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

[Jovahexeon Jax Joranvexeon]

Weekly Check-In:

In my bid to stockpile games that I'm storing up for the big banazana, many have come across my mind. However, it is long past due that I add one of the latest and greatest of all time.

That's right. As for this week, Red Dead Redemption 2 joins the fray!

[Fireluigi1225]

I'm going to submit my games tomorrow, but I'm still here. 

[KingSonicFan134]

Game Number 12/52: Mega Man 6 (100% Completed)

One of the better Mega Man games on the NES for sure. Graphics are great, music is spot-on, level design and difficulty are actually very good, with great innovation and tight platforming throughout. Though quality of the level design dipped quite a bit during the Wily Stages, and the story is literally a Ctrl + C of Mega Man 5's story, it's still a fantastic game, and a great way to close out the NES Mega Man Games.

Game Rating: 5 Out Of 5:

Game Number 13/52: Donkey Kong Country 2 (Finished)

Better in every way compared to the original. Music is stellar, graphics are vibrant and beautiful, story is much more interesting,  platforming and level design is so much more full of creativity an variety compared to DKC. Especially the minecart levels. And yes, Bramble Scramble exists, and any level that contains Parrot gameplay is frustrating and janky, it's still a very good title for the SNES.

Game Rating: 4 Out Of 5:

Games Finished: 8

Games Completed: 5

[Ryannumber1gamer]

A brand new week is here, and with it, a brand new prize!

Join or check into the event this week and earn yourself a Sonic the Fighters profile gift!

[SadVlad]

1 hour ago, Ryannumber1gamer said:

A brand new week is here, and with it, a brand new prize!

Join or check into the event this week and earn yourself a Sonic the Fighters profile gift!

I'm not sure why, but I never recieved last weeks.

[Ryannumber1gamer]

Just now, SadVlad said:

I'm not sure why, but I never recieved last weeks.

They haven't been distributed yet. 

[SadVlad]

Just finished Pokemon Legends. Haven't completed the Pokedex yet.

3 minutes ago, Ryannumber1gamer said:

They haven't been distributed yet. 

Oh ok. That's fair enough.

[Sean]

#5/52 - Tetris Effect: Connected (PC)

Finished Journey mode. I don't think there's any 100% criteria besides achievements. Was pretty enjoyable; it and Tetris DS are the only Tetris games I've ever been able to really get into.

[Agie]

Weekly check-in; I suppose I should make an overdue update; just had to stop being lazy. Plus, with a new job having started, don't be surprised if most, if not all of the new games I beat can be done on a commute. Granted, that was already the case, but something tells me that will be even more true.

But with that out of the way, here are the games beaten so far.

On 3/3/2024 at 4:52 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)

25. The New Zealand Story

26. Sonic the Hedgehog CD

27. Roll-Chan World 4 (hack of Game Boy Mega Man IV)

28. Momodora

29. Roll-Chan World 5 (hack of Game Boy Mega Man V)

30. Mega Man: The Wily Wars (Wily Tower)

31. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: Back From the Sewers

A rare quadruple whammy is in order today.

32. Mega Man: Powered Up

Full disclosure; I found a save that let me have Roll, since the DLC seems to be unavailable otherwise. But yeah, this was my real introduction Mega Man games, so I have a soft spot for it. But having played it as Roll?

She's sorta similar to how she plays in the Sequel Wars version of Mega Man 4, except she swings even slower, and has no charge shot to speak of. I also feel like despite the DLC being in the game's code, the game wasn't designed with her in mind, since even on easy mode, I got my butt kicked constantly.

I also have to address the elephant in the room; some Robot Masters express attraction towards her, and it's implied she herself has a crush on Rock/Mega...who is her brother, so...be aware of that. This won't be the last game I talk about elephants in the room with. I'll leave it up to the individual to decide what to do with this knowledge.

Still, I had some fun with it, and I would still recommend it if you're either a fan or a newcomer. However, I should note that Roll cannot unlock the Robot Masters, and well, I wanted to move on to the next game, so...no 100% bonus for this one.

33. Mega Man 7 Restoration + Refit

After multiple adventures where Roll was the star, Mega Man finally takes the reigns back. And just in time, too, because eight Robot Masters decided to Free Willy after not being contacted for months on end. It's up to Mega Man to stop Willy.

But this time, there's a new robot named Bass, who regards Mega Man as too weak. Let's just say he's one sick bass fish, and leave it at that.

The gameplay? I actually found it easier to beat than usual...but I also found it longer than usual. Mainly because of the grinding I had to do for 100% completion; I learned my lesson from Roll-Chan World 5, and decided to aim for 100%. It wasn't easy. I was tempted to give up. But I did it.

The final Willy boss, however? Yeah, I can see why Mega Man was tempted to off the dude. Now, most people would play a version where he says "I am more than a robot. Die Wily!" But not here.

I played a hack that isn't unorthodox, but it does bring things closer to the Japanese original, so some of the alterations and translation issues were fixed here. This means Willy is Wily. But I still love that joke.

I recommend checking this out if you want more Mega Man in your life.

34. Mega Man: The Power Battle

I played this via Capcom Arcade Stadium 2, since it was dirt cheap to do it that way, and more convenient than other methods.

The other games had boss rushes. But this is basically Mega Man Boss Rush: The Game. It plays a lot like Mega Man, with all the familiar moves and such. That said, the Robot Masters do have some slight differences from their counterparts in the previous games, presumably to give even vetrans a new surprise.

I will say the game was pretty fun, if short. I was also surprised by how few credits I used; I wonder if I would've blown a lot of quarters if I played this at an arcade. But as it stands, it's not bad, but not an essential chapter in the Blue Bomber's history. Still, it's available for absolute dirt cheap on Capcom Arcade Stadium 2; you could do much worse for 99 cents.

35. Duke Nukem 3D: Total Meltdown

Full disclosure; I took three screenshots only because there was no other way for me to prove I beat this version of the game, since all the episodes are playable from the start. I also decided to get an Evercade Vs., hence why some screens are different, but I assure you I used the same cartridge across the board. With that out of the way, let's talk about the game.

Immediately after Duke stopped the Regelatin threat in Duke Nukem II, some more alien bastards shoot up his ride. Not happy with this, Duke makes it his mission to kill those alien bastards and let them know they're messing with the wrong guy.

I must say, this game was pretty fun...for the most part. I had fun exploring the levels, albeit some of them, I had to use a guide. The controls were...weird, but I got used to them. However, this particular version of the game has its framerate absolutely tank. This version lets you save at any point, even if you choose not to use save states, which is good, because sometimes, enemies can blow you up and you don't see the shot due to the janky framerate.

I also have to address the elephant in the room of this game...this game's handling of women kinda made me queasy at points; many are, er, used to create more aliens, with Duke being unable to save them (unless you play the N64 version, but that's not what I had on hand), and there are strip clubs. I'm probably the last person who should complain about this stuff, but I found this content more off-putting than anything.

This could make or break the game for some. But I will say I still had fun with the game despite these offputting elements, and I can see why it was a hit back in the day, even with all this in mind, and even with the fact that I didn't play the best version.

This version does include an exclusive episode called Plug N' Pray, which, outside of a total conversion mod, remains exclusive to this version. I haven't played that one yet, but I beat the three episodes common in all versions, so I'll consider it finished, if not completed.

I would recommend it to see the history of first-person shooters, but you should at least be aware of the controversial elements.

[castell-neath]

Week 8

Urgh. So I decided to kill 2 birds (and my sanity) with 1 stone this week and fired up Sonic Spinball (8bit) and Sonic Labrynth. Probably my 2 least favourite sonic games.

I find 8 bit spinball just as repetative and boring as 16bit, but more sparce. With the smaller screen it also just feels a bit "pot luck" where you go as you cant really aim much and plan ahead. The bonus levels too are just a waste of time too and offer nothing to enhance the game. Lastly why AOSTH Eggman is on the cover of this game as opposed to "proper" Eggman on the 16bit versikn remains a mystery to me to this very day.

As for Labrynth...its just a "wish" version of 3d Blast,slowed down to "20mph snail pace / Drakeford speed" to allow the aging game gear hardware time to process the 3d environments. But to add a sense of speed and jepordy, they added a countdown timer. Awful. The best bit of the while game is eggman running off in classic eggman style at the end. The first truly awful sonic game.

I think this brings my total completed games up to 11 now, so going well so far!!

Away from these,have ploughed on with HFW and am now in San Francisco. Not got to the tomb yet but have overridden a tallneck and have hunted down a drone. Just had a meeting with the Ceo so am off to battle the Thunderjaw. Should be fun. Lol

Edited March 13 by castell-neath

[SadVlad]

Posted this yesterday but forgot to add that this was game 13 for me. This is not a double submission.

[Rabid-Coot]

Ghostwire: Tokyo https://psnprofiles.com/trophies/15777-ghostwire-tokyo/Rabid-Coot

Combat gets old fast and there's way too many collectibles, fortunatly there's some leeway with the additions from the added area but unfortunatly that also added some tedious enemies around the map.

Assassins Creed: Origins https://psnprofiles.com/trophies/6792-assassins-creed-origins/Rabid-Coot

Don't think I can trust the accuracy all their historical research while they have blunders like Stripped and Spotted Hyenas living together and Leopards using the standard Cougar sounds.

Series was in need of a freshen up but I'm not sure if this was the right direction to take things. So much of it feels like filler to pad runtime and the structure makes the story forgettable because you're stuck doing a chunk of side content between bits of the narrative.

Finished: 16 Completed: 16

[Endoian]

Hello everyone, I hope you are having a good day, I will be brief because I have to study.

The game I'm going to make this week will be "Sonic Advance 3", I hope you check in and finish your games, goodbye.

[SadVlad]

Game 14: Mario Kart 8 Deluxe(Not 100%)

[SadVlad]

Game 15: SMB Wonder(Not 100%)

[Gavvie]

I've just realised that I should probably check in this week, so here we are:

STEAM

I've finally installed a new CMOS battery into my Steam machine (which was fun), so I'm now able to start getting through my backlog on there. I spent most of Monday playing Tomb Raider & The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog and I've made a little progress there which I'm looking forward to continuing, and I restarted Sonic Lost World but I don't know if I'll carry on with that or not.

PLAYSTATION

Mostly FFVII: Rebirth this week - I'm going to make more progress on this today I reckon but I'm on Chapter 4 so far. I keep doing all the side missions as and when they appear, lol.

XBOX

After finishing Bluey, I streamed a bit of PAW Patrol World and I haven't played any of that since then, though it seems to be another easy completion so I'll get back on it at some point. Outside of that I'm now on Floor 41 of Persona 3 Reload and I'm doing another run up Tartarus to that point to get a new team member levelled up, and I need to get back onto Warhammer 40K Boltgun to finish that. My plan there is to finish it properly then to achievement hunt it on the hardest difficulty with accessibility options turned on to make it easier.

I also made progress on Tunic and am now on the final boss, which is proving a tad difficult - I'll likely mention finishing this in next week's update but as it's a game I started in 2022 and have only just gotten back around to playing I won't be including it in the ongoing challenge here.

[Covskin]

Wario Land 3 - 100% Completion

Oh, I wanted to like this more than I eventually did. I've heard good things about the whole Wario series and this is the only one on Nintendo Online.

At first, it was great! Levels were varied and each one has four treasures to discover. You can only get one on your first visit though, and as your collection grows the world changes and you get new abilities, allowing you to return to older levels to explore new areas and get the next treasure. As the treasures mount, levels branch out so you have choice where to go next.

But then the levels become more frustrating in design, which only gets worse when you realise you have to go back three more times. You can't die, so enemies just annoy and send you back. Some just knock you back a little, others send you to the bottom of a tower. Over and over again.

By the end of it, I was mentally done.

Spoiler

Each level also has 8 Musical Coins to collect. Now, wehther its was limited by hardware or design choice, the game doesn't track this unless you do it in one run, which you can't do until the end of the game. I had no intention of going through every level AGAIN, but apparently all they do is unlock a few holes in a simple golf mini game. The end screen says Perfect, so I'm claiming it as Complete.

9 games finished, 7 of which are 100%.

[sonic_the_cuber]

Nice job guys!

[Salamander]

Game 10: Mercenaries Lament: Requiem of the Silver Wolf (Switch) - I have now finished seven Mercenaries Saga games in the space of just over a year.  I was interested in taking a look at a franchise with distinctly humble beginnings (back on the 3DS - mobile before that), and see how it evolved over time.  Well, whilst the timescale was a bit short - honestly, it was worth it!  The games have definitely grown up a bit in terms of presentation, mechanical sophistication, even writing maturity; and while they're still very much "Tactics Ogre at home", for indie efforts aimed at the TRPG genre, I honestly think they've ended up in a good place.  This title, the latest of the seven, is definitely the best yet and I had fun... even if fully enjoying these games also involves investing quite a bit of time: I played the M route to the bad ending, took a New Game + to follow the C route to the true ending, and that was nearly forty hours - and strictly speaking there's still the C route bad ending I haven't encountered and possible changes in an M route true ending... but I think two full playthroughs is as much as I have in me.  But I can now say that I have, somewhere along the lines, become a Mercenaries Saga fan and will be looking forward to the eighth game.  No sooner than next year, hopefully...

I have attached screenshots of me defeating the true final boss (I rushed it down), a screenshot from the ending sequence, and a screenshot of my two save files.

Spoiler

 

[CharDragoncaster]

Played a bit of Dead By Daylight this week, and I was surprised to find that it had achivements!

 

That's definitely something neat.

[Gavvie]

Game 8 Finished - Bee Simulator (PS4)

Didn't expect this one to be so short - it was basically an edutainment type game which teaches people about bees, and has a small open world attached to it.

I've just got some miscellaneous trophies left to get for it though, so I might spend an evening one day grinding those out for a shiny Platinum. For now, though, it's just finished.

[Emperor Robrainiac]

Check-in Report: Star Fox 64: Finished
Bad End


Good End


Oh, Star Fox 64. A game that's near and dear to my childhood, a game I long forgotten how much I enjoyed... that's mostly because I had played it so much that I ended up memorizing most of the game and became very burnt out on it. Not helping matters was that it felt like it was being re-released a lot, and I was vying for something new in this series, something more like Assault rather than having to go up against andross in a retelling of the original star fox 64 story.

I mean, granted looking back, I think the only remakes was Star Fox 64, and Zero was sort of an amalgamation of SNES and 64... but I guess the point I was tired of 64.

Now I come back to it years later with a cleared mind and wanting to see if it still held up. Does it? Honestly, I still think it is a lot of fun. It definately feels like it's a more realized version of the SNES star fox game without the limitations of said console, and it definately highlights the potential and best of this series, whether it be the space dogfights, exploring alien planets, and the bosses. Goddamn, I love the bosses in this game, they're just very satisfying and fun.

I decided to go for both the bad and good ending as you could see above. The bad ending has you going up against andross, only to find that the giant floating ape head was a robot all along and the real one is still out there somewhere. The good end has you fighting andross, who's true form is a giant floating brain. I'll admit, Venom, the final planet before the final boss, is a lot more fun on the bad ending route, as it's a crazy shoot-em up with all these enemies flying at you, whereas the good ending route just has you fighting Star Wolf before entering the base... 

Though the good ending has a much more satisfying payoff, with the real andross being vanquished, and the ghost of Fox's dad, a character who's mentioned a lot throughout the course of the game, guiding you out of Andross's base. 

Not gonna lie, when I first picked this game back up, I had to retrain myself with the controls. Maybe I've gotten rusty with this game, or it's the pro-controller having a different setup (hell maybe both lmao), but I was struggling at first... but once I got back into the groove of it, I had some great times.

Some of my favorites include Aquas, where you're in a submarine firing infinite glowing torpedos, Titania, a world where you're in a tank in an alien desert, and Katina, which is just a straight up knock-off of independence day lmao.

Hell, speaking of independence day, the credits to this game theme suspiciously sounds similar to that movie's main theme. Hmmm...

But I digress. Overall, I had a great time with this game... I honestly can't find a lot bad to say about it really. It was a nice blast from the past and I'm glad I got to revisit it and remember why I liked it so much.

[Leeboss2005]

This seems like a cool event, can't wait to see where it goes from here

[Spin Attaxx]

GAME #7: MEGA MAN II (ROCKMAN WORLD 2)

Ha, ha ha ha, ha, ha ha, ha ha ha, hah. Hah hah. Hah.

Hah.

Mega Man III has always been my least favourite of the Game Boy Mega Man games, but replaying this one has thrown that thought into sharp relief. How people rank Dr. Wily's Revenge lower than this will always be a mystery to me. It's a game made by people who didn't "get" Mega Man, and it shows. I could go over the usual suspects of criticisms towards this game (ear-splitting music, janky physics, Quint etc.), but I'm going to try and say something new about this one.

While DWR tried to blend its two source games' enemies and gimmicks together, this game has given that up almost entirely. The only one that even remotely tries is Wood Man, which uses some of Needle Man's assets in a single submerged cavern... and you can completely bypass it with Rush Marine. (OK, to be charitable, I can safely say I used Rush Marine in this game more often than I ever did in 3 or 4. I guess it at least got to leave on that note, since it never shows up again.) The rest of the stages instead stick to their original assets, with no cross-game mixing at all - the latter four stand out in particular as basically being micro-remakes of their original games' levels, but worse.

On that note, I mentioned back in my DWR post that the teleporter setup returns here, but is done worse. Here's how; you have no idea whose stage you're picking until you've already picked it, and you can't back out. Hell, if you aren't aware of what their original NES stages looked like, the boss would be a total mystery to you since you don't even get an intro to them like the initial four! At least in DWR, you only had the boss fights and not a full stage to go through... although granted, these levels aren't exactly DIFFICULT. I must give particular highlight to Magnet Man reusing Appearing Blocks at a point when the player is guaranteed to have Rush Jet in all its broken glory, and Top Man for having a miniboss you can just skip without any catch. Even the inexplicable lack of weapon energy refilling between these stages isn't much of an obstacle, because... well, these weapons largely suck.

Mega Man II's weaponset is what people think Mega Man 2's weaponset is like; you have the Mega Buster, the Metal Blade, two tools to go over obstacles, and about eight mysteriously empty slots. I tried giving them a fair shake outside of boss fights, and found them wanting. Crash (sorry, Clash) Bomber has even worse ammo consumption, and there's no situation where its explosion can be useful (not even against the guy it's supposedly strong against, because he's juuuuuust ever so slightly far from the wall!). Air Shooter just stops working against everything in the latter half of the game. Leaf Shield and Hard Knuckle aren't as strong as they were in 3. Top Spin is just as bad against bosses as before and its effectiveness on enemies is "one-hit-kill or completely useless", but at least you don't drain its ammo now. And that special new unique Game Boy toy, the Sakugarne? It protects you from spikes and lets you Goomba stomp enemies, but there's very little that utilises those aspects. It's not even good as a weakness against the final boss.

The bosses are... well, they're not very hard. Using weaknesses, though, they just wither and die in five seconds (except, inexplicably, Clash Man, who requires every shot of Air Shooter to kill). I guess I can point out this is the only time the Game Boy Games bothered to downsize the bosses the way they did the enemies. It didn't do them any favours, least of all Dr. Wily, who's scrunched up to a comical degree in his laughably small machine.

There's not much else to say except to bring up the game's non-existent plot, which... bless, someone cared immensely about it. It's almost tragic, in a way, how somebody wrote a story with Dr. Wily stealing a time machine, finding a peaceful future where he'd given up his ways, then turning that time's former Mega Man into his newest weapon against his present-day foe... all that ambition, and the game falls laughably short of fulfilling it. Even if they were up to the task of making it good, though, it's hard to imagine the Game Boy being the best place to realise that plot. Not impossible, certainly, as the later games in the series will show, but the idea of Quint is certainly a more cerebral one than the series often handles - one that implicitly is owed more focus than being the glorified Proto Man knockoff he is here. I guess it's no surprise Bandai tried their hand at a similar character with their own non-canon game years later, with only marginally more success.

At least this one's behind us, at least. One way or another, it's all uphill from here.

(You don't even get a scene of Wily begging in this one. You just get Mega Man shooting him down and nuking Norway. Gobshite.)

[TitansCreed]

So, following on from my last post, we finally finished Frontiers: Last Horizon DLC story (we had all achievements on launch week, so nothing to tidy up there, and doing the collectathon is not something I'm interested in. But i had some thoughts on the story, and so I ramble through the credits a touch.
 

Then, we had some fun on YT. And while it's not a game, I did enjoy ranking some vocal Sonic music.

But my favourite fangame I stumbled on this week, was this beautiful Sonic Pinball table creation called Pinball Panic...

This was a lot of fun, althoguh I had no idea what was going on half the time...

We've started ANOTHER classic fangame this week however, so we're ankle deep in Sonic 3D in 2D. This should tidy off next week.