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NWR Forums ID Verification / Re: What's the drunkest You have ever gotten?
« Last post by Evan_B on September 04, 2026, 11:07:28 AM »Can we only read or respond to this post when inebriated?
Recent Posts
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NWR Forums ID Verification / What's the drunkest You have ever gotten?
« Last post by Wah on September 04, 2026, 10:08:52 AM »I'm feeling pretty tipsy, and I feel you old timers have some stories to tell!
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General Gaming / Re: Backlaugust 2026 - (Splatoon) Raiding the Backlog
« Last post by Khushrenada on September 04, 2026, 03:53:47 AM »On Sunday, it was another case of getting up around half past noon after the late night playing session. Also, I knew there was a bunch of things I needed to get done after putting them off to do some of this gaming. Like a character in video game with their checklist of tasks to accomplish, I had written up a whole list of things I needed to do and started getting them done. It was probably around 6:00 that I actually got back to gaming.
First up was TOEM. Despite saying I would just get the necessary number of tasks done in a level to move on and get through things quickly, I ended up doing everything in that spot and then moved on to the next spot and got most of it done before just hitting up the last destination and triggering the credits. When the title screen reloaded, it said I was at 92% done at 5 hours and 30 minutes. I probably could have shaved off at least a good two hours had I just kept moving on but I just found it hard to leave things undone when I knew what I had to do or was close to figuring things out and would just keep plugging away.
With TOEM done, I then turned my attention back to WarioWare: Move It! and hit the credits pretty quickly in that one. Likely under an hour. Still have around 50-60 microgames to encounter/unlock. I do want to return to this game to do that but it might be awhile now.
I then turned my attention to New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe. Whenever I think of Backlaugust, I often think of games like this. How quickly could I blast through a 2D platformer to hit the credits? It seems not as fast as I think. I kept letting myself get side-tracked by those darn Star Coins. I ended up shortcutting from World 3 to World 6. In World 6, I was able to skip about half of it. In World 7, I was able to also skip a large portion and zoom ahead to the castle. I ended my play time at the start of World 8 figuring I could tackle Bowser on Monday and I wanted to move on to something else. NSMBUD was now feeling like a mistake. It was taking me longer than I expected and I was surprised at how much I kept dying. Sometimes it was because of trying to carefully search for possible hidden Star Cars or secret exits and sometimes it was stubbornness to keep trying to pull off a move to collect a Star Coin which was tricky without a power-up that could help.
At this point, it was getting to be late and I'd only beat 3 games and with one game very close to the finish line. I'll admit Broodwars number of 22 had deflated my enthusiasm. I had some options if I really wanted to push myself. I've still got some WarioWare games I haven't beat or even played yet. Same goes for Just Dance games. Some DSIWare and other eShop ephemera. If I did want to bump up that count I could probably do so. One game I had in mind for that was Onion Assault. In my mind, though, there was one game I had really wanted to play when I started going through a list of games to play for Backlaugust and that was The Starship Damrey. My understanding was that it was a short enough game and I'm pretty sure I remember RABicle either playing or finishing it off in the first Backlaugust. I'd also heard it commented on that the opening sort of puzzle of what to do was a favorite part of the game so I was always curious what it would be like. It's a game the developers even tell you they want to be as mysterious as possible so they won't provide you with any instruction about how to play, what buttons do or any kind of intro story. Honestly, I don't it took very long for me to reach the main action of the game. The opening / start of the game in a certain confined space seemed like it was pretty quick to me and not much struggle. As I began to move on to that point and explore more is when I started to feel that playing this game would be a mistake. It's not something I wanted to rush through and I was starting to encounter more back tracking as the world opened up more and more and I was trying to figure out where I might have to go next or what I might have to do. This felt more like a game to savour since, once you've played it, a lot of the surprises and puzzles will likely be diminished on any replay. It just didn't seem like this is something I'd have finished by the end of Monday. That is how I came to end my Sunday.
First up was TOEM. Despite saying I would just get the necessary number of tasks done in a level to move on and get through things quickly, I ended up doing everything in that spot and then moved on to the next spot and got most of it done before just hitting up the last destination and triggering the credits. When the title screen reloaded, it said I was at 92% done at 5 hours and 30 minutes. I probably could have shaved off at least a good two hours had I just kept moving on but I just found it hard to leave things undone when I knew what I had to do or was close to figuring things out and would just keep plugging away.
With TOEM done, I then turned my attention back to WarioWare: Move It! and hit the credits pretty quickly in that one. Likely under an hour. Still have around 50-60 microgames to encounter/unlock. I do want to return to this game to do that but it might be awhile now.
I then turned my attention to New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe. Whenever I think of Backlaugust, I often think of games like this. How quickly could I blast through a 2D platformer to hit the credits? It seems not as fast as I think. I kept letting myself get side-tracked by those darn Star Coins. I ended up shortcutting from World 3 to World 6. In World 6, I was able to skip about half of it. In World 7, I was able to also skip a large portion and zoom ahead to the castle. I ended my play time at the start of World 8 figuring I could tackle Bowser on Monday and I wanted to move on to something else. NSMBUD was now feeling like a mistake. It was taking me longer than I expected and I was surprised at how much I kept dying. Sometimes it was because of trying to carefully search for possible hidden Star Cars or secret exits and sometimes it was stubbornness to keep trying to pull off a move to collect a Star Coin which was tricky without a power-up that could help.
At this point, it was getting to be late and I'd only beat 3 games and with one game very close to the finish line. I'll admit Broodwars number of 22 had deflated my enthusiasm. I had some options if I really wanted to push myself. I've still got some WarioWare games I haven't beat or even played yet. Same goes for Just Dance games. Some DSIWare and other eShop ephemera. If I did want to bump up that count I could probably do so. One game I had in mind for that was Onion Assault. In my mind, though, there was one game I had really wanted to play when I started going through a list of games to play for Backlaugust and that was The Starship Damrey. My understanding was that it was a short enough game and I'm pretty sure I remember RABicle either playing or finishing it off in the first Backlaugust. I'd also heard it commented on that the opening sort of puzzle of what to do was a favorite part of the game so I was always curious what it would be like. It's a game the developers even tell you they want to be as mysterious as possible so they won't provide you with any instruction about how to play, what buttons do or any kind of intro story. Honestly, I don't it took very long for me to reach the main action of the game. The opening / start of the game in a certain confined space seemed like it was pretty quick to me and not much struggle. As I began to move on to that point and explore more is when I started to feel that playing this game would be a mistake. It's not something I wanted to rush through and I was starting to encounter more back tracking as the world opened up more and more and I was trying to figure out where I might have to go next or what I might have to do. This felt more like a game to savour since, once you've played it, a lot of the surprises and puzzles will likely be diminished on any replay. It just didn't seem like this is something I'd have finished by the end of Monday. That is how I came to end my Sunday.
34
Nintendo Gaming / Re: Field notes: what Japanese amiibo actually cost in 2026
« Last post by Khushrenada on September 04, 2026, 01:58:13 AM »I can see why it looks that way, but the information is actually useful. The OneMall links are theirs, sure, but the pricing notes and Nintendo references seem legitimate. The real question is whether any of the figures or compatibility details are inaccurate.
You think the information is useful? In what way? Why do you think the pricing notes and Nintendo references are legitimate if the OneMall links aren't? To me, those are the real questions. I just don't see why the figure and compatibility details matter. If they are inaccurate, so what?
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Nintendo Gaming / Re: Field notes: what Japanese amiibo actually cost in 2026
« Last post by fryuncommon on September 03, 2026, 11:26:04 PM »I can see why it looks that way, but the information is actually useful. The OneMall links are theirs, sure, but the pricing notes and Nintendo references seem legitimate. The real question is whether any of the figures or compatibility details are inaccurate.
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General Gaming / Re: Backlaugust 2026 - (Splatoon) Raiding the Backlog
« Last post by Khushrenada on September 03, 2026, 04:29:40 AM »And speaking of 3:00 am, I better get to bed now before I reach that point again while reminiscing about this end to Backlaugust. I'll have to post more tomorrow for those that like reading rambling wall-of-text posts which was the style at the time.
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General Gaming / Re: Backlaugust 2026 - (Splatoon) Raiding the Backlog
« Last post by Khushrenada on September 03, 2026, 04:28:12 AM »I decided to move on to New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe. I didn't really have much interest in getting this copy of the game. I'd played it on Wii U and I remember posting on these forums about it and just overall how boring I'd felt playing it. I only got it because it was part of a bundle of some Switch games I had picked up some time ago. Thought I might just sell it off later on its own or loan it to some friends/family that never played it on Wii U. I kind of remembered where some of the secret exits were so I felt I might be able to blast through a 2D Mario pretty quickly in this way. Well, I ended up playing through the first two worlds, skipping some levels along the way. Even though I knew the correct areas that had secret exits in those first two worlds, I just couldn't seem to find them again just like I couldn't find them the first time I had played though this game. I decided to stop after reaching the point where one could choose between World 3 or World 4 and look up an overworld map of this game on a FAQ to see if I was right about the levels they should be in. It confirmed I was looking in the right levels so then I looked up the specific levels and saw what my mistakes were to miss those exits. Yet, it seem like it may have been better that I missed them since I saw World 3 could skip me ahead pretty quickly to World 6 which seemed like a better shortcut than the others.
It was also at this time that I saw Broodwars had posted about 7 games and not only was he the first to hit the 20 mark but he was now at 22. Meanwhile, it was now like 3:00 AM Sunday morning and I'll only beaten one game with others getting some good progress. What to do?
It was also at this time that I saw Broodwars had posted about 7 games and not only was he the first to hit the 20 mark but he was now at 22. Meanwhile, it was now like 3:00 AM Sunday morning and I'll only beaten one game with others getting some good progress. What to do?
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General Gaming / Re: Backlaugust 2026 - (Splatoon) Raiding the Backlog
« Last post by Khushrenada on September 03, 2026, 04:14:47 AM »After SMB3D, I got something to eat and watched half a movie. Then I decided to tackle TOEM. I wasn't blown away by this game when I first saw it on a Nintendo Direct but something about the trailer and the camera/photo adventure aspect stayed in my memory and I just never forgot about this game. Seeing it on the eShop from time to time probably helped but it just started to stand out more from other offerings. I finally purchased it when it was on a big sale but then I never really had any motivation to actually play it until now. Perhaps it was because of the black and white look. It's my biggest knock against Game Boy games. I've got no issues with black and white movies. In fact, I sometimes get excited to watch one because I'm just in a mood for an older style black and white movie and visiting the past that way. With games, it just never seems to have that same appeal and often just looks more boring to the eyes. At least to me. While playing the game, I found myself wishing it had been made with color and questioning why the developers went with black and white. There was only reason I could think of and perhaps you too would think of that same reason.
Black and white aside, that was the only knock I had against the game. Otherwise, I really was enjoying my time playing it. It brought to mind feelings of different games I've played in the past but the one that I'd say I thought of the most was surprisingly Untitled Goose Game. Not because you are going around and making everyone's day worse but more the checklist aspect and finding things that might trigger a goal or figuring out how to accomplish one. I wouldn't say there was anything really hard to figure out in the game. There was one case I can think of where I felt the game was sort of hinting at something or leading me to and when I tried that it didn't work. I tried another variation of that and nothing so I figured it must be something else and moved on. After I was done playing Saturday, I decided to just quickly look up a FAQ about it since it was still bugging me and I just couldn't see what else there could be in that area/world that I might be missing or could work. It turns out that what I had first tried was the right thing. It just required a very specific selection and not as broad or generic as I had done. Not sure if that makes much sense but I don't really want to spoil anything for those who may play it and just more relate the frustration of being on the right track for a game puzzle but when you don't input the specific thing the game is looking for then you can sometimes assume you are barking up the wrong tree and get completely lost and stumped on something you were actually so close to solving and getting right than you realized.
Even though the game often required about half or so of the tasks in area to be completed before being able to move onto the next, I found myself wanting to stay and keep finishing them all because I'd be close with a bunch and just wanted to keep completing them. I probably could have wrapped the game up faster but my completionist tendencies were kicking hard on this game. When I stopped playing on Saturday, it was right around the 50% mark of the game being complete. Maybe 48%. Felt I could wrap it Sunday and wanted to get started on some other games.
I moved on to WarioWare: Move it! I had briefly tried out the game when I first got it as it was a used copy and just wanted to make sure it worked. Played through the Wario opening. From my experience with the series, I figured I could probably get through the story mode/single player campaign pretty quickly and got to work on that. I still quite like this series of games. Got a few laughs from it and it was one of the games I'd put as a highlight for this month. The caveat though is that I often find the WarioWare games best at the start when things are fresh and new and you don't know what to expect from the next microgame about to come your way and having to quickly figure things out. The surprises that can come from that. As you go back to replay things in order to unlock all the microgames and then replay those microgames to get certain benchmarks to unlock things then the game can start to lose its appeal and become rather repetitive. The game also felt more forgiving than past titles as it frequently offered second chances. Maybe I'm wrong but I feel as though, let's saying I was playing Mona's story and her selection of microgames, that if I fell short along the way of getting through a certain number of microgames and the boss stage for a character that I'd have to restart that whole character's campaign all over again until I got through the required number of microgames and boss stages without losing all my lives/tries. In this game, if I ran out of tries, it would just have me do a second chance pose and then give me a fresh new amount of 4 tries while having me continue with the microgame I just lost at and the progress I had made playing towards that boss stage. In fact, failing a lot seems like it might be necessary as the game has 104 second chance poses to be found in its catalog. Move It! reminded me the most of Smooth Moves in that it bases a lot of microgames around different poses and ways of holding the joy-cons along with a little introduction to each new pose it builds the games around. Sometime the positioning could be a problem of getting to the right one after just playing the last microgame in a different post but that's part of the challenge, I suppose. One thing I didn't realize is that this game is a bit unplayable on Switch 2 and is best played on Switch 1. The reason for that one of the poses in the Kat and Ana section requires you to let the left joy-con dangle from your wrist so that you can take the right joy-con and hold it in your left hand because the right joy-con has an IR camera and you need to face that camera to your right hand so that it can watch for some gestures needed to be successful at the microgame. Turns out, the Switch 2 joy-cons do not have that IR Camera anymore. Had a bunch of losses during that section. Thank goodness for the second chance poses so that I could get through that section and the other microgames in it that didn't require the IR Camera. After making some good progress and sensing I was about 5 or 6 characters away from the end of the single-player mode, I stopped the story mode at that time to sit back down and felt I could wrap up that game on Sunday as well.
Black and white aside, that was the only knock I had against the game. Otherwise, I really was enjoying my time playing it. It brought to mind feelings of different games I've played in the past but the one that I'd say I thought of the most was surprisingly Untitled Goose Game. Not because you are going around and making everyone's day worse but more the checklist aspect and finding things that might trigger a goal or figuring out how to accomplish one. I wouldn't say there was anything really hard to figure out in the game. There was one case I can think of where I felt the game was sort of hinting at something or leading me to and when I tried that it didn't work. I tried another variation of that and nothing so I figured it must be something else and moved on. After I was done playing Saturday, I decided to just quickly look up a FAQ about it since it was still bugging me and I just couldn't see what else there could be in that area/world that I might be missing or could work. It turns out that what I had first tried was the right thing. It just required a very specific selection and not as broad or generic as I had done. Not sure if that makes much sense but I don't really want to spoil anything for those who may play it and just more relate the frustration of being on the right track for a game puzzle but when you don't input the specific thing the game is looking for then you can sometimes assume you are barking up the wrong tree and get completely lost and stumped on something you were actually so close to solving and getting right than you realized.
Even though the game often required about half or so of the tasks in area to be completed before being able to move onto the next, I found myself wanting to stay and keep finishing them all because I'd be close with a bunch and just wanted to keep completing them. I probably could have wrapped the game up faster but my completionist tendencies were kicking hard on this game. When I stopped playing on Saturday, it was right around the 50% mark of the game being complete. Maybe 48%. Felt I could wrap it Sunday and wanted to get started on some other games.
I moved on to WarioWare: Move it! I had briefly tried out the game when I first got it as it was a used copy and just wanted to make sure it worked. Played through the Wario opening. From my experience with the series, I figured I could probably get through the story mode/single player campaign pretty quickly and got to work on that. I still quite like this series of games. Got a few laughs from it and it was one of the games I'd put as a highlight for this month. The caveat though is that I often find the WarioWare games best at the start when things are fresh and new and you don't know what to expect from the next microgame about to come your way and having to quickly figure things out. The surprises that can come from that. As you go back to replay things in order to unlock all the microgames and then replay those microgames to get certain benchmarks to unlock things then the game can start to lose its appeal and become rather repetitive. The game also felt more forgiving than past titles as it frequently offered second chances. Maybe I'm wrong but I feel as though, let's saying I was playing Mona's story and her selection of microgames, that if I fell short along the way of getting through a certain number of microgames and the boss stage for a character that I'd have to restart that whole character's campaign all over again until I got through the required number of microgames and boss stages without losing all my lives/tries. In this game, if I ran out of tries, it would just have me do a second chance pose and then give me a fresh new amount of 4 tries while having me continue with the microgame I just lost at and the progress I had made playing towards that boss stage. In fact, failing a lot seems like it might be necessary as the game has 104 second chance poses to be found in its catalog. Move It! reminded me the most of Smooth Moves in that it bases a lot of microgames around different poses and ways of holding the joy-cons along with a little introduction to each new pose it builds the games around. Sometime the positioning could be a problem of getting to the right one after just playing the last microgame in a different post but that's part of the challenge, I suppose. One thing I didn't realize is that this game is a bit unplayable on Switch 2 and is best played on Switch 1. The reason for that one of the poses in the Kat and Ana section requires you to let the left joy-con dangle from your wrist so that you can take the right joy-con and hold it in your left hand because the right joy-con has an IR camera and you need to face that camera to your right hand so that it can watch for some gestures needed to be successful at the microgame. Turns out, the Switch 2 joy-cons do not have that IR Camera anymore. Had a bunch of losses during that section. Thank goodness for the second chance poses so that I could get through that section and the other microgames in it that didn't require the IR Camera. After making some good progress and sensing I was about 5 or 6 characters away from the end of the single-player mode, I stopped the story mode at that time to sit back down and felt I could wrap up that game on Sunday as well.
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General Gaming / Re: Backlaugust 2026 - (Splatoon) Raiding the Backlog
« Last post by Khushrenada on September 03, 2026, 02:36:45 AM »But in all seriousness, here is what I've actually got to report in with.
After doing nothing the past couple years, as mentioned, I did want to participate again with this since I know I've got a whole smattering of small-ish games that I could attempt and there's a bunch I've held off on playing because I thought I'd save them for Backlaugust. A Short Hike is an example of this. Although it was a slow start, when I first reported in with the 5 games I had played over the 8 days I started to get finally get some gaming time and play, it had me thinking what next. I went through my Backloggery account and started making a list of all sorts of titles I thought could be short enough or allow me to reach the credits fairly quickly that I'd never touched and some that I had started and then didn't get back to. I had a list of over 30 games that seemed to have potential for this. If I was at 5, it would be nice to hit that 10 mark and reach that double digit figure. That's a pretty big goal right there. Just look at the last couple years. No one reported in of hitting that mark. It was all under 10 games.
And by the end of the weekend, I was able to do that. It also suddenly made the leaderboard race more interesting and perhaps that also fueled Mop it up to change her initial plans for the month and look for shorter games to play and also reach for the top. After that weekend and hitting 10, I wondered how much I might have to play this month to get the top spot. Despite often being in the hunt, I've kept getting second place and only stayed on top once which is when I had a 13 game total. RAB had 16 in the first event, Mop it up had 10 in the second and 17 in the third. Then it was my 13 and then Broodwars had it with 8 the last two. With the way things were going this month with Broodwars already putting in his best total so far at this time and knowing there were quite a few Sonic Game Gear games for Mop it up to use, it felt like a high number would be needed this time. Why couldn't Broodwars and Mop it have have completed this many games the last couple years when the barrier to the top was so low, I don't know. But suddenly its an arms race this year when I thought the door was going to be wide open for the top spot. What happened to Princess Peach: Showtime and Echoes of Wisdom. That should have been your month right there! But, oh no! Suddenly it's a classic game collection to play through again like the Mega Man X games and Castlevania games in years past.
And Broodwars has never cracked double digits before in all these past events but suddenly this year, he's like RABicle in the first event.
It felt like 17 or 18 would probably have to be reached. Could I do it? Looking at the list of titles I had narrowed as possible for hitting the credits quickly enough, I felt there was indeed potential to do so. In fact, not only that. I felt that I could do something that hadn't been done yet before and that was to hit the 20 game mark. Mop it up was the closest so far with 17 which is just a bit over beating a game every two days in August. For myself, having come into the event late, it would pretty much mean I'd be at a game a day pace because it was about the 10 or 11 of August that I finally got playing. Based on how that third week went, I felt I could probably do another 5 on the last weekend. Which meant if I could beat a game every night for the 5 days leading up to that weekend, then I could probably do it. Plus, there was the Monday night of the 31st for a little extra leeway if needed. I found some titles I felt would give me that ability to finish them in a night and I was pretty much able to do that. Mega Man IV carried over a night but I finished it and another game that same night to keep up the pace.
I felt a little bad as it seemed like Broodwars would likely match his output from the last two years at 16 and yet this year that would turn out to be not quite enough for the top spot. As I was hitting the 15 mark, he mentioned having a bit of a surprise up his sleeve which made me wonder if he might be able to get close or even reach 20 himself. But I still felt if I could hit 20 by the end of Sunday than I'd probably be alright and still would have Monday night to counter if he did also reach 20 or was right behind me at 19.
With Saturday, it took a while a for me to get started. I think the gaming of the week caught up with me a bit and it was after 1 PM before I even got up. Took awhile before I even started playing anything but started with Super Monkey Ball 3D. How Long to Beat pegged it at about an hour. I think I may have doubled that. I probably could have done it quicker if I'd just ignored the bananas on the stage and kept going straight for the goal. A few times if I was getting frustrated with a stage then I'd start to do that. Yet, after a stage or two, once again, I'd start trying to collect all the bananas on the way to the end. Game was pretty easy through the first four worlds. I think I fell off about 6 times over the 40 stages I played and 4 of those were in the third world. The fourth world was kind of easier. Then things got tougher with the next 3 worlds. Fortunately, the game doesn't punish you and make you restart the whole world over if you run out of lives. You can just choose to continue and keep going at the current stage you are at with the only loss being that your point total is put back to 0 as you start again from that point. Thus, it made it pretty easy when your goal was just to play through to get to the credits and not worry about a high score. Another thing that the game made easier in that regard was that you only have to beat the 1-7 worlds to reach the credits. There is an 8th world that comes after but you don't need to play that to get the credits so that helped eliminate some difficulty.
As a quick review, I quite enjoyed jumping back into a Monkey Ball game. It's been so long. I haven't touched the series in years despite buying a lot of the titles for past systems. Really, it's just been the GameCube games that I've only experienced the series in up to this point. It's almost like Sonic. Keep buying those games when its really just the GameCube titles I'd mainly played for a Sonic experience (give or take a Sonic Rush DS here and there). Playing it reminded me that there's some Monkey Ball games for Switch I should be looking into getting. Didn't really do anything with the multiplayer modes. Sadly, there seemed to be very little games included for that side of it. Playing Monkey Soccer, Baseball, Target and others in Super Monkey Ball 2 was a big highlight for that game to go along with the challenging single player courses. On the other hand, I feel like multiplayer might not be the best focus for a handheld version and there's a lot of 3DS multiplayer games/modes I've just never been able to get much chance to play like all the Mario Party games for the 3DS. It feels like single-player should be more of the focus for a handheld version anyways. Looking it up after, it seems there is no 9th or 10th world meaning 8 worlds at a total of 80 stages is all there is. Compared to the usual 10 worlds and 100 stages of the past games I'd played, the single player campaign is smaller when I'd think it should be larger. Oh well. I really liked the look of the game. The 3D is still a nice touch and effect for me and while a bit simpler in graphics compared to the GC games, I felt the look was clean and appealing. The music reminded me that this is a Sega game. Something about their music. I liked the more techno music for the factory world and something in the lyrics about getting freaky with my body. While I've often said I'm not a big fan of arcade style games and just trying to keep beating one's high score, I could see myself going back to that game and trying to complete some of those worlds without a continue to get a better score and replay some other levels to see if I could get all the bananas they have and hit the goal in time. There are some items to find in stages which act as collectibles/trophies to view so still have that to do as well. Definitely a shot in the arm to make me enthused again about playing more Monkey Ball.
After doing nothing the past couple years, as mentioned, I did want to participate again with this since I know I've got a whole smattering of small-ish games that I could attempt and there's a bunch I've held off on playing because I thought I'd save them for Backlaugust. A Short Hike is an example of this. Although it was a slow start, when I first reported in with the 5 games I had played over the 8 days I started to get finally get some gaming time and play, it had me thinking what next. I went through my Backloggery account and started making a list of all sorts of titles I thought could be short enough or allow me to reach the credits fairly quickly that I'd never touched and some that I had started and then didn't get back to. I had a list of over 30 games that seemed to have potential for this. If I was at 5, it would be nice to hit that 10 mark and reach that double digit figure. That's a pretty big goal right there. Just look at the last couple years. No one reported in of hitting that mark. It was all under 10 games.
And by the end of the weekend, I was able to do that. It also suddenly made the leaderboard race more interesting and perhaps that also fueled Mop it up to change her initial plans for the month and look for shorter games to play and also reach for the top. After that weekend and hitting 10, I wondered how much I might have to play this month to get the top spot. Despite often being in the hunt, I've kept getting second place and only stayed on top once which is when I had a 13 game total. RAB had 16 in the first event, Mop it up had 10 in the second and 17 in the third. Then it was my 13 and then Broodwars had it with 8 the last two. With the way things were going this month with Broodwars already putting in his best total so far at this time and knowing there were quite a few Sonic Game Gear games for Mop it up to use, it felt like a high number would be needed this time. Why couldn't Broodwars and Mop it have have completed this many games the last couple years when the barrier to the top was so low, I don't know. But suddenly its an arms race this year when I thought the door was going to be wide open for the top spot. What happened to Princess Peach: Showtime and Echoes of Wisdom. That should have been your month right there! But, oh no! Suddenly it's a classic game collection to play through again like the Mega Man X games and Castlevania games in years past.
And Broodwars has never cracked double digits before in all these past events but suddenly this year, he's like RABicle in the first event. It felt like 17 or 18 would probably have to be reached. Could I do it? Looking at the list of titles I had narrowed as possible for hitting the credits quickly enough, I felt there was indeed potential to do so. In fact, not only that. I felt that I could do something that hadn't been done yet before and that was to hit the 20 game mark. Mop it up was the closest so far with 17 which is just a bit over beating a game every two days in August. For myself, having come into the event late, it would pretty much mean I'd be at a game a day pace because it was about the 10 or 11 of August that I finally got playing. Based on how that third week went, I felt I could probably do another 5 on the last weekend. Which meant if I could beat a game every night for the 5 days leading up to that weekend, then I could probably do it. Plus, there was the Monday night of the 31st for a little extra leeway if needed. I found some titles I felt would give me that ability to finish them in a night and I was pretty much able to do that. Mega Man IV carried over a night but I finished it and another game that same night to keep up the pace.
I felt a little bad as it seemed like Broodwars would likely match his output from the last two years at 16 and yet this year that would turn out to be not quite enough for the top spot. As I was hitting the 15 mark, he mentioned having a bit of a surprise up his sleeve which made me wonder if he might be able to get close or even reach 20 himself. But I still felt if I could hit 20 by the end of Sunday than I'd probably be alright and still would have Monday night to counter if he did also reach 20 or was right behind me at 19.
With Saturday, it took a while a for me to get started. I think the gaming of the week caught up with me a bit and it was after 1 PM before I even got up. Took awhile before I even started playing anything but started with Super Monkey Ball 3D. How Long to Beat pegged it at about an hour. I think I may have doubled that. I probably could have done it quicker if I'd just ignored the bananas on the stage and kept going straight for the goal. A few times if I was getting frustrated with a stage then I'd start to do that. Yet, after a stage or two, once again, I'd start trying to collect all the bananas on the way to the end. Game was pretty easy through the first four worlds. I think I fell off about 6 times over the 40 stages I played and 4 of those were in the third world. The fourth world was kind of easier. Then things got tougher with the next 3 worlds. Fortunately, the game doesn't punish you and make you restart the whole world over if you run out of lives. You can just choose to continue and keep going at the current stage you are at with the only loss being that your point total is put back to 0 as you start again from that point. Thus, it made it pretty easy when your goal was just to play through to get to the credits and not worry about a high score. Another thing that the game made easier in that regard was that you only have to beat the 1-7 worlds to reach the credits. There is an 8th world that comes after but you don't need to play that to get the credits so that helped eliminate some difficulty.
As a quick review, I quite enjoyed jumping back into a Monkey Ball game. It's been so long. I haven't touched the series in years despite buying a lot of the titles for past systems. Really, it's just been the GameCube games that I've only experienced the series in up to this point. It's almost like Sonic. Keep buying those games when its really just the GameCube titles I'd mainly played for a Sonic experience (give or take a Sonic Rush DS here and there). Playing it reminded me that there's some Monkey Ball games for Switch I should be looking into getting. Didn't really do anything with the multiplayer modes. Sadly, there seemed to be very little games included for that side of it. Playing Monkey Soccer, Baseball, Target and others in Super Monkey Ball 2 was a big highlight for that game to go along with the challenging single player courses. On the other hand, I feel like multiplayer might not be the best focus for a handheld version and there's a lot of 3DS multiplayer games/modes I've just never been able to get much chance to play like all the Mario Party games for the 3DS. It feels like single-player should be more of the focus for a handheld version anyways. Looking it up after, it seems there is no 9th or 10th world meaning 8 worlds at a total of 80 stages is all there is. Compared to the usual 10 worlds and 100 stages of the past games I'd played, the single player campaign is smaller when I'd think it should be larger. Oh well. I really liked the look of the game. The 3D is still a nice touch and effect for me and while a bit simpler in graphics compared to the GC games, I felt the look was clean and appealing. The music reminded me that this is a Sega game. Something about their music. I liked the more techno music for the factory world and something in the lyrics about getting freaky with my body. While I've often said I'm not a big fan of arcade style games and just trying to keep beating one's high score, I could see myself going back to that game and trying to complete some of those worlds without a continue to get a better score and replay some other levels to see if I could get all the bananas they have and hit the goal in time. There are some items to find in stages which act as collectibles/trophies to view so still have that to do as well. Definitely a shot in the arm to make me enthused again about playing more Monkey Ball.
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General Gaming / Re: Backlaugust 2026 - (Splatoon) Raiding the Backlog
« Last post by Khushrenada on September 03, 2026, 01:27:35 AM »Well, I guess it is time to weigh in with the final games I finished.
Over the weekend, I got through 5 games. But that was just the appetizer and I'd need to get through more than that if I wanted the lead so on Monday, I played through and beat Xenoblade Chronicles 3DS, Xenoblade Chronicles 2, and Xenoblade Chronicles 3. And just in case Broodwars had one more game in him for that Monday, I decided to also play through and beat Final Fantasy games 1 through 10. It looks like that should just do it to get me to the top of the leaderboard.
Over the weekend, I got through 5 games. But that was just the appetizer and I'd need to get through more than that if I wanted the lead so on Monday, I played through and beat Xenoblade Chronicles 3DS, Xenoblade Chronicles 2, and Xenoblade Chronicles 3. And just in case Broodwars had one more game in him for that Monday, I decided to also play through and beat Final Fantasy games 1 through 10. It looks like that should just do it to get me to the top of the leaderboard.
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