This Old Neon Forum

Beaten:
1/11 - Ghosts'n Goblins (PS3 [Arcade])
2/5 - Turok (Switch [N64])
2/8 - Garou: Mark of the Wolves (PSN [Arcade])
2/17 - Makaimura for WonderSwan (WonderSwan)
3/3 - Bust-A-Move Pocket (Neo Geo Pocket Color)
3/7 - Luigi's Mansion 3 (Switch)
3/10 - Night Trap: 25th Anniversary Edition (PSN [Sega CD])
3/22 - Marvel's Spider-Man (PS4)
3/23 - Dragon Quest (Switch [NES])
3/26 - Panzer Dragoon: Remake (Switch)
4/4 - Doom 64 (Switch)
4/21 - Tearaway (PS Vita)
4/24 - Rocket Knight Adventures (Genesis)
5/1 - Streets of Rage 4 (PSN [PS4])
5/20 - Bare Knuckle III (Steam [Mega Drive])
5/21 - Donkey Kong Jungle Beat (GameCube)
5/23 - Forza Horizon 3: Horizon Hot Wheels (Xbone [DLC])
5/26 - Ori and the Blind Forest: Definitive Edition (Xbone)
7/2 - Star Wars Episode I: Racer (PSN [N64])
7/5 - Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition (Switch [Wii])
7/11 - Dragon Quest II: Luminaries of the Legendary Line (Switch [NES])
7/16 - Virtual Boy Wario Land (VB)
7/26 - Dragon Quest III: The Seeds of Salvation (Switch[NES])
8/10 - Gate of Thunder (VC [TGCD])

After naming its Stage 6 music in my 30 Days of Video Game Music blog series, I was inspired to finally beat this game. Really glad I did! This is the only scrolling shmup I've ever reached the credits of. I only used a lone continue, but I'd like to see if I can get it to a 1cc. Really rewarding to go from being unable to get past level 5 on 7 continues to beating the game using only 1. That last step would be gratifying too. Regardless, I checked a game off the Wii Virtual Console backlog I thought I might never finish. Fun!

The game itself is superb. Excellent graphics and an awesome CD soundtrack complement the game's frenetic gameplay. The first couple of stages are rather easy and belie the challenge to come, which is ample. It's got clever bosses and well-paced stages. Very little to complain about. I'm led to believe this is one of the easier members of its genre, but I'm still proud to have beaten it.

Completed:
1/11 - Ghosts'n Goblins (PS3 [Arcade])
3/3 - Bust-A-Move Pocket (Neo Geo Pocket Color)
3/14 - Night Trap: 25th Anniversary Edition (PSN [Sega CD])
3/22 - Tearaway (PS Vita)
7/2 - Star Wars Episode I: Racer (PSN [N64])


———————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
Progress - 2012 - 2013 - 2014 - 2015 - 2016 - 2017 - 2018 - 2019 - 2020
———————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
Finished - 0024 - 0041 - 0034 - 0022 - 0025 - 0014 - 0019 - 0025 - 0024
Complete - 0000 - 0004 - 0005 - 0001 - 0002 - 0001 - 0002 - 0002 - 0005
———————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

Beaten:
1/11 - Ghosts'n Goblins (PS3 [Arcade])
2/5 - Turok (Switch [N64])
2/8 - Garou: Mark of the Wolves (PSN [Arcade])
2/17 - Makaimura for WonderSwan (WonderSwan)
3/3 - Bust-A-Move Pocket (Neo Geo Pocket Color)
3/7 - Luigi's Mansion 3 (Switch)
3/10 - Night Trap: 25th Anniversary Edition (PSN [Sega CD])
3/22 - Marvel's Spider-Man (PS4)
3/23 - Dragon Quest (Switch [NES])
3/26 - Panzer Dragoon: Remake (Switch)
4/4 - Doom 64 (Switch)
4/21 - Tearaway (PS Vita)
4/24 - Rocket Knight Adventures (Genesis)
5/1 - Streets of Rage 4 (PSN [PS4])
5/20 - Bare Knuckle III (Steam [Mega Drive])
5/21 - Donkey Kong Jungle Beat (GameCube)
5/23 - Forza Horizon 3: Horizon Hot Wheels (Xbone [DLC])
5/26 - Ori and the Blind Forest: Definitive Edition (Xbone)
7/2 - Star Wars Episode I: Racer (PSN [N64])
7/5 - Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition (Switch [Wii])
7/11 - Dragon Quest II: Luminaries of the Legendary Line (Switch [NES])
7/16 - Virtual Boy Wario Land (VB)
7/26 - Dragon Quest III: The Seeds of Salvation (Switch[NES])
8/10 - Gate of Thunder (VC [TGCD])
8/26 - Battletoads (Xbone)

I'd been hotly anticipating this game since it was announced like two (three?) years ago. Much like fellow beat 'em up Streets of Rage 4, its release date was also revealed fairly shortly before it launched, escalating my excitement quickly. I wish I could say I am as pleased with this game as I was Streets (which remains a likely GotY candidate for me), but sadly I am not! Battletoads is an extremely ambitious revival. It has the best 2D animated cutscenes I've ever seen in a game (and rather funny at that), solid voice acting, good music, and great beat 'em up combat. Unfortunately, Dlala's insistence on echoing the original game's musical chairs of genres means a solid 50% (maybe more?) of the game is spent not playing that great beat 'em up stuff! Now, some of the genre diversions work. The turbo bikes are still fun, a later forced scrolling stage is great, and the twin-stick shmup stages are okay, but some of the other stages such as plodding puzzle platformers are just incongruous inclusions. I don't think it's impossible for this genre medley concept to work, and maybe in a sequel (if Microsoft allows them one), Dlala can slim it down to the good concepts and deliver a really excellent game. Until then, I'm still happy Battletoads came out, and it has a lot going for it, but it stands as merely good and not great.

Completed:
1/11 - Ghosts'n Goblins (PS3 [Arcade])
3/3 - Bust-A-Move Pocket (Neo Geo Pocket Color)
3/14 - Night Trap: 25th Anniversary Edition (PSN [Sega CD])
3/22 - Tearaway (PS Vita)
7/2 - Star Wars Episode I: Racer (PSN [N64])


———————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
Progress - 2012 - 2013 - 2014 - 2015 - 2016 - 2017 - 2018 - 2019 - 2020
———————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
Finished - 0024 - 0041 - 0034 - 0022 - 0025 - 0014 - 0019 - 0025 - 0025
Complete - 0000 - 0004 - 0005 - 0001 - 0002 - 0001 - 0002 - 0002 - 0005
———————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

Sonic was alright I guess. It's the first sonic game I ever finished. I think I'm just not that great at fast pace.

Spider-man was really fun. I have 100% everything (on Normal Difficulty) but haven't touched DLC, New Game + or finished the benchmarks. What I'll consider Completed since there's an Ultimate difficulty and the benchmarks are super tedious and not actually hard at all they're just Do X 5000 times for 30 different things.

2020 PROGRESS

FINISHED:
27-Feb - Metroid: Samus Returns (3ds)
27-Feb - Need for Speed: Most Wanted 2012 (Vita)
29-Feb - Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped (PS4)
04-Mar - LittleBigPlanet 3 (PS4)
21-Mar - Sonic & All Stars Racing Transformed (360)
22-Mar - Pikuniku (XBO/GP)
06-May - Ori and the Will of the Wisps (XBO/GP)
17-May - Untitled Goose Game (XBO/GP)
XX-Jun - Pokemon Sword (Switch)
23-Jun - Pokemon Shield: The Isle of Armor (Switch)
30-Jun - Final Fantasy IX (XBO/GP)
08-Jul - NieR: Automata (XBO/GP)
01-Aug - Sonic Generation (360/GP)
27-Aug - Spider-man (PS4)

COMPLETE:


——————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
Progress - 2010 - 2011 - 2012 - 2013 - 2014 - 2015 - 2016 - 2017 - 2018 - 2019
——————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
Finished - ???? - 0025 - 0020 - 0012 - 0008 - 0013 - 0008 - 0021 - 0049 - 0030
Complete - ???? - 0004 - 0005 - 0002 - 0003 - 0004 - 0001 - 0002 - 0007 - 0005
——————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
Progress - 2020 -
——————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
Finished - 0014
Complete - 0000
——————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

Jan 03. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (Switch)
Jan 10. Captain Toad Treasure Tracker DLC (Switch)
Jan 10. Defunct (Switch)
Jan 20. Outer Wilds (XBO)
Feb 14. Donut County (Switch)
Feb 22. Fire Emblem Three Houses: Cindered Shadows
Apr 04. Mighty Switch Force (3DS)
May 04. Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze (Switch)
May 08. Fire Emblem Three Houses: Golden Deer (Switch)
Jun 27. The Last of Us Part II (PS4)
Aug 05. Paper Mario The Origami King (Switch)
Aug 07. Carrion (XBO)
Aug 09. Alan Wake (X360)
Aug 17. Donkey Kong Country (SNES)
Aug 28. Night Trap: 25th Anniversary Edition (Switch)

Night Trap was a game to be sure. It's an oddity that makes it a joy to play in a group setting, just for the pure "wtf??" value. Had to look up a guide to beat the game, can't imagine how long it would take otherwise.

The Shoemaker wrote: ↑28 Aug 2020 08:34 Night Trap was a game to be sure. It's an oddity that makes it a joy to play in a group setting, just for the sure "wtf??" value. Had to look up a guide to beat the game, can't imagine how long it would take otherwise.

Haha, I had a ton of fun with Night Trap. I think I would've hated it without a guide, so I used one too. It's goofy as hell, but it has a place in history and was pretty fun in my book. The Platinum on PS4 requires like 6 playthroughs (plus a couple different failures) and I still didn't get tired of it. Like you said, I can't really call it *good* per se, but it entertained me, so at the end of the day that's the point of a game. I'm glad they put out the 25th Anniversary Edition to make it more accessible. Clearly a labor of love.

Claytone wrote: ↑28 Aug 2020 16:27

The Shoemaker wrote: ↑28 Aug 2020 08:34 Night Trap was a game to be sure. It's an oddity that makes it a joy to play in a group setting, just for the sure "wtf??" value. Had to look up a guide to beat the game, can't imagine how long it would take otherwise.

Haha, I had a ton of fun with Night Trap. I think I would've hated it without a guide, so I used one too. It's goofy as hell, but it has a place in history and was pretty fun in my book. The Platinum on PS4 requires like 6 playthroughs (plus a couple different failures) and I still didn't get tired of it. Like you said, I can't really call it *good* per se, but it entertained me, so at the end of the day that's the point of a game. I'm glad they put out the 25th Anniversary Edition to make it more accessible. Clearly a labor of love.

Yeah I got a few nights of enjoyment out of it with a few different groups of friends, wasn't until last night that we actually used a guide, never made it pasted the first checkpoint without it! Definitely a relic of its time. For $2 it was well worth it, might grab Double Switch if it goes on sale as well.

Alright finished the 3 DLC for Spider-man.

Firstly the DLC was tiny and really should have just been 1 big DLC. I guess they wanted to do the whole episode thing.

I really enjoyed the first DLC since there was a lot of fun story however going into the second I started finding the story shifted into a more boring phase. The last DLC was better but really didn't live up to the original story. Was still worth getting/playing (even though it was free in the GOTY edition) Also good to just tick off a few easy :C:'s

2020 PROGRESS

FINISHED:
27-Feb - Metroid: Samus Returns (3ds)
27-Feb - Need for Speed: Most Wanted 2012 (Vita)
29-Feb - Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped (PS4)
04-Mar - LittleBigPlanet 3 (PS4)
21-Mar - Sonic & All Stars Racing Transformed (360)
22-Mar - Pikuniku (XBO/GP)
06-May - Ori and the Will of the Wisps (XBO/GP)
17-May - Untitled Goose Game (XBO/GP)
XX-Jun - Pokemon Sword (Switch)
23-Jun - Pokemon Shield: The Isle of Armor (Switch)
30-Jun - Final Fantasy IX (XBO/GP)
08-Jul - NieR: Automata (XBO/GP)
01-Aug - Sonic Generation (360/GP)
27-Aug - Spider-man (PS4)
30-Aug - Spider-man: The Heist (PS4)
31-Aug - Spider-man: Turf War (PS4)
02-Sep - Spider-man: Silver Lining (PS4)

COMPLETE:

31-Aug - Spider-man: The Heist (PS4)
31-Aug - Spider-man: Turf War (PS4)
02-Sep - Spider-man: Silver Lining (PS4)

——————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
Progress - 2010 - 2011 - 2012 - 2013 - 2014 - 2015 - 2016 - 2017 - 2018 - 2019
——————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
Finished - ???? - 0025 - 0020 - 0012 - 0008 - 0013 - 0008 - 0021 - 0049 - 0030
Complete - ???? - 0004 - 0005 - 0002 - 0003 - 0004 - 0001 - 0002 - 0007 - 0005
——————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
Progress - 2020 -
——————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
Finished - 0017
Complete - 0003
——————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

Beaten:
1/11 - Ghosts'n Goblins (PS3 [Arcade])
2/5 - Turok (Switch [N64])
2/8 - Garou: Mark of the Wolves (PSN [Arcade])
2/17 - Makaimura for WonderSwan (WonderSwan)
3/3 - Bust-A-Move Pocket (Neo Geo Pocket Color)
3/7 - Luigi's Mansion 3 (Switch)
3/10 - Night Trap: 25th Anniversary Edition (PSN [Sega CD])
3/22 - Marvel's Spider-Man (PS4)
3/23 - Dragon Quest (Switch [NES])
3/26 - Panzer Dragoon: Remake (Switch)
4/4 - Doom 64 (Switch)
4/21 - Tearaway (PS Vita)
4/24 - Rocket Knight Adventures (Genesis)
5/1 - Streets of Rage 4 (PSN [PS4])
5/20 - Bare Knuckle III (Steam [Mega Drive])
5/21 - Donkey Kong Jungle Beat (GameCube)
5/23 - Forza Horizon 3: Horizon Hot Wheels (Xbone [DLC])
5/26 - Ori and the Blind Forest: Definitive Edition (Xbone)
7/2 - Star Wars Episode I: Racer (PSN [N64])
7/5 - Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition (Switch [Wii])
7/11 - Dragon Quest II: Luminaries of the Legendary Line (Switch [NES])
7/16 - Virtual Boy Wario Land (VB)
7/26 - Dragon Quest III: The Seeds of Salvation (Switch[NES])
8/10 - Gate of Thunder (VC [TGCD])
8/26 - Battletoads (Xbone)
9/4 - Tony Hawk's Pro Skater [HD Remaster] (PS4 [PS1])
9/4 - Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 [HD Remaster] (PS4 [PS1])

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1+2 was an instant purchase for me. I grew up with the games and adored them. Still do! The Tony Hawk games have a unique distinction of being games that I purchased cross-platform versions of because of my parental divorce. I *could not* go without the Birdman. Yet sadly, I would end up having to go over a decade without a decent game bearing his name.

This HD remaster is everything it should've been. The core gameplay and challenges are almost unchanged, but it brings in many of the great tricks and abilities from later games. Create-A-Skater is as thorough as it has ever been, which is appropriate for a 2020 game with online multiplayer (which is fun, btw!). If you prefer to play as a real pro, though, all the old folks are back, as well as some new, young pros which is totally appropriate. An absolute litany of additional challenges and trophies are going to keep me logging even more insane hours into two of my favorite games of all time. This is, in my opinion, the new definitive way to play these titles, and I couldn't be happier. Long live the king, and here's to a proper THPS6.

Completed:
1/11 - Ghosts'n Goblins (PS3 [Arcade])
3/3 - Bust-A-Move Pocket (Neo Geo Pocket Color)
3/14 - Night Trap: 25th Anniversary Edition (PSN [Sega CD])
3/22 - Tearaway (PS Vita)
7/2 - Star Wars Episode I: Racer (PSN [N64])


———————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
Progress - 2012 - 2013 - 2014 - 2015 - 2016 - 2017 - 2018 - 2019 - 2020
———————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
Finished - 0024 - 0041 - 0034 - 0022 - 0025 - 0014 - 0019 - 0025 - 0027
Complete - 0000 - 0004 - 0005 - 0001 - 0002 - 0001 - 0002 - 0002 - 0005
———————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

Jan 03. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (Switch)
Jan 10. Captain Toad Treasure Tracker DLC (Switch)
Jan 10. Defunct (Switch)
Jan 20. Outer Wilds (XBO)
Feb 14. Donut County (Switch)
Feb 22. Fire Emblem Three Houses: Cindered Shadows
Apr 04. Mighty Switch Force (3DS)
May 04. Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze (Switch)
May 08. Fire Emblem Three Houses: Golden Deer (Switch)
Jun 27. The Last of Us Part II (PS4)
Aug 05. Paper Mario The Origami King (Switch)
Aug 07. Carrion (XBO)
Aug 09. Alan Wake (X360)
Aug 17. Donkey Kong Country (SNES)
Aug 28. Night Trap: 25th Anniversary Edition (Switch)
Sep 15. Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition (switch)

Enjoyed jumping back into this one. The music and characters hold up well, story is a lot more anime than I remember but still had a good time with it. Ultimately it has a lot of heart.

Enjoyed the remixed music and the redone character models did a lot for the game. Still not quite a beautiful game, but acceptable.

Jan 03. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (Switch)
Jan 10. Captain Toad Treasure Tracker DLC (Switch)
Jan 10. Defunct (Switch)
Jan 20. Outer Wilds (XBO)
Feb 14. Donut County (Switch)
Feb 22. Fire Emblem Three Houses: Cindered Shadows
Apr 04. Mighty Switch Force (3DS)
May 04. Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze (Switch)
May 08. Fire Emblem Three Houses: Golden Deer (Switch)
Jun 27. The Last of Us Part II (PS4)
Aug 05. Paper Mario The Origami King (Switch)
Aug 07. Carrion (XBO)
Aug 09. Alan Wake (X360)
Aug 17. Donkey Kong Country (SNES)
Aug 28. Night Trap: 25th Anniversary Edition (Switch)
Sep 15. Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition (switch)
Sep 20. Super Mario Sunshine (Switch)

Complete:
Sep 20. Super Mario Sunshine (Switch)

Finally got to play sunshine again after so many years. And I can only assume this is the first time I've completed it, because there's no way I would have found all the blue coins without a guide back in the day.

I was surprised how close Mario controls to how he does in Odyssey. Not as tight in this game, but clearly they took a lot from how Mario moves in this game and transferred those general ideas to Odyssey.

Overall really enjoyed it. Pretty clear that they must have been rushed to finish the game given the low amount of worlds and how many shrine sprites were relegated to blue coins. Still great, and it looks awesome in HD now.