The 1000 Games I've Beaten (#520 - 535)

 

#520 Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall (PC) – Fall 2014

Does everything bigger and better than Arena, though personally I still prefer Arena to this day. This has a few years of graphical improvements, and is just as much fun to explore as the previous game. While Arena had the entire world of Tamriel, this game has one small province - and yet, it has vastly more game-space despite that. They went all-in with covering every square mile with procedurally-generated terrain. It's possible to actually run from one end of the land to the other, and the trip takes around 70 hours. No, I'm serious. 70 hours. Good thing we have fast travel!

For a long time this held the record for largest game area of any game. You could get lost wandering this game for hours, finding loot and gaining levels, or you could follow a guide and progress through the story campaign fairly quickly. That was up to you, and that's what makes this game so cool. You could spend weeks charting your own path, doing every sidequest you found, and turning your character into a full-on jack of all trades with expertise in everything from casting to thieving to knight-ing. I particularly liked the openness of the character-building system.

I think the main reason I like Arena more is that it actually worked the first time through. Daggerfall I had to play twice, restarting midway through. First time was on disc with the collection I bought, then after encountering enough bugs to ruin my playthrough, I started over on the freeware downloaded version of the game and didn't encounter any bugs. Alas, by then I wanted to just zip through the game and get it done. All the bugs really hurt this game a lot, and I don't hold it in as high regard as I would have if I'd played it in 1996 when such things were more expected.

Favorite Parts: Any time you encounter snow in the game. All of the snowy areas are downright majestic. I can't imagine how awed I would have been if I'd played this in 1996. It would have changed the entire course of my game-playing, that's for sure, and I would have been much more PC-focused going forward.

Toughest Part: Probably the final dungeon, a multi-level beast of a dungeon that took a while to figure out. It's got teleporters, lots of floors, open areas with drop-downs, and is a task and a half to navigate. As someone who grew up with consoles, I'm kind of astonished something this complex could exist at the time.

Class of Choice: Spellblade. While Battlemage and Spellblade both seem like the same thing, they're really not. Battlemage errs more towards casting while Spellblade errs more towards physical (while both can also do the other). I found Spellblade to be the best by a considerable margin. It's easy enough to get really strong right out of the character select if you know what you're doing with perks and strengths/weaknesses. All of that said, it's still better to just go Custom Character (i.e. no class) so you can completely eliminate any excess unneeded abilities from the equation. Go Custom, copy the Spellblade layout, knock off the unneeded abilities and add the couple things they could use.

Posts HERE.

#521 Mega Man: The Wily Wars (Genesis) – Fall 2014

The awesome Genesis remake of the first three NES games, plus a new Wily Tower at the end which functions as a smaller fourth game. The remakes of the three games have some nice visuals, but they also have a lot of slowdown. A Lot. Slowdown, on the Sega Genesis?? What about the BLAST PROCESSING though?

For me the most memorable part was the new content at the end with Wily Tower, which amounts to seven stages (3 selectable and then 4 fortress). You get to mix and match Robot Master weapons from all three games, which is incredibly cool and gives you a ton of play variety...though you might quickly find that there are several weapons good enough to pretty much obsolete the rest.

Weapons of Choice: From each game, 1- Elec Beam, 2- Metal Blade, 3- Shadow Blade

Overall Tool of Choice: Magnet Beam. This thing was innovative and fun to play around with. Shame it didn't make it into any of the series beyond the first game, but I understand why it didn't. It'd be potentially game-breaking in some Mega Mans.

Favorite Level: From each game, 1- Fire Man, 2- Crash Man, 3- Gemini Man

Favorite Boss: From each game, 1- Elec Man, 2- Heat Man, 3- Snake Man

Post HERE.

#522 Fire Striker (Super NES) – Fall 2014

A unique SNES game that very few people seemed to know about, this flew under the general radar of the era. It's a game where you play as a sorcerer and bat magical energy around to defeat various monsters, solve puzzles, and finish dungeons. It's more or less Breakout mixed with Dungeons & Dragons, if one can imagine that. It's a solid game, and shouldn't be forgotten about.

Nintendo Power gave it some nice coverage in one issue, so it was always on the list somewhere. I eventually got to it in 2014, probably with the intention of doing posts, but it ended up just being a playthrough. One of the many things that was worth covering on here but just didn't stand out enough to talk about, so it fell by the wayside. It's worth a look, though, a hidden gem if there is one in this section.

#523 Cosmo Tank (Game Boy) – Fall 2014

Neat "3D" first-person tank-based shooter that made it into the Game Boy Player's Guide (which, of course, I had to play everything from). Takes place on weird alien worlds, with powerups to find and bosses to take down. Some parts of it are 3D first-person, some are 2D top-down tank battling.

Toughest Part: One of those games where the final boss is way, way harder than anything else in the game. At least the boss looks awesome.

Post HERE.

#524 Halo 3 ODST (Xbox 360) – Fall 2014

A spinoff that wasn't super well received if I remember right, but I found it more enjoyable than Halo 3 and had a blast with the single-player campaign. I didn't like it as much as Reach but I did like it more than standard Halo 3. It was a nice quick playthrough and it looked really good.

Favorite Part: The rainy, neon streets of New Mombasa.

#525 Sword Master (NES) – Fall 2014

A game I read about in the fabled Nintendo Power Volume 23, the first one I ever read. Everything in that issue looked incredible, whether it was or wasn't. This game in particular is one I wanted to play for over 20 years because I liked the swords and sorcery theme of it. Well, it's a solid game, but it's incredibly basic and there isn't much to it. It's a swordfighting simulator along the lines of Zelda II, where you also have overpowered spells to give you an advantage. The levels are short and incredibly linear, though, and the good combat system feels like it belongs in a much bigger/deeper game.

Crucial Protip: Make sure to punch in the infinite continues code. Makes the game actually playable/finishable, as well as allowing you to level grind at all.

Toughest Part: Probably that damn Dark Sorcerer towards the end. The first of the three final bosses is way nastier than the other two because he doesn't have any sort of checkpoint beforehand.

Post HERE. Surprised I didn't do a post when I played this in 2014, so I went back and did one this month instead.

#526 Run Saber (Super NES) – Fall 2014

Really cool slashing platformer that I think wanted to be Shinobi. You choose between two characters with distinct movesets and battle through a variety of levels. Anyone who misses the subgenre of Shinobi, Ninja Gaiden, Shadow of the Ninja, etc should go give this game a whirl right now. It's a game that punches WAY above its own weight and deserves more credit. More like Fun Saber, am I right? I'll show myself out.

The boss designs are impressive and the gameplay is fun enough to be considered in the same breath as your Ninja Gaidens and Shinobies. Is it as good as Shinobi 3? No, but I wouldn't kick it out of bed either.

Favorite Part: When you're clinging to a fighter jet as it takes off and does loops in midair, forcing you to adjust to keep climbing it.

Post HERE

#527 F-Zero X (Nintendo 64) – Fall 2014

Ten years after I played and really liked F-Zero GX, I finally checked out the previous game in the series. I've got no idea why. Maybe all the Mario Kart got me psyched up for another Nintendo racer? In any case, it'd be almost ten MORE years before I got around to playing the SNES game. This was not on purpose at all, weirdly enough. I just went backwards through this series over a very long timeframe. Anyway, this game was fine, didn't make as much of an impression on me as F-Zero GX or even the likes of Extreme-G on the N64. It's cool though.

#528 Halo 4 (Xbox 360) – Fall 2014

I played all those Sony "Halokillers" in the early 2010s, but that doesn't mean I ignored the Halo series! Yep, I hit 'em all. I had high expectations for this one, and... well, it was kinda Mid. I didn't get too into this one, and the Halo series really was a case of diminishing returns for me. All five of the main series games I liked less and less as it went on, after starting with a bang. The spinoffs ODST and Reach, for whatever reason, did a lot more for me than anything after them. I'll say this, though! Halo 4 LOOKS amazing, and was easily the best-looking game I ever played on the XBox 360.

IMPROMPTU HALO SERIES RANKING:

7. Halo 5

6. Halo 4

5. Halo 3: ODST

4. Halo 3

3. Halo 2

2. Halo

1. Halo: Reach

#529 Nemesis 2 (Game Boy) – Fall 2014

One of those sequels we didn't get in North America that I played as soon as I found out about it. It's a portable Gradius-series game that punches way above its weight. I always liked the first Nemesis on Game Boy and this is a worthy sequel to it. They're both slower and more accessible games because the system couldn't handle the chaos of most of this series. Or at least, the first is. They found a way to make this second one super-hard. No wonder it was Japan-only. It's worth a look; the boss sprites in this game are detailed. For a fun playthrough, I'd go for the first one instead.

Favorite Part: When the Big Core chases your ship through a level. That was a new one.

Post HERE.

#530 Wolfenstein: The New Order (Playstation 3) – Fall 2014

One of the better games on the PS3, which is saying a lot, and the best reboot of the series that we've ever gotten. Definitely much better than the 2009 reboot, which was already decent. There's a "Man in the High Castle" theme with this one, telling an alternate universe story where Germany wins WW2 and becomes an unstoppable juggernaut that rules the world by 1960 when the game takes place. They've got an army equipped with mech suits, autonomous killer robots, and tactical battlefield nukes. Also, they've got a base established on Venus with the goal of terraforming the place. I don't know, that seems like a lot for 1960.

Roughest Moment: Being captured and having to choose between saving Fergus or the young soldier. I went with Fergus. The helplessness of that scene is something that stuck with me long after the game. War is hell, and so forth.

#531 Gradius Galaxies (Game Boy Advance) – Fall 2014

At this point I had a few space shooters to play, in what became "Shooter Week" (which has since been renamed "Shmup Week"). Indeed, this launched the first of those. It's a pretty standard Gradius game, just a late-stage one that came out well after most of the console Gradii. It's alright and certainly looks good, but don't expect any surprises.

Toughest Part: In the endgame, the damn sections with closing walls and a giant indestructible mech that has to be avoided. Most of this series drops these things in during the 11th hour and I hate it.

Post HERE.

#532 Zanac (NES) – Fall 2014

Is this the "zanny" that all the rappers are always referring to? So this is why Lil' Wayne keeps almost dying.

As for the game, Shooter Week continued with the NES answer to the Aleste series. Those games were hiding over on the MSX and Master System, while Compile made Zanac for the system people had. Looks and plays very similar to those games. I think I prefer vertical space shooters over horizontal, overall.

Post HERE.

#533 GG Aleste (Sega Game Gear) – Fall 2014

As a huge fan of Super Aleste / Space Megaforce (I'd go so far as to say it's my favorite space shooter) I had to try the game(s) that spawned it. Well, I wasn't missing too much, as this is a pretty big step down from the SNES classic I'm familiar with. Not much more than an extremely barebones shooter with fairly generic sprites and weapons. It IS a Game Gear game, though. And speaking of, it's the first Game Gear game I ever played, and you can count the total Game Gear games I've played with one hand.

Post HERE.

#534 GG Aleste 2 (Sega Game Gear) – Fall 2014

So apparently there's a "real" Aleste and Aleste 2 on the MSX2 (and probably other systems). So these two games weren't the predecessors to Space Megaforce so much as they were spinoffs of the predecessors. Now I have to track down the MSX2 games. As for GG Aleste 2, it was more of the same, still decent for what they had to work with here.

Best: The enemy sprites are greatly improved, especially the boss designs.

Worst: The bosses have WAY too much health, and the fights drag on for an age. Most of the actual danger in boss battles is from slipping up due to the length and repetition of the fights.

Post HERE.

#535 Blazing Lazers (Turbografx-16) – Fall 2014

This is a real classic of the genre and after chasing the Space Megaforce dragon for a while, this was the first space shooter I'd played since that was at that level. It's a very similar game. Most of all it was great to play something on the TG16. System has an entirely different vibe from the SNES and Genesis games I'm more familiar with, so it feels new. Kinda like playing Wonderswan Color versus Game Boy Advance. WSC just feels more interesting and appealing due to being different. In any case, Blazing Lazers was the best game I played in Shooter Week 1 and it isn't even a close contest. Absolutely annihilated the competition. If I were to replay any of these early shooters that I've played, it'd be this one, and it's the only thing I've found that meets the Space Megaforce high bar.

Weapon of Choice: Laser. While Circle is really good (yeah, it has Circle, like Space Megaforce), Laser has the best raw damage output and penetrative power in this one.

Post HERE.