Beaten In 2023

[Aussie2B]

1. SWAT Police (Arcade via MAME) 2/2
2. Gurumin: A Monstrous Adventure (PSP) 2/7
3. Barney's Hide & Seek Game (Genesis) 2/24
4. Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake (MSX via Vita Metal Gear Solid HD Collection) 3/8
5. TwinBee Da! (PSP) 3/10
6. Detana! TwinBee (PSP) 3/13
7. TwinBee Yahho! (PSP) 3/16
8. TwinBee (PSP) 3/19
9. Brain Lord (SNES) 4/27
10. Akumajou Special: Boku Dracula-kun (FC/NES) 5/8
11. BoxBoxBoy! (3DS) 5/16
12. Code:Realize ~Guardian of Rebirth~ (Vita) 6/26
13. Mario Kart: Super Circuit (GBA) 7/24
14. Dance Dance Revolution: Disney Dancing Museum (N64) 10/13
15. Fuga: Melodies of Steel (PC) 10/27
16. Phobos Dere .GB (GB) 11/6
17. Imagine Figure Skater (DS) 12/6

Exactly one month since the last, here's another, maybe the last for the year, I don't know. Either way, I've already beaten more games this year than I have in any single year in over a decade, and that's with dealing with my crazy busy mom life, so I'm pretty proud of that. There are definitely some games that could be considered "filler" here, but I could say that about some of the games I beat in just about any year. Anyway, I was surprised this game ended up taking me 15 hours, but seeing as this is a localized Japanese game, rather than something made specifically for the Imagine series, I guess it probably would be meatier than the average Imagine release. Once I started creating my own programs of nothing but the same combination jump over and over, haha, it was smooth sailing clinching first place in every competition. I don't know if there was even a point to all the extra stat grinding I did. I still don't know how the stats actually affect anything. For example, I could run out of stamina halfway through a program and still pull off my jumps just fine. I also have no idea why the protagonist ended up with Tobias rather than Kevin, unless that's scripted for Cindy (or maybe Kevin is just totally unobtainable). Outside of extra grinding, it seems like the game is pretty linear and requires you to talk to everyone to progress. Maybe the order in which you visit locations changes something? The game apparently has a new game+ mode, which makes sense considering rivals always give the protagonist an outfit upon being defeated, and there would be no way to use the outfit from the rival at the World Competition if it didn't carry over into a new game. It also gives the player a chance to get all the accessories and such, as there isn't enough cash available in one playthrough, and I noticed a couple bonus accessories with the Spike logo are added too. Outside of those new game+ features, it didn't seem like anything else was different when I started up a different character. I guess they just swap around the rivals depending on who you play as, but I won't know for sure unless I decide to play through again. I'm good for now, though, so back to the shelf it goes, and just in time too, as I'm heading off to visit family again and plan on taking only my Vita and a couple flash carts for systems I already have there.

Oh, I almost forgot to mention that the localization completely removes the credits for the Japanese staff who actually made the game, haha. There's only the Ubisoft people. And I was surprised to see "J. Blaustein" listed as the localizer. That must be Jeremy Blaustein, one of the more famous translators in game localization, having worked on a lot of Konami's most highly regarded games along with a bunch of other notable stuff. He was kind of slumming it taking on Imagine Figure Skater, haha, but no disrespect to him or the game. It makes a lot of sense in retrospect because, despite the buggy nature of graphical text elements, the script itself is surprisingly clean and natural for such a niche game that probably got minimal budget to be localized. I mean, I did notice a couple mistakes in the script (and I'm guessing they put little effort into QA), but I would've expected a much more stilted translation.

[Az]

22. Kasumi Ninja (Atari Jaguar) 10/30
23. Final Vendetta (Xbox One) 11/18
24. Champion Wrestler (Arcade) 11/19
25. Dead Rising 2: Case Zero (Xbox 360) 11/23
26. Saturday Night Slam Masters (Genesis) 12/03
27. Ultra Vortek (Atari Jaguar) 12/10

Champion Wrestler was an odd duck. I had never played it before, first match I lost by TKO when the timer ran out. Restarted the game and proceeded to get a 1CC...(!). It's very basic (along the lines of Mat Mania or NES Pro Wrestling) but it's still enjoyable.. Slam Masters left me underwhelmed. The whole thing was just Final Fight with less screen real estate. Maybe the tag match spinoff that has a dedicated grapple button fares a bit better.

Both Ultra Vortek and Kasumi Ninja were nice to play for the first time. Both require you to play on a higher difficulty level to face the final boss and get a real ending. Ultra Vortek has possibly the shittiest method of padding by making you play 3-in-1 endurance matches against all black "shadow" clones of existing characters, all while against a drab brick wall background. I can enjoy both for being trashy diversions but I'd say the joke would lose it's punchline if I had actually paid $50 each for them back in the day.

[Az]

28. Return of Double Dragon (SFC) 12/26

Managed to sneak one last entry in before the end of the year.

The recent rerelease of Super Double Dragon and Double Dragon Advance piqued my interest because SDD has an option to increase the game speed up to x2 (all while keeping music and sounds at regular speed). I was debating on buying it so I went back and played the original for a refresher. I had never played the superior SFC version, so I tried the "Kencho Hacks" version of it along with patching some Game Genie codes in to arrange the music back to the US release. The Kencho Hacks version has some great quality-of-life improvements that make the game a lot better; normal blocking, easier weapon swaps, changed control scheme, just all around positives.

However, I had forgot how much of a slog SDD is. It's in such an unfinished state that it makes it feel like a homebrew demo or prototype. I'm sure the adjustable speed in the modern release probably makes the game much better, but not enough to make me want to play it more than once every few years. Long, flat, boring stages combined with fighting the same 3 enemies over and over just don't cut it. There's a hundred fan-made OBOR mods that are better than SDD in every way.

[Aussie2B]

1. SWAT Police (Arcade via MAME) 2/2
2. Gurumin: A Monstrous Adventure (PSP) 2/7
3. Barney's Hide & Seek Game (Genesis) 2/24
4. Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake (MSX via Vita Metal Gear Solid HD Collection) 3/8
5. TwinBee Da! (PSP) 3/10
6. Detana! TwinBee (PSP) 3/13
7. TwinBee Yahho! (PSP) 3/16
8. TwinBee (PSP) 3/19
9. Brain Lord (SNES) 4/27
10. Akumajou Special: Boku Dracula-kun (FC/NES) 5/8
11. BoxBoxBoy! (3DS) 5/16
12. Code:Realize ~Guardian of Rebirth~ (Vita) 6/26
13. Mario Kart: Super Circuit (GBA) 7/24
14. Dance Dance Revolution: Disney Dancing Museum (N64) 10/13
15. Fuga: Melodies of Steel (PC) 10/27
16. Phobos Dere .GB (GB) 11/6
17. Imagine Figure Skater (DS) 12/6
18. Gaia Seed: Project Seed Trap (PlayStation via Vita PSOne Classics) 12/30

I squeezed in one last beaten game too. I could've counted it earlier, as you get a credits roll even after clearing the first four stages in Practice mode, and getting credits is usually my bar for considering a game beaten, but that would just feel like cheating here. So I'm counting the day I actually earned an ending by completing all seven stages.