Topic: Backlaugust 2023! (Forums Aren't Dead Yet?) Edition

[Khushrenada]

After hosting it for the past three years, allow me to take that role on from pokepal 148 since I don't know if he will be here to start this. But I do want his best contribution to these forums (so far) to continue and I do look forward to this now. I guess it just helps to have some incentive to buckle down and play through games even if it is an arbitrary deadline. In line with what pokepal148 had set up, here's the gist of the event:


Backlaugust: The Official Nintendo World Report Month for Decimating Backlogs!â„¢ is back again for more action! So start looking through your backlog and get started!

Here are the "rules":

Games can be on any system, not just Nintendo systems. I know we're a Nintendo fan site, but most everyone here is a multi-console owner. So play a game on any system you want.

Let us know what you're playing. Mostly just so we can cheer each other on.

Play games you already own. A lot of people tend to buy a game then not play it, or play it for a significant amount of time and then put it down. This is what we're aiming for. Games that launch in August don't count. Since I'm taking on the hosting duties, I'm going to strike that last statement. More on that in the next post.

Try to pick up games you aren't actively playing right now. Games you're currently playing can be allowed, but in the spirit of Backlaugust, let's try to make them games you aren't playing at the moment. Make it a game you haven't touched in a month or more if possible.

When is a game done? That's up to you! Mark a game off your backlog when you've seen the ending or end credits, or once you've seen enough of the game in a game without a "proper ending" (like an arcade-type game). You don't have to do or get everything unless you want to.

Finished games will be posted in the OP. Because everyone likes to see their accomplishments recognized. Just post when you're done and I'll try to update daily.


Games Completed So Far:

Kirby's Dream Land (3DS VC) - Khushrenada
Xeodrifter (3DS) - Khushrenada
Road 96 (Switch?) - lolmonade
Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes (Switch) - M.K. Ultra
Kirby's Dream Land 2 (3DS VC) - Khushrenada
Concrete Genie (PS4) - M.K. Ultra
Castlevania Bloodlines (Switch) - Mop it up
Mega Man: Dr. Wily's Revenge (3DS VC) - Khushrenada
Kersploosh! (3DS) - Khushrenada
Mega Man II (3DS VC) - Khushrenada
Mass Effect 3 (Wii U) - M.K. Ultra
Resident Evil 2 Remake (XBox Series X?) - Lemonade
Dillon’s Rolling Western (3DS) - Lemonade
Super Princess Peach (DS) - Lemonade
A Short Hike (Xbox Series X) - Mop it up
Dead Cells (PS5?) - Broodwars
Process of Elimination (PS5?) - Broodwars
Pokemon Trading Card Game (Switch NSO) - Mop it up
Resident Evil 3 Remake (XBox Series X?) - Lemonade
The Revenge of Shinobi (Switch NSO) - Mop it up
Ori and the Will of the Wisps (Switch?) - RABicle
League of Enthusiastic Losers (Switch?) - RABicle
Florence (iPad?) - RABicle
Shadow Dancer (Switch) - Mop it up
Shinobi III (Switch) - Mop it up
Yoshi’s New Island (3DS) - M.K. Ultra
Shadow Archer (Wii U) - M.K. Ultra
Tunic (XBox Series X) - Mop it up
Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (Switch) - Luigi Dude
Maestro! Green Groove (3DS/DSiWare) - Khushrenada
Mighty Milky Way (3DS/DSiWare) - Khushrenada
Kirby's Blowout Blast (3DS) - Khushrenada
The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles (Switch) - Khushrenada
Tunic (PS4) - Broodwars
Death's Door (PS5?) - Broodwars
Balan Wonderworld (PS5?) - Broodwars


For a total of 36!

[Khushrenada]

If interested, here are the past threads for this event:

Backlaugust 2020
Backlaugust 2021
Backlaugust 2022

(Not that it is that hard to search back for them. Not like the forums have been inundated with new topics these past few years. )


Now I've said it before and I'll post it again right now. To me, any game is part of the backlog whether you've had it for 10 years or 10 minutes. Until you've actually played and beat it to your satisfaction then it is part of your backlog. Of course, I do get the idea of using the month to perhaps motivate a person to tackle some of those games that have been in the backlog longer but anything you haven't beat or completed in your backlog is valid no matter how long it has been on your personal gaming backlog.

That said, I do think you'll get more satisfaction out of the event if you finally get around to tackling a game you've been meaning to play for 5, 10, or 15+ years. Yet, I realize that sometimes a player may also want to focus on something that is recent and they are currently engaged in like, say, Pikmin 4. So, I get it if a lot of people were to check that game off this year and finish it during Backlaugust. That's ok by me.

At the end of the day, Backlaugust should be seen as a personal quest or, in literary terms, the conflict of man vs self. Challenge yourself to make up a list and see how much you can conquer in the span of 30 days.

In 2020, the gamers/users of this site were able to complete 44 titles. In 2021, it was 39 titles. In 2022, it was a new record of 56 titles!  Can we beat that this year? Who knows but no harm in trying!

[Khushrenada]

Even though I just mentioned to view this as a personal quest, a funny thing happened in the first Backlaugust event. Let's go back to everyone's favorite year (2020) and review. A third of the way into the month, I had finished a couple games that I'd already been playing before the event started which were Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition. About a third of the way into the month, I decided I could do my part to contribute to the thread and post those two games as part of the total.

I guess one might as well use this thread as a temporary "What was the last game you beat?" location. Wrapped up Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition over the weekend by finishing up the Extra Story content. So that is done and dusted from my backlog. And tonight I beat Yoshi's New Island for 3DS. Just have 3 extra/bonus levels to complete. So, rack up another couple for NWR.

RABicle, who had totally gotten on board with the idea as soon as he saw it and had been on a gaming tear, replied to my post with:

Sounds like you're trying to compete with me! I know it's not a competition, but I'm winning!

But for real just announce your intentions to clear off some other games here in this thread. Join the fun!

...

UPDATE: OH MY GOD I BOOTED UP BOXBOY + BOXGIRL AND FOUND I MY SAVE PROGRESS WAS RIGHT BEFORE THE LAST WORLD OF LEVELS! I HAVE NOW BEATEN THAT! YOU GUYS WILL NEVER CATCH ME!

That comment of I'm winning and then the added you guys will never catch me suddenly ignited a competitive fire inside of me. Having known RAB a long time on these forums, I knew it wasn't a personal attack on me and it was all friendly banter but I wanted to see if I could pull off an upset he didn't see coming after that comment. I then went on a gaming tear of my own. In the end, I ended up beating 14 games to RABicles 17 for the month but I still enjoyed making him sweat once he saw someone else begin to start racking up a bunch of finished games. That spirit of competition may also give you some extra motivation in getting through games in your backlog.

However, the idea of making Backlaugust a competition raises some new questions about rules which came up in the 2020 thread. If a game has multiple endings, does getting a different ending each time count as beating a game? What if a person has multiple copies of a game? For instance, I have Kirby's Dream Land on my 3DS but I also have Kirby's Dream Land on the Switch Game Boy app and Kirby's 25th Anniversary collection for the Wii? How much can one "game" the system here?

Let's go back to the first rule. When is a game done? That's up to you! Mark a game off your backlog when you've seen the ending or end credits, or once you've seen enough of the game in a game without a "proper ending" (like an arcade-type game). You don't have to do or get everything unless you want to. Thus, getting multiple different endings in a game would suggest do everything in a game which one doesn't have to do for this event. Likewise, the website Backloggery only gives two options for finishing a game which is Beaten - The main objective has been accomplished. Usually marked by the defeat of a final boss and/or viewing of credits and Completed - For games which are 100% done. All extras and modes have been unlocked and finished. All significant items have been collected. For this event, we are mainly interested in just accomplishing the first goal of beating a game. Therefore, if a game has multiple endings, we only care about you achieving one of those endings to beat the game. If you want to keep playing for it and go for completion that is up to you up but you can only count it once from the first time you beat. I know that I've gone back to some games I've beat in Backlaugust to complete them in the months after so you may want to do the same.

Since you can only count completing a game with multiple endings once, it only makes sense that, in the case of a game having been released on multiple systems, we only allow a title to be beaten once in the month by a player. Going back to the example of Kirby's Dream Land, if I beat the copy I have on my 3DS for the month then I can not also play the version on the Switch app and the version of it in Kirby's 25th Anniversary and have that all count as three games beat during Backlaugust. Only one copy/version/port of a game may be allowed to be added to your total for the month. In my backloggery account, I have some cases where the same game is listed on different systems like DKCR on Wii and 3DS. I count each version separate in that I don't list the Wii version as done until I beat it on the Wii and I don't list the 3DS version done until I beat it on the 3DS. But for this event, I'd have to chose either to play and beat the Wii version or the 3DS version as one of the titles I'd like to take off my backlog but not both versions. (If I hadn't beaten them both already in this example but I have.  )

Once more, this isn't a real competition against other users. There is no prize for whoever may finish the most games this month aside from any "bragging rights" that one may personally feel for doing so. With a new judge in town , I can help clarify any other questions that might arise but the main thing is to just play and finish more games than RAB this month since he started this whole competition aspect in the first place. 

[RABicle]

Oh right we’re on and the stage is set because I’m suffering through a long commute and have an insane multi day road trip coming up next week. However I think the GF has forbidden gaming while we’re actually camping and I’ll have to do half of the 30+ hours of driving. I’ll edit this post with more details as I go but will be sure to update on the discord too.

So what have I got to play? I suppose I’ve already beaten Pikmin 4 and it’s about the backlog so let’s start by going all the way back to Oxenfree II on the iPad. Should be an easy enough task to get going and then I might start digging into my switch backlog. I know Opus: Echos of Starsong has been waiting for me as well as Eastward but that is probably pretty long being an RPG so I’ll be sure to keep League of Enthusiastic Losers on standby for a quick sugar hit. Part of me really wants to knock over Xenoblade 2 so I can justify buying Xeno 3.
Goddamn I’ve been falling behind in my reading lately too, all because of Zelda. Damn I should’ve known to leave Ganon for August to do that too!

Ok I’m approaching my station but I’ll examine my switch backlog when I get back to my Grandma’s house where I’m staying during the winter of the house renovation.

Only 1% battery on the iPad lemme quickly list other candidates
Arrest of a Stone Buddha
Sports Story
Ori and the Will of the Wisps
Blanc
Spiritfarer
This War of Mine

[M.K.Ultra]

Thanks for picking up the torch on this event Khush as I have been looking forward to it. I have the following games on deck so I will try to finish these first:

• Mass Effect 3 on Wii U
• Yoshi's New Island on 3DS
• Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes on Switch
• The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom on Switch

I am looking at playing Concrete Genie and Sunset Overdrive next but those are just stretch goals at the moment.

[TOPHATANT123]

Is it that time again already?

I feel like there's no chance I can finish Zelda at the pace I've been going. Although I feel like I can probably get through Pokémon Scarlet this month. It's an easy breezy kind of game where the biggest obstacle to completing it is myself.

[lolmonade]

Neat idea folks, happy to join in.  Some of them aren't backlog so much as recent games I don't want to let linger, but in my rotation right now is:

Moons of Darsalon (PC)
Fall of Porcupine (Switch)

And some genuine backlogs:

Disco Elysium (PC)
Subnautica (PC)
Ghosts of Tsushima (PS5)
Astro's Playroom (PS5)
Final Fantasy 1 Pixel Remaster (Switch)
Transistor (Switch)
Divinity: Original Sin 2 (PC)
Wildermyth (PC)
Jack Move (PC)
Ghost of Tsushima (PS5)
Road 96 (PC)

I'll add more if I can think of em.  In the age of social media implosions and fracturing, perfect time to revitalize the NWR forums.

[Khushrenada]

I'll add more if I can think of em.  In the age of social media implosions and fracturing, perfect time to revitalize the NWR forums.

Hahaha! The NWR Forums existed before Twitter and they may continue to exist after Twitter with the way things are going. Indestructible social media right here, folks!

[Khushrenada]

For myself, I'll guess I'll bring up what's been going on in my gaming world which is... not much. I started the year of by tackling a game I've wanted to get to for some time which was Paper Mario: Color Splash. I played and completed that within January. I wrapped up Picross 3D Round 2 in February. I may have attempted to try beating Hollow Knight completely in under 20 hours around that time but can't remember. In any case, I haven't touched the game since I last had attempted that. During the great eShop shutdown of March, I downloaded a whole whack of titles for the 3DS and a little bit for the Wii U. By the time that purchasing frenzy was over, I had a bunch of games I needed to organize and update my Backloggery with but I put it off until now. Yesterday and today, I finally went through and updated my account. I went from the 666 games I'd had since the start of January this year to 727. Yowzers! Of course, that also includes a few Switch eShop and physical games I bought after the eShop shutdown. Still, that's 61 titles added and I've hardly done much gaming to take anything off the backlog.

I've puttered around a bit with the NSO stuff. Been playing Mario Golf 64, Yoshi's Story and Mario Party in the N64 app but haven't really finished any of them. Been playing a bit of WarioWare and Super Mario Advance 2 on the Advance app. Started Joe & Mac and Harvest Moon and played and completed DKC3 on the SNES app. Have played a bit of Tetris and Super Mario Land 2 on the GB app. As you can see, it's just small little bits of gaming piece meal here and there. Played a little bit of Tetris 99 to keep up the platinum points for purchasing new Switch player avatars. Wheel of Fortune on the Switch keeps getting played when my family is in town.

At one point, I looked at my Backloggery Account and wanted to complete some stuff from last Backlaugust that I beat but didn't 100%. So, I played a bit more Rayman Raving Rabbids 2 and got close to unlocking most of the costumes but then let it fall to the wayside again. I almost wrapped up BoxBoy + BoxGirl and unlocking all the costumes there except I need a second player to help me finish the Balloon Challenges for the Two Player section. Something I may be able to arrange soon but it also remains just short of completion. I thought enough time had passed since I finished the first half of the Great Ace Attorney so I think around late May or start of June I began playing the second half. However, I've only gotten as far as starting the 4th (or second last case) yesterday. Not sure if I want to try and power through the rest of that game for Backlaugust or not.

The one thing that did suddenly dominate my gaming time was Civilization 3. I wanted to go through the Civilization games to remind me of what they were like and the evolution from 3 to 4 to 5 and then see about getting into 6 now that I had it on the Switch. Instead, I've just been playing round after round of Civ 3. It was the title I most played back during the GameCube days when I seemed to have the time for long gaming session. I still like so many things about it even now. Finally took a pause on it a couple weeks ago but I've done about 4 rounds that I think might average to around 20 hours a game so that's what I've been doing while my backlog grows and swells.

I definitely need to start checking some titles off. 

On the other hand, my movie watching has really gone up. I've seen 125 films for the first time this year which totally surprised when I reviewed my movie list a few days ago. At this rate, I may get to 200 before the year is over. Now, some of that is because of length. There are 4 Harold Lloyd shorts which can range from 12 to 30 minutes. There are also a few movies I've seen which are a little over an hour long like Dick Tracy Meets Gruesome or Nancy Drew... Reporter which has definitely allowed me to see multiple movies in an evening. But it is always the same old balance for me. Either my gaming time goes up and my movie watching time goes down or vice-versa.

[Luigi Dude]

Well I've been playing Tears of the Kingdom since May so I'd say that counts as a backlog game.  Lets see if I can finally finish it by the end of the month.

[broodwars]

No participation from me this year, as I did my backlog diving a few months ago when I binged 3 Ys games (Celceta, Dana, & Monstrum Nox) in a row...twice...to 100% them. I doubt my Final Fantasy Mode playthrough (i.e. New Game+ Hard Mode) of FF 16 right now really counts. I plan on playing Tunic after that, which just came out on PS4/5 on physical disc.

Best of luck clearing out your backlogs.

[Khushrenada]

Now you may be wondering from my previous post (since I know all anyone wants to do here is read my walls of text) just what all did buy to add 61 games to my backlog. It's your lucky day because I will tell you. First there's regret. Got my money's worth there. But also the following:

Dsiware

Dragon Quest Wars
Mario vs Donkey Kong: Minis March Again!
Chronos Twins
Dark Void Zero
Escapee GO!
Extreme Hangman
Maestro! Green Groove
Rayman
Mighty Milky Way
Mighty Flip Champs!

3DS VC Games

Pokemon Crystal
Kirby's Dream Land
Kirby's Dream Land 2
Harvest Moon
Mega Man Xtreme
Mega Man Xtreme 2
Harvest Moon 3
Mega Man: Dr. Wily's Revenge
Mega Man II
Mega Man III
Mega Man IV
Mega Man V

3DS eShop Games

Kirby Fighters Deluxe
Tank Troopers
Nintendo 3DS Guide: Louvre
Dillon's Dead-Heat Breakers
Weapon Shop de Omasse
Tokyo Crash Mobs
HarmoKnight
Dedede's Drum Dash Deluxe
The Denpa Men 3: The Rise of Digitoll
The Denpa Men 2: Beyond The Waves
The Denpa Men: They Came By Waves
VVVVVV
Fluidity:Spin Cycle
Ketzal's Corridors
Aero Porter
Kersploosh!
Liberation Maiden
Kirby's Blowout Blast
Xeodrifter
The Starship Damrey
Fire Emblem Fates: Revelation
Attack of the Friday Monsters! A Tokyo Tale
Sakura Samurai: Art of the Sword
Gurumin 3D: A Monstrous Adventure

3DS Streetpass Games

Slot Car Rivals
Market Crashers
Feed Mii
Mii Trek
Ninja Launchers


Wii U eShop Games

Affordable Space Adventures

Switch eShop Games

Baba is You
Shantae and the Seven Sirens
Bug Fables: The Everlasting Sapling

Switch Physical Games

Xenoblade Chronicles 3
It Takes Two
Bravely Default 2
Octopath Traveller 2
Crusin' Blast
Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

Plus, there was some DLC for a few games. Woo-ee. It's hard to believe the 3DS eShop is gone. Still would regularly check in on it for so long. Still some titles I wonder if I should have picked up. (And that's the regret I was talking about earlier.  ) As might be expected, there's a bunch of games from that list which I will be looking at tackling through for this month.

[Ian Sane]

I'm still working through Tears of the Kingdom and I doubt that will be finished in August.  If it is then I'll go back to Shin Megami Tensei V where I appear to be near the end.  That game has been interrupted twice now, first by Pokemon and then Zelda.

I've tried to be disciplined with the Switch where I try to finish a game before I move to another one but I have not been so disciplined with sales so I have a big backlog of physical games that are still sitting sealed on my shelf.  A least half of them are RPGs, which of course means they're long games.  So even if I took the whole time off work I probably couldn't get through them within a month.  The dumbest move on my part was getting into the SMT franchise as I've also bought some games in the series for the 3DS and PS2.  When will I find time for those?

For me the ideal month for backlog clearing would be March.  Football season is over but the weather is still cold and rainy enough that I don't have a bunch of yard work to do.  Without even really trying to find I play videogames a lot during that time.

[Khushrenada]

Well, allow me to draw first blood and get this month rolling.

Kirby's Dream Land - 3DS VC. I debated for most of the time when the 3DS eShop was open if I should bother buying the first couple Kirby Dream Land games especially the first since it's pretty short and nothing too special. Plus as it was deadline for the closure, at that point, the Switch GB app had already been announced making it seem further irrelevant to get. Yet, I also reasoned that, things could change in the future. Maybe there would be times were I didn't have access to the app or Nintendo shut it down and changed how they handled their older games. And the only other version I had of it was the port of it for Kirby's 25th Anniversary collection. I'd much rather just pull out my 3DS to play it then go through all the time of getting it loaded on the Wii U. I was also buying a few other Kirby games like Kirby's Blowout Blast and had a bunch of other Kirby VC games so I decided to add them and really make the 3DS a strong Kirby game machine for myself. And now that decision has paid off by allowing me to beat the game for Backlaugust this year. Everything works out for Khushrenada! 


Playing it again, I reminded that I really don't know the game as well as I think I do. My main exposure to Kirby's Dream Land has been Kirby Super Star and it is that version I have played way more and am more familiar with. I'm pretty sure the first time I ever played the actual original GB version was when I played it in the 25th Anniversary collection and was surprised to find out there was a world/level that had been excluded in the Superstar version with a Blimp boss battle. Totally surprised me. Playing the original again now for maybe only the second time is still a bit of a surprising experience. It's strange to not have the copy ability and levels just aren't what I expect. I don't think I made the connection that the spicy curry item in Smash Bros. comes from this game. I'm pretty sure that's the spicy curry that you in eat in a couple levels and then seem to shoot out some flames with. I feel I learned something new playing this. The challenge is still pretty mild though it would also probably been a bit harder if I didn't use the 3DS VC save states to help move things along faster. When thinking about versus other GB games, I still put it on the positive side of titles worth playing and think of it as the equivalent of Super Mario Land. Overall, it will get a quick snap judgement rating of 2.5/5 stars.

[Luigi Dude]

Playing it again, I reminded that I really don't know the game as well as I think I do. My main exposure to Kirby's Dream Land has been Kirby Super Star and it is that version I have played way more and am more familiar with. I'm pretty sure the first time I ever played the actual original GB version was when I played it in the 25th Anniversary collection and was surprised to find out there was a world/level that had been excluded in the Superstar version with a Blimp boss battle. Totally surprised me. Playing the original again now for maybe only the second time is still a bit of a surprising experience. It's strange to not have the copy ability and levels just aren't what I expect. I don't think I made the connection that the spicy curry item in Smash Bros. comes from this game. I'm pretty sure that's the spicy curry that you in eat in a couple levels and then seem to shoot out some flames with. I feel I learned something new playing this. The challenge is still pretty mild though it would also probably been a bit harder if I didn't use the 3DS VC save states to help move things along faster. When thinking about versus other GB games, I still put it on the positive side of titles worth playing and think of it as the equivalent of Super Mario Land. Overall, it will get a quick snap judgement rating of 2.5/5 stars.

Did you play the Hard mode that the game tells you how to unlock after you beat it?  I like how it adds completely new enemies to the game and the bosses get a lot tougher.  It's still the hardest traditional Kirby game, that's not the optional True Arena's from the later games.  It's always funny how the biggest complaint people have is the Kirby series being too easy, when the first game had a legit Hard mode that made it significantly more challenging.

[Khushrenada]

No, I did not. It just said something about an Extra Game mode by pressing up, select and A. I was wondering if that was something different but when pressing them altogether on my 3DS nothing happened. I tried a couple different configurations in case B or Start needed to be pressed and had been mapped incorrectly. Nothing was happening so I just gave up and figured that was just to reset the game and allow you to start it over again. That ending screen surprised because I don't remember seeing that come up when I first played through the game on the 25th Anniversary collection. Wow! Learning Kirby stuff after all these decades!  Now I got to figure out how to make it start this hard mode.... 

[NWR_insanolord]

I just finished up New Super Luigi U a couple weeks ago, I wasn't thinking, I could have just dragged my feet a little bit more and it would have counted for this. Anyway, my first plan right now is to finish the main campaign of Super Mario 3D World, after I believe doing Bowser's Fury for last year's Backlaugust. I'm already fairly deep into it, I into the Bowser world now.

[Khushrenada]

Also, I figured out hard mode for Kirby's Dream Land. Looking at the message again, I needed to press those buttons while on the title screen. So reset the game, entered them and started it up. Those enemies are OUT FOR BLOOD!!! They ain't waiting for Kirby to come at them. They are taking the fight to him. It's clearly going to take some effort to get through that game now. Fortunately, for the purpose of Backlaugust, I can worry about that for next month while I move on to getting the credits for some other games. Definitely curious to find out what hard mode Kirby will be like when I get back to it later.

[Luigi Dude]

Also, I figured out hard mode for Kirby's Dream Land. Looking at the message again, I needed to press those buttons while on the title screen. So reset the game, entered them and started it up. Those enemies are OUT FOR BLOOD!!! They ain't waiting for Kirby to come at them. They are taking the fight to him. It's clearly going to take some effort to get through that game now. Fortunately, for the purpose of Backlaugust, I can worry about that for next month while I move on to getting the credits for some other games. Definitely curious to find out what hard mode Kirby will be like when I get back to it later.

Yeah that was my biggest surprise when I played the game for the first time back in 2010.  I was expecting something like Adventures Extra mode where Kirby has less life but everything else is the same.  Nope, Dream Land has new enemies that are way more aggressive and the bosses that are much harder.

It kind of makes me wish all Kirby game did something similar to this.

[Lemonade]

Oh, its this topic again. I can participate.
Resident Evil 2 and 3 remake are my goal for the next few weeks

[Mop it up]

Last year was extraordinary circumstances for me for various reasons, so I don't think this year will be anywhere close to it! I may still focus on some classic games though, as they tend to be breezier completions. I think I still have one or two more Castlevania games to get to, and there are a few titles in the Genesis collection that I haven't yet tried. Switching gears, I was also considering giving Tunic a go for this due to its positive reception, though I'm unsure of the length of that one.

Recently I've started Dragon Quest XI, but I hear tell it's a looooooong game so I won't be attempting completion in August. I'll probably be putting it on hold from time to time to tackle this event.

[Khushrenada]

Xeodrifter - Beat and complete. Pretty easy enough to get all the power-ups along the way so I was able to completely finish the game which I don't usually do in Backlaugust. I had wanted to pick up this title for some time since years back when I'd first beat Mutant Mudds. I think Insanolord may have recommended it as a good follow-up or maybe it came up during my best of the 3DS eShop threads. In any case, I just knew it was a take on the Metroid formula and that was about it. The problem was that despite knowing it used to go on sale, I didn't see it go on sale for years while tracking 3DS eShop sales and having it on my Wishlist. Finally, as the eShop deadline approached it went on sale and I snapped up during that shopping frenzy.

I'm glad I did as I think being able to play it the 3D effect adds to the experience and it turned out to be a pretty fun and addicting game to play. I liked the fact that the game really doesn't offer you much explanation for things and it is pretty much up to you to figure it out. At the start, I went to a couple planets before finding the one to start with. Later on, I noticed that there were numbers to the planets on the bottom screen but the game leaves it to you to figure out these details and learn. Although this also meant that I ended up making things a bit harder for myself as the game went on due to not fully understanding the way the gun power-ups work. I didn't realize you could combine powers to make them more powerful. I also didn't realize I could just hold down Y and the gun would keep shooting automatically. I was also tapping Y to shoot around maybe the 5th boss or a bit after that. But I suppose that's like any Metroid game. Once you've learned things on your first run like where some power-ups are or the map then you are much more proficient on subsequent runs. Playing it again, I think I'd be able to really power through it without a very low loss of life on that second run. In the end, when comparing it to the Metroid series, I'd say it gave me vibes of the 3DS Samus Returns game. Snap judgement rating of 3.5/5 stars.

[Lemonade]

I assumed RE2 was all just exploring the police station. I just looked at a guide and it turns out Im only a quarter of the way through the game.

Turn out that I much prefer the more actiony resident evils and this is much more limited resource survival.

The police station layout and progression also feels like a zelda dungeon, which I dont really like.



If I end up skipping this and going to 3 remake, I hope I like that more.

[lolmonade]

I can mark Road 96 off the list, which is a first-person adventure where you play as a series of teenagers who are trying to flee the country and cross the northern border in the midst of societal revolt.  The set-up for each round is a Sean Hannity or Tucker Carlson style show which spends most of their time carrying water for a conservative politician during an election year, and ends with the host expressing concern over a "kidnapping crisis".  You select one of three characters with characteristics like age, distance from border, energy, and cash on hand. 

Each teenager's journey is a series of locations across the journey.  Each location will usually include one of 6 characters in the story from one walk of life or another, including a police officer whose trying to keep order, a truck driver secretly planning a revolt from revolutionaries, a teenage prodigy, a couple of robbers, a serial killer, and the tv host.  So in one case, I had stopped at a gas station and needed to create a distraction so the kid can escape the police.  It includes setting up the chain of events to cause a distraction by searching the area and picking-up the right items to do so.  In addition to this, trying to scrounge up food or money is extremely important, as losing all your energy ends in death and having no money makes your options limited.  In leaving each area, you'll have options like hitchhike, paying for a taxi, paying for a bus, or stealing a car if you find keys lying around, which seems to change not only distance but which story characters you might have to interact with.  The characters are well defined and dialogue options do seem to offer meaningfully different dialogue responses.

If I have an issue with the game, it's that the world and characters are presented as very surface level.  The broader world has a three-pronged alignment system - Revolutionaries, Conservative candidate, and liberal candidate.  Understanding there'll be limitations when talking about an independent game, that broader story doesn't feel nuanced in any way.  The characters have more shades of personality, but it goes back to having that very basic alignment in those stories as well.  I enjoyed the characters plenty, but the world feels very strictly defined in a way that doesn't benefit a more touchy subject they're navigating in the storytelling.

That said, I did enjoy the experience.  I caught it on sale so it was the right price for me. 

7/10.

[M.K.Ultra]

I wrapped up completion of Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes on Switch yesterday.
I had previously played the game upon release and without trying too hard had about half of the collectibles. Since then there was some DLC released so I was ready to jump back in and 100% the game.
As you can see from the photo above there are five different things to find in the levels. There are also t-shirts to buy (I did end up buying all of them), though there is an option to unlock all of them for free. Also you can find Jeanne (Travis' cat) in each level, which gives you a skill chip. The time shown includes both playthroughs, but only about 15.5 hours was spent on this replay.

For those unaware, this is essentially a No More Heroes 2.5, which plays as a demake version of the mainline games. It mixes typical NMH action levels with some visual novel episodes that use vector graphics. The game is very stylish and well written as you might expect from Suda 51, but especially psychedelic at parts (see picture below. As for the DLC you end up with new playable character(s). I replayed with Shinobu, though they all have character specific skills. The DLC also gives you a new level and episode. The game is great and worth going back to for completion.

[Khushrenada]

Huzzah! Other people have now posted games! I was beginning to wonder if this was going to just be a lonely Backlaugust for me! I realize that I was thinking of Kentucky Route Zero at first when I saw lolmonade's post about Road 96. I'll have to look that one up that since I don't remember hearing about it before.

Kirby's Dream Land 2 - For me, this is the first really strong entry when looking at the release history of Kirby games. I know many people like Kirby's Adventure for the NES and point to that as a top entry but I don't like that game. I don't know what it is about it but whether it is the NES version or the GBA remake of Knightmare in Dream Land, I find myself getting bored of the game very quickly whenever I play it and feel I'm always having to force myself to play more of it. Maybe someday I'll sit down and try to figure out exactly what it is that bothers me about the game but that day is not today. I don't quite have that problem with KDL2 although I find I'll want a break after a couple hours but that's not unusual for any game. I like the addition of the animal helpers and how they add different twists to the copy abilities and level obstacles like being able to fly against strong winds or swim against strong currents. They help add more challenge in getting some of the later Rainbow Drops. Sort of the equivalent of Yoshi and add more protection for Kirby. Collecting stars in the levels to get extra lives is your equivalent of collecting coins in Mario. Something that wasn't done often in Kirby games. Perhaps KDL3 is the only other game to do that. I'd have to think on that but I like that touch as it helps add something to the levels. You likely want a lot of extra lives if you didn't have the ability for Save States as a couple of later levels and especially the final bosses will definitely require quite a lot of lives and retries as you familiarize the patterns and work out how to take them down. I also managed to get 100% completion for this game for the first time. It's only the second time I've really played this game since a few years ago when I played it in Kirby's Dream Collection for the first time. Came close to 100% then but never got back to finishing that. Save states also helped speed things along in that regard. Snap judgement - 3.5/5 stars.

[Lemonade]

Travis Strikes Again is great, but not as good as No More Heroes 3

[M.K.Ultra]

Well, without broodwars it looks like it is up to me to include some Sony greatness in this here event. I completed Concrete Genie on PS4 last night. The game is rather brief and I completed it in two nights, probably about 8 hours. I was able to get all trophies including the 3 PSVR trophies. The PSVR mode is rather ancillary and I would recommend it be saved for last, but it's also a really cool experience. The picture on the bottom is from the VR mode.
In fact, I picked this game up because I thought it was primarily a VR experience, but I am glad I did because it is a really cool story with some nice level design and plenty of stuff to collect. There is decent use of motion controls here, though my controllers were giving me a little trouble and disconnecting. Essentially you go around the town and paint things back to life. There is some good puzzle platforming and the eponymous genies have various powers that help you out. In addition to designing the way the genies look, they are cute and want to play and interact with the environment so I really appreciated them as entities.
It looks like the development studio (PixelOpus) was shut down by Sony. In fact their other game (Entwined) is not available for purchase  . Oh well, I am sure these talented folks will end up working on something else.

[broodwars]

Well, without broodwars it looks like it is up to me to include some Sony greatness in this here event. I completed Concrete Genie on PS4 last night. The game is rather brief and I completed it in two nights, probably about 8 hours. I was able to get all trophies including the 3 PSVR trophies. The PSVR mode is rather ancillary and I would recommend it be saved for last, but it's also a really cool experience. The picture on the bottom is from the VR mode.
In fact, I picked this game up because I thought it was primarily a VR experience, but I am glad I did because it is a really cool story with some nice level design and plenty of stuff to collect. There is decent use of motion controls here, though my controllers were giving me a little trouble and disconnecting. Essentially you go around the town and paint things back to life. There is some good puzzle platforming and the eponymous genies have various powers that help you out. In addition to designing the way the genies look, they are cute and want to play and interact with the environment so I really appreciated them as entities.
It looks like the development studio (PixelOpus) was shut down by Sony. In fact their other game (Entwined) is not available for purchase  . Oh well, I am sure these talented folks will end up working on something else.

Supposedly, the people at PixelOpus still work for Sony. They've just been folded into one of Sony's other studios making the same cookie-cutter 3rd person open world action game with minor stealth & RPG elements. So, hooray for more bland, generic games that play themselves created by committee! 

While I appreciate the shout-out, I've gotten really tired with Sony's formula over the years. Perhaps that's ironic on a forum dedicated to Nintendo, but at least Nintendo knows how to use more than the same 3-4 colors.

As for Concrete Genie, I quite like the game. As a game, it's rather mediocre. It's not hard to see why the standard-issue puzzles & light stealth and platforming didn't exactly wow people. But as an artistic experience, I found it pretty magical the way you can just paint the world however you see fit, and it will animate and react to you appropriately and in a way that feels customized to you.  I have no idea how they pulled that off with so many possible moving parts.

[Mop it up]

Castlevania Bloodlines

Looks like this is the only game left on the Anniversary Collection that I hadn't yet played, and apparently this is the same one that's included in the Genesis NSO dealie, so I s'pose there will just be one Castlevania game this year for me. To round out the collection, I still played it there, even though the NSO version has better emulation features. I don't know if I ever really heard about this game, so I didn't have expectations for it. And I've gotta say...

...It's a'ight. There's always a bit of a disconnect when I play a game like this: the controls and physics are still the same as the NES titles, but now with Genesis graphics and sound. Thanks to advances in hardware, games during this era tended to improve on things like smoother controls and more dynamic physics, so it's always jarring for me to play a game that looks 16-bit but plays like something much older. Although, at least this guy learned how to whip upwards, even if only while jumping; still surprised me to see that! There's a fun variety of visual tricks across the stages, including reflective water, and a real mindfunk of splitting up the screen in a late stage. Relatively speaking, the tone of this one feels a little goofier than is typical, including a boss that is some sort of grouping of metal gears that dances across the room.

Moving past that however, the stage design here generally feels easier and more fair than the NES titles. There are usually less enemies in each screen, and it relies less on infinite enemy spawns, though there are still a few such sections. There are also a fair amount of bosses and sub-bosses, relatively speaking, and their patterns are typically slower and more predictable than the erratic ones in previous games. This one felt shorter than the previous ones, though I dunno if it actually has less stages, or just feels shorter due to the much easier difficulty. I'm actually kind of surprised at how breezy this game is, since it was released during the height of the rental era where many games were made more difficult to combat rentals.

It's increasingly clear to me that Classicvania just isn't for me. I don't know if there's necessarily anything wrong with them, and I can see why they're popular as they often had great presentation for the era. They look good, they sound good, but I just don't care for the stiff and rigid gameplay, even when the game is overall easier like this. I played a couple stages to try out the second character, but seeing that they seem to have the exact same levels, I think I'll call it here.

And thus, the Castlevania Anniversary Collection is also complete! Now I know that won't count as its own completion for this, ha ha, but I can still mark it as such in my own backlog.

[Luigi Dude]

I'm actually kind of surprised at how breezy this game is, since it was released during the height of the rental era where many games were made more difficult to combat rentals.

Technically it was made more difficult.  The North American/PAL version adds more enemies to certain parts of the game compared to the Japanese version.  You also have to beat the game on Expert mode to get the full ending in the Western version, while the Japanese version gives you the full ending just for beating Normal mode.  Of course the full ending is just about an extra 5 second cutscene but it's still something they made harder to see in the western versions.

The thing I find so weird about Bloodlines is it's the only Castlevania with limited continues but it still has a password system.  As long as someone writes down the password after each level, you basically have unlimited continues anyway, so why even have the continue limit?  I guess using a continue starts you back at the last checkpoint while Password at the beginning of each level, so there's kind of a tradeoff but it still kind of negates the point of limited continues which are suppose to make people replay the whole game when they're giving them another way to just restart the last level instead.

[Khushrenada]

Mega Man: Dr. Wily's Revenge - When trying to determine which VC Game Boy games for the 3DS eShop were worth checking out, the Mega Man titles came up during my Best of the 3DS eShop series. However, I was hesitant about whether it was worth pursuing these or not. I've never really gotten into the franchise. Around maybe 16 years ago, I thought to myself, "Let's do this!". I had the GameCube Mega Man Anniversary collection for a couple years in my games library because it had always seemed like a neat series thanks to Nintendo Power. Reading those issues as a kid, it sounded like they could be cool games with Robot Masters and using their weapons against each other. Looking at these winding level layouts. Also, I was into Samurai Pizza Cats which was airing at the time and giant robots getting destroyed which influenced me to build robots from Lego and have them taken down. But never had a NES until way later and the box art of Mega Man X just didn't inspire younger me to take a chance. Anyways, popped in the GC disc and started with Mega Man 1. It was difficult but I was chipping away at getting better with the level I was playing. Unfortunately, that brief burst of enthusiasm for getting into the series faded that one evening. At some point, I popped in the GC Mega Man X collection because I know I played the opening for Mega Man X for a brief while but found that beginning rather confusing for some reason and backed away from the series again. Sometime later, my younger cousin was talking about the series and how he was interested in it. He wondered if I'd played the games or had them. I showed him the GC collections I had and he went with Mega Man X to try it out. He got farther into X then I did to the point where you could select a Robot Master and start working your way towards one. The difficulty of enemies suddenly appearing and shooting and trying to platform around it wore down his enthusiasm. I took a turn at it and was doing alright at being able to work around the obstacles and make some more progress but after a few minutes we'd both had enough. I gave him my opinion of the series at the time which is that with some older games like MMX, game design was different and more of a challenge was expected to keep people continually playing to sort of learn and memorize these levels and stretch them out that way. The best way to probably play them now was if they were released on something like the Switch SNES app in which you can rewind and get through it faster rather then repeating a level over and over. Thus, I was hesitant about getting any of the Mega Man games for 3DS but kept them on my wishlist for a few years after they did get recommended on the forums. In the end, I pulled the trigger and got all 5 along with the two Mega Man Xtreme games for GBC because I just wasn't sure whether they'd end up on the Switch app and Capcom doesn't seem to have cared about putting them in any other collection to my knowledge. There's that long and unnecessary background story.

I gave it mainly to point that after all this time, it is Dr. Wily's Revenge that has ended up being the first Mega Man game I have ever beat and played all the way through. In 2023, it's probably going to be pretty rare to find other people who will make this game their first real entry into the series. Going back 32 years to the wild days of 1991 with this one. Booting it up, I have no idea what order I should be facing the 4 Robot Masters on my screen. I started with the top left one since it seemed like it had some kind of cutting ability or weapon. Right away, the game is smacking me around all over the place. Getting knocked around and depleted. Soon learn that enemies dropping health is pretty random and seems kind of low. Platforming feels a bit rough too as Mega Man doesn't always seem to be the best jumper or sometimes the levels have obstacles to make a needed jump tough. Quickly decide that I'm just going to have to start Save State scumming. Every time I was about to go to the next part of the level and load the next screen for it, I would create a save point. Then if I got knocked around a bit and lost health, I'd figure out what I had to do on that screen and reload that save state until I took care of the enemies or platforming I needed to do without getting hurt too bad or dying and then create a save point before the next screen to shift into view for the level. Eventually work my way to my first boss fight and just play out a war of health attrition between us. But after an attempt or two, I had finally taken down my first Robot Master in the series. Now which of the three do I want to try next? Later on in the game, it turns out you have to face a bunch more Robot Masters but they're basically back to back to back boss fights. It was at that point that I looked up a FAQ to see what I should be doing. Reading over it, I discovered that I'd pretty much gone the complete opposite way you are recommended to face the 4 robot masters. In a way, it doesn't matter since it is all one big loop but it had felt to me like the levels got easier as I went along. Part of that could be from me better understanding some of the mechanics of the game but, I swear, the Elec Man stage had much less enemies compared to Cut Man and was more about jumping and doing some platforming along the way. I may have unknowingly made the beginning way harder. Got some information on the order of taking out the 5 Robot Masters you have to face halfway on the way to Wily. Continued on and took down in Wily in about 4 tries. And with that, it is accomplished. I can now say I have beat a Mega Man game.

Early on, I was shaking my head and sympathizing will all the young kids who must have gone through so many batteries to try and beat this game. At least they gave them passwords to help with the process. Yet I would think anyone who would have beat that game would have been a legend back in the day. Surprisingly, though, as I kept progressing into the game, I found myself enjoying it more and wanting to come back and play more of it out of the other games I am currently playing on the 3DS. It became a screen by screen challenge / mystery of what do I have to do and then how do I do it well. I began to understand the mechanics and weapon systems and that further helped me get more into the game. On reflecting about it, I may not have felt this way if I couldn't play it with save points. Also, the presentation / story is pretty bones. There's probably something in the manual but in-game you are given no reason for anything. It's like you are just confronted with 4 Wanted posters. Pick a candidate and hunt them down. No reason given for doing so. Then after you do that, you go to some old guy's weird looking castle/laboratory and trash his place, beat him up and leave. The end. The credits throw a bunch of the enemy's names at you which is about the only lore you will get. At least it gives you a chance to know the names of the 5 Robot Masters you face off with in Dr. Wily's castle because that isn't done at the time you meet them. Just have to have played the NES games and know this stuff by heart, I guess. Anyways, despite the long journey it took to get here and the odds against it with its level and enemy design, somehow I ended up walking away with an overall positive feeling about the game. Snap judgement rating of 3/5 although I wonder if I'm being too generous here...

[Khushrenada]

Kersploosh! - Nothing like a game you can beat in an hour. This game came up a couple times on other Best of the 3DS eShop listings so I decided to give it a chance. It's more of an arcade-high score type game where the only real challenge is how quick you can get the object you control to the bottom of a well. There are only 10 wells in total and 10 different objects with different stats. It's not really that challenging to unlock all the wells. Just get to the bottom of one and the next one opens. The bigger challenge and more of a completion aspect will be getting all the different objects unlocked. I've got 8/10 but a couple of the last ones will take more work. For now, I'm content to mark this as beat and work on getting the last couple objects later. I may even see if I can get the time on the wells under a minute although I think that may not be possible on the last well. Might have to shoot for 1 minute and a half there. It's a nice little time waster. Reminds of early mobile phone games in that way. Just an app you can open to engage yourself while waiting for something.

I picked up the game because there had been praise for the 3D effect but the depth wasn't as great as I anticipated. I can think of a few other games in which the 3D depth effect was more impressive or stood out more. On the other hand, what I wasn't expecting was for this game to give me a pseudo-F-Zero GX experience. I see it as a racing game in which you are going from one of the track to the other. Along there way there are boosts you can get for speed bursts but a lot of obstacles you have to avoid that could slow you down and damage your falling object to the point of destroying it. When playing some wells to shave down my time and unlock an object, it reminded of that trained precision in F-Zero GX of going along tracks and carefully maneuvering your craft to hit the speed boosts along the way and avoid other things on the track at high speeds. The way different objects can be much more difficult to control than others is like how with 40 different racing vehicles some were just more wonky than others. Ah, the days when I was an F-Zero Champ and won an Expert Grand Prix with all the racers. For reminding me of that, Kersploosh!, I thank you.

But you're still a pretty basic game. Snap judgment rating: 2.5/5

[Khushrenada]

Mega Man II - I actually beat Dr. Wily's revenge a few days ago like Sunday or Monday but just didn't get around to posting it. At the time, it wasn't my plan to also play more of the GB MM series of games. I just wanted to at least complete one and finally dip my toe into the Mega Man waters. Yet, despite starting up and getting into some other games that I listed as potentially tackling this month for Backlaugust like Sakura Samurai: Art of the Sword, Mighty Milky Way, and Maestro! Green Grove, I found my mind would wander back to the GB VC games I've still got to play and wanting to get more Mega Man action. I booted up the second of the GB games. Once again, I was unsure which way to start with the Robot Master but I figured the buzzsaw looking way likely had to be the weakness for the tree looking one so I could at least go in that order.

Right away, I could tell a difference in the design and gameplay. It just had a lighter feel. Less worry of having to be ever vigilant over the level of my health bar to get to the end. Health and weapon refills were much more prevalent and I was soon hardly bothering with doing much for creating save points. It was much more easy to successfully get from the start to the end of a level and likely with good health by the time you reach the boss. The ability to slide took awhile for me to catch on and realize it was there. Afterwards, thinking about the game, there's probably more times I could have used the slide ability when fighting since so many Robot Masters want to jump around their screen. As a result, there was a point where I did run out of lives and selected the Continue option on a Game Over screen but it was no big deal since I had just reached Wily's castle and started over on it fresh with more lives and all weapons full. Also, wasn't catching on to the value of Mega Man's dog at first but eventually worked out its benefits. In the end, I played up to the Mega Man 3 Robot Masters in Wily's castle in one day and finished the game today. It was just a much more compelling experience doing more to make the levels standout on the Game Boy and I just wanted to keep playing it. A very good Game Boy experience. Snap judgment rating - 4/5 stars.

[pokepal148]

Oh hai.

I see I have successfully scammed Khush into taking this over. How fun.

Baldur's Gate 3 is likely to become my main gaming obsession but I have started picking away at Tunic on my Switch so I'll probably keep picking away at that.

[broodwars]

Oh hai.

I see I have successfully scammed Khush into taking this over. How fun.

Baldur's Gate 3 is likely to become my main gaming obsession but I have started picking away at Tunic on my Switch so I'll probably keep picking away at that.

Just recently finished Tunic, myself, which just had a physical release. Well, at least it's 2/3 of a great game. Pity about the game completely going to **** in its last 1/3, getting bogged down in confusing level geometry; truly awful combat; and Fez-caliber cryptic bullshit that basically requires a guide. And all topped off with one of the worst final boss fights I've ever seen if you didn't use a guide to 100% the game.

[lolmonade]

Well, without broodwars it looks like it is up to me to include some Sony greatness in this here event.

I have plenty of Sony games on my backlog, I just doubt i'll have the time this month to accomplish them.  I'll add the one i've had meaningful time in for a stretch goal.  . 

[M.K.Ultra]

Everyone can now rest easy as I have brought an end to the reaper threat by beating Mass Effect 3 on Wii U. This was my first foray into the Mass Effect franchise and if it were not ported to Wii U I would probably not have played it. I did enjoy the game despite how martial is was; there was enough sci-fi in there to keep me entertained. The production values were certainly high with loads of fully voiced cutscenes and big name actors. Even some of the menus were narrated. What makes this game stand out to me is the ability to make decisions, not just with dialogue, but with story as well. I actually had a decent amount of control over some parts of the story, which was neat. The missions are a little samey, but I mixed in with the other aspects of the game: searching for assets minigame, exploring the citadel and ship, etc. it stayed enjoyable. I though the length was just right as well, with my casual playtime clocking in around 37 hours. Since this was a Wii U game, you might be wondering about the Gamepad. It is used as an interactive map, and I found it quite helpful. You could see the terrain, allies, and enemies in real time and you could drag and drop your party members' icons to direct them to different areas without pausing the action. Will I play another Mass Effect game? probably not, but I had a good time here.

As you can see I did figure out how to export screenshots from Wii U by pausing the game and going to the Internet browser, but this doesn't seem to work with the 3DS. Anybody know how to get screenshots from the 3DS without Miiverse?

[Lemonade]

Some final thought on a few games.

Resident Evil 2 Remake.
I was interested in this game because I heard so many good thing about it on podcasts. It turns out that I dont like it. Even though its a remake, going back this far into Resident Evil it just too puzzly for me. I dont like Zelda Dungeon like world design. I dont like the puzzles. I dont like Mr X. I dont like the survival aspect of barely having enough ammo to take out enemies.
Out of Resident Evil 4, 5 6, 8, Revelations, and 4 Remake, this is the first RE game I have played in the last few years I have not finished because I dont like it. I much prefer the newer more action style RE games.
I bought 2 and 3 remake on a significant discount earlier this year, so Im still glad I at least gave it a try.
I will start RE 3 Remake very soon.

Dillon's Rolling Western.
I put about 5 hours into the game, but Im done with it because I didnt get a good enough rank to unlock the next area. I dont feel like going back and replaying three missions again to try to do better. I had enough fun with the game.
It is actually pretty good, but very repetitive. Its also not very portable friendly because you can only save between each mission, which is probably 20-30 minutes of game time. I was playing it in 15-20 minute chunks before work in the morning. There was several times when I just had to leave the game running in sleep mode.
Afterward, I quickly revisited Dead Heat Breakers, which I played some of back when that game was new. I didnt like it very much at the time. Playing it now with more knowledge of the series, I appreciate the game more. It is much more complicated than Rolling Western, but you can see how the gameplay has evolved.
I dont intend to play more of Dead Heat Breakers.

Super Princess Peach.
I started this a few months ago when I streamed it here https://youtube.com/live/BH2f5auB7UA
The put it down for a while. I picked it up again over the weekend just to get it finished.
Its actually really good. Its a fun, cute platformer with a look and feel very similar to Yoshi's Island.
Im saying I basically finished it, but I didnt actually finish it because to beat the final boss, you have to collect all three toads in every level. I have most of them, but I cant be bothered going back to get all of them. Plus, from what I saw in a guide, the final boss seems like it would be very annoying to beat, so I dont need that.
The game also has amazing 2D art for the DS. You really should watch some of my video to see it.
As for Peach's powers of flight, water, fire and health restoration, they are all used very well in the level design in various ways. The only issue is how it was implemented, with them being her emotions. It doesnt really bother me, but I think it is probably why we will never see a re-release of this game.
Also, Im really looking forward to the new Peach game next year.

[Mop it up]

A Short Hike
This was recently added to Game Pass, and I remembered some people speaking highly of it as a nice breezy, relaxing time. And I've gotta say...

...It's one of those games that delivers exactly what it promises on the tin, nothing more, nothing less. I was worried when I first opened it up and was greeted by images that are a mess of undefined chunky pixels, but fortunately I quickly found the option to smooth out the graphics and then it looks fine. This is generally my ideal type of open gameplay: a small, condensed area with a focus on exploration and clear goals. I also appreciate any game that's able to deliver an engaging experience without containing violence or dangers.

I felt compelled to complete all the tasks (including the cheevos) since moving around the island is quick, easy, and fun, becoming moreso the more golden feathers collected, and the race minigame challenged me to improve my gliding skillz to get around even faster. There are a few niggling issues here and there; a largely static camera which doesn't always show what I want to see; switching tools should be assigned to buttons instead of having to open the menu; and some presentation choices I don't care for, but they're minor enough to not hinder the experience. All in all, I enjoyed the hike.

[Lemonade]

I played A Short Hike recently. It was good. I think the game is a bit over hyped though. I didnt like it as much as other people seem to.

[broodwars]

Well, it looks like I do have something to contribute this month, and perhaps more: after clearing out another recent release with Process of Elimination (one of the strangest visual novel detective adventure games I've ever played, but a recent release so it doesn't count here), I decided to try working on a few older games while I was on vacation this week. With Armored Core 6 coming out soon, I thought I'd finally get around to playing my copy of Mechwarrior 5 I'd been holding for a rainy day. More on that another time if I manage to beat it (it's a HUUUUUUGE game), but the one I'd like to spotlight is Dead Cells.

Dead Cells is a game I started years ago back when it first came out. I liked it then, and I still like it now. The game got a proper port to PS5 recently with a physical version that also included all the DLC (including the Castlevania DLC), so I figured...why not? I never had a successful run before...but I have now.

http://twitter.com/broodwars64/status/1691233470830325761?s=20

Yeah, I know there's still a TOOOON of stuff to see and do in that game, including the aforementioned DLC, but **** it. I've rolled credits. I'm calling that a win, and here on out I'm just playing for the fun of it.

To put it succinctly, Dead Cells is possibly one of the most mechanically perfect games I've ever played. While luck plays a role, it is a game that you can play to perfection just on pure skill alone if you're that good at it and you have the enemy attack patterns down. I am not that good, but I will take beating the final boss and proudly display my glorified participation trophy.

Because I've seen what it takes to 100% that game, and **** that ****.

[Mop it up]

Pokémon Trading Card Game
I was always mildly curious about this game, but never ended up getting the cartridge. Its inclusion on NSO is a nice addition. Now that I can finally try it out, I've gotta say...

...It's a card game all right! While there is a simple structure of progression for the title, it does very little to game-ify the card game, delivering it pretty straight. No grand adventure, no storylines, no real characters, not even something cool like having the Monz pop out of the cards, it's literally cards in the context of the game as well. I've never played the physical card game and have no interest in it, so I don't know what, if any, changes were made to this video game incarnation. I get the feeling it may be simplified over the real thing however, seeing that there are just 7 types.

Being a card game, luck is of course a big factor, especially starting out with a standard deck. As I went along and defeated more opponents to collect more cards, I was slowly able to add some better cards into my deck to mitigate the luck aspect and have useful cards pop up more often. The standard opponents seemed easy enough to tackle them with a wide variety of deck setups, but the final bouts required me to figure out some more specific ones to handle what they throw out.

Overall, while I didn't particularly enjoy the game itself, it was an interesting curiosity to learn some things about the card game and how things work. I would imagine that any fan of the card game would be satisfied.

[Lemonade]

Finished Resident Evil 3 Remake. It was great, I liked it so much more than 2 Remake. It is much more interesting with the world design. You go to a bunch of different locations instead of just being stuck in the police station for hours.
It has more action than 2 and doesnt rely so much on puzzles.
I think Jill is now one of my favourite Resident Evil characters.

If you dont mind seeing the end of the final boss, watch this scene, it is great
https://www.xbox.com/play/media/F4KYMY59AF

[Mop it up]

I completed The Revenge of Shinobi in the Genesis collection as a nice break from Tunic, with liberal use of rewind of course. I never really heard anything about this series so I wasn't sure what to expect, thinking maybe it was Sega's answer to Ninja Gaiden, which it isn't. With all the shuriken-tossing action, it sometimes feels more like a side-scrolling shooter. For a ninja, this dude sure moves slowly. A weird quirk of the game is that colliding with an enemy itself doesn't cause damage, only knockback, so I would sometimes use this to avoid being hit by their weapon. With some of the mean setups in later levels, this almost feels required. I find myself wishing I had more Castlevania games to play instead...

[M.K.Ultra]

I never really heard anything about this series so I wasn't sure what to expect, thinking maybe it was Sega's answer to Ninja Gaiden

I always thought the same thing. Definitely on my list of Sega franchises to one day visit.

[RABicle]

I’ve been posting more regular updates in the discord but to give proper rundowns here I have finished Ori and the Will of the Wisps, The League of Enthusiastic Losers and Florence.

So let’s do some mini recaps. Ori and the Will of the Wisps is very special. Some of the Metroidvania purists dislike aspects of Ori, like the semi-on rails chases and perhaps switching abilities too often to progress but I think it’s overall brilliant. Ori and the Will of the Wisps is just such a beautifully presented game. It looks good, it sounds better and the gameplay is challenging and fun and interesting. I can’t believe Microsoft jsut let us have this game and don’t lock it up on the Xbox, where it’s no doubt completely unappreciated by the shooter and sports crowd.
As for my progress in it, I had previously played one long session in bed a couple of years ago and when I came back to it I didn’t really know where I was or what the controls were so I just started a fresh save and within 3 hours I was up to where I was. In the end it took 15 hours to clear.

League of Enthusiastic Losers… well, an attempt was made, by the developer to tell a story, you couldn’t not finish this game, it’s an interactive story. I played through it over two train rides to work and back. There’s a story about a couple of mates (who are definitely not gay) that didn’t quite make it in life and how they’re uncomfortable around their more successful friends and their slumlord is trying to kick them out and they reminisce about their childhood when things were good under communism. The kids in teh tenements really like them though and not to spoil it but everything works out in the end. The art style is actually really nice and the sounds do the job but the story is whatever, and that’s crucial because the gameplay when it exists is unclear, buggy and unsatisfying. There’s no real player agency but maybe that’s part of the point? 🤔

And then there’s Florence, which i jsut played through on my iPad on the couch right then. Compared to League of Enthusiastic Losers, Florence is a masterclass on how to do an interactive story. text is minimal because the story is told through the pictures and music and the screen orientation and when the way you piece together the little mini games to progress the story add weight and impact. Like you go ona. Date with a guy and you can tell Florence is becoming more relaxed and conversation is easier because the little puzzles to put together the speach bubbles becomes more relaxed. It’s wonderful and I think everyone would enjoy the 40 minutes it takes to see it through.

What has caused huge damage though to my Backlaugust is Project Highrise. A game I have comprehensively mastered, back to front, reviewed and recommended. And all this talk about the housing crisis in Australia while I was working forum home inspired me to download it again, for iPad this time and play it while “���working���� from home. ScreenTiem says I’ve wasted over 25 hours on it in the past fortnight. I have literally 100% achievemented this game on Steam, where I own on teh DLC and it’s more playable than the weirdly cut down iPad version.

[Mop it up]

Another Genesis title in the bag, Shadow Dancer! I thought it was a sequel to Revenge of Shinobi, but apparently the arcade version released prior to it, and just took a couple of years to show up on Genesis. This one feels even more akin to a scroller shooter ala Contra, with infinite shurikens allowing for mindless rapid fire, and one-hit deaths. Fortunately the enemy concentration is lower than in Revenge, but it still results in a more difficult game. Shinobi now has a dog following him around that constantly barks whenever an enemy is on-screen, adding a robust annoyance factor. The bonus stage between rounds is surprisingly easy to perfect and earn three lives. With just four sets of stages it's shorter than Revenge, though it would have of course taken longer if I had to master it to clear it; some of the bosses would have been a real pain on actual hardware.

[Mop it up]

Rounding out the series is Shinobi III: Return of the Ninja Master! Three games into this franchise and I still haven't quite figured out the timing of the double jump. Shinobi has learned some more ninja moves for me to mistime, such as a wall jump, and climbing across ceilings and pipes; this game really makes you feel like an incompetent ninja. Moves like a drop kick can be very useful. Compared to the previous, the stage design is generally easier and more fair, and I hardly used rewind at all until the final stage which is a ridonkulous gauntlet. Rigauntulous. These games show an issue with the Genesis controller having only three main buttons, as whether or not Shinobi tosses a shuriken or slashes with his sword is based on distance to enemy, but it feels inconsistent and often still throws a shuriken at slash range. Having a separate sword button would have been ideal.

[M.K.Ultra]

These games show an issue with the Genesis controller having only three main buttons, as whether or not Shinobi tosses a shuriken or slashes with his sword is based on distance to enemy, but it feels inconsistent and often still throws a shuriken at slash range. Having a separate sword button would have been ideal.

So jump is one button and shuriken/sword is another. What is the third button used for?

[M.K.Ultra]

I have one (or two) more to get in before the month closes.

I did roll the credits on Yoshi's New Island on 3DS. I had been playing this for a while, mainly when traveling. I was 100% completing each level as I beat it but when I started running out of time with this month decided to skip the special levels in worlds 4-6. I also still need to beat the final boss level with full health. If you are not familiar with Yoshi games, this one has the usual three challenges: find the 5 flowers, collect the 20 red coins, and complete the level with full health. In the beginning I kept trying to do all three in one run, which feels great when you can, but for the more difficult levels it is better to focus on health or collectibles. The stereoscopic 3D looks great on this game and overall I had a great time. I would probably put this between Wooly World and Crafted World in terms of my personal ranking.

I also played Shadow Archer on Wii U. This is a high score game with no actual end as far as I can tell. There are new enemies that appear when you get to 5000, 10000, and 15000 points. At 15000 points you see Master Manny and once you have defeated him I would say you beat the game. Of course the game keeps going and Manny will appear again. Your only weapon is arrows, but there are four different types of arrow and you do have limited ammo. The game works well enough and while you are still seeing new enemy types, there is a real desire to push further in the game. Unfortunately, once that progression ends, so does the motivation to keep playing. My highest score was around 34,000 points. Like the other UltraDolphinRevolution games these are all locked on Wii U so you either have them now or you can't play them.


I have been playing LoZ:TotK like many of you but I could not even come close to finishing that. I think I am right before the fight with Gannon in the main quest, but I still have side quests and shrines to complete. I am getting near the end of the side quests (I think). I thought I was getting near the end of the shrines but apparently there are more than I thought. I want to at least complete those two categories before hanging up the towel.

I am also playing Sunset Overdrive on XBoxOne but I need another few weeks to wrap that up as well.

Hopefully Khushrenada and Rabicle magically reappear at the last moment with a long list of games to make us collectively look good this month  .

[Mop it up]

These games show an issue with the Genesis controller having only three main buttons, as whether or not Shinobi tosses a shuriken or slashes with his sword is based on distance to enemy, but it feels inconsistent and often still throws a shuriken at slash range. Having a separate sword button would have been ideal.

So jump is one button and shuriken/sword is another. What is the third button used for?

Magic! There are a few different spells, but it can be used only once per stage. They're not particularly useful, but can help at certain spots.

-----
    
Closing out Backlaugust is Tunic, just in time! It sometimes reminded me of one thing I liked about Outer Wilds, where sometimes progression is tied to simply gaining knowledge of how to do something or get somewhere. Collecting game manual pages is a unique and interesting way of tying puzzles together. I liked exploring the world and figuring things out, though the final set of puzzles was too technical for my liking, similar to stuff like sudoku. Conversely, I disliked the slow and tedious combat. I don't think I'll elaborate any further, so as to not invoke the wrath of its fans any more than I may already have!

[TOPHATANT123]

This backlaugust I completed... nothing!
I took some days off of playing anything at all and most of my time was split evenly between Fire Emblem Engage, Pokémon Scarlet and Tears of the Kingdom. I would say I'm at like 80%, 60% and 30% respectively.

[Luigi Dude]

Well i came so close to finishing Tears of the Kingdom.  Just a few more shines and major side quest left before I call it quits.  Now I did technically beat Ganondorf and watched the end credits, so I kind of beat the game, but I'm still playing because I want to do all the Shrines and most of the side quest, so I cant really cross it out of my backlog yet.

[broodwars]

As I expected, I didn't end up finishing Mechwarrior 5 in time, though it is out of my backlog since I'm actively playing it, so I guess that's a win. It's a very long and VERY grindy game.

I ended up 100%ing Death's Door and Balan Wonderworld instead, which hit PS+ and the $10 bargain bin, respectively. Been meaning to play both, but neither was in my backlog so that's not really revelevant here. Suffice it to say I really didn't like the former, and I think the latter is really just mediocre. It's only actually terrible if you try to collect everything...which I did, so...yeah...

[Khushrenada]

after clearing out another recent release with Process of Elimination (one of the strangest visual novel detective adventure games I've ever played, but a recent release so it doesn't count here),

Too bad! I'm counting it! Like I've said before, I don't care too much about when a game released. If you beat a game during August, it pretty much counts. (With the caveats you haven't beat it on that system already and you didn't already beat the same game during this month on a different system). Gotta get these forum numbers for games completed up somehow!!!

Well i came so close to finishing Tears of the Kingdom.  Just a few more shines and major side quest left before I call it quits.  Now I did technically beat Ganondorf and watched the end credits, so I kind of beat the game, but I'm still playing because I want to do all the Shrines and most of the side quest, so I cant really cross it out of my backlog yet.

Too bad! I'm counting it also! Like it mentions in the OP, "Mark a game off your backlog when you've seen the ending or end credits". And you, Mister, have seen the end credits so this can count for Backlaugust. I've had games that I've beat in Backlaugust in which I rolled the credits but then went back to after the month was over (or even later down the road) to then fully complete to my satisfaction. I'm marking you down for this game whether you like it or not!

This backlaugust I completed... nothing!

How can I boost numbers with that?!

I did roll the credits on Yoshi's New Island on 3DS. I would probably put this between Wooly World and Crafted World in terms of my personal ranking.

Nice flex with the Yarn Poochy Amiibo. Blew my chance to get one back in 2017. I thought it and the Woolly World 3DS port were going to go on sale like the Chibi-Robo Zip Lash game and Amiibo did. There was a Toys R US with like 35 - 40 of those game bundles just taking up a large section of shelf for months. Then I went in one day and they were completely gone. Either they sent them back to Nintendo or I did miss a sale or some people decided to grab and horde them all. Not sure what. Now it is one of the most expensive Amiibos out there and less likely to get a reprint. Oh well.

Yoshi's New Island. The second game I beat in the first Backlaugust. (But this poster did fully complete the game when adding it to his Backlaugust total so a little flex of my own there. ). You seem much more positive on the game then I was. Aside from maybe the bonus levels, I found it very derivative and unoriginal when compared with other games that had come before it. Not going to rehash that now but in the Yoshi series, I slot it at the bottom. Yes, even lower than N64's Yoshi's Story. However, I can appreciate that opinion on the game can vary depending on how much a person has played of previous games in the series or of the first Yoshi's Island in particular so I'll quit raining on your parade and enjoyment of it now.

Hopefully Khushrenada and Rabicle magically reappear at the last moment with a long list of games to make us collectively look good this month  .

Oh no!! What kind of pressure is this? I've been trying to get the forum numbers up anyway I can. Why do I have to now be the one to have played some games during the month...?

[Khushrenada]

So, Backlaugust is at end. This year's Backlaugust has made clear to me that I'm just not in a gaming mode these days. Part of that could be what I've been playing but, compared to the last few years before this one, I'm just finding it hard to get enthused about turning on any system to play a game. My attention and enthusiasm is elsewhere in different things. At the time I last posted on August 10, I ended up not doing any gaming until Aug. 21 and that was just to play Fortune Street with some old friends of mine who were in town visiting. We used to play that a lot together. I forgot how great that game is. I didn't really get back to my Backlaugust stuff until Aug. 25.

Instead, I continued to watch a bunch of movies and ended up going through all 12 episodes of the show Slow Horses and just about all of Ted Lasso. I'm halfway through the second to last episode of the series so will probably wrap that up tonight. Been reading some books and doing some organizing in my place. Just so many projects and tasks I've wanted to do or need to get done.

When I last posted in this thread, I had just begun the opening of the last chapter in the Great Ace Attorney Chronicles. I was into the 3rd world of Mighty Milky Way and at least halfway through Maestro! Green Groove. The way things were going, I was wondering if might get as high as 20 games beat during the month. However, I just wasn't feeling that engaged with most of what I was playing and it felt more like a chore. Plus, it just didn't seem like there was much interest with other users this year for the event which further sapped motivation to stay focused and keep playing through stuff.

Seeing other users start to post more later on started to get me feeling more like getting back into the event. Although learning that we may have split participation with Discord when RABicle posted about it here was sort of disappointing. Looking up that thread on Discord, it seems like we've created two small threads now instead of having one big one like usual. This fracturing of media has got to stop people! Yet, after seeing some posts and getting a spark to get back on the Backlaugust train I'd start thinking about playing through the same 4 songs in Maestro! Green Groove or chipping away at more puzzles in Mighty Milky Way or watching the next episode of a TV show I was enjoying, and gaming was losing that choice every time. Playing Fortune Street didn't help because all I wanted to was just start playing more of that again. It may be the best thing I played this month. Nothing like in person multiplayer.

In the end, as the deadline for the month approached, I finally got back at things. Played through more of Ace Attorney Chronicles on the 25th and probably got a third of the way through that chapter. On the 27th, I got back into Mighty Milky Way. Beat it on the 28th. Then returned to Maestro! and played through the last quarter of that game to beat it. I then booted up Kirby's Blowout Blast just to give myself a different flavor of gaming. It was a nice palette cleanser for what I had been playing up to this point. Beat it in a couple days just pretty much storming through the main levels. Will have to go back to it and complete everything. Finally, I went back to Ace Attorney. Played through a large chunk on Wednesday and yesterday, right around 10:30 PM, I rolled credits on it beating it and letting me just reach double digits for the month with 10 games beat. Still have some Accolades to acquire though.

And that's it for the month. Not sure what I'm going to do next my for my gaming. It's just unfocused right now. A big part of me wants to go back to XCX. It's been so long (two years!) since I took a break on it but it's what I most feel like playing and getting back into. Ready for more grinding there and wrapping up the main story at least. And yet, I've got a bunch of movies on tap I want to watch and TV shows to check out. I've got Netflix and Apple TV both for the first time in my life and working my way through a bunch of things on those services. I did a tally and I'm now over 150 new movies I've watched for the first time this year. I'm just a media consumer right now, it feels like. Must consume more content. Everything but games it is feeling like. Wasn't this a fun post to read.

[broodwars]

after clearing out another recent release with Process of Elimination (one of the strangest visual novel detective adventure games I've ever played, but a recent release so it doesn't count here),[/u]

Too bad! I'm counting it! Like I've said before, I don't care too much about when a game released. If you beat a game during August, it pretty much counts. (With the caveats you haven't beat it on that system already and you didn't already beat the same game during this month on a different system). Gotta get these forum numbers for games completed up somehow!!!

Well, then you might as well add Tunic for me as well, because I played and 100% it for the first time this month via the PS4 physical release that came out at the start of the month.

Seems a lot of us on this Nintendo website played that game this month for some reason. 

So for me that would be Tunic, Process of Elimination, Death's Door, Dead Cells, and Balan Wonderworld.

[Khushrenada]

As a quick wrap-up on that previous post:

Maestro! Green Groove - When trying to see what DSiWare might be worth picking up before the eShop closed, this title came up on a couple lists. Nintendo Life seemed quite enthusiastic about it in their Best of DSiWare list and stated: "Maestro! Green Groove manages to take two very different gameplay styles and combine them into one of the most unique and enjoyable gaming experiences available on the system to date. Not only is the game extremely playable, it also features some absolutely diabolical challenges in the later levels that should challenge even the most seasoned gamers." Their review as a 9/10. Sounds like it would be worth playing, right? Well, not quite. It would seem in my haste to look up titles worth getting before it was too late, I missed this later portion which states: "Although the game only features one area from the retail release (which never saw release in the US, with only a limited release in Europe), with all of the extra goodies and rampant replay value, you'll more than get your money's worth out of this wildly enjoyable DSiWare release." I guess that explains why it was the same 4 songs done over three times in a row except the levels went easy, normal and hard through each set. Don't know how much more of a complete package the retail game would have been but I have doubts it would make things better.

When looking up the game on Gamefaqs, there is absolutely no information on it so I don't know what all these extra goodies are supposed to be but that seems like a lie to me. The only thing about the game that I see is under the Board (forum) section. There is one topic for the game with no replies. The title is Quite possibly the worst video game i've ever played in my life. and the opening post to go with it is "Stay. Away. From this game". I will add that if you didn't purchase this before the DSiWare shop closed then you made the right choice.

Basically, you strum some lines on the screen at a certain point to play a note and to make the main character, who's always running from point A to point B, jump up or jump down. Sometimes you tap an enemy on the screen to further keep the beat. It's so-so in the beginning easy section and becomes a bore by the end. Definitely the worst thing I played this month. Snap judgement rating: 1/5 stars.

Mighty Milky Way - Remember Nintendo Power? This poster still does. I remember this game sticking out in a way few DSiWare games did as they would dutifully list and talk about software being released for that service. Later, having played and had a positive experience with the Mighty Switch Force games, it just made me want to go back and see what the other titles in this "Mighty" series were like. Finally pulled the trigger on getting it before the eShop closed. Having played it now, I see why it hasn't been ported anywhere since appearing on DSiWare. One, it does need a touchscreen. Second, it's not a platformer but more of a puzzler using gravity to get to the goal each level. I almost wondered if this game didn't do more with gravity than the Super Mario Galaxy games. I guess it's just a much greater focus here but some puzzles are about other planets interacting and swinging the main character along their orbit for a bit until a new stronger force takes them away because they can't land on that planet or need to avoid a tricky area. It's definitely something I consider more casual pick up and play in that, after doing maybe 5 or 6 puzzles, you may want a break and come back to later to do some more. Never really hooked me to keep on playing unlike Mighty Switch Force. I did laugh at the unexpected ending which helped give the game a bit more positive experience than I may have felt about it at time. Snap judgement rating: 3/5 stars.

Kirby's Blowout Blast - I know this was supposedly an enlarged mode from a mini-game in Planet Robobot. How much was added, enlarged or different from that game, I'm not sure on since I've still yet to play it. It's starting to become a source of great shame for a person who says they are a big Kirby fan. I really got some catching up to do on the series over the past decade. Planet Robobot, Battle Royale, Rainbow Curse, Star Allies and some other smaller spinoffs like this that I've yet to play. Supposedly Planet Robobot is supposed to be the best of the lot so I've been saving that one for later. Still, I guess that stuff is a bit moot. When I'd first seen Blowout Blast, I thought it was it's own little game for the 3DS system as part of a Kirby celebration happening. Unlike other stuff such as Kirby Fighters and Team Kirby Clash, Blowout Blast gave the impression of being perhaps more deeper than those and just seemed like a better gaming hook. Having played it, it's pretty short if you just want to get through to the credits. There are certain goals to be accomplished for each level like collecting all the coins in a level or not taking any damage to add some challenge and that will help in getting a high score for a gold trophy. Levels are pretty short though probably taking around three minutes or so to complete. I haven't seen everything this game has to offer yet so this snap judgement rating is very snap but, at least by providing some color, 3D effect and Kirby music, it helped stand out as a more positive and fun time this month. 3.5/5 stars.

The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles - And now we come to the big one of the month and a title I've spent some time with. Where to begin? I'm not sure. Which is why I think I'm going to skip posting anything about this right now.  Done a lot of typing already tonight and it's time to move on to other things. I will give it a snap judgement of 4/5 stars so you can at least have that comment on the game.

[Khushrenada]

Well, then you might as well add Tunic for me as well, because I played and 100% it for the first time this month via the PS4 physical release that came out at the start of the month.

Seems a lot of us on this Nintendo website played that game this month for some reason. 

So for me that would be Tunic, Process of Elimination, Death's Door, Dead Cells, and Balan Wonderworld.

Boo-yah! That's the spirit! Don't worry, *slaps original post*, this bad boy can fit so many finished game titles in it. Don't be shy, anybody else.

Tunic has come up a lot. Should I have been playing Tunic.....? 

Well, that brings the total of games beat this month up to 36! Not too shabby. Especially when it was looking so quiet for the first half of the month. If anyone else has something to add to the total, please post about it quickly. After this weekend, I'm ending the upkeep of submissions.

[broodwars]

Tunic has come up a lot. Should I have been playing Tunic.....? 

Well, Tunic is basically "What if NES Legend of Zelda were crossed with Dark Souls and Fez?", so...probably?

And the game's not even trying to hide its influences.

[M.K.Ultra]

36 sounds good, I mean that is more than one game per day. Of course we had 56 last year, but more of the heavy hitters stepped up. Personally I am happy with any month where I finish more than 4. I am still hoping to host Shocktober this year, but until then perhaps someone else can resurrect another community event Pokepal started 

[Mop it up]

Oh, I s'pose I forgot to be mentioning on which platform I played some of the games! A Short Hike is an Xbox One game, and Tunic is either Xbox One or Xbox Series, I'm still unclear how to tell if a game was technically released on Xbox Series or if it's an enhanced Xbox One release, so I'll let you decide which one. Also, it's a small thing, but Shadow Dancer and Shinobi III are not currently on the Genesis NSO dealie; I played them in the Sega Genesis Classics collection on Switch.

Out of curiosity I was browsing a little of the reception for Tunic, curious what others had thought. A lot of people seem to compare it with a game titled Death's Door, with many saying it's the better of the two. This one's also on Game Pass, so I'll have to put it on my list and check it out! Maybe for next Backlaugust... although it may leave Game Pass before then so will probably have to sooner...

Anyhoos! Here's the score breakdown for the games I played this time:

A Short Hike - 8.5
Tunic - 8
Pokémon Trading Card Game - 7
Castlevania Bloodlines - 7
Shinobi III - 7
The Revenge of Shinobi - 6
Shadow Dancer - 6

[Khushrenada]

Tunic has come up a lot. Should I have been playing Tunic.....? 

Well, Tunic is basically "What if NES Legend of Zelda were crossed with Dark Souls and Fez?", so...probably?

Oh, I'm aware of Tunic. I've got it on my Switch Wishlist. Waiting to see if it goes down to a 50% off or more sale. My comment was done more in the vein of Dumb and Dumber at the end when Lloyd's asking "How come I didn't get a gun? Did you get a gun?" since everyone seems to have a gun at the end.



Or I guess in any sort of comedy situation where a character is confused since everyone seems to be doing something the same and they wonder if they should be doing it. Was it Tunic month and I got it mixed up with Backlaugust? That sort of thing. But I wasn't aware of what the physical manual and pamphlets looked like so that was cool to see.

36 sounds good, I mean that is more than one game per day. Of course we had 56 last year, but more of the heavy hitters stepped up. Personally I am happy with any month where I finish more than 4. I am still hoping to host Shocktober this year, but until then perhaps someone else can resurrect another community event Pokepal started 

Last year was crazy! So many people were involved as well which helped make it the best year ever. (So far.) Even though XC3 had just released shortly before the month. Fortunately, I guess the majority of posters here weren't big on playing a new XC game right away so everyone put it off unlike TotK which seems to have continued dominating many users playtimes this year. Thanks for nothing, TotK! Looking back again, 39 total games were beat in the second Backlaugust (2021) so we almost matched that minimum record. That means this wasn't a huge disappointment or anything. That second time was the only Backlaugust so far in which I didn't get to double digits and finished with just 7 so I'm happy enough with still beating that personal marker.

Not sure what you mean by another pokepal community event though...? 

Oh, I s'pose I forgot to be mentioning on which platform I played some of the games!

It wasn't required or anything. I was just doing it more out of personal interest and to partially indicate about the "counting rule" in the case of a game having been released on multiple systems, a title will only be recorded once as beaten during the month by a player. However, thanks for noticing that detail and being willing to confirm the method with which you played some of those games. 

I just made it simple with Shinobi III and Shadow Dancer by calling them Switch games now since the Sega Genesis Collection can be counted as a Switch game. I put both A Short Hike and Tunic as Xbox Series X on the assumption that is the system you used when playing them. It's just more about the system used to play it rather than the system it was released on.

[M.K.Ultra]

Not sure what you mean by another pokepal community event though...? 

I thought that Pokepal had started both the Backlaugust and Shocktober themed topics on these forums and that someone else could find another topic that Pokepal had created before and carry it on in his absence.

[RABicle]

My Backlaugust ended at the three games I mentioned before but in my defence I did propose to and impregnate my girlfriend in August and had been meaning to do those for a while. We’re still awaiting confirmation as to which happened first.

[Khushrenada]

Looking forward to finding out if I need to bring a gift or a shotgun to the wedding.

[Khushrenada]

Echos of Starsong has been waiting for me as well as Eastward but that is probably pretty long being an RPG so I’ll be sure to keep League of Enthusiastic Losers on standby for a quick sugar hit. Part of me really wants to knock over Xenoblade 2 so I can justify buying Xeno 3.
Goddamn I’ve been falling behind in my reading lately too, all because of Zelda. Damn I should’ve known to leave Ganon for August to do that too!

Stupid spambot. I know a RABicle post when I see one!