Ranking the 69 games I played in 2024

Oh ya another yearly list. Not my record for games played in a year, but it's still a lot! The year's not quite over yet, but I'm playing Baldur's Gate 3 now, and I'm definitely not finishing it by tomorrow. We'll be starting off with a beloved new game, but hopefully that doesn't turn anyone off. Don't worry, there are plenty of beloved games at the top, too. But hey, something's gotta be at the bottom.

Release dates:

1995/2020: 1
1996/2017: 1
1996/2022: 1
1996: 1
1997/2017: 1
1998/2017: 1
1998: 1
2000: 1
2003: 1
2004: 1
2006/2023: 1
2008: 1
2009: 1
2011: 2
2014: 2
2017: 1
2018: 2
2019: 1
2020: 2
2022: 2
2023: 5
2024: 33

69. Indiana Jones and the Great Circle (2024)

Imagine how much better the world would be if MachineGames were capable of making games that played well. Their Wolfenstein games are competent at best, and manage to shine thanks to having outstanding stories. Great Circle's story is less outstanding, and the gameplay is somehow a massive step down from the poor experiences Wolfenstein provided. Almost everything about interacting with GC made me hate it. Basic traversal sucks in pretty much every way. Your jump is limited and awkward, which is a big problem for a first person platformer that makes you jump to ledges and across pits constantly. Running is limited. Environments are huge, clearly intended for you to gradually learn over time so you can find your way around more smoothly, but I didn't enjoy this aspect at all. The areas weren't fun at all for me to move around them, so all the backtracking and running from one end of the map to another was just painfully boring, especially since your movement mechanics are so bad. Here's an example of one of the mechanics I hated: when you open a locked door, you have to take the key out from your inventory, put it in the door lock, then move the analog stick to unlock the door and open it. It's a basic mechanic that's easy, but it felt like a pure waste of time every time I did it. There's also a mechanic for dropping off of ledges and grabbing them as you fall, but it felt inconsistent to me, since sometimes I'd just fall all the way to the ground when trying to do it. Maybe it was bugged? I did have a crash that made me lose half an hour of progress, too. I've seen people say that the game's movement is realistic, since Indiana Jones isn't a superhero or whatever, but I've never enjoyed realism for realism's sake in a game. It just runs counter to fun.

There's a lot of stealth, featuring generally stupid enemies, but since it's first person and the stealth mechanics are so underbaked, the only times you'll get caught are by enemies you can't see from the first person perspective. Combat is incredibly dry as well. Mostly, you'll be punching people using the triggers, which is incredibly boring and slow, especially in the boss battles. There's some gunplay, but you generally don't want to fight with guns since they're loud and attract attention. The stuff you can do with your whip is kind of cool, but you need to get the hidden upgrades to unlock a lot of it, so it's both missable and not available until later in the game, making early combat especially miserable. The main selling point of the combat is using makeshift weapons you find in the environment to either take down enemies in one hit by stealth or in a couple hits in regular combat, from fly swatters to spatulas. It's a fun conceit, but all these "weapons" basically act the same, so they end up being boring in practice. I generally ran through combat areas as much as possible, but that's not always an option. Enemies like dogs can only be stunned rather than killed too, and they'll attack you again a few seconds after being stunned, so they're a real annoyance. Just let me kill the dogs, devs!

As for the story? It's pretty good. The overall story is classic Indiana Jones nonsense, with the character interactions and dialogue being more of a highlight. Voss makes for a compelling villain every time he appears, both likable and hateable. His interactions with the heroes are a highlight. Gina is Indy's lady companion for this game, and she makes for a fun character to bounce off of, though she isn't particularly unique. The side characters in each area have lives of their own as well as neat quirks; Father Antonio, the deaf veteran priest, was probably my favorite of the bunch. The recurring giants are a fun twist of their own. There's also a decent examination of Indy himself, dealing with his past and his choices. Overall though, the story was just pretty good. There was nothing as incredible as the big moments of New Order, let alone New Colossus. And without a legendary story, what's left? A miserable game that made me hate every moment I spent outside of a cutscene.

Next game hint: this artsy successor to a 2018 indie hit(?) didn't do much for me, even with its cool wolf companion.

I will have played none of these but Im a sucker for good lists and write ups

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I feel like I play video games all the time but I don't think I could ever get to 60 in a year. Maybe I just play games that are too long.

68. Neva (2024)

Artsy games can be a bit hit or miss for me. I feel like the best ones nail everything, making no compromises to deliver a beautiful experience or whatever. Playing Journey wasn't just beautiful, it was fun. I'd say the same about Limbo and Inside. Neva doesn't really have that. There's a lot of terrible combat, which gives you a number of abilities, but isn't enjoyable in the slightest. There's some incredibly basic platforming, which is really only interesting in one section, where there's creative use of reflections. And there's a lot of incredibly slow moving from left to right, during which we're supposed to gaze at the backgrounds in awe, but mostly I just felt bored. Sure, it's a pretty game, but not that pretty. The story's nice in some ways I guess, being about a girl who goes on a journey with her wolf to confront some darkness that's destroying nature. It's cool how the wolf grows as the game goes along, starting out cowardly and becoming a useful companion in combat. Then the ending's pretty lame, so it doesn't really come to much. The game's only like three hours long, but I spent most of those hours being bored.

Next game hint: contrary to popular(?) belief, this puzzle Metroidvania was not made by a Youtuber.

nice

uhhhh Animal Well next I guess

Nice

67. Animal Well (2024)

There's a lot of good stuff about Animal Well, but it just didn't work for me. It's a Metroidvania with no real combat - there are enemies who can kill you, but you can't really attack them conventionally. It's more about platforming (though this is usually fairly mild), puzzles, and exploration. The best part of the game is probably the art and atmosphere. The world looks great in a way most of these games don't. It's always a pleasure to see new enemies and areas. There's not much music in the game, which I'm not usually a fan of. This is made up for by the excellent sound design. The animals are always crying out, there are little background noises on various screens, etc. Basic movement feels pretty good too! In a lot of these games, they don't feel "right" until you've gotten a few movement upgrades, but AW (the protagonist has no name AFAIK) feels good to move around from the start. Even though it's just basic walking and jumping, I never felt too slow or unable to do what I wanted. The upgrades here are cool too, and you don't really get any of the cliche abilities you can find in every Metroidvania. I was always excited to get one, even if their use was pretty specific rather than general. I think the world's pretty well designed too, with areas that flow into each other, instant loading/fast travel, etc.

Unfortunately, I didn't like the core game all this cool stuff was built around. I found most of the puzzles either basic enough to solve pretty easily or frustrating. There are times when you have to platform and can die, and you sometimes have to backtrack quite a bit in these cases, which I found infuriating. I'd prefer if the map were more detailed - I ended up resorting to a guide for a few things because I couldn't really tell where was accessible. I can appreciate all the good stuff about the game, I just spent a large percentage of my playtime hating it. Easily the worst Metroidvania of 2024.

Next game hint: in this horror game, the main character yells a lot and carries a big stick.

woowww what do I win

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Nice

jcgamer107 posted...

woowww what do I win

Sorry no prizes they're just for fun :p

tag

66. Silent Hill 2 Remake (2024)

If I were to describe SH2 in one word, it would be boring. I don't know if this is a characteristic mainly of the remake, since I've never played the original, and the remake's apparently a much longer game, but most of the game is incredibly dull. Running around buildings/the town checking doors and solving puzzles sucks. Combat isn't fun or thrilling. I thought the game would be scarier during these segments, and it is creepy at times I guess, but mostly I felt nothing other than wanting it to end. The non-cutscene segments are basically only good when your finding lore pieces (which isn't that often), and when there's another character with you, which is also incredibly rare, mainly just being a couple fairly short sequences with Maria. Other than that, whenever there wasn't a cutscene playing, I basically just wanted the next cutscene to arrive. If the remake's to blame for stretching that stuff out, shame on them. Prettier graphics and better voices don't make up for making an interminable experience.

Of course, the reason I didn't hate the game is because of the story. I knew some spoilers going in, but James's tale is still very compelling, and it's nice how ambiguous it ends up in some ways, leaving the player to judge. Learning the various characters' backstories and why they ended up in Silent Hill is a great experience. It's delivered cleverly throughout the game, and it's neat how the enemies reflect that background. The existence of various endings is a cool way to show James's depth, and I enjoyed watching all of them. Reading up on the lore was a great time too; I honestly enjoyed checking out wikis to learn more about the metaphors and characters' backgrounds than I enjoyed a lot of the game itself. It's nice to finally learn the story of Silent Hill 2, I just wish it came in a better package.

Next game hint: this RPG's world map doesn't have New Zealand.

65. Dragon Quest 3 HD2D Remake (2024) 65. Dragon Quest 3 HD2D Remake (2024)

I've never been the biggest Dragon Quest fan, but I keep playing them for whatever reason. I can see why this is so beloved: as a NES game from 1988 it would've been a titanic accomplishment. The scale is ridiculously epic, with a buttload of towns, dungeons, and secrets to find on the map. Nothing in that era of JRPGs was on that level. Exploring while getting little hints about where to go next is pretty cool in general. Nowadays, though? Nothing other than that scale really does it for me. The story is a good concept and has good moments, but there's not much actual story there. The main cast is all create a characters, so they don't have much personality, and cutscenes are all a minute or two long. This would be fine in a short game, but DQ3's almost 30 hours long - much bigger than, say, the first couple Final Fantasy games. The fact that it goes on so long is kind of a cool twist in a way, and it would've been amazing back on the NES, but now I was just sad I had to keep playing after it felt like it was going to end. Combat is fine, I guess, but feels slow despite the speed up you get in battles. Maybe the coolest part of the gameplay is the job system, since you learn abilities fairly rapidly and then get to change jobs and get much stronger (I think it's intended for you to start with one job and then switch jobs once, which is what I did. Some prefer twice). The biggest problem is the high encounter rate. Early on it's brutal, though once my Thief got the Padfoot ability (reduces encounter rate) it gets much more tolerable, even if constantly having to renew it was annoying. I just don't get why they didn't include the feature from the Pixel Remasters where you can change the encounter rate and increase XP gains. Would've made this a way more enjoyable experience overall.

As for the HD2D part? It's pretty nice. The game looks very good. The soundtrack is... okay. Better than DQ11's trash OST at least, even if there's some overlap. There's also voice acting added, which is a bit unfortunate at times, since it means you can't advance some of the voice acted dialogue. Overall? Eh, not for me, I guess. See you next year when I play DQ1 HD2D and am not impressed by that one either.

Next game hint: a fan-translated Turbografx action RPG where you're actually recommended to play the fan dub due to all the non-subtitled cutscenes.

64. Ys IV: Dawn of Ys (1993)

The final bump game in the Ys series, Dawn feels like a natural evolution of the first two games. It has more cutscenes than ever, a bigger world, more equipment, more abilities, basically more of everything. But bigger games aren't always better. One of the key elements of the early Ys games is that you have to grind. Gaining one level can make the difference between doing one damage or doing five damage to a boss. Unfortunately, grinding is much more fun in a short game than in a longer game, since grinding can get kind of boring. Additionally, one of the things that makes Ys games fun is going to the same towns again and again to see how the characters develop over time. That doesn't really happen in Dawn, since they have like 7 towns. The various individual characters get less focus in favor of a massive cast, which is less compelling. There's a lot of voice acted cutscenes, which are cool for a game this old, but it's lame that they don't have subtitles (the fan translation has an English dub, but I went with the Japanese since I can understand it. Unfortunately, the dialogue isn't mixed very well, so I had to crank the volume up every time someone talked). The story in general is fine, I guess. I was more interested in the first two games' stories though, due to their heavier character focus. Additionally, though the art in the cutscenes can be cool, the main game graphics are pretty weak. This probably stands out more since I played the remakes of the first two games, so this felt like a downgrade.

The gameplay is mostly the same as the first two. I'll give it props for having good dungeon design, though. The later dungeons are big without being as obnoxious as the first two games' final dungeons. This is apparently the first of the bump games to have diagonal movement, but the remakes added that too, so it wasn't anything special. The bosses are pretty good, at least. I feel more like they're enemies you can learn to beat here than in the previous games. Finally, speaking of remakes, I actually played Celceta before this, several years ago. I never thought it was that great, so I guess that's partly due to the original being nothing special :p. It did at least make Karna a party member though, which is better than the tiny focus she gets in Dawn.

Next game hint: a Sega Genesis ninja classic. I wonder how the new one will turn out?

63. Shinobi III: Return of the Ninja Master (1993)

Early on, I really disliked this game. Movement felt sluggish, the music is awful (like all Genesis games), and I didn't really understand what was supposed to be fun about it. The second level was a lot more interesting though, being an autoscroller where you ride a horse (ninjas riding horses should be more common). You mainly fight by throwing knives, though this turns into a sword attack up close. Combat isn't particularly interesting, mainly being about hitting the enemy as soon as you see them - memorization feels more important than skill, since you want to know where enemies are within levels. I wasn't really impressed by the level design in general for the most part, though the last couple levels have more interesting design. Simply playing the game for longer is probably what got me a bit more bought in - eventually, I adjusted to the game's speed, and it got to be moderately enjoyable. Moderately being the key word, here - it's never as fun as frenetic as something like Mega Man X. The bosses require more actual skill, but I still didn't find them to be that fun. The game gives you ultimate ninjitsu attacks that do a lot of damage, and those should add a bit of variety, but you only get to use one or two per level, so you mostly just save them until you get to the boss. You also get power ups that make you do way more damage, but you lose those after being hit once. For a 1993 game, the design ethos feels a lot more 80s-bound.

Next game hint: I have a mouth but cannot scream (2024)

Tag

I beat like 100 games this year and there's probably still no overlap lol

I'm sure there'll be at least one or two lol

MacArrowny posted...

63. Shinobi III: Return of the Ninja Master (1993)

the music is awful (like all Genesis games)

I know you were probably just speaking generally but I played Sonic 1 and Streets of Rage 2 for the first time recently and loved the music lol

62. Mouthwashing (2024)

I appreciate when story games are able to focus on telling the story without too much extraneous gameplay, and Mouthwashing mostly succeeds in that sense. The gameplay's mostly there to keep the story moving rather than being the main focus. There are a couple less than great gameplay sections that kind of involve stealth that I wish didn't exist, though, and I also wish controller support was implemented better (controllers shouldn't control cursors!). Still, those were generally minor irritants. Mouthwashing exists to tell its story, and it's a pretty good one. It's pretty much entirely about a stranded spaceship, its crew, and the circumstances behind the stranding. The crew members all get pretty decent development, and the story of what happened is compelling. None of it really hit hard for me, though. It's all just... kind of depressing. There are some novel techniques used to enhance the storytelling, but a lot of them are just kind of slow (endless staircases...) and do nothing for me. Overall, it's just a pretty meh experience.

Next game hint: not your mama's mesoamerican wild west RPG

61. Arco (2024)

This is a bit of a tough one to rate since my opinions on it are super mixed. I kinda hated the gameplay. The game's essentially a turn-based RPG with some strategy elements, where you choose your character's action, then everyone on the battlefield executes their actions at once, so you have to attack where the enemy's going to be and dodge where the enemies' attacks are going to be (you can see what actions they'll take during your turn). It's a neat system, but I found it a bit overly difficult, and there were a few times I wanted to quit the game. Thankfully, it has some intense difficulty modifiers, and even allows you to just instantly win any battle, which got me through it. There's also a skill tree where you can unlock and equip more abilities, which is where a lot of the strategy comes in, but I found this frustrating too, since you can only equip a few of the abilities you can unlock, and I always felt like I was choosing the wrong ones.

The story was what kept me going. You follow a number of Mesoamerican-adjacent characters (it takes place in a fantasy world but it's basically Earth) going on various quests, who end up finding reasons to have grudges against a group of colonists called the Red Company. The main characters are all pretty good: there's an old man who hates everything, a young woman who just wants to fight shit, and a pair of twins just trying to get by. Seeing their stories intertwine is fun, and they all do a good job developing the world. Side quests are generally good quality story-wise too. The game can be really funny, as well as having strong emotional moments, culminating in an excellent conclusion. There's also a morality system where the game gets harder when you make evil choices, but honestly, most of those choices are just pointlessly evil. I dunno if there was a point in adding that. Overall, I mostly enjoyed myself thanks to the combat skip option (I didn't skip all battles, but definitely skipped some of them, especially the earlier ones which are harder for whatever reason), but I still can't say I have a super positive opinion of the game when I dislike the central element so much.

Next game hint: I preferred the SNES incarnation of this 16-bit mascot platformer.

60. Rocket Knight Adventures (1993)

I rented Sparkster back on the SNES and quite enjoyed it. It was fun to go back and play this in the recently released Re-Sparked collection, but it doesn't quite live up to my memories of its sequel. Level design is solid with a decent amount of variety. Bosses generally aren't that interesting, but they aren't bad. The main fun of the game is in Sparkster's ability to do his charged move, which is kind of like a Sonic spindash but more controllable. It's cool how you can go pretty much anywhere with it. I did go back and play some Sparkster SNES in the collection though, and I think that one plays much better. Frame rate is better, graphics are better, music is better, and movement feels smoother in general. RKA's a perfectly fine game, but that's all I can say for it.

Next game hint: turning this classic franchise first person was an acclaimed decision, but going back to replay the remaster, it didn't do much for me.

59. Metroid Prime Remastered (2002/2023)

Man, what a disappointment. Back in the day, Metroid Prime was one of the first Gamecube games I played, since it came free with the system when I bought it for Wind Waker. I mostly liked the game, but found it to have a few flaws - the controls weren't the greatest, and Fission Metroids were bullshit. Eventually, I played MP3 as well, which I actually enjoyed a lot. I figured that the reason for this was the newer controls - there's a lot more freedom/precision with the Wiimote controls. It seems either I've changed or the controls weren't really the game's main problem though, since I like it a lot less now than I did back then. The game still seems pretty well-designed in general - there's lots to explore, there's a natural flow to the game, the hint system is cool, etc. I wish the power-ups were a bit more exciting, though. For the most part, they feel like downgraded versions of Super Metroid powers. Give me infinite Space Jump, not just a double jump! No Screw Attack or Speed Booster is sad too. Spider Ball is a lot of fun, since they add a good number of puzzles with it, though MP3 is better in this department too. The Morph Ball is pretty good here in general, but Boost Ball is one of the worst powers, feeling really crappy to use.

I would've used a few more QoL improvements from the Remaster. Swapping between beams feels bad (hold X and use the d-pad? Really? They could've at least mapped it to L, which is just a second jump button) and slow. Having to swap beams to open doors every time you use them is bad design. You can't remap controls, other than swapping a couple functions. Fast travel would be nice, even if it only unlocked at the end during the Artifact hunt. The graphical upgrade is pretty nice at least. Maybe they could've done the same for the audio - some of the tracks sound like they were composed for the N64 with how tinny they are. They do add dual analog controls in this version, which do feel pretty solid in general, other than beam switching. Fission Metroids remain massive pains in the ass, but they're not nearly as bad as they were in the original, thanks to the new controls, and the final boss is more manageable too. Load times are better here, I think, but not great for what was originally a Gamecube game. I would've liked a cutscene skip button to be implemented too.

I wasn't as thorough with scanning this time, but it remains a neat way to deliver the story. The best part is reading about how the Space Pirates grow ever more afraid of you. Combat is alright in general, though there gets to be too much of it when you're backtracking. Overall, the game's still solid, but it doesn't have that magic for me that it seems to for other people. Other games have better exploration, combat, movement, etc. Here's hoping MP4 is a leap forward into the modern era.

Next game hint: a maligned RPG from one series that ended up spawning another series (1988)

58. Final Fantasy II (1988/2021)

And so my quest to (slowly) play all the Final Fantasies continues! I finished FFI for the first time a couple years ago, and now I continue my Pixel Remaster voyage. The improvements in this version seem pretty substantial. There's no hitting yourself to get stronger, there's a map, they add some pretty graphics in certain sequences (dat cyclone), you can turn off encounters and get more skill/weapon/etc. XP in battles, etc. I played most of the game without using those boosts, but around halfway through the battles got to be pretty eh, so I turned up the XP and turned off encounters for big parts of it.

The actual game feels a lot like FFI in some ways, particularly world design and combat. Neither are super interesting, but they're fine and don't really hold the game back. Something's funny with the stats though, since magic dominated for like the first 2/3 of the game for me, then I got some new weapons and weapons really started doing way more damage than magic. The system where you get stronger by using certain weapons/spells is pretty cool. Attacking with a sword levels up your strength/accuracy/sword proficiency, so you get heavily specialized characters by the end. This discourages experimentation, which is a little lame, but it's still fun. It was more of a pain with magic, where I had Fire 10 or whatever before I got Ultima, the most powerful spell, and Ultima did way less damage since it was only level 1. I wasn't that interested in grinding out new stuff, so this part wasn't as fun.

The main difference between this and FFI is that FFII focuses more on story and characters, which definitely benefits it in some ways. The side characters especially get a lot more development. I feel like I learned more about Princess Hilda than anyone else in the game. There are three main characters, Firion/Guy/Maria, but none of them have strong personalities. Firion barely has any dialogue, Guy talks like a caveman, and Maria has a little more since her brother is important too, but there's still not much to her. Instead of focusing on them, the game has a revolving door of fourth party members, many of whom end up dying. It reminds me of FFIV in that respect. The deaths are even more sudden and random here than they are in FFIV, since the plot is slighter. Some of those deaths are fun, but a lot of them just left me bemused. The Emperor's a fine villain too, I guess, but he doesn't really have any motivations beyond being evil.

Overall, it's a perfectly okay game. I imagine playing the original NES version would've been a lot less fun, though it could've been more interesting? We'll have to see whether I take another couple years to get to FFIII or play it soon.

Next game hint: this classic SHMUP's name means "warrior" in Japanese.

DQIIIHD-2D looks amazing, and I like all the new features and quality of life stuff, but still it somehow still felt less fun than the GBC version.

It might be the nostalgia talking, but all the additional cutscenes and pop-ups and the increased size of the maps and the monster collecting kinda took me out of the basic dungeon crawling gameplay which I genuinely find fun. Having a more basic, but speedier game was more enjoyable imo.

Yeah, I can see that. Bigger isn't always better!

good write ups. I was also completely unimpressed by animal well. just not my thing.

57. M.U.S.H.A. (1990)

Pretty standard SHMUP. As someone who's probably played more Touhou games than any other shmups, it's nice to go back to having upgrades like in the days of Gradius and R-Type, but those upgrades aren't super interesting here, IMO. I feel like those games have a lot more variety to the upgrades they offer. Your ship also feels much bigger than it should be, considering everything you have to dodge. The visual spectacle isn't anything special (compared to, say, Ikaruga, which I played relatively recently), and the music suffers from being a Genesis game, since, as we all know, the Genesis soundchip is the worst. There's a bit of story, but it's just a few lines throughout the game. I enjoyed myself for the first few levels since shmups are fun, but the novelty ran out by the end (not that the later levels/bosses were bad). Fine enough game.

Next game hint: major DLC for a 2022 open world game

56. Horizon Forbidden West: The Burning Shores (2023)

Eh. I liked Zero Dawn and Forbidden West, and thought The Frozen Wilds DLC was quite good, but this one didn't do much for me. The area isn't too exciting, and the story is pretty predictable/mostly fine. There's not much for big gameplay moments, either. It's cool that Aloy gets a girlfriend I guess, and the villain is suitably evil. It doesn't feel like he's particularly novel compared to the other Zeniths, though. The one real highlight of the DLC is the final boss fight, which is pretty epic, having a bunch of different phases where you solve puzzles and the like. I ran into a glitch during it that made me restart though, so even that part was spoiled a little. I feel like Seyka, the main new girl here, will be a main cast member in Horizon 3, but otherwise this feels pretty inessential.

Next game hint: the biggest graphical showcase on the Switch

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55. Luigi's Mansion 3 (2019)

By all measures, this is an extremely well-made game. It takes place in a big hotel with 15+ floors, where you explore as Luigi, sucking up ghosts (and other objects) to get treasure and progress on your journey to save your friend. Each floor has a unique gimmick to it, from the extremely cool movie set floor to a desert floor and more. For the first time in the series, there's two-player co-op. Luigi has the power to create a goo clone of himself called Gooigi, which has his own powers and helps with solving puzzles. You use this in single player as well, but I'm not quite sure how it works since I played with a friend. It means both players have to work together to solve the various puzzles, and while there are some lulls where only one person can actively do stuff, the game mostly avoids that. Most of the puzzles are somewhat clever, and are generally satisfied to figure out. The big negative is that, to me at least, it's often not very fun to play. The controls sucks, feeling extremely imprecise, especially in terms of aiming. Turning around isn't like other modern 3D games, reminding me instead of a game with tank controls (though they aren't quite tank controls either). This especially sucks in the boss fights, which often require precise aiming in a small window of time to damage the boss before they turn invulnerable. The bosses usually aren't that hard, but I found a lot of them to be very unfun because of this. Some puzzles suffered from the controls as well. It probably hurt a bit that we played it an hour or two a week over a few months, so we didn't really grow that accustomed to the controls, but still.

Finally, the game is extremely pretty. I've seen it called the best-looking Switch game, and I can't deny that. It looks like a CG movie at times, with plenty of cool setpieces. You get some limited powers that essentially let you destroy entire rooms, which is incredibly satisfying and looks great from a physics point of view. I could see myself loving a Luigi's Mansion 4 that fixed the controls, but I don't know if that's in the cards.

Next game hint: a visual novel about girls flying that I got recommended here (I think by Weaku?) that didn't really live up to the hype.

54. Aokana: Four Rhythms Across the Blue (2014)

I've been interested in this since back when it came out. It's a visual novel with a cool premise: anti-gravity shoes have been invented, and they're used in a sport where people chase each other through the air, trying to go through courses and tag each other. This part of the game lived up to my expectations. Most portrayals of the sport are a lot of fun, written well enough that you can tell what's going on from words alone, but also accompanied by a ton of art that enhances the experience. The character designs are nothing special, but the art for the action looks fantastic. Some of the games are genuinely thrilling. Unfortunately, I didn't actually finish this one, just did two of the four routes (plus the common route, which is longer than the individual girl routes). The reason for this is simple: I didn't care for any of the non-sport parts, mainly due to the blah cast. Asuka, who's kind of the main girl, was the best of them, a solid education of a fairly generic character type (optimistic girl, hard worker, slightly clueless), but even she wasn't amazing. Masaya, the protagonist, has a unique backstory about trauma he experienced in the past, but it doesn't really come up much outside of internal monologues. There is some great content around it in Misaki's route, which is the other one I played, so that had some payoff at least. I skipped the other two routes since I saw people talking about how they weren't as good, since they focus more on the romance/comedy, which were universally handled poorly from what I played. There are a few laughs here and there, but this game's certainly not gut-bustingly funny, like Majikoi or even Clannad. Whenever the main cast was casually chatting with each other, I was never more than moderately interested in what they were talking about. And the romance parts weren't any better. Mostly they felt pretty cringe, inserted because the game was original an H-game. I ended up fast-forwarding through a bunch of those interactions, which is disappointing, since you can tell the game's trying to tell some compelling romance stories, it just... fails at doing so.

It feels like it's been forever since I read a big VN that hit hard for me (though Witch on the Holy Night was pretty nice). Hope I can make the magic happen again someday.

Next game hint: a lesser entry in a popular DS trilogy.

53. Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia (2008)

Unlike its portable predecessors, OoE eschews exploring one massive area for a bunch of independent stages. One would think this would allow for more interesting level design, with creative obstacles to get past, but it doesn't really. Most of the stages are pretty straightforward, without too many twists and turns, and they don't have much for unique mechanics to deal with. The game still has Metroidvania elements, with you getting some movement-based abilities as you play, but only like four of them, one of which is acquired at the very end of the game. Exploration isn't really particularly exciting because of this. The main new mechanic the game introduces to make things more interesting is the village. When you get there, it's a ghost town, but as you explore the stages, you'll find the villagers one at a time, which results in them returning to the village. They give you various quests, like finding certain items or slaying a number of monsters, and it's enjoyable to go out and do those quests, plus it gives you an excuse to do the grinding that's practically necessary in the portable CVs (unless you're good at them). Their stories are alright, not particularly interesting, but not terrible. The game's main story doesn't get a ton of focus, with a few cutscenes here and there as you chase after your fellow Order of Ecclesia member who betrayed you, but it's fine, if underbaked.

Combat feels like it uses a simplified version of the prior games' soul system, giving you glyphs instead. There's not a huge variety of these, but it was kinda fun swapping between sickles or rapiers or swords depending on which you had the best version of, and I liked that there were enemies who were weak against slash/blunt/magic, so you had to swap a fair amount. There's a loadout-swapping shortcut too, so it's pretty easy to swap depending on the enemy (why don't modern games have this more often? Elden Ring would've been way better with quick loadout-swapping). OoE's main claim to fame among its fans is the bosses, which vary from large to small, and have plenty of unique patterns to memorize in order to beat them. Some of them were pretty fun, but others were annoying, and it was a shame that grinding felt important for beating them. I never really had a terrible time as I was playing OoE, but nothing really stood out, either. There are plenty of games in the genre that are just plain better.

Next game hint: this card battling RPG prequel took its predecessor's great battle system and ruined it, IMO.

Baten Kaitos Origins definitely up next

I pretty much agree with your Ecclesia writeup except I don't think I've ever grinded (ground?) in one of those games

I am bad, lol

52. Baten Kaitos Origins (2006/2023)

What a drop from the first game! Origins primarily suffers from its battle system. The card-based battle system is pretty similar to what the first game gave us, with some key alterations that make it awful. First, it scraps the defense round, so you choose all of a character's cards to use during their turn. The interplay between the two rounds was a good concept, but it wasn't executed very well in 1, so I'm okay with this change, even if it does make the game lose something. Second, the first game had bonuses for choosing cards in order of number, but in this game you can only choose cards in numerical order. This is a fun change too, since it makes you have to pay attention, and creates fun combos. Third, you can discard cards now. This is a fantastic change, since dealing with unnecessary cards was super annoying in 1, but the process of discarding cards is pretty clunky unfortunately. Lastly, and this is where it all goes to shit, all the characters share one deck rather than having their own decks. This is intensely frustrating, since characters can't use each other's cards, but you don't want to discard cards for your other characters or else they'll have nothing to use. I hated this so much that I used the 'disable battles' feature of the remaster after a few hours. I don't know if I've ever disliked a JRPG battle system more.

The dungeon puzzles got off on the wrong foot too. The puzzle design itself is pretty solid, and the dungeons are generally interesting, but the early dungeons have really bad collision detection (this might be the wrong term). For example, there'll be a boulder in your path. My first thought: I should push this boulder. I try doing so, and nothing happens. I explore the rest of the dungeon, can't do anything. I look at a guide, it says to push the boulder, so I try again. Nothing. I look at a youtube video, it shows the boulder being pushed. I still can't do it. I have to push the boulder at the exact angle being used in the video to make anything happen. Most 3D games allow some fuzziness with this stuff, but not this one! Or at least, not in the early dungeons. After the first third of the game the interactions are as fuzzy as you'd want, and all frustration is gone. Absolutely bizarre.

The story starts out solid, but it's a mixed bag in general. None of the party members are as great as Kalos from BK1, but all of them are quite good. The game makes the wise decision to only have three party members, which is great. The relationships between them are well developed, and they all get excellent development as the game goes on. Some of their interactions with the villains are painfully bad though, with motivations being poorly defined on both sides. The villains'll say stuff like "Machines make life more convenient, so we must commit genocide against everyone who likes magic!" And then the MC's comebacks will range from "No, you shouldn't do that! Change your mind!" to "Don't kill anyone! Killing is bad!" It's like I'm playing something written for preschoolers. There's a section of the game in the middle where you story lose all the major boss battles, which is pretty frustrating. The actual concepts and story of the game are good at least, and outside of those embarrassing interactions, the dialogue is solid too. The game swaps between two time periods, and learning the truth about the second time period is great. There are some excellent twists in general in the later parts of the game, and I really felt for the characters later on.

I think the game works well enough as a prequel, though some character decisions feel a bit weird to make them into the people they are in BK1. The most unfortunate loss is in the exploration. Most of the areas are the same, so traveling to all these locations is pretty dull. Overall, the game redeems itself by the end, but for a long time I was thinking this would end up as the worst Monolithsoft game. Thankfully, Xenosaga 2 probably gets to keep its title.

Next game hint: make more Star Fox-likes imo.

51. Panzer Dragoon (1995/2020)

A moderately fun game, I suppose. It's a lot like Star Fox (64), but a good deal more basic, with your only abilities being shooting and charged/lock-on shot. Regular shooting is a bit annoying against bosses, since there's seemingly no limit on shooting speed, which means you have to button mash as fast as possible to deal maximum damage. Luckily you don't have to do much movement, so putting my right hand in a weird position to mash the shooting button was no obstacle to winning, but the game would've been been better with an auto-fire button, or just putting a limit on how fast you can shoot. It's not super long (took me maybe an hour, including two deaths). The levels are okay. Not super interesting, and there's not really any story other than at the beginning and end of the game. The story's presented in a weirdly surreal way, too, so it's all a bit nonsensical. Riding a dragon rather than a starship makes it unique and fun, though being on a dragon doesn't really have any gameplay ramifications. It's not like you're breathing fire, either. I do enjoy the base gameplay and wish there were more games like this out there (there's a similar mini-game in FF7 Rebirth that's a lot of fun, IMO), but PD is far from the pinnacle of the genre. Maybe it'd be better with more gameplay variety or something.

Next game hint: once hailed as the pinnacle of its franchise, but the new game it came bundled with was much better.

50. Sonic Generations (2011)

It's interesting how different the 3D Sonic games I've played are. SA2 is focused on big, sprawling stages, with different styles for the different character. Frontiers has tiny stages, built to be replayed to accomplish all objectives, along with the big open world challenges. Generations is kind of between the two. It's split into both classic and modern stages. Classic uses the old Genesis-esque 2D style, while Modern is 3D. Personally, I never liked 2D Sonic much, and Generations does nothing to change my mind. It's way too start/stop for an experience that feels like it should be focused on speed, and you can't use the cool modern powers. There's not much of a change-up throughout the game, either, so they get even more stale by the end. Modern stages are generally more fun. You have a homing attack, which makes the game more forgiving, and is vital when you move at such high speeds. Stage design is pretty good, but the stages feel a little long. They're built to be replayable, with alternate paths and collectables and ranks for beating the stages fast. This doesn't feel like a good fit for the long stage size, unfortunately. You also do Challenges to unlock each set of stages, which are miniature chunks of stages you have to clear with certain restrictions or powers, like using Rouge to charm enemies so you can kill them. Thankfully, you don't have to do all the challenges, because basically every one I tried sucked. They aren't particularly interesting, and they mostly serve to slow the game down even more.

There are also bosses you have to do between levels. These vary in quality greatly, from mediocre (Death Egg Robot), to pretty fun (Egg Dragoon), to really fun (Perfect Chaos), to awful/boring (the final boss). I love it when they make the boss like a full stage, so it's focused on platforming but with some setpiece action mixed in. Unfortunately, the execution isn't always there, and it took me a while to figure some of them out. The last boss is particularly poorly designed - I ended up looking how to beat it, and even knowing that, the fight is just super long and boring. Shame they didn't fix it with the remaster. The game also lets you unlock skills to enhance Sonic, but these are mostly boring. You get bonus rings, can stop faster, whatever, and they don't have much effect, especially since you can only equip a limited number. Music is solid, with mostly older tracks, but some great new ones (Rooftop Run in particular). Visually, it's still an older game, but the bosses look excellent.

Lastly, I love Rooftop Run. It's the best classic stage, the best modern stage, and has the best music. Everything about it is immaculately designed. If every stage were this good, Sonic Generations would be a top tier Sonic game.

Next game hint: a classic Dreamcast JRPG sequel that used to be held up as the ultimate combat system.

Can that be anything but Grandia II?

It can't!

49. Grandia II (2000)

Back in the day, everyone hyped up Grandia II as having the best RPG battle system ever. Was that true in 2000, when the game came out? I dunno. Maybe. My nostalgia says no, but nostalgia's a dirty liar, so I can't say for sure. What I can say is that playing it in 2024, the battle system is a neat evolution of FF-style ATB, with an easy to follow turn line and ways to manipulate turn order that make battle more engaging. However, it also has a lot of extremely long spell/ability animations that make battles way slower than they should be, and since I played the Switch version, I didn't really have a good way to speed those up. It's a shame the remaster didn't fix this like many modern JRPG remasters do. Turbo mode is the salvation of most turn-based battle systems, IMO. The gameplay outside of combat was solid - not much for minigames, but there's a fun skill system where you can learn more abilities, magic, and passive skills throughout the game, maybe somewhere around FFIX in complexity. Not my favorite, but solid. Where it falls apart is how you have to reassign skills to party members whenever they rejoin your party, which happens quite regularly in this game, and it's pointless every time. That's another QoL improvement the game could've used. Dungeon design is pretty low on puzzles, but there's just enough that it's not a cakewalk hallway simulator, and there's a decent variety. Plus, enemies are on the screen, which is cool. Kinda felt like I needed to fight most of them to keep my level high enough though.

Graphically, the game's in a weird position where it's more advanced than the PS1 FFs, but looks worse. It uses 3D backgrounds rather than pre-rendered, so they're much lower quality, and characters are incredibly low detail, closer to FF7 than 8 or 9. They're pretty animated though, with a lot of motion techniques the PS1 probably couldn't handle. Music doesn't stand out at all, with only one or two tracks I even noticed. The game is voice acted, which is cool, though there's not a ton of it. Apparently the English dub is awful, but it's pretty decent in Japanese. Sadly, text advances kinda slowly in story scenes, but I've dealt with worse. Grandia II kinda does the Trails thing where the residents of towns have a ton of things to say, and your party members chat back to them, which is cool, but it ends up being really repetitive. I feel like these stories could've been executed better.

Story and characters are a bit of a mixed bag. Ryudo is a neat MC, starting out as a complete asshole who mocks everyone he talks to, but he gets some decent development throughout the game. Elena's a bit dull as the main girl - her storyline focusing on her faith is theoretically interesting, but I never liked her that much. The other main girl, Millenia, is a lot more fun, though it was weird that the game never really explained who she was, even at the end. She was delightfully evil at times, but not cruel. Mareg didn't stand out, but worked as a filler wise warrior party member. Roan sucked, not for the usual reasons kid characters suck, but just because he was a shitty person with bad dialogue who got worse throughout the game. Finally, Tio was solid as the kuudere robot learning about emotions. I wish she'd gotten more screentime. The story overall had some fun twists and turns that genuinely surprised me, exploring the history of the world and what parts were lies and truth. Kinda reminded me of Xenoblade in some ways (not the ways you'd expect). I wasn't quite sure what they were going for in the end, though. They kept layering on more twists about god and the devil, some of which ended up feeling pretty contradictory. The ending didn't really do much for me because of that.

I feel like maybe I would've loved Grandia II if I played it when it came out. Now, it didn't do much of anything for me other than be pretty good in most ways.

Next game hint: a mascot platformer advertised by a guy in a costume.

48. Crash Bandicoot (1996/2017)

Back in the day, I played Crash at a PS1 demo at the local Blockbuster. I'm pretty sure that's the extent of my experience with the series? I only got a PS1 after the PS2 came out, and nearly everything I played on it was an RPG, other than MGS and SotN. Thankfully, Activision did some awesome remakes of classic PS1 platformers, so Spyro and Crash are easily accessible to modern audiences. Unfortunately, while I did like Spyro quite a bit, Crash was a bit more hit and miss. Starting with the good, the game's just plain fun to play. Moving Crash around feels good, with a solid jump and good physics. I like the gamefeel a lot more than, say, Jak and Daxter. Levels feel like they're designed around your abilities, and they're consistently pretty fun to play through. The graphics are great, too. I think the bosses are mostly pretty good, with none of them being too long, and while they're moderately challenging, they're easier than the harder levels. There are some clever mechanics to address difficulty, too: if you die too much in certain sections, the game will add another checkpoint halfway through that section. Also, you'll start with a mask, which lets you take a hit without dying. It's nice to have a bit of extra help when things get tough.

However, there were also a lot of things that hindered my enjoyment. I don't think it ever gets truly great. Level design is never more than pretty good, and a lot of the levels are really samey visually. The music is pretty blah all around. Levels have optional objectives in that you're supposed to destroy all the boxes in each level and beat them without dying to unlock gems. This would be fine, but every time you beat a level, the game mocks you for failing to get all the boxes/dying, and this can take quite a while, since every box you fail to get falls on your head. One level I missed like 50, so it took a really long time watching all of them. You can't even get all the boxes on your first try in most levels, since you have to unlock shortcuts by getting gems in other levels. Also, I wasn't very good at the game, so I ended up dying a lot, and when you lose all your lives you have to start a level from the beginning. This was pretty frustrating on some of the harder levels. I mostly had fun in the end, but it wasn't an amazing experience.

Next game hint: a game with a four digit number in the name

1000X Resist.

Yeah I can definitely understand that take on Crash Bandicoot if you don't have any nostalgia for it.

The shift away from pre-rendered backgrounds was pretty rough at first. That art style/technique brought a lot of beauty to early 3D games which would otherwise have been ugly.

47. 1000xResist (2024)

Despite me not scoring it super high, this is a type of game I'd love to see more of. It's basically a pure narrative game, almost like what a visual novel would be like if you added 3D exploration to it. Basically you're just walking around talking to people and advancing the plot the whole time, so it's a lot like a walking simulator, though grander in scope than any of those that I've played. The story takes place in a post-apocalyptic world where the only remaining people are all clones of one woman. Their society feels vaguely dystopian, and as you play the game, you explore people's memories to find out what happened in the past, and why the people around now are the way they are. The plot never stops being compelling, and I always wanted to find out what happens next (and what happened before). The answers to these mysteries are quite satisfying too - the game doesn't generally leave you hanging after introducing a mystery (except one thing early on...), and though some parts aren't super clear, usually you only have to think about it a little harder. Halfway through the game, the format of the story changes pretty dramatically, which I wasn't super thrilled by, but it was still interesting. The characters aren't super likable in general, but they're flawed, compelling people, so there's that at least.

The presentation of the story makes it all more compelling. Everything is voice acted, but all dialogue can also be manually advanced. There are segments that play with camera angles, and though the graphics aren't high tech or anything, they're definitely in the realm of good enough. For me, the game's real flaw is the navigation. There are a couple hub areas where you walk around talking to people, and I hate these areas. Although there's a radar you can use to see what direction people are in, there's no map, and I got lost a lot, even at the end of the game. Running around these places getting lost was actively unfun and made me enjoy the game way less than I would've otherwise. It's a shame when devs make a cool story-based game and the gameplay gets in the way of enjoying it. At least these segments are few enough in number that they didn't ruin the game for me, but it would be at least 20 spots higher without them.

Next game hint: a platformer where you play as a woman with a big butt.

46. Pseudoregalia (2023)

Oh hey, another game I didn't finish. This one's a bit sad, since the things I like about the game are also kind of the things I don't like about the game. Pseudoregalia's essentially an N64-style 3D platformer. It looks and feels a lot like Mario 64, right down to the limited frames in character animations, but with a few modern improvements. Rather than being level-based, it's a Metroidvania. You have to explore the castle and its environs to find abilities like the long jump, wall jump, etc. This is a pretty fun way to do a platformer, since it encourages exploration, and it's neat to come back to areas you've been through before, with the ability to get past challenges you couldn't earlier. The movement also feels amazing. Long jumps rule, and you can keep bunny hopping after hitting the ground to cover huge distances at high speeds. Every ability you get makes you feel more acrobatic, too. The camera's one of the modernized elements, so you can navigate like in a modern platformer rather than being restricted by the weird cameras of that era.

Unfortunately, it has a lot of flaws, too. It's fine that the graphics are primitive, but they're also indistinct. Most areas look pretty samey, so navigating the world feels bad. You get a map (that was patched in half a year after launch), but even with that, finding your way around is a pain. It can be hard to tell how you're supposed to approach some of the platforming, and the camera's still far from perfect. It was the frustration of exploring that mainly got me to quit, despite being probably over halfway through (you're supposed to collect 5 big keys, and I had 3 of them). The game has some combat too, which is generally extremely uninteresting, if not actively bad - the game would be better off without it, or by minimizing it somehow (even though it's already pretty minimal). And the music gets pretty tiresome, too. You can feel how royalty-free it is.

Still, it's a neat game. The ideas here are fantastic. The dev said they're moving on to making more games, and I'd love to see a sequel/reimagining of this concept from the same dev, with a world that's more fun to explore.

Next game hint: a beat 'em up where you play as a group of valkyries.

45. Full Metal Furies (2018)

This is basically a Castle Crashers-like from the devs of Rogue Legacy. There are some fun ideas here. There are four different characters you can control, each with unique movesets. Some are ranged, some are melee, and you unlock new powers as you level up and play further into the game. The game encourages you to swap between characters since you get stat bonuses by playing with different ones, but they each start at level 1, so that doesn't feel like a great option to me unless you replay the game (which is certainly a possibility, as it is with Castle Crashers). Enemy variety isn't quite as strong - you'll run into a lot of the same baddies. They're cleverly designed at least. A common mechanic is that they'll have a colored shield, and only the character of that color will be able to hurt them, requiring some coordination when playing multiplayer. The bosses have pretty good designs too, and are mostly interesting to fight, though they can be a bit frustrating. I played as the tank, Triss, while my friend was the fighter, Alex, and the combo worked well for most fights, though it was a little overly hard, IMO. Feels like grinding for levels is encouraged, since enemy levels rise much faster than yours if you just play through every level once. There's a bit of story about humanity fighting against the titans tying everything together. It's mostly pretty silly, especially with the first titan you fight, and the humor's fairly well executed. The serious story parts aren't quite as interesting.

Overall, it's a solid co-op experience, but it didn't feel super special to me. I liked both Rogue Legacy games more, though they're totally different genre, so it's a bit of a pointless comparison, hehe.

Next game hint: oops, I forgot this game, since it's an anomaly. There are actually 119 games on the list.

44.5 UFO 50

Great:
Overbold - Goddamn this was fun. Its a simple top-down shooter where you have to kill enemies in an arena, and can buy upgrades every round. Its hard at first, since you die in one hit, but I kept playing since it seemed fun, and boy was it rewarding. The upgrades are varied, including more health, deflecting enemy attacks, getting bombs that draw enemies in (this was the best one), and even a drone who fights with you. I kept playing it over and over until I won, and would be happy to play more.

Good:
Porgy - Feels a lot like Dave the Diver, since you start at the surface and keep having to dive down and return to the surface in time to get upgrades. It was fun for a while, but longer dives got more tedious. Its not as well put together as Dave overall, but its definitely the most fun Metroidvania in the collection.

Avianos - Strategy game where you pray to various dinosaur gods. Works like a board game where you get resources, use them to buy troops, and conquer castles. I didnt get it at first but it was actually really well made once I got into it. Rexadon OP tho.

Warptank - A VVVVVV-like where you can warp between being on the ceiling and floor, but there are also slopes so you can warp between walls, too. Movement feels great. The scrolling is weird though, and you have to navigate an unfun overworld to get to new levels. Still, at its best, its quite fun.

Magic Garden - A Snake-like where you have to deposit your tail regularly. I found this one pretty addicting, trying over and over even though I died a lot.

Hyper Contender - Fighting game(?) where two players attack each other, knocking rings out, which you have to collect 5 of to win. Its fun! Some cool customization options too. Not super hard on normal. Lots of strategy, and its cool how unique every character is, with different attacks and movement abilities. Feels like itd be fun 2-player.

The Big Bell Race - Racing game where you play as the flying saucer from Campanella, flying through levels in competition with 6 other saucers. Theres some good strategy, since enemies can knock you into walls if you get too close. Trying not to lap others can be important. Feels like itd be fun 2-player.

Velgress - Climb a tall level. Every time you go up, spikes at the bottom of the screen go up with you, so you cant fall. You have a double jump, and platforming feels pretty good. Enemies bump you but cant kill you. Good arcadey fun.

Night Manor - A NES style adventure game. Its not super long (like 90 minutes to 2 hours?) but feels like a full experience. A little too horror for me, but I found it pretty compelling. Only game I got the cherry for!

Max and Mini - Yet another Metroidvania! This ones pretty well realized, with a cool shrinking power and lots of other neat powers you get as you go. The map just being getting big is fun too. I didnt like playing it though, for some reason.

Campanella 3 - Whoa, I actually like one of the Campanella games! This is basically what if Star Fox was a NES game. Theres some neat ideas here, particularly in terms of using dimensions, since enemies can come from the sides in addition to in front of you, and you have different ways to shoot depending where they come from. Its fun!

Pretty Good:
Seaside Drive - Finally, a good shmup! I still find it a bit too hard to love, and the lack of upgrades is lame, but the gimmick of a shmup where youre just driving a car on the road with enemies attacking from the air or the road is super cool.

Rail Heist - Okay, this belongs in the good tier, but I dont love it. Stage-based puzzle(?) platformer(?) where you have to rob a train and get out without being shot by lawmen. The stages are good, and it saves your progress. Lots of unique mechanics too.

Vainger - A Metroidvania with VVVVVV elements. Feels pretty solid all around and the gimmick is good too, but I feel like there are plenty of better MVs out there, so eh.

Paint Chase - Racing(?) game where you have to paint an arena your color while the enemy paints it their color. This was a neat concept, and felt challenging without being too hard. Gimmicks like getting a drone teammate later on enhanced it.

Camouflage - Sneak through a level as a chameleon that changes colors to blend in with the environment. Neat stealth puzzle game since you can always tell where the enemy can see.

Waldorfs Journey - I dunno, is this good? Something about it compelled me. Youre a walrus who can jump high and flutter to maintain air. You have to fire yourself to the right using imprecise launches over and over. Something about it compelled me to finish it. I almost did pretty quickly, but ended up taking like half an hour. The continue items you get are nice. Sometimes the wind is really annoying tho.

Mortol 2 - What if Mortol was a Metroidvania? Interesting transformation here, just starting you with 99 lives that cant be replenished and having you explore a big map. Too punishing for me, but somewhat compelling.

Pingolf - Wish it was more pinball and less golf, but still an inspired combination. Controls feel fairly good, but Im still kinda bad at it. At least it lets you play to the end.

Lords of Disconia - Oh hey, its crokinole. You get a bunch of discs with unique characteristics on a battlefield and have to flick them at the enemy discs to knock them out. Its fun, but very slow. Maybe better 2 player?

Okay:
Ninpek - 2D platformer with a double jump. Moderately fun but nothing special.

Mortol - You have 20 lives to get through a level using explosions, turning yourself into an arrow that flies through the air, or turning into a stone you can jump on. Pretty neat idea for a puzzle platformer

Campanella - Fly through levels as a UFO. You have to use fuel to stay aloft and die if you hit anything, but you get a sword. Kinda hard but not bad.

Kick Club - Jump around a screen kicking a soccer ball into enemies. Its okay but not much to it.

Valbrace - A classic dungeon crawler? I dunno, I dont have much experience with the genre. Moderately actiony combat during battles tho. I was just kinda bored most of the time. It did let me continue after dying, but I didnt get super far, and nothing caught my interest.

Planet Zoldath - Explore a planet on a Zelda 1-ish grid, finding equipment along the way. Didnt do a ton for me but it was a bit interesting. Needing resources to use equipment wasnt a gimmick I loved.

Party House - Kinda like a deck builder where youre collecting party guests. It seemed fun and then I game overed for no apparent reason. Finding out the goal didnt inspire me to go back.

Cyber Owls - 4 games in one? In a collection thats already 50 games in one? Whoa! Listing them all:
Car combat shmup - its okay and forgiving, but not that exciting.
Stealth action - is this what original Metal Gear is like? Collision detection is bad and you dont have a lot of options.
Shooting gallery - but you cant move and shoot, so dodging is a pain. Ive played better minigames.
Beat em up - seemed to have some neat combos in it. Otherwise, eh.
And once you die, you can do a tile-based strategy game to rescue the captured owl. All in all, 5 okay games. None thrilled.

Fist Hell - Its a beat em up. Seemed pretty standard. Only neat thing was being able to throw enemies into fire and have them burn. Maybe better co-op?

Caramel Caramel - Oh hey finally a shmup. Gimmick here is that you can take pictures of enemies to kill them and get bonus points. Doesnt stand out compared to any given shmup though.

Star Waspir - A vertical shmup rather than horizontal. This feels better to play than Caramel Caramel, but it seems like there are no gimmicks and its much harder.

Campanella 2 - Like Campanella, but with more exploration based levels and on-foot segments. Once again, its too hard for me. I dont like that you take damage when you land slightly too fast.

Not Good:
Elfazars Hat - Top down game where you walk around shooting people. Its not interesting and doesnt feel good to play either.

Pilot Quest - I spent a lot of time upgrading stuff and taking advantage of the idle mechanics. That time feels wasted, now. Exploring the world was boring and the idle game stuff was bad too.

Rakshasa - A Ghosts n Goblins style game where you can come back after dying if you do a minigame successfully. Combat isnt fun, jumping isnt fun.

Hot Foot - Kinda like Bushido Ball but a bit more interesting I guess? Dodgeball rather than soccer. Must be better 2 player.

Bushido Ball - Soccer where you hit the ball at the enemys side with a sword. Like pong but less fun.

Bug Hunter - Strategy game where you have a number of move/shoot cards you can play every turn. Interesting concept but not super fun.

Grimstone - Basic ass NES RPG, but with timed hits and enemies appearing on the screen. Very slow, and not very fun, but the gimmick at the beginning of your party being people you save from a fire is cool.

Bad:
Attactics - Felt unresponsive, sometimes not letting me move. Glitchy maybe? A solid strategy concept otherwise, but the game has better ones.

Combatants - I dont hate it! An RTS where you control ants and have the queen produce more units is a fun idea. Unfortunately the AI is bad and the game is extremely slow, so its not fun.

Quibble Race - Seriously? This is just a bad version of a minigame from other games. Seriously, Like a Dragon: Ishin has a minigame where you bet on chicken races thats more fun than this. And its not even a fun minigame! Betting and watching fake races is boring.

Block Koala - Bad sokoban game. I didnt understand how some of the blocks worked.

Rock On Island - Tower defense game. Really bad controls for the MC to me.

Onion Delivery - Race around a city delivering onions. Unfortunately it has shitty tank controls.

Divers - Why play this when Porgy exists? Yeah, I know this is a JRPG while thats not, but the exploration in this sucks in comparison and the progression is ultra slow.

Golfaria - Play as a golf ball you hit around areas to explore. Youre limited to 20 strokes per area which was punishing and the golfing wasnt fun.

Barbuta - What if Metroid was made by a dev that wants the players to suffer. Kinda hilarious at least.

Devilition - I didnt understand this one. You place weapons to blow up demons, but I wasnt sure how to win.

Mooncat - Is this a QWOPlike? I didnt understand how to move. Feels like I need a guide. Even after I figured out the movement, it was so bad. This games (fictional?) devs hate you.

Next game hint: a disappointing expansion after so many great ones.

44. Final Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail (2024)

While I was a little disappointed in Endwalker, it still had some of my favorite overall FFXIV moments and brought me to tears multiple times. DT never accomplished that. It's mostly consistently moderately interesting, but not that exciting. Things perk up in the second half, but the pacing could be a lot better in general, with the first half stretching too long and the second half needing more development. The character focus of the expansion is partly to blame for this. While most of the story chapters split focus between characters, DT is almost entirely focused on Wuk Lamat. She's not very likable at first, and while she does have good development IMO, this doesn't leave room for the other cast members to shine. Zarool Ja's motivations are mystifying. Koana is quite good at least, and Bakool Ja Ja has a fun evolution from villain to hero, though his greatest crime is a bit over the top. Gulool Ja Ja is incredibly badass whenever he's around at least, though his screentime is limited. The late game main character, Sphene , is alright, but not as compelling as I would've hoped. The Scions suffer from lack of screentime too, particularly Krile. It was supposed to be her expansion, but she only really has one big moment near the end of the game. I wish she got more. Estinien, Y'shtola, and G'raha feel like they're only there to fill slots in boss battles. At least Urianger and Thancred are used well.

Outside of story, the expansion's mostly good. There's a big graphical update, so everything looks nicer. Music is good as always. Area design is on par with the rest of the game, and makes me wish there was more gameplay that took advantage of this. FFXIV's gameplay loop mostly focuses on walking between characters to initiate cutscenes now, and while that works when the story is great, it's not so hot when the story is only okay. It's too bad it doesn't take a hint from Rebirth and add some more minigames to spice things up. The dungeons and bosses all have interesting designs. I found them to be a bit too hard though. Spent 90 minutes failing the final dungeon before retrying it with a group, which was a shitty experience to have at the end of the game. Honestly, just exploring the areas doing major side quests and vibing with the environments was the most fun I had, since that was what felt the most like classic FFXIV. Hopefully having the main writer gone doesn't hurt future expansions, too. I ended up liking the Endwalker patch quests a lot more than this, haha.

Next game hint: this game has even more games than UFO 50

good write ups