Topic: Games you recently DROPPED

@Tanookduke heck yeah! Always feels good to put a tough moment behind you

Looks like I'm gonna have to drop Banjo-Tooie. As somebody who likes Banjo-Kazooie, I really, really wanted to like its sequel, but I dunno... I don't think I like it very much.

My main problem with the game is its slow pacing. The game's worlds are pretty huge, and there is a lot of backtracking and swapping between Banjo and Mumbo/transformations. I found myself coming back to previous worlds a ton, because some Jiggies require that you have to learn a certain move later in the game. Like, I feel like I only make a small amount of progress every time I play this game. I did fully complete Mayahem Temple, and I'm only missing one honeycomb piece in Glitter Gulch Mine, but that's kind of it in terms of how many worlds I've done. The aiming controls are kinda bad too, with the reticle snapping back to the center when letting go of the control stick. That was especially a pain to deal with during some boss fights.

I know it's one of Rare's most ambitious games, but I'm not a big fan of this game, unfortunately. Which is a shame, because I really wanted to love it. I will say that it has a great soundtrack, however. Maybe I'll come back to Tooie sometime, but for now, I'll be taking a break from it.

@Dogorilla Indeed, LEGO City Undercover on 3DS is a prequel to the Wii U game, for the most part they play the same, but due to the power difference the 3DS game is of a smaller scale and the world isn't as open as the Wii U game. Not to mention, every district is separated by a loading screen. I still enjoyed my time with it, but only when I played it in small doses.

Having said that, the Wii U LCU is one of my all time favorite games of all time, on Switch it was an endurance test as it was crashing constanty (pun intended). The Wii U version also crashed on me, but that was due to me doing some crazy stuff the game probably didn't want me to do, not because I was playing the game normally like on the Switch version.

Anyway, about games I've dropped, it has to be Disney Speedstorm.
I really enjoyed it at the beginning when it went F2P as an alternative to Mario Kart 8 Deluxe while the Booster Course Pass was at its home stretch. Then the Wreck-It Ralph season arrived this year and changed the way you level up characters, which totally ruins individual level ups thanks to a unified currency that's now used instead of the individual items used before.

Before, every character had a set of items (either exclusive to them or shared with characters of the same series) they could use to level-up. Say for example, I could level-up Belle without affecting Mickey Mouse's chances of leveling-up. Of course you also had to get tokens to be able to level-up them further up to Lv. 50.
Additionally, getting enough tokens not only unlocked a new level tier, but also raised its stars. Essentially what I'm trying to say is that before you could have a character at Lv. 1 with 2 or more stars to raise its level further.
This is important because said star rank is what allows them to do their special moves, starting at 2 stars.

Now every character can only level-up by getting a certain amount of tokens and paying with it unique currency, which isn't premium or hard to get in-game but it can be stingy on how much you can get daily. Also, stars are now unlocked when a character reaches a certain level, I think every 10 levels starting at Lv. 20 you can raise stars. So now you can only raise star rank as you level-up, a bit of a deal breaker for me.

In hindsight it sounds like a better option, but not when the game purposefully gimps your chances of leveling up multiple characters at the same time.

That and the fact that I've been waiting for Wreck-It Ralph characters to be added, only to realize they couldn't be arsed to add voices to some characters, which was still a problem with new characters when I briefly returned to the game in September.

Sorry about that rant, but that's probably the only time I've dropped a game due to an update.

@MarioVillager92 I actually finished Tooie on the Xbox maybe almost two years ago, and while I did like it, I definitely agree that the world’s are sometimes too big. The interconnected aspect with them is interesting and done well, but the levels can be way too big and sometimes progression does feel slow. I feel like Kazooie struck a good balance with level size; all the levels didn’t feel small, but also not too big, and it was kind of easier to complete it. I do think that levels being big is sometimes frequent in a few of Rare’s other games, one that comes to mind for me is Conker’s Bad Fur Day, though I’d say that game suffered more from bad gameplay and level design than big world size, though there was this haunted mansion world in that that I think suffered from being too big and had a lot of repetition and walking back and forth.

I was actually going to replay Tooie back in September, but I dropped it only midway through the Mayahem Temple level because I just remembered how much I kind of hated the difficulty on the game and how confused I got working through the world’s in the game again. The difficulty was also another thing that I really didn’t like about it. There are way too many timed mini games and it stressed me out too much. I still like the humor in the game, but I don’t know when I’m going back to it again.

Black Ops 6 campaign. After a good hour or so of a chapter I did not enjoy at all, I finally finished the other night. I went to boot it up today and the progress never saved somehow. Not replaying that frustrating chapter so I un-installed it. Oh well.

Fez. Dropped it a while back and was determined to give it one more shot due to it being an indie icon, but the puzzles past the first couple levels? worlds? are just too complex for me.

@Pastellioli Ah yeah I did like how all the worlds are connected to each other in some way. That was actually pretty neat. Yeah... I didn't like how slow progression feels, especially later on. I feel like in other games like Super Mario 64, I can get Power Stars at a pretty good rate. But I guess that's just not how Banjo-Tooie rolls, lol. I guess the game wants you to start getting a feel for the worlds, collecting music notes and learning new moves, and then you could try getting more Jiggies. Even so, a lot of them are still pretty hard to get. I played a handful of those timed minigames you've mentioned. And you're right... the game is pretty difficult at times.

Maybe it's all partially because I didn't play it much as a kid, the later worlds after Mayahem Temple are pretty much brand-new to me, haha. There is a certain boss fight that I could see scaring kid me though, lol.

@MarioVillager92 There are about 90 Jiggies in Tooie and so many of them were hard to get, even with the Xbox’s improved controls and performance of the game, and I actually only finished with about 89 of 90 Jiggies because of this terrible mini game near the end of the game. The progression definitely can feel a bit slower at times, cuz the game wants you to explore the worlds a lot, and while I do think the levels are interesting and wonderful, I think that sometimes they are too big, and the backtracking can also be sometimes annoying and having to wait to get a Jiggy until you get a new move later on. The first game did have backtracking, but I think there was only a single instance of it.

The worst out of the timed minigames was this shooting minigame in a level called Grunty Industries, where you had to shoot a lot of these enemies that were blocking multiple air vents around the place while under a time limit, and that one was so frustrating and stressful. I think I maybe wouldn’t have minded a lot of the minigames if they didn’t have such stressful rules and conditions, but I think they did that so it would be more fun and challenging, which it was, but in my opinion, a bad way that leaves you frustrated. I still love Tooie and think it has so much wonder with its characters and worlds, and I don’t mind the more dark and macabre story they had for it, but I just think that its a bit more harder and slower paced than Kazooie.

Borderlands 3. While not a bad game, I just got bored with it. For me the story wasn't as good as 2 and really it just felt like a bunch of fetch quests go here and get this, go to this planet and get this before the bad guys do, now go to this planet etc. There other seem any real motive for you to be doing the stuff besides just get it before the villains do. And the villains OMG I don't know where to start. The Calypso twins personalities seem to just be a wannabe Handsome Jack like they are just trying to hard to be him and that's when they show up. Most of the time they pop up to insult you and mock you but I just don't get a sense of threat from them for me they are more annoying then anything. Handsome Jack had style and was just one of those villains that you loved to hate.

And then my problem is just the story the doesn't seem to be one that I have seen it's just like I said you need to get their before the Twins do. Gameplay wise it's just more Borderlands but really it doesn't feel different from 2 just more or less like DLC for 2. I felt that Pre-sequel added more gameplay variations then 3 did.

I might go back to 3 but more then likely if I get an itch to play Boderlands I will play 2. At this point I think I will just look up a wiki to see the rest of the story before 4.

Tunic... Zelda 1 ain't got s*hit compared to the crypticness of this game. I get to the final boss beat it and the ending is a downer(and predictable). But wait there's some pages from the manual I'm missing. I find the one that tells you the secret of the holy cross. First slap to the face. I could've been collecting all those secrets while exploring before. Now I have to backtrack everywhere. Then I find the page that tells me about the fairies. Second slap to the face. More backtracking. Then I figure out how the puzzle to the biggest secret works. My god flipping the pages and writing it all down takes ages and I'm missing some pages required to do that. Third slap to the face. I'm done. I can't be bothered with the true ending. I expected more story but there wasn't much to it. When I found the second heroe's grave I knew exactly what was going on. I guess a second playthrough with all the information would open up ways to play the game differently but I just don't feel the need to do it.

@Retrodouche Yeah, I never fully finished the game either. It was fun... until it was no longer fun.

Zenith

Just to preface, this game is developed beyond what I would be possible of creating.

That said...this game is bad.

The combat system has no finesse. The load times are frequent and lengthy. The audio design isn't great. And while I appreciate writing that leans towards the rude and crude, it's overused here, it wears out its welcome inside half an hour.

I made it an hour and a half in. Made it out of the starting town. But once I hit the open world exploration portion, woo lawdy. This rough ride only got worse.

Had to drop Metal Slug Tactics which I was really enjoying up until now. There are 4 zones with multiple missions in each zone. The bosses are no joke so taking down one took me a good amount of time to finally beat each. But, after defeat you have to replay each zone, which, is fine size zoned are completed in 3 missions before the boss. My issue is if you lose at any mission in zone 4, you go back to missions 1 of zone 3. For that, I don't have time for it. Very much a waste for me if I'm being honest. Too bad, I was really having a great time.

Well, add Mario Party Jamboree to the list. This is such a frustrating experience because the game does so much well, but does some things so badly that I'm just tired of it. I'm honestly suprised critics didn't mention or review the game lower because of these issues.

All of the games I played had bots in them, in the older games you could tell who was a player and who was a bot and could restart or leave, but now they just give them human names.

The matchmaking has so many specific features that its hard to find a game, hence why they added bots.
The games are minimum 90 minutes, and a lot of that is just waiting around for other players. When your playing with bots it just makes the feeling worse.

The randomness of winning is also frustrating. I won all the mini games but placed last. I tried adjusting the features, but it still didn't help. Maybe that's fun for other people, but not for me.

Games like animal party and fall guys do online party games so much better. The fact that nintendo charges for their online and does it so poorly is ridiculous.

Also Resident Evil 3. Not a bad game, but after playing RE2 and having to flee from mr.x, and the emmi's in metroid, I just don't want to deal with the nemesis. I'm just kind of tired of this type of constant hunting. It's just not fun for me.

@JesseA As for Jamboree reviews, Mario Party always shines most when played with friends/family, whether in-person or online. I think the new game is still very good for that. And the complete unfairness of the series is generally considered a feature rather than a bug since it is supposed to be a silly party game, not an actual competitive game. Fall Guys, for all it's silliness, is much more a competitive racing game rather than a party game. That said, Jamboree does have the new pro rules mode for those who want to try to win via skill rather than complete chance (well, as skill-based as you can get with a dice-based game).

I agree there are a lot of bots but they're easy to spot — they make instantaneous decisions and have various instantaneous events. Ironically the already very long boards take much longer when you play against real people 😆

@JesseA ill say the nemesis chasing sections aren't as ongoing as Mr X chasing sections. He won't stop chasing you, as where Mr x does stop if you get to certain areas. 3 is a much better game than 2 for that reason alone, imo.

Kingdom Hearts III keeps crashing. The game is a disappointment after all. I will play Kingdom Hearts I on my PlayStation 2 instead. It is the best in the series anyway. To be honest I even felt a little bit relieved, when it kept crashing. Now I have a good excuse to play the real classics.

@Dev1024
Yeah, the lore can be confusing but personally I consider only Kingdom Hearts I to be canon, since I do not really care for the lore in videogames, I think that is fine. Nanana Organisation XIII does not exist nanana. I hope that you can beat it, if you want to give it another try someday. I think it is one of the best games.

Thanks for mentioning Brothership, I totally forgot about it. I dropped it too. What a weird game, it is kinda alright but at the same time, it really made me realise, that I am not the target audience of Nintendo anymore, or maybe modern gaming in general.

If you do not mind, I will try to find your impressions and read them.

Pokemon Shield

Picked this up again after playing through Gens 3 and 4 for the millionth time - thought I could do with revisiting something more modern.

Now I will say I enjoyed SwSh on first playthrough, and I'm generally a defender of these games.

But something about Pokemon from Gen 6 onwards really puts me off replaying them. Maybe it's the lack of character in the individual Pokemon from seeing the same 3D models over and over (as opposed to new sprites every game), or how 3D just doesn't capture my imagination like 2D did. Similarly, maybe I'm just less keen on the new Pokemon designs and artistic direction of the series. Maybe it's the staleness of revisiting the same formula (3 starters, 8 badges) in a slightly different context again and again, only now with the games holding your hand so much more / the overabundance of uninteresting cutscenes. Or how the modern mechanics don't resonate with me — way too many Pokemon are thrown at you too early, and the overabundance of EXP makes the building of Pokemon teams feel less personal (I think Tama had a great video about this here). Maybe it's simply nostalgia for Gens 1-4.

Meh, rant over. I think these are actually pretty good games, and had fun with them all on first playthrough (except SuMo). But they just don't have the magic of Gens 1-4 (and to some extent, 5) for me.

I am temporarily dropping M&L Brothership, it's just such a slog to play through. Currently I'm at Fortress Zokett, and with low enemy variety and it not being the final boss area it's so long to get through. And knowing I have more hours to play afterwards it's too long of a game. I wanted really badly to not drop this game but it's far to long.