Review The Last Game You Beat

[BlueMue]

How the heck did you learn the patterns traps of Mega Man 9 without dying? I don't even see that as a usable phrase with that series.

I had quite a lot of practice runs of the regular stages and a few of the Wily Castle (making it to the Wily Machine once) before I started a serious attempt. Of course it's impossible to beat the game without dying the first time through. But like I said the more you play it the better you get and once you know how to go through it and use the items from the shops wisely it's not all that hard.

I finished the "speed run" earlier today (made it in 41:58) and right now I'm up to the Wily Castle that I have to beat without using E-tanks or M-tanks. Things are gonna get tough from here on...

[Jokatech19]

Mega Man 7

In honor of BlueMue, I've beaten Mega Man 7. I've had the game for years, and never beaten it. Once I buckled down, I was able to get into the game and move through the stages. It's a typical Megaman game. I really don't see a need to do an elaborate review, as these games follow a tried and true formula. The last boss was a bit difficult. Overall, I liked the game. I didn't love it immensely. 7.9/10

[Peter]

Layton Brothers, Mystery Room.

This is a iOS, later released on Android murder mystery game. Some have compared it to the Ace Attorney series, but I would personally agree that feels closer to a DS game called Unsolved Crimes.

Gameplay:

The gameplay in Layton Brothers is quite simple - the case starts with news of a murder. Using a crime reconstruction machine, you are given five minutes to look around - the crime scenes take the form of a room that can be rotated around, with yellow circles indicating points of interest. Clicking on one of these circles takes you to a zoomed in view, where you can look for evidence. A check mark will appear inside the yellow circle once you have found everything there is to find in that area.

Once the five minutes are up, you are asked to make a guess on whom you believe to be the killer, based on the evidence and testimony's you have so far. After that, the suspected culprit (unfortunately, based on Alfendi's theories, rather than yours) is called into the office for an interview - this comprises of rechecking the crime scene to find items such as the murder weapon, or to look for additional evidence. You will also have to answer questions about the crime.

Following that, there is then a final showdown with the real culprit. This takes place in the station interview room, and main comprises of answering more questions, and presenting evidence to show contradictions in the culprits statements. Unlike Ace Attorney, you will always argue against one single statement at a time, you are not given a testimony comprised of a number of statements, and asked to find the one that contains the contradiction. During the showdown, the culprit appears with a stone mask over a heart, and as they take "damage", the mask will slowly chip away, until finally the heart turns to stone and cracks.

Layton Brothers is a very forgiving game; you are not penalised in any way for picking an incorrect piece of evidence, or answering a question incorrectly, aside from a brief scolding. Some people like this, others don't.

Layton Brothers has no voice acting, but several of the characters do have phonetic accents, including Lucy. I'm just pointing this out since I know that annoys some people, also, some reviews of this game mention that they didn't initially realise that Lucy had an accent, and thought that the game had been terribly translated.

Music:

Not something I usually comment on when I review; but in this case, some of the music was done by Yuzo Koshiro, who also composed some of Shenmue's songs. The soundtrack is okay, it's mainly jazz type songs, which is not my favourite genre of music, but the soundtrack is pleasant enough, and there are a couple of tracks that I did really like.

Story:

You play as Lucy, a new police officer from Northern England. Despite having done quite badly in her exams, she is transferred over to the Mystery Room in Scotland Yard, a place where all the unsolved crimes are sent to, to work as an assistant for the brilliant Inspector, Alfendi Layton. After testing Lucy by asking her to work a murder case, Alfendi offers Lucy a position as his assistant.

At first, Lucy and Alfendi seem to have a number of similarities to Luke and Hershel, Lucy is quite outspoken, and can be quick to jump to conclusions, but is also compassionate, and determined to find the true culprit in any case. Alfendi appears to be much like his father, Hershel, quiet, even-tempered, polite and considerate though without so much of a fixation on puzzles, and gentlemanly behaviour - however, it is made clear right from the outset that there's a little more to Alfendi than meets the eye - under certain circumstances, Alfendi has quite the drastic personality change, from even-tempered and somewhat oblivious, to angry and intense.

There is a main story arc in the game, though it doesn't really start until the middle of the game. The first cases are mostly self-contained with some foreshadowing for the main arc. Although this game is a murder mystery, it's often more about how the killer did the deed, rather than whom the actual killer was.

The writing is quite good, the story isn't quite up to the earlier Ace Attorney games, but it does unfortunately suffer the same occasional issue that Ace Attorney did; where Phoenix, who was generally competent, had a few occasions of overlooking something blindingly obvious, or doing something rather ridiculous in order to move the story along/have Phoenix be dramatically rescued. In Layton Brothers, Lucy is fairly consistent in her detective ability, but Alfendi can be a little erratic as Phoenix could - there is one case, where the culprit proceeds to mention something only the killer would know three times, and every mention apparently flies straight over both Lucy and Meek Alfendi's head - Meek Alfendi ends up going into Angry Alfendi mode, and almost immediately calls the killer out on it. It comes across as both bizarre that Meek Alfendi overlooked such a glaring contradiction, and almost like the writers were struggling to find a way to shove Angry Alfendi into the case.

The ending isn't the most satisfying; it is clear that Level-5 were thinking of a sequel, but rather than going for an ending that more or less ties everything up, with a "To be Continued", or just leaves a minor plot point open for further exploration in further games, there are a number of unanswered questions at the end of this game. It's not on the levels of the protagonists being left in a cave, but still somewhat frustrating; especially since this game seems to have rather mixed reactions, and I'm not sure how well it did sales wise.

I hope the game does have a sequel, the story isn't quite up to Ace Attorney's standards, nor is the gameplay, but there's definite potential; the writing is quite good, and many of the characters are likable. It should also be noted that the decision to place this game in the Layton universe wasn't made until quite late in development, something that wouldn't be an issue for any sequels.

There are nine cases in the game, but all are quite short; I finished the game in around five-six hours. The first couple cases are free (at least on Google Play), with there being two packs that cost around £2.00 each to unlock the remaining cases.

[Jesse]

The last game I beat was beyond two souls i loved it. Ellen and willam knocked it out with their acting. It was another great QD game. Also it was my first steel book purchase (which i adore). Despite its mixed reviews and 23 million budget i hope Sony is happy with what they accomplished. I also hope they eventually snatch up QD but they may be more hesitant with it only selling a million copies. Though i personally consider it a success seeing as how gta v came out two weeks before bts and also the ps4 and x1 were releasing in November.

Onto GTA V. The storyline was okay at best i didn't enjoy Trevor and didn't care for Michael and his family. Franklin had somewhat of a arch where he climbed to the top. Granted I've never really got the hoopla over gtas stories. gta sa is still my favorite in the bunch. But back to v the world is both good and bad. There's activities to do but also the world feels bloated and empty at the same time. I've never been more frustrated at a gta game then i was during those missions especially the Michael flight school one! I never raged so hard during that one specifically.

Then before that it was The Last Of Us a amazing game simply nothing more to say that hasn't already been said. I believe ND is the best studio going today.

Side note: games I'm looking forward to are Perosna 5 (hope it releases this year in the states.) Yakuza 5 (finally! We are getting this game and it'll be my first digital purchase. I was wondering playing a digital game is it like Netflix where it'll pause for a second and buffer or will it be streamless?) Last game is DR another episode ultimate girls(I'm ready to dive back into the crazy twists and turns of the insane DR universe)

[Henry Spencer]

Just beat Armored Core 4 (PS3).



Game was badass as shit, man. My entry into the series was through Armored Core 2, which I enjoyed but dropped since other games came out. Then I saw Armored Core 4 for a cheap price and since I'm now a From Software nut, had to try it out. Originally I was going to shelve it and place it in my backlog but then I saw that it was Hidetaka Miyazaki's directorial debut and was "fuck everything else, I'm playing this NOW!" then of course other games came out (including From Software's Bloodborne, which I am nearing the end of now) and I put this aside for a bit. Just dived back into it yesterday and today and put in a lot of hours playing all of the missions.



To say that I got super addicted would be an understatement - I now have hand cramp. But it was worth it. I haven't played a mech game as great as this since...Front Mission on the Nintendo DS around five years ago! It really is that damn good. I was even surprised by how much I was enjoying the presentation/story/lore of the game considering it could really be just considered background noise to most people. How it's all of these corporations (of which there are many) fighting each other over basically nothing and ruining the world was subtly powerful in its own way. It's got this...nihilistic tone throughout and has that presentation/ambience to it that feels distinctively like a From Software game, that I love so much. The storytelling is mysterious, just as a good From Software game should be. I also found the characters and bosses interesting and sound rather demented/weird again, just in the typical From Software fashion that I like. The soundtrack is also really underrated and some of the music wouldn't sound that out of place in Miyazaki's later gems like Demon's Souls. The way the mech feels/controls is just fantastic. I love the way combat in this game feels and got the hang of it pretty quick considering I was a newcomer to this series.



Another feature that I like about From Software games is the difficulty level - it never feels cheap or frustrating to me, just incredibly challenging just like their other works. I can't praise the sense of accomplishment I get from their games enough, since some of these missions get really tough later on and required multiple tries before getting it right. Another point of accomplishment this game gets right is the sense of scale. Yes, the map is sometimes limited, but the sense of the size of some of these enemies is captured really well and framed as you being against the odds every time. The mission variety is so, so good in this game. Even when the game has you revisiting maps again, each mission is completely different from the last.

The amount of customisation is also a factor that speaks to my micromanagement obsession. Love this in Front Mission and love it here too - I fitted my mech with a bazooka, a rifle, a pistol attachment, two rocket launchers on each arm and a jammer on my mech's shoulder to deflect enemy missiles. I tinkered with the machine throughout, altering its weapons throughout and each and every weapon I had was really fun to use.

I can't praise Hidetaka Miyazaki enough on this front, this is one of the best directorial debuts I've seen for a game. I realise a lot of this might be because I haven't played through prior Armored Core games, but this game was lightning fast compared to what I played of Armored Core 2. For a series that I've seen some complain doesn't refine enough and "stays the same", this game certainly seemed refined enough for me and very different from Armored Core 2. I enjoyed every moment of it, even if it was a rather short game, every moment of the game was incredible to me. Makes me look forward to trying all of these other Armored Core games out. Probably will go with either For Answer or (the divisive) Armored Core V next.

One last thing, Joshua O'Brien is a badass. *salutes*

[Raithos]

Hell yeah man glad you liked it. That's absolutely one of the best in the series, it ushered in a faster meaner approach to the game play. The main titles like that always have a sequel/follow up and AC4 and For Answer are the best one two punch there is. Although Nexus might be my favorite since its a full game on one disc and classic missions remade in the new engine on another. The next part is personal taste, but its tough to argue against AC4 having the best mech designs in the series as well.

[OL]

I still haven't personally finished AC4 yet, but what I have played was great. You're referencing back to AC2 as your only other experience with the series, but keep in mind there are... jeez, I'm just counting it out on my fingers, and I'm finding seven games in the series that came out between AC2 and AC4. So it is a series that changed incrementally as it went along. Always keep in mind that earlier games might be a little harder to get into because of slightly antiquated controls, but I'd still recommend the whole series all the same.
Funny you hit this point right now, actually, as I just started ACV again, with the hopes that I might play through more of the series after I beat it. I've personally only beaten the first three on the PS1 and ACV on PS3 (which is amazing; different from AC4, but that's the only real reason it ended up so divisive), but it's one of those overall gaming goals of mine to get through the entire series eventually. I've at least tried every one of them for a couple hours (and actually do own every one), so I know I'll love the whole shebang.
Nice to see you could recognize the stories and soundtrack for the greatness they are, too; like you said, most people seem to ignore the stories in these games, but I've personally always loved how complex they really are, with this big variety of corporations and characters popping up and intersecting. I think many people just have trouble following a story without having faces to go along with names, so it all tends to get ignored, but I love this sort of "detail-oriented" stuff myself. And the soundtracks are always wildly-underrated; consistently-excellent through the whole series, but rarely mentioned in gaming music discussions. It's a little like the Ace Combat series in that regard.

Pro tip: if you end up playing earlier games in the series at any point (anything on PS1 or 2, prior to Nexus), you'll probably find the controls really hard to get used to; no dual-analog control, and the up/down camera control relegated to shoulder buttons (awkward as hell). So I recommend altering the buttons to mimic dual-analog sticks (all movement controls on the D-pad, all camera control on the face buttons), with the shoulder buttons controlling all boosting and firing. Makes it a heeeeeell of a lot easier to get into that way. Or at least it was for me.

[BlueMue]

Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins

I recently got a hold of this game again. I played it when I was young and I remember really liking it.
Well I still enjoyed it playing through it after all those years. It's a really good 2D Mario game and definately one of the best on a handheld. It has memorable Zones like the huge robot mario with all the gears or the levels on the moon. The music in this one is especially enjoyable. Like usual in a Mario game it's only the 3 or 4 themes that get reused all over the place but there are a couple of unique level tracks on top of that. Most importantly the melodies are really catchy here and sound great on the Game Boy. I find this soundtrack to be more enjoyable then Mario 3 or SMW.
The game is a bit short and really easy. There is a pretty big jump in difficulty for Wario's castle but it's only that one level and Wario himself is still no problem.

Overall I think it doesn't beat what Mario 3 and SMW have to offer but hey, it's just a handheld game. It's definately a hell of a lot better then the first Mario Land with it's microscopic sprites.

[Henry Spencer]

Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins

I recently got a hold of this game again. I played it when I was young and I remember really liking it.
Well I still enjoyed it playing through it after all those years. It's a really good 2D Mario game and definately on of the best on a handheld. It has memorable Zone like the huge robot mario with all the gears or the levels on the moon. The music in this one is especially enjoyable. Like usual in a Mario game it's only the 3 or 4 themes that get reused all over the place but there are a couple of unique level tracks ontop of that. Most importantly the melodies are really catchy here and sound great on the Game Boy. I find this soundtrack to be more enjoyable then Mario 3 or SMW.
The game is a bit short and really easy. There is a pretty big spike in difficulty for Wario's castle but it's only that one level and Wario himself is still no problem.

Overall I think it doesn't beat what Mario 3 and SMW have to offer but hey, it's just a handheld game. It's definately a hell of a lot better then the first Mario Land with it's microscopic sprites.

I loved that game back in the day on my Game Boy. It's a far better game than the first Mario Land, which was my first Mario game. I really liked Wario's introduction and the fact that he got his own Mario Land game (which I highly recommend, by the way). Did you grab it off the eShop for 3DS or get it for Game Boy?

Hell yeah man glad you liked it. That's absolutely one of the best in the series, it ushered in a faster meaner approach to the game play. The main titles like that always have a sequel/follow up and AC4 and For Answer are the best one two punch there is. Although Nexus might be my favorite since its a full game on one disc and classic missions remade in the new engine on another. The next part is personal taste, but its tough to argue against AC4 having the best mech designs in the series as well.

Oh yeah, the mech designs were amazing and I liked that they showed them off during the loading screens. From Software definitely has got one of the best art teams in the game industry. Even just looking at their games from way back when, they've always had unique art design on whatever game they've put out. I'm really going to try out all of the games in the series now.

I still haven't personally finished AC4 yet, but what I have played was great. You're referencing back to AC2 as your only other experience with the series, but keep in mind there are... jeez, I'm just counting it out on my fingers, and I'm finding seven games in the series that came out between AC2 and AC4. So it is a series that changed incrementally as it went along. Always keep in mind that earlier games might be a little harder to get into because of slightly antiquated controls, but I'd still recommend the whole series all the same.
Funny you hit this point right now, actually, as I just started ACV again, with the hopes that I might play through more of the series after I beat it. I've personally only beaten the first three on the PS1 and ACV on PS3 (which is amazing; different from AC4, but that's the only real reason it ended up so divisive), but it's one of those overall gaming goals of mine to get through the entire series eventually. I've at least tried every one of them for a couple hours (and actually do own every one), so I know I'll love the whole shebang.
Nice to see you could recognize the stories and soundtrack for the greatness they are, too; like you said, most people seem to ignore the stories in these games, but I've personally always loved how complex they really are, with this big variety of corporations and characters popping up and intersecting. I think many people just have trouble following a story without having faces to go along with names, so it all tends to get ignored, but I love this sort of "detail-oriented" stuff myself. And the soundtracks are always wildly-underrated; consistently-excellent through the whole series, but rarely mentioned in gaming music discussions. It's a little like the Ace Combat series in that regard.

Pro tip: if you end up playing earlier games in the series at any point (anything on PS1 or 2, prior to Nexus), you'll probably find the controls really hard to get used to; no dual-analog control, and the up/down camera control relegated to shoulder buttons (awkward as hell). So I recommend altering the buttons to mimic dual-analog sticks (all movement controls on the D-pad, all camera control on the face buttons), with the shoulder buttons controlling all boosting and firing. Makes it a heeeeeell of a lot easier to get into that way. Or at least it was for me.

Oh yeah, I realise that the series is massive. I was blown away by how many games in the series there are - got a lot of catching up to do now. I'm just tempted by V and Verdict Day because of the online co-op, although I wouldn't be at all surprised if From Software's next game is a new Armored Core for PS4/Xbox One and they shut down the servers for Verdict Day pretty soon after that announcement. I'm going to try out Armored Core 2 again and seeing as how pretty much all of From Software's old library on PSOne is getting put on to the PSN, I'll be buying all of From Software's PSOne titles off there and will try out the original Armored Core too.

Also, I'll keep the controls comment in mind - sounds like the way you mapped them is pretty similar to later Armored Core games like 4 anyway. As for the story, I like how you're not really told this but by the end of Armored Core 4's storyline it's pretty obvious that

the world is pretty much in ruins thanks to the pointless war that had no meaning behind it. Definitely some neat commentary - when war is being fought by corporations, not by politics, war had lost any meaning.

I was used to the complex various corporations/factions fighting it out in mechs thanks to Front Mission, so it goes well with me. I like that each numbered game is apparently set in its own universe, which is pretty similar to their philosophy with most of their games - making each game unique and worth playing. I'm kind of sad about Chromehounds multiplayer being shut down, since I would have liked to play that one before it closed down.

[BlueMue]

I loved that game back in the day on my Game Boy. It's a far better game than the first Mario Land, which was my first Mario game. I really liked Wario's introduction and the fact that he got his own Mario Land game (which I highly recommend, by the way). Did you grab it off the eShop for 3DS or get it for Game Boy?

I got the original for the Game Boy and played it on the Game Boy Player. I always try to get the originals, not too much into those Virtual Console releases. The game is cheap enough to pick up an original cartridge.

Funny enough the first Mario Land was also the first Mario game I ever played. It was even the first game I ever got besides Tetris that came with the Game Boy, my very first own game system. It came on a massively oversized 150in1 cartridge that I bought new on a flea market specifically for Mario Land. Funny to think how things went back then and that I didn't became a Mario fan but instead a Sonic fan when my gaming career really kicked off when I got the Mega Drive a year or so later.

[Henry Spencer]

Similar to myself then - I became more of a SEGA fan and a much bigger fan of Sonic. I didn't really become a fan of Mario until the N64 came around. Funny thing also we have in common - Tetris was also my second game on the system. I got so addicted to it and think it's really the only puzzle game to ever capture me into addiction like that. Game Boy was also the only handheld system I had until I briefly got a GBA, which I never really got into.

My love of handheld systems would really fly off again when Nintendo released the DS. I do admit I was always fascinated by the Game Gear from SEGA back in the day, but I had a choice between that and some new games for Mega Drive and you know how it is, Mega Drive always won out.

[BlueMue]

Forza Horizon 2 Presents Fast & Furious

Grabbed this on the 360 for free. It says it's only free until April 10th but it still is!

Anyway this is somewhat of a Fast & Furious DLC for Forza Horizon 2 except that it's standalone and can be played without owning Horizon 2. I really like racing games especially this kind of racing. I haven't played Horizon 2 but I did play the first Horizon and it was a lot of fun and so is this Horzion 2 special. It's short and easy, takes only 3-4 hours to beat but it gives a nice selection of cars and is full of little throwbacks to the Fast & Furious movies, wich I also enjoyed watching. It's only only a part of one of the maps that Horizon 2 has to offer but still enough to drive around and have fun exploring. It's very much arcade style and the cars are really easy to handle, making it a blast to play.

It may be an advertisment vehicle but it's done well. Considering that this is (at least until now) free I can only recommend it to just about anyone interested in racing whatsoever to get this game. It's also on the Xbox One.

[Thief]

Shin Megami Tensei IV

Overall I really enjoyed the game, but it's certainly not perfect. The game is difficult, but I wouldn't say it's difficult in a good way. Most of the time it just feels cheap. Sometimes you'll get into a battle and the enemy will kill your whole team without you getting a turn. I know the game is about preparation and managing your weaknesses... but sometimes there is only so much you can do. I think the press turn system is really interesting, but it needs a lot more work, in my opinion, in order to make it a more balanced/enjoyable battle system.

Even though this game uses the Press Turn system as well, I found this game to be much more fun than Digital Devil Saga. There were much more options for customization via demons and the gameplay wasn't nearly as linear. DDS was still a fun game but I think that SMTIV is loads better.

Regardless, my main interest in the game ended up being Demon collection. I like monster collecting games like Pokémon, it was just so fun trying to fuse and collect all the Demons -- although they sure as hell made it hard to get enough money to do so. I still haven't even gotten close to getting them all (and apparently there are exclusive demons for each route).

Music in this game is amazing. Honestly gives off a very "escape from new york" kinda vibe

phpBB [video]

phpBB [video]

Anyway, the plot was... ok at best. I understand what they were going for, with the philosophical extremes and what not, but honestly I don't think it was presented very well. Everything just sort of lacked any weight to it. It's really hard to care about anything going on. The world, however, was very nicely realized -- just the narrative was lacking. I even got the "superior" neutral ending (which honestly just feels like filler and then two easy dungeons).

I'd recommend the game, just don't expect anything mind-blowing from the plot. It's a fun game with a decent (yet flawed) battle system, tons of monsters to collect, and amazing music.

EDIT: I forgot to mention, Demon negotiation, while infuriating at times, is hilarious and one of my favorite things ever.

[OL]

Rocket Knight (2010).
Beat it in just under 2 hours. Not a long game at all, so if one were to buy it, it'd probably be best to do it during a sale.
The game is about what I figured it'd be; a fun platformer, but certainly not good enough to live up to the legacy of the original game on Genesis. The original game was amazing in practically all respects. The gameplay was unique and inventive, the graphics beautiful, and the soundtrack was, for me, one of the best of the 16-bit era. Maybe I'm just nostalgic for the stuff I played religiously as a kid, but I can still separate quality from nostalgia, and Rocket Knight Adventures was quality all the way.
The 2010 iteration is a nice little homage, I suppose, but it's nowhere near the elegant brilliance of the original. It plays well enough, and it's one of those cases where nothing about it is particularly bad by any means, but it just ain't as memorable or fun as the original.
So y'know, worth a go if you get it for cheap, but don't expect anything even close to the original's near-perfection.

[Henry Spencer]

^Yeah, I was disappointed with it. It's not bad, but definitely forgettable. Did you ever get around to playing the other Sparkster games that Konami made back in the day? I never did finish Sparkster on the Mega Drive...and I've never played Sparkster on the SNES.