What games are you playing?

[Ashan]

Finished regular battle ring and the 5 main bosses from giant battle ring, but now I have to do the giant battle medley which is the stupidest god damn test of patience. Sure, you need to memorize every single stupid attack from every single boss, but as I mentioned previously, THE ENTIRETY OF THE GIANT BATTLES IS WAITING FOR CUTSCENES TO FINISH. It's legitimately like 90% of the time spent. So this stupid back-to-back boss rush with no healing, limited turns, and a health bar that's carried on between every fight is just... egregious.

It's like 45 minutes straight of having to perfectly memorize and execute QTEs. You can't skip any of the mid-battle cutscenes because Nintendo just doesn't have a single ounce of respect for the player.

I'd really like to leave it off here but I've spent like 50 hours on this 100% run and don't want to give up on the final task. I made it about halfway through boss 4/5, and I know I can do it, it's just that there's nothing fun about this. It's watching the same repetitive animations over and over again. The hit detection on some of the attacks is just awful, the touch screen controls are bad as always, and the gryoscope just glitches out sometimes. You basically have to do these battles for 45 minutes and you can make maybe 3 mistakes because of how much damage they do. It's just not fun.

[BurntTenda]

Honestly, the gyro is my least favorite part of the giant battles.
It's so bad and almost entirely unresponsive at times.
I feel like the 3DS having to be sideways probably is the cause of it being so wonky.
Especially that Zeekeeper fight...

[Ashan]

This game made me do the research to learn you can recalibrate the 3DS gyro by holding Y+B on the 3DS menu for several seconds.

Welcome to the future of video games.

[Bean]

Keep alternating between two medicore games in Sonic Boom: Fire & Ice and Crash 1. I have so many other choices to go with since my bro's kind of a collector, but those are the ones I picked after my mini-marathon with Switch games. Go figure!

[Ashan]

I got halfway through fight 5/5 in the giant boss medley before dying to an incredibly easy to dodge attack that killed me in 1 hit (I had previously gotten hit by 2 lighter attacks in an earlier battle)

This game is putting me in such a bad mood. I just can't keep calm when I play it because there's just so many things wrong. The touch controls are awkward (you have to swipe in the direction AWAY from your dominant hand to swing your hammer, and it's swinging at way-too-fast incoming projectiles or enemies. It's just not comfortable), the gyroscope controls are awkward, the animations are awkward (Luigi always acts like he's recovering from the last action you made, whether or not you're actually able to do another hammer swing or whatever), the hit detection is just bad sometimes (my hammer will just go through enemies but it's either considered too early or too late because they say it is), and one of the worst things is the gap between the screens. They act like there's real area between there, but a lot of the time you're dodging stuff that's going to hit you, and you're supposed to know it's coming at you as it comes down from the top screen to the bottom screen. But that means you're dodging something that's literally obscured by the gap between the displays. And for stuff like the Zeekeeper's eggs and Mt Pajamaja's rolling boulder attack where you're supposed to hammer the 3 areas you're fighting 2 things:
1. Luigi's animations/delay between when you can attack again
2. The gap between the screens. You literally can't see the eggs/boulders coming in before you're supposed to hit them. You have to guesstimate from the speed they were coming in before they became obscured by the screen and how much time has passed. And to add to Luigi's animations that take forever to recover from, when you do an action, like a slide to swing your hammer or tap to smash an egg/boulder, it's not actually immediately when Luigi will hit there. It's when Luigi will start the animation to hit there. So you have to like, predict with some attacks.

All of these flaws were able to be overlooked in the base game where messing up didn't matter, but in this boss medley where you basically are allowed 3 mistakes over a half-hour boss rush, it should really be more precise.

[Blivsey]

hey uh if you're a switch owner and talkhaus user and haven't played kamiko yet then, uh, what,

[Slimeman01]

hey uh if you're a switch owner and talkhaus user and haven't played kamiko yet then, uh, what,

Well... oops

[BurntTenda]

hey uh if you're a switch owner and talkhaus user and haven't played kamiko yet then, uh, what,

I ended up getting Shephy instead.
Very tough card game, but satisfying when you win.
If I have money left over next time I add money to my account, I'll get it.

[Ivy]

hey uh if you're a switch owner and talkhaus user and haven't played kamiko yet then, uh, what,

have never heard of this in my life

[Ashan]

Oh my god

I finally did it

Finished the hard mode giant battle medley in Mario & Luigi: Dream Team
(not actually a spoiler, just big image)

That was the last off my checklist for 100%. Whew.

Dream Team is now the first game to break the 100 hour mark on my 3DS
(again, not a spoiler)

[Slimeman01]

Oh my god

I finally did it

Finished the hard mode giant battle medley in Mario & Luigi: Dream Team
(not actually a spoiler, just big image)

That was the last off my checklist for 100%. Whew.

Dream Team is now the first game to break the 100 hour mark on my 3DS
(again, not a spoiler)

Well, congrats! I've been meaning to do this, but I've never gotten around to it.
Also, how's Paper Jam? I've been wanting to get that, but I want a bit more info before I get it

[Crow]

played song of the deep this past weekend.
It's like Aquaria, but retails for $5 more on steam

Like I kid kinda but they are very similar games though sotd doesn't have the annoying singing gimmick at least so

[Ashan]

Oh my god

I finally did it

Finished the hard mode giant battle medley in Mario & Luigi: Dream Team
(not actually a spoiler, just big image)

That was the last off my checklist for 100%. Whew.

Dream Team is now the first game to break the 100 hour mark on my 3DS
(again, not a spoiler)

Well, congrats! I've been meaning to do this, but I've never gotten around to it.
Also, how's Paper Jam? I've been wanting to get that, but I want a bit more info before I get it

Thank you!
Paper Jam is... mediocre?
It's not particularly bad, it's just so vanilla feeling. There's no new characters introduced, you basically just interact with the generic Mario cast. Mario and Luigi, Goombas, Koopas, Bowser, Bowser Jr, and LOTS AND LOTS OF TOADS. I think it's the peak of the series in terms of mediocrity. There's just very little memorable about it. At best, I'd say the papercraft battles were better than the giant battles from the previous 2 games. Considering they were actually interactive and felt like a game instead of a series of QTEs.

I'd give it a playthrough if you're a fan of the series, but I doubt there's anyone out there that says it's their favorite of the series.

[BurntTenda]

Oh my god

I finally did it

Finished the hard mode giant battle medley in Mario & Luigi: Dream Team
(not actually a spoiler, just big image)

That was the last off my checklist for 100%. Whew.

Dream Team is now the first game to break the 100 hour mark on my 3DS
(again, not a spoiler)

You have my respect, Ashan. I know I would not have the patience.

I also picked up Final Fantasy V. It sure is moving right along in terms of events.

Meteor crashes. Two party members.
Gain ship and party member. Get first set of Jobs. Lose ship.

All in the first couple hours or so.

[Ashan]

Now that I'm done with Dream Team, I'm finally getting around to going back and playing through the Shovel Knight DLC. When Plague of Shadows first came out I gave it a shot and didn't do very well and never got around to finishing it, but I'm doing a lot better this time, really learning how to use him well and having a lot of fun.
After this I'll do Spectre of Torment.

[Ashan]

Finished off Plague of Shadows since making that post, and thought it was pretty great.

Started/finished Spectre of Torment over yesterday and today, and I'm very impressed. I think I enjoyed that one more than the base Shovel Knight game and Plague of Shadows. Yacht Club Games could have easily just swapped out the characters, added a few tweaks to the levels, and done whatever kind of quick story tweaks they had to do for it to make sense (alternate universe where Shovel Knight is replaced by whoever you're playing as, and vice versa). But they really went above and beyond.
The levels were practically completely overhauled to fit the character's play style, they added/expanded upon new characters, they COMPLETELY remixed the music, added new mechanics like the rail grinding, deeper stories for what were basically throwaway characters in the base game, they made a new/appropriate hub, they made all of the DLC make sense within the base game's universe, they added new mini bosses, completely changed up the boss fights and made them more complex than they were even in the base game, changed up the overall game flow a bit, etc. All for FREE DLC. They had no reason to do any of that, but they did.

Yacht Club Games has to be one of the greatest indie devs of all time. I'm definitely going to keep a close eye on their future games.

[Bean]

Today's the three-year anniversary of Freedom Planet. I'm not playing it. I just want to mention it since Ashan brought up great indie games.

Back at Crash 1 again, I've got almost all of the colored gems in it now. Just have to go through Lights Out. I think that's the last one anyway. Already quickly went back and did the first bridge level to get that normal gem run done. I don't see me trying for the newly-added time trial goals in the game. It's just not for me.

[Slimeman01]

Binding of Isaac Switch Update:
Yesterday I got quite a lot done, including beating Mega Satan for the first time, unlocking ReRun mode, unlocking enemy variations, beating greed mode with ??? with HALF A HEART LEFT, but most importantly, I (finally) unlocked Apollyon. Only 2 more characters to unlock. I'm about 4.3/10 to unlocking

the keeper

, and I haven't unlocked the missing poster yet. Whoops.

[Ashan]

Today's the three-year anniversary of Freedom Planet. I'm not playing it. I just want to mention it since Ashan brought up great indie games.

I've heard of this game but never really looked it up until now.
If I don't like Sonic games would I like this? Cause it basically looks like to Sonic what Shovel Knight is to Mega Man.

[Whimsical Calamari]

If I don't like Sonic games would I like this? Cause it basically looks like to Sonic what Shovel Knight is to Mega Man.

I haven't played Shovel Knight, but I'd say the assessment is accurate. It's basically 2D Sonic (specifically, think Sonic CD's level design) with beat-em-up style combat.

[Bean]

I've heard of this game but never really looked it up until now.
If I don't like Sonic games would I like this? Cause it basically looks like to Sonic what Shovel Knight is to Mega Man.

Think of it more like being the Sega Genesis answer to Shovel Knight's NES lovefest. It's definitely heavily titled to Sonic, but you don't take damage from running into enemies unless they have spikes on them. It's more of a melee-based combat system with a few playable characters that do things differently. Lilac gets an air dash and is basically Not Sonic with a nicer voice, Carol gets to ride a motorcycle and climb walls, and Milla has an energy shield type of setup that can reflect attacks or pick up objects the other characters can't.

Honestly, I recommend looking at a video or two of the gameplay to see if you like it. It has some flaws in the mid-game with stages that go on a bit too long, but I still loved the effort Galaxy Trail put into it.

[Zha Hong Lang]

Playing Freedom Planet the first time through felt like the best game ever, no joke. I very highly recommend it if you like sonic, don't mind adding melee into the mix, and desire a solid storyline (even if not outstanding) to accompany the gameplay.

[Bean]

Beat Crash 1 on the PS4 at around 90%. Not really feeling the need to go the extra mile to complete it again, so I started up the superior and personal favorite of them in Crash 2.

[ano0maly]

Back in the PS1 days I 100%ed Crash 1 and 105%ed Crash Warped, but I never completed Crash 2 (cleared the Cortex boss and found secret levels, but didn't complete everything). I think the game was a bit harsher on the player than Warped.

[Bean]

Back in the PS1 days I 100%ed Crash 1 and 105%ed Crash Warped, but I never completed Crash 2 (cleared the Cortex boss and found secret levels, but didn't complete everything). I think the game was a bit harsher on the player than Warped.

I'm kind of surprised by that. I thought Warped had some really tough goals to get since those Time Trial relics counted for the 105% in that one. I still like it, but I feel like it's what people think DKC3 is like with overload on some stuff. Crash 2 just felt like the most pure platformer. Still, they're both fun.

Just adding in more options for movement is why I really like Crash 2, though. That long jump is sweet.