Topic: Backlaugust 2025 - Nintendo Switch 2 Edition

[M.K.Ultra]

I finished the main part of Bit Trip ReRunner. It is great. As I said before, it is very similar to the original game.
The biggest change is the levels now have optional checkpoints, which makes the game significantly easier. I had checkpoints turned off except for the boss levels
Like the other Runner games, I find it very satisfying to play, even though it is difficult. There is just something about the pace/rhythm of the platforming that just really works for me.
Difficulty overall is a bit less than the original game, but higher than 2 and 3.

There is a video of the final level here https://bsky.app/profile/lvaneede.bsky.social/post/3lwvylhxhhk2e

It includes a remake of the original game, so I will play through that now. There are a bunch of other bonus levels too, but I might not bother playing all of them.

There is also a online mode for downloading levels people have made with the level creator, but I havent looked at that yet.

I picked up the Limited Run disc for this on PS5 but have not had a chance to touch it yet. I really liked the first three and was able to 100% 2 and 3 but I got stuck on that last level in 1. I'm actually stuck on the last level on every part of the BIT.TRIP 3DS compilation . Maybe getting it on this remake will help me go back to that version.

We are now tied with last year's total  and I still need to go in to Discord and include anything listed there that is not here. Great work everyone! We still have a little over a week left and I two games that I might be able to finish before the deadline.

[broodwars]

Nearing the end of Robocop: Rogue City - Unfinished Business, the standalone expansion for Rogue City. So far, it's been a LOT of fun, albeit very simple fun. This is much more of a retro shooter than Rogue City was, with an emphasis on corridor shooting with big guns and monster closets.

After that, I might be done for the month in terms of completed games, though I really should get around to finally forcing myself through the Resident Evil 4 Remake's Separate Ways expansion. I just picked up the Raidou Remaster and I'm picking away at Xenoblade 2.

[Mop it up]

They finally released the Heretic + Hexen double pack on the Xbox, so I've been playing those in co-op. We started with and have finished Heretic so far, since it's chronologically first. With how many DooM mods there are these days and even officially supported on consoles, there's not really anything about Heretic that makes it stand out anymore like there may have been back in 1994. That said, DooM's general gameplay is always fun, especially in co-op, and the different set of weapons, enemies, and items still put it above the average DooM mod.

[RABicle]

Right so people have been more active here than my discord thread. That's good. No I like that.

So in addition to those listed. I beat, I think, Welcome Tour. I finished the Stamp Rally. I think there were some quizzes I could not give a **** about but maybe I'll do them too before the end of the month to see if there's anything else I need to scratch this off.

I also finished To The Moon last night. Every Backlaugust I pad my stats with little narrative games, but this one is the best yet. Very original story, well written, well directed that sorta thing. Pretty bare bones 'game' but that's fine. More than Der Me, I Was lol.

Will probably return to Beyond Good and Evil like I keep promising. I mean I've beaten this game plenty of times before but this is the 20th anniversary release! Has anything changed? Yes it has in fact they added some completely trivial nonsense to try and create continuity to the sequel which will never come out but lol.

[Lemonade]

i Played more ReRunner since my last post. I finished the Runner 1 remake levels. Runner 1 doesnt get that hard until the last few levels. I turned checkpoints on for those. Back in Wii, I remember the final boss level being very hard and it took me so many attempts over several play sessions. This time I beat if fairly easily with checkpoints. I immediately turned off checkpoints and did it again without too much of an issue. I dont know if the remake made it easier somehow, or if I just got better at the game.

I played through all the bonus levels, except for the Runner 1 "retro" levels, which I dont like very much, partly because they have no music.
The other bonus levels are really good. There is one level for each track of music in Runner 2 and 3. There are also three levels each for the other Bit Trip games with music from those.

The final level in the Runner 3 bonus levels is insane. Its the most difficult level in the game, not including the onljne sharing ones. It took me many so attempts to play through it, I think it would be impossible without checkpoints. There is a clip of it here when I finally got through part of it
https://bsky.app/profile/lvaneede.bsky.social/post/3lx35xzgqrs2s


Next, its time to finally start Little Kitty Big City.

[broodwars]

Not expecting to get much more completed this month. Family's in town helping to clean out the house, and they've commandeered the TV. Probably the most use I've ever gotten out of the Switch series' handheld mode, just picking away at Xenoblade 2.

[broodwars]

Will probably return to Beyond Good and Evil like I keep promising. I mean I've beaten this game plenty of times before but this is the 20th anniversary release! Has anything changed? Yes it has in fact they added some completely trivial nonsense to try and create continuity to the sequel which will never come out but lol.

There's also a new "Speedrun Mode" where the game challenges you to beat it from start to finish without saving. It's nerve-wracking. I did it for the game's Platinum earlier this year. It's not that the game's difficult, but you're just petrified of the game crashing, which apparently it did at launch in this mode.

[Lemonade]

Finished Little Kitty Big City, or at least the main objective and some side stuff. The game is extremely cute. Its fun to run around as a cat and collect things. Im glad its short though, it could easily overstay its welcome. Overall as a game though, I liked it less than Stray. I will probably go back to it later this year after that update is released that was shown in the Indie World video a few weeks ago.

Im now going to replay Stray, but the Switch version. I have already played through the game on PC and Xbox when those versions were new.

[RABicle]

So after starting Frostpunk and encountering a repeatable show stopping bug, 3 times, after 40 minutes of play, I successfully got a refund off Steam, despite purchasing it over a year ago! I think that count as reducing the backlog and I will celebrate it.

[RABicle]

Will probably return to Beyond Good and Evil like I keep promising. I mean I've beaten this game plenty of times before but this is the 20th anniversary release! Has anything changed? Yes it has in fact they added some completely trivial nonsense to try and create continuity to the sequel which will never come out but lol.

There's also a new "Speedrun Mode" where the game challenges you to beat it from start to finish without saving. It's nerve-wracking. I did it for the game's Platinum earlier this year. It's not that the game's difficult, but you're just petrified of the game crashing, which apparently it did at launch in this mode.

LOL. Yeah I'm playing on Switch so not fussed about achievements. That does sound hilarious though and I'm pretty sure I beat the original in one sitting back in the day.

[M.K.Ultra]

Finished Little Kitty Big City, or at least the main objective and some side stuff. The game is extremely cute. Its fun to run around as a cat and collect things. Im glad its short though, it could easily overstay its welcome. Overall as a game though, I liked it less than Stray. I will probably go back to it later this year after that update is released that was shown in the Indie World video a few weeks ago.

I just learned that there is a physical version of the game through Fangamer so I deleted it from my wishlist and plan on picking that up next month.

[M.K.Ultra]

Nearing the end of Robocop: Rogue City - Unfinished Business, the standalone expansion for Rogue City. So far, it's been a LOT of fun, albeit very simple fun. This is much more of a retro shooter than Rogue City was, with an emphasis on corridor shooting with big guns and monster closets.

Did you finish this game or is it unfinished business? 

[broodwars]

Nearing the end of Robocop: Rogue City - Unfinished Business, the standalone expansion for Rogue City. So far, it's been a LOT of fun, albeit very simple fun. This is much more of a retro shooter than Rogue City was, with an emphasis on corridor shooting with big guns and monster closets.

Did you finish this game or is it unfinished business? 

Was wondering when someone was going to make that joke. Wasn't able to play it all weekend. Had family in town assisting us in doing some major house cleaning/moving, and I wasn't able to boot up my PS5 in all that time. They're back home now, so my room is mine again. I'll likely have this wrapped up soon.

[broodwars]

OK, so that's Robocop: Rogue City - Unfinished Business in the can now, my 397th Platinum btw. I'm aiming to hit 400 by the end of the year (partially because it's an excuse to finally get serious on Valkyria Chronicles 4 to be #400), so I made some good progress on that this month.

As a standalone expansion, Unfinished Business reminds me a lot of that Wolfenstein: The Old Blood expansion from last generation, in that it takes a game that was kinda open and brings it back to basics with a corridor shooter filled with monster closets and big guns. I was actually kinda taken aback by how hard the game was at first, as you start the game basically fighting the End Game armored mercenaries from the main game, but with only a handful of upgrades and your basic gun. But it didn't take long for the balance to flip in the opposite direction as I obtained upgrades and levels.

Frankly, I think the game could have used even more paring back, as this game still includes small side quests despite its already shorter length, and they're pretty forgettable in general. I would have rather the time spent on these basic fetch quests be used on maybe another level with 1-2 more enemy types, but the experience overall is still very solid. In fact, with the addition of the flying drones; the rolling explosive drones; (prototype versions of) the Otomo ninja robots; the flying troopers; and the new heavy weapons, I'd say there's a lot more variety in combat now than in the base game. The Cryo Gun in particular is a delight to play with, and the late game is more than happy to give you encounters setup to turn into a winter wonderland. You even get to play a level controlling an ED-209, which is very cathartic (and yes, they remembered the vulnerability to stairs).

Storywise, what's here is solid but not particularly noteworthy, though it is an amusing lead-in to Robocop 3. Teyon seemed to care more about setting up a well-developed villain, but they just didn't seem to have the time to really make him truly memorable. In fact, everything ends super abruptly with a sub-30 second villain death cutscene leading immediately to credits, making me think Teyon ran out of time and money when designing the last 1/3 of the game.

Overall, I had a great time with Unfinished Business, but the game definitely feels rushed and a little buggy. I had to reload a checkpoint a few times because the game would bug out and refuse to unlock a door I needed to proceed. Gotta wonder what 80s franchise Teyon will do next, as they've already (badly) done Rambo and (excellently) done Terminator and Robocop. Die Hard, perhaps?

[Lemonade]

I just learned that there is a physical version of the game through Fangamer so I deleted it from my wishlist and plan on picking that up next month.

Yes, I actually preordered it on Fangamer and then later learned that they also published it physically in Australia too. So I could have just preordered it at EB, instead of importing it.

[Lemonade]

Finished Stray just in time for the end of August. Thats now the third time I have played through it since it originally launched on PC. I love it. The Switch version obviously doesnt look as good as the Series X version, but on Switch 2, it runs great.

Besides the cute cat, I just really like the world design of the game. Its kind of post apocalyptic, but things look cool with neon lights in the city, or creepily lit underground sections, or gross infected parts you have to run through.
It has interesting characters too with all the robots you meet. Its a good story too. Overall great adventure of making your way to the outside of the bunker.

[broodwars]

Might as well add one last game, myself. Haven't 100%ed it yet (and I don't know if I will), but I have rolled credits on it: Tamarin.

To be blunt, this is a spiritual successor to Jet Force Gemini, one of my favorite N64 games, made by former Rare devs (including David Wise on the music) so however bad it may be I needed to try it myself. I took interest in this game after it made an appearance on Rerez's Just Bad Games series:

http://youtu.be/DtG8QNC5DiQ

This game feels like 2 badly mismatched games forced together: something akin to a Banjo game and Jet Force Gemini. You spend half the game running around fairly generic open areas collecting Fireflies and completing challenges in order to power doors that take you to other areas. Aside from some absolutely infuriating coin-collecting challenges, these sections are generic but not too bad. The most annoying thing is if you die, you lose any collectibles obtained since your last checkpoint. This makes the later areas absolutely infuriating since there's some pinpoint platforming required over instant-death pits.

Then there's the other half of the game, where Tamarin gets handed an arsenal of guns and you run through a series of corridors shooting ant soldiers ripped right out of JFG. In these sections, you lose all your 3D platform movement abilities, which gets really annoying when the game hides collectibles behind obstacle sections that you can't use jumping dives or crouch jumps to clear.

And because it seems every spiritual successor to a Rare game is determined to not learn one major lesson from their predecessors, let's talk about Birds. Remember how much everyone loved the Tribals system in JFG, where shooting sections would contain lots of little furry hostages you had to save before the Ants killed them, forcing you to leave the area altogether and reload it all? Yeah, the Birds are Tribals, and they work the exact same way, but with the added bonus of also occasionally picking up and flying across the room to new lethal perches. and yes, the ant soldiers absolutely will gun them down if you don't kill them quickly, and you DO have to leave the entire area and reload it if you fail (or die, which resets back to your last checkpoint). Unlike JFG, you don't have to save ALL of them, but every 3 you save can be planeted in a birdhouse in the platforming areas for a Firefly and you need 40 out of 60 Fireflies to clear the game so yeah...you need most of them.

And yes, if you don't reach a checkpoint before you die, you lose any birds you've saved since your last one, which is all sorts of fun when the later areas are full of ants sporting shields and hand grenades.

I actually had a decent time with the platforming sections, but the shooting sections just got incredibly monotonous towards the end, despite there only being 3 of them, and the end of the game has you backtracking through all 3 of them in 1 sequence so that's just wonderful. Nintendo's playtesting is sorely missed here, as the shooting sections become utter mazes where it's hard to tell where to go to progress, and several times I ran into the end of the area before I was ready.  And while Wise's music is pleasant enough, it doesn't even come close to the quality of the worst track in the JFG soundtrack.

[M.K.Ultra]

Finished Stray just in time for the end of August.

Stray and Little Kitty Big City  You had a double header cat adventure!

[M.K.Ultra]

I was able to win the final mission and beat Advance Wars yesterday. More specifically, I beat the campaign of Advance Wars via Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp on Switch. I played on the Classic mode and had a completion of 64% after the 22 hour run. This was my first Advance Wars game and I quite enjoyed it. While it is similar to Fire Emblem, having all the units just be vehicle or generic infantry allows you to really think of them as disposable and shift your strategy. There are some nice options to turn off the music and animations to speed things up. Way Forward also put in some nice cut scenes and tutorials to modernize the game. I am not sure if I will go back and 100% this but I am definitely looking forward to playing the second campaign.

[broodwars]

Finished Stray just in time for the end of August. Thats now the third time I have played through it since it originally launched on PC. I love it. The Switch version obviously doesnt look as good as the Series X version, but on Switch 2, it runs great.

Besides the cute cat, I just really like the world design of the game. Its kind of post apocalyptic, but things look cool with neon lights in the city, or creepily lit underground sections, or gross infected parts you have to run through.
It has interesting characters too with all the robots you meet. Its a good story too. Overall great adventure of making your way to the outside of the bunker.

Yeah, I'd like to get back to Stray at some point. Got really frustrated trying to do a challenge on that first level where you try to complete it without getting hit, and ended up just putting the game on the backburner.

[M.K.Ultra]

Yeah, I'd like to get back to Stray at some point. Got really frustrated trying to do a challenge on that first level where you try to complete it without getting hit, and ended up just putting the game on the backburner.

I think I know the challenge you are referring to. That is one of the hardest trophies in the whole game. I recommend saving that for later. After playing the game you can revisit individual chapters to work on challenges like that.

[M.K.Ultra]

I have one last game to add to the list. I just finished up Iron Man VR on Playstation VR. The game has 12 chapters and I had been doing one a day when I could with plans to finish last week. When I tried to fire it up for chapter 11, the headset was not working. It has malfunctioned before with the displays in the headset working intermittently, but this time I could not get it working with any adjustments. I went to the local video game repair shop and they "respectfully declined" citing an absence of parts. Apparently this is the typical cause for these headsets dying and so all the broken ones have the same broken part  . I starting looking at buying another on from GameStop or sending it to Sony for repairs and then gave it one more try and it started working again. I was able to finish the last two chapters today just in time. The game itself is pretty solid with some fun flying and shooting. Surprisingly the flying did not make me motion sick and the game really takes advantage of the move controllers. I only got 28/42 of the trophies and while I plan to go back and get more, I am not sure if I have the patience to get all of them. Somebody should really port this to PSVR2 as I think it deserves the upgrade.

Overall a pretty solid month and with six games that might be a personal record. Feel free to post about anything completed in August throughout the next few days. I will total up the games and post the leaders.

[Lemonade]

hat is one of the hardest trophies in the whole game.

I dont really care about trophies/achievements. I have never gone out of my way to get one.