What game did you last play?!?!?!?

The Sims 2

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Well some townie decided to freeze outside my house :L
 
Kirby and the Forgotten Land
Wow the Ranger ability is really helpful for beating Gorimondo without any damage, it really lives up to its name considering how helpful it is for long range.

Also I got all the Waddle Dees in World 1, and was able to clear each of the special stages within the Target Time.

This is a fun game so far, except that I might dislike that the Copy Ability moves possible feel more simplistic than previous games (but maybe that's just me?)
 
I finally got around to playing Breath of the Wild, and I've been really enjoying it so far! It's the worst addiction for a completionist like me. I have to get all the map visible, right. Now.
 
I have been playing "Tears of the Kingdom". It is good, but I would have preferred something closer to Nintendo 64 or Gamecube/Wii Zelda. Breath of the Wild was good, but I am getting tired of that formula despite only being two games into it.
 
Mario Party: Island Tour (first time)

So, I kind of thought that after I bought and loved Mario Party Superstars for the Nintendo Switch that that I had enough Mario Party games but I saw this for like £9 so I thought why not and honestly I like it a lot. It's like a blend of Wii Party (a major difference from MP9 and MP10 is that the characters move separately rather than in a car together) and Mario Party 9, but it's on the 3DS and I'm really impressed with how they adapted Mario Party for the 3DS - moments like this are a reminder of how truly wonderful the 3DS is. I like the music and sound effects although I can tell much is re-used from MP9. The number of minigames (based on a couple of quick google search) is almost the same as MP9 and MP6 and more than MP10 which I think is pretty impressive for a handheld title.

I do have a few problems though, including:
  • No story mode - I know that MP9's story mode didn't really have a rich story and was basically just like the ordinary party mode with a specific character who mustn't win but even so I think having a goal is a good thing and I still remember being so happy when after having owned MP9 since I was a little kid, I finally beat Story Mode for the first time at like 17 or something
  • Like MP9 and MP10, possibly to a greater extent, most of the party mode is just luck. I literally win every minigame yet come 3rd due to luck alone.
  • I mean not that I'm asking Island Tour to copy MP9, but I feel like MP9's store had things like constellations and the DK's Jungle Ruins that gave more incentive to get points, but in this game it's just like bubbles that don't seem that cool
  • So my first party didn't involve a boss either in the middle or at the end, but I see from Free Play that boss minigames do exist so idk (oddly they're all unlocked at the start for some reason)
  • As with MP9 and MP10, and unlike MP6, the game is "sterilised" and only includes mainstream Mario characters, items, themes, references, etc.
  • No online play (though I'm 99% a single player person so it's not like I hugely care but it would have been nice)
  • Winning the parties is based solely on who gets to the goal first which I think is an inferior system to the Mini Stars / Mini Ztars and also the "get the most Stars" system.
  • No 1v3 minigames, co-op (e.g. Bowser Jr from MP9) or 1v1 minigames it seems?
Despite the above, I had a genuinely fun time with this game and I'm grateful to have picked it up.
 
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Burning Force

1989 arcade game by Namco, it's pretty much a Space Harrier clone except there's no vertical movement (outside of the boss areas where your airbike becomes a flying ship). Pretty fun.

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Also completely useless fact: the North American Sega Genesis release of the game tried desperately to hide the fact that you were playing as a female character named Hiromi Tengenji by claiming on the game's box and manual that you were instead playing as an unseen character alongside Hiromi who was training alongside her and directly 'guiding' her during the actual gameplay.

Amusingly Namco's own flier for the Genesis port did not at all try to hide the fact that Hiromi was the player character, which makes the decision to hide it on the box and manual even stranger.
 
Paper Mario Sticker Star (first time)

Probably should've mentioned this earlier as I've actually already gotten the first Royal Sticker. Started around a week ago but haven't been playing it that much (I think I'm around 2-3 hours in).

I feel like the boss was a bit too much of a difficulty spike (something @Fawfulthegreat64 warned me of, though I recall her saying that Sticker Star was one of the easier, and shorter, Mario RPGs), and Kersti said I could've won more easily by using a particular sticker, but how was I supposed to know?

I pretty much feel the same on this game as I did with Colour Splash so I hardly feel like repeating myself: The gameplay has some major issues but is overall okay, the music is pretty good, the artstyle is not too bad but definitely not as good as TTYD/SPM but the thing that really drags it down for me is the lack of story substance and extreme sterilisation regarding plot, characters, worlds, and enemies (like good grief they didn't even let Bowser talk???). As for Kersti, I don't really hate her but I definitely like her a lot less than Tippi, Huey and the partners from the first two Paper Mario games.

I definitely think this game is worse than Colour Splash, the main reasons being Kersti vs. Huey and having an inferior soundtrack
 
Bug Fables (Nintendo Switch) (first time)

So I got this game because I saw it was on special offer and I'd heard of it as being similar to the first two Paper Mario games, and because @Fawfulthegreat64 said it was a great game. For a while I was undecided between getting it on Switch vs PC but I ended up going with the former due to the special offer, plus finding out it doesn't use up much storage space.

I'm still extremely early into it (I think less than an hour's playtime total) but my impression is: gameplay wise, looks very promising, and clearly mimicing the first two Paper Mario games to such an extent I'm surprised Nintendo is okay having this game on their eShop. I'm not sure I see any sign of badges appearing yet, which imo was one of the best things about the first two games, so I hope they do come into it soon enough. The soundtrack is okay, but so far it's definitely much less good than TTYD/SPM although that's an extremely high bar to pass for me. I like the artstyle a lot too.

Story and characters is um... okay so far. I think it's definitely a lot harder to get into since they understandably can't use any Mario characters, settings, or species. I do like Vi a lot, and the other characters I've encountered so far are okay. I'm not sure I see any sign that the game is divided into chapters like the first three Paper Marios were, which would be a shame if so.

(Edit: on second thoughts I remember it saying "Chapter 1: A Dysfunctional Trio" implying it does indeed have a chapter format, though idk how many chapters there are.)

I feel that even for Super Paper Mario, which had the most out of the ordinary setting of the Mario RPGs, still had plenty of things that kept it familiar like the four heroes, plenty of recurring enemies, the Merlon clan, Fort Francis, iconic Mario items like coins and mushrooms, 8 chapter format, etc. Bug Fables can't use much of that, so that makes it harder for me to get attached to it, but I hope that I'll find myself getting more attached to it as I progress further into the game.

I'm also pleased that the text scrolling in this game functions similarly to the first three Paper Marios, where you could scroll quickly through text and go backwards within the same chain of text (oddly though, SPM didn't have a button that scrolls to the next block of text AND instantly completes the next block), unlike in Sticker Star and Colour Splash.

I think overall it looks a fairly promising game and I'm definitely curious to see how the game turns out later on. I'm still kinda hoping that this game will basically be as close as possible to being a true great successor to the first three Paper Mario games, whilst being understandably limited by the fact that it cannot use the Mario IP, but we'll have to see.
 
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Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga

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Don't want to know what is going on there or how these two Tatooine creatures merged with each other.

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Also found the battle droids like this lol.
 
Paper Mario: Sticker Star

Been playing this game a fair amount today (well technically yesterday as it's now passed midnight in England but ykwim), I'm now up to about 5 or 6 hours and I'm at around 3-7. I'm liking Chapter 3 the best so far, and I still remember being on a live stream with @Fawfulthegreat64 playing this chapter 3 years ago (which funnily enough, that was the first day of the summer holidays that year, and today/yesterday was the first day of my summer holidays this year ) so it was pretty nice to get to play it myself this time.

My feelings about the game as a whole are largely unchanged from my last post in this thread about this game, I think Chapter 2 was pretty weak/annoying, and I had to use a guide a fair amount, especially for the boss since
I don't think I otherwise would've figured out that I needed a baseball bat
And I have to be honest, even WITH exploiting the bosses' weakness, I still feel like this boss was way too much of a difficulty spike.

I've also been noticing that coins in this game are really plentiful, so I feel like the puzzles/exploration side of SS is quite hard but not really in a very fun way, and the battle side is largely easy, but the bosses are far too great a difficulty spike. Honestly, I think the game gets far too much hate on the gameplay side of things, and I personally feel that if SS didn't spit so badly in the face of its predecessors in other ways (especially the extreme sterilisation), I actually would've forgiven the major flaws with the gameplay. I guess I'm still of the view that when it comes to Mario RPGs, the story/characters/setting/writing is the most important thing to me as long as the gameplay is at least okay, which it is in Sticker Star.

Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door

Had a total blast with this game today, playing this game in Dolphin with the HD texture pack it holds up so well and is so engaging to replay, imo it's still easily the best Mario RPG in terms of gameplay. The HD texture pack truly is a blessing and with it, TTYD could almost pass as a modern game.

I'm still a huge lover of the characters of this game and lately especially I've really been appreciating how much I love Vivian, in fact she's probably at the moment my favourite Mario character. I replayed Chapter 2 today (hence my post in "Things you didn't notice before in Mario games" thread earlier today) and unfortunately German is the only other language besides English that she is not mentioned as being trans in the game but I still definitely think of her as trans anyway. I also found out that she's renamed Barbara in the German localization which uh okay? Another thing I picked up is that Marilyn is also renamed Roberta and I believe she speaks full sentences in the German localisation?

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Overall I'm as much in love with this game as ever, and I'm honestly considering that this might be my favourite Paper Mario game now.

Mario & Luigi: Dream Team

Currently in the early ish stages of my first playthrough in Citra (I still have my 3DS, but I just wanted to see how the game is on emulator). I'm in Dreamy Wakeport at the moment. I think it's pretty funny how Thunder Sass shares the gimmick with Shrowser from Partners in Time.

I guess I do find a bit frustrating that there's so much getting slowed down in a way. Like, we need to climb Mount Pajama, so we need to take the tour, so we need to find the tour guide, so we need to go into the dream world to find him, so we need to fight him, but we need to fight all his minions first, but we need to FIND them first.

But still, Dream Team is still a fantastic game with a beautiful story and soundtrack, and mostly very fun gameplay too (I really enjoyed the Luiginary Works in Dreamy Wakeport), I probably still feel that this is my favourite M&L game but it's hard to decide when I also adore Superstar Saga and Bowser's Inside Story so much (and Partners in Time close behind too).

Super Paper Mario

So with all my playing TTYD and loving its gameplay, combined with reading a few critical reviews of this game recently, and honestly, I felt that more than ever I can understand where the critics are coming from. I'm still very regretful about the amount of arguments I got into over this game during my first half a year or so on the boards. So I decided to pick this game up again (also on emulator with HD textures), and thank goodness, I still had a blast playing this. I played through Chapter 4 again and I had a great time with story, gameplay, and music alike. I still love Mr. L a lot, Soft Light is still one of my favourite music tracks from the franchise, and honestly I also still really like the gameplay, the only thing that really bothered me is the low difficulty level. I fought Mr. L in 3D which was kinda interesting but I also feel that even then the fight was a little basic especially having played loads of TTYD and Dream Team earlier the same day. Brobot was a really fun fight though, sadly a bit too easy but I still managed to have a great time with it.

In all truth I do think a huge part of my love for the game is due to combination of the fact that I was very young when I first played it, and that it was my first Mario RPG. I do wonder what my thoughts on it would be if I'd only played it as an adult. It's honestly a really big deal that for the first time in 11 years I'm actually considering dethroning it as my favourite Mario game. But nonetheless, I had a great time playing this game and I'm sure that no matter what I decide, the game will have a dear place in my heart for as long as I live.
 
playing the Switch Port NES Mario Classics in order
Donkey Kong has 3 unique stages. And you know what, after going through the trouble of helping Jumpman rescue Lady and her parasols and purse.. he goes behind your back and cages Donkey Kong.
Now you play Donkey Kong Jr. and rescue Donkey Kong from Jumpman, who whips alligators at you and sends poopy birds. Level 1 is in the jungle, Level 2 is in the computer. No, really, the fight's taken through the fabrics of reality. There's once again 3 unique stages.
Now we're back with Jumpman, he's got a job as a plumber. Mario Bros. He's got an identical twin brother with a green mustache. Creatures from another world pour out of pipes, like turtles and crabs. It's up to the bros to slay and get paid. But they got shoes with no traction, and they call themselves plumbers. There's 22 unique stages.
I'm trying.
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The boots Jumpman's got on are the same Mr. Krabs bought Pearl for her birthday, the squeaky boots!
 
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MegaBowser64 said:
Burnout Paradise Remastered on switch. Probably the funnest game where you can just go insanely fast and try not to blow up your car.
Click to expand...

What is your favorite vehicle.

Mine is this thing.
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Skyrim, on a Breton playthrough. Passing through the Labydorium was a doozy, I'm only lvl 7, had to run from the pack of snow trolls, then get chased and butt nipped by a pack of wolves, all the while trying not to die from the cold. Made it to warmth but what's there? Giants with their mammoths! They got nervous, I hid behind some boulders and snuck away.
All this from visiting the bards college.
 
LEGO Indiana Jones 2: The Adventure Continues [Nintendo DS Version] (first time)

So, as I just beat the DS version of Lego Indiana 1, I decided to move onto its sequel which unlike LIJ1 DS, and also unlike the PC/Wii versions of LIJ1 and LIJ2, I never played as a kid - this is my first time. I'm honestly not sure why I never played this game earlier, as I've known of its existence since I was a little kid from a TV commercial.

So the game starts off with an original cutscene in an airplane, where Indiana and Marion (his love interest and companion from the first story, Raiders of the Lost Ark) are in an airplane and then several of the main antagonists of the franchise appear, including Irina Spalko, Mola Ram, Arnold Toht, and Dr. Elsa Schneider. The resulting fight causes the villains to fall out of the airplane. Indiana reaches for the inflatable lifeboat (in reference to the Temple of Doom), but Marion finds parachutes and so the pair escape using those.

The gameplay begins with Indiana and Marion stuck in an unfamiliar forest. The gameplay starts out very similar to LIJ1 DS. As before, the touchscreen may be used for whip actions, but I don't, as it's not required. A new addition is green pads which allow one character to throw another into the air in order to reach a higher ledge. I was also extremely dissappointed that LIJ2 DS makes no attempt to have an aimable cursor for the whip (and also for weapons and throwable objects) which imo was one of the greatest improvements of LIJ2 over its predecessor (albeit also the reason why playing it in Dolphin sucks, so I bought the PC version of LIJ2 but not LIJ1).

After a few minutes of gameplay it transpires that this mysterious forest is in fact the game's hub world. You go past the gate, complete a small challenge, and unlock a level. The levels are added to your journal and you can play them from there any time. Whilst playing, I got an unfortunate feeling that the game seems to only include Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (depsite characters from the first 3 stories appearing in the unique intro cutscene), a fact that I have confirmed according to the game's Wikipedia page. That, of course, is a huge, huge dissappointment as whilst I did enjoy both versions of LIJ1, which was based on the first 3 stories, I also loved the spins on the first 3 stories in the Wii/PC version of LIJ2, even if they were much less faithful to the actual films.

I can't 100% confirm this at this point, but it seems to me at this point that it's extremely unlikely this game includes any form of Level Creator, which again is a huge letdown given how much I loved the level creator of the Wii/PC LIJ2. I always kind of hoped that the DS version would have an equivalent, but today that dream was crushed. It does, however, retain the "make your own adventure" feature but I can honestly say I only rarely used that in LIJ2 so it's hardly a consolation for the lack of a level builder.

The characters in this game do have dialogue, albeit in the form of text boxes rather than voice acting. This is unlike both versions of LIJ1 and the Wii/PC counterpart of LIJ2. Specifically, a few characters in the hub world talk (I've only encountered two so far, one for each challenge to unlock a level). I sorta have mixed/neutral feelings about this. I don't mind seeing a bit more of the characters' personalities, but I also think that LIJ2 being so funny without having any dialogue was kind of iconic.

I've beaten 2 levels so far. The platforming and puzzle challenge for the first was alright, but the boulder rolling challenge for the second was a nightmare.

My opinion of the game improved a lot once I got into the levels. I've played two levels so far, and they correspond to the first two Story levels from Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. The cutscenes involve written monologues from Indiana himself, which honestly is kinda one of my favourite things about this game. The levels themselves are fairly well designed and engaging, and it seems each one of them has a timed challenge? In the first it was a timed 3 minute obstacle course whilst getting shot at, in the second a slide whilst collecting as many coins as possible. I think the first one was a bit harder than I'd like but I enjoyed both.

I also think it's super weird how the first level starts off with... the two main VILLAINS of KotCS joining the party as playable characters???? Yet Spalko's still a villain in the cutscenes?!

Also I'm really bothered that they replaced Mac's gun with a spade, since Mac being the guy with the gun in the first level was always iconic to me. You do unlock a gun in the first level though, so I chose to let Mac have it.

The artstyle and graphics is basically the same, and the music is pretty decent in line with its predecessor (it's not as good as Wii/PC LIJ2 though, especially without Nocturnal Activities).



Conclusion: I am disappointed with this game. It's a decent handheld LIJ adventure in its own right, but it falls far, far flat of its Wii/PC counterpart and also fails to attain the same quality as the first LIJ on the DS. The things I enjoyed the most about LIJ2 on the Wii/PC included the Level Builder, the inclusion of the first 3 stories + KotCS divided into 3 parts (for a total of 6 stories), each of those stories having a unique explorable hub world, Treasure Mode remixes of the main story levels, Bonus levels hidden around the hub world

And Super Bonus Levels which were unlocked by beating all 15 levels (5 Story, 5 Treasure, and 5 Bonus) in each hub world and gave you a mission of gathering 1,000,000 studs in a level with a really cool real-world theme where you can't take damage or lose.

I loved PC/Wii LIJ2 for each of the 5 Story levels in each world being in some order:
  • A puzzle level
  • A miniboss level
  • A fighting level
  • A racing level
  • The chapter boss level (always last of course)

The DS version carries over NONE of what I just listed. It truly breaks my heart to see the DS counterpart of a childhood favourite steer so far from everything I loved about the PC/Wii version. Nonetheless, I'm still enjoying playing it, and for better or worse, I'm going to keep playing it until the end.

Do I recommend the game? I'd say not if you haven't played LIJ1 on the DS - I'd always recommend LIJ1 first as far as the DS goes, it's better in every way. If you already played LIJ1 DS and you want more, I might recommend LIJ2 DS, but I'd not expect anything on the same level of quality. If you've played PC/Wii LIJ2, you may like its DS version but expect a totally different game apart from its being based on KotCS.
 
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