I played through quite a bit this weekend.
Turtles in Time – I normally play Hyperstone Heist so I figured I should try this version. I think I prefer Hyperstone Heist.
Bare Knuckle 3 (Bad ending – I got lost on the elevator stage)
I’m not sure if I’ve finished this one before
First time ever beating Castlevania
Super Castlevania - I play this one all the time. I’m down to just around an hour.
Finished Giana Sisters DS tonight. Pretty decent game, actually. Got 100% on everything, and all achievements.
Nice, I’ve meant to play that more. I had it years ago but sold it in a batch in an act of madness.
Finished Brute Force on the OG XBOX today. I was playing on the 360 though.
It’s my original copy from when I bought an Xbox, and never managed to stick with it long enough to finish it until now.
Pretty cool game actually, if a little stale by the end. The story is pretty meh, but the difficulty picks up towards the end in a good way.
I finished up Actraiser today.
After finishing Soul Blazer I wanted a palate cleanser before moving on to illusion of Gaia, and man am I glad I took the time because Actraiser is an inspired piece of game design.
The simulation portion is the star here with a simple toolset that has just enough complexity to keep you engaged and the action segments never outstayed their welcome as the stages were just the right length if a little on the easy side.
The soundtrack is such a charming tribute to Star Wars (especially the credits screen) that lends the whole game an epic, adventurous tone.
My only real criticisms are the lack of a final stage (I hoarded bombs and arrows with the expectation I’d be fighting tooth and nail to develop the final town) and that we never got a proper sequel!
A brilliant game that was a nice side diversion before moving on with the next game in the Quintet trilogy.
I did the exact same thing as you, playing the Actraiser games between the three ARPG’s. Actraiser 2 may have dropped the simulation sections but more than makes up for it with the expanded move set which I personally found to be a joy to get to grips with, a tough but fair difficulty level (at least this is true for the Japanese version) with just incredible pixel art throughout. I think it’s every bit a proper sequel and one of the stand out action games of the entire 16-bit era, don’t miss out!
I’ll take your advice then and slot it in between Illusion of Gaia and Terranigma!, I never like playing similar games back to back if I can avoid it so it will be a nice way to break things up 
It’s better than DD though, far less collision issue jank garbage.
Not on the level of DDII of course.
I played through Castlevania while updating installing crap on the ps3.
It was the Japanese Famicom version on easy, running on the N8. So, no knock-back, and enemies only do 2 points damage, rather than 3.
I’ll try the FDS version, which has continues, for a more full experience.
Favourite room: Axe armours and Medusa heads before the Death boss.
Been playing more Castlevania too!
Finished Aria of Sorrow today, which exceeded my expectations. While it doesn’t play with the formula as much as the last two DS games did, it still manages to deal more compact, tighter level design than SoTN while adding some cool variety through the Souls system.
The difficulty balancing falls apart near the end of the game as you discover overpowered abilities and weapons, but I loved how well designed the castle was.
I also played through a Castlevania tonight. Akumajou Dracula x68000 aka Castlevania Chronicles.
68000 certainly has a great soundchip.
Nice one
Nice, Panzer Dragoon is such an awesome game!
Taking a little nap in society there.
