Non-Gaming Purchases - Augusti 2017

Since I haven't bought any directly gaming related purchases this month I'll just add some other stuff I got instead.

a bunch of fidget spinners in various colors

several LEGO sets from the Nexo Knights series and DC Super Hero Girls series:
2x LEGO Nexo Knights 70326 Black Knight Mech
2x LEGO Nexo Knights 70349 Ruina's Lock & Roller
LEGO Nexo Knights 70363 Battle Suit Macy
LEGO DC Super Hero Girls 41230 Batgirl Batjet Chase
LEGO DC Super Hero Girls 41233 Lashina Tank
LEGO DC Super Hero Girls 41234 Bumblebee Helicopter
LEGO DC Super Hero Girls 41235 Wonder Woman Dorm
LEGO DC Super Hero Girls 41237 Batgirl Secret Bunker
LEGO DC Super Hero Girls 41239 Eclipso Dark Palace

Gaming Purchases - Juli 2016

Juli 1st:

An epic order of games I placed on Hetero Pride Day the 29th of Juni to celebrate my awesome sexuality! The order arrived today.

Mega Drive:
F22 Interceptor (Already had a copy of this but I didn't have a manual to go with it, this was cheap and complete with manual so it was worth picking up for the sake of completion)
Jimmy White's Whirlwind Snooker (cartridge only)
Mega Games 6 Vol. 2 (cartridge only, contains World Cup Italia, Alien Storm, Super Hang-On, Super Monaco GP, Super Thunder Blade and Columns)
Red Zone (cartridge only)
Story of Thor

Game Boy Advance:
Top Gear Rally
Wing Commander Prophecy

DS:
Project Rub
The Rub Rabbits!

PlayStation:
Fade to Black
MTV Sports Snowboarding

PlayStation 2:
Fire Blade
Sky Odyssey
Britney's Dance Beat
Road Rage 3
Savage Skies
The Getaway Black Monday

Xbox:
RoadKill
Red Ninja End of Honour


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Juli 27th:

Ordered some games last week, got them today.

PlayStation:
Brahma Force
Impact Racing

PlayStation 2:
FlatOut 2
Raceway Drag & Stock Racing
R:Racing
Turok Evolution

GameCube:
Starsky & Hutch

Xbox 360:
Metro 2033
Metro Last Light Limited Edition

Now Playing - Maj 2016

Mostly been playing the games I got recently, it feels great to finally own copies of my own for some of these games and the newcomers have been welcome additions to my library as well.


Eternal Champions (Mega Drive)

F22 Interceptor (Mega Drive)
I'm usually not a huge fan of flight sim games but a flat-shaded polygonal 3D flight sim on the Mega Drive that plays well and is fun is easily something I can make an exception for and thoroughly enjoy.

LHX Attack Chopper (Mega Drive)
I do however love helicopter games and this alongside the more arcade oriented Steel Talons, also on the Mega Drive, is one of my oldest favorites in that genre.

Steel Talons (Mega Drive)

Winter Challenge (Mega Drive)

Doom (32X)
My favorite version of Doom alongside the PSX port.

Metal Head (32X)
Essentially Armored Core on 32X, naturally a given favorite.

Virtua Racing Deluxe (32X)
While not my top favorite version of Virtua Racing, that honor goes to the SVP powered Mega Drive port, it's still one of my favorite games ever on one of my favorite systems ever.

Centipede (PSX)
While not quite on par with the next gen Dreamcast port this is still a fantastic version and due to how much easier it is to play a PlayStation game than a Dreamcast game it certainly has an edge of it's own, and when played on PS2 with texture filtering turned on there's even less of a difference between the two.
Also I don't think the Dreamcast version ever got released here in Europe so the PSX version was the only one available for me anyway. Great game though, even comes with the original arcade game so it's two games in one and I love that.

Iron Soldier 3 (PSX)
Not exactly an Armored Core killer but still a great mech game nonetheless. It retains what made the Jaguar 64 and Jaguar 64 CD games so good and improves the formula even further with the help of the superior power of the PlayStation. It may lack the flat-shaded polygonal charm of the Jaguar games but it makes up for it with technically superior visuals overall.
It's a tough game though, not one you just jump straight into and have a quick brawl guns a blazin', you have to be tactical and take your time, aim carefully and think and plan things out before you make your moves, your mech is big and heavy and controls like it, in that way it's very different from mech games in general from that era as most, at least on consoles, were more fast paced and action oriented.
I'd love to get hold of a Jaguar 64 and the original Iron Soldier games some day, I've tried the first one in the past and I loved it, which is why I was extra happy to get hold of this great sequel finally.

Kirikou (PSX)
A 2001 release exclusive to Europe, based on the first movie in the Kirikou series about an African boy who is very special indeed. It's a 2.5D platformer similar to some of Disney's greatest 2.5D platformers of the time like Hercules and Tarzan or other great 2.5D PSX classics like Klonoa and Tombi/Tomba, where you take on levels with multiple paths and lots of hidden secrets and all that good stuff. It re-enacts the events from the first film as you play as Kirikou literally from birth to coming face to face with the evil sorceress Karaba, on the way you must face her evil robots (called "fetishes") and make your way through the levels collecting water (essentially this game's equivalent to coins in Mario or rings in Sonic) and learning new abilities from the wise elder such as double jumping and other common game things.
It's easily one of the best 2.5D platformers I've played and I'm glad to own it. I didn't know about the game back when it was new but a few years ago when I found the movie on DVD and thought it looked interesting I got more into it and found out there were games released, multiple games actually, and sequels to the movie as well, so while I still haven't found much I now at least have the first game on PlayStation to go with the first movie on DVD, now I just need to find the PS2 game, the Game Boy Color game and the movie sequels!

Newman Haas Racing (PSX)
A 1998 release by Psygnosis and Bizarre Creations. It saddens me that I missed out on this one back when it was new but I'm glad to have discovered it now and I'm enjoying it very much, it's one of the best F1 style racing games I've ever played.

Re-Loaded (PSX)
A classic I played on PSX and MS-DOS back in the day but sadly never had myself and it's been over 15 years since I played it last. It lived up to my nostalgic memories and I've had a blast from the past with this one, a fantastic top-down action shooter and while I don't think it's better than the original Loaded I also don't think it's worse, they're equals but for different reasons, Loaded was a simpler, more straight forwards and notably more hectic shooter and thus a slightly better two-player experience this expands the missions and gameplay and makes for a better singleplayer experience, I'd say they compliment eachother perfectly and now I need to get hold of a copy the original Loaded so I can relive those nostalgic memories as well, we'll just have to wait and see how many more years that'll take to happen..

T'ai Fu Wrath of the Tiger (PSX)
A 1999 release by Dreamworks and the spiritual predecessor of Kung Fu Panda, a 3D platformer with lots of fighting and a great game I've played through numerous times in the past.

Viewpoint (PSX)
Not much to say about this one, it's a fantastic looking version of Viewpoint, identical to the other versions in gameplay and design but with a complete overhaul of the visuals and music. There's no competition for me, this is the superior way to play this already great game.

WinX Club (PC)
The old Konami developed WinX game that was also released on PS2 that's based on season 1 of the cartoon. I like this game and after having found a no-CD crack for it that worked so I don't have to get the disc out even though the game's been installed I finally got into the game. I really hate when PC games try to limit how I use them even after I've bought them, which is why I don't do PC gaming in general and don't acknowledge digital online gaming at all, if a game has only been released on Steam or something (Xbox Live, PlayStation Network, Nintendo eShop etc.) I don't consider it to have ever been released at all.

Brahma Force (PSX)
An FPS mech sim action game with similarities to Armored Core, GunGriffon and Krazy Ivan among many more, I like it but it's not exactly killing the competition, I prefer pretty much all those other games over this, still it's pretty good and has some good stuff in it, it's not bad by any means but it does come with a lot of minor and medium sized problems. Forever and literally constant respawning of enemies are the cause to most of the issues I have.

KKND 2 Krossfire (PC)
I've only ever played this on PlayStation before so it's interesting to see how different it is, it's basically two different games in almost every way, the good thing about that is you can't directly compare the two and thus neither ends up being the "bad" one. I love when they do this rather than just make direct ports because this gives incentive to those who own and enjoy one to get the other as well. It's just as hard as I remember the PlayStation version to be, only for slightly different reasons. I haven't really played either enough to say much more at this point.

KKND Krossfire (PSX)
I remember having troubles with this game back in the day and now when I'm revisiting it and it's PC original I fully understand why as my memories of getting absolutely crushed by the enemy AI comes rushing back as a nightmare that I thought was long gone. This is a hard as fuck game regardless if it's played on PC or PSX, "easy" mode doesn't mean much in this game, the harder difficulties I can't even imagine what they're like. It's good though, not impossible, just very hard and unforgiving. You need to get good at this game to enjoy it, it asks of you to invest time to get something of equal or greater value back and honestly that's not a bad thing, some of the best games ever do this. It just would've been even better still if the game had eased you into it step by step a bit because you'll be losing big time for a while just to learn the basic controls and what any of all the stuff you can do actually does. Having some easier levels to begin with letting you get used to said basics before having the enemy rape your base's every orifice with death and defeat would've been greatly appreciated. These games really didn't need to ask that much of the player so early on, especially in a strategy game where missions can get rather lengthy. A hard platformer in comparison is usually hard but has short levels that are over in just a couple of minutes so getting back to the place you were and trying a different strategy to get better and win is less of a setback.

SEGA Arcade Gallery (Game Boy Advance)

V-Rally 3 (Game Boy Advance)

Now Playing - April 2016

What I'm playing right now.

Rally Fusion Race Of Champions (PlayStation 2)
Pretty much my all-time favorite rally game. It has all my favorite rally cars throughout all the ages of rally racing, fantastic visuals, good driving physics, great tracks and a driving feel that makes it enjoyable to just play the game. I recently (middle of December 2015) got hold of the Xbox version but because my Xbox died just a few days later I never got a chance to try it out, so now instead I've dug out my PS2 copy and am playing through it from the beginning. I haven't played it in what feels like forever but it's just as good as I remember it to be and after having played some other rather fun rally games recently on PS2 and GameCube (WRC3 and Pro Rally respectively) you might think this would have a harder time living up to the memory I have of it being the best and all but honestly it's quite the opposite, it easily lived up to my rose-tinted memories and in comparison to the other two it's in a league of it's own, even other types of challenges that in other games are mostly tedious and annoying are fun in this, like cone challenges, I don't know any other racing game where I enjoy them in beside this!

Beyond Oasis (Mega Drive)
A top-down action adventure game with platforming, puzzle and RPG elements, a common type of game on Super Nintendo but not so much on the Mega Drive making this very much a one of a kind.
And what a one of a kind it is! It's easily the best representative of the genre in that generation and puts the Super Nintendo competitors like The Legend of Zelda A Link to the Past and Chrono Trigger in their places.
I completed the game with a time of 6 hours and 33 minutes with 0 deaths but I missed a lot of secrets and stuff so I only got about half of the stuff you can find and none of the secret super weapons. So there's certainly replayability in there as well, which is nice.
The game has a built in save feature for up to four separate files at a time and it saves your end scores so every time you beat it you can compare with how you did in your previous playthroughs. You can aim to get a better time and higher rank and stuff separately too as they have their own scoreboards which is really cool and should be appreciated by anyone who likes to improve their game without having to keep a manual score themselves by writing down stats on paper or on a PC or something, very innovative thinking by the developers to say the least, even more so for a game released in 1995 on a console from 1989.
So it's a great game and a must play for anyone who likes the idea of the genre but haven't felt satisfied with the more common Super Nintendo offerings, this was the type of game I was looking for and I enjoyed it a lot.

Metal Head (32X)
Basically Armored Core on the 32X, it's fantastic.
Star Wars Arcade (32X)

Virtua Racing Deluxe (32X)

Now Playing - January 2016

I have it as a tradition to start a new playthrough in a game I love to start off the new year, this year I created a new save file in CastleVania Symphony of the Night. I completed it with 198% on the 13th which got me the best ending.

I've been playing a lot more Race Pro and some of the other games from last month too.

I've also been playing some of my recently purchased games like Pro Rally and Red Faction.

CastleVania Symphony of the Night (PlayStation and PlayStation version running on PlayStation Portable)

The classic and often regarded best game in the series. I've never been that huge a fan but I still like it enough to warrant a playthrough every few years. It's a great game but I feel the difficulty curve is unbalanced due to the open nature of the game. You mainly play as Dracula's half human son Alucard, and your mission is essentially to find and kill Dracula. It's a platformer adventure with RPG elements like leveling up, getting new equipment and lots of free roaming exploration. The problem is if you accidentally go down the wrong path you'll have a much harder time and a much more frustrating experience than you would if you randomly happened to go down another path instead, that's pretty much the case throughout the entire game. Only if you've done it before and have an idea of what areas pose the fairest challenge and where to go to get the good stuff early can you get a balanced playthrough without too much low level grinding and insta kill rooms of death. It's a gorgeous game though and there's plenty of stuff to love in it despite some of the issues it has. It's not a perfect game but it is one of the greatest games of all time and I would urge everyone who sees themselves as gamers to play through it at least once. It's absolutely a case of the good outweighing the bad.

Armored Core (PlayStation version played on PlayStation Portable)
Picked up where I left off last time i played. Got through a few missions and got some new parts.

Rapid Racer (PlayStation version played on PlayStation Portable)
My favorite boat racing game. I know Hydro Thunder is more well known but this is the one I loved back in the day, Hydro Thunder didn't have the precision this game has, it felt sloppy and fake in comparison, like a wannabe who didn't know how to be good enough but pretended that he was and expected everyone to agree because he was popular, it naturally failed to impress me, Rapid Racer was the real deal and is still fantastic to play to this day while Hydro Thunder has aged horribly when seen side by side with this game. Thanks to the optimized design it runs silky smooth at a rock solid 50/60fps framerate (PAL/NTSC respectively) and handles great because of it, a true joy to play.

Battle Engine Aquila (promo) (PlayStation 2)
I've had this on Xbox since back in the day but since my Xbox is broken now I thought I'd get the PS2 version to play instead. I could only find a promo version but whatever, it's still the same game as the regular retail release as far as I can tell. I love mech games and this fits in nicely alongside Armored Core 2, Frame Gride, Gundam Side Story 0079 Rise from the Ashes, GunGriffon Blaze, GunGriffon Allied Strike, Gun Metal, MechAssault, Metal Wolf Chaos, Murakumo Renegade Mech Pursuit, Phantom Crash, Ring of Red, Robot Warlords, S.L.A.I. Steel Lancer Arena International, Slave Zero, Steel Battalion, Virtual On Oratorio Tangram and Zone of the Enders as one of the classic mech games of the 128-bit generation.

Red Faction (PlayStation 2)

An old favorite I haven't played since it was new on PC. This is my first time playing it on PS2 and I'm glad to report it's just as good as I remember. The PS2 doesn't downgrade the experience one bit, unlike for example the PS2 port of Quake 3 Revolution which was a rather sad and awful experience despite having such an excellent port on the Dreamcast. Red Faction for those unfamiliar with it is a first person shooter with destructible environments, which was most unusual back the day, and even today is uncommon at best. I remember when I played it the first time how impressed I was at how you could blow new ways through the levels with your more explosive weapons, and it still feels great doing it today. I wish more modern games would do stuff like this instead of the same old "cinematic experience" that honestly overstayed its welcome well over a decade ago.

Pro Rally 2002 (GameCube)

It's an arcade rally racer in similar spirits of Sega Rally 2. It's mostly your standard rally fare but what makes it special is the physics engine, it's very bouncy and exaggerated, making racing a lot more interesting than most other rally games. I've been having a lot of fun with this one, getting many good laughs at how silly it gets sometimes. It's also rather glitchy, adding to the overall sillyness. It's definitely not a game I'd recommend to anyone wanting a realistic rally simulator.

Alone in the Dark (Xbox 360)
I bought this about a year ago but never got around playing it properly until now. I've had the PS2 game since it came out many years ago and I've played through it a few times over the years. Playing this version brings back a lot of memories, both good and bad, but it's not exactly the same game as it is on PS2, they're essentially the same game but made from thr ground up each, so it's like two very similar versions of the same idea. What's funny is how they both suffer from the same kind of glitches and bugs and thus have most of the same problems and issues. It's hard to say which is the best version because of this. They're both good in the good parts and bad in the bad parts, many of the ideas that went into the game are interesting and I like the overall story but the execution leaves a lot to be desired. They simply failed to implement the ideas they had and the game ended up a mess as the result. I still mostly enjoy it, I just need to take many breaks to calm myself when the game repeatedly get on my nerves.

Shadow The Hedgehog (GameCube and Xbox (Xbox version played on Xbox 360))

V-Rally 3 (Game Boy Advance)

LEGO Drome Racers (Game Boy Advance)

Asterix & Obelix XXL (Game Boy Advance)

Race PRO (Xbox 360)

Sly Cooper - Thieves in Time (PlayStation 3)