Topic: Backlaugust 2026 - (Splatoon) Raiding the Backlog

[M.K.Ultra]

I also have a PS2 era game to report. Yesterday I beat Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando which I believe is the second game in the series. I was playing it as part of the Ratchet & Clank Collection on PS3. It appears I played the first game in 2021 and don't remember liking it as much as this one. I liked the added space shooter segments and the story seemed pretty interesting too. I remembered that you would hit story points where you would have to pay a chunk of bolts to proceed so I was sort of hoarding them. This meant I was not buying as many weapons and therefore not upgrading them. This did catch up to me towards the end of the game. I did luck upon a nice cheese for the final boss so that helped. The average play time is supposedly 13 hours but it took me 16 hours to finish. I was not going after any trophies and so only ended up with 6 of them. I should also mention I played the whole game in glorious stereoscopic 3D. With the month halfway done I am already pretty satisfied with my output here. Also I have not acquired a single new game this month!

[broodwars]

Alright, how about something a little more off the wall with something I picked up a little while back after it was featured on an episode of Austin Eruption?







Ebenezer and the Invisible World is a Christmas Carol-themed Metroidvania, taking place after the events of the novel where Scrooge is reformed and fighting the unrepentant spirits of the damned with a cane and a pocket full of plum puddings and roasted turkey.

Yes, really. And it plays it entirely straight. A young industrial capitalist received the Scrooge treatment, but it didn't take due to the interference of a mysterious 3rd party, so it's up to Scrooge to scour Victorian London for clues to how to save the young man's soul, whacking ghosts that look like they stepped right out of an episode of The Real Ghostbusters. Fitting, really, considering the Ghostbusters once busted the 3 Spirits of Christmas.

For the most part, this is an extremely straightforward Metroid game, with the exception that Scrooge doesn't really gain abilities himself. Instead, you run across the ghosts of various spirits who possess things like the Double Jump or Glide because of their talents in life. If you do a side quest for them that ranges between being insultingly simple and "oh come on, where the hell do I need to go", that ghost will join you and lend its aid on command. Heirlooms take the place of Relics (though the trophies still call them "Relics"), and the Children of Man (you know, those kids representing mankind's failures hiding under Christmas Present's robes) take the place of Familiars (though, again, the trophies still call them "Familiars").

On that note, one of the game's more glaring issues is that it feels like it needed way more time in the oven, because there's a distinct lack of polish. Apparently, the game was extremely buggy at launch, but my issue is more with how the game is extremely bad at times about conveying important information to the player. For instance, I went nearly the entire game before discovering that the ghost who attacks with an iron ball is supposed to be your wall-breaker ability, and the ghost who slams the ground is supposed to be your floor-breaker equivalent. I know. It sounds obvious in retrospect, but the game never mentions that these attacker ghosts have an alternative use, and your cane can break items out of certain walls and floors on its own. I kept waiting for dedicated upgrades I already had. Similarly, there are enemies throughout the game that possess a red aura and cannot be damaged with your cane. I did figure out on my own that you're supposed to attack those with your red-colored spirit weapons, but again a final layer of polish to make these things more clear would go a long way.

Like most games in this genre, the game is exceptionally easy, particularly since there's a combination of attacker ghost and relic you can get extremely early in the game that gives a huge attack bonus that scales with the amount of gold you're currently carrying. This combination absolutely trivializes the tiny handful of bosses in the game, another thing that could have used an additional development pass. Besides being small in number and extremely easy to kill, the bosses are also just extremely forgettable.

Overall, a decent game, but aside from the novel premise if you've played one of these before you've basically played this one.

[Mop it up]

This is going to seem a little random, and it is, but I might as well toss this one onto the finished pile: Sonic and the Black Knight for the Wii.

Just to preface this a little bit: my mate Terra has been wanting me to play more Sonic games for a while, so it's something I've been doing on and off this year. I bought Black Knight a long time ago from the Wii bargain bin and never opened it, so this was my first time cracking open the sealing on this bad boy. This one is... a bit of a headscratcher, I guess they really didn't know what to do with Sonic for a while. I did like the presentation, such as the medieval setting and the storybook-style cutscenes, and it's a Sonic game so of course it's got some good music. However, the gameplay systems struggle to complement each other: swinging the sword brings Sonic to a stop, and there's a meter that builds up from defeating enemies which charges up a "bullet-time" like power that slows things to an even further crawl. The extra characters that unlock towards the end of the game all feel slower and clunkier than Sonic, so they just make the game harder. It was enough for me to roll credits (the second time, or "true ending" if you prefer), there are some bonus missions and of course rankings for each level, but I'm not interested.

Don't be surprised if I end up reporting back with some more Sonic games before the month is through...

[broodwars]

This is going to seem a little random, and it is, but I might as well toss this one onto the finished pile: Sonic and the Black Knight for the Wii.

Just to preface this a little bit: my mate Terra has been wanting me to play more Sonic games for a while, so it's something I've been doing on and off this year. I bought Black Knight a long time ago from the Wii bargain bin and never opened it, so this was my first time cracking open the sealing on this bad boy. This one is... a bit of a headscratcher, I guess they really didn't know what to do with Sonic for a while. I did like the presentation, such as the medieval setting and the storybook-style cutscenes, and it's a Sonic game so of course it's got some good music. However, the gameplay systems struggle to complement each other: swinging the sword brings Sonic to a stop, and there's a meter that builds up from defeating enemies which charges up a "bullet-time" like power that slows things to an even further crawl. The extra characters that unlock towards the end of the game all feel slower and clunkier than Sonic, so they just make the game harder. It was enough for me to roll credits (the second time, or "true ending" if you prefer), there are some bonus missions and of course rankings for each level, but I'm not interested.

Don't be surprised if I end up reporting back with some more Sonic games before the month is through...

Not much of a Sonic fan, myself (I don't care for the general platforming design that pretty much requires memorizing the stage layout), but I do seem to find myself collecting the odd one on occasion, like the recent Generations remaster/remake. I remember quite liking this game's predecessor, Sonic & the Sacred Rings. Always heard really mixed things on Black Knight & it's combat focus.

[Mop it up]

If you liked Secret Rings then you may get some enjoyment out of Black Knight. It's been so long since I played Secret Rings that I can't really offer a comparison, though. I just have a general memory that it was... okay. Not bad, but not for me. I have Generations for Xbox, I think it was a freebie back when they did Games with Gold, but I probably won't be getting to that one this month.

[Khushrenada]

I'm probably gonna go for quality over quantity this time.

Sounds like someone has forgotten what Backlaugust is all about! Ain't gonna climb no leaderboards with that attitude. 


After failing to do much of anything the past two Backlaugusts, I have completed a game. Banjo-Kazooie on the N64 online app. I find it in a weird place though because playing and finishing it there doesn't exactly take it off my backlog since I've got the actual N64 cartridge but have never played it before. This was my first time doing it so in that sense it does take off my backlog in life as I'm now able to say I've played and finished it but it doesn't come off the actual list I do keep on my Backloggery page. But I'm definitely glad I played it this way thanks to save-state use and abuse. I'm not sure I want to play this game without that feature as the last couple levels could be pretty tough to get all those notes with dying and having to start over and that last boss was such a pain to complete near the end with its constant fireball spells. Maybe I'll get to the actual cartridge copy sometime for a harder experience but for now I'm glad to be done with it as the game lost some of its appeal for me near the end. I got more thoughts on it but for now I want to do less typing and more game completeing.

[Khushrenada]

But just one game? That doesn't seem like much to report? After the past few years of hardly playing much but having acquired a whole lot of games, surely I could be doing more to contribute to this month. Well, you're exactly right! Look out, NWR. Ol' Khushy Trey-Trey is back! He's got a bunch of cheap short games to play through and he's been finally able to hunker down and start playing them over the past week.

Pikuniku - I had never really paid this game much attention although I had seen it from time to time pop up on sales and the Switch eShop digital game best-seller section. It just seemed too simple and basic looking and perhaps closer to the shovelware side. So I was highly surprised when the sequel announced in a recent Direct really got my attention as I game I'd like to play and try. Perhaps it helps that it will be in 3D compared to this 2D adventure or maybe it just helped to see clips of the game in action compared to a couple screenshots I'd see for it on the Switch. In any case, I thought I'd pick up this first game since it was about $3.00 and give it a go at some point. That point was now and I've finished and completed the single-player mode. The game has a co-op mode that involves different levels and challenges so perhaps I'll return to the game at some point for that if I can find a willing partner. For now, rolling credits and finishing the main story mode is enough for me.

Elec-Head - Boy, I really liked this game. Wish it was longer. Feels like there could have been more done yet with this game and yet so much was done with just a couple simple mechanics. Saw both endings and collected all different color palettes for the game. Great stuff.

Escapee GO! - A DSIware original. Something I grabbed at the 3DS eShop apocalypse as it was one of the few highly recommended DSIware games. And it's probably been the best game from that limited library I've played so far (although I have gotten a lot of time spent with Extreme Hangman). I played through the game on Easy mode and completed it that way. From what I've seen from the scant information online, there is nothing more to unlock or obtain by doing the normal or hard mode. Maybe I go back and finish it on those modes for the sake of doing it and because was fun enough so far but, for the sake of Backlaugust, I've beat it and can move on.

Dedede's Drum Dash Deluxe - I liked the Drum Dash mini-game in Triple Deluxe so I was always keen to try out this game but it took the ending of the eShop for me to finally grab it and then for this Backlaugust to play it. Turns out, it doesn't really expand too much from the Triple Deluxe version. I believe that one just had 3 songs while this game has 7 songs which have a normal and hard mode to them. It's kind of disappointing that that's all that was provided giving the amount of Kirby music available. It's also a pretty short experience. You roll credits after completing the first six stages which then unlocks a "special" stage (which also has its own hard mode equivalent) and the hard stages for the six stages you just completed on normal. Ultimately, there's nothing else to really be unlocked or discovered after that aside from just trying to get the best medal aka high scores on the stages for a better trophy total. I played through the stages once to beat them and move on to the next. I actually do like what I've played even if I may seem a bit down on it in my description and part of me is tempted to go back to get better at these stages but having rolled credits and unlocking all the stages is good enough for me to declare this game beat for Backlaugust and move on to something else.

[Khushrenada]

This is going to seem a little random, and it is, but I might as well toss this one onto the finished pile: Sonic and the Black Knight for the Wii.

So much for the quality over quantity mission statement. ZING!

This one is... a bit of a headscratcher, I guess they really didn't know what to do with Sonic for a while.

Yeah, Sonic was in an odd-place there at the time (although maybe the series is always in a weird place at any time.) After going multiplatform and creating a sort of storyline stretching from Adventure, Adventure 2, Heroes and Shadow The Hedgehog, Sega created a sort of split for the franchise when the Wii came out since it was not at the same capabilities of the 360/PS3. The infamous Sonic The Hedgehog (2006) was being made and Sega felt they'd be unable to port that game to the Wii so they ended up making Sonic and the Secret Rings with a sort of Arabian Nights theme for it. While Sonic '06 sort of followed up on what had been happening with the franchise after Shadow The Hedgehog/Sonic Heroes, Sonic and the Secret Rings was sort of a branching off / alternative path of a Sonic game with very little ties to anything going on with the characters in the franchise at that point. A sort of side mission for Sonic. Sega would follow up Sonic 06 with Sonic Unleashed which did get a Wii port that time however since Secret Rings did well enough, they decided a sequel should also be done for that which gave the Wii the exclusive Black Knight game. Since Secret Rings was done with the 1001 Arabian Nights story theme, they decided to do another storybook theme and went with King Arthur although I'd say Arthur isn't really a famous storybook but more a collection of legends. In any case, people refer to Secret Rings and Black Knight as Sonic Storybook subseries because of that. Black Knight was not as popular as Secret Rings. Meanwhile, Sonic Unleased in the main series was followed up with Sonic Colors which gave the series a big win in critical reception, popularity and sales. Black Knight came into existence because Secret Rings did much better than Sonic 06 but the storybook subseries immediately stopped after 2 entries when Sonic Colors did much better than Black Knight. Aside from a Sonic Boom during the Wii U era, Sega has not bothered too much with these alternate paths or spin-offs of the Sonic games and franchise as they had up to this point following Black Knight. Sort of an end of an era in some ways.

[broodwars]

After failing to do much of anything the past two Backlaugusts, I have completed a game. Banjo-Kazooie on the N64 online app. I find it in a weird place though because playing and finishing it there doesn't exactly take it off my backlog since I've got the actual N64 cartridge but have never played it before. This was my first time doing it so in that sense it does take off my backlog in life as I'm now able to say I've played and finished it but it doesn't come off the actual list I do keep on my Backloggery page. But I'm definitely glad I played it this way thanks to save-state use and abuse. I'm not sure I want to play this game without that feature as the last couple levels could be pretty tough to get all those notes with dying and having to start over and that last boss was such a pain to complete near the end with its constant fireball spells. Maybe I'll get to the actual cartridge copy sometime for a harder experience but for now I'm glad to be done with it as the game lost some of its appeal for me near the end. I got more thoughts on it but for now I want to do less typing and more game completeing.

For what it's worth, the 360 and Rare Replay versions of Banjo-Kazooie have some quality of life updates like notes always being saved when you collect them, so you don't have to collect them all over again when you die. Those versions are much easier and much less tedious to 100%.

Well now! So much for me being able to take some nights off after work and sleep, since Khush is making a serious push on the leaderboard! 

[decoyman]

Well now! So much for me being able to take some nights off after work and sleep, since Khush is making a serious push on the leaderboard! 

I have no illusions about making any pushes on the leaderboard, but I did just beat Hollow Knight last night! That makes… (drumroll) 1 game.







This was, as I'm sure many of you know, a really polished experience. I loved the world, the music, the gameplay, the exploration, the challenge. I know there's more I could do, but I'm fine with this ending (for now at least).

It's subtle, but I do think I prefer the movement/play control of Silksong. It feels like Team Cherry worked really hard to build off of Hollow Knight and make every little movement and interaction feel just right; I appreciate that this dev takes their time with their games and doesn't release until it meets some very high expectations. Or maybe it's just their way of making Hornet feel unique from the Knight?

This game got lots of love when it came out and—rightfully so—still does.

Don't know what's next on my backlaugust, but there are lots of options! Maybe Hades 2........ played the heck out of the first one, so at least I'd be going chronologically this time.

[Evan_B]

I should have checked back here more frequently but refused to do so out of shame. This is because I have chosen to tackle a new game this summer in Digimon Story: Time Stranger, a game that is straightforward at some times and annoyingly open at others. It's a big-ass monster collecting RPG, and it does what I consider to be a damnable thing in its final act: unlocks a ton of endgame side quests that require combing the game world, punishingly precise builds, and/or lots of grinding to complete. So its killed a bit of my enthusiasm (as has its eleventh-hour plot twist) and is looking less-and-less likely as a candidate for Backlaugury.

In the meantime, I have struggled with some other, smaller games that I will be marking as "completed" for a very specific reason: software crashes. The two games in question are In Other Waters, which is shockingly poorly optimized on the original Switch, and Monster Crown, a sort of love letter to the Game Boy Color Pokemon titles. I was already soured on In Other Waters, which is marketed as an exploration game but uses a graphical interface and a dialogue system that clash heavily with one another and make an already plodding experience even more unbearable, but reaching its second-to-last map and having a software crash occur was the nail in the coffin for this one. I also did not enjoy its rudimentary interactive elements and its story ended up contrived in ways that make its scifi trappings feel disappointingly small, not expansive. On the other hand, Monster Crown does feel like a labor of love with a very unique monster breeding system and a simple and straightforward combination of game mechanics, but the game is a technical mess that (from what I've told) was better-realized in its sequel. After experiencing its quirks before having the game force quit on me, I decided to throw in the towel.

I've been looking back at my backlog and pondering what games I have that are easily handled in the span of a month, or what is left of it, anyway. This makes me realize how many big-ass games I own, which is maybe not the best thing if one wants to clear their backlog. So what's a guy like me to do? Play a Metroidvania? I tried getting through Blasphemous, and to be honest, the whole "gothic metal horror" schtick got old, fast. I'm around 36.something% through and I don't consider that clear. I've also been dipping back into Ooblets, which is a very charming and quirky monster/card battle farm sim that does the farm sim thing, which means I won't be completing it any time soon. Perhaps a Laugust was too lofty an ambition for me. Still, I will persevere: I intend to just start over Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown and give it a fair shot, eat my way further through Traumatarium: Penitent, and maybe knock out Saturnalia, a game I have long been eyeing. But it's not looking good, folks.

I will say that I was a rather embarrassing Sonic the Hedgehog acolyte in my younger days, so I bought all of the Wii games. I did like Sonic and the Black Knight a fair bit more than Secret Rings, if only because the motion controls were a bit less egregious and you had more control over your character. However, if I were to rank Wii Sonic the Hedgehog games, I'd likely put Sonic Colors at the top, followed by Unleashed, Black Knight, Sonic 4 Episode 1 (an odd Wiiware release), and Secret Rings.

[broodwars]

Still, I will persevere: I intend to just start over Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown and give it a fair shot

Ugh...that game. I thought about having it in my plans, actually, and I also would have had to start it over because I hit a bug that caused a really nasty trap room to permanently stop activating after I'd died in it too many times. I was quite enjoying the game up till that point, so it was really disappointing to see an Ubisoft game do an "Ubisoft Game" after I'd gotten so far into it. Apparently, it's a known issue with that room.

As for me, I'm currently forcing myself to finally get through the "Separate Ways" DLC in the Resident Evil 4 remake. Really like the base game, but this DLC...yeah...not so much. Sure, it's better designed than the really tacked-on, lazy original Separate Ways, but it sure is less "fun" IMO.

[Khushrenada]

For what it's worth, the 360 and Rare Replay versions of Banjo-Kazooie have some quality of life updates like notes always being saved when you collect them, so you don't have to collect them all over again when you die. Those versions are much easier and much less tedious to 100%.

Man, that is something I was thinking about when playing it especially on the later levels. Seems like the thing to do is  first just focus on getting all the notes and then work on the jiggies so it don't matter too much if you die and have to come back into a level. But dying before getting all 100 notes and having to start over would seem to be so frustrating. People complained about the collectibles in DK but at least once you got an collectible then you never had to do it again. It stayed in your inventory. All those 100 bananas a level per Kong would be so much worse if you'd have to collect them all again if a Kong was knocked out along the way.

So much for me being able to take some nights off after work and sleep, since Khush is making a serious push on the leaderboard! 

What, no. Don't let me change your plans. Take a bunch of nights off. Heck take the rest of the month off. You've done enough gaming now.   

[lolmonade]

I've spent several years playing mostly smaller indie titles, but felt the need for something a bit more substantial.  I had gotten Persona 3: Reload for $35 earlier this year - I liked Persona 5 a lot but not enough for repeat playthroughs like many of my friends had.  Practically the same combat, though the gun-to-the-head Persona summoning is a little jarring at first (and my teenage son made a point to mention it).  The music's more poppy/hip hop sensibilities are a nice departure from the very jazzy P5, though I prefer that game's soundtrack.  S.E.E.S. are kind of dull compared to the Phantom Thieves - the way you're thrust into this group without much explanation or reasoning feels different when you're being directed by a few upperclassmen & an adult.  The cast of characters so far is fine.  None of them grate me, but I also haven't really attached to any of them? 

In spite of the griping, I am enjoying the game.  It's new (to me) Persona which is what I was looking for.  We'll see how I feel once I get farther into the second half of the game.

[broodwars]

I've spent several years playing mostly smaller indie titles, but felt the need for something a bit more substantial.  I had gotten Persona 3: Reload for $35 earlier this year - I liked Persona 5 a lot but not enough for repeat playthroughs like many of my friends had.  Practically the same combat, though the gun-to-the-head Persona summoning is a little jarring at first (and my teenage son made a point to mention it).  The music's more poppy/hip hop sensibilities are a nice departure from the very jazzy P5, though I prefer that game's soundtrack.  S.E.E.S. are kind of dull compared to the Phantom Thieves - the way you're thrust into this group without much explanation or reasoning feels different when you're being directed by a few upperclassmen & an adult.  The cast of characters so far is fine.  None of them grate me, but I also haven't really attached to any of them? 

In spite of the griping, I am enjoying the game.  It's new (to me) Persona which is what I was looking for.  We'll see how I feel once I get farther into the second half of the game.

By contrast, P3 is my 2nd-favorite Persona game (behind P4 vanilla, of course) and you'll see why in the game's 2nd half. It's the only Persona game where actual character development happens outside of social links.

I found P5 to be incredibly average, even with the Royal additions. The Phantom Thieves needed Strikers to become particularly interesting, especially Haru.

[Mop it up]

I'm probably gonna go for quality over quantity this time.

Sounds like someone has forgotten what Backlaugust is all about! Ain't gonna climb no leaderboards with that attitude. 

Maybe, but it seems I'm already straying from that mindset anyway with these Sonic games.

So much for the quality over quantity mission statement. ZING!

Ha, yeah, I was gonna say... Welp, I s'pose there's no reason for me to be commenting anymore.

[broodwars]

Well, it only took me several years, but I finally managed to force myself through the Resident Evil 4 Remake's Separate Ways DLC campaign.







I was never a big fan of the original Resident Evil 4's "Separate Ways" campaign, which was always a lazy, slapped-together mode of largely repurposed content from the main game to contrive a way to give PS2 owners the illusion of exclusive content. The original Separate Ways can best be summed up as "Leon did a thing...and Ada was there, too!"

I'll give the remake's version of Separate Ways praise that it at least attempts to do its own thing, much more separate of the main game. Ada has her own story, she can purchase and upgrade weapons at the merchant, she can acquire treasures, and her grapple gun gives her a smidge more mobility than Leon (but only in very specific and often scripted circumstances).

It's still not a particularly great campaign, even if it is as long as your standard Resident Evil game now, and that's largely due to the following:

1. Lily Gao was absolutely godawful as Ada Wong in the main game, and time and experience has not made her any better in the DLC. At best she sounds absolutely bored, like she's channeling Harrison Ford's narration from the theatrical cut of Blade Runner. The last thing that a femme fatale character should sound in a game as absolutely nuts as Resident Evil 4...is bored. And I don't think it's the director's fault, because everyone else (except Wesker) sounds absolutely fine. I don't know which possibility is worse: that she's a talented actress and is just completely phoning in a major project because she doesn't give a damn...or that this actually was her trying to give her all.

2. What content in the DLC isn't just re-used from the main game is comprised of segments of cut Leon content from the original RE4, only not done as memorably. Sure, we get the 2nd El Gigante fight back, but it's a really bad fight where you just wail on it from rooftops while hoping you're actually doing damage. Sure, we get the Gondola right back that was cut from the main game. It's also 20 seconds long and makes next to not attempt at atmosphere. Sure, we get the boss fight with "IT" back. It's just a couple generic arena fights in a sand pit, without even the original game's slight attempt to drum up atmosphere by forcing the player to flee the dropping cargo containers while being chased by "IT" beforehand or the gates you could raise in the original arenas to pin the boss in place for a few seconds.

3. The DLC contains several "run away from this unkillable enemy" segments. I'm not sure why Capcom seems to think stalker enemies are the silver bullet in modern RE games, but this particular trick was getting old by Village's release, and they just keep doing it. I like to explore environments, especially in games that heavily reward exploration like the RE games. I get really tired of having to sprint away from unkillable enemies. The DLC's boss fights also largely consist of either waves of goons distracting you from a mid-boss or pure bullet sponge main bosses where it can be very difficult to tell if you're even doing damage.

Overall, "meh" pretty much sums up the experience in general. It's more Resident Evil 4 remake, but harder in places and kind of irritating. If you liked the remake, there's probably something for you here, but it doesn't make any attempt to improve on the faults of the remake. It's also a great deal slower than the original Separate Ways, and the new Wesker is so...generic. Say what you will about DC Douglas, but he understood the assignment and knew how to make stupid material entertaining.

[broodwars]

How about one more? Always meant to get back to this one, but honestly kept forgetting it existed.







So, I was planning on talking about Gemini: Heroes Reborn by going on about how it's another game you can't buy anymore in this Shiny Digital Future (TM)...but apparently you still can. Despite being a tie-in game to a failed revival of a 2000s show where people only liked the 1st season, go figure it's still up on the digital storefronts for some reason. And you know what? For a $15 3-4 hour 1st person...shooter (?), you could do a whole lot worse.

The setup is pretty simple: you play as Cassandra, a quasi-amnesiac looking for news on her family. With her friend Alex, she sneaks into the abandoned ruins of a former science lab and very quickly discovers that she has the power to swap between the present and the same area 6 years in the past. Combined with what's basically a Telekinesis Plasmid from Bioshock, you solve basic traversal puzzles and kill quite a lot of armed guards psychically grabbing things and chucking them at people. Things get hairy in a firefight, you can just duck into the other time period at the press of a button (provided there's space to occupy) while scouting a window of time in front of you to monitor what's going on in the other time period.

You know, if I had a nickle for every game in 2016 that had a primary mechanic based around fighting enemies and solving traversal challenges by flipping back and forth between time periods at the push of a button...I'd have 3 nickles. Which...isn't a lot, but it's still weird that it happened thrice (this game, Dishonored 2, and Titanfall 2). Sure, those other game would go on to do this concept much better, but there is a simple joy in running around grabbing bullets and rockets out of the air and returning them to sender while grabbing other guards and throwing them into fans and circuit breakers. If the game was any longer, I'd want a lot more combat variety than this, but for what it is I had a good time.

As for the story, it's pretty threadbare and predictable, and I'm sorry even by 2016 standards these production values are pretty poor. The game runs just fine, but these visuals belong in a mid-generation PS3 game. That said, I'm glad to see that this developer is still going...strong (?) in the VR space.

On a side note, I was amused by this game's attempt at a final boss. For story reasons, you have to be able to grab him with telekinesis, but I think the devs forgot to turn that flag off after the story reason is done. The game WANTS you to continually bait him into destroying certain objects in various rooms, but I discovered late in the fight that I could still pick him up and throw him...which I then proceeded to do to destroy the rest of the required objects rather than spend time baiting out attack patterns and dodging. It was quite hilarious watching me win the fight by using the final boss as a human pinball.

Puny God.

[lolmonade]

I've spent several years playing mostly smaller indie titles, but felt the need for something a bit more substantial.  I had gotten Persona 3: Reload for $35 earlier this year - I liked Persona 5 a lot but not enough for repeat playthroughs like many of my friends had.  Practically the same combat, though the gun-to-the-head Persona summoning is a little jarring at first (and my teenage son made a point to mention it).  The music's more poppy/hip hop sensibilities are a nice departure from the very jazzy P5, though I prefer that game's soundtrack.  S.E.E.S. are kind of dull compared to the Phantom Thieves - the way you're thrust into this group without much explanation or reasoning feels different when you're being directed by a few upperclassmen & an adult.  The cast of characters so far is fine.  None of them grate me, but I also haven't really attached to any of them? 

In spite of the griping, I am enjoying the game.  It's new (to me) Persona which is what I was looking for.  We'll see how I feel once I get farther into the second half of the game.

By contrast, P3 is my 2nd-favorite Persona game (behind P4 vanilla, of course) and you'll see why in the game's 2nd half. It's the only Persona game where actual character development happens outside of social links.

I found P5 to be incredibly average, even with the Royal additions. The Phantom Thieves needed Strikers to become particularly interesting, especially Haru.

I love the general vibe of P3, and the protagonist.  I liked the structure of palaces in P5 than the endless tower.  The walled-off points in Tartarus feel a little more synthetic than P3's structure, which has a beginning & end point for each "chapter".

But I'm all in on P3, it seems like it's just starting to open up more seriously on the romance paths & knowing the formula of Persona now Im doing well at min-maxing my time between combat & social stuff.

[Mop it up]

Like it or not I'm back again, now with Sonic Origins completed for the Switch! And I've gotta... go fast!

I've played Sonic 1, 2, and 3 before, but not CD and the "& Knuckles" add-on to 3, so this seemed like a good form for those two. I went through the "story mode" of the game that strings together all of the titles as one continuous experience, which still includes any opening and ending scenes the games might have had, plus a few new shorts to connect everything together in a way that attempts but fails to help make things more comprehensible.

Sonic 1 posed less trouble that I remember, or maybe I'm just used to it by now. Sonic CD is slotted next for some reason even though it released later, and I'm not exactly sure what this game was going for. With past, present, and future versions of each stage, it often becomes a big maze with an unclear path of progression, but at least it isn't difficult. The bosses are hilarious however. Sonic 2 is the one I'm most familiar with since it's the one we had, though I'm used to playing it in two-player which makes the bosses and bonus stages easier. I had played Sonic 3 just once before so didn't remember much about it, and the "& Knuckles" stages were new to me. It's a good thing this mode offers infinite lives as these games have a nasty tendency to feature an end-game boss gauntlet with no rings available.

And may I just say, the bonus stages in Sonic games have always been terrible.

I may not say it?

Oops.

How exactly should all this be counted, anyway? Does this count as a Sonic CD completion, or would I need to play that as a separate entity to include it? Is "Sonic & Knuckles" its own game, or part of Sonic 3? Eesh, Sonic really is such a mess!

[broodwars]

Like it or not I'm back again, now with Sonic Origins completed for the Switch! And I've gotta... go fast!

I've played Sonic 1, 2, and 3 before, but not CD and the "& Knuckles" add-on to 3, so this seemed like a good form for those two. I went through the "story mode" of the game that strings together all of the titles as one continuous experience, which still includes any opening and ending scenes the games might have had, plus a few new shorts to connect everything together in a way that attempts but fails to help make things more comprehensible.

Sonic 1 posed less trouble that I remember, or maybe I'm just used to it by now. Sonic CD is slotted next for some reason even though it released later, and I'm not exactly sure what this game was going for. With past, present, and future versions of each stage, it often becomes a big maze with an unclear path of progression, but at least it isn't difficult. The bosses are hilarious however. Sonic 2 is the one I'm most familiar with since it's the one we had, though I'm used to playing it in two-player which makes the bosses and bonus stages easier. I had played Sonic 3 just once before so didn't remember much about it, and the "& Knuckles" stages were new to me. It's a good thing this mode offers infinite lives as these games have a nasty tendency to feature an end-game boss gauntlet with no rings available.

And may I just say, the bonus stages in Sonic games have always been terrible.

I may not say it?

Oops.

How exactly should all this be counted, anyway? Does this count as a Sonic CD completion, or would I need to play that as a separate entity to include it? Is "Sonic & Knuckles" its own game, or part of Sonic 3? Eesh, Sonic really is such a mess!

I'm currently eying a different collection, myself, before I switch over to PS3 stuff so I would say that any game in the collection that you completed is its own entry. Just list everything you feel "done" with and I'll add it to the list. I know that collection has a ton of games. As for S & K, my understanding is that S & K is its own set of levels separate from Sonic 3.

The only time I'd put limits on a collection would be something like the Atari 50th Anniversary Collections, where you have something like 100+ games, and they all take 5 minutes to finish because they're 70s & 80s arcade games. Ok, at THAT point the collection itself is the game. Otherwise, have fun.

[ThePerm]

I bought the GTA Definitive edition trilogy for like less than $20.

It's been fun. And I got it well past the point where it was a buggy mess with a lot of broken stuff. Though I have seen some floating trees. And I lament some missing soundtrack pieces and the ability to make your own radio station on the pc version.

I beat Vice City, which I give an 8.5/10

and I'm 60-70ish percent through San Andreas which I also give an 8.5/10 so far.


Last Summer I played through Red Dead Redemption 1 and I give that one a 9/10

I am halfway through Undead Nightmare, but haven't touched it since last summer.

I also give Red Dead Redemption 2 a 9.5/10.

I got GTAIV too on mu backlog. I played a little bit of it before switching to Vice City.

So, I've almost played through all the major Rockstar games.

[broodwars]

I bought the GTA Definitive edition trilogy for like less than $20.

It's been fun. And I got it well past the point where it was a buggy mess with a lot of broken stuff. Though I have seen some floating trees. And I lament some missing soundtrack pieces and the ability to make your own radio station on the pc version.

I beat Vice City, which I give an 8.5/10

and I'm 60-70ish percent through San Andreas which I also give an 8.5/10 so far.


Last Summer I played through Red Dead Redemption 1 and I give that one a 9/10

I am halfway through Undead Nightmare, but haven't touched it since last summer.

I also give Red Dead Redemption 2 a 9.5/10.

I got GTAIV too on mu backlog. I played a little bit of it before switching to Vice City.

So, I've almost played through all the major Rockstar games.

Just checking, but am I reading correctly that Vice City was the only game of this list that you completed this month so far?

[Mop it up]

I s'pose that the Sonic & Knuckles lock-on cartridge could still be played by itself without a Sonic 3 cartridge, so that can count as its own game. Sonic CD and Sonic & Knuckles are the two games I hadn't played / completed before this (as well as Sonic Origins itself of course).

Well nertz, I do have the Atari 50 collection! I guess I'll stop opening this and put it back on the shelf...

[ThePerm]

I bought the GTA Definitive edition trilogy for like less than $20.

It's been fun. And I got it well past the point where it was a buggy mess with a lot of broken stuff. Though I have seen some floating trees. And I lament some missing soundtrack pieces and the ability to make your own radio station on the pc version.

I beat Vice City, which I give an 8.5/10

and I'm 60-70ish percent through San Andreas which I also give an 8.5/10 so far.


Last Summer I played through Red Dead Redemption 1 and I give that one a 9/10

I am halfway through Undead Nightmare, but haven't touched it since last summer.

I also give Red Dead Redemption 2 a 9.5/10.

I got GTAIV too on mu backlog. I played a little bit of it before switching to Vice City.

So, I've almost played through all the major Rockstar games.

Just checking, but am I reading correctly that Vice City was the only game of this list that you completed this month so far?

I'm almost done with San Andreas. I've only been playing 3 hours at a time every two days. I spent 41 hours playing Vice City. 59 hours on San Andreas. 3.1 hours on GTA 4. 18 minutes on GTA 3