What games are you playing 2014?

[Shale]

NSMB2: 100% cleared every stage. I could go for max coins/lives, but hell no. Bowser fight was boring, Dry Bowser tipped it over into tedium. Still enjoyed the aftergame on the whole, of course, because Luigi. And the star world stages other than the castle were pretty well done.

Layton Brothers Mysteries: I didn't realize this was out for Android! Five bucks for nine cases of Slightly Bargain Bin Phoenix Wright? Sign me the hell up. Finished three cases so far and it's exactly what I expected. Which is a good thing. (The first case is basically PW case 2-1, which is surely not a coincidence.)

[Dark Holy Elf]

Oh, regarding, Pokeniu, Ephraim kind of has to be Luvdisc, if you're going to use any DLer.

Literally didn't see Mightyena on the list.


Also, have you played Dual Destinies yet, Shale? You should.

[Shale]

I played the demo and will be grabbing the full version soon. It's going to be the first thing I buy on the eShop, in fact; but I'm waiting to register my Wii U (which is technically a Christmas present so we haven't opened it yet) so I can get the extra 10% bonus on store credit.

[The Duck]

So, Captain Toad looks ridiculously adorable and tons of fun, but it may be a bit short on actual content for the asking price. Can anyone here weigh in on it? It looks like it would be a nice feelgood holiday game.

[Luther Lansfeld]

I think that's why it's only $40 instead of $60, yeah. I'd say it looks maybe 10 hours long? GameFAQs says it is 35 hours. GameFAQs is probably full of horse turds. A review says 10-20 minutes per stage and there is 70 stages.

I can't say, because I haven't gotten it yet. It's clearly not in my apartment hiding somewhere, that is one thing I am certain of... *explodes*

Play Hyrule Warriors Gourry

[Magetastica]

I can say that it is, without a doubt, worth the asking price. It's about as long as most 3DS games, which is what it's priced as. If you want to get all the bonus stuff, you're probably looking at that 30-35 hour mark, otherwise maybe 10-20 depending on how well you can manage to navigate 3D mazes. It is gloriously fun and actually quite engaging though.

[Shale]

Oh, speaking of Nintendo systems. It's been a long time since I've had the current models, and now I own both. I've got Mario 3D World, Mario Kart 8, Smash, DK Tropical Freeze and Bayonetta 2 (soon) for Wii U, and NSMB2, Theatrhythm CC, BD, and FE: Awakening for 3DS. Dual Destinies and Layton vs. Wright are obviously on the list, and I'll grab 3D Land at some point when I feel the need for more Mario, but what else should I look for?

[Grefter]

If you want to be cool and wear pink wrap around shades and a yellow raincoat (like you should) then Soul Hackers is pretty fun if you want more JRPG on that list.

[Cmdr_King]

If you're really into Mario & Luigi then Dream Team is worth checking out.  If not is pretty skippable though.  Otherwise the only things I have that aren't covered there are pokemon so.

[Luther Lansfeld]

I give 97 Ciato thumbs ups to Hyrule Warriors~ I'm bad at describing things but it's kind of like DW mixed with a 3D action game (with like 20 playable characters!) mixed with utter beautifulness. It has a faster-paced Adventure Mode or a slower-paced Story/Legend Mode depending on what you like (and you unlock characters by doing each of them). The Zelda references are cool but I am not really a Zelda fan and the game is fine to play without having that series fangirlism.

NSMBU is another solid Mario game, and I had great fun and shenanigans playing it three player, even moreso than NSMBWii. The game feels like it was more designed around having multiple people than the first game? But I'd guess it's still a good 1P experience once you are in the mood for yet another Mario.

DKCR is a quite solid game if you haven't already played that for the Wii. Since I haven't played TF yet, I'm not sure how much the game is overshadowed by its successor. Mario Kart 7 is a fabulous game but unless you really dig 1P Mario Kart I think the time for it has passed (but I feel bad not mentioning one of my favorite 3DS games in this, so I did :p).

[Meeplelard]

Oh, regarding, Pokeniu, Ephraim kind of has to be Luvdisc, if you're going to use any DLer.

Literally didn't see Mightyena on the list.

Why can't he be both?!?!?

Regarding Wii U games for Shale...

Captain Toad, from my understanding, is worth the price based on reviews and what (non-trolls) have to say about it.  It's apparently like 70 stages long, and apparently it'll have Amiibo Support, though who knows what that is.  Based on how long the stages were in SM3W, I'd say 10 hours sounds about right, though apparently there's a lot of optional collectibles you're unlikely to get on a first time playthrough, so you can go back and probably get your money's worth that way.  It is priced at $40 for a reason, after all.

Wonderful 101 is a fun and quirky game, also made by Platinum Games.  It's what happens when you combine Okami, Bayonetta, and Pikmin into one game.  If that sounds like a mixture for a train wreck, you are absolutely right, the game is exactly that, and it makes full use of it's train-wreck status to be entertaining!

Sonic Lost World is decent; it's not as good as the "Rush to Win" games (particularly Colors and Generations) but it's solid in it's own right, especially after the patch fixed some of it's issues.  Worth at least checking out.


Regarding DKCTF vs. DKCR?

DKCTF is indeed a step up from it's predecessor, but said predecessor has the advantage of a portable variant, so may be worth grabbing for that reason alone.  They're pretty much the same on core gameplay, just DKCTF has multiple partner characters, a new "KONG POW" ability that you will never use because you often forget it exists, and more importantly, tighter and more unique stage design.  DKCR's a fine game of course, and worth playing, especially since it's portable and DKCTF is not.  I wouldn't say DKCTF makes DKCR meaningless, but the two are similar enough that if you like one, there's a good chance you'll like the other.  It's a lot like classic Mega Man in that regard.

[Shale]

I totally forgot my 3DS came with Dream Team preloaded. I should play that!

[SnowFire]

Shale: That sounds like 3 years+ worth of gaming!  Why do you need more?  Anyway, kinda obvious, but Legend of Zelda: Link Between Worlds is good and reasonably short if you enjoyed Link to the Past.

[Shale]

In terms of sheer quantity I sure don't need more, and yet I also don't need Bayonetta 2 or Dual Destinies in terms of sheer quantity but I don't want to miss out on them because I know I'm going to love them. I haven't really paid attention to what's out there on Nintendo systems for the past couple of years and I'm perfectly willing to extend my (already insane) queue to get other must-plays into the mix.

[The Duck]

The only other ones that you may be interested in are M&L: Dream Team and maybe SMT4, which is like, okay.

EDIT: oops you said you have Dream Team.

The 3DS is weird for me because there are good games for it but the killer apps for me were both Phoenix Wright games.

[Fenrir]

Banner Saga: Hum.

The battle system doesn't seem very interesting at all... Basically:
- There's no healing, and the less HP people have the less damage they do. They become worthless pretty soon. So you really want to have initiative. Which is easy since enemies just run like morons.
- You can choose to attack either attack or defense and there's minor strategy involved in this.
- Speed is weird: One enemy gets a turn, then one ally gets a turn, no matter how many allies or enemies there are. So battles against a ton of enemies are actually pretty easy. This is pretty dumb. When you're down to 1 ally or 1 enemy though, poor guy gets destroyed.
- It's a strategy RPG with basically no terrain quirks, just flat floor. It's pretty boring.

What I'm most excited about is that there are a lot of choices that seem to affect the game, and the game uses a Souls like save system with which you can't save and reload. So yeah big thumbs up for that. I assume you can reset if you lose a battle though.
The setting is nice too. Ice, snow, vikings, politics, famine. The art style looks impressive but animations are minimal; so the game is not breaking any boundary compared to anime games with anime talking heads. Its only difference is that it's not anime.


Dragon's Crown: Got it when it was on sale.
*tries to ignore the amazon, sorceress, and any female NPC*
I chose the dwarf and he's basically the best brawler character ever. His main thing is picking up enemies and hurling them at other enemies in various deadly ways. He can also summon flame barrels and throw them at bosses. He can throw his Thor's Hammer for massive damage then punches enemies for a while.
It's all very cool but I don't know how long his appeal will last. I'm already a little bit bored. I just don't think brawlers are supposed to be super long, no matter how cool the core gameplay is.

[Fudozukushi]

A good chunk of losing battles will be "SHIT HAPPENS" then the story continues.

[Shale]

Banner Saga doesn't have the best battle system ever, but I love it for being Vikings plus Oregon Trail plus FFT even though it doesn't completely nail that equation. It does help that part of the Oregon Trail DNA is that you can screw something up royally without a full-on game over.

[AndrewRogue]

Hey Rob, console or PC for DA:I?

I've heard various complaints about the PC version and have no idea how much is stupid bitching and how much is legit.

Depends on the quality of your rig. Even the minimum requirements are nothing to sneeze at but on a good machine it looks AMAZING. And naturally for a game whose UI borrows so much from WoW, mouse and keyboard controls are much more responsive than a controller. also I think the console version has you swap discs like it's 1997 or something.

Huh. I've actually seen a lot of complaints about the UI, saying it is absolute shit for a PC title.

One last question. How's the tactical camera? I sorta assume the zoom is DA2-ish.

[Dark Holy Elf]

Kid Icarus Uprising is absolutely worth checking out as well; it's half 3D action game and half rail shooter, and all well-written fourth-wall-breaking hilarity. It's almost certainly my favourite 3DS game.

Most of my other recommendations have either already been covered and/or you already own.

[SnowFire]

Fenrir: Well, TBS's system is interestingly *different* although I'm not in a hurry to endorse it being used again.  There's not many systems that reward leaving enemies alive but hamstrung and dying...  it's a change of pace at least?!

[Lord Ephraim]

If you like over-the-top action games, I'd look for The Wonderful 101.  It's a mishmash of various other Clover/Platinum games like Okami, Bayonetta, God Hand, and Revengance.  There's genre-shifting segments that borrow from other Nintendo franchises.  It should be half off other Nintendo games at least until retail copies are not sold out.  There's no tutorial, and the game is dumb enough to not give you the block and dodge move (you can buy it after the prologue) so expect to die a lot early.  There's a lot of drawing to make your weapons but I found it easy to use the right stick rather than the gamepad.

So excited for more Pokeniu.

[Anthony Edward Stark]

Hey Rob, console or PC for DA:I?

I've heard various complaints about the PC version and have no idea how much is stupid bitching and how much is legit.

Depends on the quality of your rig. Even the minimum requirements are nothing to sneeze at but on a good machine it looks AMAZING. And naturally for a game whose UI borrows so much from WoW, mouse and keyboard controls are much more responsive than a controller. also I think the console version has you swap discs like it's 1997 or something.

Huh. I've actually seen a lot of complaints about the UI, saying it is absolute shit for a PC title.

One last question. How's the tactical camera? I sorta assume the zoom is DA2-ish.

The UI is WoW without mods.  For some people that is the definition of a nightmare.  But if you don't like the mouse-keyboard interface on PC you can plug a 360 controller in to your computer and use that.  You don't get that option with any other version.

The tactical camera is actually really great.  It's kind of hard to say because of how much bigger the areas are in Inquisition versus Origins, but I feel like it zooms out maybe a little bit further, even?  You can also slide it around the map to look ahead, which is again, important because of how big some of the areas are.  When enemy reinforcements show up they're not spawning out of nowhere like in 2, they're coming from somewhere else (doesn't happen often but I've had it occur).  Also, when you zoom out into tactical mode from normal view, it pauses the game automatically so you can assign orders to all your characters, which is a nice feature since I always ended up doing that anyway.

[Sierra]

DOS: I'm still kinda picking away at this, but interest isn't really there at the moment. The mines are predictably pretty bad, if not necessarily in a way I predicted. There are invincible enemies that you have to stealth around in a game not really built for stealth*; detection basically mandates a reload because there's no escaping them and did I mention they're invincible? This segment is short but still pretty annoying. Then for the area's climactic battle it's just three of these dudes and you have to run away until you find a teleporter; I dropped a summon in front of them and escaped without attracting any attacks at all. Then, in the next room, where I didn't bother to save for some damn reason, I dig up a random loot pile and the entire party explodes for like 5x PCHP for no obvious reason. Think I'm done here for a while.

(*The stealth animation is hilarious though, it's about as subtle as Snake in the Box.)

~

Wings of Vi: Random indie platformer that turned up on a Steam search under the Female Protagonist tag (dudes don't tell me this is any kind of surprise). Turns out to be less in the vein of Cave Story and much more like VVVVVV (minus the exploration and the retro charm of the C64 color palette) in that way of yes you will die over and over again an obscene amount of times trying to clear each individual room, which is an approach that I don't think works so well in a completely linear game. Almost immediately restarted on easy mode and still not sure whether I'll bother picking it up again.

~

FFX: Got the HD collection for my birthday a couple months back, might as well make use of it (don't know whether I can bring myself to try X-2, though). Random notes after playing up through the Thunder Plains (and failing every single lightning dodge, no I'm probably not ever making a serious attempt at that):

-I don't actually mind lack of sceneskip because hey, I haven't played this game in a decade, but that might change when/if I reach a boss that can actually kill me (I don't recall this happening until Seymour Flux when I played the game previously). Jesus is there ever a lot of cutscene, though; it's two solid hours into the game before you even have enough PCs for a full active party!

-Early on, a small child loudly tells Tidus that he is a bad man. You know, I don't actually mind Tidus? He's a clueless dweeb, but I can pretty easily overlook the first part since he's literally a thousand years out of his comfort zone. And at least Voiceover Narration Tidus is less of a spaz.

-I'd forgotten the Fake Zanarkand segment immediately at the start of the game began with voiceover narration by someone who wasn't Tidus. What was that even about? I wandered offscreen and cut it off by mistake before the dude finished talking.

-Is there ever a time in this game when Lulu isn't MVP? She outdamages everybody, and even when magic isn't ideal there's Fatal Cait Sith. She basically never leaves the active party.

-The cloisters are so bad.

If I recall correctly, up next are Sperhimorph, killing Seymour mk. 1, and Tidus going all What the Hell Are We Fighting Forrrr?

[Eternalspirit]

Then, in the next room, where I didn't bother to save for some damn reason, I dig up a random loot pile and the entire party explodes for like 5x PCHP for no obvious reason.

LOL, this sounds like my brother's experience with FF12:

"What's this random chest here?"

*chest explodes*

...

*never plays game again*