Now, I'll take a page from Mop it up and try to do a quick ranking of all the games I played. I've gotta say... that based on how I'm feeling right now this is the order I'm going with and I'll try to give them a quick summation.
20 - Tokyo Crash Mobs - I think with the basic gameplay element of a sort of match 3 puzzle game which is done by throwing people into other people could have had a lot of humor and fun to it but the "story" instead deflates that by being too bewildering and ambiguous with no real goals. The scoring system and how to rank well is obtuse and the gameplay mainly falls into two patterns that repeat back and forth with myself personally preferring one over the other. Wore out its welcome fast and was the game I most had to push myself through and might not have done so if the leaderboard race hadn't been so competitive. Big disappointment.
19 - What Remains of Edith Finch - Again, I feel like calling it a videogame is stretching the definition of game. It's clearly meant to be have a melancholy feel from the story it wants to tell and the environments certainly add to that heavy feel but it just became an unpleasant experience to me and there were a lot of elements that just didn't work for me. Besides all of that, I think what I found myself disliking the most is, and I guess this will be a bit of spoiler territory,
often when there is gameplay elements or something different beyond just walking and looking at items of interest from the main character is when you see the death of a family member. It stood out to me on the second death you encounter when you have to control a swing that a child is on to whip around and send him to his doom. It's just such a reversal as usually death in games is something you want to avoid happening to the character you are controlling. Frankly, I don't want to suddenly control these people and take them to their doom. I'd like to control them and find a way to prevent that but that is not what this game will allows. I came to really hate that mechanic and that is where most of the gameplay was. There was one case, it might have been Sam but it was the military father, where the death made me laugh. I don't think that was the intention but I could be wrong. Usually, they were rather unpleasant. The last death with the cannery really stands out as I could sense right away where it might be headed and I was not happy to see it went in that direction. If it wasn't for Tokyo Crash Mobs, I'd put this at the bottom but I do give it some credit for creating something that will stick in your mind and it seems the developers accomplished what they wanted for this story even if I didn't enjoy it.
18 - Mega Man III (Game Boy) - Now it's starting to get tougher to order these games. An improvement from the first two GB Mega Man games and one that I had more fun playing than those games but is still held back but that early style of game design and not something I see myself revisiting. It's possible I might on the Switch GB Online app years from now if I was playing through all those GB games and needed to play them to complete them all but that could be a very long time from now.
17 - Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? - Pretty basic simulation of the game show. There's some lame repeated dialogue by the generic host and the generic player character you may choose that you'll want to try and skip through as fast as possible. Ultimately, it's just a test for yourself to see if you can answer some trivia questions and go all the way. The lifelines are wonky as they try to still include an Ask the Audience and Phone a Friend but the answers you get from those lifelines could be wrong. Had one question asking about who Justin Timberlake collaborated with for a song in the Trolls 2 movie so I asked the audience as I thought it might be between two answers. The audience's number 1 choice was a name I'd never heard of or recognized, the second choice was one of the names I was debating between. I decided to go with the number 1 choice of the audience and found out it was wrong. The right answer wasn't the number 2 choice either. It was the lowest and least picked choice and the other name I had been debating as possible. Some of the categories of questions are also things that just don't interest me but the developers seem to have chosen thinking there would be popular appeal to having. Give me history, geography and better movie questions than that.
16 - Mega Man IV (Game Boy) - Feelings are pretty close to what I said about Mega Man III but I did find I was enjoying this one quite a bit all the ways up to the second Ballade battle and then it began to frustrate and wear out its welcome. Still, that first 2/3rds I'd say give it a step up over the Millionaire game.
15 - Aero Porter - I was debating if this should be 16th instead but give it a slight edge to 15th. There is something about the simple gameplay element of trying to sort this baggage on different conveyers that has some appeal that I see myself coming back to this for another attempt here and there. There are times when playing some games that I will imagine that I am in charge of a game development company and ask myself how could my company take this game and compete with it or make it better. With Aero Porter, I'd want to buy the rights for this game and then do some redesign with a few of the elements because I feel there is something here that could be pretty darn successful (perhaps more in the mobile gaming market). For a pretty basic game in look and design, it felt to me like it was just coming close to something special and falling short in different ways. The biggest key to seeing success in it was when the game gave the advice to not worry about being perfect. I began to realize that if there were flights with just one or two of the correct baggage on it (even if it had other wrong baggage) then that was good enough because at least the flight wouldn't be cancelled deducting money. Letting go of trying to get everything perfectly sorted worked although it was against my desire to do that. I'd want to make some tweaks in that regard. Ultimately I'm still on the positive side even with its tough balance for this game which gives much insight into why so much luggage seems to get lost at the airport.
14 - Pikuniku - The thing about beating 20 games in about 20 days is that you can quickly forget about games you played. This was about the second game I played this month and if I hadn't recorded it I'm not sure I'd have been able to remember it if I was asked to name everything I played before making this post. Recognizing the potential of people likely forgetting about having played this game after awhile is why I'm slotting it lower. I had a pleasant time playing it and, as mentioned, I'm considering getting the upcoming sequel which will be 3D unlike this first one being in 2D. Still, the game is rather simple and doesn't take that long to complete which is going to contribute to it fading from memory. I've got nothing against it and, while I know there is debate on what a game is worth, I think one would find it worth a play if they were to spend $5 or less to pick it up.
13 - Kirby Fighter Deluxe - A small game with a pretty set pattern of how things will unfold over 10 set and random stages. A sort of glimpse at making a Smash Bros. game out of just the Kirby series. I found some abilities easier or harder than others and still would like to take a crack at the Hard and Very Hard difficulty at some point. Nonetheless, there's no denying that it's a game that is pretty light for content and variety and won't have much lasting appeal. Perhaps the multiplayer aspect could wring more appeal and fun from this title but with the eShop closed I don't see myself finding out anytime soon on that part of it. Still, it was short enough that I never quite tired of it even with the repetition of the campaign and it's stayed in my mind although that could be because of the unfinished business I feel for the harder modes so I give it this higher placement.
12 - Carto - Like Pikuniku, I find this game already fading from my memory. I enjoyed it enough to complete 100% (although it isn't that hard or long to do) as I played it which isn't something I always felt I had the time for this month. The map rearranging mechanic helped it stand out a bit more and created a bit more challenge with at least one tricky spot that I can still remember when thinking about this game again. Nevertheless, I wouldn't call this game a must play and just give it a mild recommendation if you are looking for a short game experience that is an agreeable and low stakes way to pass the time.
11 - Banjo-Kazooie - Definitely the biggest and longest game I played. Started this back in June and was playing it off and on into July before dropping off completely in the last half of that month. Finally picked it up to get through the last world and face off against Grunty. It's tough for me to rank this because at first I was quite enjoying the game even if it wasn't quite up to the appeal I have for DK64 and hoping to find something similar after completing that when it arrived on the N64 app. Eventually, it just hit a point where I started to get bored with it and it just seemed to keep going on and on. It's tougher for me to remember the enjoyment I had while playing through the first 5 or 6 worlds compared to the end and having to back track around Grunty's lair a bunch. As I said in my earlier talk of the game, I'm glad I had the save states to use to get me through the game at the end. When I think of the two in my head, I'd say I had a better overall time with Yooka-Laylee compared to the original. And why did Kazooie always have to be such a jerk to most of the characters you meet? Poor Banjo always getting stuck in the middle and having to play mediator. Also, the game has a poor objective as I didn't really care about Tooty and would rather hang out with hot Grunty based on that Game Over screen.
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Again, one can only find out when trying. I'd also stress less about the right month to make some kind of wordplay on and just think about a time period that feels like a good for when you get manage it and that others may have the time to participate. Maybe that's December and January. Maybe it is July and August. That's my spitballing.
