In this episode I'll be entering the "running a game store" era, where for about a year I could pretty much play any game or system I wanted to at any time, no matter how new. Which means massive expansion to THE LIST. Number 655: ARM-BAR.
I'll be going through these fast, it's a lightning round.
Interesting game here because it's the only open world game I know of with a prehistoric setting. You use spears and stone axes as weapons and fight with mammoths and sabertooths. And most deadly of all, other early humans. It's a standard Fay Cry game with lots of objectives, rare beasts to hunt, camps to conquer, weapons to fashion, the whole nine yards. Decent game, but overshadowed by the main series.
Most Memorable Part: Battling wooly mammoths.
#632 Abzu (Playstation 4) – Summer 2016
An underwater ruins themed game from the makers of Flower and Journey. This was their fourth game and easily the one that flew under the radar the most. Seemed like hardly anyone noticed this game came and went. Come to think of it, everything they made since then did too. It's... an underwater Journey, simple but very pretty. A memorable and thought-provoking way to spend 2 hours, just like all of their games.
#633 Shovel Knight (Playstation 4) – Summer 2016
What can I say about this one, it's one of the best retro-styled games around. Modeled after DuckTales NES, the Mega Man series, and a few other classic games, this is basically a love letter to the NES era. It's also incredibly charming. The various Knights are basically the robot masters from Mega Man, and each one has their own personality and abilities. They later made some DLCs where you played as specific bosses and went on a quest, but unfortunately they only did a couple of these. They could have done all the bosses and I would have bought 'em all.
Favorite Tune: Flowers of Antimony (Plague Knight's theme)
Posts HERE.
Marvel has had some damn good Street Fighter style fighting games. Well, here is DC taking a swing at it with Mortal Kombat style fighting games. The Injustice games are basically sequels to Mortal Kombat 8 and have the same dark mood as the MK series. Perfect for DC, really. This game lets you play as Superman, Batman, the Joker, etc and has a good Story Mode that takes you through a bunch of characters. I like this one. I like all of the four hour story campaigns in late-stage MK games. Some of them, like MK9, are basically what we imagined the story to be back in 90's, and instead of headcanon we get to see an actual story play out. So yeah, this was worth plowing through.
#635 Limbo (Playstation 4) – Summer 2016
Stylistically Interesting game that is primarily black and white. You play as a defenseless kid, journeying across the eerie land of Limbo, in search of some sort of exit. Along the way, all kinds of perils await. The team that made this went on to make Inside, an incredibly dark and creepy game that I also played.
Most Memorable Part: The part everyone remembers, the giant spider.
#636 Pokemon Yellow (Game Boy) – Summer 2016
The special edition of Gen 1, and the one I reached for when it was time to do Pokemon posts. I like this game, and how you get to have Pikachu following you around, train him for the litter box, etc. It's charming. If I ever replay Gen 1 I'm reaching for the Pokemon FireRed/LeafGreen remake on the GBA, which I consider the best version of Gen 1. However, Pokemon Yellow is the best way to experience pure Gen 1 on Game Boy in its original form.
Fondest Memory: Working at Fenway Park, setting up my "office" in one of the executive booths, and working on this game (and its posts) during downtime between innings. It was pretty damn awesome, and I did a lot of Pokemon Crystal during this timeframe too.
Toughest Gym: Probably Sabrina, given how OP psychic-types are in this.
Toughest Single Fight: Always struggled with Agatha, the first of the Elite Four, for some reason. Every damn time I play this.
Favorite Starter: Well it doesn't matter here because you're stuck with Pikachu! He's cool though. He doesn't evolve into Raichu, but he's a powered-up Pikachu so he works as well as any starter.
Favorite Legendary Bird: Articuno. The other two are too late to be as useful and Ice is a very powerful element late in the game.
Favorite Element: Psychic, the whole idea of harnessing energy beams and waves was always appealing to me. It's probably the most powerful element, too.
Posts HERE.
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#637 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (NES) – Summer 2016
A terrible game that was brought out into the light by the AVGN. People have come around on it a bit in recent years and it seems to be kind of well-liked now? I didn't have much of a good time with it in 2016 though. I probably would have loved the game if I played it back in 1990 or something. Wait...I DID play it in 1990, at a friend's house. We didn't get far, though. I just remember driving around the street section and getting killed by those zamboni drivers or whatever the hell they are.
Toughest Part: Probably the swimming section with the electric grass and the bombs. That entire section was ASS.
Best Character: Donatello and it isn't even a contest, with his staff's reach making the other characters look like Bump Combat.
Post HERE.
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#638 Robocop Vs. Terminator (Super NES) - Summer 2016
Totally different game from the Genesis version. Both are good, both were worth playing. This one gives us a lot of Future War Content. Once again, totally unrealistic to have Robocop plowing through T-800s (even more so here with all the Future War Content). It's worth noting that the Genesis version and SNES version are very different games and were both short, enjoyable romps.
Post HERE.
#639 Kirby: Planet Robobot (3DS) – Summer 2016
In an attempt to finish catching up on the Kirby series (catching up on all the series' that I like has always been a battle, given that I basically missed the entire late 90's and 2000's for a lot of these) I grabbed a couple more of the portable ones that I missed. This is the one where Kirby rides around in a giant mech that punches things. It was alright but didn't make any major impression.
#640 Kirby and the Canvas Curse (DS) – Summer 2016
Wish I could remember more about these Kirby games. I can't really tell this one apart from the other one with the drawing that was on the Wii U a bit later. I think this might be the one that I had a huge amount of fun with due to the drawing mechanic. You can draw your own platforms and it's freaking awesome. One of the better uses I've ever seen for the DS technology, and made the whole stylus gimmick actually mean something for once. Too bad I mostly despise said gimmick because of stuff like Phantom Hourglass / Spirit Tracks that REALLY didn't need stylus controls. I'll get to those a few years later. Well, here is a game that actually did something good with the stylus controls.
#641 Super Meat Boy (Playstation 4) – Summer 2016
It's no coincidence that this game shares its initials with Super Mario Bros. It's a hard-as-hell platformer that gives you infinite lives, tons of checkpoints, and distills the genre down to the very basics that make it good. Very much a game worth having on one's beaten game list. It's a game where you can get frustrated at first, but with the lives and checkpoints you make steady progress, and eventually get good enough to actually progress quickly while dying less. It feels awesome when you start to get good at this game, because you're flying all over the place, bouncing off the walls, avoiding all the enemies like bullets in The Matrix.
Toughest Part: Most of the game. Seriously. Every little stage of this game is a steep challenge to overcome, but you have as many tries as you need.
#642 Battlefield 1 (Playstation 4) – Fall 2016
A solid FPS that takes place during World War 1, a generally under-represented era in video games compared to WW2. The story mode was memorable and transpires in a variety of locations, like the desert in North Africa and the mountains of Scandinavia. They went to great lengths to make the weapons and settings era-accurate, which I appreciated. Unfortunately, the story campaign was pretty short, and over in a couple of hours. Which is par for the course for the FPS genre, but I wanted to see more of this setting.
Not sure what was up with the naming convention for this. It made it seem like they were remaking the series starting with the first one. But no, this was in fact an entirely new game. So really it was like... Battlefield 5. Except Battlefield 5 ended up being another new game. Ah, whatever.
The Call of Duty series tends to be super high-quality, but it's also very much a mass-market sort of game designed for your average consumer. That series can go off in some crazy directions, like futuristic warfare and battles on other planets. The Battlefield series on the other hand is a smaller-scale alternative that focuses more on hyper-realism and getting all of the weapons and locations just right. Most of the time anyway. Both series have an incredible attention to detail, are respectful to veterans and warfare in general, and tell stories that treat events with the weight they deserve (whether they're real historical stories or fictional ones). I respect both of them.
Favorite Level: The Desert
#643 Yoshi's Island DS (DS) – Fall 2016
A remake of Yoshi's Island with more stuff added. I wasn't crazy about Super Mario 64 DS (that one is much later) and I wasn't super into this one either. I'd generally prefer to play any of these games on a console versus the DS, which was never my favorite system. Especially for 3D games. The DS is basically PS1-era 3D, only handheld, so it's pretty not-good. This game was fine though, I think. Can't remember it very well. Maybe this was the one that wasn't well-received? Or maybe it was the next one.
#644 Yoshi's New Island (3DS) – Fall 2016
A sequel to Yoshi's Island that is very similar, just with more HD visuals. I think this was the one I liked a lot. Hard to recall the Yoshi series, for the most part. I know I liked the SNES one and Yoshi's Wooly World (Wii U), those are both awesome games. Didn't like Yoshi's Crafted World (Switch). I believe I already talked about Yoshi's Wooly World at #598 or so, while Yoshi's Crafted World is later on. As of press time I've never played Yoshi's Story for the N64, and that was also the only one I had missed as of Fall 2016.
For reference, the Yoshi series:
Yoshi's Island (SNES)
Yoshi's Story (N64)
Yoshi's Island DS (DS)
Yoshi's New Island (3DS)
Yoshi's Wooly World (Wii U)
Yoshi's Crafted World (Switch)
Yoshi and the Mysterious Book (Switch 2)
I know I was trying to "catch up" and "finish the series" by playing these two Yoshi games, so I'm surprised I didn't go back and also clear Yoshi's Story to finish the job. Actually, not that surprised. N64 emulation was pretty bad, and at the time Virtual Console was missing a lot. It had Neo-Geo, at least. Wish they'd bring that back for Switch Online. Where's the Neo-Geo section, Nintendo?
All of this is to say, TLDR, that I still need to play Yoshi's Story. It's on the Switch Online, I can play it right now for free. So dammit, I guess I'm doing that soon. As if I don't have enough going on. Might as well do a post just so that Yoshi's Island doesn't feel so lonely on here. So look out for Yoshi's Story in the near future.
#645 Pokemon Crystal (Game Boy Color) – Fall 2016
And here we have the best version of Gen 2 on the original Game Boy (Color). I got to play most of this in Fenway Park while overlooking the baseball games as the season wound to a close. Fond memories of rainy days and the crowd cheering. This was my first time playing Gen 2 at all, after all that time. I didn't (and don't) like it anywhere near as much as Gen 1, personally. Gen 1 is just class and style all the way, while Gen 2 has a lot of weirdness. They also got into this trend of half the enemy trainers using a bunch of the same Pokemon. Bosses would have like, 3 of one mid Pokemon and then one strong one. It just felt less creative. All of that said, it's still a great generation. It would be difficult for me to rank the Pokemon generations, as they're all good in different ways.
Toughest Part: The optional uberboss battle with Ash Ketchum, or whatever they're calling him in this one. It's the very last fight in the game if you do anything, and his team is far and away much higher level than any other trainer in the game. It's also the most strategically well thought-out team in the game, so even if you're leveled up enough to have a fair fight, he's still a huge threat.
Posts HERE.
I've always liked the KOF series, ever since I read about Fatal Fury 2 in the pages of Nintendo Power. This is probably my favorite entry in the series, from the ones I've played. It's a great fighting game that's down to earth and grounded, restrained, not too crazy. It plays well and it's buttery-smooth. Just buttery-smooth all around.
Favorite Tune: Magical Sky, pretty much had this playing on repeat on some days in October 2016 while I worked at the game store.
#647 Pokemon Emerald (Game Boy Advance) – Fall 2016
If I DID rank the Pokemon generations, Gen 3 here might be in last place. While most of the gens would be in like a seven-way tie in Tier 1 as the generation I like the most in different ways*... there are two that would be a tier below the rest: Gen 3 and Gen 6. I found Pokemon X to be kind of clunky and regressive after Gen 5, but that's a story for later.
Gen 3 here committed the unpardonable sin as being, as the kids say, "slow AF". The insane slowness of Gen 4's first iterations - after Diamond I didn't even touch the series again for like five years - started here. It wasn't as bad yet as it got at the beginning of Gen 4, but it's slower than Gen 2 was. The game itself is a bit weird, and the 'mons in this generation aren't all that appealing. Some are even a bit racist, like whatever Ludicolo is. It's unsurprising that they switched gears after this and remade Gen 1. The GBA is the perfect system for Pokemon, and Gen 1 made better use of it than Gen 3 did anyway.
One thing that's interesting about Gen 3 is that Emerald has a totally different final boss / postgame from Ruby/Sapphire (and their remakes). I got to see the originals of those when I played the Gen 3 remake on the 3DS later, which is based on Ruby/Sapphire.
Toughest Part: Tate and Liza, the duo of bosses in Gym #7. Having to fight both of them at once is a problem, AND they're the Psychic type boss. Psychic is always overpowered. This fight absolutely whomped me.
* - THINGS I'D RANK EACH GEN AT #1 ON / THE BEST AT:
Gen 1: Best roster of 150, most classic, what I think of when I think of Pokemon. The most timeless. S-Tier.
Gen 2: The most content, with two lands to explore and a full set of gyms in each one, plus a more refined take on everything that made Gen 1 good. Has the best remake of the four gens that have been remade. S-Tier.
Gen 3: Nothing. B-Tier.
Gen 4: Started out as the worst gen, then knocked it out of the park with the Platinum revision, which is one of the best all-around games. The biggest improvement over previous games. S-Tier.
Gen 5: Gives us two games instead of one, and they're both batting at the top level for the series. Probably the peak of the classic series on sheer content and variety. S-Tier.
Gen 6: Nothing. B-Tier.
Gen 7: The one that revived the series after a couple years since the last main series game (well, Pokemon Go did too, and first, but yeah) and brought it back into the limelight. Might be the one I like the least of the seven-way tie, so if there's a tier in the middle, it belongs to this one and we have a six-way tie at the top. Has the best setting out of all of them, with a fantastic Hawaii-inspired island chain. A-Tier.
Gen 8: Brings the series fully into 3D, and HD, delivering what is probably the best "pure" and traditional Pokemon game in 3D. Feels modern. As good as it gets if you want an HD console traditional Pokemon. S-Tier.
Gen 9: Taking inspiration from the Legends games and goes into more of an open world style of game, this is Elden Ring Pokemon. An open map full of activities, bosses, missions to do, and it's possible to do things wildly out of order / fight things a lot sooner than you're supposed to. You have incredible freedom with this one. It's the best at doing something different and stepping into practically a different genre to deliver something you can really sink your teeth into. S-Tier.
Gen 10: Not out yet, but I'm sure it'll be #1 on graphics by a mile. Gen 8 was probably the prettiest-looking to this point (as Gen 9 had framerate issues) and it was Switch 1, so it won't be hard to topple.
Gen 3 posts HERE.
#648 Until Dawn: Rush of Blood (Playstation VR) – Fall 2016
At this point I got ahold of a Playstation VR (at a large discount, since I was running a game store). I hated it, absolutely hated it. The disembodied feeling you got sitting there with goggles on was kind of nauseating, and I didn't like the feeling of loss of control. For some reason, most of the VR games insist on having your character locked into a chair, or some other single spot, at the beginning while you play some sort of Simon Says with the game to gain some sort of freedom of mobility. Nothing like starting a VR game by forcing someone to be locked in one spot for a while.
There were a couple of standout games for it though, like Eagle Flight. That game was nice, for the hour or so I spent flying around in it. This one, on the other hand, is horrifying. It's basically a mine cart ride through the most hellish circus in existence, where you shoot guns at various demonic entities and freakish monsters. Short game, but I sure remember it. This is for the Texas Chainsaw Massacre crowd more than me.
I'll say this: It's probably the best usage of the Playstation VR of anything I actually played on it. Legit terrifying game.
Got an Xbox One entirely for free, as the perks of running a store continued. However, by this point free time was nearly nonexistent; so I had access to all the games in the world, but dwindling free time to check them out. My Sundays (the only reliable day off every week) would be spent with my woman, and maybe if I was lucky I would have one other day during the week - usually Wednesday. So that would be the day where I plowed. Halo 5 was one of the prettiest games I played in this gen, and I played through the entire campaign inside of one day off. It was cool, but I never recaptured the high point of how much fun I had playing Halo and Halo 2. The rest after that were just visually gorgeous games for their time, that failed to make the same impression on me.
#650 Pokemon Platinum (DS) – Winter 2016
The "special edition" revamp of Diamond/Pearl, this game absolutely knocked my socks off. Had a great time with it. Unfortunately, I had no way to capture DS at the time, so the posts had to end with Gen 3 rather than continuing on to this like I wanted to. Diamond/Pearl were incredibly slow and bland games, making Gen 4 the low point of the series for me...until I played Platinum, which fixes the speed issues and makes Gen 4 awesome. This is actually one of my favorite Pokemon games. And this illustrates why it'd be way too hard to rank the series. Gen 4 is simultaneously low on the list and also high on the list.
Toughest Part: The final battle with Cynthia is one of the toughest fights in all of Pokemon. In this version it wasn't too bad because I had a very strong party by that point. The game was so good that I wanted to do more with it and power up my 'mons as much as possible.
Posts...Where? Where are the posts, damn it? How did I stop after Gen 3?
#651 Batman: Arkham VR (Playstation VR) – Winter 2016
Another short VR game. This one was a cool proof of concept / tech demo of sorts where you went around using Batman's gadgets to investigate things and fight off bad guys. It was fun, but it was over way too fast. And that's pretty much the Playstation VR. A bunch of fun concepts that were over too fast to be anything of substance. It lasted longer, and had more of a point, than the Virtual Boy at least.
The main thing I remember the Playstation VR for was playing Bloodborne on it and fighting Lady Maria of the Astral Clocktower. When you played regular, non-VR games, it was basically like playing the game in a theater. You'd see the game hovering on a screen in front of you, taking up most of your field of vision. It was kind of cool to be playing a PS4 game on what was effectively a theater screen, with everything else darkened to allow for full focus. That said, even that wasn't really worth it, because the resolution dropped a LOT from what you'd get on a TV. Even though the image was technically a lot smaller, it looked like 480p. So Bloodborne went from being a gorgeous 1080p PS4 game to being a 480p Wii game that you were playing in a theater. It was a colossal difference. So the Playstation VR was a bit of a bust for me. I did play a couple more things on it later, in 2019. Not sure why I had it in 2019. Did I hold onto it for that long? I hope I didn't get another one.
#652 Inside (Xbox One) – Winter 2016
From the makers of Limbo, this was an even more atmospheric and creepy game. One of those games that makes you feel nihilistic and alone for days afterwards. I believe this was Xbox exclusive, at least at the time, so it was a rare opportunity to get some use out of that system. Everything about this game feels like you're somewhere you're not supposed to be, and going to meet a terrible fate as a result.
#653 A King's Tale: Final Fantasy XV (Playstation 4) – Winter 2016
Final Fantasy XV fever had arrived, and I was All In. I got the tie-in movie Kingsglaive. Which was waaay better than the game ended up being and did a terrific job setting it up and introducing us to the world. FFXV takes heavy inspiration from Final Fantasy VI, and it's nice to see that game get some actual respect from the company. Unfortunately this didn't extend to the richness of the game itself.
In any case, A King's Tale is/was the tie-in game that was released pre-launch to drum up hype, alongside the movie. Not sure if this game is still obtainable to folks who didn't get it when it was current. This is a side-scrolling beat 'em up that introduces more characters and concepts from FFXV. It's pretty good too, I think it surprised everybody. I've heard it's a fun thing to platinum. Yeah, the tie-in pre-launch hype game has a platinum to get.
#654 Final Fantasy XV (Playstation 4) – Winter 2017
The game that made me buy my first OLED TV. You see, up to this point I had a Sony 4K TV, but a fairly barebones one with no HDR. I bought it before I really knew what I was doing with TV-buying, and probably overpaid for it by a significant margin at Best Buy. When FFXV came out, it had HDR settings that people were raving about. Well, my TV couldn't do HDR. I was pretty disappointed because I'd only had that TV for a year. Yeah, Best Buy definitely ripped me off. Well, I gave that TV to my mom, then I went back and bought a new TV. This time, it was the one I'd been eyeballing for a while: The LG OLED. I would have had to downgrade to 1080p before this point to get an OLED, which I wasn't keen on. But now, now they had 4K OLEDs. Now we're talking, no downgrade necessary.
I got the 2016 curved model; the curve was awesome and made it look better from side-angles. Too bad they didn't keep making curved TVs after this year. Suffice to say, LG OLED completely obsoleted my Sony 4K and its HDR-less flat-contrasted self. Instantaneously, the TITLE SCREEN of FFXV looked far prettier than it did before, with the glow of the moonlight bathing a dark room. I must have sat in awe of that title screen for a while.
Now that I was actually playing this artwork on a worthwhile screen...it was time. Time for FFXV, after all the hype.
.....And the game was incredibly mediocre. Everything about it was just...dull and unimaginative. Most of it is a road trip around a gorgeous continent, but it could be pretty much any part of New England. The story finally kicks into full gear in the last third or so and takes off like a rocket, rushing you through a bunch of areas in quick succession. The world itself is probably about 1/10th the size of the world they'd built up pre-launch, and all the early world maps they showed off were basically obsolete. This game has so much cut content that it makes Secret of Mana look finished.
Actually, it has a LOT in common with SoM. A lot of very specific little things, that could be their own post if I could remember them all now. For example, The Emperor, a villain in both games, dies off-screen in both after being presumably offed by his own subordinates. In both cases it feels like there was supposed to be a boss fight at that point, but there isn't. The Emperor's four generals are the real antagonists, but most of them are completely under-developed. One of the four is an attractive woman with red hair. And the main villain of the game is the general that specializes in manipulation and dark sorcery.
Lest all of that start to sound cool... Most of this game's runtime is dedicated to a road trip with the four leads, as they drive a car (yes a car) around the very normal-looking landscape and do various odd jobs and side quests for 50 hours. The combat is incredibly bland and boring; you can pretty much just mash "attack" and get through the entire game, stopping occasionally to toss items. OR you could set it on Easy and not even have to toss items, your characters will automatically use Potions when their health gets low, until you run out. So just make sure to always have Potions in your inventory and you will never die. Nor will you ever have to actually think, or use your brain in any way.
It all makes for an incredibly un-memorable game that gave me nothing to sink my teeth into. And it's really unfortunate because this game had rich lore and backstory set up by the supplemental materials. The FFVI influence was really promising, but doesn't really go anywhere. Wasted potential, that's what FFXV amounted to. The two demos they released beforehand were better than the finished game was. Especially Episode Duscae, which has the distinction of being the first game I ever recorded/edited a Youtube video for. Using a high-powered Mac from Full Sail University, that first video was the easiest time I ever had putting a video together and as a result turned out to be one of the better ones I ever did. Amazing how much easier it is to produce something quality when you aren't running into constant stonewalling from technical difficulties, which has pretty much been the case ever since then for me (as I didn't get to keep Full Sail's super-laptop).
FFXV, for me, might be more about all these other things I remember surrounding it, than the game itself. I do need to give a shoutout to the four leads though. I expected four dumb brodudes, but what we got was a legit brotherhood, four guys who cared about each other and got through some tough times. All four of them are solid AF characters, even the blond doofus one Prompto. The older, cerebral bro, Ignis, reminds me a lot of Methos from Highlander: The Series.
What Were They Thinking: While I suspect it's been patched quite a bit by now, Chapter 13 (of 15) was awful in the original version of the game. Just horrendous on every level. A prison dungeon that forms a seemingly-endless maze where you have to use stealth and don't have your powers/characters. This is also where one of the main villains, The Emperor, dies offscreen with barely a mention. The entire chapter reeks of "we ran out of time"
What A Rich, Unrealized World: Much like the original concepts for Secret of Mana, the original mapped-out world for this game was huge and dwarfed what we ultimately got. There were some really interesting locations that I wish we'd gotten to see, like Solstheim and the tropical regions.
#655 Gundam Wing: Endless Duel (Super Famicom) – ?
This game is actually one that I played back in 1999 or so. When I was initially compiling this list, whenever that was, I completely forgot all about this game. So here in Winter 2017, I remembered it and added it onto the list retroactively. It's a fighting game with mechs. Was a good time. Mostly remember it for doing online versus play.
Gundam of Choice: Deathscythe has good reach, and a freaking laser scythe.
Hot off the shelves at Gamestop, this was the next thing I played after FFXV. We were in 2017 now. It was a quick fun game that I took home, played for an afternoon, and then brought it back. It's what it says on the tin, yet another of these fun crossover games that we've had a zillion of now.
#657 Metroid Prime: Federation Force (3DS) – Winter 2017
A game that nobody wanted, that basically just taunted everyone who had been waiting years for a new Metroid game. Taken for what it was, the game was actually pretty good in a vacuum. Like if this wasn't a Metroid game... well, it would have sold a lot worse if it was called Federation Force Strikers: Four-Player Mayhem, but it also would have been well-liked by the people that got it. It's got solid multiplayer options and the gameplay has solid physics. Anyway, as a Metroid game, it's terrible. You don't play as Samus, you play as a bunch of Federation randos. At one point your entire squad fights Samus and barely manages to subdue her for a moment so a discussion can be had. These guys are kinda pathetic.
It's a better game than Metroid Prime Hunters, the other super-unnecessary portable spinoff to the Prime series. It looks better, it handles better. However, it's even more unnecessary. After the SIX YEAR Metroid content drought we had before this, it was more insulting than anything else to get a game where you didn't even play as Samus.
If they ever announce Metroid Prime 2 Remastered, maybe I'll do a first-time replay of Hunters and Federation Force to talk about them on here while I wait for Prime 2. Would like to do more with that series and the Primes are the only ones I haven't done anything with on here. It might be tough to do a post on this game because there isn't really much worth taking a screenshot of. ...lol
Anyway, it's the worst game in the series, unless you didn't like Hunters.
#658 Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare (Playstation 4) – Winter 2017
A game that was generally hated at the time because unlike most CoDs being entrenched in real-world conflicts and tech, this tells a near-future story using advanced tech a couple decades ahead of ours. Not TOO advanced, but advanced enough to be both believable and wildly impressive. The campaign for this game has Noted Creep Kevin Spacey as the villain (the CEO of a private contractor army that needs conflict like it needs air) and he does a fantastic job. If these games had campaigns longer than 3-4 hours, and if Spacey hadn't ruined his reputation by groping kids, I think this character would be remembered as one of the better FPS villains of the 2010's.
On to the next FPS, here's a really good one from 2011. I think I just didn't have time for much else besides FPSes. This is a very-near future (at the time) story involving a hypothetical full-scale war with Iran in an alternate 2014. Technically we've been at war with the IRGC since 1979, and a direct conflict with them is a spectre that hangs over every American administration. A full-scale occupation (of the sort seen in this game) no doubt would have happened in the 2000's if Iraq had gone smoothly and the foolishly-prophesized "domino effect" of regimes falling had actually occurred. It's good that the military-industrial money-grab of a decade+ occupation was avoided, downside is that the IRGC held onto power all this time. They're too entrenched to get rid of without a large-scale military committal, and nobody really wants to do that. Here's hoping the people of Iran succeed in overthrowing the IRGC themselves and claiming some sort of freedom and rights.
...and now the site is blocked in Iran.
Battlefield 3? Yeah, it's fine. Really good, actually. Probably the only United States Vs. Iran FPS on the market. I'm probably wrong, but it's the only one I ever played anyway.
Editor's Note: Just found out as I was writing this that this GAME is banned in Iran. I was kidding about the site, but it probably is blocked there. Any Persians reading?
Here's something even harder to find: United States Vs China. Sort of. It's under the backdrop of U.S. Vs Russia, with an Admiral in the Chinese military attempting to gain control of that country's government in a coup so they can join the conflict on Russia's side. Your intrepid team has to stop the coup in China to prevent that from happening. So you're mostly fighting Chinese antagonists under the auspices of preventing an expanded WW3 scenario. An interesting note is that the Chinese Admiral attempting a coup so they can join the war is "Admiral Chang", which is in line with Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country having basically the exact same plotline surrounding General Chang of the Klingon Empire. Stop the coup and prevent a full-scale war. Wonder if anybody else online spotted/talked about the similarities between the two. Probably not, as that would require someone else playing the campaign of Battlefield 4.
#661 Mirror's Edge Catalyst (Playstation 4) – Winter 2017
The sequel to a game that made a huge, massive impression on me in 2010 and 2011. Mirror's Edge was something else, a high-rise parkour game that made futuristic cityscapes seem like the coolest thing in the world. This sequel, though...didn't do much for me, and I barely remember it. It also ended the series at two games. I also played Homefront: The Revolution around this time, another sequel without a "2" in the title, and hated it. They took a great concept and turned it into more of an open world game that didn't work.
Next time on the 1000 list: A bunch of Pokemon
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