Post Each Time You Beat a Game: 2024 Edition

I also wanted to add that like TUNIC, Turbo Kid had ""accessibility"" controls that affected the difficulty of the game so that was appreciated--I only used it a few times to get some godforsaken collectible but that's it.

Super Chicken Jumper (Steam)

Haha, what a stupid game. Imagine an infinite runner but broken into small levels. Then add highly pattern-based bosses that kill you in one hit at the end of each world. Also puns.

The fourth boss was an INSANE difficulty spike, but doable with practice and the right items.

Luigi's Mansion 2 (3DS)
Or Dark Moon in NA. In any case, I had never played/beaten a Luigi's Mansion before, but I had this sitting digitally on my 3DS for a few years and decided to go ahead and play it now. Very enjoyable overall and looks fantastic (a bit choppy at times but mostly during scenes/transitions, can randomly get buttery 60fps smooth lol).

I do think the multiple mansions/mission structure would not be my favorite, but it's the only reference I currently have. When it ends, it's good that it does because this gameplay loop can overstay its welcome. Especially with the fairly long missions if you count exploring around and no way to suspend/quicksave other than putting your 3DS in rest mode. Collecting everything is also a bit annoying as you sometimes have to redo the same missions and the rewards are minimal. And, while some bosses are pretty fun, others I found very annoying or slow-paced.

Lots of, in the end, fairly small complaints. But the charm is always there and that's part of why I still really liked it. The little voices Luigi does is just adorable honestly. "Bad doggy", I loved little things like that. And it is really satisfying to solve some of the puzzles to get money, gems etc. I also like how you somehow feel the resistance when sucking up ghosts, even if it's (I think) just an illusion. It works really well.

Definitely interested in playing 3. I would play 1, but not the 3DS version and the GC version will look crap on a current TV.

Ittle Dew 2+ (Steam)

When I beat the first Ittle Dew, I commented that it felt more like a puzzle game with Zelda trappings than an actual Zelda-like, due to the lack of focus on combat. Well, the finger has curled in on the monkey's paw because Ittle Dew 2 has a lot more combat and it's definitely the worst part of the game. The puzzles are still clever (and sometimes too smart for me, the optional ones at least) but the first game had much more of its own identity, while this one feels like... Zelda with bad combat.

It's still fine but I didn't stick around to 100% it.

==Reinvented the Wheel==
Hedon
Turbo Overkill
Ion Fury
Hands of Necromancy
Cultic Episode 1
DUSK HD
==Too Cool for (Old)School==
Fashion Police Squad
---------> Zortch (PC) <-------
Slayers X: Terminal Aftermath: Vengeance of the Slayer
Cruelty Squad
Wrath: Aeon of Ruin
==Its Fine but Meh==
Dread Templar
HROT
Project Warlock
Amid Evil
==Mundane and Mediocre==
Warhammer 4k Boltgun
Postal: Brain Damaged
Prodeus
Forgive Me Father

Rarely does a modern boomer shooter just stick to the formula of what made it so janky and just lean into the bullshit further all the while making the modern sensibilities. Zortch is an Unreal Gold clone that borders on the absurd and bizarre. With a set of enemies not unlike that of the Serious Sam games but with a little more depth to their tactics, and a bunch of Quake 3 weaponry, you'll go through 15 levels of mayhem. The level design is very intricate, often becoming confusing but never making you lost as it always loops back around. Honestly sometimes it feels like you're playing on a multiplayer map.

Some maps though feel lacking, and with the exception of 1 map in episode 2 and all of episode 5 they appear bite sized and compact. That is to say, they're no slouches---you can be made mince meat in seconds still. But difficulty in this game is denoted by the quantity of monsters you fight instead of placement or how hard they hit.

Anyways, I'm putting it up there just eking out a little bit above Slayers X because Slayers did this stylistic suck reminiscent of the 2000s while Zortch just plays it straight.

Cats Hidden in China
Easier than Georgia.

Super Mario Bros. (NSO)

What can even be said about this game anymore? I don't think I've actually beaten the NES version before. SMB Deluxe on the GBC, yeah (and IIRC that's basically the same), and I think the remake from All-Stars, but not actually this version. I guess technically I still haven't because I beat it on Switch Online this time. Whoops.

Pu * Li * Ru * La (Arcade)

The story: Here is a wonderland called "Radishland"
In each town, under a keeper's control, the time flow was correctly kept with a time key.
But, a bad man appeared and stole the time key to stop the time flow.
The towns were attacked one by one, the time flow was stopped and they received damage.
An old man was impressed with a sense of danger and he called Zac and Mel.
And he entrusted them with his invented magic stick in order to defend their town.
Find the key to restore the flow of time!

Played with a friend via Fightcade. I was Zac and he was Mel. It's a very weird beat em' up where you beat things up with a magic wand. Zac's walking animation is worth checking out.

Yu Yu Hakusho Makyo Toitsuken (Mega Drive)

A very good fighter developed by Treasure with very good mechanics. I beat the game with Shinobu Sensui.

Wild Dogs (PC)

Developed by the same people that did Biolab Wars. It also serves as a prequel to Biolab Wars as well. This game was another awesome Legally Distinct Contra and other nice surprises thrown in with many different color filters. I recommend it.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Arcade)

A good one. Played it with a friend via Fightcade. He was Leo and I was Mikey.

STAY COOL, KOBAYASHI-SAN: A RIVER CITY RANSOM STORY (PC)

So I finally got around to playing this one to formulate my own opinion about this game from all the mixed/negative reviews.
You play as Kobayashi (named Thor from River City Ransom, one of the bosses you fought in that game). It's up to you to rescue your friend (can choose a male/female friend) from...a weird gang of aliens? It plays a little similar to some of the Kunio games. You get to team up with Kunio (can also play as him too if you want).
This game is...strange, with the story. You go around, beat up gangs, fight a boss, repeat.
The story is nothing to write home about. I had to restart the game cause the final boss is one of the cheapest bosses I ever had the misfortune to fight against so I took a different path, beat up the gangs in the "right order" and got a super anime power up to beat the final boss.
I don't like how upgrades work in this game. You can power up yourself and your other characters after you beat a boss but you have to do it from the main title screen menu instead of the game play menu (like, what?)
If you look up guides and figure out how the game works...it's kinda fun and ok.
You're honestly better off playing games from this series or another good beat em' up.

Robocop Vs. Predator (itch.io)

This was one of the best fan made games I have ever played starring Robocop in it. The game is free and it plays like a Game Boy game right down to the aesthetic. You can only play this in full screen. Game is very fun and the story is freakin' insane. I recommend this one. Play it. Best 2 hours I ever spent on it.

Downwell (PC)

Beating it on Hard mode still eludes me but I replayed it on Normal. I wanted to replay it cause I had the urge and I needed to unlock Hard mode again anyway and the color filters cause this has no cloud saves. I need to learn to back up my saves.

D.D. Crew (Arcade)

One of my favorite guilty pleasure bad beat em' ups me and my friend played (to his dismay cause he ran a community pot challenge to play on his stream rofl). He was Gung Ho and I was King.

Return of Double Dragon (Super Famicom)

Played via Fightcade with a friend. Japanese version of Super Double Dragon. A lot better than the US version for sure. You can set the continues up to 9, you can catch the boomerang in this one, different music placements, enemies have less HP and aren't damage sponges and a slightly different final stage. I just wish that this game wasn't so unfinished. Even with the modern re-release of this game on Modern Consoles/PC, all you get are the options to play the US/Japanese version and an adjustable speed setting. This game was supposed to have so much more. Ah well. Maybe I'll try that fan game called Legend of Double Dragon that's basically an enhanced version of this game with cut scenes and such.

Wild Fang (Arcade)

Played via Fightcade with a friend. Also called Tecmo Knight. Game was pretty cool for a beat em' up. You play as Knights where you can switch between riding on top of a giant or a tiger each with different attacks. Very bloody too but cool.

Growl (Arcade)

Played via Fightcade with a friend. You play as the Ranger Corps of the Protectors of Animals' World Society. Two of the characters look like Indiana Jones. You stop evil poachers from poaching animals. The final boss was...out of this world. That's a good way of putting it.

Shock Troopers (Neo Geo)

Played via Fightcade with a friend. A very cool run and gun. 9 characters to choose from and multiple paths. I was Jackal and my friend was Milky. Very good presentation and story.

Shock Troopers 2nd Squad (Neo Geo)

Played via Fightcade with a friend. This was an ok sequel. Only 4 characters but had more multiple paths than the first one. I was Leon and my friend was Angel. I liked the first game more.

Ninja Baseball Bat Man (Arcade)

Played via Fightcade with a friend. This was a very wacky beat em' up. It's a must play. I was Stick Straw and my friend was Captain Jose.

Swords & Bones 2 (PC)

A little better than the first game. More of the same but nothing wrong with that.

Prison City (PC)

A huge love letter to Power Blade on the NES with a tiny touch of S . hatterhand but it's more Power Blade than anything. I loved this game's OST (Matt Creamer is the composer who did work on Retro City Rampage and Venture Kid). It's good stuff.

Nexomon: Extinction (Switch)
I bought a bunch of Pokemon clones during a digital sale recently (including Monster Sanctuary and Coromon) and this is the first of that batch that I beat! I already beat the first game a while ago.

This was fun! Especially for 10 euros, this was 30 hours of simple but addictive monster gameplay. The story is surprisingly decent and there is a lot of humor and of course the fourth-wall breaking that this series does. The two extra types and overall expansion of things to do and explore makes this a nice upgrade over the first game. Still not a very deep combat system and the vast majority of Nexomon just exist without meaning, but I enjoyed seeing all the wacky and colorful designs.

Gunlocked (Steam)

This is a Vampire Survivors-like shmup, which feels like an ouroboros type situation because Vampire Survivors was basically already "what if a shmup never took away the fun part of the game (having a bunch of bullshit weapons that kill everything on screen)?" My biggest issue with this is that I'm extremely bad at shmups so Gunlocked is basically only playable for me if I can get the one (1) upgrade that heals you and fully upgrade it, and that's down to luck.

I beat the 3 main areas, beat at least one main area with each of the 7 non-DLC pilots, and got the achievement for killing the endless mode boss that appears at 25 minutes, but I definitely am not good enough to do the harder challenges.

NieR Re[in]carnation (iOS)

I finished the story today....the day it's literally shutting down.

So as someone who has yet to play Gestalt/Replicant or Automata, this is a strange case of this game being my first foray into the NieR universe (and the Yokoverse in general).

The gameplay is auto-battler, which is not terribly exciting since you can play on auto for most of the time. Though funnily enough, for the final boss the game forces you to play on manual. But because of all the powercreep I had, the final boss just died so fast.

Now the main drive to play the game is the story. The story involves telling a bunch of short stories for each of the playable characters, while also having an over-arching story that gets explained while traversing each area of the Cage, which is the world/hub you walk through. I know some people dislike the game being a glorified walking sim, but I honestly think it's more creative to play out the story that way than the usual menu-ing that a lot gacha games have their stories progressed. All the background in this game look really nice.

On the note of the main story, from what I gather, a lot of its relation to the other Nier games is near the end of the story. There could be a bunch of them sprinkled throughout the game but I wouldn't really know them. In fact, some of the stories involve fighting against monstrous flowers, which could be a nod to Drakengard 3.

All in all, it's not often that I end up finishing the story of a gacha game (or reaching the end of what was given if it ends up unfinished) before it closes, but I'm glad I was able to for this one. While at times, the story came off as sad for the sake of being sad, I thought it was pretty good overall. If nothing else it certainly got me more invested to play the other NieR games.

Thunderflash (PC)

Legally Distinct Ikari Warriors/Commando/Heavy Barrel like game. I even got the best ending on my first try. It was an ok one.

Top Hunter: Roddy & Cathy (Neo Geo)

Played via Fightcade. I was Roddy and my friend was Cathy. This was a unique action platformer where you characters have stretchy arms, fighting game inputs and you can switch planes by taking top and bottom paths.

Fist Slash: Of Ultimate Fury (PC)

Heavily inspired by 2D Ninja Gaiden. Game started out real fun until the level design started to get real irritating near the end of the game. I prefer the other games by the same developer (Alien Splatter Redux and Crypt Stalker) over this game and Jet Gunner.

Alien Storm (Arcade)

Played via Fightcade. I was Scooter and my friend was Karla. A beat em' up by Sega where you fight aliens that is both a beat em' up and it has rail shooter segments. Was very solid.

Champion Road (PC)

A solid 2D Beat Em' Up/Side scrolling platformer. You play with 6 characters and they play through stages that are unique to them and have their own story. It's a little rough around the edges in some parts especially the boss fights but not too bad. It was a fun one.

Superman (Arcade)

Played via Fightcade. My friend was Superman and I was the Red Superman. It was pretty cool it had the theme song from the Christopher Reeve live action movies. This is one of the best Superman games around.

Double Dragon Gaiden: Rise of the Double Dragons (PC)

I replayed this cause it got a free DLC update I was anticipating. It added Ranzou, Chin Seimei and Sonny Lee. It also added Online Play, Versus and Survivor Mode (Versus and Survivor can also be played Online as well). They did a good job with the new characters!

Klonoa 2: Lunatea's Veil (Steam)

Eh, I dunno. From the way people talk about this game I was expecting it to be better, I guess? My biggest issue with it is just that it's sooo slow. Your walking speed is slow, the gameplay is slow, and before and after almost every level there are long, slow cutscenes for a story that doesn't really go anywhere.

But then I started thinking -- this game came out in 2001. What were its contemporaries, again? Sonic Adventure 2 in 2000, and Mario Sunshine in 2002? Yeesh. Yeah, I can see why people latched onto a solid 2D (with a splash of 3D) platformer instead. Unfortunately it just doesn't hold up super well in 2024.

What does hold up is this game's character designs. There are so many absolute creatures and weird little freaks and I love it.

AER: Memories of Old (Steam)

I enjoyed it but at 3 hours to 100% it ends up feeling a little unfinished. Definitely a game that wanted more content, and possibly a longer runtime.

Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of DANA (Vita)

I played the prologue of this game seven years ago. Finally beat the game today, getting all trophies except beating the game on Nightmare difficulty, which I will need another play through to finish (though that shouldn't be that bad).

Very solid and fun to play action RPG that I enjoyed my full time with, and one of the best recent soundtracks where almost every song is great. I might finally be able to continue with the series and play Ys IX now!

Game #10: Taiko no Tatsujin: Rhythmic Adventure 1 (Switch)

Rhythm games do have a slight problem holding my attention, as oftentimes there's not much substance to them outside of selecting a song from a playlist and doing it. However, this one made it a bit more interesting by attaching a light RPG element to the game, allowing me to play through a simple but cute story of saving the world via time travel. And while the plot wasn't at all deep, I didn't really expect something like this to give me an experience like Chrono Trigger or Final Fantasy VI. It was a fun game with some really fun songs to hammer it out to. I had fun with this one, it was solid.

Game #11: Sonic the Hedgehog (Switch via Sonic Origins)

I picked this collection up and figured what better way to christen it than to play through Sonic 1. Now, I have played the original version a few times now, but I have never managed to get past Labyrinth Zone, and frankly, that particulat boss is so BS that I'm glad I was playing on Anniversary Mode, which just removed the lives system entirely. Regardless, aside from that, it's a solid game, but I can see how people say it's rough around the edges, even with the improvements with the remaster. All I can say is I thought it was worth it regardless, I really did not like the special stages, and Star Light Zone has to be one of the most underrated zones in all of Sonic. That's about it.

Indivisible (PS4)

What a weird experience.

The platforming was largely mediocre at best and terrible at its lowest, and there were two long, almost identical segments (since they took place at the same location) where you would spend around an hour of almost pure platforming (second trip sprinkled in a few fights). That was torture

The fighting could be fun, but for whatever reason, nearly every character does not have their full combat moves listed/explained. With plenty of characters at a great disadvantage with certain kinds of enemies, it was difficult committing them and their unexplained moves to memory as I was frequently swapping some out. It sucked being stuck with Ajna in every battle because there was an entire area toward the end where you could not attack enemies physically without getting huge self-damage, rendering Ajna largely unusable. With damage and health numbers/meters seemingly arbitrary and meaningless, I could never get a good read if I was over, under, or appropriately leveled.

It was frustrating and tedious too often, yet it was greater than the sum of its parts and was kind of enjoyable. My playtime was out of whack because I fell asleep playing it several times over the course of the game lol. I probably put in 20-25 hours of actual gameplay, and I feel like this game would have worked better as a tighter 10 hour game.

Game #12: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (GBA)

I can't believe I have to preface with this, but please do not mention anything about any controversy surrounding the franchise and its creator, I just want to talk about my experience replaying a game from my childhood. Thank you.

This is one of those licensed games I remember having as a kid, so I just wanted to see what the game was like. And honestly, it's a little worse than I remember, but I still consider it a decent 6/10. It's mostly a top-down adventure game with light combat and puzzle solving, and it's fine doing that, even if the story is loosely hanging on by a thread here. The collectibles were fairly easy to snag, even if I did have to reference a guide to figure out where the last couple were, and they made the Yule Ball segment of the story into a rhythm game with multiple songs and levels of difficulty for each. That was an interesting distraction. Honestly, while this isn't as cool as the RPG Harry Potter games on portable, it was still a decent time. I had fun.