Topic: Backlaugust 2022: Round 3 so we can break our backlogs and be free.

[Khushrenada]

Not much to report at the moment. No time for gaming on Wednesday.

Yesterday I got in a larger chunk of gaming time although no credits hit on anything just yet. I was probably close to the end of Elli. Everything about the game suggests I'm about to hit the end pretty soon so that should be wrapped up tonight. Did another couple worlds in BoxBoyGirl. Happy with the steady progress of that and it should be something that I get to the end of during the month.

Wanting to try and keep up the early momentum and see if I could get another game off my big board, I popped in Just Dance 2. My goal with the Just Dance games is to get a score on every song and "complete" the game that way. Thinking about it last night, I was trying to recall when I may have last played this game and I think it was probably 4 years ago. At one point, I did go through every song in Just Dance 1 and thought I had played through a large portion of Just Dance 2 but I was wrong. There was like 6 or 7 songs that I'd just play over and over on it which I found when going through to see which ones had a score. I'd switch it out with Just Dance 1 and 3 and play the ones I most liked so it wasn't as close to completion as I thought. When I decided to try and complete all these Just Dance games I'd accumulated, I was thinking my body may not be ready for this task but no problems so far after getting into a bit of sweat.

Just Dance is a bit of a mixed bag in that I've always been interested in a few songs I like and skipped others. For instance, Rasputin by Boney M. Have always liked the song and the "Russian dance" choreography that goes with it on the game. But I'd skipped over something like When I Grow Up by the Pussycat Dolls. While I don't hate the song, I don't love it either. And the choreography is definitely more... girly... for that song so it's not really got anything I'd see myself wanting to emulate on the dance floor. On the other hand, by finally stretching out of my comfort zone, I encountered a new song that I thought was an instant classic I'd want to revisit of Move Your Body by Junior Senior. A lot of moves I was enjoying emulating. It got me thinking about the last couple years and I got to say I really haven't been doing much dance over these pandemic years which is a shame because I was having a lot of fun by the time I stopped last night.

Despite the long absence of moving and grooving, I seem to have gotten better at following and picking up the choreography as I was easily getting a lot of 3 stars and even some four star rankings for my first time doing it. I replayed one song that had a previous score and easily surpassed it with a new one. How badly was I dancing before?  ???  :P  >:(

Got 29 more songs to still play but looking forward to it now. Going through these titles might end up being the best part of my playtime this month. Reminds me why I got so into and a fan of this series in the first place.

[Mop it up]

Mega Man X3
Continuing my saga with a renewed sense of vigor, I jumped into the next game in line with mild expectations. I know the actual cartridge of X3 is quite valuable at this point, which is a reason I appreciate collections like this. This one is the fave of one of my friends, and I've gotta say...

...He must be a masochist! X3 is significantly more difficult than the first two for all the wrong reasons, feeling rather sloppy in many respects. This game in particular made me realize a big issue I have with this series as it was most apparent here: the toughest part is trying to get started. Most bosses are brutal with just the buster, especially in the beginning with no upgrades. However, many bosses become crippled in some way when their weakness is used on them, making winning easy. The final set of stages in this one are also a boar even with max upgrades, I can't even imagine trying to do them any other way!

I understand that a reverse difficulty curve like this helps to offer a sense of progression, as the player certainly feels more powerful as they go. I also appreciate the concept of making upgrades optional which can add some replayability. I think these ideas could be handled better than they are in this series, because too often it teeters between only the two extremes of being either tediously difficult or bonehead easy. It's a bummer too since I like the music and themes of this game. It's a real shame that the collection doesn't have save states as I would be enjoying these more if it did. It does offer something called "Rookie Hunter mode" which appears to be some sort of easy mode, but I was hoping to not have to go that route. If the latter games only get tougher from here then I may not have much choice. Fortunately, it can be toggled on and off on the fly, so I can still start on normal and just flick it on to get past any roadblocks.

This wraps up the SNES titles! I'm curious to see if the move to PlayStation with X4 brings any noticeable changes. So far, I've been using an actual SNES controller, or I guess technically it's a replica since it came with the SNES Classic. Hopefully it's still usable with the remainder of the series.

[Khushrenada]

Elli - Is now complete with all outfits acquired. Now that getting them is too hard. The game gives you more currency than you actually need so not that hard to do. The game is mixed bag for sure. It's a pretty basic 3D platformer that gives heavy Zelda vibes (particularly the BotW kind) with its environments and looks. But there's no combat or enemies so it's usually just moving around to activate this switch or move this block to unlock a key or open a door to move on to the next room. It did get a bit more engaging as the game progressed with bigger rooms or incorporating multiple rooms to get items or do the necessary actions to remove the current roadblock to keep progressing. Still, there's very little reason to revisit this one.

Super Bomberman R - After beating Elli and doing a couple more words in BoxBoy+Girl, I hit that feeling of what do I play now. Decided to go back to a game I played a bit of in each of the last two BacklAugusts as a potential buzzerbeater and ended up finishing the story mode and getting the credits for this as well. Only thing is to keep playing to unlock all the various accessories and maps in the store but I don't know how much grinding I'd want to do for that. Unless there's an easier way to get coins that I'm missing here.

Played through some more songs in Just Dance. Have 13 more to go through there.

No gaming so far yet today. Come on, Khush! Get it together!

[RABicle]

I have beaten 80's Overdrive. I guess. It's like, I've come first on the final track, I think there's a couple of other courses I haven't come first one but I've gotten good enough to progress. And I've bought all the cars and I tried out time attack mode and died of boredom. I'm done, I've seen everything the game has to offer. No satisfaction, just emptiness.

Haven't made any real progress on Pokémons. Failed to summon Sun Kissed Goddess Thorr in Fire Emblem. Played some Hundred Days, it's not really for me but I might persist for a while.

Ori and Metroid are coming into view now...

[Order.RSS]

Like Khush, I got my dancing shoes on, but with Space Channel 5 Part 2 instead.



It's a short rhythm game (think PaRappa) from around 2000ish in which TV-reporter Ulala (pictured above) must rescue Space Michael (Jackson) and President Peace from the devious Rhythm Rogues. You do this, of course, via song and dance battles.
The game starts really strong with impeccable Dreamcast ~vibes. Every new situation is surprising to the player, but nobody in-game treats it as strange, so you don't bat an eye when you're saving schoolkids from plants, or racing the police to get a scoop.

However, the back half of the game does kind of drag. It's annoying you don't get a visual indicator to time button presses to like in Rock Band/Guitar Hero. Towards the end I had to retry a lot of sections, so I changed all the inputs to a single button which made it easier.
There's a new game plus style second loop, but I'm not gonna bother with that.

[broodwars]

Last night, I rolled credits on Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance HD and today I rolled credits on Kingdom Hearts: Melody of Memory, meaning I've now completed all the Kingdom Hearts games you can play on the HD consoles. I'm finally caught up with this damn series, though I still have replays to do of several games before I've played all the HD remasters.

Dream Drop Distance is an incredibly frustrating game. It plays extremely similarly to Birth By Sleep, one of my favorite KH games, and yet it changes just enough to be incredibly annoying. Instead of the rapid-fire character progression of Birth By Sleep via Command Melding, you have to level-up and maintain dozens of knock-off Pokemon. And the fastest way to level them up? Playing incredibly annoying and repetitive mini-games. And only certain abilities are permanent character unlocks, the rest going away when the Dream Eaters are no longer in your party. I had MAYBE half the permanent character unlocks by the end of the game, and I was constantly maxing-out Dream Eaters and swapping in new ones.

Combat is especially tedious this time because they've designed all the enemies in this game to sleep; stun; and juggle you at any moment, often from off-screen. I've never seen a Kingdom Hearts game so eager to stunlock the player, especially the final series of bosses. I eventually had to give in and rebuild my deck around Balloon and Curaga spam just to get through the final few stunlocking bosses. I especially love how every time you die and restart a fight, your Command Deck has to slowly reload. This means the boss that just stunlocked you to death now gets to start the fight with one of their 50-hit stunlocking combos, and there isn't a fucking thing you can do about it.

Oh, "just guard", you say? Great idea. The problem is that because KH maps so many commands to a few buttons, the Guard button's doing triple-duty as the dodge and slide attack buttons. So you go to spam the Guard button while waiting for your command deck to load, and the game will just arbitrarily decide you're moving and put you into a roll you CAN get hit in. In comes the stunlock! And it's not like this is the fault of the combat system. It's the same combat system as Birth By Sleep, and I beat that on Critical without too much trouble.

Dream Drop Distance is not a good game, mechanically. From a story perspective, it's the game that definitively established that death doesn't matter in this series, and time travel is now in play. It's one of the worst-written games in the series, if not THE worst. That said, I did have a decent time with it when it wasn't being one of the cheapest games I've ever played.

As for Melody of Memory, it's quite an enjoyable little rhythm game that's refreshingly lenient on things like button presses so long as you're pressing SOMETHING to the beat. I look forward to spending some more time with it clearing out the remaining songs on the higher difficulties. I do wish there were more songs, since quite a few notable songs didn't make the cut (particularly licensed songs). The story is essentially a teaser for KH4, and literally doesn't show up until the final song of the final world.

Now for the Platinum clean-up, which is rather substantial for both games.

[NWR_insanolord]

2. Mario & Rabbids: Kingdom Battle

This was on my list of games I wanted to do in last year's Backlaugust, and then I didn't, and picked away at it over the last year, but now that the sequel's coming out I figured now was the time. I don't know why it took this long, because I love this game. It's one of my favorite Switch exclusives. When you hear "Mario and Rabbids" you'd think shovelware cash-in, but it's somehow a really well made strategy game. Can't wait for the sequel.

[Khushrenada]

Mario + Rabbids is something I've been saying I should play next but then keep putting it off because I thought it could be a long game and having to take the time to learn the rules and strategy feels like more work than just starting a new platformer. Still, I really should get to it one of these days.

[broodwars]

Mario + Rabbids is a weird one for me. I quite liked the game, but my completionist nature meant I was dedicated to clearing every block of stages with the bonus objectives in play (i.e. clearing with X number of turns with no one dying). Because the Bonus XP meant more leveling opportunities. About halfway through the 2nd world IIRC, I hit a solid wall on that and lost all interest in the game.

I then played the DLC and hit the same issue about halfway through.

[TOPHATANT123]

My big aim for August is The Great Ace Attorney 2. The first game I enjoyed quite a lot but it's taken me some time to get through the sequel. It's rather similar and retreads a lot of the same ground, but I've heard it has a good finale so I'm looking forward to that. Currently on the 4th case.

[Mop it up]

Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle is way better than it has any right to be, it's still one of my fave Switch games. It's definitely worth playing and while I wouldn't want to discourage someone trying it, it is indeed a longer game and not one I'd recommend going into with a focus on simply completing it. Even with skipping side stuff it'd probably take dozens of hours to play through, but it's more enjoyable to not rush it and take time.

Super Bomberman R - Decided to go back to a game I played a bit of in each of the last two BacklAugusts as a potential buzzerbeater and ended up finishing the story mode and getting the credits for this as well. Only thing is to keep playing to unlock all the various accessories and maps in the store but I don't know how much grinding I'd want to do for that. Unless there's an easier way to get coins that I'm missing here.

I played this a while back, but put it down since the single player was kinda meh and the online was dead by the time I got into it. Is it a relatively short game? Perhaps I'll boot it up to see where I left off and see if I can finish it up.

[Khushrenada]

Well, although it feels like I'm helping my biggest competition in Backlaugust so far, I suppose the goal is really more personal and about encouraging one another to complete their backlogs so allow me to encourage you be saying it is short. If you just want to get through the story, it doesn't take long. There are 6 planets to play through although I believe the last planet is just a couple boss battles. You could likely finish it over two nights or one night if you want to put in a longer session. If you divide it up by two planets a day then you can finish it in a leisurely three days.

[Khushrenada]

WarioWare: Smooth Moves - Beat the game in that I played through all the character stories and unlocked the credits. Still some microgames left to unlock. However, can you "flower" microgames in this game? I didn't get around to trying to do that with any of the ones I encountered but usually they always had a target number given in the description to try and reach to flower them? Looking up a FAQ on the game, there is nothing listed about any target number for the microgames like reach level 30 or level 10 for them nor is there anything listed as being unlocked or gained by playing through all the microgames for a certain level. If not, then it won't take too long to complete this game. Just surprising they'd have not bothered with that after making it a normal part of the Warioware games up to this point.


Bastion - Started this on Saturday evening. Perhaps my memory has become faulty but I remember this title as being something really popular about 10 – 11 years ago. Like an early example of an Indie dev making a splash like Cave Story or World of Goo. I thought the thing a lot of people raved about was the music. I haven’t dived that deep into the game. I just got through the opening area and reached the titled Bastion spot. However, what I’ve seen so far hasn’t got me to hyped or intrigued to keep going. It seems like the will mostly be about going through areas and beating up a lot of enemies on the way. Games that are just about beating up lots of enemies are not games that keep me entertained for long. I still haven’t gotten back to Hyrule Warriors after playing it for a night and getting through a couple areas. Also haven’t heard anything that impressive from the score so far. Now I’m wondering if I’ve mixed this title up with something else. In any case, I suppose playing this in Backlaugust is the best time to do so since it will give me the pressure to just keep playing through it for now to at least beat it and see what it has to offer.

Super Mario Maker Wii U – It’s another disappointment. Well, disappointment may be harsh but it definitely wasn’t what I expected. I thought there was a whole bunch of sample courses to play through but there wasn’t any I could find. There’s just a 10 Mario or 100 Mario challenge to play through random created courses. Searched around through all the menus to make sure I wasn’t missing something but it seems like the game is just about making courses and playing others. I’m supposed to be able to unlock more course components today so I guess Nintendo stuck with the 10 day wait time to unlock everything that people were in an uproar over and being forced to wait for no good reason. I suppose I’ll keep checking in and unlocking that stuff and mark this as beat once done. Game seems kind of neutered as well with different menus not loading. Not sure if that is stuff tied into the demise of Miiverse or what. What do our Mario Maker experts have to say about this title and its value in 2022?

Super Mario Maker 2 – On the other hand, I was much more impressed with what I saw when popping in Mario Maker 2 and messing around the menus here. There’s now an overworld creator and it seems like the design options are much more robust. There’s even a story mode so I’ve started playing that. Mary O. seems to have met her demise in between Maker 1 and 2. Perhaps it was a hit ordered by the pigeon which seems to have taken over as the guide for the game.

I didn’t end up getting around to the last songs of Just Dance 2. That’ll be tonight’s project to finally finish that off along with some more steady progress in BoxBoy. Might do some more Bastion. We’ll see how it goes. Sadly, gaming time wasn’t near what I envisioned I might pull off on a weekend as other life responsibilities required more time and attention instead.

[Mop it up]

Thanks Khushrenada. I'll have to see where I left off in Super Bomberman R then, who knows, perhaps I'm close to the end anyway!

WarioWare: Smooth Moves is my fave WarioWare game, though Get it Together! may top it as it's really good. I don't recall there being any special denotation for reaching certain scores in one microgame but I'm also not a high-score chaser type person.

Bastion is indeed one of the lauded games back during the indie boom of 2008. A lot's changed since then and the indie scene has grown exponentially, so it wouldn't surprise me if Bastion doesn't hold up. I've barely played it meself but I remember a similar first impression as yours.

As for Super Mario Maker:
-You can bypass the daily unlocks by placing thousands of blocks in the editor. Place a huge rectangle of blocks, then use the copy function on it and paste it across the whole stage and you can unlock stuff in just a few minutes each.
-Aside from that, the only other unlock would be the costumes for the Mystery Mushroom. You get one random costume each time you clear the 100-Mario Challenge, and there are some for each difficulty so you'd have to clear all four many times each.
-Sometime last year they shut off the ability to upload levels and closed the bookmark site, so those two things are no longer accessible.
-I would say there is no reason to play this game now when the sequel exists. There are a few things here that didn't carry over but they are not significant enough to really matter: the lanky shroom, layered pipes, and the mystery mushroom costumes come to mind.

Super Mario Maker 2 does have a story mode with its own set of levels, so completing that should certainly count towards "beating" the game. One thing I will say, I felt like this sequel didn't have as much personality as the first one, lacking weirdness like the lanky shroom, the fly-swatting minigame, and Mary O. as you mentioned. The addition of co-op alone makes it a worthwhile sequel however.

[Luigi Dude]

Bastion - Started this on Saturday evening. Perhaps my memory has become faulty but I remember this title as being something really popular about 10 – 11 years ago. Like an early example of an Indie dev making a splash like Cave Story or World of Goo. I thought the thing a lot of people raved about was the music. I haven’t dived that deep into the game. I just got through the opening area and reached the titled Bastion spot. However, what I’ve seen so far hasn’t got me to hyped or intrigued to keep going. It seems like the will mostly be about going through areas and beating up a lot of enemies on the way. Games that are just about beating up lots of enemies are not games that keep me entertained for long. I still haven’t gotten back to Hyrule Warriors after playing it for a night and getting through a couple areas. Also haven’t heard anything that impressive from the score so far. Now I’m wondering if I’ve mixed this title up with something else. In any case, I suppose playing this in Backlaugust is the best time to do so since it will give me the pressure to just keep playing through it for now to at least beat it and see what it has to offer.

Bastion is indeed one of the lauded games back during the indie boom of 2008. A lot's changed since then and the indie scene has grown exponentially, so it wouldn't surprise me if Bastion doesn't hold up. I've barely played it meself but I remember a similar first impression as yours.

I played Bastion last year for about 5 hours before I stopped because of how boring the game was.  Basically the game you played in the opening area is what the game is about.  Most of the games praise comes from the visual and the voiceover narrative that were impression for an early indie game, but the gameplay is about as shallow as can be.  I wanted to stop after about 2 hours but forced myself to keep going thinking it has to get better right, until I finally said **** this.

Unless it somehow gets a huge boast in quality after 6 hours and I stopped too early, don't force yourself to keep playing if you're not feeling it, because it doesn't get any better.  It's one of those  "Videogames are Art" type of games that focus so much on the narrative and presentations, that they forgot to make something that's actually fun to play to go along with it.

Oh and the people who made this game also made the game Transistor, which is just as boring as Bastion.  At least after Bastion, I stopped playing Transistor after only an hour since I was literally falling a sleep.  This is one of the reasons why I've been hesitant to buy the game Hades, since it's from the same developer as Bastion and Transistor.  I have to wonder how many of the good reviews are from the game actually being fun, or people just being impressed by the narrative and visuals again.

Sorry people but Roger Ebert was right, videogames are not art.  If your going to make a game, give me a fucking game and not some wannabe movie or TV trash.  God I bought both games on sale and still feel ripped off because of how boring and dull they were.  That's why I can't stop raving like a madman.   >:(

[Mop it up]

Mega Man X4
While I knew that the leap to PlayStation would mean fancy cutscenes because they could, I forgot about how it would also involve having annoying voices for everyone and every little action! I guess I also forgot how heavily compressed scenes were back then, as the opening anime was grainier than an old VHS tape. Moving past that, I gotta say...

...There isn't much more to say at this point! Perhaps I'm just getting used to the way these games work but I found this one to be the easiest game so far, sans the last boss which was a slog. Though it is also less punishing with things like more generous checkpoints so that's good. There's more story now which I guess is to try and give a better sense of place for everything, but it isn't interesting. Still solid presentation with a nice variety of themes and stages. This might be my fave so far, though the little annoyances I mentioned may be enough to bump it down below X2. It's tough to say.

With that, the Mega Man X Legacy Collection itself is now complete! I'm tempted to argue that it should be added to the list as well... but that probably wouldn't be right. Although I s'pose that the collection has medals to earn and a bonus challenge, which I didn't go for, so if I really wanted to add it then I'd probably have to complete that stuff. Perhaps another time, as now it's on to the second collection. Wish me luck!

[Luigi Dude]

Mega Man X4
...There isn't much more to say at this point! Perhaps I'm just getting used to the way these games work but I found this one to be the easiest game so far, sans the last boss which was a slog.

Did you play as both X and Zero?  X4 was literally designed with Zero's close combat in mind so playing as X is pretty much an easy mode.  Zero story is also the true story in the canon as well since X5 will even refer to events that are only shown in Zero's story.

Perhaps another time, as now it's on to the second collection. Wish me luck!

 ;D

[RABicle]

Progress is being made in Pokémon Black 2. It feels like any battle with the elite 4 is well before the end of the games content with multiple towns on the map still unvisited. So I expect to “beat” the main quest in a week or so but there’s still a lot more to do before I ultimately retire the game and transfer all the monsters to Home.

[M.K.Ultra]

I just got back from a week of camping (sorry for the hold-up in Safe Words  :-[) I tend to just travel with my 3DS or Vita these days and while I am chipping away at Etrian Odyssey 4, there was no way I was going to finish that this month, so I started and completed Fun! Fun! Minigolf TOUCH! on 3DS. I picked this up based on it being developed by Shin'en. It is a lot better than the name suggests with nice graphics, and tight controls. You can even play as you Mii (well your mii's head on in-game avatar's body). The game is short with only 9 courses of 9 holes each. I was able to get Par or better on each and buy everything in the shop in about 3.5 hours. The one lament I have is that the hazards are too basic. They should have experimented more and done some cooler stuff.
As a side note. I am not sure if other folks still get street passed but I rarely get them now. I did manage to get one in Yellowstone when I was there. Do other folks still get street passes?

[Khushrenada]

BoxBoy + BoxGirl - Single player story wrapped up last night. Got the credits and all objectives I could in single player mode. Have now unlocked a Tall Tale so more to play for another day. Not sure when I may ever get through the two-player mode of the game. Yet based on the way the single player mode story ended, it seems to imply that two-player would be the true happy ending for the story which is probably why they've called it BoxBoy and BoxGirl to highlight that two-player adventure.

Just Dance 2 - You knew it was coming. Finally went through the rest of the songs last night and replayed a couple more before moving on. It's still kind of bonkers how this series became one of the biggest titles in gaming and still one of the biggest sources of revenue for Ubisoft. Just Dance 2021 was their second biggest game in 2021. According to Wikipedia, there are only three third party games among the top 30 selling games for the Wii system. Those games are Just Dance, Just Dance 2 and Just Dance 3. Of all the things tried and created out of motion controls, this series is one of the most unexpected and about one of the few things that are still going strong with using motion controls long after the Wii and Wii U. Most other games have reverted back to button inputs.  Ubisoft sort of lucked into figuring out a smart way of making dancing work within a video game concept and have so far cornered the market on it.

And yet, it's amazing they did it with such a middling effort. I like the first Just Dance because of stuff like U Can't Touch This and Groove Is In the Heart. Kind of more goofy songs. It's got a song by The Beach Boys and, while I haven't checked to make sure, I'm pretty confident no other Just Dance game would have a song by them as it turned more into a current hit parade type of track list.

Likewise, having gone through Just Dance 2, I really like how they selected songs to incorporate more varied styles of dance. You've got a song doing sort of Bollywood/Indian dancing, Rasputin is doing some Russian dancing, Sway feels a bit more like it falls in the ballroom dancing category. I haven't played it yet but I don't think there is going to be the Charleston included in the hit parade of something like Just Dance 2018 which is a shame. It makes sense for a game about dancing to have a wide variety of music and dance from different eras since you'd expect the target audience to be passionate about dancing in all its forms.

But we'll see. Maybe I'll be surprised as I tour through the series. On the other hand, while I appreciated the different styles of song and dance, this still a pretty basic package and game and it can be frustrating in trying to figure out how the game is judging your motion. Sometimes, I'd swear I'd be on the beat but getting Ok's and misses while other times I felt I was off but got a Perfect. So, that's why it is best to view this more as a way to work out and maybe pick up some dance moves but not worry too much about the high score aspect.


After completing Just Dance 2, I popped in Just Dance 3 to see what I had there but it is basically a fresh game as I only seemed to have sampled a couple songs on it before. Again, according to Wikipedia, Just Dance 3 is the best selling third party game to release on the Wii and holds the number 10 spot of highest selling games for the system. Sold better than Mario Galaxy 2 and Skyward Sword. I wonder how many other users have played this major part of the Wii's software library and a big part of the system's identity?

Have to say, though, that Just Dance 3 so far seems like Ubisoft now realized they had a big hit on their hands so they better start taking it seriously before they dropped the ball. Production values seem to have improved a bit. There's now an achievement system in the game and the motion control sensing seems like it may have been better fine tuned. So far of the five songs I played, I got 3 or 4 stars easily on them and it felt like the game was better tracking my movement. In fact, I was close to getting my first five star performance on one. I suppose I'll provide a further reaction in a few days when I complete it.

[Khushrenada]

As a side note. I am not sure if other folks still get street passed but I rarely get them now. I did manage to get one in Yellowstone when I was there. Do other folks still get street passes?

I wish. I still take my 3DS to work each day and sometimes if I'm going to a place with people like the mall in the hopes I may find some other 3DS diehard. I actually did get 1 streetpass earlier this year in a total surprise. But 1 a year is probably my average these days.

[Khushrenada]

Alright. So, I know that with those games wrapped up last night, that puts me at 7 which equals my amount from last year with 2/3s of the month still available to me for more. I'll be surpassing last year's total for sure and I'm still expecting to surpass my total of 14 from two years ago with the pace I'm currently on. However, it got me wondering as to how things are going for everyone with 1/3 of the month gone and here's the results from what has been posted so far:

Khushrenada – Picross e8
Bungle4 – Kirby’s Epic Yarn
Mop it up – Mega Man X
Khushrenada – Shantae: Risky’s Revenge
NWR_insanolord – Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze
RABicle – Grand Mountain Adventure: Wonderlands
Order.RSS – Human Resource Machine
Mop it up – Mega Man X2
Mop it up – Mega Man X3
Khushrenada – Elli
Khushrenada – Super Bomberman R
RABicle – 80’s Overdrive
Order.RSS – Space Channel 5 Part 2
Broodwars – Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance HD
Broodwars – Kingdom Hearts: Melody of Memory
NWR_insanolord – Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle
Khushrenada – WarioWare: Smooth Moves
Mop it up – Mega Man X4
Bungle4 – Fun! Fun! Minigolf TOUCH!
Khushrenada – BoxBoy + BoxGirl
Khushrenada – Just Dance 2


That's 21 total games so far! In fact, pretty much all the users who have posted so far have checked off at least two games from their backlog. Heck of a start! Good gaming, everyone. How much more will be added before the month is done?  ???

[M.K.Ultra]

Starting off Backlaugust strong this year by... giving up on Human Resource Machine.

As a result I was already googling solutions after a third of the way in, and I had no idea what the solutions I was copying were even doing. So, time to shelve it.

I am also playing this. I am currently at Level 35: Intro to Calc for Art Majors. I am curious how far into the game you were before falling off?

[broodwars]

Closing in on the Melody of Memory Platinum. My last big challenge after clearing Vs. mode was to full-combo (aka "clear a song without any misses") 50 different songs on the hardest difficulty level (Proud). After much practice and even more swearing, I finally managed that tonight. At this point, I just need to complete the probably 30-ish  remaining songs I haven't beaten already on Proud difficulty, and that's it for the completion trophies.

Then there's the final grind for the final trophy: "killing 100,000 enemies across all songs". I've nearly beaten every song in the game on every difficulty, and my current count is...just shy of 60,000.

Yeah, that's going to take some time and a lot of repeated songs to clear out. Man, though, games like this are really starting to make me feel my age. I don't know how many more insane tests of reflexes like this I have in me, hence why I'm trying to get stuff like this out of my backlog now.

After that, I'll double-back to Dream Drop Distance to finish all the side stuff off there. That should fill out the rest of my schedule until Soul Hackers 2 releases on 8/26.

[RABicle]

I have beaten Pokémon Legends Arceus! The last few bits come pretty quickly. Like there’s forcing yourself through the nightmare avalugg frenzy and then you jsut walk up and talk to some Pokémon and suddenly you’re capturing some mutant combination legendary. There’s still a lot of loose threads and I see that after the credits I was invited back to base for more but yeah suddenly this one is down and there’s a lot of blue sky suddenly. I’ll keep Pokémon going via Pokémon Black 2 where I’m just grinding around some grass and electric mons for the 8th gym and then might finally settle on a team of six to start stomping my way through victory road and the Elite 4. I’ll be sure to keep everyone posted on the final team, their levels and the plan.

Other than that it’s raining and I’ll be home all weekend supporting the gf so I’ll try to sneak in some gaming between meals and dishes. Looking to get back into Ori first then Metroid Dread.