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

[SuperSonicFan Gui]

Finished 100% of sonic the hedgehog 2 with all chaos emeralds 

[Covskin]

Checking in!

Went to a friend's house last week and we did a 3-player run through of Streets of Rage 4...and I completely forgot to take a photo for proof. Ah well.

As for what I'm currently working on, mostly been focusing on Metroid Dread. Just got the Screw Attack and I know I'm nearing the end of the game, though my Item % is pretty low. I haven't really done any backtracking yet because it can be extremely frustrating getting by one gated door only to find another one right after that you don't have the key for. Will decide later if I'm going to mop everything up or not.

I also have God of War Ragnorak on the backburner, don't get as much time on the PS4 as I do the Switch. Think this will take me a couple of months. Last week I met Angrboda and will pick it up tomorrow.

[Polkadi~☆]

Heya! Here's my first 100% of 2024! Bomb Rush Cyberfunk!!

I REALLY liked this game!! It's not perfect, but it was enough fun that it scratched the Jet Set Radio itch, while also ascending it to becoming a celebration of street culture. Anything SEGA makes now feels like it won't surpass this one.

[Salamander]

Okay, let's set this ball rolling.

Honourable mention: GrimGrimoire OnceMore (Switch) - I think I finished this in very early 2024, but I can't be sure and in any case I played most of it in 2023, so I think including it is against the spirit of this event.  I do recommend it, however, as a charming hand-drawn 2D RTS with a sort of Harry Potter timeloop story.

Game 1 (100%): Yohane the Parhelion: Blaze in the Deepblue (Switch) - I know and care nothing of Love Live, and have been somewhat alienated from IntiCreates by their exploitative female designs, frequently for suspiciously young-looking girls.  But they do make a great 2D platformer, and they do make great pixelart, and so the combination of their talents with a franchise they are contractually obliged not to be creepy about I thought would make a strong combination.  And it did!  YtP:BitD is a shortish and not terribly difficult Metroidvania, probably intended as an introduction to the genre, and feels so much like Castlevania that I felt my finger itching to use the backdash.  The plot of the game doesn't really matter and the game spends the bare minimum of time explaining what is going on, but the main point is that the heroine is attempting to rescue her friends from an underwater dungeon - and I commend IntiCreates from coming up with so many designs based on aquatic creatures.  Rescued friends become new powers, in a sort of more functional take on something like Ender Lilies, and equipment is acquired through a strangely deep crafting system.  You can also purchase consumable healing items, but the game is perfectly well-balanced without them up to maybe the final boss - which is preceded by the obligatory but somewhat irritating boss gauntlet, irritating chiefly as the last boss in said sequence you'll only have fought about five minutes before.

I beat the game with all friends rescued and all sidequests completed, which reference to off-Switch achievement lists suggests constitutes 100%.  I've screenshotted my load screen below, which has a rosette indicating game completion (I assume) and stars on the friends indicating completed sidequests (the wolf doesn't have one).

Spoiler

Honourable mention: Fairune Origin (via Fairune Collection) (Switch) - The Fairune Collection compiles the two major Fairune games, by developer Skipmore, alongside a couple of shorter experiments, of which this is one.  Fairune Origin I believe was a Flash game at first, a sort of proof-of-concept for the major title; it's fun enough, but at only around fifteen minutes is far too short for consideration as a major game in this list.  More on Fairune later.

Game 2: Enjoy the Diner (Switch) - IGN Japan's Game of the Year 2023 is a short visual novel with an intriguingly idiosyncratic art style in blues, yellows and blacks, looking more like European comic art.  About the story itself I can say nothing without spoiling it, I think, but let us say that it concerns the strange occupants of a stranger diner, the foibles of the human condition, and the burden of eternity.  The screenshot below is taken from the in-game gallery, which only unlocks once you have the second ending.

Spoiler

Game 3: Fairune (via Fairune Collection) (Switch) - Fairune!  This first title in Skipmore's series was originally a phone game, I think, but became better-known on the 3DS eShop.  It's a shortish game of a few hours, a grid-based bump combat RPG set in a beautiful, vibrant pixelart world.  It reminds me in some way of the 2D Zeldas, the way it's set in a pixel world stuffed with items and secrets.  I have a great affection for this series, and though I played both games on 3DS I gladly bought the collection to support the developer and their work.  The screenshot below is from the in-game achievement menu for Fairune the first, showing that I beat the game.  (I should also have that Item Master achievement, looks like it's bugged.  Wouldn't be 100% anyway.)

Spoiler

Game 4: Mercenaries Rebirth: Call of the Wild Lynx (Switch) - I already discussed this game a little on the preceding page, but I've finished it now.  As Mercenaries Sagas go... well, I like the series, I've become fond of it, they're fun enough as short tactical RPGs, with grid combat, a branching class system, branching narratives etc... but playing six of them (with a seventh to come!) in the space of a year, I am now very aware that they all play basically exactly the same.  Although this is Mercenaries Saga 6, the second-most-recent game in the series, I don't know if I'd recommend it; it's pefectly fine, but the plot branches, which are usually satisfyingly and surprisingly ambitious in this series, here don't really clear the bar.  This game has three branches, one of which is New Game+ exclusive, but the game is spread a bit thin accommodating them all; the result is that the branch point is set unusually far back in the game, meaning there's a lot of repeated content to replay, and all three branches share a lot of material.  I personally would recommend the fourth or fifth games (Mercenaries Wings: The False Phoenix and Mercenaries Blaze: Dawn Of The Twin Dragons) for a better story, even if the presentation isn't quite so modern... but I am looking forward to the seventh game nonetheless, Mercenaries Lament: Requiem Of The Silver Wolf!  I'm lining that up for March.

The screenshots below are taken from the cutscene immediately following defeating the final boss, and show my save screen with all three branches completed.  Note that per achievements this isn't 100%, and nor do I claim it to be.

Spoiler

 

[Dreadknux]

Time for a proper check-in! I could have cheated and waited a day to get the next week's gifts, but I would rather play this straight :D

I've finally 100%'d Sonic Adventure DX on Xbox 360. I started a new run late last year, but I had loads of achievements from past saves already logged; however, I was missing obtaining all Emblems (all I was missing for that was the Chao Race ones), and as a result I also needed to pop the Metal Sonic-related achievements to fully 100%.

I spent a lot of time during the 360/PS3 generation playing games on my PS3, so I'm playing catch-up on my 360 library so it doesn't look like I'm not a Sonic mega-fan on all platforms. :D It's been really fun playing this game again, even though it's mechanically pretty janky these days, I absolutely ADORE the visual approach in this game and I kinda wished Sonic Team didn't deviate from that for the Sonic games that followed.

After seeing the game listed by @Gavvie and noticing it being added to Xbox Game Pass, I also decided to start Turnip Boy Robs a Bank. Good thing I did, it's a pretty decent little game! I liked the silly vibe it had going for it, and was intrigued by the fact you play a turnip who's just going along with whatever this random criminal pickle is telling him to do. I tend to say I don't really like roguelikes, but honestly the amount of them I end up playing kind of betrays that, so I'll just say; I don't like roguelikes that don't have an ending/some level of direction. "Endless" games just don't do it for me. And luckily Turnip Boy Robs a Bank is pretty well structured (and short) so that it doesn't outstay its welcome.

Look at that lil' guy. I managed to complete it the other day, but felt compelled to fully 100% it as well by doing all the outstanding missions (although there are one or two glitches in the Xbox Series version at least, particularly with a side-quest boss that turns invisible, making it incredibly hard to beat without spamming a particular weapon). I've spoilered the end credits screen below for proof of completion in case it reveals something interested Turnip fans don't want to know.

Spoiler

I actually never played the first Turnip Boy game, as it's not on Game Pass, but I've seen people say it's even better than Robs A Bank, so I might well check it out in the future. To prove 100% of both games, here's a snapshot of my Xbox profile:

I'm still working through the other games I mentioned before, just happened to take a Turnip detour.... which has now turned into a foxy detour as I've now started Tunic which is also on Game Pass and I had my eye on it for a few years now. It's time to finally take the plunge on that.

Beaten:

1. Sonic Adventure (Xbox 360)
2. Turnip Boy Robs a Bank (Xbox Series X)

100%'d:

1. Sonic Adventure (Xbox 360)
2. Turnip Boy Robs a Bank (Xbox Series X)

In Progress:

• Halo Anniversary (Xbox Series X / Halo: The Master Chief Collection)
• Judgment (PlayStation 4)
• Murder By Numbers (Nintendo Switch)
• Tunic (Xbox Series X)
• Club Nintendo Picross Plus (Nintendo 3DS)

[WorksOfMagic]

Another game finished. This one being Sonic R being played through the Sonic Gems Collection release from Japan on PS2, running through the PS2 Classics emulator on PS3.

Had a surprisingly enjoyable experience playing through this one again. It's nothing incredibly difficult to play, but it can test your skills at times.

Another game I recommend to anyone wanting to play an underrated gem.

[ouenji]

Checking in just before the end of the week! I haven't beaten this week, but I've been working on a few games at once so that's mainly why, haha. Most notable is Mario & Sonic at the 2012 London Olympics for the 3ds, I'm in the middle of the story mode for that and I've honestly been having a blast seeing the character interactions along with it! (Though I find it odd Sonic doesn't get any written dialogue; it's probably just to match with Mario but it feels quite out of place)! I've been playing through quite a few Picross games too, I've gotten quite into it again lately! Specifically Puppy Cross, Picto Quest, and Picross Touch, all on Steam. Also Tomodachi Life, but that's definitely a feat to 100% especially with the StreetPass catalogue items, so that's not one I'm expecting to see filled in any time soon. Hoping to find the time to finish something next week, but University starting up again might make it tough ^^;;

Edited January 28 by ouenji

[SgtBloxx]

1/22/24 to 1/28/24: I have three games I'm working towards completion for: Mass Effect 1, in which I gotta find all codex entries, Mass Effect 2, and Google Minesweeper. I just need to finish a hard difficulty game of that. It's honestly likely that I'll complete minesweeper first. I'm just cruising through the Mass Effect trilogy not worrying too much about completing all the achievements.

[KingSonicFan134]

Weekly check-in: Been playing The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom solely right now, so not much else going on. I also plan on booting up Mega Man Zero 3 soon after as well.

[Failinhearts]

CHECK IN: WEEK 3

This week, thanks for basically dealing with the worst virus I have ever faced in my life so far, I had a lot of time to eek out a few games in the backlog. Specifically, completing half-finished games. But that isn't to say I knocked out a few new ones this week either. Let's run 'em down.

GAME 11: FORTNITE - CHAPTER 5, SEASON 1: UNDERGROUND (PS5) 100% COMPLETE:

I recently really got into Fortnite during the tailend of Chapter 4, when Optimus Prime arrived. But I think this season cemented my love for the game, cause I really got to experience everything I was once very hesitant to do. I'm not a Battle Royale guy, I suck at it alone. So Creative was where I spent a lot of my time. Either that, or Party Royale.

But with this season, all of sudden, I'm squadding up with a lot more of my friends and having the time of my life in all the corners of Fortnite. Playing with Winston, Luigi, Marie, Echo, Bloxx, and even getting Ryan to finally play after all this time. And it's been a sheer blast.

I will say I don't like this new island compared to Chapter 4, but a lot of the refined mechanics make travelling the island a lot more fun, like the bosses, and the ability to heal while moving. Man, that's a blessing.

With my friends, I was finally able to reach level 200 for the very first time in the Battle Pass!

And that isn't all, I got to experience all the new games added with this new chapter. LEGO Fortnite, Rocket Racing, Fortnite Festival, all really help keep the game fresh and varied where I can finally cement myself as a bonafide Fortnite fan.

Can't wait for the Shredder update!

GAME 12: TRUXTON (SEGA GENESIS) 100% COMPLETE

Growing up, I used to watch Classic Game Room. You know, when they were actually doing like, actual game reviews? Good times. And a running gag in the channel is Mark praising an almighty game on the Sega Genesis: Truxton. No game console is actually perfect unless it plays Truxton. So naturally, little me was curious.

What IS Truxton? Can I even beat it? I kept putting it off, but now is finally the time to play it.

And yeah, it's a really good space shooter.

The cool thing about Truxton is that you really feel incentivized to stay alive for much more than just "you'll lose a life". As you play, you will continuously power up your ship to the point where it can turn into basically a screen nuke. You are a powerful force of nature, vaporizing everything on screen. But if you die, you get nerfed back down.

So you feel compelled to keep staying alive, just to keep that power fantasy going a little while longer.

The game has 5 levels, and each time you do the 5, you get a different ending, and the game starts over to another "round", where you play the 5 levels again. You need to repeat the game 5 times to see all the endings and watch the credits. So what you see here is me completing the fifth and final ending.

Short, sweet, satisfying. It's Truxton, baby.

GAME 13: SUPER MARIO LAND 2: 6 GOLDEN COINS (GAME BOY) 100% COMPLETE:

To think this is how Wario got his start, huh? A lot has changed since we last OBEYED WARIO, DESTROY MARIO.

This was a very quick, easy little game. Which isn't a bad thing, far from it. After Mario 2? Boy, do I need it. It's also interesting to have a Mario game where there's no set world order to play in. You just choose where you wanna start and go from there. That definitely caught me by surprise.

It doesn't do anything amazing, or spectacular, but it did its job at the time, to be a fun Mario experience for the kiddos who only had a small white brick as their portable option.

GAME 14: SONIC R (PC) 100% COMPLETE:

Like Sonic Adventure, I hear the argument that Sonic R is a game ruined by the ports it has faced over the years. But if you could mod the game to restore the many bits and pieces omitted from the Saturn release, and earlier PC releases, you have a solid racing game!

Is that true?

...Eh.

The game still is a clunky, content-lite, poorly balanced racer. But there is a charm in its dinky presentation that you can't help but have a decent enough time with it. It's not like completion is that long of a task either, far from it. It's something you can squeak out in an hour or two. And when you stop treating these characters like platforming scrimblos, and just cars with the ability to jump, controlling them is a lot easier.

Can't really say it'll brighten up your day, but there's enough sunshine to feel that you can't help but crack out an ironic smile... and maybe the odd unironic one.

GAME 15: SKYLANDERS GIANTS (3DS) 100% COMPLETE

I am just missing ONE SKYLANDER, BUT HE'S LIKE, 200 DOLLARS AND AAAAAGH

Anyway, I went above and beyond what counted as 100% completion for this Challenge, since this covers everything locked behind all the required toys. (8 Elements, 1 Giant, 4 Adventure Packs)

The Skylanders games on 3DS are an odd beast. They are completely different games from the console counterpart, with a different story and a different genre. Ditching slower paced Diablo-based Dungeon Crawling for fast paced hallway based platforming not too dissimilar to a Crash Bandicoot game. Just with combat encounters.

The 3DS games get worse and worse with each installment, not living up to their console brethren, but with this being the second game, it was still pretty up there.

While I think the story and overall level aesthetics are much less interesting compared to Spyro's Adventure 3DS, the level design themselves are much more expansive. As the name implies, the presence of Giants require the levels to be much more open compared to SSA's more Crash inspired hallway level designs.  Much more elbow room to explore and look for hidden goodies, and more enemies to fight. That kind of makes Giants 3DS an interesting hybrid of the handheld and console Skylanders playstyles.

It allows us as well to experience each character in a different way than normal. Due to the different playstyles, this is one of the few times Skylanders can have completely different movesets than just the same one carried over from game to game. And its crazy to see how some shoot up to my favorites when otherwise, they were pretty average. For example Gill Grunt is slow, and fiddly in the console version. But he's an ideal platforming legend with his jetpack on 3DS.

Solid game, better than I remember it being. Just know it kinda goes downhill from here on 3DS...

GAME 16: MARVEL'S AVENGERS (PS5) 100% COMPLETE:

Playing these remaining post-game missions I never touched until now, it's like saying goodbye to an old friend. Yes, I know the ol' rhetoric. Avengers is an unstable, grindy, live service riddled mess that never lived up to its potential.

...And yeah, you're right.

But I dunno, I always have a soft spot for it. I really enjoy being Iron Man, I enjoy the costumes, I had a blast with friends. And now that the game has been updated to include all the cosmetics, a lot of the more predatory mechanics have been scrapped for a more streamlined experience. And it feels a lot more manageable than it was at launch. It's nice to see it still going despite being axed and delisted, not many live service games have that luxury. Especially ones that bombed as bad Avengers did.

I really enjoy the story, the character writing, and some of the Avengers are really fun to play as. Shout out to Iron Man and Black Widow when it launched, and Black Panther was a standout DLC character when his lengthy expansion hit us.

You were a mess, Avengers. But you know what, you were MY mess. I'm glad I got to spend these last few little moments with you one more time to fully consider you completed.

IN PROGRESS: Still trucking through Persona 5 Tactica on XBOX. On PlayStation, Spider-Man 2, is almost done. Got almost every suit unlocked. On Wii U, I still planning to play Skylanders Giants and getting the secret ending to Nightmare mode to qualify for completion, but not before knocking out LEGO Dimensions one more time to reach completion (in this case, beat the game, all accessible Adventure Worlds, and maxing out the Batmobile).

GAMES FINISHED: 16

GAMES COMPLETED: 12

Edited January 29 by Failinhearts

[NegaMix]

First check-in! I'd have gotten to this much sooner, but life seems to get in the way at the most inopportune of times.

For my first game of the year, I was in the mood for something simple, easy-going and nostalgic. And hey, since 2024 is also the year of the dragon, what better option is there than Spyro the Dragon? I'll be playing through the game and its sequels via the Reignited Trilogy on PC (especially for that sweet 60fps framerate) and, with any luck, it shouldn't take too long to complete.

[Jovahexeon Jax Joranvexeon]

Hello for the latest check-in!

Currently now on the go with the Gunman Clive series. Should be a fine enough start.

[Ryannumber1gamer]

Reminder that there's only about two and a half hours left until the weekly check-in changes tonight! Make sure you get any further check-in posts done for Week 2, because Sonic CD and Sonic 3 will be going into the vault after, and you'll need to buy them on the members store in a month time!

[Emperor Robrainiac]

Check in time!

 

Due to real life rearing its ugly head, this game had to be delayed for a bit. Thankfully though I had a bit of time to make some progress recently. The games I have beaten so far are Spring Breeze, and I finally finished off the second half of Great Cave Offensive. 

Spring Breeze is simple, short, but sweet. It's a remake of the First Kirby's dreamland, and it does its job well to introduce you how the game works. It does merge two levels together, that being the Float Islands and Castle Lololo. But there's not much to say overall, a very nice introduction to Superstar, and hell, a nice introduction to kirby in general.

Great Cave Offensive is a neat idea, a semi-metroidvania where you're hunting down treasures... but my god, some of those treasures are a pain to get to, one example being a shield that you have to avoid obstacles while traversing a body of water that's pusing you to the other side of the room. above and below you are gordos, spiky invincible enemies and you have to time it right to drop down, otherwise you have to go back around and do it again and aarrgghh, I spent way too long trying to get it lmao. It's not terrible, it's cool exploring around the areas, but man the treasures were a big pain in the butt.

But that's my progress so far. Gonna try to get started on Dynablade today, which I remember enjoying very well.

[duckyfloof]

I've been going on a sonic game marathon since 2024 hit and this seems like a pretty fun place to log this stuff
i'll also add any unrelated games i beat along the way/after that


Game 1: Sonic The Hedgehog!!

Got all chaos emeralds as sonic
Had fun with this one, hour well spent!! its still the worst out of the classic quartet though, not that it means much anyway


Game 2: Sonic The Hedgehog 2!!!!

All chaos emeralds as sonic and tails

I seriously love this game man, every zone is a complete banger and the 2 act structure makes sure it never gets boring
also i miraculously beat the death egg robot first try this time, good job!!


Game 3: Sonic 3K!

All super emeralds as sonic and tails

Definitely my favourite, drops off in quality quite a bunch when it hits the second half tho
the special stages are a huge pain too, had to restart the save since i had like 1 super emerald by lava reef zone


Game 4: Sonic CD!
All time stones as sonic

It took me longer to setup the decomp than to actually beat the game lmao
idk why but this game has always been so comfortable to me, theres something about its aesthetic that just puts me at ease yknow, specifically tidal tempest for some reasoin
good game


Game 5: Sonic Mania!

All chaos emeralds as sonic and tails + all chaos emeralds in encore mode + all gold medals

There's not much to say about mania other than the 348th "good game!!!" but there is one thing i wanna bring attention to:

this is easily my favourite thing to come out of this game, and since it has no name i've decided to dub it "shitbox" due to its color pallette and underwhelming gameplay
there's just something so unbelievably funny to me about this stage from its stinky colours to the absolutely diabolical things the game wants you to do to get all the rings, the comically low orb amount and more.. it really has it all
fittingly also the last thing i've done in this game. and im so glad its this

Game 6: Sonic Superstars!

Last story beaten

Sorry for the shitty photo, unlike the others i beat this one on switch so i have no access to high quality screen capture
aside from the ridiculously long stages and annoying bosses, i'd say this game is alright
and with that, the classic games are done with, hooray!!!


Game 7: Sonic Adventure!

All 130 emblems + mission mode + all a missions as metal sonic

I've always disliked sa1 for whatever reason, it just didnt interest me as much as sonic adventure 2 but after going through it again with a bit of a more open mindset i actually like it a lot now, not quite as much as sa2 but it was a pretty good time


Game 8: Mario Wonder

Final boss beat

Played this one  at a friends' house, although its not my console i was still there the whole way through (and not to be rude or anything, did most of the work..) so i would say it counts

To make the poor piccolo guy's job easier here's the count:
Games beaten - 8
Games completed - 7

Thanks for reading, i'll be back soon enough

Edited February 7 by duckyfloof
removed games i put in a seperate post

[Endoian]

Hello everyone, I hope you are well and that the month of January ends as well as possible, I'm going to do my Check-in and I hope everyone starts with theirs, I will start my Check-in with a game that maybe not everyone likes but that I have very marked in my childhood, from my first Sonic games, "Sonic CD". I'm just going to start so good luck to me and I hope you finish your games as soon as possible, I say goodbye, take care of yourselves all gamers.

[Ryannumber1gamer]

Alright folks, it's a brand new week, and that means a brand new Profile Gift! This week, you can earn yourself a Sonic & Knuckles profile gift for doing a weekly check-in between Monday 29th January, and Monday 5th February!

[Endoian]

6 minutes ago, Ryannumber1gamer said:

Muy bien amigos, es una semana completamente nueva y eso significa un nuevo regalo de perfil. ¡Esta semana, puedes ganar un  regalo de perfil de Sonic & Knuckles  por realizar un check-in semanal entre el lunes 29 de enero y el lunes 5 de febrero!

I already checked in friend.

[Ghelatlishol]

Check in! I think I'm up to three games already, Sonic 1, 2, and 3.

[Tornado]

Okay wow Tiny Tank is actually a much shorter game than I thought it would be. I guess that's this week done on the first day.

[Rabid-Coot]

Its mostly a PS+ leaving soon panic completion week.

I Am Setsuna Platinum https://psnprofiles.com/trophies/4356-i-am-setsuna/Rabid-Coot

Classic styled RPG that moves at a brisk pace, battle system isn't over complicated and its rare to find a battle that is hard to overcome.

Tacoma Platinum https://psnprofiles.com/trophies/7589-tacoma/Rabid-Coot

An hour or so of going to sections of a ship and piecing things together from holo recordings bit of a trophy novelty in that with the way half of them pop in the credits you can get a fast looking platinum by setting things up to do the misc trophies right before you leave.

Unpacking Platinum https://psnprofiles.com/trophies/16109-unpacking/Rabid-Coot

Everything is a game nowadays, I preferred Moving Out but this was still a good way to spend a few hours. 90% of the items were intuitive to place 9% were not bad to figure out the correct spot in the room the game wants and 1% was just not knowing what the item is like I thought a magnetic fridge whiteboard was a fake U draw tablet.

Lost Words: Beyond The Page Platinum https://psnprofiles.com/trophies/12643-lost-words-beyond-the-page/Rabid-Coot

Its a fairly simple linear platformer with your time split between journal sections about the characters life and a fictional story they're writing.

Started: Red Dead Redemption Remastered. Lego Batman 3

Non challenge things: Shiny hunted a couple of Stunky in Violet while they were available might train one up to use in the DLC

 

Finished 8 Completed 8

Edited January 30 by Rabid-Coot

[Ryannumber1gamer]

Got quite a few on my current play list. On top of the two I mentioned last week...

Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney Trilogy (Apollo Justice, Dual Destinies, Spirit of Justice):

I've played the former two before, but when the trilogy was announced a few months ago, I knew I was going to grab it immediately. I personally find Ace Attorney much more enjoyable when you can sit up, play on a large screen, and just run through a case without needing to worry about battery lives, and so on. 

It worked for the original trilogy, in which Big Top Turnabout was always a gigantic pace killer, and it's worked here for Turnabout Serenade too. I'm also admittedly a bit of a apologist for AJ. I like the characters a good bit (Main characters at least. Phoenix is a good twist on his AAT personality, Trucy is a fun new addition, I like how Apollo is a much more dry, professional character, Klavier is a good counter to previous prosecutors), and I like how the game discusses the shambles of the AA law, exploring how even aspects of it in the original trilogy could easily be perverted and corrupted into something worse. 

I'm currently up to Turnabout Succession, so I'll at least have Apollo Justice knocked out this week, if not Dual Destinies also.

Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League:

I'm aware this one will probably be controversial. Previews have not been kind to the game at all, and it feels like all you hear everywhere about the game is doom and gloom. However, being a DC megafan, a Batman fanboy, wanting to see Kevin Conroy's last performance as Batman, and generally - at least liked Marvel's Avengers, I decided to give it a go (It also helps that I had a good chunk of rewards points saved up for a UK retailer, so I got the deluxe edition for quite a bit below the regular edition's retail cost). 

And honestly? I'm enjoying it. It feels like this is such a bizarre game to earn so much scorn to me. At worst, it's just kind of mid. But the story and dialogue is great, gameplay is serviceable enough so far, enemies don't feel tanky, exploring a open-world Metropolis is actually pretty unique, and I like how much of a grand threat Brainiac is. The Justice League's characterisation so far and the twists on their corrupted selves is also pretty interesting. It's well polished, it runs at 60fps as far as I can tell, and it's been really well polished. All previews led me to believe and expect a absolute disaster, yet so far, it's just been a fun enough time taking in all the lore and seeing what they do with the characters. 

Anyways, that's my current games I'm working on!

[Gavvie]

Check In: Week 3

Not gonna write the full list again, just the games I've made progress on:

• Hi-Fi Rush! - Picked this back up after not playing it since launch because I wanted something fun to play. Just about to start Track 5
• Dead Space - On Chapter 6, which I think puts me about halfway if my memory of the original serves - that's if the remake doesn't throw any curve balls.
• Brotato - Started this one today. It's kinda like Vampire Survivors - not as good but will be fun for a bit I reckon
• Go Mecha Ball - I do like a good roguelike dungeon crawler thing. This one has pinball mechanics to help you around the levels.
• Crisis Core: FFVII - Still aiming to finish this before FFVII Rebirth launches at the end of Feb. On Chapter 9 here, so nearly at the end but I'm levelling up through some side missions before getting the story done.
• Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy - I REALLY want to play the Apollo Justice trilogy, but it's been a while since I did the PW games, so I started those this week too. Currently on Ep 1 of the first game (does each game in this collection count separately or is it just 1 game for the whole Trilogy?)

[ShadowXeldron]

Guess I may as well do a check in.

Starting with Rocket Knight Adventures, so far my record is Stage 5. There is a noticeable difficulty jump during that particular stage. Since the game does not support battery backup it's back to stage 1 whenever you turn off. Doesn't seem like it's very long though so hopefully victory is in sight.

I have mostly been playing Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Story 2 via Kyuuyaku Megami Tensei for the SNES (using the bsnes emulator on my laptop for portability reasons) as of late. Maybe I have low standards, but I think it's one hell (expanse?) of an RPG - story-wise it's got a bit of Doom and Fallout and Pokemon-esque party customisation via recruitable demons. I've yet to graduate to a real SMT game but I'm enjoying it enough as is. Currently I have one Pillar and am getting very lost in the Ginza dungeon.

I started a playthrough of New Super Mario Bros. om my DS earlier. This time I'll be going for all of the Star Coins. To be honest, I actually forgot how good that game was! It was my first "real" console game so there may be some nostalgia bias.

As for other stuff, I have picked up Golden Sun, Breath of Fire and Donkey Kong Country 2 for my Game Boy Advance and am hoping to get around to them eventually. I might sideload them onto my DSi XL's SD card to play them via GBARunner2 without needing to carry my GBA around as well; it won't be the same but at least it's still technically on real hardware.

I also got Xenoblade Chronicles X for my Wii U, but it's a home console game (when I'm more of a handhelds and PC person and have to share the TV) and as such is likely to be of low priority unless I can find the time to play it or dump it for use in Cemu on the Steam Deck.

Edited January 31 by ShadowXeldron

[Ryannumber1gamer]

1 minute ago, Gavvie said:

Check In: Week 3

Not gonna write the full list again, just the games I've made progress on:

• Hi-Fi Rush! - Picked this back up after not playing it since launch because I wanted something fun to play. Just about to start Track 5
• Dead Space - On Chapter 6, which I think puts me about halfway if my memory of the original serves - that's if the remake doesn't throw any curve balls.
• Brotato - Started this one today. It's kinda like Vampire Survivors - not as good but will be fun for a bit I reckon
• Go Mecha Ball - I do like a good roguelike dungeon crawler thing. This one has pinball mechanics to help you around the levels.
• Crisis Core: FFVII - Still aiming to finish this before FFVII Rebirth launches at the end of Feb. On Chapter 9 here, so nearly at the end but I'm levelling up through some side missions before getting the story done.
• Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy - I REALLY want to play the Apollo Justice trilogy, but it's been a while since I did the PW games, so I started those this week too. Currently on Ep 1 of the first game (does each game in this collection count separately or is it just 1 game for the whole Trilogy?)

As compilations, each game counts as a individual entry. So AA: PW Trilogy would be Phoenix Wright, Justice for All, and Trials and Tribulations, retrospectively.