Game 1 - Like A Dragon: The Man Who Erased His Name - Xbox Series X - Completed Jan 3rd, 2024
This game started out a bit on the slow side, and that's saying something after having just finished Judgment a few weeks ago. Chapter two was particularly brutal in its slow pacing. However, the final chapter more than makes up for the game's other shortcomings as it was absolutely amazing storytelling. Seriously pumped now for Infinite Wealth to drop in a couple of weeks!
Game 2 - Alex Jones: NWO Wars - PC - Completed Jan 6th, 2024
Ha this game was interesting, to say the least. Gay frogs, free ducks, globalist agendas, it seemingly had it all. One of the levels was San Francisco where you have to avoid homeless as they vomit on you, and destroy tents. That seemed fairly accurate? I dunno, lots of interesting references that I didn't really get, since I don't follow Alex Jones. Game was pretty meh, kind of like an old Flash game. Enemies (especially bosses) had way too much health. Very little challenge.
Game 3 - Koumajou Remilia: Scarlet Symphony - Nintendo Switch - Completed Jan 6th, 2024
"Mom, can we get Castlevania?". "No, we have Castlevania at home." Castlevania at home: Koumajou Remilia: Scarlet Symphony. I picked this game up because I thought it looked like a pretty good Castlevania clone. Turns out, it's got a lot of similarities with Symphony of the Night that Konami ought to sue. The game was short, and the levels were pretty tedious. I'm honestly not a huge fan, but I got the double-pack, so I'm sure I'll play the sequel at some point...
Game 4 - Kingdom Rush Vengeance - PC / Steam - Completed Jan 11th, 2024
I played through this a couple of years ago (on Android), but decided to play through again on Steam and unlock the game's plethora of achievements. This game still holds up really well as one of the best tower defense series, and this is probably the best game of the series, simply because of the variety of towers available. Tons of fun, played through all the levels and did all the challenges.
Game 5 - Dungeons and Dragons: Tower of Doom - Retro Achievements - Completed Jan 11th, 2024
I spent a few hours delving through Tower of Doom. I realized that I haven't ever played this game before, but I always saw it in the arcade, and it looked like fun. I sunk a fair few virtual quarters into beating this game, I couldn't imagine paying that much on a real arcade machine though, I would have definitely gotten frustrated and would have quit well before the end. Really fun game though!
Game 6 - Time Survivors - PC / Steam - Completed Jan 20th, 2024
A fun take on the Vampire Survivors genre, this game had you pick from a cast of historical characters and the stages were all different times in history. While not incredibly deep, it only took me about 10 hours to fully complete it with 100% of the Steam achievements. The biggest problem with the game is that it's incredibly unbalanced - there is definitely a weapon loadout that will let you win every time, and some of the weapons are totally worthless. So, by the time you get enough reroll power ups, it's basically just an instant win.
Game 7 - 12 Labours of Hercules XII: Timeless Adventure - PC / Steam - Completed Jan 22nd, 2024
Another year, another Hercules game that is 99% the same as the last one. For some reason, I really dig these games - they have a good flow to them, and they usually make me think and strategize. It also helps that they're usually incredibly cheap on Steam sales. Completed this one with all gold times - and even beat one of the developers records (badly) on one of the super secret stages. Fun stuff, can't wait for part XIII!
Game 8 - Octopath Traveler II - PC / Steam - Completed Jan 28th, 2024
Easily my favorite JRPG of 2024, this game was amazing from start to finish. It took me almost a full year to finish the game, as I took a break after finishing my first character's final chapter. I'm glad I came back to it in earnest though, because the payoff at the end was emotional and incredible. I had nearly 100 hours on my save file, and there were still a lot of side quests and collectibles I missed. I hope that a third game in the series is made eventually, because this really is some of the best stuff that's come out of Square Enix in decades.
Game 9 - Turnip Boy Robs a Bank - PC / Game Pass - Completed Feb 2nd, 2024
Man, fuck this game. I really, really enjoyed the first few hours of this game - going into the bank, coming out with treasure used to level up your character... a really solid rogue-like. But the last level, man fuck the last level of this game. You have to go into the bank, beat four bosses, then go back through each of the four boss chambers while a big space thing is chasing you - all while on a six-minute timer. Took me a good 10 tries - that's a whole hour where, the entire time I thought "wow, this game got to be a huge pile of bullshit". It seriously ruined the game. Liked the first one, will definitely not buy / play the next.
Game 10 - Granblue Fantasy: Relink - PC / Steam - Completed Feb 10th, 2024
I've been waiting ages to play this game, and I'm happy to say it was worth the wait. Great story, really great characters, fun battle systems, and above all else: really, REALLY good music. A bit of a budget title (at $50), and the main storyline never overstayed it's welcome at about 15 hours for me. I'm not a massive fan of the end-game stuff, but I may boot it up a few more times to grind out some levels / equipment. Overall, this game had massive charm and heart - I hope we see others like it in the future.
Game 11 - Star Trek Borg: Remastered - PC - Completed Feb 19th, 2024
I saw a post on GAF that this game got a "fan remaster" that turned it into a browser game in high definition. I used to love this WAY back in the day, so I decided to check this out. I'm very glad I did, this was such a treat! John DeLancie as Q did an amazing job here and put on an excellent performance. It's crazy seeing the footage here in such high resolution detail, I remember it being SUPER grainy and hard to make out back in the day. My only gripe is that there was a ton of buffering - I wish there were a way to buy this on modern systems and play it locally.
Game 12 - Brotato - PC / Game Pass - Completed Feb 24th, 2024
It took me about 30 hours, but I finally finished up all the achievements for Brotato on Xbox. I also previously played this to 100% on Steam, so I had a jump start on knowing the best combos and such. Some of the builds in this game are incredibly broken, but I like how the game almost expects you to use that to your advantage (otherwise you'll get overwhelmed easily and die). A really solid game through and through, so much fun in short 25 minute bursts.
Game 13 - The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel - Nintendo Switch - Completed Mar 3rd, 2024
This is only the third game in the Legend of Heroes series that I've beaten, but this series is quickly climbing to the top of my "best series ever" list. It's unlikely to dethrone Final Fantasy or Xenoblade Chronicles, but damn was this game great. Like the other games I've played (Trails in the Sky FC and Nayuta), this starts out as a typical "slice of life" narrative that grows in scope as the game progresses. Despite this game being pretty old, I still didn't see the ending coming! I am definitely going to have to dive into the second game now, it's just so damn good.
Game 14 - Braveland - PC / Steam - Completed Mar 10th, 2024
I played the Braveland trilogy on the Switch a few years ago, but liked it well enough to replay it - this time on PC. The game is still a fun and charming light strategy game that holds up well enough. My biggest complaint is that I wish the game got just a bit deeper - some of the later games in the series had more going for them, and it would have been nice to have that in this setting. Maybe I'll give their latest game, Knights of Braveland, a try next.
Game 15 - Soulstone Survivors - PC / Steam - Completed Mar 16th, 2024
Been playing this off and on since 2022, but finally feel like I've "beat" it (despite there still being about 20 achievements I haven't unlocked). The game is a really solid Vampire Survivors clone, each hero has a unique skill set and ability that can be changed per run. The rune system lets you unlock and pick different passive perks for each character / run, so that's cool too. Massive amount of build variety here, every run seems pretty different. Only complaint is the lack of unique stages, and the fact that once you unlock the best runes each run starts feeling the same unless you handicap yourself. Overall though, very solid game.
Game 16 - Final Fantasy VII Rebirth - PlayStation 5 - Completed Mar 18th, 2024
Amazing game, really a solid 10/10. Easily my game of the year, and something absolutely incredible will have to get released this year for it to be topped. Honestly, this was so much better than Remake - and I think I even enjoyed it more than the original from 1997 (which is saying a lot). Amazing music (I've already got tickets to the concert later this year), fantastic characters and character development. I even enjoyed the ending a lot, which has been pretty dividing online. Just really solid, very amazing.
Game 17 - Balatro - PC / Steam - Completed Mar 22nd, 2024
I heard good things about this card game, so I thought I'd check it out. Glad I did, it's a lot of fun! It also got my son and wife both playing it, so you're wecome devs. Won my first run after only about 6 hours playing, got really lucky and had two jokers in play that both had x-multis, so I was getting crazy scores like 100k in one hand. So much random shit happening with this game, I love it.
Game 18 - Alone in the Dark - PC / GOG - Completed Mar 28th, 2024
This game wasn't really on my radar, but it got good reviews here on GAF (and terrible mainstream reviews) so I thought I'd give it a chance. I picked it up on GOG since it was available there. The graphics were good, and the story was engaging. Voice acting was incredibly good. The game had a huge amount of atmosphere that really portrayed 1930s New Orleans well. Don't listen to the critic's reviews on this game, it was a really solid adventure / survival horror game. I also liked that it only took about 7 hours to finish, so it never felt like it overstayed it's welcome. Also, I'm glad it wasn't too scary, because I'm a wuss with horror games. A really great experience overall.
Game 19 - Unicorn Overlord - Nintendo Switch - Completed Apr 10th, 2024
This was a hell of a game. I loved how the gameplay blended both real-time and turn based combat. The characters, although numerous, were really well written and had fun personalities. Exploring the map and unlocking new quests / units / areas was a ton of fun and easily the game's standout quality in my opinion. My only real complaint is that the game does go a bit long (my save file had just over 50 hours on it), too much of the dialog was unvoiced, and there were so many characters that I felt myself not caring about a lot of them towards the end. Otherwise, this was a solid experience!
Game 20 - Deep Rock Galactic Survivor - PC / Steam - Completed Apr 14th, 2024
I loved Deep Rock Galactic, but hated that it was multiplayer only. This basically fixes this problem, while also making a game that's in one of my new favorite genres. The game is tons of fun, maybe one of the best autoshooters yet - as it requires not only movement and weapons but also mining and securing minerals that you can use between runs to level up. Game ran great on the Steam Deck, and also looked incredible on my new 32:9 ultrawide monitor. Unlocked all achievements, will probably return when the game is out of early access.
Game 21 - Crystal Project - Nintendo Switch - Completed Apr 26th, 2024
So there was a lot about this game that I absolutely loved. And also, there were things I hated. The class system was amazing, finding crystals was a fun endeavor, and the general progression of the game was incredible. This was all marred by some seriously terrible platforming sections that were mandatory. Overall, I'd give this game a 7/10 - would be 9/10 if not for the platforming.
Game 22 - Picross S6 - Nintendo Switch - Completed May 31st, 2024
This is the hardest Picross S game to date! This one I played off and on for nearly a year before finally buckling down to finish it. The format is exactly the same as the other 5 Picross S games I've played so far, but some of the puzzles had a "try and guess" aspect to them which I didn't appreciate, especially the final puzzle which I played and restarted maybe 6-7 times to try and find the right combination since the hints weren't complete. Hopefully the Picross S7-9 games aren't as difficult as this one!
Game 23 - Idle Champions of the Forgotten Realms - PC / Epic - Completed Jun 13th, 2024
Every year, Epic gives away a ton of free characters and treasure chests for this game, and every year I collect them and play through a bunch of adventures. The game hasn't changed much since last year, honestly. However, the music is still a stand-out hit and incredibly good - in fact, it's the reason I keep coming back every year. Hope next year they have a new volume of songs.
Game 24 - Hades II - PC / Steam - Completed Jun 15th, 2024
Man, what a great game this is. At first, I was kind of missing the flow of the first game quite a bit, but after a while I really appreciated all the new stuff that this game has to offer. The boons (and their combinations) are amazing, and the portraits / voice acting for the Olympians is still incredible like the first game. The story in this one is excellent, and still ongoing. Definitely can't wait for this to leave Early Access so that I can unlock the game's true ending.
Game 25 - A Tower Full of Cats - PC / GOG - Completed Jun 21st, 2024
Another fun "... of Cats" game, a hidden object game where the cats get highlighted as you select them. I was able to discover 100% of everything. Obviously, the story is basically nonexistent. Nonetheless, it was a fun time just finding all the hidden cats throughout the tower and into space.
Game 26 - Starcraft - PC / Blizzard - Completed Jul 6th, 2024
I haven't played through the campaign of Starcraft since 1998 - and boy is it great. At first, I started playing this (the remastered version) and thought to myself "man, this game holds up amazingly well". Then, I accidentally pressed the button on my keyboard that toggles between the original and remastered graphics, and yeah this version is much improved. The campaign is incredibly good and quite long. They just don't make games like this anymore.
Game 27 - Castlevania: Resurrection (Demo) - Retro Achievements - Completed Jul 9th, 2024
I got curious and decided to play through this Dreamcast demo from years past. It played pretty similarly to Castlevania 64, but it had some neat ideas overall. The achievements were simple enough, so this was a fun way to spend a couple of hours. Unfortunately I wasn't able to get the corridor level to load in Retroarch, so I wasn't able to unlock all the achievements, but this was still pretty fun. Interesting to think what might have been if they would have actually finished this game.
Game 28 - Shin Megami Tensei V Vengeneance - Nintendo Switch - Completed Jul 18th, 2024
Great game, pretty bad story, excellent combat. I wasn't really sure what to expect going into this game, besides that people told me that it's like Persona without all the visual novel elements. Glad I took the chance, because I ended up really liking the game and it's overall mechanics. I loved a lot about this game but the combat mechanics, demon forging, and the music were all stand out hits for me. I'm not sure if I'll go back to play the previous games in the series, but I'll definitely check out the next one that comes up without hesitation.
Game 29 - Kingdom Rush 5 Alliance - PC / Steam - Completed Jul 26th, 2024
I love the Kingdom Rush games, so I was excited that a new one was getting released. The game is a lot of fun, and mixes up the formula a bit over the previous titles - giving you access to both "good guy" and "bad guy" towers (a mix of stuff from the first 3 games as good, and the 4th game as bad). My only complaint really was that it was too short, as the game didn't have the series signature extra campaign that will likely come later. Either way, a good time and a good entry in this legendary tower defense series.
Game 30 - TMNT: Splintered Fate - Nintendo Switch - Completed Aug 6th, 2024
A fun game that obviously took a lot of cues from Hades, but put a Ninja Turtles twist on the formula. I wasn't sure about this game at first, but it really came to grow on me. Each turtle felt fresh and different, both because they each had different weapons but also because each had their own set of passive abilities. Every run felt fresh just due to the random factor of the upgrades. Permanent upgrades between runs were always significant (like +20% damage, not +2%) which made the game grindy (there are a lot of upgrades) but not too grindy. Biggest letdown is that there is seemingly no ending - you rescue Splinter, and then it's over except you can just keep playing.
Game 31 - Cygni: All Guns Blazing - PC / Epic - Completed Aug 11th, 2024
I'm not usually a fan of shoot-em-ups, but this game was getting some positive buzz (and a great OT here on GAF) so I was interested in it. Well, three days after release, it was one of the weekly free games on the Epic Games Store - nice! This isn't my usual genre of game, but I really enjoyed it (especially since it had easy mode). My old brain and reaction time was too slow, and I took a lot of hits, thankfully the game is generous with its health power ups. I really liked the mechanic of swapping bombs for shields and vice versa, it added a unique element to an already pretty awesome game. The graphics were fantastic too. All in all, a really solid experience.
Game 32 - Cat Quest III - Nintendo Switch - Completed Aug 15th, 2024
I enjoyed the first two Cat Quest games, so I was patiently awaiting the third entry in the series. While it was better than the second game, it still didn't surpass the first one, for me at least. The pirate theme was really cool, and it was a lot of fun riding the ship and doing ship-based combat. Took me about 10 hours to complete, so I feel like the $20 asking price was just right. The ending seemed to be setting up a Cat Quest IV, and I'll be there for that day one.
Game 33 - Cast Away - Nintendo Switch - Completed Aug 21st, 2024
I was looking for something short to play, and I heard this was short. I wasn't exactly prepared for just how short this was. While a pretty fun game with cool retro Links Awakening style graphics, it's only about 30-45 minutes in length which was pretty disappointing. Once you beat the game, you unlock a weird "go as far as you can" mode that has a level-up system with various power ups. However, nothing stays between runs so it's really more of a gauntlet mode than a roguelike, which was disappointing.
Game 34 - Black Myth: Wukong - PC / Steam - Completed Aug 30th, 2024
An absolutely incredible game - one of my favorites of 2024 so far. Incredible graphics, nice story segments, and a lot of gameplay variety. While the first few chapters had me believing this wasn't a Souls game and lulled me into a false sense of security - by the end of the game it was full-on Souls. The good news for me was that there wasn't any death penalty, and that leveling up was actually always meaningful. With these things combined, I was able to power through most encounters (though the pagoda level and iron ball segments were brutal). I didn't even come close to getting 100% of everything, so at some point I'm sure I'll do a new game plus play through with a guide to mop up the rest.
Game 35 - Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia (Dominus Collection) - Nintendo Switch - Completed Sep 2nd, 2024
I picked up this collection because I'm a huge fan of the first two games, but never finished this one because I always thought it was too hard. I'm glad I gave this another shake, and stuck with it. The extra screen for maps and enemy data helped quite a bit, and it was a fun way to experience this version of the game. I really enjoyed the story, especially once it got to going. I'm sure I'll play through the other games in this collection now, it's a wonderful value.
Game 36 - Castlevania: Haunted Castle Revisited (Dominus Collection) - Nintendo Switch - Completed Sep 2nd, 2024
I wanted a short and sweet palate cleanser before starting the next longer game, and this was exactly that. I had played through the original arcade game a number of years ago, but I remembered it being clunky and honestly pretty terrible. This version of the game was much improved - better visuals, better movement, better enemy placement. The game also had a generous checkpoint system and a rewind feature, which made it significantly easier than the original. A fun little Castlevania arcade romp.
Game 37 - Nintendo World Championship: NES Edition - Nintendo Switch - Completed Sep 6th, 2024
This game started out really strong for me with the Mario games and Zelda games, but other than those this felt honestly pretty weak. The game loses a huge amount of momentum just by requiring so many coins to unlock the new levels, that it really hampers the game and the whole experience. By the end, I was just grinding through some of the easier Zelda challenges to get enough coins to unlock the remaining levels. Not great as a single player experience, but works well as a fun kind of party game. Kinda.
Game 38 - Astro Bot - PlayStation 5 - Completed Sep 16th, 2024
I picked this up based on GAFs glowing recommendations, and I'm glad that I did. This game is really a good showcase of the PS5's powers, and it was fun fighting through the different worlds in order to recover the components of the PS5 in the game. The platforming was really good, and I loved all the different power ups you get throughout the game. My only real complaint is that some of the bonus levels are extra tough, and some of the bosses are a bit bullshit as they have no checkpoints and long intro animations, but those are pretty minor complaints to an otherwise really great game!
Game 39 - StarCraft: Brood War - PC - Completed Sep 18th, 2024
I played through the campaign mode of Brood War, which I haven't done in 25 years. I remember liking this quite a bit more than I did this go around, though it's possible that StarCraft was hot back then and it's absolutely not now (no thanks to StarCraft II kind of ruining the franchise for me). Still a lot of fun, and the levels, especially closer to the end, have a lot of breathing room that let you build huge bases and defenses - which I really enjoyed. I used to like this better than the original campaign, but now I'm left wondering why exactly.
Game 40 - Beyond Shadowgate - PC Steam - Completed Sep 27th, 2024
I absolutely loved this game, an amazing homage to the NES classic Shadowgate and a right proper sequel complete with the NES interface. Without going into too much spoilery detail, I will say that the final level of this game was absolutely my favorite. Tons of good puzzles, I actually got stuck several times and finally worked out how to proceed. Lots of trial and error. Took me weeks to finish, and I finally had just 2.5 hours on the "playtime clock". 10/10 game, all around. Hope we get to see another sequel like this to Deju Vu or Uninvited next.
Game 41 - Beautiful Katamari - Xbox 360 - Completed Sep 28th, 2024
I actually really liked this entry in the Katamari series, and while it didn't exactly improve on the formula in any meaningful ways - that's okay. I had fun rolling up all the stars and planets, and the final level where you roll stuff up to go into space was also really fun and interesting. The soundtrack, as always, was bangin. This felt pretty on-par with the recent remakes (HD, widescreen, etc.) so it'd be nice we actually got a new entry in the series sometime soon.
Game 42 - The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom - Nintendo Switch - Completed Sep 30th, 2024
This game was a really great entry in the Zelda series. I was a bit on the fence about it when it was first revealed, it looked like just a top-down version of Tears of the Kingdom, and it's weird physics puzzles - but I'm glad I was wrong. The return to the Link to the Past map (kinda), the return of proper dungeons, the return of the bombastic soundtrack... all of these elements are what make Zelda games great, and the game sent me all the way back to memories of 1992 playing the SNES game for the first time.
Game 43 - Visions of Mana - PC / Steam - Completed Oct 6th, 2024
This game was incredible, I'd say that my only real complaint was that Chapter 7 just dragged on longer than it needed to - but other than that it's a perfect sequel in the Mana series. Great story, fun characters, amazing art direction, incredible music. All the staples of a really well done Square Enix JRPG. Looked extra amazing is 32:9 ultrawide after modifying the game. I hope we see more stuff like this getting made in the future.
Past challenges:
jshackles
as the prior host)
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