@KALofKRYPTON I think Guilty Gear is a good time. It's deep but still good if you want to pick up and play. The "gatling" combo system makes it easier to do combos compared to Street Fighter, so it's a bit more accessible than the usual games. Also has an awesome soundtrack.
Alpha 3 is probably still my favorite Street Fighter. It's a game I just have a good time with no matter what.
"We don't get to choose how we start in this life. Real 'greatness' is what you do with the hand you're dealt." -Victor Sullivan "Building the future and keeping the past alive are one and the same thing." -Solid Snake
@RogerRoger Sounds like the perfect combination to show your tastes off from what I know of you! I love that you got a hanar t-shirt of all things. Finally those poor hanar get some well deserved recognition, even if the shirt itself is quoting something making fun of them, haha.
I'm glad you found some cool Star Wars shirts too, even if I know absolutely nothing about the franchise. Shame about Hitman, but probably the right choice... unless you ever want to become Ageht 47 himself.
@RogerRoger Ha! Blasto t-shirts definitely would be extravagant, I imagine. It's a shame the hanar kind of lost any and all prominence after the first Mass Effect, although I guess you could say the same for other races like the elcor and the volus. I would've loved to see more on any of those races, but alas.
@RogerRoger We should've gotten Blasto as a squadmate. Just temporarily, for one mission or something. Make it a mission where he's shooting a movie but it turns out the baddie actors are replaced with actual baddies or something. It would've been perfect tor the Citadel DLC!
Moving the discussion from the "Recently Beaten" thread since I'm about to start getting long-winded about an unrelated game.
@Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy That's surprising! Super Mario World is such a beloved game. I just kind of assume it's one of those games every gamer has at least heard of.
It's alright. I didn't hate it or anything. It's probably better than most 16-bit platformers out there. I just... didn't get a lot out of it, and while I appreciate the developers trying to create something radically different from SMB3, I feel like it's an inferior experience overall.
I wouldn't recommend people away from it, though. Aspects of its design really just didn't resonate with me, which is always a risk, but that's clearly not the case with most people who have experienced it. It's still a polished experience.
@LN78 A lot of people seem to like the creativity and design diversity of Galaxy 2, and I can understand that. The game is more challenging, and, on its own terms, it's a fun little game filled with different power-ups and mechanics. I've heard Nintendo used that game to flesh out various ideas that didn't make the cut for Galaxy, and, honestly, it feels like that: an expansive, playful cutting room floor full of gorgeous props and sets that are great in their own right, but didn't really jive with the mood of Galaxy. If we think of video games as elaborate toys designed to amuse and entertain, then Galaxy 2 is absolutely better.
But it's missing the things I loved about Galaxy. Galaxy is a masterpiece in a variety of ways. It has one of the greatest video game soundtracks ever, and, this can't be overstated, so much of Galaxy works just because of how sweeping the soundtrack is. It's equal parts whimsical, elegant, epic, and melancholic. That cocktail of feels is essential to the evolving emotional narrative of the game.
Consider the way the Observatory theme evolves from the very minimalistic first one...
...to the emotional, gorgeous third version...
...as you power up and explore the ship over the course of the game.
Simultaneously, you're exploring more of the universe on your epic cosmic trek and learning more about Rosalina, your mysterious benefactor, via the storybook chapters that unlock throughout the game (there's actually a sense of ambiguity here at first, because the game doesn't come right out and scream "THIS IS BACKSTORY!", which was a good move, I think).
I absolutely love how the storybook music combines a gentle sense of childhood innocence with an edge of melancholy. It's a beautiful sound:
Once The Reveal drops, of course, the music changes, and suddenly the sadness is overwhelming the gentle nostalgia:
I could post so many more songs from this game. The adventurous tunes that play as you set out across various galaxies. The frightening, dramatic music that accompanies Bowser (who, in practically a series first, is treated as a serious threat). Main point being, as you journey across the cosmos to save your beloved, the music goes on a journey with you.
The level design is this great halfway point between the exploratory openness of the sandboxy 3D Mario games and the 'obstacle course' design of 2D entries and 3D Land/World. It broadly directs you in a certain way, but there's often a lot of room to explore and play around. This isn't universally true, of course, and some levels are very linear, but the game in general does a good job of not making you feel like you're being funneled down a tunnel.
Not a fan of waggle or pointer controls, but both are utilized expertly here, with pointer controls being used to attract Star Bits and waggle being used to control Mario's oh-so-satisfying spin.
While the final boss could have been more challenging in Galaxy, the glorious music, vast stakes (Bowser has grand ambitions about seizing control of the universe here, which is a bit of a step up from -just- kidnapping a princess), and surprisingly cosmic and emotional climax (Never would have guessed a Mario game would end with sentient stars sacrificing themselves to stop a supermassive black hole from swallowing a galaxy, but here we are) makes it memorable.
And, of course, you have the challenging post-game and side content.
Galaxy 2 offers little, comparatively. Galaxy 2 sacrifices the gorgeous observatory, one of the best hub levels in series history, for some horrible ship that looks like Mario's face, for some reason. It has no story or emotional stakes. The world map is like some straight line from galaxy to galaxy, making it feel less like an adventure and more like a pack of mostly unrelated levels on a disc.
On a side note, despite not being crazy about Galaxy 2 and REALLY not liking SM64, I just love Galaxy 2's amazing remix of an iconic theme from 64 in the Throwback Galaxy:
@kyleforrester87 if your first experience of ff7 is right now you would probably dislike it too. I played secret of mana on the snes mini and ditched it after my first go, Metroid on the Nes mini - off after 10 minutes. Great games for the time but when you have played the many great games in the last generation it's a tough recommend to first time players. The barriers to entree are numerous with ff7. Rough polygonal graphics, stunted conversations, odd animations, gaps between save points, random battles and they are off the top of my head. FF10 is the only turnbased FF I would recommend to New players.
Forum Best Game of All Time Awards
PS3 Megathread 2019: The Last of Us
Multiplat 2018: Horizon Zero Dawn
Nintendo 2017: Super Mario Bros 3
Playstation 2016: Uncharted 2
Multiplat 2015: Final Fantasy 7
Yeah, an old housemate of mine downloaded FF7 on PC after I’d gone on about how brilliant it was and he gave up after less than an hour as he found it utterly dreadful on so many levels.
@Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy I agree Legend of Dragoon is soooo much better then FFVII. I never liked FFVII myself for me that when the series went down hill. Another PS RPG that I enjoyed waaay more then FFVII is Suikoden.
RetiredPush Square Moderator and all around retro gamer.
@themcnoisy I doubt i’d think it was bad, I play plenty of old games and enjoy them now, a good game is a good game. Although I’ll happily admit it wouldn’t be such a powerful experience as it was back then. Not only because of how technology has changed but I was a lot more impressionable back then too.
That said, I’ve seen plenty of people say they are playing FF7 for the first time (in particular since the HD version dropped) and they are really enjoying it, so it’s not as simple as saying old, rubbish graphics - bad game.
WAS awesome. RPGs are one of a handful of genres which have gradually gotten better each generation. Of course some games are timeless - I would never have a bad word said about Super Bomberman!
Forum Best Game of All Time Awards
PS3 Megathread 2019: The Last of Us
Multiplat 2018: Horizon Zero Dawn
Nintendo 2017: Super Mario Bros 3
Playstation 2016: Uncharted 2
Multiplat 2015: Final Fantasy 7
@themcnoisy RPGs maybe...JRPGs, much less so. In fact, bar Xenoblade Chronicles I don't rate any JRPGs as high as the PS1 era FF games, and they certainly haven't evolved a great deal in the past 20 years.
@Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy I don't know about you, but if everyone's raving about how good something is my expectations tend to go into overdrive and I'm inevitably disappointed lol. It's one of those things, you just have to accept you're in a minority sometimes. I can't understand what people see in the Uncharted games but it is what it is I guess.
@LN78 The series, in my opinion, is just not that fun the play, the stories are boring and the characters are generally annoying and I don't relate to them. As I say, I accept I'm in a minority.
@LN78 Your taking my point to the extreme for some reason - of course I can understand why they might like it in the context of it being "a huge mega-budget Indiana Jones style adventures", but then if I was so inclined I could also say Indiana Jones sucks and I don't understand why people like him or the movies either, plus mega-budget means soulless over produced junk, and this would be an entirely valid opinion.
Do you have a stinky foot fetish? Do you understand why hundreds of thousands (?) of people do?
I know you understand what I am trying to say, and are just being a bit awkward, and I'm fine with that
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