Topic: Games You Recently Beat?

Terror of Hemasaurus
Twenty stages, a little over a couple hours from start to finish. This nod to Rampage is short and sweet. The sarcasm in the story is appreciated. Perhaps not an award-winner, but toppling physics-based high rises for the sake of clearing stages feels just right.

Recommended.

Finally went ahead and finished Luigi’s Mansion after it came out on NSO. It always grinded my gears that people would put down the newer games in favor of this one, so I was almost preparing myself to dislike it out of spite, but unfortunately just about everything people says about it is correct. The atmosphere is far better than the other games, with the game straddling the line perfectly between charming and kind of spooky, the final boss fight genuinely being a bit unsettling. The gameplay, while not quite as satisfying as the other two, has a much better difficulty balance that had me dying a few times and would have had me die a few more if I didn’t put a suspend point right before bosses. These two things put this game above Dark Moon for me, as well as my disdain for that game’s mission structure. However, I still like 3 slightly more due to its stellar graphics, fun slam mechanic, and the fact that I had to walk through the courtyard one or two too many times. I also prefer 3’s bosses slightly to the original’s, with so many being a case of just solving this puzzle and then the boss dies, and some even making you do the puzzle again if you don’t get the ghost in one go. However, I still thoroughly enjoyed the game. It stands as a neat 8/10 between 3’s 8.5/10 and Dark Moon’s 7.5/10.

I finished Tomb Raider Definitive Edition with a 100% completion on the Switch 2. It was a great game to replay after all of these years.

Finished Dragon Quest II HD-2D Remake earlier this week, and with this I completed the Dragon Quest I+II HD-2D Remake games. Dragon Quest II is a polished jrpg grinder, with noble characters and dialogue. The music is nice and the scenery is beautiful.

Cave story+ on switch.
A good metroidvania, though it's slippery midair controls and questionable game design prevents it from being something great.

I finished Super Mario Sunshine. Worst 3d Mario, 7/10.
Too janky but fun water mechanics. Mixed feelings about the level designs. Great soundtrack and graphics. Bad story

@AmanPikon man, I guess it says something that the worst 3D Mario is still a 7!

I'm almost towards the end of Jim Power & The Lost Dimensions: NES Edition.
Pretty difficult overall, that I'd say is almost teetering towards Ninja Gaiden 1&3 levels of brute challenge at times. but that's the way i like it! This game is addicting as heck, and requires top tier enemy pattern memorization and timing just like you'd expect from many of the most difficult NES games, be it Adventure Island, Castlveania 1&3, Ninja Gaiden 1&3, Ghosts n Goblins, just to name a few.

After I wrap this up, i might try Nightmare mode for Curse of the Moon.

@StewdaMegaManNerd
It's funny, MM4 has developed some what of a stronger following over the years. But back in it's day, in like 92'(Was it?) it was nothing special. Most people felt like it was an overall disappointment coming from 3.

I actually had a better experience with MM5, with my best friend and I at his place around the time it came out. It was at least consistently decent, albeit pretty bland all around. Great NA Box Art, with some cool robot masters to boot(Gravitiy Man springs to mind), but it never came close to touching the magic, essense and creativity of MM2 for it's time. MM5 never managed to hit any real high notes nor was it plagued with any real low points. It was was a very weak 7/10 imo.

@WaveBoy The consensus in my experience is that 3 is either 2nd best or 2nd worst of the NES games with 2 being the most consistent widely beloved. In my experience I think 2-5, are all a 9 or at least high 8/10 even for the worst of them, with 3 being my favorite partially because its the one I grew up on (and the only one I beat when the 2004 collection was the easy way to go back to them). And 1 being kinda just what it is as a solid first attempt and me just not getting the appeal of 6 at all (super not catchy music + Rush power that never feels as cool or powerful as it clearly wants to be).

And then I played 9 and I also didn't fully get it, mostly because it felt almost like a weird mod where you had to play Megaman 5 with Megaman 2 abilities for some reason, which is why I've never gotten around to 10.

@Tasuki
My semi faded Toys R Us shopping memories, at least with what I can still remember are usually all toy & Board game related. But I do remember black and white NES cover slips from a local video game store at our Mall. Still, Those B&W cover slips pailed in comparison to seeing the actual shrink wrapped NES boxes on display, or even with those iconic multi-coloured Fleurescent Nintendo branded rental cases behind them which were there obviously to indicate weather they were available for rent or not.

I also missed out on TMNT III: The Manhatten Project. It's definitely the better beat em up vs the TMNT Arcade NES Port based on my short play time with it back in my mid 20's when i actually had the trilogy on NES, thanks to the new weapon based throwing mechanic and just being an original fresh entry in the series rather than a completely downgraded Arcade Port(Minus the new stage/boss content) like with II.

I remember TMNT II being nearly impossible to rent at my local Mega Videos. The kids would sneak in extra rental days by keeping it long past due. Their parents must of been thrilled with the late charges. lol. Mind you, there were barely any multiple copies on display for rent. there was maybe a few best case scenario. Blockbuster was an entirely different beast, but we never rented from there to often. It was Mega Video's until it changed into Rogers Videos, and then Video Update. And then you have those mom and pop Video stores, along with maybe Hollywood Video if memory serves me right.

On the topic of Super Mario Sunshine, while I like its tropical setting, water mechanics (I especially like the rocket nozzle), and music, I am not a huge fan of that game. It is janky for sure and some parts of it are just plain maddening. SMS has its fans, but I'd say it's my least favorite mainline Mario game... and I'm a huge Mario fan. And it's a shame too, because I wanted to like it more than I do.

@WaveBoy Yeah a majority of the game I played during the NES/SNES days were rentals. Every weekend my dad would take my brother and I to our local video store and we would rent a game depending on our performance at school that week. I did manage to rent TMNT 2 at my local store a few times but yeah it was one of the more popular ones. I never got a chance to rent TMNT III cause my local store never got it.

Funny thing with TMNT II, I never owned it at as a kid. Everytime I had the money all the stores that carried NES games were sold out of it, I didnt get a copy till about right before the Pandemic hit and I scored a C.I.B. copy from a flea Market, then of course I got the Cowabunga Collection so there's that too.

As for me I didnt start going to Blockbuster or Hollywood Video till the PS1 ans N64 era. By that time they ran all of the ma and pa stores out of my city Hollywood Video even manges to buy one out so gone was the magic of a video store for me of course by that time too I was entering High School. Still I remember going over to my friends house every Friday night me and my friends would pipe into his 69 Ford Galaxy and hit Blockbuster and Hollywood Video rent a bunch of games, and Japanese Anime and spend the weekend at his house watching Anime, playing video games and D&D while gorging ourselves on snack foods and Mountain Dew. Such good times.

Just wrapped up Jim Power & the lost Dimensions: NES Edition.
Not too shabby. 9 Levels, 10 bosses with some pretty chaotic meaty challenge that will definitely test your patience. Love the tacticle precision you need for so many retro-styled games like this. And it's riffing on the vibe & sound of Journey to Sillius(NES), where it clearly draws inspiration from compared to the clunkier and lousier eye scorthing(Those parallelScrolling backgrounds are teetering towards being seizure inducing) SNES original.

I also have an artifical Physical copy of this from Strictly Limited Games, just because the box art is so outrageous and early 90's reDONKulous. but do I need it? Nah. I'll never go back to this one just like I rarely ever do for most modern video games. I like to soak in the experience, get the most out of whatever i'm playing, and then store it in the memory banks and move on to the next new thing. Plus, I don't display my games on a shelf, i like to display art and other stuff. I've got practically zero interest in video game nostalgia trophies these days unless it's maybe from the 8-16 bit generations, even then, i toss my carts in tubs...It's all about easy access, convenience, and making the most out of my space.

I've also got physical copies of PlayAsia's Batsugun(Which I'll be buying digitally a second time in the Toaplan Arcade Collection Volume 1. Sigh), TMNT: Shredder's Revenge, The Ninja Saviours & DonutDodo(Pix'n Love Games). But i don't use them, because i have them all digital now. I guess i just like to have something physical with whatever modern Nintendo console other wise the system itself winds up feeling a bit empty and hallow.

I finally managed to save state spam my way through Battletoads. I have to say, I think I've played most of the contenders, but I think this one definitely has my vote for hardest game ever. Was never able to make it past the speeder bikes before, but who knew that might be the easiest level in the game!?

Did my normal November playthrough of Ocarina of Time again. I don't do it every November, but i try to every few years. Its just solid comfort food for me and its like second nature. I sometimes need to look something up, but for the most part I can get through and grab most collectibles on my own.

Oh, boy! I finished Disney Illusion Island recently! I enjoyed my time with it... for a licensed game, it's honestly really good. It's a nice, relaxing kind of Metroidvania with a lot of things to find and collect, though it can get a little challenging later on. I managed to get 86% on my save file after I rolled the credits. I think they put more content in the game via an update, I'll be sure to check it all out now that I'm done with the story.

Yoshi's Island (Super Nintendo)
Still a perfect game. Surely not my last playthrough.

I just beat (RAIDOU Remastered: The Mystery of the Soulless Army). It took me just over 22.5 hours to beat and i would give the game an 8 out of 10.

An American Tail: Fievel Goes West (Super Nintendo)
A simple, little game, but I am glad it exists.