#807 Patapon

Posted: 2nd November 2020 by Jeroen in Games
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905th played so far

Genre: Music/Management Simulation
Platform: Playstation Portable
Year of Release: 2007
Developer: Pyramid/Japan Studio
Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment

Pon-Pon-Pata-Pon, Pata-Pata-Pata-Pon. The two main phrases (attack and move,  in that order) of this game have been stuck in my head for years, ever since I started this game while on holiday in Naples – but didn’t finish at the time as I then checked my stats and realised I didn’t need any management simulations – in fact, trying to keep the Sim City series spread out meant that I had to play Sim City 2000 first, which left little time for this game until now, about a hundred games away from the end.

Still, here we are, and it feels like I got a nice treat to nearly end this genre and move towards that final set of 100 games.

Our Thoughts

There’s something quite genius about using a rhythm game to control a semi-strategy game. You use the two beats as your main methods, driving forward on a 2D stage and attacking what stands between you and the end goal. There are other drums you can get that allow for more complicated moves – mostly defend and retreat – the first two commands let you get through the early game quite easily. After that, the game’s stages depend as much on your planning as they do on your rhythm skills, with the units you bring in – ranged, foot soldiers etcetera – having as much of an impact on how you perform.

Between levels you end up in your camp, where there’s more management. Unlocking stronger troops doesn’t just come from how you progress through the battles, but also from the minigames you play. These let you birth new ones and upgrade others. It’s the more compelling part of the game, with a depth I still haven’t quite gotten to but that I’m more interested to find out – it’s one of those situations where it seems like there’s just too much.

Final Thoughts

Had I mentioned how cute these creatures are? They really are, and it’s them singing along to your music that really sets it up. With that said, this is one of those games that require you to go deep to unlock the best units and equip them, and you start feeling that pinch sooner than you think – I felt the need to go out and get materials early on. Still, the world, with its silhouetted creatures and mystic tribe feel, is just as compelling and really gives a good justification for why you’re doing this and why your actions on the game make sense in the world.

#301 Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo

Posted: 29th October 2020 by Jeroen in Games
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904th played so far

Genre: Puzzle
Platform: Various
Year of Release: 1996
Developer: Capcom
Publisher: Capcom

It feels like there was this era where Capcom created almost-parody games of itself. While SNK vs. Capcom: Card Fighters Clash is a proper game, there’s also something odd about its use of the franchises. Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo is even more of a piss take – there is no earlier game, the title ripping off Super Street Fighter II Turbo, and it uses chibi versions of the characters in its box art to support a puzzle game. Now, with this being one from the mid-1990s, it might not be the most amazing variation, but I hope there’s something here that will work out.

Our Thoughts

Like my beloved (nostalgic for) Wario Woods, the basic gameplay of Super Puzzle Fighter Turbo II is a known one – match several blocks of a colour with their bomb, like a match three variant, and make them disappear. Combinations give you extra points and you have to keep your arena from filling up. It’s a tried and true formula, marred by the low spawn rate of bombs that means you get behind on clearing colours sooner than you should. You also normally play against an AI that’s far more difficult than you’d expect and one of the main story modes – the Street Puzzle mode – felt unbeatable to me because of it, I was usually dead in seconds. It’s some odd tuning, but when it was on, I had a good time playing the puzzles.

What really sets this game apart is that while you’re playing, two fighters from various Capcom fighting franchises are battling it out in the centre of the screen. It’s a neat little visual thing that doesn’t impact gameplay but does reward it. It also gives you the use of a taunt button – I’m not sure why, as I never figured out what it did (it’s not as if there are multiple targets), but it feels like it fits in with the overall ridiculous feel of the game.

Final Thoughts

While I don’t feel SPFT2 innovates as much on a puzzle level, the theming of the game feel quite unique and different and inviting through that. It’s fun to play through and looks cute enough while you tackle something ridiculous.

#249 Secret of Mana

Posted: 25th October 2020 by Jeroen in Games
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903rd played so far

Genre: Action/Role-Playing
Platform: SNES
Year of Release: 1993
Developer: Square
Publisher: Square

Thanks to a lovely Christmas present, I got the Switch port of the Mana trilogy (Collection of Mana), including the most liked Secret of Mana that ended up on the list. It took me about five months more to play it – I’m not in a rush – but it means that I haven’t just played a Switch game through their NES and SNES emulator programs, but also as a more proper game on a cart.

Every time I look up the history of this series, it gets me confused, but it’s safe to say that while its predecessors have been marketed as Final Fantasy spin-offs, in reality they’re their own list of action RPGs instead, originally as a Gameboy game but by this point as a game aimed at the SNES.

Our Thoughts

Secret of Mana is interesting as an action RPG. As there’s still some turn based element, you can’t just spam your attacks, but instead you hit, get some distance in and wait to recharge before attacking again. It still gets a bit better as you level up, but there’s a lot of planning in when you attack. In fact, playing through, the first big boss fight (falling down in a dungeon under the town) comes down to only attacking at the right time, more of a timing challenge than overpowering your opponent through speed or higher stats. The game doesn’t feel like it needs a lot of grinding, although I ran into issues not buying enough equipment when I got to the second proper town. I felt the difficulty more from enemies being hard to reach and having ranged attacks when you can’t necessarily respond to it yet, and the whole thing does become draining at times.

The world this takes place in resembles a lot of the other worlds in Final Fantasy games, elemental crystals included. You get your spells granted from them by going through the appropriate dungeons and visit towns, but the emphasis on the areas you battle in being the same that you explore makes them feel more condensed and gamey. It’s a lovely looking game – sure, dated in places because of the SNES heritage, but it works quite well for a beautiful, colourful world.

Final Thoughts

There’s something exhausting about playing Secret of Mana unprepared, and it’s one of those games I want to start over knowing what I know, so I can do a few things that much better. It’s a beautiful world with quite an involved story for its time, especially as the action elements put more pressure on what you can do with this world. It might not be up to Final Fantasy VI standards – I think you can fee that the origins of the system are handhelds – but it works.

#521 Resident Evil Zero

Posted: 21st October 2020 by Jeroen in Games
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902nd played so far

Genre: Survival Horror
Platform: Gamecube
Year of Release: 2002
Developer: Capcom
Publisher: Capcom

It’s undeniable that the Resident Evil series looms large in the horror genre and the most recent remakes prove that’s still there. At the same time, I believe those remakes show that the originals needed an update and don’t feel as modern anymore.

Resident Evil Zero is the prequel to the original game and still builds on those old tropes – the awkward controls and weird adventure gaming. I can tell you now that they will get in my way, but I know I got past it, to some extent, in the past, and I hope the updates from the game make that more likely here as well.

Our Thoughts

Let’s start with the obvious – this game still has the frustrating tank controls leading you through narrow corridors – you start off on a train which does tend to be fairly narrow, but the changing camera angles and awkwardly running into the scenery because you can’t quite judge what way you’re going.  Even worse is that you’re playing with a somewhat floaty Gamecube thumbstick – WASD make it easier to fine tune your control while here it’s easy to drift left or right as you run down the carriages.

The shooting is similarly awkward, although at least that’s a genre trope to heighten the tension. Between that and exploration that only partially feels to pay off as, at this point, I’m not sure it offers much we haven’t already seen in the series. Even the partner system, where you swap between two, fails to pay off because of these controls.

The story is fine and I feel more might be in there once I got far enough, but it feels like there’s less that draws me in early on and the controls make it difficult to get further in.

Final Thoughts

There’s a decent story in here and I’m a sucker for a train set opening, but the gameplay is off putting to such an extent that I’m not thinking of touching it again – and I’m glad the final game I’ll be playing in  the series will be a more modern iteration with hopefully better controls.

#593 Mario Power Tennis

Posted: 27th September 2020 by Jeroen in Games
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901st played so far

Genre: Sports
Platform: Gamecube
Year of Release: 2004
Developer: Camelot Software Planning
Publisher: Nintendo

Now we’re reaching the end of this project, I’m getting more restricted in the games I pick, and so scheduling and choice means that this time, the post-milestone game isn’t an indie or weird game. Instead, today is another entry in one of the biggest video game franchises, which at this point had a big sports game legacy anyway. Mario Power Tennis, unlike the early Mario Golf games, focusing clearly on playing with all the characters we know, and so we get to the Mario Kart of tennis – but without a Wiimote quite yet.

Our Thoughts

As you might expect, a Mario Tennis game doesn’t just have you play tennis like all the other games like it. It implements the rules, sure, but there’s always a twist. For one, as you play different characters of the Mario franchise, you don’t exactly play fair. Instead, each character has different powers – a power shot and a defensive safe to catch a ball you would otherwise miss. They look different for each character, but for the most part they work the same, either a shot that’s hard to defend, or an ultimate defensive action, just with a neat different visual that makes it feel like you do something special.

Although there are some normal courts, the game also has a bunch of gimmick courts, which are the other part of the game that’s interesting. This ranges from fields that move around under your feet to ones with ghosts floating around that freeze you for a while. Ones like the latter can really change the game – and with their random nature, unbalance them, which is a bit frustrating when you’re stuck for an extended amount of time. It’s an interesting choice for a tournament format, but as a casual experience it’s fun enough.

Final Thoughts

You don’t come to Mario Power Tennis for a balanced, deep tennis game, as it simply doesn’t offer that. What it does do is giving you a fun way to enjoy tennis, with enough twists that are likely enough to go your way that they stay fun that way. It really manages to be a Mariofied version of tennis, with the weird details that entails.

50 Game Round Up: 851-900 (Jeroen)

Posted: 25th September 2020 by Jeroen in Round-Up
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As I mentioned two days ago,  reaching 900 games is such a big mental milestone – it feels like we’ll reach the end of so many things soon and I know I’m so close to finishing it now that I shouldn’t give up. Still, though, after this there are a few more of these wrap up posts as it feels my selections get more random – and probably higher quality, as I feel I’ve been saving the best for last (something I needed anyway to give me that extra push to keep going). So what stood out during these last fifty games?

Best Game I Had Not Previously Played

It’s going to be an RPG heavy bunch this time, as I’ve kept some good ones behind that came up during these fifty. I adored Grandia II and want to get to more in the series and it likely would have taken this place if I didn’t get a last minute chance.

As you’ve just read, I loved Mother 3 and on some level, this might be the near-perfect RPG for me. I’ll need to play more of it – in about a year, I guess, when this all ends – as there was so much more there that I wanted to uncover. It’s probably one of the better games of the list for me – and it’s probably time Nintendo recognised it.

Worst Game

On the other hand, it’s probably quite clear that the run and gun and other platformers feel like the worst games right now. I don’t have fond memories of Alex Kidd, for example and Gunstar Super Heroes is in a similar boat.

The least memorable, most generic entry in that group, though, was Alien Soldier. Even now I couldn’t tell you much about it. I’m sure it’s decent in its genre, but it just didn’t have anything in it for me.

Most Surprising Game

I feel like I could have put Suikoden III in some of the other best categories, but it feels like it’s the best fit for this category: I was expecting a decent RPG not unlike several others, but the scope of the game, its characters and everything else were so good that I bought the others in the series as well to play later. It was just that massive, and I wasn’t expecting that going in – it’s possibly one of the bigger finds of the list for me.

Biggest Disappointment

What didn’t live up to my expectations? There were several and I must admit that Far Cry, for example, didn’t quite live up to the expectations you get from this world.

But really, though, Jak II was the genuine shame.I can’t say that the original was the best of its kind, but between it and its handheld version I was expecting something quite fun. The sequel’s difficulty sucked out any joy I had in the missions, with some misjudged control choices. There are some interesting possibilities in the world, but I couldn’t see too much of it.

Games We Kept Playing

I was looking at what game was in this list, but I haven’t gotten back to most of the big games, in part because I’ve been playing more ‘modern’ games in my spare time (Final Fantasy XV is really my thing). However, there is one game I’ve gotten back to every once in a while when I grabbed my tablet: Slitherlink is that addictive. It’s easy to pick up and play a level or two of and get through. It’s a lot of fun and just works that well.

#684 Mother 3

Posted: 23rd September 2020 by Jeroen in Games
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900th played so far

Genre: Role-Playing
Platform: Game Boy Advance
Year of Release: 2006
Developer: Brownie Brown/HAL Laboratory
Publisher: Nintendo

We’ve reached 900! While, yeah, the majority of games that will follow will still be pretty standard, it feels like the landmarks will all be a bit more significant. This isn’t just a 100 game landmark, this is the last one we’ve got, with the full 1000 putting us properly in endgame. It leaves me with a bit more than 100 games left to play, but it feels really close now… or as close as another year on a project that’s approaching its first decade soon.

To celebrate, today’s game is Mother 3, the sequel to Earthbound (which was known in Japan as Mother 2). This game was never officially released outside of Japan, seen as too tricky considering Earthbound didn’t sell well, but about a decade ago an acclaimed fan translation was released. I’ll obviously be playing that, which comes with a gorgeous guide to help find my way through the game. I’ve been excited for this for a long time and am dedicating a lot more time to it as I want to see as much as I can.

Our Thoughts

There is so much in this game, it’s hard to see where to start. Mother 3 starts off by creating a small, charming world, initially a town, a nearby forest and mountains to a grandfather’s cottage. As you play through, you both get to know of the people in the village and live through their tragedies. It’s heartbreaking story from the start, told from a light, sometimes childlike perspective that allows it to stay silly from time to time. It works to reinforce each other, where you grow to care for these characters and the hits really hit. It’s all simple, a semi-modern setting without big monsters, without fantasy settings and so on, and that focus benefits it in a way that’s hard to describe.

You follow several characters through the story, with some different perspectives, that meet and merge later on (although of course they are all set in the same town, at least now). There are some time jumps involved as the town changes, which means the different initial leads give you a chance to see it through different eyes as it has changed.

It is, of course, long too, which meant that I haven’t had a chance to actually see all of the mechanics yet – the psi mechanic, which replaces magic in other games, gets introduced late in the second chapter, which felt like it’d take double digits of hours to reach.  It does look like it’s fairly standard magic with different names, but it’ll be nice to explore. The battle system seems to be that much more in depth than you’d expect from the simple setting – not just mixing these system, with extensive status and item use, but also feature per character abilities including characters you don’t control who do weird things – distracting the enemy and such. It makes the battles a bit easier, but with the difficulty it’s also assistance you need. Then there’s a rhythm based section that add to the damage you do. It’s a nice additional feature that seems to add more layers.

Final Thoughts

Mother 3 really is this perfect treat. it’s eclectic in its sense of scale, how it creates the world and what it includes, but has heart and pulls off everything it tries to do here. It’s long, it feels like I’ve barely scratched the surface, but it lives up to the Earthbound legacy and I feel like this may even have outdone it that in working for me.

#376 Radiant Silvergun

Posted: 19th September 2020 by Jeroen in Games
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899th played so far

Genre: Shoot ‘Em Up
Platform: Sega Saturn
Year of Release: 1998
Developer: Treasure
Publisher: Entertainment Software Publishing/Sega

I feel like I’ve been running into a lot of Treasure’s games lately. Silhouette Mirage was a recent action platformer, but with Radiant Silvergun we follow the trend of Sin and Punishment and Gradius V in covering bullet hell shooters instead. Since it’s probably their strand of game that I enjoy more, that’s probably a good thing here.

 Our Thoughts

I have to say that these manic shooters reached a decent place of being readable versus looking good at this point in time, with Radiant Silvergun really looking quite nice but retaining that readability, with the real background a bit blurry and what you need to look at being focused enough.

Even so, the game does tend to get overwhelming quite quickly, as you get attacked from all sides and it became hard enough for me to keep up with all of them. It’s a good thing that the game starts you off with a set of guns from the start, as it gives you a better tool to deal with enemies, especially as they’re not always right in front of you. The game’s guns really are one of its credits and the game really encourages you to make the most of them from the start, which is really nice.

Final Thoughts

As many other top down shooters, Radiant Silvergun is a pretty nice looking game that becomes manic really quickly. This isn’t a game that you can rush through, but it feels like for its genre, the difficulty is justified, as long as you’re willing to take that manic challenge.

#207 Mega Lo Mania

Posted: 15th September 2020 by Jeroen in Games
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898th played so far

Genre: Strategy
Platform: Various
Year of Release: 1991
Developer: Sensible Software
Publisher: Image Works/Ubisoft/Virgin Interactive

As with Powermonger, I remember reading about Mega Lo Mania in a Mega Drive/Genesis guide collection long before I had a chance to play it. It feels similar – a colourful strategy game with a vaguely cartoony look that makes for something that just looks fun on their own – even without knowing quite how the game plays.

I’ve never sought out more for Mega Lo Mania, but it has been something I’ve been waiting to try it out, and today we go for it.

Our Thoughts

Although the modern tower defense started with games like Desktop Tower Defense, earlier games had a similar feeling. Mega Lo Mania feels like it has shades of it. While tower placement isn’t as much of a thing, you are in part working on upgrading your defenses on different forts, with one fort per area of the island, and work your way through by conquering those islands square by square. When you do this, you basically assign your attackers to a square and have them run wild without control until your units are all gone or the fort is overwhelmed and you take control of it.

The other side is the more complex base management you have. Rather than building units, your people reproduce as you assign them to that tasks. In others, they get trained to be soldiers or build weapons, or they start researching both defensive and offensive upgrades to expand that potential. It’s a pretty decent system that keeps you busy with management, especially as the individual forts have different research counters, but also because the balance between defense and offense can shift depending on where you are in your conquests.

Final Thoughts

It feels like Mega Lo Mania‘s big set up,  with large groups of worlds, is still somewhat unique. The setup certainly works and is really addictive. The learning curve is quite steep and, because of its age, the controls remain fairly awkward, but even so it’s a nice look into an RTS set up that never quite was – unless you want to think of the combat systems of the likes of Crusader Kings as effectively different takes on this.

#267 Monster Max

Posted: 11th September 2020 by Jeroen in Games
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897th played so far

Genre: Adventure
Platform: Game Boy
Year of Release: 1994
Developer: Rare
Publisher: Titus France

I guess I always forget how long the original Game Boy stuck around for. These isometric games in the vein of Knight Lore and Fairlight belong, in my mind, in the eighties, but Monster Max shows the genre survived into the nineties. What I hope is that even if the genre feels outdated, this game makes them more playable.

Our Thoughts

One of the big wins Monster Max has over these other games is that combat isn’t as important. There are some enemies, but you don’t really fight them. Instead, you focus on solving puzzles. Your main mechanic are the items you switch behind – with jump and duck being represented alongside bomb use and the like. You have to have the right items with you as you go along and swapping between them – you can carry two at a time – is a large part of the puzzles.

The levels build quite well, giving you some time to learn each of these mechanics, and on the whole the game feels more modern – it’s not as clunky to control, it’s a bit smoother, and although the difficulty is there early on, it’s a lot of fun to play around and see these weird worlds. Similarly, the graphics are more detailed than before, which feels like it makes a big difference as well.

Final Thoughts

In the end, it feels like Monster Maxtakes an existing genre and updates it with ten years of hindsight to be more playable, less frustrating and more like what I felt I would get out of these games. I believe this is the last of its kind so now, as I get to the end of the list, it feels like a high note to end these on.

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