Recently finished Hollow Knight with the good ending. And just beat the final boss in Furi. It’s essentially a boss rush game, so perfect to play in short bursts when you’re outside.
Just started Okami on Switch. I’ve wanted to play it since the ps2 release, just never got around to it throughout all its rereleases. Pretty enjoyable so far, although the combat isn’t too challenging yet.
I’ve been playing Xenoblade Chronicles 2 for the last 3 months. I’m over 120 hours into it. Finally getting to the end.
Recent console releases haven’t really interested me (though I did pick up Overcooked 2 last month), so I’ve been both revisiting and visiting the GBA’s library via the dinky Game Boy Micro:
WARIO LAND 4
I played through Wario Land 4 for what’s probably the sixth time since launch, but the first time on super hard mode. That game is a masterpiece in my eyes - not an ounce of filler and all-round superb level design that makes the most of Wario’s varied moveset.
FIRE EMBLEM 7
I also played through Fire Emblem 7. Like Wario Land 4, there is no bloat to this game as far as content goes, and the mechanics aren’t overly complex so you can confidently make fast decisions each turn without feeling like you’ve left a lot of the outcome to luck. The pixel art graphics also blew my mind - the units and battle sprites ooze craftsmanship, and the menus are some of the best I’ve seen in video games. What makes the latter even more impressive is they had to be designed for a 240 x 160 resolution display. I’d never played the classic Fire Emblem titles and now I see why long-time fans aren’t happy with the modern games.
RIVIERA: THE PROMISED LAND
I’m now slowly playing through Riviera: The Promised Land. I had the PSP ‘remake’ (Sting actually stuck the sprites through an upscaling algorithm) a decade ago, but the GBA version looks nicer and has more impressive music.
I’m not sure this game is as good as it seemed on release, though. I like the focus on uncovering lots of unique items to use in battle. I like the limited inventory space which forces you to make trade-offs constantly. I like the skill system where learning skills from an item increases your stats. But put them all together and it kind of breaks the game. You grind for skills because you’re worried you’ll have to ditch an item to make space for a new one. But doing this makes your party overpowered - at least in the first three chapters. It’s also rather time consuming and dull - not necessarily bad given the game is portable and I found myself doing some skill grinding on the bus or train, but that doesn’t make it intrinsically interesting either.
The saving grace really is in the level design, where you slowly move through detailed (for Wonderswan and GBA) environments trying to optimise the number of actions you have to use each chapter. And in optimising battles. Even if the enemy isn’t dealing much damage unless you strategically finish a battle quickly and on a level 3 skill you won’t get an S rank.
BOKTAI
I started this on Friday because the weather was nice! It’s more difficult than I remember, and I hope to continue playing more of it as I’ve only played the first half hour. It’s nice to return to Boktai’s action adventure roots, as I remember a lot more of that game than I did its RPG-like sequel.
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I’ve been playing splinter cell blacklist since just before it went BC. Was doing the campaign in SP. Once it went BC me and a buddy have been doing a mission a week roughly together. It’s been a lot of fun. The wave based missions for Charlie are the ones giving us the most trouble. Once we finish all the coop missions we will be playing mp in classic mode primarily
Started up Hollow Knight last night on the Switch. Meant to play for 30 minutes in bed, but ended up crushing 90 (and staying up too late!). I’m still very early in the game, but it’s showing a lot of promise so far. The art style isn’t bothering me as much as I thought it would, combat feels very good, and I’m earning new abilities and buying stuff at a pretty quick clip so far. Looking forward to putting some more time into it.
Just finished Metroid: Zero Mission. Gutted I didn’t quite make under 2 hours but I’ll take that. Last playthrough was three years ago, before then: 2004. The game hasn’t got an ounce of bloat and coming from Wario Land 4, a great reminder that R&D 1 were masters of 2D.
I also finished Riviera, which turned out to get better and better the further in I played. The battle system gets utilised to its fullest around chapter 3, where the difficulty catches up to the skill grinding, and the game keeps things interesting by throwing intriguing new items at you so you’re always switching up your play style. I miss Sting and their quirky RPGs!
Oh and this dialogue - which occurs whenever you use a dragon slaying item - never ceases to amuse me.
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Dragon Ball FighterZ all day every day.
I recently got Bare Knuckle 3 and Battle Mania/Troubleshooter 2 for Genesis, so I’ll get around to playing those, eventually.
Played some Demons Crest today, it has problems, but its still a pretty awesome game!
Modern:
Still into the PC version of Rocket League. I love this game, and I’m getting up into the champion levels of play which is super fast.
Retro:
Various… Mostly R-Type (SMS), still working on finishing it. I’ve also been playing through Yoshi’s Island (SNES), Final Fantasy I (PSP), and Link’s Awakening DX (Emulated). I also hop between dozens of other retro titles as my desires lead me, but this list is what I’m actively working to complete.
I’m still playing Mario Tennis Aces (with the superior simple rules) which thankfully is very much a competitive game. Was worried Nintendo would do to it what Sony did with Everybody’s Golf…brrr.
The latest update does a lot to make the growing roster of characters bring together matchups that feel a lot more balanced. I think they nerfed my main, Koopa, though. Koopa used to be the only character capable of charging up these extremely potent drop shots that barely bounce off the ground, this appears to have been nixed entirely…
Online tournaments are still as frustratingly morish as ever, but the local multiplayer is what keeps me coming back. Doubles is a riot when played with random characters.
The online in that game is terrible 
. It sucks because I actually do think it’s a great game.
Modern:
Shadow of the Tomb Raider: I like the modern trilogy but this is the weakest one. It feels more like an expansion pack, but the gameplay loop is still enjoyable.
Spider-Man: I’m halfway through and really enjoy this game. Swinging around the city is a lot of fun.
Retro:
Unreal Tournament - Still a lot of fun after all these years.
1942 - Getting ready for a play through next month.
Does this mean what I think it means?! Will there be a Marathon?!
It’s been a while since I’ve reported in. I’m playing 3 games these days:
Rocket League - Still only at gold rank 
. I hate this game… but I love it. It’s favorite multiplayer game of all time.
Chrono Trigger - I run through this game once every 3 or so years. This time I’m gearing up for my first try at Radical Dreamers, then my first try at Chrono Cross! It’s just as good as I remember it! What a game.
Super Mario Galaxy 2 - after beating Odyssey last year, I completed a 120 Star run is Galaxy 1 over the winter, and am now 50 stars into Galaxy 2. It’s just as good as I remember it, (ie one of the best of all time) but I do think later 3D Mario games are more replayable due to the way movement works and due to more bite-sized challenges sprinkled throughout.
FYI I generally hate when people compare 3D Mario games though. They’re all so different and amazing. I’d hate if they were more identical than they are. They’re masterfully made examples of what sequels should be - constantly breaking and remixing conventions of previous games.
It’s hard because there is now 3 distinctly separate styles of 3d Mario, each with it’s own appeal. I don’t know if sequels should always change everything up but am happy that Nintendo does not only make these differences, but then doesn’t “abandon” the older game styles either. Sure it took a while for them to get back to my favorite 3d style…but it was worth the wait.
New Wario Land style game pls.
Yes, but they all do have appeal in my opinion. None are “trash” like some how some people say.
Exactly. It’s just that they prefer the game play style of the one they are backing. I don’t believe any of the differences between the styles are objectively worse, it’s all subjective opinion. For example I prefer the more open exploration based ones (64/Sunshine/Odyssey) but that doesn’t make the level/direct objective (Galaxy) titles bad design.
Of course there is going to be a ton of hyperbole in any discussion, especially one as super serious as vidya games on the internets.