A Winner Is You! (2012)

[goldenband]

26. Double Dragon (SMS)

I know this port has some ardent defenders, but I think it's lousy. Yeah, it's more faithful to the arcade and supports co-op play, but the AI is brain-dead, the controls erratic (especially on the dreadful SMS pads), the music anemic, and the challenge almost exclusively derived from cheap shots.

Otherwise it's a cakewalk, and took me less than 90 minutes to beat. Plus the presentation is quite poor, with a cheapo look that features garish colors and tons of flicker -- though Willy was so easy, even flickering bullets didn't stop me.

Rag on the NES version all you want for making you earn the special moves, but at least there's a reason to use them -- the SMS port's core strategy amounts to "Punch while pressing diagonally". In principle, you can practically no-hit the entire game that way. Or you can take the pacifist route: just stand on top of a lone enemy, and watch it flail away at empty space while the two of you flicker in peaceful harmony. 3/10.

[The Jackal]

Sonic 4 Episode II

Beat the actual game about 4 days ago, but just beat the final Special Stage, so the game is 100% complete (not as hard as most people make out).

Good game, much better than the previous Episode. Would like to see a Knuckles-starring Ep 3.

[mcurkman]

Just finished Megaman X.

So far this year, I've played through Sonic CD and Sonic Adventure.

[The Coop]

#11 Painkiller: Recurring Evil (PC)- The Painkiller series has been on a fast downhill slide since "Overdose," and this entry shows that slide's not stopping yet. It was $2.49, and while it wasn't as drawn out and buggy as "Redemtion," it wasn't exactly a feather in the cap of the franchise.

[MrMatthews]

26. Star Fox 64 3D (3DS): Got all three endings and visited every planet.

[mcurkman]

Done with Megaman X2.

Good game - my only complaint is in the level design. Feels cheap and really takeds away from the fun factor of the game.

[muchomojo]

Darkwatch for PS2. I'm not a huge FPS fan but I really liked the vampire/old west themes. Anyone know if there was a sequel?

[NeoZeedeater]

Darkwatch 2 was cancelled.

I beat -
Shadows of the Damned - One of Grasshopper Manufacture's better games but still not spectacular. It reminded me of Resident Evil 5, i.e. survival controls but a game that's pretty much all action and not actually scary. It has far more interesting environments than RE5, though.

Gears of War 3 - I finally finished up my two-player co-op game from months ago. I'm kind of glad I wasn't the one that bought it. It's more of the same from the first two but less memorable.

[QuickSciFi]

5. Tom Mason's Dinosaurs for Hire - Sega Genesis



With the exception of the final boss, this game was extremely fun. This game just became one of my favorite Run N Guns.
P.S.> From what I've seen online, people get the misconception that this game throws random enemy moves at you. This couldn't be further from the truth; all enemies, and especially final bosses, have the same exact, predictable moves.

[MrMatthews]

27. Pilotwings Resort (3DS): I pretty much beat it. I got three stars in all classes including the unlockable diamond class and found all the collectibles in Free Flight mode, and saw the credits. I bought this game with the system at launch, and only now got around to playing it. All in all, this was more addictive and fun than I expected, and not nearly as difficult as I had heard. The guys who wrote the reviews must have sucked at this game!

That being said, I don't believe I will be trying for "perfect" scores on any of the upper classes, which is why I only "pretty much" beat the game.

[M4R14NO94]

Joe & Mac: Caveman Ninja (Wii, from Data East Arcade Classics)

Beat it again last night with my little brother.

[TheSonicRetard]

Joe & Mac: Caveman Ninja (Wii, from Data East Arcade Classics)

Beat it again last night with my little brother.

This was literally the first Amiga game I got. The Amiga port is alright, not great but not shameful at the same time. Close enough that you don't feel like it's a different game or that you're missing out on what's in the other versions, but far enough away from the superior home console ports that you can see the obvious improvements between those versions and the Amiga version at first glance.

[goldenband]

27. Ardy Lightfoot (SNES)

This 16-bit platformer is nothing groundbreaking, and certainly has its share of flaws: the play control is occasionally suspect, the final boss fight a bit too tedious, and the replay value minimal. But it also has the key virtue of being almost unfailingly pleasant to play, which is a claim many of its contemporaries can't make (or stake). And even when it's frustrating, it's usually the good kind of frustration.

Just don't expect more than about 3-4 hours of gameplay from it. But if you enjoy those 3-4 hours, as I did, then no harm no foul. 7/10.

[MrMatthews]

28. Resistance: Fall of Man (PS3): Wow, this is Sony's big franchise this generation? I don't see what the big deal is. I'm glad I decided to play through this one before I bought into the hype and purchased the next two games.

[goldenband]

28. B.O.B. (SNES)

Well, if I gave the Genesis version 6/10 bordering on 7/10, then the SNES version should get at least 8/10, because it's clearly superior in presentation and play control (especially jumping and item selection). And having better play control allows for slightly higher difficulty, especially in the boss fights -- which works out well since I remember breezing through the bosses in the Genesis version, whereas the SNES boss fights require real care and tactical awareness.

(They also sorta-require you to bring items from previous stages, since without big guns and invincibility items, the last few bosses become extremely difficult. To beat the final boss, I basically had to 1LC the preceding stages and carefully manage my inventory.)

There's something to be said for playing through the two versions in the order I did -- assuming you like B.O.B.'s style of gameplay, that is. I certainly wouldn't want to have gone the other way, since it'd be hard to appreciate the Genesis version after playing the SNES. About the only major flaw in the latter is a buggy music engine that, bizarrely, will often slow the music down when you're scrolling the screen. Otherwise, I think the SNES version deserves full-fledged "hidden gem" status.