Games Beaten - January 2025

Good to see another person giving me the +1 to go for the original Trials of Mana through co-op on my snes mini. Excited to go through Swordcraft Story 2 when I eventually cop an anbernic SP, when I eventually go travel through England for 3 weeks. I do have an n3dsxl but I'd seppuku if I lost the stylus, and I wanna keep it truly pocketable, with no fiddling around while moving in and out of public transport.

Yeah, Swordcraft Story is truly a treat. I'd recommend playing the first one, too. 2 is a better game through and through, but the original is not half bad either.

As for Trials of Mana, I actually haven't played the SNES original, though I did play OG Secret of Mana. Regardless, I found the remake totally devoid of charm

PC | Shrine
Fun little gzdoom game with an amazing atmosphere, the final boss was frustrating but overall the game was still a good experience

PC | Touhou Koumakyou ~ The Embodiment of Scarlet Devil (AKA Touhou 6)
I ended 2024 with Touhou games (2,4,5) so I just continued, 6 is the first windows game of the series and is great. One of my favorite so far

PC | Touhou Youyoumu ~ Perfect Cherry Blossom (AKA Touhou 7)
7 is my favorite I beated it with Sakuya homing knives shot type, so op, it was so fun.

NES | Lawn Mower
Fun little gamejam game

PC | Touhou Eiyashou ~ Imperishable Night (AKA Touhou 8)
I hated it at first, because of the time limit but I got better to beat it, it's really not that bad.

PC | Heretic
Mixed feeling on this one the 3 first episodes are great, but the final two are just mob spam

PC | I Am Sakuya: Touhou FPS Game
Fun little gzdoom Touhou game, bullet hell works really well in a doom game here is the proof.

PC | Doom: Sigil
Great MEGAWAD from John Romero. Excellent.

PC | Touhou Fujinroku ~ Mountain of Faith (AKA Touhou 10)
Way harder than any previous installments but it was fun

PC | Heretic II
Sequel to Heretic, great game on Quake II engine, it's very short, I played it for the first time ages ago, it was one of my few very old retired game I've always wanted to get back to.

PC | Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
I'm currently playing all HP1 games and this one is the first I wanted to play, it's a replay since I did beat like 20 years ago, it's very unique, running on unreal engine 1. It's way too easy but it's still a great game.

PC | Jigoku Kisetsukan: Sense of the Seasons
A bullet hell touhou-like game, it was fun but I still prefer touhou games

After a couple of months without beating any game, I managed to complete 100% two:

- Indiana Jones and the Great Circle - SeriesX - 11/01 - 33:30 h
- Pokémon Ranger [Replay] - NDS - 13/01 - 15:34 h

I enjoyed both of them, but my favorite one was Indiana Jones by far. I'm a fan of Indiana Jones films, and I think it's the perfect way to make an Indy game. I like the old LucasArts games, especially the Atlantis one, but I LOVE this new game. It made me complete it 100% (just 1 achievement left because of a bug) and I found its exploration really fun.

My January 2025 was a mix of different games, ranging from indie to AA to AAA titles. It had a little bit of everything! x3

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle
Playtime: 33.22 hours (Main + Extra)
Rating: 9.5/10

Journey to the Savage Planet
Playtime: 15.52 hours (100% Complete)
Rating: 8.5/10

Get Even
Playtime: 9.11 hours (Main + Extra)
Rating: 8/10

Mouthwashing
Playtime: 2.27 hours (Main Story)
Rating: 8/10

The Coma: Recut
Playtime: 4.25 hours (Main + Extra)
Rating: 7/10

While We Wait Here
Playtime: 1.38 hours (Main + Extra)
Rating: 7/10

The Cabin Factory
Playtime: 1 hour (Main + Extra)
Rating: 7/10

[Bober Bros] The Hole
Playtime: 46 minutes (Main Story)
Rating: 6.5/10

Go Home Annie
Playtime: 3.04 hours (Main Story)
Rating: 6.5/10

The Park
Playtime: 2.03 hours (100% Complete)
Rating: 6/10

Gift Collector
Playtime: 39 minutes (Main Story)
Rating: 6/10

Evil Holiday
Playtime: 39 minutes (Main Story)
Rating: 6/10

Lonely Christmas
Playtime: 36 minutes (Main Story)
Rating: 4/10

Daddy’s Christmas
Playtime: 9 minutes (Main Story)
Rating: 2.5/10

My absolute highlight was Indiana Jones and the Great Circle. It would have been a 10/10 for me, but unfortunately, there were some annoying bugs towards the end, so I deducted 0.5 points. However, the game still completely surprised and thrilled me, and I can highly recommend it to everyone! ₍⑅ᐢ.ˬ.ᐢ₎

None for me to start off the year 😅. Had a couple I thought I’d be able to get in this month but I ended up taking a little gaming break to focus on some life things. Hopefully I’ll have one or two next month!

Jan 4 - Gravity Rush (PS Vita) - 9/10
Jan 5 - Shrek Superslam (GameCube) - 6/10
Jan 7 - Call of Duty: Black Ops (Xbox 360) - 7/10
Jan 8 - Affordable Space Adventures (Wii U) - 8/10
Jan 10 - The First Descendant - 7/10
Jan 19 - Balatro - 10/10
Jan 30 - Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag - 6/10

Best: Balatro
Worst: Shrek Superslam

Honestly, a kind of weak-ish start to the year. Usually play some of my favorite stuff of any given year in January.

01/01 - Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards (7/10)
01/02 - Sonic Advance (6/10)
01/02 - Bleed (7/10)
01/25 - Tales of Phantasia (6.5/10)
01/26 - Super Mario Advance (7/10)
01/29 - Donut County (Replay) (7.5/10)
01/30 - The Evil Within (6/10)
01/30 - The Evil Within: The Assignment (7.5/10)
01/30 - The Evil Within: The Consequence (7.5/10)
01/31 - The Evil Within: The Executioner (5/10)

Most Favorite: Since they were kind of a package deal, I'm gonna give this to both The Evil Within: The Assignment and The Evil Within: The Consequence. They actually make sense of a convoluted story and provide a good gameplay shift in a perfect runtime.

Least Favorite: Conversely, I'm giving this to The Evil Within: The Executioner. It's not bad but it's especially clunky and janky in an otherwise already clunky and janky game. It felt like it wasn't given enough development time and is beatable in about under an hour.

Personal Recommendation: I'm gonna give this to Super Mario Advance for being the absolute definitive way to play Super Mario Bros. 2. It's chalk-full of excellent presentation and polish, even if it's still Super Mario Bros. 2.

Another Year, Another fun & games:

Completed:
Dishonored
Dishonored 2
Dishonored: Death of the Outsider
Remothered: Tormented Fathers
Remothered: Broken Porcelain
Just Cause 2
Assassin's Creed Revelations
BlazBlue: Continuum Shift
Aragami

Replays:
Wolfenstein: The New Order
Wolfenstein: The Old Blood
Borderlands

Best: Aragami


Worst: Remothered Tormented Fathers

New Year but not much in the way of new resolutions!

Last year I participated in the HLTB challenge, which meant a good chunk of the games that I played were not a part of my backlog, and there was a focus on the shorter games, as I was racing to meet all the challenge categories.

As a result, my backlog did not shrink as much as I had hoped and went down from about 140+ games to 118. This year's focus is going to be solely on my backlog, so no HLTB participation, and at least one large game (14 hours or more) each month.

I will also continue buying only one game for every four I remove from the backlog, and hope to finish this year with a backlog of around 80-90 games – so still lots of games to go through.

I started the year quite well, finishing six games and cleaning up some DLCs I left behind last year in my rush to complete the HLTB challenge:

01-Jan-2025 - We Happy Few: Lightbearer (DLC) (PC) – 2H02M
03-Jan-2025 - Dungeon Siege (PC) – 37H34M
06-Jan-2025 - We Happy Few - We All Fall Down (DLC) (PC) – 3H47M
11-Jan-2025 - Crazy Machines 3 (PC) – 11H15M
14-Jan-2025 – Wolfenstein: The Old Blood (PC) – 6H52M
16-Jan-2025 – Contrast (PC) – 4H42M
27-Jan-2025 – Bad North (PC) – 9H59M
28-Jan-2025 – Of Orcs and Men (PC) – 15H28M

Both ‘Lightbearer’ and ‘We All Fall Down’ are ‘We Happy Few’ DLCs. They flash out the supporting cast of the main game in small, curated environments. In a way, I preferred the more focused episodes over the core game which has computer-generated large masses of land that felt empty and less engaging. With that, I finished all I wanted to do in ‘We Happy Few’ and can move it into the completed pile.

‘Dungeon Siege’ was a ‘very large’ game, clocking close to 40 hours to complete. I started it in early December and played it for about a month. Upon its release back in 2002, The title was highly praised, but I found its design too linear and gameplay very repetitive, with treasure worth almost nothing and side quests providing little extra exploration. Big parts of it felt like a chore and I was happy to see the credit screen.

I never played any of the many “Crazy Machines” type games, so this was a gentle introduction to pass the time while commuting or staying away. It was okay but by the time I finished the core eighty levels I had about enough.

‘Wolfenstein: The Old Blood’ is a Wolfenstein game! What more needs to be said? A brainless first-person shooter with punchy controls, many encounters and light RPG elements, the series is always fun to play, and this was no different. The only complaint was that this was shorter than other games in the series and at 6 to 7 hours of play, felt more like an appetiser than a main course.

The same goes for ‘Contrast’, the first game by Compulsion Games. A good puzzle platformer where you can move from the 3D environment into the 2D shadows projected on the walls and other surfaces. Lovely art direction, a harmless little story and some interesting puzzles, but very short and can be finished in one sitting if you put your mind to it.

Bad North was a game I got for free in the Epic store. An indie minimalist rogue-lite in which you must defend computer-generated islands from Viking invaders. Not really my kind of jam, so I played on the easy level and finished it on the third run. For what it is – it is very well executed, but the scope here is also limited. A good indie game.

Last was ‘Of Orc and Man’ – an old action RPG from the double-A studios of Spiders and Cyanide. It’s a linear experience with interesting gameplay that could have used more time in the oven. The linear level design was not great but the story and voice acting were decent, and it did not overstay its welcome. At 15 hours it was still a large game, but a short one when looking at the action RPG genre.

Overall, a month where none of the games were bad, but none were exciting either. It is probably a toss between Contrast and Wolfenstein for the best I played in January.

My Game Size Guide:
Tiny (0-2 hours), Small (2-6 hours), Medium (6-14 hours), Large (14-30 hours), Very Large (30-62), Epic (62+)

Super Mario RPG – Nintendo Switch – 80%
They cram a whole lot of game in here, but it doesn't really have anything to say narratively. I appreciate its cartoonish comedy and its visuals, but by the end I was getting sick of its combat.

Final Fantasy XVI – PlayStation 5 – 80%
Voice acting was the best part of the game, but Clive doesn't really have the same chemistry with anyone else after Cid dies. Side mission design was either cohesive or dull, and combat wasn't my favorite due to a lack of builds/variety/combo chaining. I wish there was also more thought put into the world-building, it felt like every area has a different government style just for the sake of it, and we rarely see the larger impacts of Clive's crusade on the people of FF16.

999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors – Emulated Nintendo DS – 80%
Escape room Danganronpa starring a douchey asshole- I liked how all the characters were distinct from one another and its Lord of the Flies-reminiscent theming with how human nature will regress if you stress it enough, but felt the sci-fi elements later in the story diluted all this.

Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest – Emulated Game Boy Advance – 75%
Fun platforming, but boy was the environment difficult to read most of the time. Dixie Kong also makes the game much more approachable, which is sad in a game named after Diddy Kong.

Pokémon Snap – Emulated N64 – 75%
Fun and cute and made me nostalgic for a time when there weren't even 200 Pokémon yet, but the requirements for what makes a "good" shot were inconsistent. Still, I'd play the new sequel on the Switch if I ever get some more digital vouchers.

Chroma Squad – Mac – 70%
Interesting opportunities to find synergy between all your characters in a tactical RPG, and fun music that reminded me of mid-to-late 2010's Cartoon Network, but there are way too many Patreon references in this game and it falls off on the last part by only letting you play as one character.

The Stillness of the Wind – Nintendo Switch – 45% (Retired)
A visual novel that was forced to be a video game- Telma is slow and not fun to play as, and the UI is difficult to read and scan. I didn't enjoy this game, even for all its pretty visuals and unsettling story.

Hi!

Well .. I am hooked to Retroachivements since December, so, my January is plenty of retro games (beaten in "hardcode" mode)

So .. lets see:

- Metro: Last Light Redux (PC/Geforce now) -> When I played this game some years ago I had the feeling of beaten a 10 score game, but in this replay I can say it is a great game, but no for 10 -> 12h 15m -> 8

- Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins (GB) -> It is a classic, what to say -> 2h 29m -> 8

- Momodora: Moonlit Farewell (PC) -> As a Metroid is good, but the gameplay is awesome -> 11h 48m -> 8

- Ad Infinitum (PC/Geforce now) -> I played this one thinking I was going to find an average walking simulator, but it surprised me -> 11h -> 8

- Burai Fighter (NES) -> I loved this game when I was a kid .. I completed this one in eagle, albatross and ace difficulty -> 4h 51m -> 8

- Paper Mario (N64) -> Really nice game, I have never played this one before, but I love Mario and Luigi RPG saga titles -> 36h 40m -> 8

- Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!! (NES) -> Played many times when I was a kid, I love this game (yes, I also beaten Mike Tyson .. I wanna cry xD) -> 3h 38m -> 9

- Celeste (PC) -> Very satisfying game -> 6h 22m -> 8

- Luigi's Mansion 2 (NSW) -> I liked a lot the frist Luigi's Mansion and I wanted to try the second title, but .. It is not good as the first one in my opinion -> 16h 50m -> 6

- Indika (PC/Geforce Now) -> This game is so weird than deserves to be played -> 5h 30m -> 8

- Mega Man: Dr. Wily's Revenge (GB) -> Playing without save states I can say that the password system does not have any sense in my opinion, at first the game gives you a lot of them but in the second game part you are alone -> 5h 51m -> 7

Regards!