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Old 03-8-2021, 10:49 PM   #21
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Default Re: March 2021: 31 days game review challenge

JASOOOOOOOOOOOOON
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Old 03-8-2021, 10:52 PM   #22
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JASOOOOOOOOOOOOON


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Old 03-8-2021, 11:36 PM   #23
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THE NUMBERS MASON!! WHAT DO THEY MEAN!?!?
I googled that to watch the cutscene, and omg @ at the comment that listed Big Smoke's order, holy shit I died.
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Old 03-9-2021, 10:53 PM   #24
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Default Re: March 2021: 31 days game review challenge



March 9th

Today's challenge is: Underrated.

Today kinda gave me trouble. “Underrated” felt somewhat redundant with “you like, but everyone hates", so I had to come up with a very specific interpretation of “underrated”, and here's what I've got: I have to pick a game that's generally understood to be great, but that I feel like is still not valued as it should. Thinking of it like that, a few titles were singled out in my mind, and I think I've found a satisfying example. But first, some context.

The console wars of the early 90s could be particularly difficult for the average gamer. I'm talking Genesis/Megadrive versus the Super Nintendo. For most gamers who could not invest in both systems at the time, they'd feel like both systems had exclusives that more or less countered whatever the other one had. That is, unless you were strongly skewed towards certain genres. For example, if you were into RPGs, this choice was pretty simple. Sure, SEGA had the Phantasy Stars, the Shining series and a few other gems like Beyond Oasis, but there's no way it could match what the SNES had to offer in that respect. On the other hand, if you were into shmups, Nintendo might have had a few heavy hitters, like Space Megaforce/Super Aleste and a few others, but there's no way it could rival with SEGA, who was the king of all arcade genres and ports in my mind.

And I am going to focus on shmups here. The Genesis is one of the consoles any shmup enthusiast has to own given what it has to offer, but if you look at anyone's top 5 list or whatever, you'll see titles like Thunder Force IV/Lightening Force, MUSHA, Eliminate Down, Gley Lancer, Elemental Master, but there's one title that's usually missing from those lists, and I'd argue it should sit at the top of most of those lists, or at least tied with Lightening Force or something. That game is Battle Mania Daiginjou, also known as Battle Mania 2, which was unreleased in the West, but was a sequel to Battle Mania, which was known over here as Trouble Shooter.



So what exactly does Battle Mania Daiginjou do that the rest doesn't? Well, a little bit of everything. It offers multiple playstyles, an extreme and tasteful variety in level design, great characters and a fun storyline (yes, really), perfect controls across the boards, great arsenal customization, a fantastic soundtrack, wacky enemy designs (remember how I said I was into cute 'em ups?), amazing visuals and a plethora of other great features.



So, what's the catch? Well, feel free to look the game up on ebay to find out that it typically ranges in the 4 digits (not counting the pennies, so at least a grand to get your hands on a genuine copy). It also wasn't released in the West, so gamers didn't grow up with this title. Those who played it know it's amazing, but that doesn't include a whole lot of people. Even so, I find it odd that this game is so often excluded from personal lists, especially nowadays, with the everdrives, emulators, fanmade translations and reproduction carts. I honestly cannot comprehend how it could fall off of anyone's top 3 among the shmups on the console if nostalgia is ignored. And there's a level in which one of the enemies is Super Mario himself, hurling mushrooms in your face. I am not joking.



It took me forever to play this title. My bro Felix bought me an everdrive for my 28th birthday, which I spent with Hakulyte (given that we share the same birthday). It was one of the first game I wanted to try out, so I handed him the controller after selecting what I thought was the first game in the series. It blew both of our minds, and instantly overthrew MUSHA as my favorite Genesis shmup, and became my favorite “classic and retro” shmup as well. It's a little hard to admit because I really, REALLY like Power Strike 2 on the Master System, but this is just too good.

The game was only out for the Megadrive, and if you ask me, I do think it's worth its hefty price tag.

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Old 03-9-2021, 11:30 PM   #25
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Default Re: March 2021: 31 days game review challenge

That was honestly one of my favorite games when I visited too. Shmups are usually kind of intimidating because there's often a few iconic sections in these games that are very very difficult.

This game was somehow more approachable and everything felt paced nicely. I guess it's not too surprising it's underrated because it's not a game people could find easily to judge in the first place.

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Old 03-9-2021, 11:42 PM   #26
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Default Re: March 2021: 31 days game review challenge

very cute art wtf
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Old 03-10-2021, 11:01 PM   #27
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Default Re: March 2021: 31 days game review challenge



March 10th

Today's challenge is: Overrated

Like with yesterday's challenge, I had to change my interpretation a little so it wouldn't be a repeat of Day 8. This time, I'm going to pick a game that's understood by everyone to be good, myself included, but nowhere near as good as the majority of people think. There's no need for a big introduction here, as I'm sure pretty much anyone interested enough in gaming to read my posts knows about today's title, which is The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.

Let's start with the good stuff everyone can agree with: This is a GORGEOUS game, and absolutely fits my preferred palette. There's nothing wrong with the world here, maybe a few rough spots here and there like any similar game would have, but it does score perfects across the board in visuals. Only problem is... That's just about all I'd say is as good as people would say. The rest is either slightly flawed, or has major issues. Let's get into all of that.



First up, the controls and game mechanics. I'm bringing them up first because overall, I really like the way they feel, however I don't think they're flawless. The stamina gauge has to go, it serves no purpose. Having an infinite gauge right off the bat wouldn't sequence break anything, and the only times where it really matters are when taming horses and lynels. It's just annoying. Normally, in a game like this, you'd need an upgraded stamina gauge in order to access a new area, which sort of applies to Eventide island, but food gets the job done. Throwing weapons is absolute jank, and that's too bad considering chucking out some of your inventory at enemies comes in pretty handily. The boomerang works well, but everything else is thrown in the worst ways possible. I'm not even gonna talk about the weapons breaking all the time, but I see absolutely no reason why Link shouldn't be at least a little apt in close quarters combat. He has the bombs, but come on, every other enemy in the game can fight bare handed. And cooking showed promise since you can mix so many ingredients, but you can't actually cook a wide variety of dishes, which was disappointing.



Now, onto some bigger issues. What the hell was that story? Was there even one, at least one in the present? I loved collecting and watching the memories, definitely some great stuff, but in the present time? I felt like there wasn't much. It doesn't make sense that the present era species representatives or whatever got so little exposure when you could almost feel a connection to the ones of the past. I have to mention the blood moon as well. There's a lot of wasted potential here, but at least I'm thinking that it was only there to reduce the game's memory usage by “cleaning it up”. Also, the sheikah slate is a big no, that is so dumb. And oh dear fuck, what was that ending? I felt like I reached the end of a demo, but last time I checked, I was not playing a trial copy. And this, in my opinion, ties in with the biggest issue of all, one which took the game from a 9 down to a 6 or 7 at the very best.



The biggest issue with Breath of the Wild is its skeleton. Outside of the first area, what do you have that constitutes the main game? Four “dungeons”, all available after completing a short quest each, and they're almost all the same, with equally similar “bosses”, then... not only it's time for the final boss, but you could actually go there as soon as you'd gained your freedom. You could have 100 more shrine sidequests, 10 more minigames, and 500 more fucking korok seeds, this issue wouldn't be any less of a massive flaw. The entire "main game" is about as deep as Ganon's Castle on its own (from Ocarina of Time). And even moreso, you have this gigantic and diverse landscape, but probably about 20 different enemy types at the most, which is TINY.



I'm not trying to say Breath of the Wild was a bad game by any means, but the issues I just listed definitely kept it from being a truly great game. And for context, I remember rabid fans being personally offended whenever someone would say it wasn't the greatest game of all time. THAT is exactly what I mean by overrated. I still have high hopes for the sequel, but I'm hoping for more meat on my plate this time. And people better not go DDoS-ing and death threat-ing independent reviewers AGAIN if they think it's a little less than perfect.

Out for Switch and Wii U, and despite the overall negativity in this mini review, it is definitely worthy of being picked up! Last note, you gotta love doing seal jetski while dodging thunderbolts and bombing the fuck out of an AT-AT's legs.

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Old 03-11-2021, 05:40 AM   #28
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Default Re: March 2021: 31 days game review challenge

Unpopular opinion, but I've always felt BotW was not as a game changer to the open world genre as majority have cited.

It has a really neat sandbox, don't get me wrong. But calling it innovative and breaking the boundaries for the genre?

Idk maaaaaaaaan

GTA, among other open world games before BotW would like a word with you...
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All in all I would say that Charu not only won this game, his play made me reconsider how I play it.
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Old 03-11-2021, 09:24 AM   #29
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That was honestly one of my favorite games when I visited too. Shmups are usually kind of intimidating because there's often a few iconic sections in these games that are very very difficult.

This game was somehow more approachable and everything felt paced nicely. I guess it's not too surprising it's underrated because it's not a game people could find easily to judge in the first place.
Pls visit again so we can discover more great games.

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very cute art wtf
Yes it's adorable, play it and spread it around pl0x.

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Unpopular opinion, but I've always felt BotW was not as a game changer to the open world genre as majority have cited.

It has a really neat sandbox, don't get me wrong. But calling it innovative and breaking the boundaries for the genre?

Idk maaaaaaaaan

GTA, among other open world games before BotW would like a word with you...
BoTW absolutely had its own thing tho, and other games did directly get inspired by it, namely Genshin Impact? Pretty much all creative work is derivative, especially in video games. But you're right in that it's not like this rule doesn't apply to BoTW.
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Old 03-11-2021, 02:28 PM   #30
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Default Re: March 2021: 31 days game review challenge

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Unpopular opinion, but I've always felt BotW was not as a game changer to the open world genre as majority have cited.

It has a really neat sandbox, don't get me wrong. But calling it innovative and breaking the boundaries for the genre?

Idk maaaaaaaaan

GTA, among other open world games before BotW would like a word with you...
Nuclear take here, but botw isn't actually that great of a game. The story is told in a super unique way, and it's actually pretty good imho. That's about what it has going for it, other than the art style and music direction being about as on-point as it could be.

Collecting all the korrock seeds and Spirit Orbs, is not really all that interesting? Unless you're playing the game in such short bursts it doesn't have time to get stale, and you hopefully don't have a nasty case of ADHD.

The missions to get on the beasts are... Not that great IMHO. And motion controlled puzzles can actually blow me in a dark alleyway. I'd still pick it up before a few other games (Skyward sword, zelda 2, even TP and WW for the moment - haven't played them yet to be fair though. I only just got my WiiU back.)
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Old 03-11-2021, 07:38 PM   #31
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botw is like a cross-genre remake of super mario sunshine where all the bosses are the sand bird and most of the equippable items are the watermelon
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Old 03-11-2021, 07:52 PM   #32
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Nuclear take here, but botw isn't actually that great of a game. The story is told in a super unique way, and it's actually pretty good imho. That's about what it has going for it, other than the art style and music direction being about as on-point as it could be.

Collecting all the korrock seeds and Spirit Orbs, is not really all that interesting? Unless you're playing the game in such short bursts it doesn't have time to get stale, and you hopefully don't have a nasty case of ADHD.

The missions to get on the beasts are... Not that great IMHO. And motion controlled puzzles can actually blow me in a dark alleyway. I'd still pick it up before a few other games (Skyward sword, zelda 2, even TP and WW for the moment - haven't played them yet to be fair though. I only just got my WiiU back.)
I have no idea what's the nuclear take here, or what you are replying to, or what you are saying in general.

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If you don't like playing the majority of the game, just run up to ganon after you finish the tutorial and be done with it.
Yeah, you could litterally do that. I mean, I gave it a fair shot, like I said on a previous day, I tend to commit whenever I start a game no matter if I like it or not, so personally I wasn't gonna do that. But yeah lol.

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botw is like a cross-genre remake of super mario sunshine where all the bosses are the sand bird and most of the equippable items are the watermelon
This is hilarious.
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Old 03-11-2021, 09:25 PM   #33
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Default Re: March 2021: 31 days game review challenge



March 11th

Today's challenge is: “Why do I like this?”

Today is pretty interesting, because I hardly have anything to say about the game itself, but a lot more about the circumstances behind the game. Sort of like how it was with day 5. The game I'll be talking about today is The Yakyuken Special, which I own on the 3DO.

So what is this game? It's a strip rock-paper-scissor FMV game. You pick your desired partner among the featured Japanese women, and play a best-of-9 set with her. When you win, she removes an article of clothing. You don't have to strip down if you lose (duh). However, if she wins 5 games first, then you'll have to replay the set if you wish to see the girl wearing less clothes. If you're wondering, they all do strip to their birthday suit, so yes, definitely an adult game. Every round comes with a song and dance in the girl's current attire, and often she looks like she's being held at gunpoint, which can be very disturbing.



Now, I know. What the fuck, right? Well, here's the thing: I don't really care for the game itself, nor did I ever look for it specifically. However, this game has grown to be quite special to me and a lot of other people, so now, it's time for Story Time.

Every year, I host a party with other FFR folks (we haven't done it this year because of Covid, but we typically do it in January otherwise). A few days before our first annual meetup, I saw an ad on one of the game collecting groups I follow about 3DO demo discs, the guy had 4 of those and was selling them for 10 bucks each, and had a bundle deal of 25$ if someone took everything off his hands. I contacted him since I wanted them, and he asked if I was interested in a 3DO “Japanese porn game” as a free bonus. I obviously said yes.



I got those discs on the day before the meetup, and after playing a bunch of other games with the guys, I decided to give Yakyuken Special a try, and none of us knew what we were getting into, or what the game was even called. Thankfully, it was very easy to figure out, and we ended up getting quite a bit into it, especially the little song and dance bits. We were cheering for whoever was using the controller as though we were watching a damn sports game. I probably have a video or something of that moment, I'd have to look.

It has become a staple of our little meetups, and honestly everyone seems to cherish it, and yes, even the girls (who we'd usually have using the controller as we discussed our "epic winning strats"), which makes it even more awesome. And to answer the question written in today's theme, I guess we can all agree the game sucks, but why is it such a successful title to boot up while partying? I think our shared love of irony is the biggest factor. Could also be the absolute power of women's T&A. Could be both.



Apparently there's a sequel, and I now need it. Otherwise, the game is available on 3DO, PS1 and SEGA Saturn.

(For those of you wondering, here's the song (from the Saturn version). No dance though, but I'm sure those of you curious enough can find it easily)

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Old 03-12-2021, 10:33 AM   #34
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Nuclear take here, but botw isn't actually that great of a game. The story is told in a super unique way, and it's actually pretty good imho. That's about what it has going for it, other than the art style and music direction being about as on-point as it could be.

Collecting all the korrock seeds and Spirit Orbs, is not really all that interesting? Unless you're playing the game in such short bursts it doesn't have time to get stale, and you hopefully don't have a nasty case of ADHD.

The missions to get on the beasts are... Not that great IMHO. And motion controlled puzzles can actually blow me in a dark alleyway. I'd still pick it up before a few other games (Skyward sword, zelda 2, even TP and WW for the moment - haven't played them yet to be fair though. I only just got my WiiU back.)
as a huge zelda fan I hate botw for what it does to traditional zelda
I love wind waker though it's the best give it a shot
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i was pretty close to letting this slide tbh, but honestly your utter lack of understanding of the situation irritates me more than anything else at this point
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seriously everything i wrote went way over your head if your reading comprehension is so far below third grade level while people may care about your opinion you should refrain from giving it because it's worthless
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Old 03-12-2021, 01:37 PM   #35
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as a huge zelda fan I hate botw for what it does to traditional zelda
I love wind waker though it's the best give it a shot
I know people who argue this is the first 3D Zelda that tries to replicate how the first 3 worked.
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Old 03-12-2021, 03:18 PM   #36
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March 12th

Today's challenge is: Game you always come back to.

Halfway point of the original challenge image! And another tough one.

I had no problem coming up with games I “always come back to”, but when factoring in some of my personal rules, it becomes considerably harder. An obvious answer could be Stepmania/Flashflashrevolution, but I'm hoping to avoid resorting to games that never had a physical release. Then you have some of the classics I kept playing here and there either from a young age or since their release, like Super Mario Bros 3, Super Mario World, Super Mario 64 or Super Smash Brothers (Melee or 64), but I find those to be extremely disappointing picks, as there's not much to say about those games anymore. There's another game I could name that would work fine, but it's a little too recent, and there are already 5 tiles it would have to go in, and I'm already having issues deciding where it's gonna go (can't spoil it yet!)... So I need to pick a title I keep coming back to, that there's something to say about it, and that saw a physical release. I'm finding out that there aren't that many obvious ones then.

Anyway, under these circumstances, the best one I could think of is Wild Guns, for the SNES. I played it for the first time as a kid during daycare (and played it quite a bit), then played it on emulators during most of my high school and early college days out of nostalgia, then it became the first game I've ever bought online on the Wii's virtual console, then bought a reproduction cart online as an adult (after finding out that it costs a fucking fortune nowadays), then bought the remastered version on PS4 as one of the first games I bought for that system, and I still played it recently on the Switch's SNES emulator. Therefore, I think it ticks all checkmarks.



So what is Wild Guns? Well, it's something that I'd classify as a Gallery Shooter. It's not quite a shmup or a rail shooter, because the screen is static, though it does feature similar mechanics. You must also control your character while also controlling the reticle. You can jump, double jump, roll and walk left and right. If you've played Contra on the NES, it kinda works like the middle sections where you see your guy from the back. Oh, and it supports simultaneous two-players mode!

The game is made by Natsume, which in my opinion are by far the best 3rd party developers on the system. They haven't made a ton of games, but holy fuck are all of their products amazing. Gundam Wing, Wild Guns, both Pocky and Rocky games, Ghost Sweeper Mikami, Ninja Warriors, there's some really good arcade stuff here. But let's focus on Wild Guns a bit more.



There are 2 playable characters in the game, and 4 in the remastered version, though I don't like the new ones. Those characters are Annie and Clint, and despite what you'd think, Annie is actually the main character. She's setting out to avenge the massacre of her loved ones by the goons of a big time crime boss. Early on her journey, she meets Clint, a bounty hunter, who offers a hand since he's after his “wanted: dead or alive” bounty anyway, and she agrees to let him tag along so long as he stays the fuck out of her way.



Wild Guns is also Spaghetti Western themed, with a special twist in that it also features futuristic robots, cyborgs and other machines coming straight out of Japanese sci-fi, which is a really odd mix that actually works really well. You also have infinite ammo when firing your old school rifle, but you can also pick up a few power ups along the way. Once you get them, your firearm is replaced by the “stronger” one until you run out of ammo. These are the grenade launcher, the shotgun and the heavy machine gun (in the original version at least, there are a few more weapons in the remastered version). There is also the peashooter, which does no damage, but you still have to go through its ammo in order to be able to hurt things again. Lastly, you can also obtain the mighty Vulcan gun, which is a damn minigun. It has infinite ammo and renders you invincible for a while, and you can get it by fully charging a gauge that's powered by intercepting enemy bullets with your own projectiles. You still have other means of attacking however! You have your laser lasso (which freezes enemies for a while, which you can then shoot down safely), you have the butt of your firearm, which you can use as a melee attack, you can also throw back the dynamite sticks enemies throw at you, and you can also use a screenwide attack, which you have a limited number of. Clint's screenwide attack is a TNT box that blows up everything, and Annie uses an overpowered mortar to achieve the same result. In the remastered version however, Annie's mortar attack covers only half of the screen, to balance out the fact that she's been buffed a lot over Clint with her movement.



The game isn't very long, and a playthrough consists of 6 levels total. A playthrough takes about half an hour to complete. The first one is Carson City, then you can do the next 4 in any order you want (Megaman style, and bonus stages will be triggered after beating 2 and 4 of these stages respectively, so long as their respective criterias are met), then the final stage. The remastered version has different stages available depending on what difficulty you are playing on, but still has only 6 stages per playthrough.



Last but not the least, the music and visuals are simply mindblowing, both in the original and remastered versions. Like I said before, the two themes going on are a little unrelated to each others, but they managed to blend the two perfectly in the more aesthetical department. I still don't know if I prefer the remastered style or the original game. I'm playing both versions of Carson City and they're both perfect efforts. I might like the original a bit more because, well, it's the original and its music is, in my opinion, hands down the best there is on the console, but the optional remastered music and the way the first boss blows up in the remastered version also gives me the manliest of boners.



As a bonus last note, I'd like to say that this is one of VERY FEW games where I'll occasionally play the dude instead of the girl. Their playstyles are only very marginally different, so the change is mostly in their appearance.

I'm likely to keep coming back to this one until the end of time, on whatever platform it's available on. The original version is exclusive to the SNES, virtual console versions are available on the Wii, Wii U and Switch, and the remastered version is available on PS4, Switch and PC.

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Old 03-12-2021, 05:05 PM   #37
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Default Re: March 2021: 31 days game review challenge

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I love wind waker though it's the best give it a shot
Oh god I read this wrong the first time

Hell no man, I really didn't like this one. The only 3D one I haven't done is Skyward Sword, but I'll absolutely get the Switch version, but still, I really can't deal with WW. I tried to get into it a few times for completion's sake, but, I lose all motivation a few hours in. Maybe with a guide on my knees, I could grind through to the end, but until then, fuck that one.

I'd honestly rather play the CD-i ones again (except Zelda's Adventure, that one is horrendous)
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Old 03-12-2021, 07:54 PM   #38
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Default Re: March 2021: 31 days game review challenge

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Oh look, it's a game I know nothing about and neither the background behind it, so I'll opt out today.
I mean, that's part of the plan. You get to discuss those you know, and to discover new games.
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Old 03-13-2021, 08:57 PM   #39
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Default Re: March 2021: 31 days game review challenge



March 13th

Today's challenge is: That atmosphere...

Today's challenge was kind of a revelation to me. I feel like my gaming experience is severely lacking in the “atmospheric” department, to a point where I almost wanted to troll and pick an aircraft game (specifically, I was gonna pick Ace Combat 7, and even more specifically, its VR mode, since it's amazing), because of the possible meaning of “atmosphere” being of Earth's actual physical atmosphere.

Anyway, while I do play a bunch of games with a great atmosphere, they're never or at least extremely rarely the reason I play them. You can argue there are several rhythm games like Rez or Thumper that I play and love with a really strong emphasis on ambiance, but I really just want to test my reflexes with hand-eye coordination challenges, and the rest is just random flavor to me. On the other hand, I would associate the concept with horror games, and I've played far too few of those to be able to say something about it. Lastly, I could talk about games with an upbeat and overblown atmosphere, since I'm a much bigger fan of those in general, but it felt like cheating. I wanted to pick a game that has a much heavier feel rather than an uplifting one.

I remembered Felix making me play Super Metroid for that reason, and that wasn't gonna cut it. But it made me think of another game he recommended me after asking about if he knew a shmup and platformer hybrid, and that's how I thought of Air Fortress, made by HAL (the Kirby and Smash folks!) for the NES.



After being gifted the game by a friend (giftwrapped with airplane lolis, thanks Phil!), I got to play it. Air fortress is exactly what I wanted Felix to suggest me. You control some guy trying to defeat an incoming army of “space fortresses” by destroying them from the inside. First, you have to fly through and past an enemy defense fleet into the main structure, then carry on by foot in order to find the core and force the whole thing to self destruct.

The game is very simple, and there isn't so much of a strong atmosphere up to that point. But then, you actually have to escape the fortress in order to move on to the next one, and honestly that part is absolutely crazy. There's no timer or anything like that, but you just know that you should probably hurry up. As you progress (and as time passes), the structure starts shaking more and more, and after around 2 minutes, if you haven't made it out, you will die with the structure itself.



I didn't play this game for this moment, I didn't even know it was gonna be a thing, but now that I know about this, I often boot the game just to go die there. I think it's fascinating, how the atmosphere changes after activating the self destruction protocol, and on NES on top of that. This was wayyyyyy ahead of its time. Sure, there were Metroid and Zillion before that, but those had simple countdowns, so nothing like what Air Fortress did in its escape sequences.



Oh, and some quick googling told me that after the last fortress, the player finds out he is the last fortress, and has to kill himself. That shocks me, I'm pretty sure the ending mentions no such thing.

The game is exclusive to the NES!
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Old 03-14-2021, 10:43 AM   #40
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Default Re: March 2021: 31 days game review challenge

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I know people who argue this is the first 3D Zelda that tries to replicate how the first 3 worked.
people who say that haven't actually played Zelda 1

but if you would rather play the CDi games over wind waker I'm very concerned that you may have gotten a bootleg copy or something
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i was pretty close to letting this slide tbh, but honestly your utter lack of understanding of the situation irritates me more than anything else at this point
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seriously everything i wrote went way over your head if your reading comprehension is so far below third grade level while people may care about your opinion you should refrain from giving it because it's worthless
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