Board 8 > September Game of the Month Club ft. Half-Life 2: EP1, ABZU, and Magical Drop II

(+) Yeah! (+)

Septembers Games:
Half-Life 2: Episode One (PC/360/PS3/Android)
ABZ (PC/XB1/PS4/Switch/Luna)
Magical Drop II (PC/XB1/PS4/Switch/Saturn/Neo Geo/other older platforms)

Games of the Month of the Year:
Mass Effect (PC/XB1/PS4/360/PS3)
Mass Effect 2 (PC/XB1/PS4/360/PS3)
Mass Effect 3 (PC/XB1/PS4/360/PS3/Wii U)

What is Game of the Month Club?
Game of the Month is a community project open to all B8ers where users share, discover, play and/or discuss a select few games every month. The games featured each month are chosen by YOU the users (and Lady Luck)

The Basics
- Each month will usually feature three games that were chosen via a random drawing from a pool of games that users nominated
- For each game you beat, you get a cool point on our just-for-fun standings as well as a nomination for next month's randomized drawing
- In order to receive the point and nomination, you must beat said game within the calendar month
- If you beat one of the current month's games in the previous month, you can apply for a "recently beaten waiver," but you will only receive a point and no nomination should you do so
- Drawing for next month's games is usually on the 25th
- If you periodically keep us posted on your progress and/or talk about different aspects of the games, then everyone will obviously think you are super awesome!

Nomination Rules
- You get one nomination automatically each month
- You receive additional nominations each month for every featured game that you beat
- Each game you nominate has to be unique from all other nominations and cannot include a game that has already been selected for GotM
- Each game must be a standalone game that can be acquired and played on its own (aka cannot be DLC/expansion that requires the base game)
- Nominations only carry over if you beat a featured game after the drawing for next month's games but before the end of the month
- You have 9 supports you can use throughout the year. Your only limitations are that you can't support your own nomination, and you can only use one support per game per month

Just-for-Fun Top 20 Standings
KCF - 174
gameking - 116
ArkOfTurus - 104
Mr Crispy - 101
Lolo Guru - 70
Cody - 59
KnightOfNee - 35
Seanchan - 29
ViolentAbacus - 29
MegamanX - 28
Wickle - 27
Arti - 23
FakeAccount - 23
scarletspeed - 23
darkx - 18
GreatPaul - 18
MZero - 17
Fenny - 16
Suprak the Stud - 16
JONALEON - 14
tazzyboy - 14

Spreadsheet with history
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1X8E8oqzES42W4S82j7WTfNnzNa8c3uXdSE1rnqYG7WM/edit?usp=sharing

Additional noms this month
KCF - 1

ABZU is on PS+ Extra

Magical Drop II is on Nintendo Switch Online

ok knocked out a couple runs of story mode in Magical Drop 2 earlier, on medium only continuing once and then on very hard continuing.... quite a bit more times.

Anyway some advice for people if they have trouble. It's basically the opposite of something like Puyo Puyo where you have to set up elaborate combos. Instead, you need to keep making matches on the fly to continue the combo. Before you start matching things, look for columns of 3 or groups of 1-2 pieces of the same color right next to each other. If you do it right, the pieces should stay on screen for a short while after you match them since only one group gets cleared at a time. If you play the solo mode you can see what I mean. There's often columns of 3 pieces right next to one another so you can grab one column and immediately put it back to match it, take a step over and match the column next to it, and so on to get a big chain. It's also pretty easy to make a chain if you match a powerup.

The number of pieces you clear and simultaneous clears of different colors don't increase the number of garbage lines like in puyo. Instead it's pretty much a straight forward 2 combo = 1 attack line, 3 combo = 2 attack lines, and so on.

I played Magical Drop 2 from the Data East Collection on Evercade. The cart also plays on their Evercade VS console that plays all of the handheld Evercade releases other than the 2 Namco ones iirc.

I finished the story mode on the default difficulty and played some of what's called the "Aha Mode" here but is apparently called "Puzzle" on other releases.

So yeah, I beat Magical Drop 2. Not that as a puzzle game I couldn't keep doing stuff.

Nominate Sly Spy

I have this one for the Evercade, and I just say it's a fun little game. Motorbike level, scuba levels, some sidescrolling shooter levels, a mini parachuting level at the start .. I really enjoy this game and will always look for an excuse to play it again. The obscured part is just comments on level design, if you want to keep it a surprise if it wins I think it has some entertaining variety for an old arcade game.

Next month is October, so I'm going to nominate Little Nightmares and The Mummy Demastered for now.

I'm going to probably dedicate this month to finishing games that I started months or years ago but haven't returned to, but I will remember to spend the 2-3 hours on ABZU at some point.

KCF0107 posted...

Next month is October, so I'm going to nominate Little Nightmares and The Mummy Demastered for now.

So it is. In the spirit of Halloween I'll nominate Costume Quest 2 as my second game then.

Well, if we're doing spookytober:

Bendy and the Dark Revival

Beat Magical Drop II. Will nom based on my mood near the deadline.

Abzu on my to-do list for the month.

Cody has beaten Magical Drop II

That was fun, a few of the opponents kicked my ass for a while on medium but I persevered.

Nominate Resident Evil 4 (2005) and Gone Home

Spooky!

Beat ABZU. Interesting little game. Much fish.

ArkOfTurus has beaten Magical Drop II

Kinda just sleepwalked through medium. A fun way to kill some time, but probably not something I'll return to.

Monthly Progress
Half-Life -
ABZU - Mauron
Magical - Crispy, Fake, Mauron, Cody, Ark

Nomiations
Abacus - Bendy Dark Revival
Cody - RE4 (2005), Gone Home
Fake - Sly Spy, Costume Quest 2
KCF - Little Nightmares, Mummy Demastered

Supports

Kenri has beaten Magical Drop II

Struggled to decide which character to pick between the gremlin and the girl with three eyes, and then I noticed the girl with a collar and a whip and that made the choice easy!

Played story mode on medium and got crushed by the third opponent a couple times while figuring out the game, then cruised though until the second-to-last guy who seemed like an incredible difficulty leap. Beat the final opponent mirror match on the first try though.

Cody11533 posted...

That was fun, a few of the opponents kicked my ass for a while on medium but I persevered.

I wonder if they were the same ones I had trouble with. I think each character has different special blocks?

Kenri posted...

Played story mode on medium and got crushed by the third opponent a couple times while figuring out the game, then cruised though until the second-to-last guy who seemed like an incredible difficulty leap.

I think these were the exact same difficulty spikes I ran into. It definitely seemed like some specific characters were intentionally more difficult.

Dunno if this is of interest to anyone, given the lack of interest in Seanchan's offer, but HL2: Episode 1 is less than a dollar, right now.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/380/HalfLife_2_Episode_One/

(HL2: Episode 2 being less than a dollar was certainly of interest to me, at least.)

https://store.steampowered.com/app/380/HalfLife_2_Episode_One/

I don't know if you meant to link to that or actually wanted to let us know of a CEO selling personal stocks in the company that they run

(for some reason I clicked on Episode One and it gave me a combo page of that plus a deathmatch)

KCF0107 posted...

https://store.steampowered.com/app/380/HalfLife_2_Episode_One/

I don't know if you meant to link to that or actually wanted to let us know of a CEO selling personal stocks in the company that they run

(for some reason I clicked on Episode One and it gave me a combo page of that plus a deathmatch)

Whoops. Fixed.

Was too focused on John Riccitiello being a scumbag.

I've been on the last segment or two in ABZU for a few days now. I should really take the 20 minutes out of my life to finish it lol. I regret not doing the PC/PS4/replaying XB1 version as the using the joycons on Switch doesn't feel good, especially with the camera.

Lucky the games this month are short as I've hardly played anything at all so far. Was unable to game the first week and haven't been feeling like playing anything this last week.

KCF has beaten ABZU

Switch version is definitely the inferior way to play this. I had some performance hiccups, and the audio seemed off at times. It's still a good time, but if I want to replay this again, it will definitely be PC/XB1/PS4 version.

For my likely final nom, I will do Trigger Witch

ArkOfTurus has beaten Half-Life 2: Episode 1

It was fun, but I was kind of left with a feeling of "that was it?" I had no idea I was close to beating the game until the credits rolled. I'm pretty sure the lack of an Episode 3 is going to sting more than I thought. Still going to play through Episode 2, though, especially considering how short Episode 1 was.

I'll start ABZU at some point, probably? I started getting into Yakuza 7, so that'll dig into a large chunk of my gaming time, but it is short, so I should be able to fit it in.

Episode 1 is kind of unique and I do like it but it's definitely the weakest part of Half-Life 2. Episode 2 is bigger and better all around.

Monthly Progress
Half-Life - Ark
ABZU - Mauron, KCF
Magical - Crispy, Fake, Mauron, Cody, Ark, Kenri

Nomiations
Abacus - Bendy Dark Revival
Cody - RE4 (2005), Gone Home
Fake - Sly Spy, Costume Quest 2
KCF - Little Nightmares, Mummy Demastered, Trigger Witch

Supports

Drawing in a week

Abzu beated!

Finished it for the first time about 3 years ago. Still good on replay. It's a very pretty game.

Nominate Signalis and Lone Survivor

since everyone is nominating spooky games

Nominate:
Half Life 2: Episode Two
Maquette
Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart

I should start and finish Episode One before the drawing, hence the 3 noms.

Monthly Progress
Half-Life - Ark
ABZU - Mauron, KCF, Sean
Magical - Crispy, Fake, Mauron, Cody, Ark, Kenri

Nominations
Abacus - Bendy Dark Revival
Ark - Fear & Hunger, Ib, Blasphemous
Cody - RE4 (2005), Gone Home
Fake - Sly Spy, Costume Quest 2
KCF - Little Nightmares, Mummy Demastered, Trigger Witch
Kenri - Signalis, Lone Survivor
Sean - Half Life EP 2, Maquette, R&C: RA

Supports
Ark - Nightmares

Drawing on Monday

Nominate: Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water and Ghouls n Ghosts (that's the second game. Not to be confused with Super Ghouls n Ghosts, which is the third game)

Noms: Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure, Kotodama: The 7 Mysteries of Fujisawa, Pac-Man World

Almost done with Episode 1. Should finish it up tomorrow.

Last call for noms, changes, and supports

Everything is now closed. I will draw momentarily.

I removed the Ratchet & Clank nom since it was listed last Sean

Your October Games of the Month are...

Gone Home (PC/Switch/XB1/PS4/iOS)
Pac-Man World (PC/Switch/XS/X/PS5/XB1/PS4/PS/GBA)
Little Nightmares (PC/Switch/XB1/PS4/iOS/Android)

Congrats to Cody, Mauron, and myself for having their games selected!

KCF0107 posted...

I removed the Ratchet & Clank nom since it was listed last Sean

That's what I figured you'd do, so that's why I put it last!

Little Nightmares looks like it's on sale on Playstation for $4.99 until the 9/28. None of the 3 otherwise appear to be on Game Pass or PS++++.

Might be a pass for me next month. I've played Gone Home before but I'm not sure it's the type of game I'd need/want to revisit.

Gone Home has been in my backlog for years, excited to finally play through it.

I might replay Gone Home because I like it and it's been a while, but I think I'm a pass on the other two

Going to play Pac-Man World and Rhapsody (even though it wasn't selected).

Episode 1 BEATED!

I didn't remember much from it other than painting targets with the flashlight for Alyx to shoot in the dark and the ending. Still a solid entry in the series but obviously inferior to HL2. I ended up playing to get The One Free Bullet achievement, which means I only shot a gun the required one time. Other than that it was all gravity gun, grenades, rockets, and like 90% letting Alyx do all the work.

I should remember to download Gone Home soon. I've been sitting on Little Nightmares for like five years, so I'm glad that this will finally get me to play it. Hopefully I won't be too much of a wuss with that one.

ArkOfTurus has beaten ABZU

I put this off partially because I didn't think I'd get into it. I was wrong. Beautiful experience, definitely the type of game that makes me glad this topic series exists (and that I make a habit of grabbing the free Epic Store games.)

Cody has beaten ABZU

Very pretty and chill game until the proximity mines. I was actually nodding off a bit in the first hour lol. I enjoy these brief, artistic games that are basically an experience.