Topic: Games You Recently Beat?

Finally finished Golf Story, being on lockdown has made me gone back and finish some games that I have been meaning too. Overall I enjoyed my time with this one. It's a charming game and one that shouldn't be missed, definitely a must play for the Switch even if you're not a huge fan of golf like me. Now I just need to wait for Sports Story.

I finished Doom. While I can't say its my favorite game ever or anything, it was both a huge breath of fresh air from anything else I've played in a while or the last time I played FPS somewhat regularly during the 360 era, and pretty awesome in general.

It's actually really strange how they brought back classic maps for this. It's a lot like when they used to put old games in the latest game in a series before they found out how to sell them as a downloadable game. But it added to the experience as the type of bonus you don't see in games anymore.

The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening (Switch)

The original Link's Awakening (Well, the DX version on the GBC) is one of my favorite handheld Zelda games, so how could I NOT play this gorgeous remaster? Everyone lately has been gushing about Animal Crossing: New Horizons, and rightfully so from all the feedback, but I've been on an island adventure on Koholint instead. Such a mysterious place, all topped off by a massive egg stuck on Mt. Tamaranch....

Positives

• First thing's first: This game is absolutely beautiful. I was one who didn't like the clay figure-like art style in the original reveal trailer, but 1. it has definitely been cleaned up and 2. it has grown on me. All the character models, the environment, monsters, items, et al are so detailed and really pop out to the viewer. It's almost like playing with a vibrant diorama.
• The fully orchestrated music in this game is a treat to the ears and has improved on the already fantastic MIDI soundtrack in nearly every way. I didn't think it was possible to improve on the Ballad of the Wind Fish track, but I was wrong.
• The fully animated scene before reaching the title screen is fun to watch. I'll admit that I didn't skip past it very often. They improved on an iconic intro scene from the original game in literally every way. The end-game animation is fun and captures the essence of the original well, too.
• The QoL improvements to how inventory items in this game are handled are VERY welcome. For those who haven't played the original, the limited buttons on the Game Boy ensured that you were pausing the game almost constantly at times to switch items. They've also mapped some items (such as the sword and shield) to their own buttons automatically, so you don't have to bother putting them on the X/Y buttons at all.
• Many of the characters in the game are just as fun and whimsical as I remember. Marin and Tarin are my favorites, but other characters are pretty great too.
• Mabe Village has more to do in it this time around. There are reasons to keep revisiting the Trendy Game, the town shop, and the fishing hole, for example.
• I never thought I'd have a reason to enjoy the River Rapids mini-game, but it's a fun (and useful) pastime! They've definitely overhauled it this time around.
• Many of the dungeon designs are pretty decent, though they're carryovers from the original game. The later levels aren't anything to sneeze at and can take some time to work through.
• Hero Mode can be unlocked from the start. In many ways, this adds to the challenge; enemies do double damage, and hearts don't drop. You have to rely on fairies, heart piece pickups, and magic medicine.
• More heart containers are added in this game, upping the count from the original maximum of 14 to the normal 20 hearts found in more recent series entries.
• They kept in all of those wonderful cutscenes and moments with Marin. Those moments still feel special and look even better with a HD coat of paint.
• Totaka's Song can still be found here. 'Nuff said.
• Bow Wow has a new use: it can detect secret seashells. This becomes less useful once the seashell sensor is obtained, but it's a nice improvement nonetheless.

Neutral

• Both arranging and adventuring in Chamber Dungeons is simultaneously interesting and mundane for me. Arranging is fun for the first few tries, but past that I'd rather just storm through the dungeons. It's an interesting mechanic for those who want it as it's the closest thing that the Zelda series has to Super Mario Maker right now. I didn't dislike it per se, but it unfortunately has some items tied into it for 100% completion. I probably wouldn't have bothered with it as long as I have been otherwise. Some of the amiibo unlocks for it are fun to mess around with. I feel like there could have been more to this feature.
• That shopkeeper is an extortionist. I didn't steal from him, but with some of those prices...he's almost asking for it.

Negatives/Nitpicks

• The dungeon bosses (barring the final boss fight with Dethl, which is still somewhat challenging, especially since they removed the boomerang cheat) are pretty easy. I would find this passable on normal mode, especially for younger players or those who are new to the series, but this ease was present even in hero mode. I think that bosses in hero mode should be harder to take down. Part of this could admittedly be the advantage (or in this case, disadvantage) of knowing what to do for most of the bosses, however.
• There's a bit of frame rate slowdown sometimes, typically in areas with a lot of assets (like Mabe Village) or when transitioning from a cave or dungeon into the overworld. This wasn't more than a minor annoyance and did very little to kill my enjoyment of the game, but I did notice it on occasion.

Link's Awakening is a much-needed fresh coat of paint on one of the more classic Zelda titles. The adventure is still fun, whimsical, emotional, and unique. A few minor issues aside, this is a must-play for fans of the Zelda series and is easy to recommend for newcomers.

Well, it's done. My DOOM 64 review.

This can be kind of spoilery. I discuss pretty much every aspect of the experience. So if you want to go in fresh... don't... read it, I guess? I tried not to include any screenshots of the final boss for people scrolling past this.

DOOM 64 HD remaster

Platforms: PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PC (reviewed)

Completion status: All Steam achievements completed over the course of three playthroughs, one of the original campaign on the second highest difficulty ("I own DOOM!"), another of the original campaign on the highest difficulty ("Watch Me Die!"), and then a third of the newly added post-game campaign that ostensibly connects this game to DOOM Eternal. All optional content was either completed or engaged with (I didn't bother to beat every single unlockable level, even if I tried them all), and all of the Demon Keys were collected across a second playthrough (more on that it a bit). This all took me roughly 28 hours, according to Steam's game time counter.

DOOM 64 has a curious history. This title was actually developed by Midway Games (although there was extensive oversight by and cooperation with some of the original developers of DOOM at id Software such as John Carmack and John Romero), and although it has maintained a dedicated cult following over the years, it largely has been lumped into the same basket of 'lesser' console conversions as the inferior Playstation 1 and (especially) Sega Saturn ports of the original DOOM, and was largely overshadowed by other popular shooters on the system, such as Perfect Dark and Goldeneye.

This couldn't be further from the truth, though, or more of a shame. DOOM 64 wasn't a port at all of either of the previous DOOM titles, and is still considered by some classic fans to be the "true" DOOM 3. In fact, DOOM 64 was a remarkable console-only DOOM game that featured significant improvements over the original, along with extensive changes to level design and aesthetics that made it feel like one of the more singular entries in the series. Thankfully, this classic was finally remastered for modern platforms, allowing the game to be experienced the way it always should have been: with a mouse and keyboard (I jest... kind of).

The first thing to know about DOOM 64 is that significant alterations were made to the DOOM engine, and all weapon and enemy sprites were completely overhauled. Indeed, while the basic flow of gameplay and subject matter are basically unchanged, the look of the game is pretty wildly different than previous iterations of the series.

The enemy sprites, for example, are much, much higher detail, and were created from 3D models, giving them much more of a sense of presence in the environments than they previously had. Guns, similarly, have so much more to them visually, and even the way they feel when using them can be somewhat different (I'm very, very partial to the physics, sound, and look of DOOM 64'd version of the chaingun; it's very satisfying to use. But the true hero of this title is the chainsaw, which blows any previous version of the weapon out of the water. I never used this weapon in previous DOOM games, whereas I opted for it whenever confronted with a horde of pinkies here, and even, in certain desperate, ammo-less moments, used it to take down Barons of Hell and Imps with little trouble).

The hardware accelerated DOOM 64 took advantage of the N64's (at the time) reasonably powerful technology to change up both the look of the game as well as how it plays. Room-over-room architecture, scripted events that would have been unthinkable in previous games (one cool level sees you activating a device that literally alters the configuration of the stage by pounding down a flat surface until it forms a stairway to a lower level of one of the UAC bases), scrolling skies, more naturalistic water scrolling, environmental effects, and a dramatically improved use of color make DOOM 64 feel like an almost generational leap over previous games in the series.

Unlike the samey labyrinths of DOOM I and the godawful city environments of DOOM II, DOOM 64's various environments actually FEEL distinct. They range from distinctly high-tech (primarily through the use of vibrant neon colors and strobe lighting that you'd expect to see in a space facility, as well as limited interaction with technology), to gothic (some of the mid-game Hell levels see you trudging through medieval feeling demonic keeps and castles, complete with black clouds billowing overhead, lightning flashing in the distance, and honest-to-goodness fog effects in dank, demon-infested corridors), to downright diabolical (late-game Hell levels make much heavier usage of Satanic imagery than previous DOOM games, which means you can expect to see human sacrifices impaled everywhere, pentagrams, inverted crosses, giant stretches of chain fences and cages like in a Silent Hill otherworld, and, in the last few stages, the brilliant billowing of gigantic plumes of hellfire on the horizon, rising far over the buildings surrounding you, reminding you just how deeply in the nest of evil you are really situated.

The soundscape of DOOM 64 has also changed pretty dramatically. As a supplement to the creepier visuals, the chirpy rock music of previous DOOM games has been replaced with moody, ambient tracks that sound much more like something you'd hear in a horror game, including one track that is primarily composed of demonic growls and moans.

It doesn't necessarily make compelling listening on its own, but combined with the revised visual design and strong gameplay it makes the experience that much more engaging and immersive. In many respects, DOOM 64 feels like a re-evaluation of the strengths and weaknesses of previous games, and this extends to almost every aspect of the game design.

One way in which DOOM 64 attempted to further its unique fusion of horror and action is with its use of in-game brightness. Simply put. this is a rather infamously dark game. Not DOOM 3 'need to use a flashlight' dark, but it's rather telling that even with this re-release, which seems to have been significantly brightened compared to even the highest brightness setting in the original game, a lot of my screenshots that I'd planned on using were just... too dark to make out much of anything with small screenshots. Granted, in a dark room, on a wide-screen monitor, the various dark tones look quite brilliant and moody, but I can see why being able to see properly would have been something of an issue for players of the original. For this reason, I've opted for brighter screenshots from the game.

One benefit from this, also related to mood, is the really striking use of shadows in this game. There are many sections of this game where you'll see a dark corridor with a weak bit of torchlight illuminating a section ahead of you, or where the room is almost bisected by shadows. Along with the more subtle and nuanced use of color, this also helps the locations in DOOM 64 to feel more evocative and present.

DOOM 64's enemy variety is stronger than it was in the somewhat barebones original game, but it has lost a few of the more strategically interesting demons from DOOM II. Specifically, the Revenant, Arch-Vile, and Chaingunner enemies are nowhere to be found here. While you'll see a ton of Arachnotrons, the larger Spiderdemon is also absent (although given how frustrating that enemy is, I don't see this as a huge loss). In their place, there is a new monster type standing in as the final boss, and, on the regular enemy front, a faster and more powerful variety of the Imp enemy, called the Nightmare Imp, is introduced. It feels like the developers wanted to preserve the move away from almost entirely humanoid enemies while being able to keep more of the flow of movement in combat from the original (two of the three removed regular enemies pretty dramatically alter the flow of combat and force you to attend to them before anything else).

This attempt might not have been entirely successful, though. While most of the enemies don't feel substantially different in this version of DOOM, the Lost Soul has seen a crazy bump in aggression and damage scaling. Simply put, even one Lost Soul will often be more damaging to the player than more traditionally threatening enemy types such as the Baron of Hell due to how quickly it'll attack the player consecutively. Combine this with the much higher damage scaling involved with playing on the highest difficulty settings, and suddenly two or more Lost Souls become an existential threat to the player. As such, the Pain Elemental, a mere nuisance in DOOM II, has become arguably the most dangerous enemy you'll encounter due to its tendency to spit out Lost Souls at an alarming rate.

I should also mention the final boss, which is also new for this game. It's... well, frustrating, but probably the best final boss in the series to date. While it's clear the developers are still struggling to create a fight that feels climactic as well as fun, considering the Mother Demon final boss is just sort of unceremoniously dropped in the middle of the room after clearing out an epic swarm of enemies beforehand, but she feels significantly less gimmicky than the Icon of Sin from DOOM II, and, unlike with OG DOOM's Spiderdemon, you can't just hide behind walls and take pot shots at it to avoid death, as she has Revenant-style homing projectiles that will rip you apart. In fact, she's probably way too hard (unless you have a certain difficulty-to-obtain weapon, which I'll discuss next, that sends her down hard within seconds). I didn't obtain this weapon until my second playthrough, so the best opportunity I found to survive the fight was to get up in her face ASAP and rhythmically move to avoid powerful projectiles she kept shooting at me whilst stun-locking her with continuous super shotgun blasts to the face.

Weapons-wise, aside from altered sprites that have some recoil/a somewhat different feel to them, not a lot has changed with the classic weapons aside from the chainsaw. The chaingun feels great, of course, but its functionality is identical to previous games. The super shotgun returns from DOOM II, and its as versatile and powerful as ever. The only real addition to your arsenal this time is the Unmaker (dubbed in-game only as "What the !@#%* is this!" by Doomguy), a fleshy, demonic beam weapon that's unremarkable unless you upgrade it (that's right: the very first upgradable weapon in the series). Upgrading it involves obtaining three "Demon Keys," which can only be accessed by finding them in secret levels accessed via alternate level exits during the main campaign. Unless you're following a guide, then, it's likely your first time playing the game (like mine) will see you rocking and largely ignoring a base-model Unmaker. Assuming you do go to the trouble of upgrading it fully, though, you end up with a hilariously overpowered weapon (far more useful than the slow-as-molasses BFG in this regard, really) that basically melts down the strongest enemies within seconds (even the final boss!), making the only (considerable) restraint on its full-scale adoption late in the game the limited amount of beam ammo that is shared between it, the BFG, and the plasma gun. Really, it's best to leave this for Cyberdemons before the final level.

One of the major changes made in DOOM 64 is in the puzzle/secret design and how you progress. Simply put, there's a significantly larger focus placed on environmental puzzles in this game. With some of them being real stumpers. In fact, I was pleasantly surprised how many of this game's secret areas and items were essentially hidden in plain sight, with the understanding that the player would read between the lines, so to speak, and figure out how to overcome a challenge. Granted, much of the game still is obtaining colored skulls to successively unlock different doors, but the game will also have you fire your gun at switches from certain vantage points (sometimes multiple in a row from different angles for particularly large secrets), use strobing lights and/or computer displays to communicate information about your environment wordlessly, make the player interact with switches in order to physically alter the terrain, remember and input simple codes from elsewhere in a level, and, in general, build entire levels around progression concepts that the player will need to grasp in order to progress.

It's not all honey butter with this game, of course. As is practically mandatory for a classic DOOM game, the general strength of the level design needs to be off-set by something aggravating and stupid. In this case, there are a few levels where the game likes to drop the player into pits from which there is no escape. There's often not even any warning before it happen. In one sequence during level... six, I believe, if you hesitate before rushing ahead in a room, the floor will crumble in front of you and sent you falling into a black pit filled with demons eager to consume you. But even if you barrel forward, you'll likely plunge to your doom (heh) thanks to certain large enemies suddenly appearing and blocking your path forward. There's also a rather infamous part later in the game where you'll be sent plummeting into inescapable lava if you're standing on the wrong part of the floor when it starts crumbling underneath you. And, in general, there are just far too many spots where you can casually fall into a place from which the only return is death. The game also occasionally likes to force the player to run through elaborate arrow trap sequences in order to obtain colored skulls, and even if these don't kill you, you'll often lose a lot of carefully preserved health in the process. These sorts of cheap traps aren't terribly common, but they're so unfair and poorly designed that they contrast harshly with the generalized excellence of how this game handles challenges.

While it's difficult to mention this as a negative, considering it's pretty universal among classic DOOM games, the narrative approach hasn't really changed, either. You'll get a few screens (with sensible color combinations this time that make them easy to read, thankfully!) with some delightfully overwrought prose, and a traditional descent into the heart of hell level design-wise, but otherwise, there's really nothing to the story presentation. The new campaign (which I'll discuss briefly soon) ostensibly connects this game to DOOM Eternal, but, really, what's to connect? It's just another set of levels, same as with any other DOOM game. Of course, nobody plays DOOM for the gripping narration, so it doesn't really matter. This apparently is a sequel to DOOM/DOOM II as well, but I wouldn't know that without researching the game a bit.

In addition to the forementioned secret demon key levels, DOOM 64 also has a handful of other secret levels to access. The first order of business is finding the secret exit to the game's very first level. To do this, you need to destroy all of the explosive barrels in the level, which makes a secret elevator appear. Despite how utterly obscure this easter egg is, though, it gets worse: after you finish destroying all of the barrels, you have, maybe 3 seconds to high-tail it to that elevator near the start of the level, which means you actually need to destroy the very first barrel in the game last, and then hope you don't get stuck on a wall or something as you rush to access the secret level.

This level, called "Hectic," is... well, I can't think of a family-friendly word to use when describing it, so, instead, I'll use a roundabout method of describing what playing this level is like. Anyone who has ever played the game Super Mario Maker, Nintendo's charming and innovative creativity suite on Wii U, will remember how, despite the number of supremely creative and well-thought-out levels they encountered online, there were also a huge number of levels that seemed designed to do little more than make life hell for the player. Perhaps this was due to a creativity deficit on the part of the players, who couldn't seem to find a way to create entertaining levels, or maybe it was born from some sick, sadistic impulse to inflict suffering on others that these people might not have known lurked inside of them, but, whatever the case may be, you'd find levels that existed purely to inspire frustration, and were frustrating also because of how poorly designed they often seemed. That's what Hectic is like.

The level is incredibly simple. You have one hub room that connects to three different challenge rooms, each with a colored skull key required to escape the level. This starting room entices the player by showing them nice stuff like armor upgrades and a Megasphere (a colored orb that doubles your health points by 100%). You quickly learn, however, that these are simply intended to troll the player: trying to grab the armor upgrade traps the player under a press that quickly crushes them to death. Similarly, if you grab the Megasphere, you become trapped in a tight space and watch as the ceiling above you slowly descends to crush you.

That really sets the tone of things, doesn't it? The yellow key challenge room is the easiest to to conquer, as it merely requires a few trial and error deaths. It involves crossing a small room filled with alternating platforms and traps that continuously spit out damaging arrows. It's irritating, but by my third or fourth death I'd found an optimal path that minimized the amount of damage I took. The next challenge room, however, quickly grew on my nerves, and took forever to beat. It traps you in a small room filled with three Arachnotrons (whose lasers can easily tear you apart in a couple of seconds) and gives you nothing but a rocket launcher to defend yourself. Now, rocket launchers are great against Arachnotrons... at a distance. Try to target anything close to you, however, and you'll endure inordinately large amounts of splash damage from the resulting explosion. So, cue a frustrating twenty minutes or so of me going into this room and trying to kill the Arachnotrons, usually to only end up killing myself with splash damage in the process. Somehow, I managed to get through this, and steeled myself for the last challenge. This one was less poorly designed, but seemed unfair and designed to frustrate as well. The floor space was limited to a few pillars erupting from the floor. Falling off these pillars meant certain death, as there was no way to climb up. Once you head into this level and collect the skull key, Hell Knights, four in total, appear on either side of the player and begin assaulting them with fireballs. So the player has to try to balance on these pillars, moving back and forth to avoid fireballs and kill all of the Hell Knights with rockets.

This is the section where I learned to regret that firing rockets actually knocks you back a few inches or so, as does taking damage from fireballs.

So, forty falls into the bed of lava below, and I was done with Hectic! In fairness to the developers, the reward is actually pretty cool. You unlock a "Features" menu that both allows you activate certain cheats, like invincibility (although doing this will disallow you from being able to collect trophies), and gives you access to the helpful "Level Select" option. Not only can you use this to replay certain levels again (although, going into a late-game level with just a pistol is its own form of Hell), but you can also access the remaining hidden levels in this game, called "Fun" Levels.

So, playing these, which are four in total, you discover that what the developer considers to be "fun" is apparently throwing you in a small arena or in a set of hallways and then relentlessly puking high-powered enemies and rockets everywhere, which quickly turns into a mess. It's that Mario Maker-style of level design again. I won't go into any depth on them. I did complete one (after, many, many tries) for a Steam achievement, but it wasn't easy, and probably wasn't worth the effort.

A significant addition to the re-release worth mentioning is the inclusion of a second campaign! As mentioned before, this campaign apparently connects it to the newest game in the series, DOOM Eternal, but, really, all you have here is a truncated campaign, maybe 1/3 as long as the original, that has to hit most of the same beats in less time. An interesting result of this is that these extra levels feel HARD. The developers seem to have designed it knowing that players will have beaten the game previously, giving these intricately design new levels the feel of challenge stages. This mini-campaign also has its own boss, which is pretty much identical to the original (it's the final boss' sister or something... no joke). Thankfully, the final boss fight here is actually quite a bit more fun, as it's set in a level where you can feel free to run, hide, and generally fight the absurdly powerful demon without having to resort to cheap exploits like stun-locking it.

But, yeah, once you finish the main campaign, selecting "New Game" will give you the option to play this mini-campaign instead, and I HIGHLY recommend everyone who enjoyed the base game do so. It's mostly more of the same, but considering the game, that's not a bad thing at all.

CONCLUSION

There are some drawbacks to DOOM 64. Some frustrating oversights in the level design. Less enemy variety than in DOOM II. A final boss that is either overwhelming or pathetic, depending on how many of the secret demon keys you can access to by the time the final level rolls around. Yet this is, without a shadow of a doubt, the best game in the series I've played to date. It's so good as a whole product, honestly, that it puts previous entries to shame. I never replay games right away, and rarely go back to look for secrets, and yet I continued to return to DOOM 64 to uncover all of its secrets and unlock all of the achievements. I can't recommend this strongly enough to anyone who has any love in their heart for old-school shooters or horror shooters. You won't be disappointed.

@Ralizah great review!

Apologies for both the brevity and content of my thoughts 😊 ...

I finished Danganronpa 2 on Friday.

At first I wasn’t as gripped as the first game as it felt like more of the same so it wasn’t as shocking and slower paced. I preferred the setting and thrill of the new in the Danganronpa Trigger Happy Havoc. I’d never played anything like it before, so it’s unfair really for me to expect such a feeling from a great sequel.

But I loved the last 2 chapters more than any from the first game.

To ensure I enjoy the 3rd game to the fullest I’m going to give it a while before playing it.

I completed the RE3 remake and thought it was pretty good. It’s a bit different than the slower puzzle driven progression of RE2, but that’s fine.

What they’ve chosen to do with Nemesis had divided some fans, but I liked the way they utilized the character in scenes. In RE2 even though Mr. X was always following you around, it often didn’t create a constant state of tension. Sometimes you’d lose him on a ladder or staircase and it made his pursuit seem kind of silly. Not to mention Mr. X (a massive, muscular beast-man) was blocked by the flimsy door on safe rooms. I know that was intended so you have a place to break, save, and manage inventory but it also broke suspense and immersion for a time.

There are certainly some issues with how linear and scripted some of the scenes with Nemesis are, but when you are given control, you’d better briefly fight him off or run like hell because he’s quick.

In regards to length and omissions from the original PlayStation game, I don’t know. I’ll admit I never got around to playing the original. But I’ll say what is here is all top quality and the various areas have a good variety of enemies to dispatch. Ammo is more prevalent in this game, but you’ll still need to manage your resources if you plan on taking down the larger enemies.

RE2 felt like a large interconnected world, but this game feels more a series of “stages” and set pieces. On paper the former may seem preferable, but when the stages are this fun, it doesn’t really matter. They still require you to gather items and familiarize yourself with the layout, but these sections are smaller in RE3.

Instead there are more frequent combat encounters and that this one area where RE3 really improves on its predecessor. The guns feel more powerful and satisfying to use, along with more enemies on screen. So yeah, it’s more action oriented overall, but it uses that to its advantage because there is a good amount of tension and ultimately satisfaction when you down your foes. There is also a dedicated evade button this time, so boss battles are generally less frustrating. Boss battles in RE games have always been very different then any other game (and that’s great), but too often the player only has the option to run around in circles or just stand far away to avoid attacks. RE4 and 5s QTE evasions were a step in the right direction, but a dedicated evade button is an even better solution.

The plot here is typical RE material. Very threadbare with thinly developed, but generally likeably protagonists. Maybe one day Capcom will make these people more distinct, but I don’t really see the difference between Carlos and Chris or Jill and Clair other than their haircuts. It’s not a big deal because the plot and characters are just placeholders for the game, but other developers are doing more interesting things with stories in games nowadays.

So although this game isn’t the best in the series, it’s still one worth checking out if you liked RE2 last year. I completed it on Standard in 7 hours, but it was a very satisfying 7 hours and I plan to go back and play on the harder difficulty.

@Ralizah I also am really loving the level design in Doom 64. It definitely rewards you for being observant, since flicking a switch often opens an area way on the other side of the map. So in that sense it’s more anticipating where the next point of progress is, rather than just wandering around like in the later levels of Doom II. At least so far (I’m about stage 19) the levels feels more tightly designed.

My biggest criticism is the same as yours. In the first 2 Doom games there was always a way out of those death pits. I couldn’t believe that they designed Doom 64 in this way. To test it I saved right before the anticipated drop and retried 3 times grunting on every single wall. Sure enough, there really is no escape. That was a really dumb design choice in an otherwise excellent game.

@NotTelevision Yeah, it's a weirdly obvious bit of bad level design, which smacks up against the rest of the game, which, as you detail, is very tightly designed. Not AS big of a deal in this modern version where you can save anywhere, but it must have been ungodly irritating on the N64.

@JoeDiddley Thanks.

Glad to see you continuing with the Danganronpa franchise. I also resisted playing the second game out of a fear of it being more of the same, but I felt like the cast and trial writing were dramatically improved in the second game overall, and I loved the expanded world-building.

When you say you're waiting to play the third game, to be clear, do you mean Danganronpa: Ultra Despair Girls or Danganronpa V3?

Not too long ago I revisited and finished Mega Man ZX via the MMZ/ZX Legacy Collection. (I had the original DS cart since it came out, too.) I'm currently playing through Mega Man ZX Advent (alongside Animal Crossing: New Horizons of course, but that's a different story lol), but for now I'll type up my thoughts on the first MMZX.

Firstly, I really like the Metroidvania approach with this game - as a fan of both Metroid and Mega Man X/Zero, this sort of combo sounds like a match made in heaven. Finding stuff like Life Ups and Sub Tanks feels rewarding as well, of course. The Biometals acquired from defeating bosses are nifty in their own ways, too - especially Model HX with its increased mobility. (That happened to be my most used Biometal during my playthrough!) I also like how you don't need to get a high rank to get said Biometal too - in that respect it's more Mega Man-ish than the Zero games (in the Zero series, a high rank is needed to get EX Skills from bosses). It's kind of a letdown that Model X can't be used when it and Model Z combine after Giro's death...I'm gonna miss being X with that double charge shot, but I guess it just wasn't meant to be! The controls, pixel art, and soundtrack are all fantastic, too. Major shoutouts to Green Grass Gradation

I mentioned before that I like the idea of having a Metroidvania-styled world just begging to be explored, but I gotta mention the in-game map...to put it lightly, it's not very good. This is a classic example of doing things differently, just for the sake of being different. The map goes for a hexagonal layout, and it can be confusing to figure out where you're supposed to go. It doesn't help that all the areas are vaguely called "Area A," "Area B..." either.

Another problem I have with this game is that when picking a mission and seeing where it takes place, you're just supposed to know where that area is. Otherwise, it's just trial and error trying to find that one, specific place. One time, I chose a mission, tried to find the area where the mission took place, and I ended up going to a completely different place. It wasn't fun. Now granted, exploring more of the game's world does gradually alleviate this issue, but man, it would've been soooo much better if you went to a particular area, the mission corresponding to said area would start automatically. Thankfully, ZX Advent does just that!

But overall, I liked Mega Man ZX. I definitely wish the map and mission structure were better, but it does get a lot right. The level design is solid, boss fights are pretty good, Biometals are fun to use in their own right, controls are spot-on, and the soundtrack is really good. If you happen to have the MMZ/ZX Legacy Collection, I'd say give it a shot sometime.

WarioWare Gold

This is a quirky entry in Nintendo's WarioWare series and is a compilation of most microgames from past titles. I had quite a bit of fun with this one, though the gameplay is usually best suited to shorter sessions. Some of the humor may not be for everyone. I haven't played some of the previous entries in the series, so some of it was quite new to me.

Positives

• There are over 300 microgames grabbed from all of the previous entries. There's quite a variety between four types: Mash (button presses), Twist (gyro), Touch, and Blow.
• The charm and quirkiness from the rest of the series is still easily found here. This very much feels like a WarioWare game.
• Full voice acting is present in this game. While it isn't groundbreaking, it's neat to see characters fully voiced.
• The challenge modes are fun and widely vary. The story mode first needs to be completed in order to access them, however. They're a mix of microgames from the story mode based on one of the four categories (or all of them) with a twist.
• To go with the above, I'm very happy that Gamer (known as Sneaky Gamer here) from Game & Wario has made a return. They've added a few alterations to 5-Volt to make her more unpredictable; you REALLY have to watch the upper screen while playing Mash games on the lower one.
• Many of the microgames are fun. Some are throwbacks to classic Nintendo games, usually with a twist. These were definitely my favorites.
• As the player completes sections of the story mode and challenge modes, they earn coins that they can then use in a gashapon machine. This is used to furnish the souvenir room. Souvenirs can be phone "letters", games (such as the infamous Mewtroid and Pyoro games), historical Nintendo products, alarm clocks, character cards, records of tracks in the game, and studio sessions where you can dub your voice over that of various characters from videos in the story mode. Basically, there's a LOT of stuff to collect.
• There are missions that the player can complete by accomplishing tasks in both the story and challenge modes that earn more coins.
• Scanning amiibo in one of the souvenir extras causes Wario to paint a caricature of the scanned character. An art critic will then award the player with varying amounts of coins. Up to three amiibo can be scanned a day.
• The graphics are vibrant and very much fit in with the rest of the series. I have no problem with them, but....(See the Negatives/Nitpicks section)

Neutral

• The story mode isn't anything to write home about. Granted, this is a WarioWare game; they aren't known for having a deep narrative to begin with. In fact, the plot in some ways is a repeat of the original WarioWare Inc.
• The unlockable Wario Kard game isn't anything to write home about. It's basically just another way to make the player collect cards and coins once all of the other souvenirs have been obtained.
• There's some mild gross-out and toilet humor in the game. This doesn't really bother me, but I could see some not appreciating this.

Negatives/Nitpicks

• The game is fully in 2D. While it's perfectly serviceable to play in this way, I can't help but wonder how good it would look with the 3D effect. Unfortunately, this was one of the games that came out towards the end of the 3DS's lifespan when Nintendo decided to quietly drop 3D support.
• A couple of the microgames where you have to write certain characters or be precise in other ways are finicky and easily failed. Even if the player genuinely tries to fulfill the requirements set out, there's still a large margin of error.

WarioWare Gold is a "greatest hits" compilation that shouldn't be missed by fans of the series. Come here for the gameplay, off-the-wall humor, and general quirkiness that the franchise is known for. If you're expecting a deep narrative and/or don't appreciate a little juvenile humor now and again, look elsewhere. For those on the fence, there's a demo on the 3DS eShop that perfectly captures the feel of how this game and the series as a whole behave. Here's to hoping a brand new entry shows up on the Switch at some point!

Nano Assault Ex: One of the only twin stick shooters for the 3DS, back when there wasn't a version of the 3DS with a second analog stick! Though it is compatible with the Circle Pad Pro, which unfortunately i never got. The enemies don't come that fast at you, so it's actually manageable with the face buttons.

Ratchet and Clank: Going Commando: Big improvement over the original. Ratchet doesn't act like a jerk in this one, which is good.
You can now strafe, the weapons can be upgraded, the racing minigames are way better imo. Not a fan of the missions where Clank gets huge though.
Currently playing through the third game, and I gotta play Deadlocked after that one too!

Hannah Montana Rock Out the Show PSP just now. 😅

Uh, so we had a power outage for a while, so I played Sonic Mania from beginning to end (bad ending tho). lol

Um, this is one of the best games in the series, and one of the best platformers of the past decade. I knew that going in but...cmon! What is wrong with this company? Why is Sonic unable to make games this good all the time?! Sonic would still be on Mario's level if Sega and Sonic Team knew how to use this franchise and actually stuck with good ideas. Legit 3 of the best platformers of the 2010s were Sonic, so why do they keep making mediocre Sonic games? And why haven't they given this team in particular all the money for a Sonic Mania sequel?

It would be one thing if Sonic games just sucked nowadays, but they're sometimes fantastic, so its so frustrating! I would buy this quality of Sonic game every other year, for decades, that's how much I liked this game. Please make more games of this quality so I can give you more money, Sega!

Recently finished SteamWorld Dig and Far Cry 5. Steam world dig was cute and short; I liked it. But Far Cry 5, on the other hand, I don't know, to me it was a mixed bag. One part it's an immersive, atmospheric experience that made me remember how much I love this franchise. Especially when you have headphones on, and you hear all the sounds of your gun, footsteps, and everything that's happening in the world(like birds chirping, bears roaring, and people talking to each other) around you. It's lovely but then the bad rears it's ugly head.

The ugliness is this; Far Cry 5 has a terribly written story, dialogue, and characters. It's making me cringe when I remember(and I hate using that word, but god damn it this game is cringy). So many plot holes that will make you say, "How is that possible? That doesn't make any sense." and the worst part about it, the game doesn't know what it wants to be; at some points, it tries to be serious and dark but ten minutes later happy times for all. Which is confusing, and then here comes the not so subtle politics to finish you off. Like for example, and I quote, "This world is going to burn either way you know who's running this place? Gotta make hope country great again, libtards, the war on our mind has begun!! Walls being erected!" and that's just the start; there's so much more. It's lazy writing, I expected better from Ubisoft, but I guess they proved me wrong.

Another big thing I didn't like was the changes to the upgrade system, Ubisoft took out EXP (that were in the last three games) and added challenges to get perks. Which is piss poor to say at least, let me play how I want to play, I don't want to run over a dozen guys to get one measly perk point. It's stupid, just like the RP(Resistance Points) system they added in as well. What is RP? They're points you get from main and side missions so you can fill a dumb bar to face the boss of an area. Nothing else, they're useless and take away the feeling of accomplishment of finishing a primary story mission(you don't get perk points or money by the way).

Ubisoft added something else as well, the hunters. Enemies that endlessly spawn when one of the main bosses have "marked" you. Can you fight back? In a sense(they never stop spawning, so it's a big waste of time and resources), but even when you're in the air, talking to an NPC or underwater. The hunters just throw a dart and take you away.

Far Cry 5 truly is a mixed bag. It's a great game that's bogged down by awful decisions and incompetence. I don't know if I can recommend this, you'll have to dig through tons crap to find gold. Shame really, Ubisoft has the gunplay, atmosphere, and music(which is fantastic by the way, Ubisoft games have always had great music) down, but everything else? They just can't pull it off.

@MsJubilee I enjoyed Far Cry 4 quite a bit in 2015 or so when I played it, but I've been very uncertain about this sequel, and it sounds like I was right to be hesitant. I guess I should just play Far Cry 3 instead. I hear it's quite good.

Removing experience points from the series sounds like a terrible idea.

Uncharted 4... like 5 minutes ago. I loved it.

Bart Vs the world on Nes. Yeah i know it's pretty lousy but like alot of Nes games i had nostalgia for it despite it not being very good and wanted to finally complete it. Not nearly as difficult as i remember but the controls are a mess. Now for the first TMNT game. Another case of nostalgia blinding me to what was never that great a game but for some reason i always came back to it.

@Ralizah Far Cry 3 is the same as 4 just doesn't look or feel better. If you enjoyed 4 you'd enjoy 3. But if you want you can also play Far Cry Primal a prehistoric take on the franchise(no guns!), I'm going to play it right now(it's on sale on PSN) I never have. There's also Far Cry 3 solo expansion called Blood dragon, I know that's a fan favorite.

Although games like Dauntless technically never end because it's a live service game, I feel as though I've had enough. I've unlocked all the trophies and reached the slayer rank max of 50. I see no reason to continue. Maybe I'll check back in a couple years when Cells 2.0 occurs or something, maybe.

Almost done with Dragon Quest 1 on Switch. I just need to level up high enough so that the Dragon Lord's attack isn't quicker than my ability to cast midheal. I'm eager to finish DQ1 and move immediately on to DQ2, which I've never played. I've heard it's the most difficult entry in the series.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons (Switch) - Now that I've enticed K.K. Slider to my island, I've hit the endgame in terms of scripted events (thus this impressions piece), but due to new events throughout the year & the updates sure to come, it's a game that can't truly be "beat".



Welcome to Namek, where the people are friendly, and the neighborhoods tightly organized.

Gameplay:

• You start out as a new resident on a deserted island getaway package, and after designing your character, naming your island & the like, it's your job to collect resources in order to build tools (which allow you to get even more resources) or sell to fill your pockets.
• There are really two main goals. The first of which is to build up your island, which is done by taking on quests given by Tom Nook (the raccoon who invited you to the island), which result in new establishments (such as shops & a museum, which has it's own questline involving donating fossils & any fish & insects you find on the island in order to complete it's exhibits) & villagers moving onto the island. Once things are suitably built up, famed musician K.K. Slider will be encouraged to put on a show on your island, proving your island is now a thriving community.
• The other goal is to build up your own home. You start out with a small tent, but once you pay it off you can move into a larger house, and through a series of paying it off and taking out even bigger loans to pay off, you can add to it one room at a time. Of course you can decorate it as you see fit, with flooring, wallpaper, and furniture. Some of which can be created by various crafting recipes (which wash up on shore on bottled messages, randomly given out by balloons, given to you by villagers, bought with Nook Miles, or earned through special events), while others are obtained ready to go (either bought with Bells or Nook Miles in selections that change daily, randomly handed out via balloons, or earned during special events).
• There are two forms of in-game currency. The first of which are Bells, the traditional currency of AC and what you'll be using most often. It can be earned by selling things at the store (Nook's Cranny), but can also be earned by playing the Stalk Market (at a certain point you can buy Turnips on Sundays, and you have a week to sell them to the store before they go bad. They sell for a different price each day, and you can make a big profit if they're going for a higher price than you bought them. It is a gamble, though). It's also possible to dig up 1,000 once a day, one of the rocks on your island will drop them (instead of it's usual resources), and they can be randomly dropped by balloons as well. In addition to paying off your loans, you can also buy furniture, clothing, and other goods from merchants with them as well.
• The other in-game currency is Nook Miles. These are earned in large amounts by completing in game achievements (and at a certain point are constantly awarded in small amounts just for completing random tasks, such as catching 5 fish). Your first loan can be paid off with them (but only that one time), but otherwise they can be spent on crafting recipes & furniture exclusive to the "Nook Stop" (an ATM like machine in the resident services tent/building). You can also buy Nook Miles Tickets with them, which send you to smaller randomly generated islands that you can use to obtain extra resources (some even have things you can't get on your island, but can import, such as bamboo & coconut trees).
• Everything runs in real time (some buildings may take one or two real days to be completed), and this adds longevity to the game as the kinds of wildlife you encounter (and can obtain for your museum) change throughout the year based on their real life activity, plus there are seasonal events (such as holidays) which can be used to obtain exclusive crafting recipes & items which you can only get during those times. You can get around this somewhat by messing with the console's internal clock, and although there's no major punishment for this (any Turnips you currently have will automatically rot, and the villagers will start rumours about you), it'll only get you so far because many of the special events will be added in future updates & can't accessed at all currently.
• There's no rush to do any of this though, and you can play at your own pace (it doesn't matter if you pay off your loan a day from now, a week, or even a year), though you may want to upgrade your house at a regular clip, because the larger it is the more storage you'll have for your resources & items you collect. After having everything built up to a reasonable degree you'll probably get into a groove of checking into it just for a bit each day just to do a quick run through of your village to see if the shops have anything interesting & to grab your daily Bell & Nook Mile drops, while coming back more seriously for the seasonal events throughout the year.
• Once you do hit endgame you obtain the ability to terraform the island itself, putting in roads, rerouting rivers, cliffsides, and creating lakes as you see fit.
  
  
  
  Make yourself at home in my humble abode.

Audio/Visual:

• It has a charming cartoonish look to it, but it's absolutely packed with little fine details, and almost everything you collect can be interacted with in some way (from lamps lighting up, stereos/record players playing music you collect, and even flushable toilets that have a gameplay element).
• I want to give a special shout out to the museum, which is immaculately realized & is a place I'd love to visit in real life.
• It has a nice relaxing soundtrack that changes by the hour, and you can buy a variety of tracks for use in your own home (or can be obtained as a gift from K.K. Slider, once he starts playing in town).
  
  
  Rest up at scenic Kaiju Public Park (the "Godzilla" even breaths fire & roars when interacted with).

Conclusion:

• I haven't played anything quite like this before, and it was a pleasant surprise. Despite there being no urgent goals to complete or a world to save, I couldn't help but be sucked in to this charming world, and there's so much here that there's bound to be stuff I didn't even touch on (such as the online features, since I don't have NSO. I believe you can create custom designs for clothes, furniture, and & even terrain to share). It's the rare kind of game where when you're not playing it, you're thinking about doing so & can't wait for your next session/day to roll around. Some things could definitely be streamlined (such as the fact you can only craft things one at a time, which is irritating when you need to craft in bulk, such as fish bait), but it's so charming you can't help but put up with it, lol.
  
  Spend the evening in our rustic Cliffside Campsite (for your own safety, we request you don't venture past the fence).