[EVENT] The Sonic Stadium 52 Game Challenge 2024! - The Knuckles Week Special Challenge is Active! Join it now for special prizes! Weekly Check-In prize: Sonic Advance Profile Gift

[The DOMinator]

Now that school has concluded for the week, I can finally list off the games I beat and 100% completed before joining Sonic Stadium, as I stated I would do earlier in the week. Here goes:

Team Sonic Racing (PS4) - Game 1/52 Beat: 

Beat the story mode, and got all of the stars in each chapter too! Pretty solid kart racing game (which goes for the rest of Sumo Digital's Sonic Racing games), and I liked the addition of the team mechanic, though, I can't tell if the overall package is a downgrade or not from All-Stars Racing Transformed. Still good and fun nonetheless! All that's remaining is beating some of the levels on hard.

 

Turok: Dinosaur Hunter Remastered (PS4) - Game 2/52 Beat, Game 1/52 100% Completed: 

Completed the Chronoscepter, defeated the final boss, discovered every secret area, and completed the trophy list. A really good first person shooter, with unique themeing (Dinosaurs), solid gameplay, and even platforming segments, something not commonly found in the genre. Can't wait to play Turok 2: Seeds of Evil!

 

Sonic Superstars (PS4) - Game 3/52 Beat: 

I'm one of those in the "I liked this game camp," Gameplay was pretty accurate to the classics, not to a "T" mind you, but way closer than Sonic Generations' Classic Sonic gameplay, and lightyears beyond Sonic Forces' Classic Sonic. The new 3D graphics were lively, and the level themes were refreshing. Now, all I need to do is beat Trip's story, beat the true final boss, and destroy every golden badnik.

[Ryannumber1gamer]

REMINDER: 2 Days left to get a free SA2 profile gift by checking into the 52 Game Challenge or joining!

[Bortificatin]

Game 7 - Mega Man: The Power Battles (Arcade - CPS2) [Completed]

To be on the safe side, I decided to do all three courses and play as all three characters. Bass for the MM1-3 Course, Proto Man for the MM4-6 Course. and Mega Man for the MM7 Course. Not sure if this game should be taken as canon, but I do like how Mega Man and Bass's endings do make  some hints towards the X series. As an aside, I do find it funny how comically large the Napalm Bombs in this version, going from small projectiles half the size of the character in the original MM5 to being like twice the size of the character in Power Battles.

---

Games Finished - 7

Games Completed 4

• Fortnite Chapter 5 Season 1 - Finished
• Pokemon Violet - Finished
• Mega Man - Completed
• Akatsuki Blitzkampf Ausf. Asche - Completed
• Dragon Ball V.R.V.S. - Completed
• Capcom vs. SNK 2: Millionaire Fighting 2001 - Finished
• Mega Man: The Power Battles - Completed

 

[Danj86]

Registered Games -update-

Spoiler

1. Sonic The Hedgehog: Triple Trouble 16Bit - Complete

2. The Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown  -  Complete

3. Klonoa: Phantasy Reverie Series P1 - Klonoa: Door to Phantomile

4. Klonoa: Phantasy Reverie Series P2 - Klonoa 2: Lunatea's Veil

5. The Pedestrian - Complete

6. Another Code: Recollection P1 - Another Code: Two Memories

7. Another Code: Recollection P2 - Another Code: R - A Journey into Lost Memories - Complete

8. Touhou: Luna Nights -  Complete

9. Afterimage - Complete

10. Yohane The Parhelion -Blaze in the Deepblue- -  Complete

11. Metroid Dread - Complete

12. Mario vs Donkey Kong (Switch Version) - Complete

13. Metroid Prime Remastered

14. Tevi - Complete

15. Princess Peach Showtime! - Complete

16. The Murder of Sonic The Hedgehog - Complete

17. Grim Guardians: Demon Purge - Complete

18. Double Dragon Gaiden: Rise of the Dragons - Complete

New Additions

19. Gensou Skydrift - Complete

Spoiler

Touhou is back, this time, without the actual word in the title. Though saying that, most games published by Team Shanghai Alice or just ZUN if you prefer, also don't often have the word Touhou in it. I'm eluding to something there that I will have to elaborate on at some point. I was slow in noticing it myself.

Gensou Skydrift is in the genre we seem to call, "Mario Kart Clone," well I can't call it a "Kart" Racer, did you see the screenshot?? Some websites claim that the developers of this game assisted in developing Mario Kart 8 and I suppose you can feel it. Notably, Double Dash feels like a distant cousin with how you pick two characters from the world of Touhou and switch between them during the race. They also have unique special moves that was also a Double Dash feature. Okay, now to address the elephant in the room. Anyone that knows nothing of Touhou will be wondering why they're seeing a screenshot of a girl riding another girl like a skateboard across a road that they're hovering above. Well, through magical or spiritual power, everyone (Except maybe one guy.) can fly in this series. To explain the situation, the game has a campaign mode.

While a racing event was being set up around Gensokyo, the location Touhou always takes place in. A certain resident (Reimu Hakurei, the protagonist of most Touhou games.) notices that a portion of her spiritual power was being drained, forcing her to travel by foot. In search for the culprit, she bumps into her best friend (Marisa Kirisame.) and after confirming it's effecting everyone the same, a mysterious figure shoots past them. They need to give chase and the best way to do that would be by working together. They can share magic/spiritual power by remaining in contact to each other, allowing them to maintain flight and chase the mysterious figure. As they race through more area's, more and more of the Touhou cast become aware of the situation and the way to counter it, resulting in much larger races. Sounds pretty silly, which means it's perfect for Touhou.

In Gensou Skydrift, large rings are dotted around the race track and you are encouraged to fly through them. Doing so will fill a gauge that, once full, allows you to receive a random item to help you and/or hinder other racers. They aren't as easy to identify like shells or wisps but do have similar functions. It did feel like flying through those rings gave you a little speed boost too, so while they weren't mandatory, you should really be going for them. Especially in later tracks were the the roads get more complicated. They'll be based on key locations in Gensokyo that fans of the series will recognize, I remember the Library being a nightmare with the sheer amount of sharp turns and the game doesn't really punish you too much for slamming into a wall. As long as you are able to get first place, you'll advance the plot. So the game is actually pretty short and doesn't offer much variety in terms of modes, you do unlock half the playable cast after completing the campaign and then do a second campaign following the characters that caused the incident who are wanting to compete and win this time.

Completing the second campaign unlocks the last two characters and you've pretty much finished. For a solo player at least.

-----------------

20. Penny's Big Breakaway - Complete

Spoiler

Hmmmm. This game was a strange one. It was new and it's always refreshing to see something new, and I can't fully commit to liking or disliking it. I can't decide. Something must have clicked because I felt compelled to find all the collectables and side missions. I felt like it had been designed to encourage speed running and it does have a Time Trail mode, but I just don't have any interest in doing that. I guess you don't unlock anything either, since I still got the 100% acknowledgement on the save file.

Okay, so you are playing as Penny. Something I actually managed to forget, despite her name being in the freaking title of the game. She's looking to attend a type of talent show, which seems like a big deal in this colourful world. The King (Is he a King? Did the game ever call him a King? I can't recall.) will be watching and Penny already knows what she intends to do. She's going to perform tricks with her trusty Yo-yo. On her way there, she wanders into an ally and finds this mysterious "thread" that attaches to her yo-yo, causing it to come alive. It now has a mouth, tongue and mannerisms comparable to a dog. But never mind all that, she's going to be later for the show.

A cue is formed and as a British person, we must respect the cue and obey it's rules. However the game will have none of that rubbish and I find a path that allows me to skip the cue to perform, this is Penny's first major crime. Things seem to go well afterwards, until the Yo-yo goes mental and attacks the maybe King, eating his clothes and leaving him in a most humiliating state. He wasn't happy about being forced to flash the audience so Penny is seen as a criminal. You're now a fugitive from the law and the law enforcers are penguins for some reason. This works into the gameplay. At some point, you are guaranteed to see those penguins in the levels and they will chase you for exposing the possible King, but you don't take damage if one touches you. It will just latch onto you like some horrible fan with no concept of personal space. You can perform tricks to throw it off you. As more penguins grab Penny, her ability to move is slightly reduced, but don't give up. However, I believe the killer number is five and yes, it happened to me on several occasions, once five have grabbed you, you are "arrested."

This game also doesn't bother with lives and it's health kinda does something slightly different too. It has four segments. Get hit by an attacked, you lose one. Fall off the level or into lava, you lose one. Get arrested, you lose one. But if you lose all four, you are punished by losing 10.000 points from your current score in exchange for a new full health bar. If you want to get a high score, being clumsy isn't the way. The game will get pretty tough as you progress.

Every level apart from boss fights, have 3 collectable tokens you can find and 3 specific NPCs that have a request or side quest you can complete. The side quests can differ from performing tricks to reach a certain score, delivering an item to another NPC or reaching a point under a specific time limit. The time limited ones aren't ideally set up since you get the mission once you are close enough to the NPC, but a time limited one starts immediately. The clock is already ticking while you're trying to read what you are supposed to do. Pausing doesn't help either, unless they add an update which lets the objective remain on the screen if you pause, which would be really helpful.

Okay, it's getting late and I could really talk about some other features, but I've already been confusing my sleep cycle too much these days. I also hadn't noticed until writing this that I've reached my 20th game. That was rather neat.

Finished: 20

Complete: 16

Edited April 22 by Danj86

[Tornado]

You ever notice that Nintendo systems never have gotten "serious" racing games? By that I mean ones that are beyond just kart racer adjacent and/or basically the home version of a game you'd normally see on an arcade cabinet. The N64 had Beetle Adventure Racing and that was basically it. The SNES had some but they were much more popular on the Genesis, and some of the most notable ones didn't even make it out of Japan. The Gamecube had some only if they were already on PS2/XBox. The Wii on has been kind of a wasteland.

 

And yet, on the Game Boy Advance, there was an entire franchise of them. Perhaps not coincidentally they were called GT Advance to try and confuse people into thinking they were Gran Turismo titles, but while they absolutely aren't to that level they are great racers in their own right. Basically Mode 7 (with super smooth scrolling and sprite rotation alongside a really high framerate) games applied to a more modern racing formula. The third game is absolutely the best game in the series with the most content and the best graphics (though the second game is super interesting because it's a Mode 7 game that's kinda doing goofy stuff with the sprites to give a perception of elevation change that I'm not sure I've ever seen another Mode 7 kind of game do) that makes the first one completely obsolete but for all of them to have a game in this genre this substantial in your pocket was huge when it came out. other than THQ infamously removing the battery backup for the US release of the first game (I recall even after the game had started its review period?) they were all widely praised when new. It makes it all the more weird that the series is basically completely forgotten nowadays; and that the developer of them basically immediately abandoned the series entirely rather than return for something on the DS.

Dynamic replays. Tight controls. Fun physics. The games were all really punching way above their weight for the time and hardware.

It was fun to go back to the third game after all these years.

[Sean]

Check-ins:

Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition (PC) - Up to chapter 5, of 7. I may do the expansions afterwards though.
Diablo (PC) - On level 12, of 16. Using the DevilutionX source port.

Attached pics of my characters' progress so far.

[Danj86]

2 hours ago, Tornado said:

You ever notice that Nintendo systems never have gotten "serious" racing games? By that I mean ones that are beyond just kart racer adjacent and/or basically the home version of a game you'd normally see on an arcade cabinet. The N64 had Beetle Adventure Racing and that was basically it. The SNES had some but they were much more popular on the Genesis, and some of the most notable ones didn't even make it out of Japan. The Gamecube had some only if they were already on PS2/XBox. The Wii on has been kind of a wasteland.

I was gonna say Cruis'n series but that is an arcade title. lol I never knew Nintendo owned it until recently.

I do remember a Wii title I played a lot, which I never knew at the time was part of the "Excite" series, it was called Excite Truck. Would that count as a "serious" racing game? I do remember spending a lot of time in the air, doing flips and stuff. The game also had a sequel still on Wii, but it never came out in the PAL region. It was called Excitebots: Trick Racing. I can show the box art for both games if anyone is curious.

[Ryannumber1gamer]

On 4/19/2024 at 9:22 PM, TitansCreed said:

So, since we're in a continuation of Sonic Superstars this week (and going deep into next week), I thought I'd do a quick update while I'm knee deep in World Tournament on Dokkan Battle.

Over on the YouTube channel this week, we took a quick break after Superstars story to jump into something that had always intreged me, but I forgot existed until I caught a random post by @Failinhearts on the SSMB, Sonic Speed Simulator.

As you can guess form the title of the video, I had... way more fun than I expected. And has been my on/off chill session in the background this week. Even went and finished off the Shadow event for the character skin.

I saw that there is a new event coming in about 19 hours (at time of writing this post) with the Knuckles TV Series event, and I was informed I missed my bae Neo Metal by about a week or so. But having a poke around, there is WAYYYYYYYY more content just sat here. So I may go back and check some more out.

I hate that this also proves @Dreadknuxright about forum useage too.

Otherwise, as previously mentioned, we keep carrying on, carrying on with Trip's Story in Superstars. A level a day, makes me... something something, I guess.

I'll see you next week, for another exciting video game round up, where I might finish more video games XD

I actually just started Speed Sim tonight and you're in luck - Neo Metal is still unlockable when you get to Hill Top Zone: 

[TitansCreed]

3 hours ago, Ryannumber1gamer said:

I actually just started Speed Sim tonight and you're in luck - Neo Metal is still unlockable when you get to Hill Top Zone: 

Goddamn. I'm just finished a recording in the second map. Hill Top is a way off, right?

Good to know it's still there... I'm such a Neo Metal simp. There's a reason I was super excited for Forces Overclocked and even back at like Summer of Sonic '16 I had some particular tee made...



Hard to believe the last SoS was 8 years ago...

[Covskin]

Its a Zelda double header!

The Legend of Zelda and Zelda 2: Adventure of Link both finished (neither 100%)

Spoiler

Zelda 2 was my entry into the series, so in a reversal from most people I found the top-down perspective to be the weird shift away from established gameplay! It never bothered me though. I haven’t really got anything original to say about either game after all these years. I do find myself wondering just how I managed to beat both of these as a child though. I definitely had a magazine walkthrough with dungeon maps for the original but I don’t remember having the same for the sequel. Beyond the maps, there’s also just the sheer difficulty of moment to moment combat, particularly in 2. I remember the Thunderbird in particular being an absolute bastard when I was young, so I was stunned when I beat him on the first attempt this week.

 

21 games finished, 14 of which are complete.

[Ryannumber1gamer]

4 hours ago, TitansCreed said:

Goddamn. I'm just finished a recording in the second map. Hill Top is a way off, right?

Good to know it's still there... I'm such a Neo Metal simp. There's a reason I was super excited for Forces Overclocked and even back at like Summer of Sonic '16 I had some particular tee made...



Hard to believe the last SoS was 8 years ago...

Hill Top is world 5, but you can get there pretty quickly if you focus on doing the main quests for characters. I would advise doing so, since idk if Neo Metal is here permanently or not.

[FReaK]

Checking in for the week:

I actually started a new game this week, Dave the diver.

a fun little game where you explore the sea at day and help in a sushi bar at night. I'm still early in the game but it's quite fun.

 

other then that I played a few games on the steam deck, but nothing to report about for now. I'll do that when I finish some of them :)

[cosmichaos]

Sonic 3 & Knuckles (100%): This one was fun. Well, fun except for Death Egg Zone Act 2 and Sandopolis Zone Act 2. Both of those can go to hell, but everything else is wonderful. This is by far the best Genesis game imo. Also, remember when I said in my check in that I would soon be finishing Sonic Lost World? Well, I lied because my Wii U decided to have something wrong with it, and the analogue stick doesn’t work unless I hold it down for a long period of time, which doesn’t bode well when you’re playing a platformer.

Anyways, Sonic 3 is good. Very good :)

[Ryannumber1gamer]

7 hours ago, Covskin said:

21 games finished, 14 of which are complete.

Just to check, is this including GOW Ragnarok's Valhalla DLC?

[NegaMix]

No progress to report this week, sadly. Just hasn't been any time for me to really sit down and play something for more than, like, a minute at most.

I did get Sonic 3 A.I.R set up on the Ally, though, so that's all ready for another time.

[Ryannumber1gamer]

1 minute ago, NegaMix said:

No progress to report this week, sadly. Just hasn't been any time for me to really sit down and play something for more than, like, a minute at most.

I did get Sonic 3 A.I.R set up on the Ally, though, so that's all ready for another time.

A.I.R is a great time, but let me also recommend 16 Bit Triple Trouble. Fantastic fan game, easily on par with the classic series, and plays perfectly on Deck and ROG Ally.

[NegaMix]

1 minute ago, Ryannumber1gamer said:

A.I.R is a great time, but let me also recommend 16 Bit Triple Trouble. Fantastic fan game, easily on par with the classic series, and plays perfectly on Deck and ROG Ally.

Ooh, yeah, I've been eying that one for a while now. Definitely gonna download it soon.

[Jovahexeon Jax Joranvexeon]

Weekly update:

In addition to working on the Battle Pass for Fortnite, I am also working on completion for Sonic Adventure 2.

Lord knows, I forgot how tricky it can be to try and get all the A-ranks, let alone doing it while recording. the recording curse will eat you alive on these.

[TheKarmaCollector1994]

Hey Guys!

Just a quick progress update from me for this week. Unfortunately I haven’t been able to make that much progress in the games that I am currently playing through, mostly due to having to deal with quite a lot of IRL stuff yet again, which has had an impact on being able to get games finished. I know I promised last week that I was close to getting my Mario Bros. 2 and my Mario 64 runs finished, but because of all the stuff that’s been going on, they’ve mostly taken a bit of a back seat for the time being, and have only just had chance to make some progress today, albeit not as much as I would have liked to have made. Hopefully it won’t take that much longer for me to get them out of the way so I can concentrate on other titles that I plan to play through.

Additionally, I am continuing with my Sonic Adventure DX playthrough, and I am currently over halfway through Tails’ story and should make a start on Knuckles’ story this week, just in time for the new mini-series on Paramount+. Can’t wait! I have also managed to pick up the rest of the remaining emblems from the Adventure Fields, except for the one off the cliffs connecting Angel Island to the Mystic Ruins. (Looks like a certain echidna will be needed to collect that one…)

As for other games that I might start a run through, I might try to play a few of the LEGO games, but I also have plans to take on a point-and-click adventure, more specifically a classic of the genre - but which one?! Stay tuned and you’ll find out!

See you in the next update!

Games Finished: 9

Games 100% Completed: 8

[ShadowXeldron]

Putting in a quick status update before I go to bed.

I haven't really gamed this week outside of a brief go at Doom 2016, which I guess I could count for this challenge since I started playing it in December. I just haven't really felt it this week, probably because pressure from University is starting to mount up and I'm supposed to actually be making a game rather than playing one (wink wink nudge nudge).

I do however have an evil plan to bring another money sink into my life. If all goes well tomorrow I may just be able to bring it up in my next status update. If not, I guess I'll just have to dream on.

[The Tenth Doctor]

Game 8 - Sonic P06 (100%)

What an improvement. This is the 06 we all deserved. Really can't wait for the next update. I mean, they made Amy fun! That's huge! If you like the Adventure games, give this a go. 

[Emperor Robrainiac]

WEEKLY CHECK-IN: SUPER MARIO BROS 3 (NES) FINISHED

Another oldie but a goodie on my end. This is Super Mario Bros 3, a game that I really enjoyed as a kid. I've never beaten this game, neither this or the All-Stars version. I figured now was as good as time as any to finish this game. What are my thoughts on it?

Pretty good, actually! I can see why this is a classic, I gotta say. Very simple, but a solid platformer. One thing why I really enjoyed about this game was a running mechanic where if you gained enough speed, you could gain much more height if you pressed jump. If you have the racoon tail, you could use this mechanic to fly. Very fun, but also easy to exploit, so I often avoided skipping through levels with this.

It also introduced many interesting power ups, such as the iconic racoon tail, the tanooki suit (A power up that's still used in many mario games to this day) a frog suit (Somewhat useless on land, very useful for water levels) and a Hammer bros suit (basically the fire flower, but you chuck hammers upwards instead). They were fun to experiment and play around with, and it was really cool seeing this wide variety of suits in the game.

This is also the game that introduced the Koopalings. Now, people have a mixed reception about the Koopalings, some people like them, some people think they're bland as bosses and characters. Me, personally, I've always had a soft spot for them. I grew up on a mario fanpage which was mainly Koopaling centric, so I admit there's a bit of a nostalgia bias for these characters. As for the boss fights themselves, they're more or less the same with some minor alterations. For example, Wendy throws peppermint rings that bounce around the arena, Roy can freeze mario after landing on the ground, and Lemmy tosses bouncy balls around the arena while standing on top of one. Nothing too special or fancy.

This game was the one that more or less introduced the level tropes you see in many mario games. A grassy plains themed world, ice world, desert world, stuff like that. Though two worlds of note that were pretty unique was a "giant land" where you find giant blocks and enemies, and a "pipe land" a world where you go through mazes of pipes. 

Overall, it's a simple game, nothing too much to say about it other than it's a fun game, and you can definately see how future games in the Mario series took inspiration from it!

[The DOMinator]

Quick weekly check in. I don't know if this is counting toward the Sonic Adventure 2 one or not, or if my last one (with Duke Nukem) did (joined in during it's time, but got Sonic Shuffle?). But whether or not this one counts toward it or Sonic Advance, it doesn't matter much .

Now, I didn't make any real progress this week, due in part to school, but also because I spent what time I did have on multiplayer games for fun (Freestyle and Smashing Drive on GameCube, Sonic and Sega All-Stars Racing on PS3, etc). However, I did almost beat a game, but well...

So, last night, after fighting my dad in X-Men: Children of the Atom on our Marvel Super Heroes Arcade1up cabinet, I got a bit carried away and started to go through arcade mode. I beat most of the opponents with Wolverine, until I got stuck on someone, in which case, I switched to Ice Man, since he has a move that can kind of be abused. With him, I progressed all the way up to the final boss; enter Magneto.

I didn't beat him. Not because he's tough like any other final boss. Oh no. You see, as stated bestly by pretty much everyone on the internet, Magneto in this game has got to be one of the most cheesed up, bull crap fights in video game history. Firstly, the AI in the game in general is not the best. What it does is read your inputs and block against them. Now, in every other fight, you could essentially just chip away at your opponents heath. But not Magneto. Your attacks do minimum damage to him. In contrast, every one of his moves takes a good chunk of your health away. Adding onto it, his POW meter (this game's form of a meter that, when filled, allows you to do a powerful special move) is constantly regenerating, unlike yours and everyone else's. And the his move takes like a third of your health.  Then, on top of all of that, he has two overpowered abilities. One of them involves him putting up a shield that makes him invincible for about half a minute. The other has him summon orbs that grab you, even if you're blocking, pull you towards him, holds you midair in front of him, and allows him to beat the crap out of you. Now, unlike all of the other fighters, Magneto has a pattern to his moves. After hours of playing, and finding a way to use this to my advantage, the cabinet reseted back to the game selection menu. All of my progress, lost. All of my time, wasted. I didn't even get to put up my high score! That knocked the wind out of my sails.

So yeah, that's how my weekend was. Sorry to vent, but I needed to get that out of me. Oh yeah, and I played a bit of Fall Guys, for what it's worth.

[Winston]

I finally finished another game while working on it on and off these past few weeks. I figured I'd do it. I never talked about it because I wasn't sure if I was actually going to do it, but I ended up doing it anyway. It's a pretty easy game for me to complete at least since I've played it so much.

GAME #19 - Crash Team Racing: Nitro Fueled - Completed

I decided to fully complete the CTR campaign again. I didn't want to do it on hard mode since I'd only done it once, so I just went for it on easy. I got all the trophies for this years ago too. If you need proof, I can post a picture, but Ryan can probably just check my Nitro Fueled trophy list if he wants to. I have like 300 hours in this game now too, which makes it easily my most played game on my PlayStation.

I'll focus on the campaign now for my review. Nitro Fueled is one of my favorite kart racers, even despite it's flaws. It's nowhere near as polished as something as Mario Kart, but there's so much content packed in here for Crash fans that I can overlook some of it's flaws a bit. The campaign is pretty good but short. One thing I always enjoyed about the Crash games is them having single player campaigns for every spin-off, besides Crash Team Rumble which was probably the one that needed it most with it's lack of content and now lack of updates. But that's enough of Rumble slander.

I do think the bosses here can be annoying with their item spams, and sometimes it feels near impossible to make a come back so you just have to restart. Load times can also be pretty long which makes this process especially annoying. The tracks themselves have some weird hit boxes from time to time, but as someone who has played this game way too much, I'm pretty used to the strange hitboxes and how to do shortcuts. I'm not perfect, but I know what to avoid now whereas a new player may not. The thing that makes CTR different from Mario Kart is definitely it's drifting system though, you basically have three boosts you have to time while you're dashing. You then jump and dash again and keep up the combo basically, and if you go on a dash pad, sometimes you will get red fire or blue fire that allows you to go faster indefinitely if you keep the combo going/don't hit any walls/don't get hit by any items. It's an interesting mechanic which is a lot of fun, even if it works the best in the offline mode.

I also enjoy the options here for the campaign. There's a vanilla campaign that recreates the original experience for the most part, and just has basic karts and disables cosmetics/karts not from the original CTR if you want to just experience the original as close as you can, or there's the Nitro Fueled mode that allows you to customize your characters and see other characters popping up that weren't from the original. One big change i do enjoy from the original is that every time you defeat a boss, you unlock them. It's a far easier and sensical process than what the original game did with the unlocks in my opinion. 

The content here is also plenty outside of the campaign, basically every single playable character in Crash history is here. It's a shame they couldn't fit in like Willie Wumpa Cheeks from CTTR, but we have to take some hits here and there. But you have characters from Ebenezer Von Clutch to Yaya Panda playable. It was awesome getting all these new free characters in the updates, and at that point, definitely made me think it had the better roster than Mario Kart 8 at the time. Mario Kart 8 now does have a better roster than it did when this game was released, but I don't know, it's pretty 50/50 for me. I also love all the kart customization here and how they reworked karts from even things like Crash Tag Team Racing to fit into the style, even pulling karts from like the PSP version of the game that were exclusive. The Nitro Fueled part of this part comes from the fact that at base, every Crash Nitro Kart stage and character was featured. It was an awesome addition since they were designed to be close to CTR tracks anyways, so having them here is nice. There's also tons of brand new tracks that came out in the following months. I do think the monthly grand prix grind was a bit too much though, you often had to spend like the first two or last two weeks of every month grinding the game out.

The biggest controversial features of this game is the wumpa shop. Basically, anything not in the original game besides like some Nitro Kart karts was in the Wumpa Shop. It required an online connection IIRC. It also takes a while to save up and get all of the characters and karts in the shop. Take it from me, someone who did this on both Switch and PlayStation. It took me a good two years on Switch with the lack of online acitivity. It's a really annoying grind, and when the servers go down one day, there isn't going to be a way to get those characters unless they do a fix which I doubt. There's also microtransactions in this game, which weren't there at launch, but got added due to the grind being 'too much', as Activision said. Their solution of course to not make the coin drops easier, but to add a way to pay them for more coins lol. It's avoidable, but annoying. At least the weekends do give you double coins.

The online itself isn't the greatest either, it's very laggy, if one person who disconnects is the host it kicks everyone out of the room. The items are sometimes invisible and you'll just get hit by something out of nowhere. You might even pass the finish line in first and then the game makes you somehow end up in second. It's not great. I still play it every once and a while but that's mostly just because I want to play a game on modern consoles with Von Clutch and Nina Cortex.

I hope I covered everything, but I do think Nitro Fueled is worth a pick up for those who liked the original a lot. It isn't very casual friendly, especially online now, but there is a lot of contet packed in here for $40 at full price. Just expect to do a lot of grinding. Nowadays, the game does go on sale pretty frequently for like less than $20 I believe. I recommend it if you're sitting on the fence and want a good way to play the original with a lot more to do. Some still prefer the original, but I like Nitro Fueled the best. It's my favorite Crash spin-off, and we'll probably never get another one like it.

That's the only game I managed to finish this week, but Pikmin may be there... next week. Maybe. I keep saying that and it never happens. I have a good feeling though that I can probably complete it by next check in. Thanks for reading though for this weeks! I hope you enjoyed me bringing up famous characters like Willie Wumpa Cheeks and Von Clutch from Crash Tag Team Racing from 2005. 
 

 

[Lady Marie]

Weekly Check-in:

Still been making my way through my current in-progress games this week. Had a lot going on, so I didn't have a ton of time, but I'm happy with how far I was able to get in some of the games.

Fortnite BP progress is a bit slow, but I've managed to keep up with the mini BP quests to keep my experience points up. And I was able to get not just one, but two solo wins for the first time in Battle Royale! Hoping to start making more progress soon as more of the mini BP quests become available. 

Suicide Squad is close to being finished. Almost got it wrapped up with my friends, at least for the base campaign. Should be able to get that done sometime soon and then move on to focus on what the BP has to offer.

FFVII Rebirth has also been going well. The chapter I'm currently on is much longer than I expected, especially with how many mini games there are to complete. I don't necessarily have to get all of them done at once, or the side quests, but it feels right to just get it all done in one go. Plus, I'm loving the game so much, I wanna take my time and savor as much of the experience as I can, even if it means having to put the main storyline on hold for longer.

Made a lot of progress in Virtue's Last Reward tonight. Got several of the endings, and only three left to go. I'll have to go back and do some of the extra passcode stuff to get all the secret and wrap up the trophy list, but luckily there are plenty of guides online. But man... this story has taken so many weird, crazy turns. As soon as you think it's all figured out, there's more lore that just comes out of nowhere. It almost feels like too much at this point. Still having a good time, but I'll be kind of glad that I won't have to watch the same cutscene ten more times just to get everything.

Haven't forgotten about Baldur's Gate 3 and Midnight Suns either. Once I get some of these other games knocked out, I'll put my focus back on them.