How About We Look at It?

I just realized I didn't post any visuals of Super Stardust HD. 

http://youtu.be/-UPZ3L_MMJ0

This game can be pretty intense, twin stick shooting. There's some variety of enemies but it's mostly about destroying the giant meteors. So it's basically Asteroids on Steroids. Lots of pretty particle effects. It took me a long while just to finish Level 1, but the rest were easier. It's that point once you pass that barrier and there's no looking back. 

I have one planet left, and I don't know if there's more after that, but I feel good moving on. 

Super Stardust HD

I think I paid like a dollar for this game. It starts out very hard. Hard enough that I played the first game on easy just to see what to expect. I've now beaten all the regular levels and unlocked the secret last level (at least I think it is the last one.)

It is a fun game that got more fun the more I played.

I like it cause it's very reminiscent of Geometry Wars, and I like Geometry Wars a lot. How much? It's one of only two games good enough to make me want to give Microsoft money for it.

Anyway, looks like mission accomplished here.

Super Smash Bros. Brawl

I can't really call it done.

Any Smash Bros. game is more of an experience, a lifestyle, than a game. Sad to say, I can no longer sustain such a lifestyle. The game didn't help either. I played the solo game. I haven't been able to play any multiplayer matches and Nintendo got rid of the online gameplay, so solo is everything I can play so far.

There are many trophies to get and all that, but the game is simple to play by yourself. I'll leave this by the side for when I can get some other people. I did get every secret character, so there's that.

On to Super Stardust HD

Sad Reality

So, Street Fighter Anniversary Collection for PS2 is what I've been playing. That game comes with a compilation version of Super Street Fighter II Turbo, but it also comes with Street Fighter III Third Strike. I've been playing that, and I managed to finish the arcade game with Ryu with a couple hours' investment.

The sad reality is that I will never be a master of this game. Street Fighter III had a new feature called a parry. It was supposed to reward the player who didn't simply block everything all the time (a technique called turtling). Instead of pulling back, to do a parry you push forward to meet the attack. Parries are hard. Then there's this guy.

That guy's name is Daigo and he is a Street Fighter III god. Each one of those moved he does toward the end is a parry and it's just unbelievably difficult to do something like that.

If you think that was a fluke, here is Daigo doing it again (against the same guy!)

I've seen the credits to Street Fighter III. I don't have a proper fight stick, though I'm planning on getting one. Maybe then I will go back to SFIII and try to be a little less sucky at it.

Moving on.

It's Something

Well today I spent an hour playing Street Fighter Anniversary Collection. This is a slightly different Street Fighter. It's basically a tricked out version of Super Street Fighter II Turbo but when you pick a character, it allows you to pick any version that character has existed in (Street Fighter original recipe, Champion Edition, Turbo, Super, Super Turbo) and play the arcade game, or versus, with that character in that version. 

Now, Super Turbo was never my favorite but I was very good at Super. I played with a number of characters but my favorite was Dahlsim. It always pissed me off that on Super Turbo they totally ruined Dahlsim from the sheer perfection he was down in Super. So tonight I basically spent a crapton of quarters and kept hitting "continue" until I beat M. Bison with Dahlsim in the Super version. It took me a while, but I did it. Yay. 

A Future List

So, I've been honest. I said I could buy new games if I finished old games. So far, I have finished far more games than I have bought new ones. To keep things simple, though, I've put the new games I've been buying into a second list, to be started as soon as I finish the current one. Also, I've gotten presents. It wasn't all me. Let's look at the damage.

Batman Arkham City

Borderlands 2

Darkstalkers Resurrection

Dukewar (Journey Collection)

Final Fantasy VII

Final Fantasy VIII

Flow (Journey Collection)

Flower (Journey Collection) 

Goldeneye 007 (Wii)

Grave Digger (Journey Collection)

Grill Off with Ultra Hand

Heavy Rain

Intelligent Cube

Journey (Journey Collection)

Katamari Forever

L.A. Noire

Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages

Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons

Mass Effect

Mass Effect 2

Mass Effect 3

Mega Man (GameBoy)

Mega Man 3 (GameBoy)

Mega Man 9

Metroid Prime (Metroid Prime Trilogy)

Metroid Prime 2 (Metroid Prime Trilogy)

Metroid Prime 3 (Metroid Prime Trilogy)

Midway Arcade Classics Atari Collection

Mortal Kombat Trilogy

New Super Mario Bros. Wii

Nostril Shot (Journey Collection)

Operation C (GameBoy)

Playstation All Stars Battle Royale

Regrograde

Spider-Man (PSX)

Spider-Man 2: Enter Electro (PSX)

Super Street Fighter 4 Arcade Edition

The Walking Dead

Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2

Ultimate NES Remix

Uncharted

Uncharted 2

Uncharted 3

There's an obvious problem with this list. There's a lot of games that are entries of a series, such as Uncharted and Metroid Prime. I don't really have very much interest in playing all three Mass Effect games in a row, so I'll have to come up with some other way to sort these. I don't know if I want to go with alphabetical order. Maybe I'll rank them by year of release or score on Metacritic. I don't know. Maybe I'll stick to a broad alphabetical order but stick games I really want to play first. Or maybe I'll assign them a random order. I'll have to do some thinking.

The End of the First List Is Near

These are the games that are on the list as pending.

Rock Band 2
Street Fighter Anniversary Collection
Super Smash Bros. Brawl
Super Stardust HD
Turning Point: Fall of Liberty
Wario Land Shake It
Wii Fit
Wii Sports
Wipeout HD

Rock Band 2 is an ongoing project, really. A way of life, as I really love that game and could play it forever, plus I recently threw some money into it and bought a number of songs before they try to shut down the Rock Band shop on me.

So, why did I just refer to this as the "first list", you say?
Stay tuned for more on this soon.

Another List Analysis

Ok, so here is the most current version of the list, including every game I own from before the creation of the list, plus every game that made it into the list by the time of my challenge. In Bold are the games I have a) beaten, b) stopped playing and moved on, or c) had already mastered before the start of this challenge.

Batman Arkham Asylum
Beatles Rock Band
Bionic Commando
Borderlands
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
Contra III The Alien Wars
Dark Sector
DDRMAX2
Dead Nation
DeBlob
Devil May Cry
Devil May Cry 2
Devil May Cry 3
Double Dragon
F-Zero GP Legend
F-Zero GX
Final Fantasy V
God of War III
Gunstar Heroes
Katamari Damacy
Kid Icarus
Legend of Zelda: A Link between Worlds
Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past/Four Swords
Legend of Zelda: Collector’s Edition
Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening
Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time/Master Quest
Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker
Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
Lego Harry Potter 1-4
Lego Harry Potter 5-7
Lego Indiana Jones 2
Lego Lord of the Rings
Lego Marvel Super Heroes
Lego Star Wars The Complete Saga
Link’s Crossbow Training
Little Big Planet
Mario Kart 64
Mario Kart 7
Mario Kart Double Dash
Mario Kart Super Circuit
Mario Kart Wii
Mega Man 2
Mega Man Anniversary Collection
Mega Man X Collection
Metal Gear Solid
Metal Gear Solid 2
Metal Gear Solid 3
Metroid Fusion
Metroid II: The Return of Samus
Metroid Zero Mission
Metroid: Other M
MotorStorm
MTV Music Generator
Ninja Gaiden
Pac-Man CE DX+
Portal
Portal 2
Punch Out (Wii)
Punch-Out (NES)
Resident Evil 4 Wii Edition
Rock Band 2
Samurai Shodown II
Shadow of the Colossus
Sin & Punishment: Star Successor
Sonic Mega Collection
Spider-Man 2 (GCN)
Star Fox 64
Star Fox 64 3D
Street Fighter Alpha Anthology
Street Fighter Anniversary Collection
Super Mario 3D Land
Super Mario 64
Super Mario All Stars
Super Mario Bros.
Super Mario Bros. 2
Super Mario Bros. 3
Super Mario Galaxy
Super Mario Galaxy 2
Super Mario Kart
Super Paper Mario
Super Smash Bros.
Super Smash Bros. Brawl
Super Smash Bros. Melee
Super Stardust HD
Tetris
Turning Point: Fall of Liberty
Viewtiful Joe
Wario Land Shake It
Wave Race 64
Wave Race Blue Storm
Wii Fit
Wii Sports
Wipeout HD


This leaves the following as games I have not yet tackled. In italics are games that belong to my wife (I've helped her play these games, but they're her thing, not really mine.)

Lego Harry Potter 1-4
Lego Harry Potter 5-7
Lego Indiana Jones 2
Lego Lord of the Rings
Lego Marvel Super Heroes
Lego Star Wars The Complete Saga
Rock Band 2
Street Fighter Anniversary Collection
Super Smash Bros. Brawl
Super Stardust HD
Turning Point: Fall of Liberty
Wario Land Shake It
Wii Fit
Wii Sports
Wipeout HD

As a point of clarification, fighting games like Street Fighter Alpha, as well as racing games like F-Zero GX, can be extremely challenging and I wouldn't even say that I "mastered" them. They're going in the list cause I have to play them, maybe not to completion, but certainly to satisfaction. For instance, I bolded out Beatles Rock Band, but I never downloaded any additional albums and I didn't play all the songs with all the instruments. Rock Band 2 is a game I love and I continue to play it. Finally, if I ever get around to buying a decent fight stick controller, I may very well revisit Street Fighter Alpha Anthology.

So after finishing Super Paper Mario, the next game is Street Fighter Anniversary Collection for PS2.

Finished Super Paper Mario

Super Paper Mario is a cute game with some clever humor. It is a little on the long side and there's a lot of dialogue and it came close to overstaying its welcome. Towards the end, it kinda felt a little like  a chore, but I was so close to finishing it that I couldn't very well just put it down. A little part of me wanted to, though.

The story and the dialogue remind me of some of the cornier animes out there, with characters that talk about the purity of love and friendship (Sailor Moon, Magic Knight Rayearth). There's even mysterious little interludes in between chapters (again, like some animes) giving back story of somebody in the story, though you don't know for sure who until the surprise end. 

The game itself plays like a mix between an action platformer and an RPG. The main twist in the game is that you can play with switching between 2D and a fixed-3D. 

Switching between these perspectives allows you to find secrets, along with hidden paths and even enemies.

There are entire aspects of this game that I never touched on, like recipes, map-finding/treasure-hunting, and I don't think I'll be revisiting that. Maybe if I read up on it and get an idea of what those things are about, maybe. I still have a long way to go and frankly there's plenty of other games I could be spending time playing.