General discussion / Latest purchases / Currently Playing?

[Leo656]

Originally Posted by frank_one

Finished Oracle of ages and now I'm at the fourth dungeon of Oracle of seasons. Masterpieces! Best games on the GBC.

They are really great, I really gotta play those again.

The Ganon fight kinda pissed me off because I HATE any game that has a mechanic where your controls are reversed for any reason, I just f*cking can't stand it, and it seems especially unreasonable for a Final Boss. But that was the only thing that aggravated me and it was at the very end of the game(s), and I did manage to beat it but I did mutter "F*CKING Capcom!" more than a couple times along the way first.

[Leo656]

On the latest Podcast, we do a 3-part deep dive into classic video game cartoons! Everything from Pac-Man to Captain N and everything in-between!

Part 1: The Originals - Pac-Man, Saturday Supercade and all the various shorts that went into them such as Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong Jr., Q*Bert and more!
https://odysee.com/@MarksFightingPod..._hv5xQnehWgxfI

Part 2: The stuff everyone remembers most fondly, the classic Super Mario Bros. Super Show, the original Mario cartoon shorts, and the Legend of Zelda!
https://odysee.com/@MarksFightingPod...JjwhfB3_M5V07c

Part 3: Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3, Super Mario World, and Captain N: The Game Master!
https://odysee.com/@MarksFightingPod...i2Z7U6HAz85b4o

Lots of general reminiscing, odd bits of trivia, and even some TMNT links by way of various voice actors. Definitely worth your time, we touched on pretty much everything with this one. Lotta fun.

No other video game-related podcast this year is gonna have anyone drop the phrase "raison d'etre" so you know we're a sophisticated group.

[shredder orokusaki]

Today is the release date of Asterigos Curse of the stars. It is the first game of a new games company called Acme Studio. It is action game in ancient times and the enemies are monsters. As always, i kill them all! I just started playing it. Here see some gameplay of it!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_BCTwhrg-g

[shredder orokusaki]

And i just finisehd TERMINATOR RESITANCE! IT WAS VERY GOOD. I DESTROYED ALL ROBOTS!

[Turo602]

Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze
Finished Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze a while ago, which I first started on the Wii U back in 2017 after completing Breath of the Wild for the first time. I must've done at least 3 worlds before I let it fall to the wayside. I had enjoyed the game just fine, but after experiencing a game like Breath of the Wild, it was hard for me to find something that would measure up.

Guess that was a side effect of having immersed myself into such a rich and expansive world for so long and Donkey Kong was unfortunately one of the few games I never completed during that period. It just wasn't the right transitional game for me. So I finally decided to start it up from scratch on the Switch and holy sh*t am I glad that's behind me. The game was great and easily one of the best 2D platformers I've ever played, but it was really stressful, which probably contributed to me putting it off before as well.

I don't know if I'm just putting too much pressure on myself because there's just way too many hidden collectibles in each level and the completionist in me just doesn't feel right moving on until I've cleared it all. While not as excessive as Crash Bandicoot 4, it is very much in the same vein and was actually the reason I stopped playing Crash 4 which I would really like to get back to someday. But the levels are tough enough as is to be worrying about arbitrary collectibles, yet I must collect them all or the level just doesn't feel complete.

But the challenge was never unfair and I found that once I wasn't worrying about collecting stuff, I was able to blast my way through levels that had otherwise been giving me trouble. It's a satisfying test of skill with some really cool and unique levels and I really enjoyed the inclusion of Dixie and Cranky as companions as they added a level of variety to the gameplay with their unique abilities that completely alter your strategy and approach to certain levels. Though personally, I found myself sticking with Dixie the most as her extra air time and slight boost up completely reduced the margin for error in platforming.

My only real issue with Tropical Freeze aside from my own mental block was how often challenge rooms would repeat themselves for a puzzle piece. I think they ultimately disrupt the pace of the levels and add unnecessary repetition to the experience. I know they're a staple of the series but they definitely need to either reinvent them or start implementing them throughout the world map so they don't detract from the levels themselves.

This game was also originally released before the trend of removing lives in platformers which was a great change for the genre and after playing Tropical Freeze, I couldn't help but feel like it contributed to that shift as lives were pretty meaningless here with how easy they were to obtain as I was hovering around 100 lives for the majority of the game despite dying all the time.

Kirby and the Forgotten Land
Next up was Kirby and the Forgotten Land which started strong and ended kinda flat. It's not a particularly challenging game for the majority of its run. You can practically blast through levels with relative ease but the meat of the levels is in completing various challenges and finding all the Waddle Dees. This could have been a pretty charming and leisure experience had it not been for its lousy endgame and the constant treasure road challenges.

I understand copy abilities are a huge thing in Kirby, but this felt like false marketing. While these challenge levels are pretty brief, there's just way too many of them, more than the actual levels, and with how often you have to replay them just to reach the "target time" that you get absolutely nothing for other than being a reminder of what an asshole you are for not being able to beat the target time, these levels end up being damn well half the experience, which I was not expecting.

Some of these challenge levels are pretty easy and some are actually pretty fun, especially when you manage the target time on your first try. But then there's also many instances when you find yourself constantly redoing one and just putting absolutely too much effort into these otherwise novel stages because the timing is either too close or some mechanic or strategy was never properly conveyed to you. It's not a huge deal, but I felt they disrupted the pacing of the game. Then again, that's also on me and my completionist compulsion.

My real gripe however comes from its very poor endgame which just recycles past areas from every level and strings them together in an excessive collectathon quest. At this point, you would have fully upgraded all the copy abilities which can now be further enhanced, but cost rare stones to do so which you primarily got from completing the treasure road stages and can only be obtained the one time. That means in order to get more, you need to keep beating the colosseum over and over again which is tedious. There's even a difficulty spike during this part in the game and even after you finish the game, there's now a third colosseum challenge which is insanely tough without the necessary upgrades, so you're basically stuck grinding for rare stones if you want that 100%.

But that's not even the worst of it. The game also has several side activities like fishing, serving food, and the colosseum which I've already mentioned. But holy hell, the most frustrating thing in this pink fluffy f*cking child's game is this garbage ass tilt and roll game that isn't even that challenging and actually a cool use of the Switch's motion controls, until you beat all three obstacles and unlock the next set of harder courses which now cost 5 coins to attempt instead of the usual 1. The first 2 are easily achievable, even within the target time limit. But whoever was responsible for the last one can go kill themselves.

I swear, I burnt through thousands of coins very quickly, attempting and damn near getting close to the finish. I re-tried it so many times that I mastered the early part of the course, that is when the motion controls are functioning properly, but the last bullsh*t part of it is seriously just a f*cking cruel test of patience, self-control, and pure f*cking luck under the duress of a f*cking time limit. Luckily, these more challenging courses weren't necessary for the 100%, but just like all the stupid time limit goals, is a bullsh*t reminder that you weren't good enough.

[Turo602]

Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap
This one surprised me in quite a few different ways. I knew it was a remake of an older game, but the new art style, colorful characters and world, and its side-scrolling platforming is what really drew me in. What I didn't expect was for it to feel like such an old game, yet at the same time feel so modern. I've never heard of the Wonder Boy series prior to this game so I honestly didn't really know what to expect.

Turns out the game is an early Metroidvania, before the term Metroidvania even existed and it's amazing how well designed and forward thinking it is despite showing its age in other areas. For instance, combat isn't exactly as smooth as you'd like it to be and that's thanks to bullsh*t enemy patterns that have enemies moving around sporadically. Combine that with an annoying damage animation that sends your character flying back everytime you get hit and you're gonna find yourself stuck in never ending loops of getting your ass kicked with no recovery. Thankfully, you don't seem to take any extra damage from these constant loops until your character stops blinking, making something quite dreadful into more of a minor nuisance.

From what I gather, there isn't much changed from the original game outside of its presentation, except for the ability to scroll through sub weapons at the press of a button and the much needed autosave feature in place of a password system. One change I was surprised they didn't make was the addition of a map as these type of games can become rather confusing without one. However, to the game's credit, its excellent design and use of character transformations at the end of each boss makes traversal so much easier as each transformation comes with a new ability that opens up a new path that pretty much takes you on a linear journey to the next boss.

I never really found myself getting lost but I don't think I can solely credit its design for that as its new presentation can't be understated either. There's so many brand new visual cues on screen and everything just pops out more, making locations much more memorable. I actually ended up really enjoying the game despite some of its shortcomings like invisible doors and grindy money collecting because progression never stops. Even when you die, you're back at the central hub of the game, but you retain everything you've collected (minus the sub weapons) making you feel much more capable with every retry.

But none of that would matter to me if it weren't for its brand new visuals, music, and animations. Seriously, I can't explain just how much it makes a difference but it really does. Nothing against 8-bit graphics, I think a game like Super Mario Bros. 3 still holds up visually, but I can't say the same for Wonder Boy thanks to the amazing feature that let's you interchangeably switch between both its old and new graphics and soundtrack and I honestly can't see myself looking at the old game and finding it appealing in any way.

Every now and then I would switch the graphics just to see what certain things looked like and the only thing I could think is just how much I would love to see more classic 8-bit titles get this same exact treatment that honors and respects what these retro games meant to people by not altering them, but building on top of them so that they can appeal to a new generation while also preserving those old experiences by allowing you to peek under the hood and experience the game as it was, but with the accessibility and convenience afforded by modern controllers and hardware.

Anyway, might get high, grow out a mullet, and hit a few DDTs or something.

[shredder orokusaki]

i STARTED playing Gotham Knights on Friday when it released. While it is not as agood as the previous Batman games and especially the Akrham series it is not as bad as some review say. It has amazing graphics at max graphics and max ray tracing 1440p that realy shows whe power of strong graphics cards like mine RX 6700XT 12 GB RED DEVIL. And as action game it is good. Not as other super hero games like Spiderman and Batman Arkahm games but just good. I recomend it.
HERE SEE ME KILLING ALL CRIMINALS

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6iMRxUcgD8

[Storm Eagle]

Sega Genesis Mini 2

[shredder orokusaki]

Sinceo ne week and 2 days ago i play sonic frontiers whicb is the second best game of the year (besti s my new game TEENAGE MUTANT SHREDDER REVENGE). It is very good . But what i dotn like is that it also have lot of exploeraiton and not just action like the previous sonic games . It also broke sales records on pc. See here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J21n45yR4ug

https://gamerant.com/sonic-frontiers...-record-steam/

[shredder orokusaki]

i STARTED playinG SPIDERMAN MILES MORALES THAT released yesterday on pc howeveri wil not finish it until i finish first Sonic frontiers!

I play it with maxed graphics and maxed ray t racing 1440p with FSR 2.1 and it runs 60 fps on mym onster pc RYZEN 7 1700 16 GB DDR4 3200MHZCL15 RX 6700XT 12 GB RED DEVIL MP 600 2TB WRITE:4950MB/S READ:4250MB/S DELLP2416D 24''2 560X1440 60 HZ IPS. SE my video here
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0S8EgQYmzI

[shredder orokusaki]

i STARTED plying Evil West and i kill all the monsters! It is like DOOM and shadow warrior but in third person! I kill them very brutally and make those monters suffer! Now they see why IAM THE SHREDDEER!! Take a look here it is very good!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTGl6KEKl2s&t=19s

[shredder orokusaki]

Yesterday i started playing Valkyrie Elisiiun It is a new action game by Square enix where i fight and kill monsters in Valhala! It released one month ago and iti s very good, As you know i kill again all monsters! See here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wf45HKQAnKI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bKkeMtIK28

[Storm Eagle]

It looks like some older Zelda amiibo are going back into circulation since preorders on a site based in France have gone live.

https://nintendowire.com/news/2023/0...f-the-kingdom/

I imported the Twilight Princess Link, Skyward Sword Link, and Wind Waker Zelda amiibo, and I'd repurchase them from a vendor in the US if I'm quick enough. I'm also missing the Bokoblin amiibo. I also get the feeling that there will be at least one new amiibo made specifically for Tears of the Kingdom. I still haven't preordered that game yet. I'm still waiting to see if there'll be a special edition release with extra stuff.

[Dpooly84]

Just scored a box of 40 snes games for 100 bucks, the DK country trilogy, Super Metroid, Mario kart, 2 copies of link to the past. Gonna clean them, test them, then sell my duplicates.

[Dpooly84]

Originally Posted by Dpooly84

Just scored a box of 40 snes games for 100 bucks, the DK country trilogy, Super Metroid, Mario kart, 2 copies of link to the past. Gonna clean them, test them, then sell my duplicates.

Update it took 10 hours to clean these carts, every single game was so dirty they wouldn't play. I got them all cleaned and running, I should net over 200 in profits and added 26 games to my collection. The sleeper was a random Flintstones game that goes for 70 bucks, I love when that happens lol.

[Dpooly84]

Originally Posted by Dpooly84

Update it took 10 hours to clean these carts, every single game was so dirty they wouldn't play. I got them all cleaned and running, I should net over 200 in profits and added 26 games to my collection. The sleeper was a random Flintstones game that goes for 70 bucks, I love when that happens lol.

Update #2 lol sold 6 games and made my 100 back already, man I love retro gaming

[shredder orokusaki]

Since 12 days ago i started playing assasin creed valhala! iT IS very good like all the asssasin creed games are! And as you know i kill all the enemies very brutally as you see herehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pN_3dmQQy1I

[shredder orokusaki]

Yesterday i finished Klonoa and i started Klonoa 2 and today i will start DEAD SPACE REMAKE! Cant wait!

[newfan]

Well, kind of a 'latest purchase' Kirby's Return to Dreamland is coming out on the Switch later in Feb, I have pre-ordered a copy. It's for my child but I've played it on the Wii with him a lot (as Metaknight) so it'll be cool to have it on the Swtich.

[shredder orokusaki]

I started playing Liek a dragon ISHIN AA MAZING NINJA GAME FOR TRUE NINJAS LIKE ME THE SHREDDER! IT RELEASED YESTERDAY! A MUST PLAY!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jE8eEa6eY-s