasn't, it helps make Ori a tight focused experience. Some tricky platforming but I appreciate the ability to make your own Checkpoints. Also, the music is spectacular.

Spoiler

One wrinkle with Completion criteria though. In-game, I've got 100% Completion, but this does not automatically lead to earning all Achievements. They include things like a one-life run, 3 hour speedrun and a zero-upgrade run. I've got no intention of doing them. Not sure if that means I can count Ori towards my Completion list or not.

[Ryannumber1gamer]

5 hours ago, Covskin said:

Game 4 Finished - Ori and the Blind Forest Definitive Edition

This has been a game I've had on my to-do list for years and I finally picked it up for Switch. It was absolutely worth my self-imposed wait, this is a wonderful game. I was actually expecting it to be a bit bigger for some reason (probably after I was caught off-guard by Hollow Knight's size a couple of years back) but I'm glad it wasn't, it helps make Ori a tight focused experience. Some tricky platforming but I appreciate the ability to make your own Checkpoints. Also, the music is spectacular.

  Hide contents

One wrinkle with Completion criteria though. In-game, I've got 100% Completion, but this does not automatically lead to earning all Achievements. They include things like a one-life run, 3 hour speedrun and a zero-upgrade run. I've got no intention of doing them. Not sure if that means I can count Ori towards my Completion list or not.

Since the save file is listed as 100%, I’ll count it.

[cosmichaos]

5th Game: Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Trials and Tribulations: Alright, I finally got the Trilogy done. This game was monumentally better than JFA, but I still hold the sentiment that AA1 was the best game so far. I have the Apollo Justice Trilogy, so I'll be playing those eventually. Trials and Tribulations had some pretty engaging cases, and all the same lovable characters. Except Larry, who's character got so bad you could tell they just didn't even try anymore. My favorite case, like with all Ace Attorney games I've played so far, was the final case, Bridge to Turnabout. One of my favorite things about this game is that everything is tied together so intricately. Nothing is left out. For example:

Spoiler

It all started with Misty Fey, the mother of Maya and Mia Fey. Misty was involved in the DL-6 case, an incident where Miles Edgeworth's father was shot and killed in an elevator. Misty was shamed after her channeling turned out to be a failure, and she left, causing the responsibility of "Master" to be passed on to one of her daughters. Mia, reluctant to fight with her little sister over the title, pursued a job in law enforcement and became a defense attorney. Her first case involved Dahlia Hawthorne, her cousin, and none other than Miles Edgeworth as the prosecution. She failed to get an acquittal, and after her client killed himself on the stand Dahlia got away. Later she met Phoenix Wright after poisoning Mia's boyfriend's coffee, sending him into a coma. Phoenix and Dahlia hit it off(or, at least, Phoenix though they did), but soon he was put on trial for the murder of Dahlia's ex boyfriend. Mia was Phoenix's lawyer, and she got him an acquittal, and Dahlia was found guilty and sentenced to death. Mia is later murdered and Phoenix takes her place, meeting her younger sister Maya Fey, along with his childhood friend Miles Edgeworth, who he became a lawyer for. During the final trial, Misty Fey is the victim in a murder trial, where Phoenix learns that Dahlia was not who he thought she was, and will apparently stop at nothing to get her final laugh in. It's all very cleverly woven together.

All in all, it was a fun experience. My love for Detective Gumshoe was further cemented all throughout the game, but one of my personal favorite moments was when Phoenix was worried for Maya, Gumshoe promised to take him out to a nice dinner when it was all over, despite having no money to work with. Franziska, was, as usual, perfect as ever, and I loved seeing her more sympathetic side(albeit, it's a pretty rough sympathetic side, but still). Maya was great once more, with her goofy sidekick tomfoolery brightening up the gameplay. Miles continues to be my favorite, and though I wasn't super happy with having to wait until the last trial of the game to actually see him, it was pretty worth it. His and Phoenix's relationship is a highlight in that franchise and I'm glad Bridge to Turnabout did their connection justice. 

10/10 even more wrightworth 

Edited February 23 by cosmichaos

[Agie]

Games beaten so far.

On 2/20/2024 at 7:17 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)

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

19. Duke Nukem 1

20. Roll-Chan World 2 (hack of Game Boy Mega Man II)

21. Earthworm Jim

22. 3D Sonic the Hedgehog 1

Another double whammy tonight. I probably would've been able to beat these last night, but I was figuring out things that really should have been saved for a weekend day. Oh well.

23. Duke Nukem II

After the events of the first game, Duke Nukem is a celebrity, and has an interview for his upcoming book, creatively titled "Why I'm so great." But unfortunately, during his interview, the evil Rigelatins kidnap him, with the intent of sucking out his brains and use it to mastermind an attack on Earth. But Duke doesn't take this sitting down, and escapes. The whole game sees him making efforts to escape the Rigelatins, and keep Earth from being destroyed.

The second game in the Duke Nukem series, it introduces some traits that would go on to be with Duke for the rest of the series; Duke has a bit more of an ego than he did in the first game, and the atmosphere is a little more gloomy, as opposed to the wackiness of the first game. That said, he still makes jokes and it has a fair share of humor too.

The gameplay is basically that of Duke Nukem I's, except, well, more of it, and with more variety in enemies. However, it's also longer than the first game, for better or worse. I do admit, it was still fun, but by the end, I felt like I was playing it to finish it. The ending of the game, if I heard right, leads into Duke Nukem 3D, which, while I haven't played it yet (it's included in the cartridge, though), I know is essentially the game that made the series famous.

Would I recommend this one? Yeah, but be prepared to be a little worn out by the end.

24. Roll-Chan World 3 (hack of Game Boy Mega Man III)

Dr. Wily is back again, reuising more robot masters, and Roll must stop them once again! This time, it's a bit of a mix of Mega Man 3 and 4, and has eight robot masters, four for each round. But Wily has a trick up his sleeve, and builds another robot, named Punk. He is death, crime, and the rage of a beast, and can only be defeated by the Roll Buster. She really has her work cut out for her this time.

The third in the Game Boy series, after Biox's one and only Mega Man game, Minakuchi Engineering returned to make this one, and would handle the rest of the Game Boy games as well. Whereas the first one was just full of bullshit, and the second one, while I personally didn't mind the lower difficulty, was contentious for a lot of other people (not to mention the wonderful screeching music that totally doesn't make your ears bleed), this one felt more right. I don't know if this is quite where the Game Boy games get good, but it is better than the first two by a long shot.

Would I recommend this one? Yeah. Still not quite as good as the NES games, but I would still say it's worth checking out.

[ShadowForever]

Alright, I'm back to this! 

Pokemon Violet, finished! (Edit: It's not 100%, as I still need to complete Pokedex.)

Edited February 24 by ShadowForever

[Dreadknux]

Bah, I had intended to clear a lot of my backlog this past week but work has been absolutely crushing me lately... consider this just a normal check-in.

At the moment I've made progress on only one game - Ace Attorney 1. I figured I'd quickly beat the game in time for me to call it 100% this week but I forgot just how long the bonus case with Ema Skye is. I reckon I'll be done with it by Monday, and hopefully I'll have a bit more time to push through some of my backlog too.

[ShadowXeldron]

Since I have FOMO I will do a check-in now.

I recently added two Pokemon games to my collection: Crystal and Ruby. Crystal's CMOS battery seems to have expired so unfortunately I can't play it. Ruby also has a dead battery but it's still playable since it only uses the battery for save data. I've gotten the first gym badge in it.

I have also gotten a New Nintendo 3DS XL and have started playing Yo-Kai Watch 3 on there. Up to Chapter 2 and I'm playing it with the 3D enabled - I think the game makes pretty good use of the 3D effect. Actually, I do get a bit queasy when using the 3D but that N3DS was expensive so I'm bloody well using all the features.

Finally, I bought some Ys on Steam because they were on sale and the series is beginning to invade my subconscious. Specifically, I purchased Ark of Napishtim (up to the area behind the red sword door), Origin (I beat the first boss) and Oath in Felghana (not played yet). In conclusion, this week has been bloody expensive.

Keeping up with other games, I started playing Ys 3 and have made it to the ruins level.

Edited February 24 by ShadowXeldron

[Agie]

Games beaten so far.

On 2/23/2024 at 1:37 AM, 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)

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

19. Duke Nukem 1

20. Roll-Chan World 2 (hack of Game Boy Mega Man II)

21. Earthworm Jim

22. 3D Sonic the Hedgehog 1

23. Duke Nukem II

24. Roll-Chan World 3 (hack of Game Boy Mega Man III)

Only one game here today, and this one tells some truly authentic New Zealand history.

25. The New Zealand Story

Some time in New Zealand's past, a bunch of kiwi birds were playing around, but an evil leopard seal named Wally kidnapped them, with the intent of selling them off to various places, while keeping Phee-Phee all to himself. But one managed to escape, named Tiki. He was armed with only a bow and arrow and went off to save his friends and his girlfriend. He braved many dangers, and faced foes such as a frozen whale, a stone octopus, and a giant robot head. Many got in the way trying to keep their kiwis, but Tiki saved them all. Once he faced off against Wally, he defeated him by popping his air balloon, and saved his girlfriend Phee-Phee. It is said that the kiwis lived happily after that.

This historical game is a platformer where you go through mazes, and face a bunch of enemies. You sometimes need to steal their flying devices to continue on, and they are tough, because they will kill you in one hit. Some levels, if you lose all your lives, you go to heaven, which has its own bonus level...but beating them without finding an exit nets you an alternate bad ending giving you an idea of what might've happened had Tiki not been able to save his friends.

I will admit, I found this game tough with save states, so I can only imagine how hard it was to get through back in the arcade, when save states weren't even an option. If you play a real cabinet, I recommend quarters, though there were also console ports back in the day.

Still, I found it fun seeing the New Zealand story unfold, and I guess it's a shame not seeing where these figures went afterwards. I say check it out and see a piece of the real true history of New Zealand!

Edited February 24 by Agie

[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
5. The Pedestrian
6. Another Code: Recollection P1 - Another Code: Two Memories
7. Another Code: Recollection P2 - Another Code: R - A Journey into Lost Memories

Check-In

A couple of weeks back, I purchased some imports on Switch that arrived this past week. To continue my Metroidvania obsession caused by Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown, I got Touhou: Luna Nights which I'm pretty close to completing but...the final boss consists of two fights in a row which has proved difficult. I also got Afterimage which is interesting as it has side quests but wont point you in the direction to complete them like other games might. I was also supposed to be chasing a hooded girl but had only seen her that one time, the map feels massive and I thought Prince of Persia had a big map. I guess you can tell Metroidvania's are pretty new to me. We even ended up riding what looked like a large stingray to cross over to a new continent. Thinking it was also another Metroidvania, I also got a title called Signalis but I wasn't expecting the top down view or tank controls, it's also kinda creepy. Did I accidentally buy a horror game?

Get this, I picked up a bullet hell that isn't Touhou. I know, right? The game is a mouthful and a more obvious import, no way in hell I would touch a localized version of this title. Miss Kobayashi's Dragonmaid Burst Forth!! Choro-gon☆Breath, but playing these games reminds me how I play beat-em-up games. Badly. I keep buying bullet hell and beat-em-up games yet tend to suck at them. But fun is fun, so...I also happened across Arkham Trilogy for Switch and picked up Penny's Big Breakaway out of curiosity.

So I wanted to focus on my back catalogue for this challenge, as tempting as it is to play classic titles I'm still addicted too. I certainly didn't expect an easy and legal way to play Blast Corps suddenly land on my lap, but no. I might play them for fun, but not for the challenge. Mind you, I said I wanted to focus on my back catalogue yet every game I've listed in this post is new. I didn't account for that.

While I want to focus on my Switch back catalogue, I don't mind playing older titles on Steam. It feels like a new experience since I never used to be a PC gamer. I also got Metal Wolf Chaos XD which is a game I never owned or played the original of. I suppose in a strange twist of irony, this challenge has also become the reason I have been less frequently logging in to SSMB. I still want to try and keep my progress updated each week, but I haven't bothered checking anything else Sonic related. I dunno if that's a good thing or a bad thing.

Edited February 25 by Danj86

[WorksOfMagic]

Another week, another game completed.

This time it's Super Mario Bros. (NES). Jesus was this a difficult one to finish. Not only was it very unforgiving, I got a game over many times in 8-4.

Anyway, since RetroAchievements had achievements for beating New Game and New Game +, I thought I'd play the game this way and share a screenshot for proof.

[WorksOfMagic]

Welp, didn't expect to complete it this quickly, but here's another game: Super Mario Land 2 (GB)! A surprisingly fun game to revisit. I actually bothered to finish all hidden levels as well, making for 31 completed levels.

One of many Mario games I'd recommend to anyone wanting to get into the series.

[cosmichaos]

Game 6: Sonic The Hedgehog 2006: It certainly was a game. I decided to purge my game library by going one at a time, tying up some loose ends and finishing games I never had the motivation to before. So I picked up my copy, dusted off my 360, and started playing again. I can say quite a few things about this game, and I'm sure you've all heard "it's the worst Sonic game ever!!!" about a million times, so I'll go over what I liked about it. 

For one, I think that for the most part all the characters were done justice. My favorite story (and ultimately the only one that really matters to me) is Shadow's story. I've heard a lot of people give praise for this, but it is well deserved. Shadow's character is probably close to, if not at, its best here. He's closed off and jaded, sure, considering what he's been through, but he's also protective of the people he cares about, like Rouge, Omega, and even Sonic. He's making sure to honor his sister's wishes, and that's clear enough, but it's not the complete focal point of his arc. It's not all about Maria anymore; it's about Shadow. 

As for the others: Sonic sort of felt like a self insert, but not like a protag with a personality that you could relate to. Just a vessel that ebbed and flowed with the story instead of being the brash and boisterous Sonic we all know and love. I did enjoy seeing his more gentle side at times, though. Tails was...well, he's been the same in just about every pre-2010 game there is, so not much to say about him right now. Same with Knuckles. Aside from Adventure 2 and sort of Gen/Unleashed, Tails, Knuckles, and Amy are pretty flat characters. Kind of glad Rouge wasn't a major character in 06, because Rouge is one of my favorites and it would suck if she got her character ruined (side eyeing YOU, Generations and Dream Team). Silver was cool. Not much else on him other than I enjoyed his character, especially when it bounced off of Blaze. Loved Blaze, per usual; you can't go wrong with a fire cat. Omega was a give or take, I prefer him in Shadow the Hedgehog, but I'm not complaining at his addition. No comment on Elise; she had so much potential that got thrown away.

Gameplay wasn't fun unless I was playing as Rouge (Is it just me or is Knuckles WAY worse than Rouge in the gameplay department? Like he was spazzing out all the time and I never had an issue with Rouge.), but the story was really solid, and with some better execution it could have been fun. I haven't played P-06 yet, but I'll probably get to it sometime in the future.

Overall, 5/10. Really could've been great.

Edited February 24 by cosmichaos

[The Tenth Doctor]

Game 2 - Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace on PS5

Nostalgia! I love this game, its rough but hell I love it. Full of great quotes too, like Qui Gon's "You disgust me, I must be going", Amidala's "Your stepping on my dress!" Or Teemto in general. Ran through it in 4 hours.

[NegaMix]

Checking in! I finally had a bit of free time this week, allowing me to breeze through the second world in Spyro 1, so at least some progress has been made. I'm hoping to steadily increase my amount of free time by the end of next week.

[Ryannumber1gamer]

IMPORTANT NOTICE:

I want to take a moment to remind everyone - when you're submitting a game, please specify it's only finished, or if it's been 100% completed. This will make it easier to update things and means I don't need to ask if the game need to be submitted twice or not.

[TitansCreed]

Another short one this week as most of my free time is invested in doing some stuff in FFXIV.

With Omens finished on the YT channel this week (no spoilers, I enjoyed my time with it), we've moved onto Sonic Triple Trouble, the 16 Bit remake.  That's been airing on YT this week, but we completed it in recording this morning. Vid's should be live over the coming days.
 

Having never played the GG original, I had fun with this one also.

[Fireluigi1225]

I dont have anything this week, if i complete a game today ill edit

[ouenji]

Forgot to check in last week, it was a busy time so I missed it haha! All my gaming time was spent on the new Splatoon DLC this week; I beat that but I’m not sure if that counts for anything!! Incredibly fun though, It’s made me realise I might love more rougelikes since that repetition feel so satisfying!

[Lady Marie]

I have another game to report for this week! Thanks to some kindness from Ryan, I unexpectedly got the Fortnite BP for this season.

Game #2: Fortnite Season 1 BP (Finished)

I only got into Fortnite this past year because of the JJK collaboration that was going on. I’m not really a fan of Battle Royales, but when they added the Festival mode, I was all in (I can’t resist rhythm games). Seeing how many different maps and modes there are definitely motivated me to play more than I ever could have anticipated. And having lots of friends to play with helps too. I never thought I’d say that I’m a Fortnite player, but life is full of surprises. I’m looking to fully complete the BP before the season ends, so I’ll update here once it’s done.

Still working through Spider-Man 2, Baldur’s Gate 3, Midnight Suns, and Virtue’s Last Reward. I’ve especially been making progress on VLR. I’d say I’m about halfway to completing it at this point, which I’m happy with. Hopefully I’ll have even more to report in here soon!