Completed: Max Payne 2

Finished this one right before the year ended. I have started this game countless times but for some reason never finished it. Really feels like a winter game to me which spurred me on to play it again. An all-time classic. Like most Remedy games this shit is DRIPPING with style (and even substance, too) and shooting bad guys in slow motion will always be fun.

The viagra4free GOTY 2023 Award

Super Mario Wonder

                                                          We spared no expense this year in the graphics department

This 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.

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

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.

 

-TES: Skyrim. Having a lot of fun jumping back into the game and who knows, maybe I'll finally complete (does one actually complete Skyrim?) it.

-Gran Turismo 7. New SPEC II update has been a lot of fun for me and the new Sophy AI races are surprisingly fun. Still wish there was a standard championship mode like in GTs of old but I'll take what I can get.

 

-Pokemon Pinball: Ruby & Sapphire. This and the GBC Pokemon Pinball are such great games. I didn't play this when it released but it reminds me of a simpler time and that's good enough sometimes. Not to sell the game short though, easily the best pinball experience on the GBA.

 -SSB: Melee. Thanks to Slippi it's been a lot of fun getting destroyed by randoms in Melee. I'll never actually be good but that's okay

-Reel Fishing II. Welp, I'm officially into fishing games. There is something I love so much about the full motion video backgrounds. Couple that with relaxing music and catching some fuckin' fish and I'm all aboard.

 

 

-Mario Kart 7 and 8. We're always playing Mario Kart in some capacity in this household.

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!

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.

        

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.

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.

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

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.

 

 

 

 

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.

Loved: Pretty much everything. Definitely an all-time classic collectathon platformer

Meh: Playing as other characters could get old and feel forced but as the third game in the series I get why they added that to keep it fresh considering all three games were released in a 3 year span.

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.

 

 

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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.

Hell yeah: Wildly creative, incredible amounts of polish, great soundtrack (with nice throwbacks to Galaxy), seemingly endless amount of levels

Fuckin'ell: Champion's Road may be the hardest Mario level I've ever played

Completed (sort of): Mario's Picross

I'm not really counting this one yet since I've only completed the first 64 easy puzzles and am working through the hard ones now but god I love this game/nonograms despite never being into them before. But if Nintendo attaches Mario to any product they are hocking, I'll probably want to play it and this was no exception. It's great to now have something to regularly swap places with Tetris

Completed: Halo 2

What every great sequel should be. Gives you more of what you love about the first game and less of the stuff you didn't. The anniversary edition look incredible too despite being released years ago.

Liked: Setting and story. Murdering aliens with the energy sword

Disliked: Not the biggest fan of the Arbiter missions but do appreciate them trying to tell a story

Completed: Sonic CD

Imma keep it a buck with you: I don't really remember anything too specific in this game as I absolutely flew through it as fast as Sonic possibly could. Not because it's bad by any means but because the levels really allowed you to, ahem, GO FAST. I certainly have no idea about how any of the good or bad future stuff works and I don't really care because it was a fun and colorful experience throughout my time in the game. The developers definitely took advantage of whatever tiny boost they got from the Sega CD, it's a great looking and sounding game. Definitely has some of the coolest looking levels in a Sonic

Loved: Palmtree Panic's Present music from the US OST

Also loved: Palmtree Panic's Past music

Completed: Halo

Awesome first half of the game. A frustrating, monotonous slog for most the of the second part. Still though, a great story that I'm fully invested in and interested to see where it goes and to see how Bungie built upon this surprise, massive success in Halo 2

Completed: Sonic the Hedgehog 2

Continuing the trend of completing games I played endlessly as a child but never beat, here we are with Sonic 2. I'm a little torn between if this or Sonic 3 is my favorite but I feel like when it comes down to it, this is the overall better game. 

Completed: Sonic & Knuckles

And thus completing the combined game of Sonic 3 and Knuckles. Funny to think I pretty much never got past the third level in this game as a kid despite playing it an endless amount of times. Combined with Sonic 3 it forms a very fun and complete game. Sonic 3 felt like it had more memorable locations but this is still good game on its own.

Liked: Some really great music here

Hell yes: Finally becoming friends with Knuckles (when you play the Sonic story line)

Completed: Sonic 3

Decided to buy Sonic Origins Plus and finally beat Sonic 3 for the first time ever. This game isn't very long so not sure how I have never done this before but here we are. I have to say I prefer platforming in Mario compared to Sonic games but Sonic 3 is still a lot of fun and is one of the best looking games on the Genesis and still looks great today. The game tends to bog down a bit though when you aren't speeding through it and you slowly realize your biggest enemies are platforms that float up and down that can squish you and springs that you run into that send you flying backwards. Some of the modernizations in the Origins version are very welcome too, like being able to retry bonus stages by paying a coin for it. Onto completing Sonic & Knuckles now!

Liked: The changing environments of levels and the amount of boss fights

Loved: Collecting all the Chaos Emeralds and becoming Super Sonic for the first time ever

WTF: The amount of times you die being squished by some platform while you're flying through a level

Completed: Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins

Always torn including games I've beaten in the past on my end of the year lists but the fact remains I DID beat it and the last time I did I was probably 6 or so. Probably my favorite Game Boy game (up there with Tetris), certainly the best Mario game on the system. Still to this day has some of the more fun and unique settings for levels in a Mario game. Crazy to think how much I played this as a kid despite it taking about 45 minutes to beat. An all-time classic

Liked: Some of the more memorable Game Boy music ever

Loved: Mario with bunny ears. Also some of my favorite Mario box art ever

Loathed: Way too short 

 

 Screenshots from modded color version for your viewing pleasure