52 Games Challenge: 2019 Edition - The Bear and Badger

acemuzzy

Heh

I still think moot should guac 2. It's good shit.

Moot_Geeza

It's 40% off at the mo, I am tempted.

Andy may or may not be referring to the side scrolling knight platformer, Iron Hero or something, which I have looked at. Didn't pass my stringent assumed quality control tests though.

[Deleted User]

Castle of Heart.

Moot_Geeza

That's it. It was even cheaper a few weeks ago - 89p iirc.

Nope. If only it could swap prices with Cursed Castilla.

Moot_Geeza

Oh God now I'm wondering if it's worth a punt after all.

hylian_elf

Of course it is, you’ll play anything.

acemuzzy

Guac 2 is a nailed-on [8] possible [9]. Above Shovel Knight, at points above Celeste, shy of its consistency but with gaming gags to compensate (mocking many a classic along the way).

Do the right thing. I'll top you up if needed.

Moot_Geeza

Okay I'll grab it today if it's still on offer. No need for a top up thanks, got a refund coming for MM2 anyway.

JonB

acemuzzy wrote:

Guac 2 is a nailed-on [8] possible [9]. Above Shovel Knight, at points above Celeste, shy of its consistency but with gaming gags to compensate (mocking many a classic along the way).

I don't know if it's intentional or not, since there's only about 6 months between them, but there were some interesting similarities with Celeste in a couple of the platform challenges.

8 bordering 9 is my thinking too. I just really like how tightly designed every screen is. Basically the opposite end of the Metroidvania scale to Hollow Knight, with most of the downtime and exploration trimmed out.

Once the memory's less fresh I'd like to go back and play through on Hard. That was pretty much all I needed for the platinum anyway.

Edit: Perhaps I should look at the DLC then as well.

acemuzzy

Spoiler:

acemuzzy

I'm into triple figures for the year (*)

(*) certain specific number systems (**) may be required

(**) ok technically only https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unary_numeral_system

JonB

19. Bayonetta 2 [9]
22 May-7 Jul
I'm a big fan of Bayonetta and did almost everything there was to do in the first game. But then I thought it did so much and did everything so well, there wasn't much point in a sequel, because it had nowhere to go. Then a sequel came out, and of course I wanted to play it, and now it's on Switch, I have.

Just got round to finishing on Normal (started a while back and got sidetracked), and in a way I think I was probably right. There isn't anywhere for it to go. Mostly it's more Bayonetta, with some of the minor annoyances (QTEs) ironed out. On one hand, that means the combat is still *that* good, far better than in any similar game, with the pace and the timing and the style. It's hectic and visually busy, and yet you can be fully aware of what's going on and in complete control doing the craziest of moves. On the other, it's never quite as fresh, and the design is just a notch down from the scale of the first game. Levels aren't as varied, the new monsters are less memorable, the boss fights are pretty much all the same, the weapons less satisfying. Even the torture attacks feel a bit tame.

Still, I've only finished on Normal, and the first Witch Trial that's unlocked is already a step up from a lot of the main game. And the combat is still *that* good. It's just a question of how much time and effort I want to put into it now. If I try and do almost everything again, I could really get into it. I'm just not sure I've got the inclination this time. I hope Bayonetta 3 tries to move things forward more, if it can find somewhere new to go.

Moot_Geeza

42. Cadence of Hyrule: Crypt of the Necrodancer - Switch

I wasn't completely up for the Zeldafication of Necrodancer beforehand, having bounced off the original pretty brutally on Vita, but positive reviews and the irresistible allure of 2D Hyrule reeled me in. After a shaky start - I considered throwing in the towel a couple of times in the first 90 mins - this gradually revealed itself to be one of the best games of the year. The learning curve is steep, but the difficulty on the whole is quite forgiving. More on that later. Having limited knowledge of how it works didn't seem to help me as I still felt like I'd been chucked in at the deep end with iron boots instead of flippers. If you refuse to be overwhelmed (having just paid £20 for it helps) the basics start to make sense after a dozen or so restarts. Then the addictiveness rapidly sets in. I polished this off in four evenings, so it joins a very small list of roguelikes I've finished (Into the Breach and.....ummm). Instant travel takes the sting out of most of the things I don't particularly like about the genre, although I may have been lucky by finding the required item early on.

I quite like rhythm games, not that I've played more than a generous handful over the years, but the genre crossover thing works extremely well. Marginal dumbing down of the Necrodancer template coupled with how deftly they've bolted it to the Zelda franchise stands as a genuinely impressive achievement. It really gets its claws in, with very few missteps, and even threatens to usurp Mario Rabbids as the king of unlikely third party spin-offs. I'm not one for replaying, but it would certainly withstand multiple runs as the layout changes with every new save file. Unlike some of these types, you are most certainly not back to square one when you die - not even close. Incremental progression is very much a thing here, sort of like a fast tracked Dead Cells.

A few minor negatives: The bosses are a highlight, but they're so easy to defeat they manage to feel like a bit of a joke in the end. In fact, once you've got the hang of it and know the location of a fairy cave/witch hut or two, you don't really need to die at all if you're careful (in a continued niceness concession the red elixier even kicks in upon death rather than forcing you to chug it in time). The spear trumps all close range weapons, and pretty much negated their usefulness for me. Perhaps that was just my play style, but it felt OP. The *minor spoiler* character swapping is mostly redundant, and after the initial hour or so your diamond stash is too. That's about it though, excellent game and a very welcome surprise. Plus it may well be the niftiest looking Zelda game of all time. £22.49 is maybe a bit much (a straight playthrough took me 6.5hrs), it feels like there's a there's a touch of first party News Feed Highlight tax added on there, but absolutely worth grabbing at the first sniff of a discount. In with a minor shout for GotY. [8]

JonB

20. Gunstar Heroes [7]
12 Jul
Played through the whole thing on MD Classics in about an hour and a half. It's not a game I actually had on the MD originally, but I have played it before on emulation. Honestly, it's not one of my favourite Treasure games. It's bursting with great ideas and the many many boss designs are pretty clever. But I find the controls a bit sludgy and imprecise (and the jump is irritatingly weedy) and the whole thing just a bit messy and uneven. The difficulty level in particular is all over the place, with some bosses able to destroy you quickly if don't learn patterns and others falling over before they've barely had a chance to do anything. I may have felt differently if I'd played it when it first came out, and it's always difficult to judge an old game like this when you're trying to charge through it in one go. It is still a cut above most games of its time, but a little below the standard of other Treasures like Dynamite Headdy, Astro Boy, or even Mischief Makers.

21. Futuregrind [8]
13 Jul
This was very cheap and turned out to be very good. A simpler version of Trials in a way, but you have to keep matching the colour of your wheels to the rails you land on. It's a clever system that has plenty of flexibility and makes for some challenging courses. Most importantly the control is spot on, so it's always your fault when it goes wrong. It's nowhere near as ambitious or precise as Trials, but it does what it sets out to do without any real flaws.

Moot_Geeza

FutureGrind is quality. In years gone by I would've played it until I got good, rather than merely good enough to finish it, but there are too many games vying for well-deserved attention these days. There seems to be plenty of scope for immense scores.

Wariospeedwagon

24: Final Fantasy X (Switch) 8/10
From the Nintendo Switch thread: "Gee I'm going back and forth on how much I enjoy Final Fantasy X. Think the story and characters are great fun even if it's not always written that well. Combat is GREAT tag team fun.

But bloody hell, this business with having a long unskippable cutscene before a boss fight can bugger off. Then after dying it takes another minute just to get back into the game. It's not a good sign when I have to whip out the phone and open an ebook while playing a game lol.

Also a general JRPG grievance - bosses who are immune to every status ailment except for one. From now on I'm just reading a gamefaq every time some big f**k off monster starts on me and saving myself half an hour of mucking around!"
Those frustrations hung around but it was, for the most part, a laid back, enjoyable game. The story and characters kept me hooked, even if that old school harshness made me want to throw the Switch across the room every once in a while. I wish they added some more modern considerations to this remaster, namely being more generous with the saving. Good stuff on the whole though.

25: Pillars of Eternity (PC) 7/10

Gosh, this has been on the pile of shame for 4 years! One of those games I was looking forward to for ages, then it comes out... and I bounce off it. Try once every year or so, then quit just after the tutorial level.

I ended up enjoying it well enough and it delivered pretty much what it promised; that being a love letter to the 90's computer RPG's I lived for back then. My biggest hurdle is the fantasy world. It's perfectly good and well fleshed out. The problem is me - I don't want to learn all this stuff! Dozens of gods with funny names. Animal people that are a bit like goblins but not really. Then I wonder, what does this spell do? What about this stat? Etc etc. Even by the end of the game I only had a vague idea on how it all works or what it means. (In fact, I loaded up PoE2 shortly after finishing this. That game's intro mentioned a big story point that I'd completely missed in my playthrough! Guess I wasn't paying attention when it dropped, lol)

It's all in the game. But there is SO much to read. There's a staggering amount of text to wade through. 16 year old Wariospeedwagon would slap me in the face for thinking this, but there's just to many words. I tapped out very early in the game. Skipping through dialogue trees, then checking my journal for a quick summation of what I'm doing.

It's no great way to play an RPG - luckily these games are made to be replayed a dozen times, and in fact I wouldn't mind trying again in a year or two, knowing there's not too much lore to learn next time around. Clearing out dungeons and getting new gear is a real joy. Got along well with the battles, there's some challenging stuff and even if it's a bit janky, the party behaves with a bit more common sense than they did in Baldur's Gate. They can be relied on to take care of the gutter trash enemies by themselves, only needing micromanagement on the tougher enemies. Also, I love it when an RPG lets you own a stronghold and lets you upgrade and mess about with it. POE might have the best one I've ever played! All my money went into upgrading the castle with no hesitation or regrets.

Pretty good stuff, though after a quick look at POE2 (and its reviews) it seems like that game is pretty much the same but does everything better. Looking forward to getting stuck in, though maybe not right away.

Moot_Geeza

43. Toejam & Earl: Back in the Groove - Switch

Not a good game per se, but decent fan service and still a boxfresh experience. It's set out in a similar fashion to the 1991 original - make your way around an unmapped stage until you find either an elevator to go up, or ideally, a ship piece and an elevator. Avoid earthlings and collect presents, the contents of which remain a mystery until you use them (or pay to see what's inside). Using presents when you occupy the same screen as your co-op buddy gives the ability to both players. Yup, it still does the nifty single screen/horizontal split screen thing as you wander around. Items range from useful (hi-top sneakers!) to counter-productive (poisoned food!). Collect ten ship pieces without running out of lives and you win, which I believe is locked in to happen on the 25th floor. It's clunky and a bit glitchy, but still enjoyable as (an admittedly too easy) co-op diversion. The numerous playable characters have stats, which can be levelled up via promotions, but if you play cautiously I doubt it'd be too tricky to finish as a weiner or a doofus. It's all a bit lightweight and certainly not a game that controls particularly well, given that earthlings often hone in on you at unavoidable speed, but the nostalgia charm offensive takes up some of the slack. Worthy of note is the choice of a fixed or randomised mode for the stage layouts, which basically boils down to it being a fixed design experience that feels randomised as it's so unpolished, or a an ultra-light rouguelite in the style of the original.

Scrapes a [6], as a fan of the series I'm glad I bought it and played with the soundbar blaring the familiar funkybeats, but one to avoid if you don't fancy more of the same, or if you plan to play solo.

Moot_Geeza

44. The Messenger - Picnic Panic DLC - Switch

For reference, my Messenger review from last year:

The Messenger - Switch

Fantastic idea neatly executed, with the addition of a quality script for the most part. I found it odd that the game felt like it lost a layer of polish once you hit the 16-bit visuals (the shopkeeper decided to cease telling parables for a start, all of which were entertaining for the first half of the game, was writing another eight or so too much to ask?). In addition to this I found the Metroidvania* half a little too much of a chore, vastly preferring the straight ahead stages, especially as there's not always an explanation that you require a pick-up to progress (underwater maze, I'm mainly looking at you). I spent A LOT of the 13hr runtime hoping to stumble upon alternate paths. Controls are slightly fiddly - the unlockable downward slash should've been assigned to down + attack while gliding - but overall it's great to zip about the screen using your various moves. Some of the music is excellent, some is just blip and bloops. Not knocking the sound chip style, just that the composition of some tunes is half baked whereas others feel somewhere close to classic. That was often the way of it though, so hey ho - successful retro nod. It's a good game to play with headphones because they highlight the sound differences between the timezones. Hmm, anything else? The bosses are high quality, but there aren't nearly enough in the Metroid half, which is a crying shame. I'm aware that I've been overly critical of it, party here but mainly elsewhere, but that's only because this could've been an exceptional game rather than a very good one. On paper it's almost my dream game, and at its core it's a very, very good ninja platformer. [8] *Loose definition. You're revisiting areas and searching, but finding them is only occasionally locked behind the need for a specific ability.

Mercifully, the dlc is pure A to B platforming - aside from the wonky surfing section at the start - with the Metroidvania trappings unceremoniously dumped (there's even a gag about their shitness, well played devs). Unfortunately the mini campaign isn't at all consistent in terms of quality and basically consists of more of the same but meaner. The difficulty is often poorly judged, with some screens being rattle-smashingly frustrating and some being an absolute breeze, seemingly bolted together at random with no eye on incremental toughness. Maybe I'm misremembering the original, but having been forced to replay the last level of that in order to play this due to a save glitch, I'd say the dlc is considerably harder than the full game overall. Again, the controls occasionally feel like they're not quite up to the job, particularly in the harder sections, it has to be said (*picks dummy up, gives it a wipe*), which could possibly be down to the JoyCons but probably isn't; they're just a smidge iffier than they should be. [6] from me then; if you rated the main game at a [7] or below my advice would be not to bother. Shout out to the final boss though, good stuff.

Verecocha

16:Shadow of the Tomb Raider Xbox One - 7/10
Last of the Trilogy and I’ve gotta say though I didn’t love it at first and thought it a weak end I restarted it and thoroughly enjoyed it. Helped that it’s absolutely beautiful. For long stretches the best looking game I’ve seen. Stunning. Amazing trilogy of games though rather sad they may be the last after not so amazing figures. Great Tombs, side quests and fun if over complicated stories. Great game.

17:Ghost Recon - Wildlands Xbox One - 7/10
Great game, great location, great variety, aged a bit now but still great. Spoiled by being just a little bit lengthy, the main storyline takes just far too long, of course it’s great to have so much to do and lots of DLC etc but for me too much of a good thing turned bad. Also, the driving model SUCKED!

Moot_Geeza

45. Dragon's Lair Trilogy - Switch

(which is apparently Dragon's Lair, Dragon's Lair II and Space Ace)

I did enjoy them in the end, but the breakneck Bandersnatch experience wasn't worth £8.99. A few thoughts from the currently playing thread, as I didn't like them enough to type any more:

Moot_Geeza wrote:

I finished Dragon Lair last night, and I've played as much of the sequel as I'm willing to without being paid for the privilege. That's not to say that I didn't enjoy my time with them to an extent, but the sequel requires an item quest that I didn't even know was a thing until it booted me back to the opening scene. I'd collected none of the 15 or so items, and the final scene is gated behind a complete collection. I was far too busy keeping Dirk alive tbh, luckily the scene is viewable from the menu. I also started Space Ace, which I'll finish today. They're bizarre games; I'm up for the memory test to images thing, but the inputs are so demanding that the whole thing is played in a vague haze where you're only partly able to compute what's going on - a bit like when I play Switch while my wife watches Love Island. Lair 2 is the pick of the bunch by a mile, shite collectathon barrier notwithstanding - I watched it all after my playthrough and it's a quality collection of animated sequences.

Space Ace was the I'll Always Know What You Did Last Summer of the trilogy, in case anyone's wondering. [5]

[Deleted User]

While I’m aware of those films, and think I’ve seen the first one, I have no idea what that means.

Moot_Geeza

The worst of a bad bunch (with a different set of actors).

Diluted Dante

I've got Dragons Lair on 360. It's a great nostalgic experience, but I wouldn't really recommend anyone play it. Never played the sequels.

Moot_Geeza

46. The Butcher - Switch

Quality twin stick platform shooter than flirts with greatness on occasion. Stylistically it's all very Devolver (the recently announced Carrion is similar looking at a glance), but it plays better than most other retro tech-gore impostors. The left stick moves, the right stick aims, LB jumps and RB fires. Weapon swapping is handled with the X and Y buttons, which is where the game loses a few kudos points during its more hectic moments - it could do with a few more options for weapon changing, rather than going up or down the rail (slots assigned to the d-pad would help, but a DOOM 2016 style favourite two swap would be equally welcome). It all gets a wee bit fiddly once all the weapons are unlocked. As mentioned though, it plays very well for the most part with its measured super-trickiness, die-and-retry layout learning shtick and satisfying shooting mechanics. Shout out to the shotty; it's a good'un. The main levels took me just over two hours to wade through but the final boss stumped me for a further hour or so. Now that I've bested him I don't quite hold the grudge I was forming last night, as I think I could do it again fairly quickly now that I've worked out my movement patterns, but it's not a good boss fight (which is a shame as it's the only one, and it does take the shine off a bit). A rather harsh [7] then - it was cruising for an 8 or 9 at one point - but I'd definitely recommend it to anyone who enjoys a spot of Broforce and its ilk. It brought to mind the (utterly stupendous) Rive on occasion, as it felt like a reduced/streamlined version of that due to the controls, wave-based sections and the way you'll stick close to felled enemies as they drop pick-ups. 100% worth £4.

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Moot_Geeza

47. Trials Rising - Switch, XBox One

I've spent close to 60hrs on this across both formats and I'm done for now. Will return in the unlikely event of further competitions on here.

It's an excellent Trials game with some genuinely top-tier racing lines on numerous normal and hard tracks that's hamstrung to blazes by an idiotic front end. It shoots itself in the foot for sure - it's doesn't blow both trotters clean off like Trackmania Turbo, but it's in that ballpark for facepalm. You'll have to grind through experience levels in order to unlock the stages, which is a terrible idea. It wasn't broke so it shouldn't have been fixed - it reeks of change for the sake of change and whoever's directly responsible deserves to be woken up with a fierce nipple cripple every day for the rest of their life.

Performance wise it's clearly miles better on Bone, but suffered from a random spit-second freeze on almost every single run, at least on my console. This may have been patched out ages ago; I got rid of the big boy version a few months ago and focused on the handheld entry. Intermittent stutter aside the Xbox version looked great and ran superbly. Switch version is passable, but unless you're obsessed with the ability to play undocked like me it's not worth considering compared to the full-fat edition. It's fine, I got 40+hrs out of it and I guess the port is laudable to an extent considering the gulf in specs between the consoles, but 30fps, low-res, blurry, digital trigger Trials is a mug's game if you plan on playing it on a telly like a normal person.

I haven't bothered with the Extremes, and I don't think I'll put myself through it with the JoyCons, but I did finish all nine stadium finals and the grand finale (a single Extreme track I blootered through with zero finesse and dozens of faults). With a better UI it'd be a [9], but the final scores are [7] for Switch and [8] for Xbox. For deep fans there are some spectacularly good tracks in it and the first round of DLC is high quality. At heart it's still the bestest videogame of all time.

hylian_elf

4 games in January (1 of which was a bit of a Moot game so hardly counts), then a game in March then May.

Quality, not quantity.

Should count Smash. Spent quite a few hours with kids on that. And Slay The Spire currently sitting at 40-45 hours.

Wariospeedwagon

Couple of retirements.

International Cricket Captain 2006 - 6/10

This is my favourite ever cricket management game by default. It's very hands off and almost feels like a score simulator. It is good for when you are watching TV but don't need to pay all that much attention.

I mostly just simulate the games. The most interesting part is between seasons, where you turn over your list, pick through young/international cricketers, delisting underperforming posers who ask for too much money, lowballing 41 year old Andy Flowers into squeezing out one more season, etc. I take most joy from finding a young guy who everyone else passed over and watching him have a legendary test career.

The game spits out fairly realistic scores. Only real issue is that no one hits sixes, almost ever, so it's pretty frustrating watching your boys pushing singles when you're chasing 20 of the last 2 overs with a heap of wickets in hand. Also the player pool gets quite wonky the longer you play - when I quit, I needed to replace my wicket keeper, but none were available! Not one wicket keeper in the WORLD! But I chose to uninstall because it starts ruining my TV watching after a while. Like I was watching The Boys on Amazon but everytime there was a boring bit I was tempted to play a few games of ICC. Sometimes I did, and would miss someone's head blowing up and have to rewind the show. It's not like it's such a good game or anything, more of a habit.

ALSO

Road Redemption on Switch 5/10

It's a pretty janky Road Rash. That's mostly fine and it's hilarious stuff, getting caught up trying to clobber an enemy and forgetting to turn on a corner. It feels a bit like patting your head and rubbing your stomach at the same time.

Unfortunately I didn't enjoy the roguelike campaign, unlocking permanent and temporary bonuses to your attack strength etc. It feels a bit like a 5 hour game spread out over much much more than that. Found it a bit tedious really. Also fiddly with having to pick the right weapon for different enemy types and managing your nitro boosts and stuff like that. Think it would have been better to keep it simple. Not really my cup of tea but fine for a while.

Moot_Geeza

48. Blazing Chrome - Xbox One

Unabashed Contra homage that highlights precisely why I like these modern retro titles - the best ones are occasionally better than the games they're imitating. Modern concessions like checkpointing after major areas and replenishing lives after using a non-finite continue push this into the fair zone, while proving to be just as dastardly as its inspiration screen by screen. Compare this to Probotector on Megadrive and there really is no contest, 'classic' or not - Konami's effort may have marginally more memorable set-pieces, but difficulty-wise it was always a nigh-on unplayable hot mess. For me, this pips SNES Contra III too (which I've only played through with save states); everything it does feels just about right. It certainly doesn't have crappy top down sections dragging the average down. There's not much in it, so it would be interesting to hear opinions to the contra-ry - I'm not a huge Contra head, so my opinions are moot.

You know what to expect if you've seen the trailers, but it's still impressive how well they've pulled it off. Level design is consistently very good, bosses are mostly decent and the challenge (for normal mode) is pitched at tricky rather than evil. With only 6 stages it's short, so £16.99 is a bit off in terms of value imo, but it's an excellent game nonetheless. If Volgarr the Viking is the ultimate version of Rastan and Monster Boy in the Cursed Kingdom is ultimate form Wonderboy, which they bloody well are, then the same can be said of this when compared to Contra for me. Grab a co-op partner and get those patterns learned. [8]

Wariospeedwagon

Moot_Geeza wrote:

There's not much in it, so it would be interesting to hear opinions to the contra-ry - I'm not a huge Contra head, so my opinions are moot.

: D

Tried it on gamepass the other day; it really does look neat. Think the first level boss bugged out (he seemed to just be floating there, exploding, but not dying) though I could have done something wrong.

Great to hear it's brief + good. Think I'll play it through, but this is about the 15th game in this thread I've liked the look of, and haven't gotten around to finishing!

JonB

Moot_Geeza wrote:

48. Blazing Chrome - Xbox One

I'm up for this at some point. When it goes cheap somewhere, probably. Does it have much replay value potentially?

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