Friday's Ultimate Vanity Project: 100 Games, 100 Reviews

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Friday's Ultimate Vanity Project: 100 Games, 100 Reviews

Postby Friday » Tue Apr 21, 2020 6:37 pm

Yep.

This is really happening.

Why? Because it's a project to kill time while I can't see any of my real life friends, mostly. Even I can only watch so much garbage anime.

But, hopefully we'll get some decent discussion out of it. Feel free to chime in and tell me my choices suck dick and why isn't X game here you fucking bitch

(Chances are it's because I simply haven't played it. But maybe I have and I liked it but it just didn't make the cut. Even with 100 games I had to leave some of them on the floor. I've played a ton of games in my life and even with 90 slots I had to shoot some of my babies.)

90, you ask? Can I even count?!

Well it turns out I already did my top ten, so. If you're curious about them, go look at that thread.

Now, here's the thing I've always found absurd about top 100 lists (of anything, not just games) is that are you seriously telling me you think number 76 is superior to number 81 or whatever? You can't order fucking games that finely on a top 100 list. So, while the top ten are ordered, I'm not ordering the games on this list EXCEPT in tiers of 10.

That means that I think 11-20 is better than number 25, but I don't think 25 is better than 26. All the games are grouped by tier, so anything in the same chunk of ten should be considered pretty much equal.

Also, this is my personal list. It's also a favorites list. As stated in my top ten, an objective "best" list would look different, because I'd take a lot more into account than just my personal enjoyment. Again, I'm not ignoring other factors entirely, but the number one thing for getting on this list is "Friday likes you". The list is also, for obvious reasons, heavily biased towards the systems and games I played. So, a lot of SNES.

So, I spent the last three hours or so of my life making the list in its totality, first getting abouts 150 games I liked, cutting 50 or so, and weighing each remaining game and then placing it onto a tier. I will now start from the bottom and work my way up. I plan to hopefully update this thread about once or twice a day, which means this won't be finished for about 2-3 months. Strap yourselves in, friends, because I'm about to subject you to my opinions about videogames.

(Also I'm like 99% sure I forgot some games so I will almost certainly go back and change this list when one of you goes FRIDAY WHAT ABOUT THIS and I go SHIT and retcon my list)

Oh, one last thing. This is single player games. As stated in my top ten multiplayer games, I consider them different types of gameplay. Of course, a lot of the games on this list will have multiplayer components, but I will be basing my choices on the strength of their single player experience. A lot of otherwise excellent games got cut because of this, as I don't consider Diablo 2 to be that great as a solo-offline only playthrough.

Lets go, internet friends!
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Re: Friday's Ultimate Vanity Project: 100 Games, 100 Reviews

Postby Friday » Tue Apr 21, 2020 6:46 pm

100. Marble Madness (NES)

Marble Madness is a game about rolling a marble through marble hell before time runs out and marble Satan steals your marble soul.

It's short, simple, and brutally difficult. Just my thing!

My brother and I played this as kids as one of the very few NES games that allowed simultaneous 2 player play. It was, of course, a competition and my brother beat me every time. So I eventually secretly practiced a ton and beat him in a glorious upset that I still make fun of him about today.

Good times.

I know, I know, that's MULTIPLAYER MEMORIES FRIDAY you fucking NOT EVEN OBEYING YOUR OWN RULES RIGHT OFF THE BAT. But Marble Madness is something I enjoy just as a quick diversion every once in awhile. I'm really, really good at it. Like, speedrunner good. I have deathless runs. Yeah.

Do I recommend this game:
If you hate marbles and like unfair challenges, yes. Otherwise no.
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Re: Friday's Ultimate Vanity Project: 100 Games, 100 Reviews

Postby Friday » Tue Apr 21, 2020 6:53 pm

99. Wild Guns (SNES)

Oh boy, robot cowboys.

Wild Guns is a gallery shooter but you also have a dude you control. It's pretty unique that way, actually. You can be a cowboy or cowgirl (or dog in the remake for Steam/PC) and you shoot giant robots. It's actually rad as fuck.

Powerups abound. Shoot down enemy incoming bullets to charge your SUPER METER and unleash HELL DEATH on EVIL ROBOTS who are also COWBOYS.

It's even 2player (4! in the remake) co-op! But the single player experience is still a ton of fun!

It starts of pretty mild but the difficulty ramps way the fuck up in the later stages. You know, like a good difficulty curve should. It's balanced on the harder side, though.

Do I recommend this game:
Yes. It's got unique gameplay, awesome music, sound, and theme, and you can pick up the dynamite enemies throw at you and throw it back at them. 9/10 you can even select the color of your characters clothes. Which means I am always the Blonde in the Black Dress.
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Re: Friday's Ultimate Vanity Project: 100 Games, 100 Reviews

Postby Friday » Tue Apr 21, 2020 7:03 pm

98. Zombies Ate My Neighbors (SNES)

As Niku said in the SNES poll, Zombies Ate My Neighbors is a game that gets by on style rather than gameplay, and he was 100% accurate.

But what style.

Let me put it this way. You can throw a knife and a fork at a werewolf and it will one-shot an otherwise extremely tough enemy that normally takes a lot of punishment to go down. You know. Because "silverware."

The gameplay is a top down shooter with tons of items to collect. Your goal in each stage is to rescue the victims before they are killed, by Zombies or otherwise.

The game throws every single horror movie bad guy at you, from Cursed Evil Dolls to Vampires to Cheerleader-kidnapping Martians to Giant Babies that attack you by squirting milk out of their bottle. (No, really.)

There's a fuckload of consumable weapons to collect and use. Holy Crosses, six packs of soda that act as grenades, a weedwhacker, medkits, key, bazookas, potions that turn you into an invincible explosive force-punching monster, this game has it all. And it's 2p co-op!

Do I recommend this game:
Yeah, you can't really go wrong unless you just hate all forms of action games. It's worth checking out just for the atmosphere and style. Play it with a friend if you can, but if you missed this one growing up, then you've never truly killed a Giant Baby with a bazooka.
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Re: Friday's Ultimate Vanity Project: 100 Games, 100 Reviews

Postby Friday » Tue Apr 21, 2020 7:21 pm

97. Act Raiser (SNES)

Well, this is the first game on this list that I'd consider "art", whatever that fucking means.

With a soundtrack by the eminent Yuzo Koshiro (seriously, click the link above) this game has music that will electrify your nipples and leave skid marks on your soul further electrify your nipples. The graphics are colorful and vibrant in a sort of generic "early SNES" kind of way, but they're no slouch.

The gameplay is very unique. Equal parts city sim and 2d action platformer, you play as "The Master" (God in the Japanese Release) tasked with restoring human civilization to earth after Satan fucking killed everyone and infested the world with monsters. Each stage is divided into 4 basic parts:

1. go down and clear out the monsters
2. build the city
3. oh fuck more monsters go kill them too
4. finish building the city

Building the city gains you items and exp that help you during the sidescrolling stages. You can't always finish a city off at first, either because you lack the magic or some item needed to complete it, so you'll have to return to earlier stages sometimes when you get more stuff from later stages.

Eventually after defeating all the bosses from part 3 in each area you can go to the final stage and fight Satan in a 1v1 duel.

Act Raiser is a wonderful unique game that absolutely deserved a far better sequel than Act Raiser 2, which improved the graphics, got rid of the city building, upped the difficulty factor by a million, and basically is just the most disappointing thing since Chrono Cross didn't let you recruit GuileMagus.

Do I recommend this game:
Absolutely. It's unique and good. I don't hold it in as high esteem as some but I would never say anything bad about it except "meteor spell OP".
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Re: Friday's Ultimate Vanity Project: 100 Games, 100 Reviews

Postby Thad » Tue Apr 21, 2020 7:34 pm

I played the Japanese version a few years ago. It's harder, partially because magic spells don't all take 1 MP. Meteor is still overpowered (it takes 2 MP, but it's still more powerful than the two later spells that take more than that), but since it costs twice as much you can't just spam bosses with it. The two Marana bosses are way harder.

Also, are all spikes instant-death in the US version? I'm pretty sure only some of them are instant-death in the US version, though it's been ages since I played it.

There's a translation patch, which is interesting mostly because it just straight-up calls you "God" and the bad guy "Satan", but also fixes a few of the more baffling bits of localization (like in the ending when the angel tells you that Teddy's lot was drawn, which you already knew; the correct line is that Teddy rigged the lottery and tried to sacrifice himself).

I think on the whole the difficulty nerfs in the US release are a good idea; they overcorrect a little bit and end up making some of the bosses too easy, but I think it winds up being better-balanced than the Japanese version.

Sega put out a game called SolSeraph last year that was intended as an ActRaiser successor. By all accounts it was not good. I'm tempted to buy it anyway, just to encourage more companies to try to make similar games.

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Re: Friday's Ultimate Vanity Project: 100 Games, 100 Reviews

Postby Friday » Tue Apr 21, 2020 7:35 pm

96. Blackthorne (SNES)

Yeah, I'm a weirdo for liking this game.

One of the few games back when "your jump sucks and movement sucks and you can die instantly" was in vogue, this Prince of Persia clone but with a shotgun and orcs is a dark fantasy, er, Prince of Persia clone. But with a shotgun. And orcs.

Also, Blizzard made it. You know, a few years before they started being China's censorship puppet bitch.

THINGS YOU CAN DO IN THIS GAME:
press the y button to shoot behind you without looking, a move as cool as it is useless
shoot innocent chained up prisoners
get shot off a cliff and die instantly
fuck up a running jump by one tile and fall two screens and die instantly
a sick as fuck final boss fight as your reward for getting through the final half of the game which is honestly kind of a slog

Do I recommend this game:
No. It's not terrible or anything but compared to modern shit it's just too slow, frustrating, and unforgiving. I guess if you're a big fan of the "realistic platformer" Prince of Persia genre. It's got pretty good graphics and a nice dark fantasy theme, but that's not enough to save it from its overly "die and repeat section, slowly because game is slow and you were trying to hurry so you fell and died again" core gameplay loop.
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Re: Friday's Ultimate Vanity Project: 100 Games, 100 Reviews

Postby Friday » Tue Apr 21, 2020 7:43 pm

I played the Japanese version a few years ago. It's harder, partially because magic spells don't all take 1 MP. Meteor is still overpowered (it takes 2 MP, but it's still more powerful than the two later spells that take more than that), but since it costs twice as much you can't just spam bosses with it. The two Marana bosses are way harder.

Also, are all spikes instant-death in the US version? I'm pretty sure only some of them are instant-death in the US version, though it's been ages since I played it.

There's a translation patch, which is interesting mostly because it just straight-up calls you "God" and the bad guy "Satan", but also fixes a few of the more baffling bits of localization (like in the ending when the angel tells you that Teddy's lot was drawn, which you already knew; the correct line is that Teddy rigged the lottery and tried to sacrifice himself).

I think on the whole the difficulty nerfs in the US release are a good idea; they overcorrect a little bit and end up making some of the bosses too easy, but I think it winds up being better-balanced than the Japanese version.

Sega put out a game called SolSeraph last year that was intended as an ActRaiser successor. By all accounts it was not good. I'm tempted to buy it anyway, just to encourage more companies to try to make similar games.


Huh. Interesting stuff. Yeah, I think erring on the side of easy is almost always a better way to balance a game. Act Raiser really was a magical, unique gem even among the excellent sea that is the SNES library.

Like I said, before, it's the first game I'd consider "art" because it actually has a theme and something to say about human nature. The ending is bittersweet as hell, but poignant in a way you didn't see games trying to be very much back then.
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Re: Friday's Ultimate Vanity Project: 100 Games, 100 Reviews

Postby Friday » Tue Apr 21, 2020 7:56 pm

95. Ultima VI: The False Prophet (SNES)

uhhghghhhh.

How do I justify this being on my top 100 even all the way at the bottom?

Okay, so this game is... well, it's an Ultima game, and it's not one of better ones.

But here's the thing, and why I give it a slot on my top 100.

The world of Ultima 6 doesn't care about you.

Oh, sure, you're the chosen one and everything, after all you're the Avatar as usual, but unlike all the other RPGs I was playing at the time, Ultima 6 just dumps you into the world, gives you a vague goal, and then says "okay go wherever the fuck you want."

Something like 90% of this game is completely pointless and optional. NPCs have a life of their own, daily schedules, and most of them don't know dick about anything. There's piles and piles of pointless text in this game. I think the speedrun of this game is like 20 minutes without glitches because once you actually know what to do it's pretty easy to just teleport to the locations you need in sequence to finish the game. A blind playthrough is about gathering information (more like sifting useful info from the massive pile of useless or sidequest NPC stuff) and figuring out what to do with it.

Your goal is to liberate the 8 shrines of virtue and then somehow "end the threat" of the gargoyles, but the rest is up to you. You can use the moonstones to randomly teleport around, explore the vast, vast wilderness on foot, gather ingredients to make spells, learn magic, gather materials to make a triple crossbow for Iolo, get lost in a huge swamp and die, get lost in a huge forest and die, get lost in huge dungeons and die, whatever.

I've never seen a game before or since that gave me such a sharp impression of a world that exists in spite of, instead of around, the player. It's almost... cold. Cruel, and uncaring, if you want to wander out into a bleak endless empty world and die, that's your business.

I fully admit this game is only here because of nostalgia and because of the strange impact it had on me at the time.

Do I recommend this game:
no no no. Probably the most no of any game on this list. If you're a super hardcore oldschool Western RPG fan, then I guess maybe, but even then there are better Ultima games to play, like I said.
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Re: Friday's Ultimate Vanity Project: 100 Games, 100 Reviews

Postby Friday » Tue Apr 21, 2020 8:46 pm

94. The Battle of Olympus (NES)

Imagine Simon's Quest and Zelda 2 went into the closet and had a baby and you saw one of the babies and the baby looked at you.

Battle of Olympus (or "Total fuckin' zelda 2 rip off no Tatakai" in Japan) only had a dev team of three people.

Three people!

Fucking ek2 had a bigger dev team than that!

We're wasting our liiiiiiiiiiiiiiiives

anyway

The game is, as aforementioned, sort of a blend in the gamestyle and play of Simon's Quest and Zelda 2, in that it plays like Zelda 2 but is laid out and structured like Simon's Quest. (non-linear, talk to scattered NPCs for clues, collect items to make progress) It's also got a massive, lethal dose of greek mythology which is cool and you're dumb if you don't think so.

The story is Hades kidnapped your girlfriend so you're going to kick his ass when you find him SHUT UP IMOEN.

Along the way you will be knocked into pits by the actual, literal bats from Zelda 2 with no changes in sprite or programmed attack pattern/movement, talk to the greek gods themselves and pay them olives for sick magic gear upgrades, get knocked into pits but more bats and other small, erratically moving enemies, kill mythological greek monsters like Medusa and Cyclops, listen to sick music tracks, get knocked into pits by a bat-- wait I'm not dead? where am I? OH GOD SNAKES and eventually ride Pegasus around and decide to just keep your magic horse and give up on saving your girl, I mean, she's literally in Hell and frankly these monkeys are just impossible to defeat

It's a toss up which game is harder between this and Zelda 2, but personally I think BoO is, just because it has even more small fast annoying enemies stationed around instant death pits. And you don't get magic to help you out like in Zelda 2. And it punishes you for dying by halving your Olives each time. And Olive grinding is dumb and required to advance.

But despite all these flaws, I still actually really like the game. For me, anyway, it's one of those games that shines through the bad. There's a lot of good gameplay and fun to be had here.

Do I recommend this game:
Solid neutral vote. This game is balls to spiked wall hard and that is going to turn off anyone not cursed/blessed with a masochistic streak like me. But if you can "get gud" and put up with the grinding, there's a neat little action platformer here with cool atmosphere and a hell of a lot of cool shit.
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Re: Friday's Ultimate Vanity Project: 100 Games, 100 Reviews

Postby Thad » Tue Apr 21, 2020 8:58 pm

Friday wrote:Like I said, before, it's the first game I'd consider "art" because it actually has a theme and something to say about human nature. The ending is bittersweet as hell, but poignant in a way you didn't see games trying to be very much back then.

Mom still reminds me how bad I felt that time I didn't call the rain down on the dying man.

I got it for Christmas, SNES launch year. Gran just bought it because she was grabbing launch titles at random; I think we got Pilotwings and Populous too. (I don't think we got F-Zero and SimCity until later.)

We were visiting family in Florida that Christmas. The first time I saw ActRaiser, we were kinda passing the controller around and a bunch of us were taking turns playing it. I think we made it through Fillmore that night (we at least made it to the Minotaur, though come to think of it it might have taken a few days for me to actually beat it), and played partway through Bloodpool over the next couple of days with my cousin. We stood underneath the Manticore and attacked his butt and laughed and laughed because we were nine years old.

It was pretty inexplicable at the outset; I think it took me just fiddling my way through every option on the menu before I figured out stuff like oh, when the villagers tell you they've found something, you have to select a particular icon to actually get it, and then another one to use it. I don't think I figured that out until the spot where it was actually necessary in order to progress.

But yeah, it's a pretty damn special game; there aren't many games you can really describe as "unique", and fewer still that are unique and actually really good too. I've said before that I'd really like to see someone else take a crack at it; disappointing to hear that someone finally did and the result was not good, but I hope it's not another 28 years before someone decides to give it another go.

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Re: Friday's Ultimate Vanity Project: 100 Games, 100 Reviews

Postby Friday » Tue Apr 21, 2020 9:00 pm

93. Super Castlevania (SNES)

Friday wtf why are you, the biggest and gayest CV fan ever putting this MASTERPIECE of a CLASSICVANIA so far down on your list?!?!?!?111

Okay, firstly, it made the top 100 and a lot of other CV games I really like didn't, so shutup.

And secondly I just never really was as into this one as much as a lot of other people. I don't really consider it a "tech demo" of the SNES like a lot of people seem to write it off as, (it has a few mode 7 rotating rooms but 98% is just normal CV platforming goodness) but I also don't consider it the absolute pinnacle of the Classic CV formula like some others do either.

Super CV is notable for being a casual version of the Classicvania formula. You can whip in 8 directions, you don't have to marry and have kids with your jumps, there's meat in candles that will heal you even if you miss the secret meat in the walls, the enemies and bosses do less damage, etc.

I'm not saying it's easy, per se, but it's a lot more forgiving and reasonable than most other Classicvanias. It's sort of just a "medium" difficulty, where most oldschool Castlevania games range from "fuck you" to "no, seriously, fuck YOU"

The graphics, music and sound are all top-notch. I'm not the biggest fan of the visual style of the graphics but they are very detailed and you can tell a lot of work went into them. The 8-way whip mechanic is actually a lot of fun and gives you a ton of agency in how you approach threats, where other classicvania games basically made you fight on the terms of the enemy due to your horizontal only attack range, unless you used a subweapon.

Overall it's a great entry into a series that is riddled with problems.

Do I recommend this game:
Yes. Even if you're not a big fan of platformers. It's the accessible old school Castlevania and it's more than just "the easier one." It has a lot of good solid level design, spooky haunted castle shit, and amazing music.
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Re: Friday's Ultimate Vanity Project: 100 Games, 100 Reviews

Postby Friday » Tue Apr 21, 2020 9:14 pm

But yeah, it's a pretty damn special game; there aren't many games you can really describe as "unique", and fewer still that are unique and actually really good too. I've said before that I'd really like to see someone else take a crack at it; disappointing to hear that someone finally did and the result was not good, but I hope it's not another 28 years before someone decides to give it another go.


Honestly the thing I'd like to see is just more interaction between the city building parts and the platforming parts. Just flesh out the core concepts of the game. It's odd that nobody has tried to just refine it and expand on it like LttP did to Zelda 1.

I mean, I guess it is following the pattern of Zelda because both Zelda 2 and Actraiser 2 are weirdo games. They just forgot to make ActRaiser 3.
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Re: Friday's Ultimate Vanity Project: 100 Games, 100 Reviews

Postby Friday » Tue Apr 21, 2020 11:35 pm

92. Ys (Chronicles Version, PC)

Thanks to Brentai for making me play this, because holy shit Ys is right up my "fast paced, hard as fuck" alley.

I should probably get around to playing Ys 2, considering I own it because I bought Chronicles.

Oh, and click that link. That's the first dungeon music. Yeah, there's a reason Ys music is used a lot in random fan projects, including Ek2 and 3.

Ys is an action rpg that's barely an rpg. It's more like a monster truck simulator except the monster truck is Adol and instead of crushing cars you crush enemies but you still have to like, line up your big tires so they hit them and not just ram them straight on

okay that metaphor isn't the greatest but it's also not the worst

I don't even remember the plot. Something something evil wizard? This game lives and breathes on it's fast paced "combat" and music. The "Bump" combat system is something you'll either love or hate. It's weird at first but then it sort of just clicks and you become Adol, the Destroyer and also Monster Truck.

To be clear, the combat is if the monster hits you dead on you take damage, and if you hit it slightly off-center they take damage. It sounds dumb as fuck (I remember thinking that when Brentai was trying to describe it to me) but in practice it works well. The movement is fast, so lining up your attacks isn't easy even if it's a simple thing to do.

The final dungeon is really involved and sprawling. The final boss is TOTAL BULLSHIT but I beat him anyway somehow by some miracle. I'm trying to think of a game that's like Ys. Um. Hydlide, but good? I don't even know.

Do I recommend this game:
Yes, with reservations. It's not going to be everyone's cup of tea because of the combat system. The music is SSS+ tier, the graphics are fine. I think Chronicles added a weird tutorial town at the start which is pointless. Not sure how it stacks up against other versions, but Chronicles was fun enough for me to get on this list.
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Re: Friday's Ultimate Vanity Project: 100 Games, 100 Reviews

Postby pacobird » Tue Apr 21, 2020 11:49 pm

Ys 3 still has the best soundtrack of all time, though Nier Automata actually got in striking distance
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Re: Friday's Ultimate Vanity Project: 100 Games, 100 Reviews

Postby Thad » Wed Apr 22, 2020 12:55 am

I'm told the best version of Ys I&II is the TG-16 version. Which is on the TG-16 Mini, alongside other pretty solid games like Bomberman 94 and Rondo of Blood. I've got a goddamn MiSTer coming in the mail at some point, so I probably don't need a TG-16 Mini, but it seems like a pretty solid device (notwithstanding baffling decisions like putting the Japanese-language version of Snatcher on the US version of the device), and maybe worth checking out whenever the hell they actually end up shipping.

I did play all the way through the TG-16 version of the first Ys on Wii VC. I conked out of 2 relatively early. The dungeons are too complicated for a game with no automap.

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Re: Friday's Ultimate Vanity Project: 100 Games, 100 Reviews

Postby IGNORE ME » Wed Apr 22, 2020 3:40 am

Ys 2 has the problem of suddenly pivoting from a hack-and-slash to a top-down shooter so if you're expecting exactly more of the same you're going to feel betrayed. It's fine, I like them both. I think the Chronicles version has an automap, but can't remember; the dungeons certainly are complicated and that's considered a feature, as evidenced by how extraordinarily complex the final area(s) is, so if that's your turnoff I'd say you can safely put it down.

Thad wrote:(notwithstanding baffling decisions like putting the Japanese-language version of Snatcher on the US version of the device)


The only English version of Snatcher is on the Sega CD, and they're not so similar that you can do a translation lift and shift even if Konami could be bothered to (that would involved working on a video game after all).

The final boss is TOTAL BULLSHIT but I beat him anyway somehow by some miracle. I'm trying to think of a game that's like Ys. Um. Hydlide, but good?


Did you... beat him without figuring out the gimmick?

ActRaiser


The secret of ActRaiser is that the sim parts are all kind of superfluous and droolingly simple but it's so charming that it doesn't matter. And when I say "it's so charming that the gameplay can get away with being dull and simple", that means something.

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Re: Friday's Ultimate Vanity Project: 100 Games, 100 Reviews

Postby Friday » Wed Apr 22, 2020 10:29 am

91. Death Road to Canada (PC)

I remember once I was playing some kongregate bullshit game or whatever that was just "Zombie Oregon Trail" and the game was cute and all but in the end it was just Oregon Trail with a reskin/rewrite to have zombies and jokes in it and I thought, you know, it'd be really cool if someone actually took this concept and fleshed it out, made a real game out of it, maybe a roguelike even, there's a lot of potential in a concept like that!

And I guess the people who made Death Road to Canada were reading my mind because they did that exactly like three years later.

DRtC is an absolute great videogame. It's got a metric fuckton of replayability, tons of alternate game modes, secrets, unlocking progression, everything that you could want in a roguelike.

The text events are varied enough that they don't start to repeat for awhile, and even after you've seen most of them you'll still see some of the rarer ones pop up from time to time to keep you interested. Once you figure out how the mechanics of the game work, you'll be able to select the best option pretty much every time, which is actually a good thing because it means the game isn't too RNG heavy. The core gameplay is looting towns and gathering supplies while fighting off zombie hordes with your group.

Pretty much the only thing that would improve this game in my opinion is special infected popping up every so often to keep you on your toes, because once you learn how to deal with the zombies that's pretty much the game.

The game is full of absurdist humor and maximum silly nonsense. I personally love that style of joking around but if you're bothered by it that could be a negative for you. But I mean, come on. You can buy stuff from dogs.

Do I recommend this game:
Yeah, 100%. It's a great little indie game with some real effort and polish. There's a reason the one and only LP I ever did was on this game.

And now we move up a tier, to the 90-81 block.
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Re: Friday's Ultimate Vanity Project: 100 Games, 100 Reviews

Postby Friday » Wed Apr 22, 2020 10:48 am

90. Final Fight (Arcade)

My beat 'em up of choice.

I'm not a huge fan of the beat 'em up genre, finding it fairly boring and repetitive. Double Dragon? Eh. Knights of the Round? Fun, but gets old fast. Streets of Rage 2? Well I'm gonna be playing it soon so we'll see if it stacks up.

Final Fight is the gold standard as far as I'm concerned for a game about punching punks in the face. Do other games let you play as Mayor Fucking Mike Haggar, the most manly of men? No, of course not. They don't have the BALLS.

What is there to say about Final Fight? The sound design is great, the fighting feels brutal because of it. The enemy design is great, the bosses are huge and colorful. You've got Andore, Poison, and everyone's favorite, that time when they censored Poison to some waif dude in the SNES release of Final Fight Guy because Moms objected to hitting a girl.

Do I recommend this game:
Yeah, though I mean, it's a beat 'em up. It's probably the purest example of a beat 'em up possible. There are no gimmicks or exp bars or bells and whistles of any sort. It's just the basic gameplay of a beat em up basically distilled and perfected. If you're looking for more, look elsewhere, but if you're looking to punch, kick, and piledrive your way through a punch of bad guys, look no further.
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Re: Friday's Ultimate Vanity Project: 100 Games, 100 Reviews

Postby Grath » Wed Apr 22, 2020 11:10 am

Just think, if more people had signed up for VvW Friday would be too busy for another listicle for a bit longer.

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