The Completion Thread 2007

[Finch]

Monster's Curse for TG16 makes 8. Great game, but unless the Master System version makes magic, there's no way it's the best 8-bit game evAr. If best game ever means hacking at the monsters until they go away instead of using any actual skill, okay, it's still not as good as Deadly Towers. But we don't live in that kind of world, and of course it's much better than Deadly Towers. Still, there's not an 8-bit Super Mario that isn't better.
I wish i had played it back then, instead of Kid Kool or whatever i was playing. It's a great game and eyes of the past might make it the best ever.

[NeoZeedeater]

I assume you're talking about mine and/or Frog's opinion on WB3. For me, I didn't like WB3 quite as much as the 8-bit Marios and a few others back in the day. It wasn't until replaying it a few years ago that I was amazed at how well it aged. Dragon's Curse is a pretty good way to judge how well you'll like WB3 although it still looks and feels like a WB3 rom hack to me.

And I recently replayed The Last Ninja 1 and 2, and I still love them. 1 was always my favourite, mostly because I like the Ancient Asia theme more than the '80s New York one in 2 but now I'm thinking 2 is the more well designed game because it doesn't have as many annoying jumping parts (although they aren't so bad if you use emulator save states). I never liked 3 that much but I should give it another try.

[Compass]

28.



I started out loving this, then got kinda annoyed in the middle due to the loose controls and dull gameplay, but then really liked it again at the end (last level and finale were both cool).

When you remember it was a launch game, it becomes more impressive. Still looks insanely pretty too.

[Thief Silver]

I'm definitely gonna pick up Kameo for super cheap.

[sleeve]

Halo 3, on Heroic.

On the whole I was quite satisfied with the end, at least in terms of gameplay. For a long time I was stuck at the end of the seventh level, at the sequence with the two Scarabs. For the longest time I tried to dive-bomb the first Scarab with the VTOL craft (can't remember the name), blow it up, then pray that I would find a waiting Warthog to take down the second Scarab. This proved unworkable as a solo-player strategy. So I grabbed the Warthog from the start and eventually brought down them both.

I have to say, the eight level was nowhere near as bad as I expected it to be. I daresay it was the best Flood-only level in all three Halo games. The new "pure Flood" forms introduced some badly-needed variety, and the level itself is pretty well put together. A little too reminiscent of System Shock 2, maybe, but SS2 was hardly original in that regard either.

And I really enjoyed the final dash to the frigate in the final level. It brought back happy memories of the first Halo.

I'd like to play through again on Legendary, if anyone's interested.

[Nash]

For a long time I was stuck at the end of the seventh level, at the sequence with the two Scarabs. For the longest time I tried to dive-bomb the first Scarab with the VTOL craft (can't remember the name), blow it up, then pray that I would find a waiting Warthog to take down the second Scarab. This proved unworkable as a solo-player strategy. So I grabbed the Warthog from the start and eventually brought down them both.

When I went through it on Legendary by myself, I shot the pilot of the other hornet so it wouldn't take off. I then dive-bombed one scarab with my hornet, and then ran back for the other hornet to take out the second scarab.

I have to say, the eight level was nowhere near as bad as I expected it to be.

Yeah, I hated it the first time I played through it, but after going through it again (and again), it wasn't that bad anymore.

I'd like to play through again on Legendary, if anyone's interested.

I'm always down. Hit me up on AIM whenever you want to play.

[Dipstick]

Super Mario Galaxy, getting all 120 stars. Well paced and very intuitive game, but it got a little stale near the end. I'm not going to get the last little extra any time soon, kthx. I wanted more of the gimmick stages -- the Manta Ray races made me want to see a Wave Race on the Wii, and the ball stages control better than Super Monkeyball on the Wii (PS: Fuck you Sega for ruining that series).

Also completed Quest mode in VF5 100%. I don't know why -- after about halfway through, it turned into a total grind. But what's done is done. The AI on expert is surprisingly good (and way better than the PS3 version), but el oh el at some of the stuff it does on reaction (sir please duck another low on frame one kthx) and it responds badly to abare situations and okizeme. It will make adjustments in other areas (like throw usage), but not in those situations.

[Frogacuda]

I assume you're talking about mine and/or Frog's opinion on WB3. For me, I didn't like WB3 quite as much as the 8-bit Marios and a few others back in the day. It wasn't until replaying it a few years ago that I was amazed at how well it aged. Dragon's Curse is a pretty good way to judge how well you'll like WB3 although it still looks and feels like a WB3 rom hack to me.

Yeah, I played WB3 for the first time about 10 years after it was released (never could find it back in the day, though I wanted it) and it blew me away.

Dragon's Curse doesn't feel quite right. The control is different, just a little looser, and I hate the character design. It's mostly the same game, though.

Yes, the enemy patterns in the game are repetitive, but I'm not sure why people complain about that. It's kind of true of almost ever 8-bit platformer including Mario. Wonder Boy 3's platforming feels fantastic.

[NeoZeedeater]

My final (most likely) completed game of 2007 is Portal. It was as brilliant as everyone said, very original and the Douglas Adams-ish humour was great.

[MechDeus]

On the whole I was quite satisfied with the end, at least in terms of gameplay. For a long time I was stuck at the end of the seventh level, at the sequence with the two Scarabs. For the longest time I tried to dive-bomb the first Scarab with the VTOL craft (can't remember the name), blow it up, then pray that I would find a waiting Warthog to take down the second Scarab. This proved unworkable as a solo-player strategy. So I grabbed the Warthog from the start and eventually brought down them both.

Unworkable because you're considering the wrong vehicle. Pilot the Hornet directly above a Scarab, jump out, blow out the core, and then run back up to the roof and hop back into the Hornet to pilot it over to the other Scarab. The way I eventually did it on Legendary was to pilot the tank up on the ridge to behind the crop of rocks at the entrance to that area, hop out and trigger the Scarabs, then run back to the tank and clear out the entire area and weaken both of the walkers. After that they were easy pickings, naturally.

I'd like to play through again on Legendary, if anyone's interested.

Send me an invite when you're on, if I'm not in a party (I'm playing an MMO again SAD CHRISTMAS) I'll join for that.