[EVENT] The Sonic Stadium 52 Game Challenge 2024! - New Prizes every week! Current Prize: Sonic Advance 2 Profile gift!

[castell-neath]

For this week its game number 19 completed and 100%ed AND a Knuckles challenge.

Its Sonic Blast completed as both Sonic and Knuckles!

I have mixed feelings about this game. Its good fun...to a point, but the speed is a lot slower than I like and its a bit too "zoomed in" as to be a bit unfair at times. That being said, its very well presented for an 8 bit game and its engaging and fun once you master the special stages. Also, it was still a real novelty to play as Knuckles back in the mid 90s and I remember this element was a real welcome addition. Even today, its still fun I would rate it as 6.75 / 10 overall.

Weekly check in is for Horizon. I have 1 final mission left in story mode so have been hammering errands and completed all side quests. Am up to level 43 so 7 more to go until maxed out. Still have to obtain all drones and black boxes as well as a few vista points too....although the underwater one in san fransisco was a bit meh to complete.

Two questions, if possible:

1) If I go on to complete the Burning shores DLC does that count as a new game? Or is it towards completion of the base game? (either way i will be!) 

2) I recieved my SA2 art card this week but dont seem to have had my Sonic Shuffle one from the previous week yet. Is this a delay or do I need to flag it?? Saying that, when I claim gifts latley it has been "loading" for a while...maybe its glitched? I dont know. 

Edited April 24 by castell-neath

[TheKarmaCollector1994]

On 4/22/2024 at 10:11 PM, Jovahexeon Jax Joranvexeon said:

Well, I just happened to be in the neighborhood when I heard the news of the new challenge. Been playing Sonic Adventure 2  lately.

Couldn't ask for better timing.

My mission to complete Sonic Adventure 2 has not been without adversity, especially on the Emerald-Hunting stages, but man, when the skills (and luck) line up just right in this game, boy do they hit nice and hard.

Sorry, @Jovahexeon Jax Joranvexeonbut for some reason I can’t see the picture of Knuckles in SA2 on my phone. Perhaps the picture might have got corrupted. Are you able to upload the screenshot again?

[Jovahexeon Jax Joranvexeon]

2 hours ago, TheKarmaCollector1994 said:

Sorry, @Jovahexeon Jax Joranvexeonbut for some reason I can’t see the picture of Knuckles in SA2 on my phone. Perhaps the picture might have got corrupted. Are you able to upload the screenshot again?

Picture still shows up just fine, so that might be an issue with your phone.

[niaco]

Quick weekly check-in! I've finally nabbed Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion. Perfect sort of length for me, I can't stand a game that doesn't respect my time.

Now that last "Defeat ???" achievement, however... Woof. I'll take my regular, true-ending completion for now, and consider 100% later.

...And because it's just so festive, here are some Knuckles-es from what I've been playing tonight.Anybody else trying out Dr. Robotnik's Ring Racers? It's a ton of fun, I'm really delighted by it! SRB2kart's team has outdone themselves.

[The Tenth Doctor]

Game 9 - God of War (2018) campaign complete

Yeah, don't think I can 100% this bad boy. I enjoyed it, very much actually. I'm just not very good at it. I was able to take down 3 Valkyries and hell, it infuriated me each time. Still, a good time mostly. Might get Ragnarok sometime. Christopher Judge deserves all the praise as Kratos.

[CharDragoncaster]

For the Knuckles Challenge, I played Flappy Knuckles!

 

Other than that and progress on Fortnite, I don't really have much to talk about or check in on.

[Agie]

Well, I finished a game I was curious about, though I dunno if I'll get the platinum trophy for it. But I figure I'll show the game anyways.

But first, the list.

On 4/22/2024 at 4:22 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

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

32. Mega Man: Powered Up

33. Mega Man 7 Restoration + Refit (100%)

34. Mega Man: The Power Battle

35. Duke Nukem 3D: Total Meltdown

36. The Simpsons Arcade (Konami)

37. Jurassic Park Arcade (Raw Thrills)

38. Boogerman: A Pick and Flick Adventure

39. Mega Man 8

40. Mega Man 2: The Power Fighters

41. Mega Man & Bass

42. Mega Man & Bass: Challenger of the Future (100%)

43. Earthworm Jim 2 (100%)

44. Mega Man: Battle & Chase

45. Liquid Kids (100%)

46. Mega Man 9 (100%)

47. Batman (Raw Thrills) (100%)

48. Halo: Fireteam Raven (100%)

49. Hi-Fi Rush

Honorable Mentions:
Ms. Pac-Man (Arcade)

Bomber Panel Panic

Big Challenge:
Big's Big Fishing Adventure 3

Knuckles Challenge:
Sonic 3D in 2D

50. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Arcade: Wrath of the Mutants (only finished, not completed, due to not beating the game on hard mode at the time of writing, among other things)

Now, this is one that slipped under my radar back in 2017...though I wasn't going to arcades on the regular like I am now, so it wouldn't have been on my radar anyways. Nobody talked about it, either; in fact, it was around when the home port was announced when I saw the most discussion I ever saw surrounding the game.

When I learned of it, I did make it a mission to look for this and one other arcade game in 2022. I found neither this game nor the other one, but I was more surprised I didn't find this one; I went to places you'd think would be a surefire hit. Ah well, I had fun with the machines I did bump into.

When this port was announced, I admit, I was a little excited, if largely to satisfy my curiosity at last, and to make up for the lost time. I tried looking for the Switch version, but didn't find it, and got it on PS5 instead...though that turned out to be a blessing in disguise, though not for the reasons you'd think. But I'll get to that in a bit.

As for the game itself? It's based on the 2012 TMNT cartoon, and was originally released near the end of its run, and it shows with all the references. I will also say right out the gate that the content they added to the home port feels very natural; if you told me this content was here all along, I might've believed you.

It plays a lot like Turtles in Time, and even has some similarities to the Re-Shelled remake of that one. It wears its influence on its sleeve, meaning if you played a TMNT beat-em-up before, you shouldn't feel too out of place here, though something about it does feel a bit off compared to those games. Still, it feels fine.

I also think the graphics are okay; not great, and I wouldn't even call it hardware pushing, but if you were a fan of the 2012 cartoon's art style, you'll appreciate the graphics here. However, I will say the hits don't feel like they have as much impact as they did in the older games or Shredder's Revenge. The arcade original predates Shredder's Revenge, so I'll cut it some slack for not modernizing the gameplay the same way that one did.

However, I will state that the length is very short; some extra levels were added, which is nice, but you'll still spend no more than an hour on a casual playthrough. Also, one of the "new" levels is more of a rework of a level in the arcade, though I heard the original version was more of a boss rush, whereas the new version adds a new boss fight and reworks the rest of the level. Still, claiming the game had three added levels is a bit misleading when it's more accurate to say it has two new levels and one reworked level.

I also should state why you should go for the PC, PS4, PS5 or Xbox versions instead of the Switch version, and shockingly, it's nothing to do with performance; I can't speak for how the Switch version performs on a purely technical level, though I didn't hear of anything especially egregious. No, the real reason you should go for one of those other versions is the trophies and achievements.

Normally, I'm not a trophy or achievement hunter, and I will not make it a secret...but in this case, without it, there is literally no incentive to replay the game on a harder difficulty, and this, no incentive to play more than once. You beat the game once, you've pretty much seen everything it has to offer. This is fine in an arcade setting, but in a home console setting? I would've at least liked unlockable outfits or something. With this in mind, I'd only recommend the Switch version to people who wanna play on the go (and lack a Steam Deck) or have literally nothing else to play the game on.

So, is it a bad game? No, I think it's a decent enough time, but it's not as good as its Konami-made predecessors, and Shredder's Revenge easily hands this game its butt. Yes, the arcade version predates Shredder's Revenge, but I think the game might've had a better chance if its home port came out prior to Shredder's Revenge. But since it came out afterwards, comparisons were inevitable.

Oh yeah, and I guess the story is that the Foot kidnapped April and the turtles must rescue her. This is literally only shown in the end cutscene; you don't even get an intro explaining this, though to be fair, you're not exactly playing this game for the story.

Still, it's not a bad game, and if you're like me and were curious about it, but never found the cab, well, the home port solved that problem. I might still one day play the arcade version if I ever find it, but for now? I feel oddly satisfied that I have played at least some form of the turtles' whole arcade game lineage. It's nice living in an age where you can do that all in one system, too.

But I do think $30 is too much to ask for a game this short, so I'd say wait for a price drop if you're not an obsessed fan. $15-$20 seems reasonable for a shorter game, though even then, less would be preferrable.

Edited April 27 by Agie

[ShadowForever]

This time, I finished Sonic Advance! As Knuckles!

I couldn't find ANY Emeralds. Do they even exist in this thing?!

Edited April 26 by ShadowForever

[The DOMinator]

2 hours ago, ShadowForever said:

I couldn't find ANY Emeralds. Do they even exist in this thing?!

 

Yeah, they do, you just got to go out of your way to find them. Look for these: 

Those are special springs, hidden throughout the levels. If you find one and jump on it, it'll transport you to a special stage.

Note: in order to reach the true final boss, and therefore get 100% completion (if you're trying to that is), you'll need to beat the game with each character, with only one of those playthroughs needing you to collect all emeralds. Hope this helps!

[ShadowForever]

8 minutes ago, The DOMinator said:

Yeah, they do, you just got to go out of your way to find them. Look for these: 

Those are special springs, hidden throughout the levels. If you find one and jump on it, it'll transport you to a special stage.

Note: in order to reach the true final boss, and therefore get 100% completion (if you're trying to that is), you'll need to beat the game with each character, with only one of those playthroughs needing you to collect all emeralds. Hope this helps!

Thank you!

[Covskin]

Hmm, we're four months in and I haven't actually played a Sonic game yet...

Knuckles in Sonic 2 - 100% Complete (Taxman Android)

Spoiler

As a kid the two Sonic games I owned were Sonic 2 and Sonic & Knuckles, so I've played this version a lot over the years. It was the first time I unlocked Super Knuckles in Emerald Hill though!

21 games finished, 14 of which are 100%.

[Salamander]

Game 13: Stella Glow (3DS) - Stella Glow is a game of two halves.  One half is a competent SRPG that mostly gets things right.  There are elevation and terrain types, you get a bunch of characters who all have unique abilities and mostly have their own niche, you rattle through a variety of environments and enemy types whilst equipping your characters with rare treasures, customising their equipment, etc.  It also suffers from a lot of the common pitfalls, though; early game characters and ranged characters are quickly outclassed by other, more interesting characters, and the main characters are obligatory in most battles anyway; catch-up experience is throttled from underlevelled enemies to miserly levels (Mercenaries Saga gives you a minimum of 10/100 XP per action; Stella Glow gives you a minimum of... 1/100); characters with good mobility/agility outclass everything (Archibald may be great in a fight, but with his puny 3 move he's never getting to that fight, it's already been beaten by the characters with 5 or 6 move and terrain-ignoring gimmicks who get twice as many turns as he does).  The game's chapters have both battle phases and free time phases, and in the latter you can do all sorts: Chat with characters to improve their abilities, unlock higher-level powers for your Witches (more on them later), do part-time jobs, search for rare items.  Except no, you can't do that, because you have only three actions per free time period, and not many free time periods, so you're going to be talking every single time, and you're going to be focussing that talking on a handful of your best characters, because there just isn't time to cover anyone else.  Did I mention that you can't freely choose your characters, they're restricted to certain timeslots?  If you want to focus on two characters, but they're both only there in the same timeslot, then nope, you'll talk to each of them maybe once per chapter and like it.

So what's the second half?  Plot and aesthetics.  The story of Stella Glow is an idol-adjacent narrative about music and magic, with heavy emphasis on sentiment and... well, sex.  The female characters almost without exception wear clothing that can be described as "revealing" at a minimum, extending in some cases into "we designed her wrong as a joke" and "FBI open up" (but don't worry, she's really 1000 years old!).  Using the Witches', the heroines' key musical abilities in battle involves our hero taking them in his arms and thrusting a magical dagger into their chests.  Every so often, their affection storyline has to be interrupted to take them to the seraglio to be "tuned" like a musical instrument.  It's not quite Conception II level, but it's getting there, and it's very weird and uncomfortable considering that several of these girls are distinctly child-coded, whether in appearance, personality, or both.  And these shenanigans are undoubtedly what's intended to be the main draw of the game; they're its unique selling point.  And how much you like the game is therefore going to come down to how much appeal this has to you personally, because you're going to be doing it for fifty hours.  To its credit, though, the game occasionally comes out with a banger plot twist - Mordimort's chapter goes way harder than I ever expected, and the story's big twist is unrelentingly harrowing.  And it is genuinely fun spending your free times palling around with these weirdos.  I just wish there was more of that, and less of these powerful women only being allowed their own agency when our hero Mr. Milquetoast grants it.

This is a 3DS game with no achievements, so completion is up in the air.  I did beat the true final boss - unlocked by requirements so accessible, and so unrelated to that ending, that I wonder why they even bothered - but the fact of the matter is that the game also has a New Game+, one which removes XP throttling and gives you literally three times as many free time actions (two of my main criticisms of the game, fixed just like that, and all I have to do is play for another fifty hours).  The game makes a point of highlighting that in New Game+ you can actually max out everyone's affection, which in a strange way I would honestly quite like to do - but apparently you still can't do everything, so this is a game which literally can't be 100%ed, and no I am not turning my fifty hour playthrough into a hundred hours.  So this is just a regular completion, and under the spoiler bar I have a picture from the ending and another of my clear file.

Spoiler

And with that, I have now reached a milestone: Beating the final DS/3DS game I ever bought.  I intend to continue using my 3DS, but all else will be replays - plus perhaps the odd game I never beat in the first place.  I am looking forward to those replays, though.  But now for something which is, finally, not a Strategy RPG...

[Gruffin]

Weekly Check-In : Sonic Adventure DX (Steam Release, Modded)

I finished Tails' Adventure this week...but not before I got some Dreamcast conversion mods installed. Goodbye vanilla SADX!

...And after seeing how the game looks? In full widescreen, no less? Good riddance.

Don't get me wrong, I did like the DX models, but during Sonic's Adventure I couldn't shake the feeling that they themselves looked like they were modded in; The extra life icons and ending screens even still used the old look! It's up to personal taste really, but I prefer the low poly aesthetic of the Dreamcast models and how well they blend with the scenery/animations compared to the DX ones. The characters look like they belong in the game now.

I also liked the DX textures when I had nothing else to compare them to...but the world looks much more vibrant now and I don't think I could go back lol. It's just...wow, what a difference.

Lookin' good, Burger Guy.

I ended up using PKR's SADX Mod Installer to make the change and because of it, the process was painless and required very little work on my end. Highly recommend if you're playing the Steam port!

 

Alright, so Tails. I have mixed feelings on his route. I would describe it as an easy mode for an already easy game with a simple yet heartwarming character arc. Not exactly the most fun to play, but worth it for story reasons.

The gameplay was much like Sonic's, but less satisfying to maneuver and more forgiving. Flying was kind of fun, but it was floaty and strange to use when trying to move forward fast. Coming off of Sonic's route, it was frustrating to not be able to reach his speed in the same courses, and it made Tails feel like a downgrade despite gaining the ability to fly...but hm. Now that I think about it, that's kind of thematic, actually? Tails does struggle with being in Sonic's shadow, and may feel the same frustration with not having Sonic's capabilities...

Oh sweet, an ability to spin infinitely! Nevermind, this rules.

 

As for the story...Gah, it's so simple yet effective in showing off Sonic and Tails' brotherly bond and is a compelling underdog story to boot. It was satisfying to see Tails grow into his own by the end of it. I was rooting for the little guy, and he came through!

Look at that expression. I can't help but smile too.

Something else I really liked were Sonic's lines during their races. His playful taunting when passing Tails alongside the way he acted proud of Tails when passed. It really sold the idea that he was encouraging his kid brother to try his best.

 

Knuckles Bonus Challenge : Sonic Adventure DX (Steam Release, Modded)...Again.

Hey Knux, I'm ready to play your--

Oh. Hm. Looks like he's asleep. Oh well, guess I'll come back next week.

 

---

On 4/23/2024 at 7:07 PM, cosmichaos said:

The Knuckles and Rouge stages just happen to be my favorite, which is apparently unheard of among Sonic fans?? Does anyone else like the treasure hunt stages?

*raises hand*

Me! I like them!

I love to take my time exploring within games to find things, so enjoy that these stages are built around that type of behavior. I blame Lego Star Wars and its canisters even though its not quite the same lol.

[Ryannumber1gamer]

Doing my Knuckles check in, since I was asked to check out what was new on the Speed Sim test server, I decided to get the event done and get the boy.

He's got the hat so he's automatically the best character in the game.

[MasonMania]

just for the knuckles challenge.

[Tornado]

Does this count as a game featuring Knuckles?

 

 

 

Chaotix fucking sucks, by the way. It's fascinating that what was essentially the de facto flagship title of the console, that is legitimately as frequently beautiful to look at as well as extremely visually dense (not to mention its phenemonal soundtrack) has a core gameplay loop that's so atrocious. The only part it has that almost works is Speed Slider, but I was playing through the final levels of this actually literally half asleep and was still plowing through everything. I do really like the special stages though, and while they're practically impossible after the first couple of them the wireframe second versions also look really cool.

 

 

Like this background is so pretty with its animated water with like 8 different layers of parallax scrolling but you spend so much of the game pinballing off of everything that you never actually see anything. It also barely plays/controls any better than Sonic Crackers did. The whole thing is the techiest of tech demoes; like everything about Sonic CD (good and bad) amped up a hundred times.

Also:

lol Sonic Heroes.

This game had three designers? I wouldn't have been surprised if you told me it didn't even have one.

Six map designers? Were they each taking turns doing individual tiles?

It even has the Blinx guy.

At least a couple people showed the fuck up to work on this.

And how!

[SadVlad]

Game #37 Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 3 (Not 100%)

This has been on my back log for a while, and I finally decided to knock it off the list. Not my favorite in the series, but the gameplay is always a blast.

[Rabid-Coot]

The Outer Worlds https://psnprofiles.com/trophies/21264-the-outer-worlds/Rabid-Coot

Its nice to see this style of RPG being done in a more condensed format. Classic duality of game with dozens of hours to play through all the story followed by doing the absolute minimum to rush through the hard difficulty.

The Artful Escape https://psnprofiles.com/trophies/15162-the-artful-escape/Rabid-Coot

Bit of linear platforming and some Simon Says segments nice to look at/listen to and the story is enough to keep you pushing forwards.

Last Stop https://psnprofiles.com/trophies/13478-last-stop/Rabid-Coot

A,B or C whatever I choose to write here doesn't matter the outcome will be the same regardless. Starts off interesting but just settles into dull.

Roki https://psnprofiles.com/trophies/14267-röki/Rabid-Coot

Nice little sort of point and click style game

Deliver Us Mars https://psnprofiles.com/trophies/20896-deliver-us-mars/Rabid-Coot

This also happened

Finished: 28 Completed: 28

[WorksOfMagic]

Updated the doc: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ENT18rQXcoLnvIuqKfLuxfCcvveb5vO1yL5Cbm0oVNY/edit?usp=drivesdk

 

Another game completed, and one that just happens to be the character's only home console spin-off game. It's Knuckles' Chaotix!

Surprisingly had fun with this one. It had some dick moves here and there sometimes, but the game was, quite surprisingly pretty easy. And that was my first playthrough as well. What wasn't easy though was the special stages. Especially the last two or so. Those were a pain in the ass. Overall, an alright game which I recommend at least giving a shot once.

Games completed: 20

11 minutes ago, WorksOfMagic said:

Updated the doc: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ENT18rQXcoLnvIuqKfLuxfCcvveb5vO1yL5Cbm0oVNY/edit?usp=drivesdk

 

Another game completed, and one that just happens to be the character's only home console spin-off game. It's Knuckles' Chaotix!

Surprisingly had fun with this one. It had some dick moves here and there sometimes, but the game was, quite surprisingly pretty easy. And that was my first playthrough as well. What wasn't easy though was the special stages. Especially the last two or so. Those were a pain in the ass. Overall, an alright game which I recommend at least giving a shot once.

Games completed: 20

Also, a game I forgot to mention that I finished earlier this week. A rom hack called Brutal Sonic.

A pretty brutal rom hack, both in terms of difficulty and some of the more gorey aspects, but a pretty rewarding one.

Got both the normal and secret ending for this one, so here's that.

Which brings us to,

Completed games: 21

Edited April 28 by WorksOfMagic

[Ghelatlishol]

Game #7! The Magic School Bus, Outer Space? Something like that. 100% Complete!

I broke out the Genesis after a hard week at work (and my students did an awesome job performing!) For some reason, I just felt like trying this game again. And I realized I never tried to beat it on hard mode. So I did :) I remember it being much more difficult 25 years ago.

Basically, for those who don't know, there are 9 levels split into 5 parts. 9 levels for nine "planets" (the Moon is the first level and Pluto WAS a planet when this was made.) 

First, you fly the Magic School Bus to the planet in question while snapping photos of outer space phenomenon (some real, some jokes, e.g. on the way to Saturn, you see a Sega Saturn. Of course you do.) You also try to avoid asteroids by either dodging them or shooting them (and if you shoot 3 specially colored asteroids, you play the actual game "Asteroids" as a Mini Game.) You also have limited fuel which replenishes by flying into what looks like blue and white circus balloons/balance balls...whatever!

2nd, once there, you must land the school bus like a lander, finding the hidden platform. You have limited fuel but can find more by flying around and collecting balloons and special items.

3rd, you walk on the planet. Obviously, you're in a space suit, and on the gas planets it's really more of an obstacle course using special platforms. (Saturn uniquely has you jumping on individual rocks in the ring system.) The artwork is quite nice and imaginative, and this time, you must monitor your jet pack fuel and your oxygen. Probably the most intense this kid game gets, really. (Bonus: if you get 10 stars, you unlock another bonus game. I forget the name but it's similar to Block-Breaker? The one where you have a bar and hit a ball up towards the blocks to bust them all and clear the stage.)

4th, you get a scrambled picture of something related to the planet and you are timed on how quickly you can rearrange the picture into it's correct viewing. Liz helps you out here :)

And 5th, you end each level with a quick 8 card matching game which references some of the objects you took pictures of during the flight. You match the title card to the picture, also timed!

Halfway through the game and also right before Pluto, you unlock a minigame called Orbiter, in which you try to launch the planets into orbit around the Sun. It's not as easy as it looks...

Once you clear all 9 "planets", you are greeted with a CONGRATS screen and the credits!

Yeah, so...that was my Friday night! Woo!

Edited April 28 by Ghelatlishol
Forgot a minigame!

[Gavvie]

Quick check in post:

I'm still making my way through The Callisto Protocol on stream, and also trying to finish Final Fantasy VII on PS4 before it leaves PS+ on 21st May. I was hoping to get VII & IX done, but I might be biting off a bit more than I can handle so focussing on VII first.

Still hoping I can do IX as well though, lol.

[Winston]

I had a busy week again, but I did manage to get some games done towards the end of it. Still no Pikmin though, sadly, but I did make more progress in Fortnite and got the level up bundle which has made progress go a bit faster for me.

GAME #20 - Sonic Adventure - Finished + Knuckles Challenge

I was trying to finish this last time for the Big challenge, but hey, it worked out again for the Knuckles one! I finally finished it this time too. I’m playing a modded version of the PC version, since I prefer the visuals of the original and the ability to skip cutscenes. Still a pretty old port, but with mods, it does it’s job well enough.

Sonic Adventure is a game that I grew up playing on GameCube, which is the DX version. For years, I never really got to experience the original but did get a Dreamcast recently and played it on there, and I vastly preferred the visuals there compared to the somewhat plastic looking GameCube version. It just fit the aesthetic of the game so much more, and it’s hard for me to go back to those visuals of the GameCube one even if it was the one I grew up with.

Adventure is probably my favorite game in the entire series, even still. Is it perfect? No. I’m also probably one of the few that doesn’t even really like the voice acting in this game, but maybe that’s different at this point in time. I always preferred the 4kids cast, but I don’t think this cast is awful. It might just be a nostalgia thing for me when it comes to 4kids, even if Heroes was my first Sonic game. Even still, I think Drummond and Bristow were pretty good here in their roles, even if some line delivery was odd here and there.

I think what makes Adventure stand out to me is the exploration and the music. I really like getting to roam around the environment and talking to the towns people, something only really attempted in 06 and Unleashed since. Unleashed in a more limited capacity, but still. I think it was fun. I guess it’s not necessary but I think it does wonders for world building. 

The music is some of the best in the entire series if you ask me, nearly every stage is a jam. I don’t love every single vocal track, but most of them are fine at worst, but the best are among the best. I think each stage theme and hub area’s music just perfectly captures the vibes that the visuals go off. The only other game in the series I can really say that with in my opinion is Unleashed.

I think where Adventure begins to fumble though is in the bosses. They’re all mostly just waiting games, taking forever for a boss to repeat its pattern, and then you hit them and wait again. The bosses that do not have the waiting are incredibly easy and end in seconds, like the Knuckles one. I do think Perfect Chaos is a good enough battle though, and I like how you have to keep your speed up to hit him. It can be annoying sometimes with the amount of crap on screen, but it’s probably better than any of the other bosses.

There are also some characters that aren’t very fun to play, but mileage may vary. I’m of the opinion that Big the Cat’s gameplay is fine, it’s short and easy to do once you get a handle on things. However, I do not like Amy at all really, and Knuckles is very 50/50. None of the other campaigns come close to the quality of the Sonic one in general, but I think Gamma’s is fun enough. The good thing about Adventure though is if you want to play as Sonic, you can just play as Sonic. It’s not like Adventure 2 which has you swap back and forth. I’m sure some people like that, but I do enjoy the choice to play as who you want whenever. I think it makes Adventure 2’s story more consistent in a way, but nevertheless, I like how  Adventure 1 does it more.

That about wraps up my thoughts on Adventure. One of the best games in the series in my opinion, even with it having some obvious issues like bosses, and the camera really does suck. It may feel a bit aged, but I’ll personally never grow tired of it.

GAME #21 - Wario Ware Inc. - Finished

My third Wario game to be finished, the original! Wario Ware Inc. is one of my absolute favorite GBA titles. It’s really the perfect handheld experience, high score based micro games that last seconds and are incredibly wacky and memorable, all hosted by an assortment of colorful and strange characters. 

Sure, I do think later entries surpassed this one, namely Gold and Smooth Moves, but I think this one still has its place in the series. It’s always fun to revisit the story, and the music here is really top notch for a GBA game. I love how some of the music has actual vocals, and they don’t sound like shit on the GBA’s audio.

If you have Switch Online, I definitely recommend a playthrough. It’s pretty fun and easy to finish. Completing is another story, but this one isn’t too complicated to do so. I did pretty much everything outside of getting a flower on every micro game, which is where you basically play the same mini game twenty times in a row. I didn’t really want to do that all at once, although I did clear all the Wario ones. I might come back to it later to try and mark it as completed, doing the flower thing every once in a while. As of now, I’d rather just move onto another Wario game. Maybe Smooth Moves will be next, if I can find my copy of it.

So yeah, there’s my update for the week. Got two games done, which is more than I have in a while. I hope I can finally get Pikmin done and maybe Rebirth finished by the end of May. Fortnite will likely be finished at the very least too, but I don’t know about completed. Also sorry if there’s any weird formatting issues, I’m gonna have an incredibly busy day today so I had to do this on mobile.  

Edited Wednesday at 12:50 AM by Winston

[NegaMix]

Still no progress on Spyro 2, but I have just squeezed in a quick game of Sonic 3 for the Knuckles challenge.

Here we see the rad red echidna just chilling on his island. Perhaps he's wondering how that new series of his is going...

...Should we tell him?

Well, in any case, his calm day is about to be rudely interrupted by a swarm of badniks!

Nothing scares this echidna, though! He's rougher than the rest of them, and ready to turn those badniks into scrap metal!

And boy does he! Now Angel Island is free from the badnik menace and Knuckles can go back to his favourite resting spot, grab some delicious grapes and visualise his new hit Paramount+ series in his head. I mean, it's not like Angel Island has a working television, or decent Wi-Fi.

Speaking about the game proper, though, Knuckles' story has honestly been my favourite Sonic 3 playthrough since I first discovered the oh-so-wonderous lock-on technology as a kid. The alternate pathways that he could access simply by punching through boulders that those puny heroes, Sonic and Tails, cant break through, his glide and climbing skills providing even more ways to explore Angel Island's vast selection of environments, taking on a very determined Egg-Robo instead of the big Eggman himself, and that final fight with Mecha Sonic... it's just so much fun!

I decided to use Sonic 3 A.I.R for this specific challenge, and I'm very tempted to stick with it for whenever I sit down for a full playthrough. Not only does it run flawlessly on the ROG Ally (especially compared to the original Steam release via SEGA Mega Drive Classics, which suffers from severe audio and gameplay lag) but the vast options it provides just blows the recent Sonic Origins version out of the water for me. The only caveat is that it requires an original Sonic 3 & Knuckles ROM to run which, while it isn't a problem for me as I had bought the original Steam release long ago, it does limit who can legally play this fantastic version nowadays. Still, if you do have the ROM (I won't judge you for how you get it) then this is a brilliant way to experience the full Sonic the Hedgehog 3.

...Ahem, anyway. Time for me to go back to Spyro and hopefully make some actual progress.

[Dreadknux]

So because I am an absolute idiot and never learn my lesson, I have not made any progress on the games I have previously said I was playing and instead decided to launch into three new ones!

Because of the amazing TV show, I finally booted up Fallout New Vegas on my Xbox Series X and started a run on that for the first time. Very much enjoying it!

Also on my Switch, I fell into the Picross trap again and decided to start and 100% Mario's Super Picross (again...). I'm already on Level 10 on the main game and will start on the Wario side soon enough.

And today I took a break from Picross to explore Kirby Star Stacker on the NSO SNES app. I don't really get on with stacker-style puzzle games that aren't Tetris or Puyo Puyo, so was only really expecting to play two minutes of this before hitting the grid again, but I seem to have hit the endless 'Challenge' mode and all of a sudden I am two solid hours into this one game and I can't turn it off help!!!

This is the current score I have before I turned in for dinner:

I have never played this game before so I am not sure if this is good or not, but the default best score says 50 and somehow I managed to get 2008 and still going.

Anyway, for Knuckles Week I gave Sonic 2 & Knuckles a little spin. Won't complete it (I'm saving that for my Sonic Origins run) but I decided to play the SEGA AGES Switch version to mix things up (also I'm a bit of a fan of M2 and quite like their take on Sonic 1 and 2).

Stay tuned til next week, when I abandon all of these games for six entirely random new ones!  

[TitansCreed]

So, while I sit here editing tomorrow's video, a quick update on the week. It's more a check-in I guess, as we've only really played the same two games this week for YouTube (well, more, but they're not out, and I don't like to spoil my release schedule).

As always, we start our week in Sonic Speed Simulator.

So, I had a lot of fun in City Escape world. The Knux event, however, can suck a big one. As a gacha player who unlocks stuff on the reg, even F2P characters are not this much of a ballache to unlock, let alone releasing the hat separately a week AFTER doing the 500 barbells. Like, really?

That being said. I spent an hour or so getting another 300 this weekend...

That being said, had a lot of in Sand Hill Lost Valley, until it came to the progression for the skin unlocks. I think this is where I dislike the grinding aspect of it. The level unlocks don't seem bad, and it seems they scaled back the actual gate keys per world? I think I would of preferred easier skin unlocks and more work for the worlds to be honest.

Secondly, We've spent nearly all our time playing through Sonic Superstars desperately trying to reach the end of Trip's Story. Which we did in today's video, which, unironically, is another "pain" titled video, which means I put a little bit of extra effort in the editing. xD

Clearing this, means we have the Last Story to go... oh baby, I'll have my thoughts for sure on that next week.