Sunday, December 31, 2023
Completed: Max Payne 2
Tuesday, December 12, 2023
The viagra4free GOTY 2023 Award
Super Mario Wonder
We spared no expense this year in the graphics departmentThis was a very easy decision. It felt like I've been waiting for this game my whole life...or well since New Super Mario Bros U came out in 2012. Every bit of it oozes that patented Nintendo charm and countless times throughout the game I found myself smiling without even realizing it. "Unbridled sense of joy" is a phrase that comes to mind when I think of this game (yeah, I think about phrases in my spare time) and that is the best way I can describe this game. Here's to hoping there's DLC or at least not another 11 year wait for more 2d Mario. Thanks, Nintendo.
Thursday, November 30, 2023
Completed: Castlevania
Having never completed any of the classic Castlevania games I sought to right this wrong. And learned I definitely do not have the patience for these type of older games anymore. I can say for certain I would not have beaten this without save states (used when entering new rooms, and in a moment of weakness of being tired of getting killed by the final boss). Still a great game though and especially a great game of its time. I can easily see why it's rated as one of the top NES games ever
Friday, November 10, 2023
Games I've been playing lately - Fall 2023 edition
I haven't completed many games lately but have certainly been playing quite a few:
-Ray'z Arcade Chronology. Having a ton of fun playing Raystorm, one of my favorite shmups and one that I have fond memories with as a child in the early days of Playstation. It's been a blast to play Raycrisis too, a game I've always wanted to play but the price of it has always put me off.
Completed: Super Mario Bros. Wonder
What a game. Easily the best 2d Mario since Super Mario World and is absolutely on the same level as that and SMB3. As has been said in nearly every publication about the game, "wonder" could not be a more apt title for the game. Had so much fun with MY WIFE completing and 100%ing the game. Time to play it again!
Thursday, October 12, 2023
Completed: Perfect Dark
Technically the superior game to Goldeneye but I'd say a little less focused. That being said the amount of additional content in this game was incredible at the time especially with the AI bots in multiplayer. Still though I had a blast playing it. Will probably move onto playing the Timesplitters series since I enjoyed these Rare FPS classics.
Tuesday, September 12, 2023
Completed: GoldenEye 007
A game I've spent countless hours playing in various stages of my life at various friends houses but have never beaten the thing front to back. I love linear FPS games and even in 2023 this game is still awesome to play. A shame the true remaster for the 360 will likely never be released.
Thursday, August 31, 2023
Completed: Halo Reach
And thus ends my journey with the original set of Halo games developed by Bungie. Reach was definitely my favorite. Really enjoyed the variety of missions and it just felt like the most polished Halo experience.
Wednesday, August 23, 2023
Completed: Halo 3 ODST
This took me about a day to beat, certainly feels more like an expansion pack than a full game. Enjoyed it nonetheless (aside from the stupid love story) and it was a nice change of pace. Onto Halo Reach
Monday, August 21, 2023
Completed: Halo 3
What a great game, feel a little sad I missed out on this experience back in 2007.Thoroughly enjoyed every bit of this game. A little sad I only have ODST and Halo Reach left for the original games by Bungie but I'm savoring every moment. Onto ODST next.
Friday, August 18, 2023
Completed: Spryo 3: Year of the Dragon
My first ever Spyro game and I loved it. As a kid I was put off by how kiddie it seemed and I was more into Crash Bandicoot (because it was the 90s and you HAD to pick a side when it came to gaming mascots). How stupid I was. I wanted to play it on PS1 as opposed to the HD remakes to see what it was like back then and I was not disappointed. This is easily one of the most polished PS1 games I've ever played and as a fan of collectathons it's a bit silly it's taken me this long to play it. Would definitely like to play the rest in the trilogy at some point.
Wednesday, August 16, 2023
Completed: Batsugun
Another shmup and one that's considered the first bullet hell at that. I'm definitely not good enough to be playing bullet hell games but this one is way more manageable (I still died like a million times in the later levels). Power ups for all 3 characters are great, you can really blow up shit all over the screen with these fuckers, swear.
Completed: Cotton Reboot
I've been playing some shmups lately and had a lot of fun with Cotton Reboot. My first time playing a "cute'em up" and despite its cute look it is definitely a challenging game. I love all these re-issues of classic shmups since they allow for accessibility when it comes to lives and continues, however this game isn't that difficulty, especially if you put in some time to remember patterns of enemies. That being said I certainly continued multiple times before I beat the game.
Thursday, July 27, 2023
Completed: Super Mario 3D World
Technically had this beaten awhile ago but I did not want to count it until we had all the stars and stamps collected + every level completed. I know this isn't technically 100% what with all the flags but I do NOT care. Had so much fun playing and completing this and made even more fun doing it all together with B! Would love if they made another 3d Mario like this and 3D Land. There is nothing quite like a Nintendo-developed platformer.
Wednesday, July 26, 2023
A look to 20 years ago
Every now and then I like to look at old issues of EGM, my favorite magazine and dare I say the preeminent gaming mag at the time, and see what I would have been reading around this time, say 20 years ago. Since subscribers typically got a copy two months early, it would have been the September 2003 issue 170, which lines up since the cover story is an extensive Soul Calibur 2 review which was released July 5th.
Thankfully most of these are all archived in various places so I can take a trip back to a time when advertisements like this were commonplace.
Issue here: https://archive.org/details/electronic-gaming-monthly-issue-170-september-2003_20210611/mode/2up