Lurker > Underleveled

7.5/10

The dialogue is very funny and the overall story is delightfully wacky but some sections just drag.

Yes, based entirely on the new video game series.

Horizon, and it's not even a little bit close.

My gut answer right now is Kirby. Still need to play Bayo2 this year before Bayo3, and want to get some more play in with Splatoon 2 before Splatoon 3 comes out.

It's very nice art but I don't think it's great as a cover.

Game(s) you just really, really, really didn't enjoy but muscled through to the finish because why the fuck not.

Looking at my list of beaten games, three stand out as particularly unpleasant experiences that I forced myself to finish:

Chibi-Robo! Zip Lash
Defenders of Oasis
Kirby's Dream Land 2 (an unpopular opinion; I've seen many people call this one of the best Kirby games, but even as a fan of the series I found it practically unplayable)

Favorite game released - Guardians of the Galaxy
Favorite game I played for the first time - Horizon Zero Dawn
Favorite game I played at all - Super Mario 64 (my favorite game of all time)

I thought it was fun. I wasn't "wow'd" by any means, but it was a worthy follow-up to the original and I didn't feel cheated by having it be a full-priced game or anything.

Golden Sun

They certainly aren't worth the premium. I usually buy Lee, Wrangler, or store brand.

Cody11533 posted...

I have no idea how hard it will be to get my save file from the first Batman season imported.

Very hard. At least on the Switch, I tried and tried and simply wasn't able to do it. BUT ALL IS NOT LOST! There is an option to manually input your choices from the first game. It's a little time consuming but worth not going through what I tried to to do it automatically.

Tales of Symphonia

I have Batman and started a file back in 2018 and got partway through episode 2, so I'll pick that up at some point.

So my year ends with 37. 10 more than my previous best in a single year yet significantly less than I anticipated/hoped for. I went through a few really busy stretches and some deep depressions and that hindered my progress quite a bit. But also to be fair, a few of these games were on the longer side.

Breakdown by system:
PS4 - 9
3DS - 5
Switch - 5
PS5 - 4
PS2 - 3
Wii U - 3
GBA - 2
Wii - 2
DS - 1
Game Cube - 1
Mobile - 1
PS3 - 1

Breakdown by month:
January - 9
February - 7
March - 2
April - 0
May - 1
June - 7
July - 4
August - 3
September - 1
November - 2
December - 1

Anyway I had really planned to beat it but I just got too busy with my work and performances in December and put it off until after Christmas thinking it would be a little shorter than it was.

I thought FF6 had nobody

Yeah, despite playing a ton the last few days I'm totally not beating GotG in the next two hours. The later missions are a lot longer and harder than I expected and I'm pretty sure I've already long exceeded the HLTB time. This would've been a fantastic final game to beat in 2021. Instead it'll be my first in 2022. Knowing I've got no shot at this point I'm gonna stop for the night at the beginning of Chapter 14.

Was war beginning yet?

If I don't finish Guardians of the Galaxy tonight, it will be that. If I do, it'll probably either be Kingdom Hearts II or Kena: Bridge of Spirits.

The rotating stick games on Mario Party 1

Cate West: The Vanishing Files, which is a literal eyestrain

Oh wait, I guess I glanced over that a new Gunvolt game is on the poll?

Still nothing because I've only played the first one. It was super good but I want to play the rest in order.

Another great catch-up month for me.

Made it a good chunk of the way through Chapter 10 last night but not to the end.

Picked GotG back up. I'm finding Chapter 8 to be insanely difficult. 99% certain that I won't finish this game this month, which is too bad because I really wanted that point with this one.

Derp, I can't read all poll options.

For that matter, it was very bold to assume representation for eagles, or such everyday items as doors or cars. And who decided that there could only be one cure? And for what?

I've already played SM3DW on Wii U and have little to no interest in replaying it on Switch. Is Bowser's Fury alone worth the price of admission?

WarioWare: Get It Together! (Switch)
While I will still forever and always prefer the unadulterated simplicity of the original WarioWare game on GBA, it's still always a good time seeing how they manage to keep the series fresh entry after entry, and this one was no exception. Actually controlling the characters was a nice touch, and it was fun seeing who I really enjoyed playing as (some of my favorites were Wario, Ashley, Cricket, Mona, 5-Volt, and Mike; some of my least-favorites were Penny, Red, Dribble, and 18-Volt). I got unlucky a lot of the time and kept drawing characters that were the among the worst possible choices for any given Microgame, and some Microgames were so quick that I hardly ever figured out exactly what I was doing, but the latter is kind of an inherent flaw with such a fast-paced game and has happened to me to at least some noticeable degree in every game I've played in the series beyond the original. Another flaw was the one-hit-death on the final boss. That one took me a good number of tries (especially since it required some degree of mastery over every character, including the ones I hated). I refused to ever use continues because that's sissy stuff in something like this. But overall the experience was very fun, as I expected. I knew going in that the story mode would be very short but this series always provides excellent replay value, which I'd already begun to take advantage of even before finishing the story (I got a lot of play out of the Nintendo Classics category, which has always been my favorite). I liked the chibi artstyle, and having more dialogue than most games in the series allowed for these eccentric personalities to shine more so than usual. Even as a not-full-priced game I still think $50 might be a little much for this, but I understand you gotta pay that first-party Nintendo tax and this is unlikely to drop in price soon if ever. If you're willing to fork it over though, or get it as a gift, I'll go ahead and stamp the darkx seal of approval on this one.

Wow that's insane. Glad you're okay.

Brawl and Smash 64 but no Melee is interesting as hell.

Games I beat this year that qualify (although all of my beaten games this year were new beats, I had at least played many of them before; even if I played it for a minute before 2021, I didn't include it here):

Spider-Man
The Gardens Between
Sackboy: A Big Adventure
The Dark Pictures Anthology: Man of Medan
Spider-Man: Miles Morales
Spyro 2: Riptos Rage
Horizon: Zero Dawn
Yoshis Woolly World
Treasure Planet
Spyro: Year of the Dragon
We Love Katamari
One Night Stand
The Last of Us Part II
Kingdom Hearts Re: Chain of Memories (although I DID play the GBA version)

My favorites of those were Spider-Man, Spyro 2, Horizon Zero Dawn, and TLOU2.

Probably between The Dark Knight and both GotGs.

7/10

Since we're JUST rating the story here, I have to agree that the pacing was really weird, but I thought it was a pretty good adaptation with some great and heartfelt moments that set up Mile Morales and the formal sequel very well. I'm also not sure how I feel about them jumping right into Peter already being well into his days as Spider-Man from the beginning without any kind of origin story, especially since they want this to be a running series. I mean yeah, there's really one basic origin story for Spider-Man and everybody knows it but it still would have made the journey feel a little more complete. When I booted it up I pretty much felt like I was playing a sequel. Perhaps they'll do a bit of an origin flashback in Spider-Man 2. But anyway, the characters, gameplay, and overall game design do a really great job of making an above-average story seem better than it is for an overall fantastic game experience.

Of these choices, Spider-Man. Horizon is also stellar.

Okay, I've got Batman at least.

Looks like I have no support left to use for Paper Mario, so...

Remove support for Overboard! (sorry)
Support Paper Mario

Wario Ware: Get It Together
Kena: Bridge of Spirits (PS5)
Cocktail shaker
Guitar stand
Train: Greatest Hits
Pajama bottoms
Raw honey
Trader Joe's chocolate bar
Hot chocolate bomb
Chocolate orange
Body wash
Almonds
Popcorn tin

Yes, for the first time ever, I did a quick run to pick up a couple of last minute gifts and groceries.

Ooh, I was planning in playing that soon too!

Uh, how many supports do I have left if any?

Is this a good price for this game? Like, unlikely to go any lower on any platform anytime soon?

Forceful_Dragon posted...

And people call scarlet 'Red' because scarlet is a shade of red.

I always thought it was because they mistook him for Morgan Freeman.

TheArkOfTurus posted...

Overboard! (2021)

I wasn't aware there was another.

It wasn't even the first result when I searched it on GameFAQs. Nevertheless, it looks interesting so I'll support it assuming I have any left to use.

There's also a topic about the flavor and moisture of poultry every year. This one is a lot more enjoyable.

Mobilezoid posted...

I hear one of the officers on the scene shot a kid in the past, though.

Maybe he'll redeem himself by shooting the last standing terrorist.

Prayers especially to the officers dealing with this who just want to get home to their pregnant wives.

Which Overboard?

Have we done Tales of Symphonia party members?

Received! Thank you very much!

masterplum posted...

I think everyone else didn't add me on steam

Oops, did it just now. And oops it's actually mattdarkx.