Weekly Roundup

[terry.330]

PS4

Shredders Revenge- Finally got around to this and it didn't disappoint. Obviously nothing ground breaking, just a really solid update with a ton of charm.

 

[Average Joe]

Lots of Elden Ring and playing around with random Vita/PSP games.

 

[mjmjr25]

Maker 1 and Maker 2 pretty exclusively the last month.

 

[fenikso]

NES

Mega Man 2
SMB3
Bomberman 2

GBC

Crystalis
Street Fighter Alpha
Ghosts 'n Goblins

 

[wataru330]

Rumble Fish 2, Switch. I have an extra dlc code for RF 1 (two slips packed in my box by mistake).

Hit me up if your RF2 is missing the code.

 

[RBjakeSpecial]

Fighting Games:

Virtua Fighter 3tb: On the VF Discord there are people playing this almost every night. I've been playing the Dreamcast version through FightCade and the SuperModel emu version through newly developed SuperModel Dojo. It all works pretty well and there's a casual night on Saturdays that I can recommend. It's a lot of fun. VF3tb is really cool - so much wacky stage stuff, high damage combos, and really really weird interactions with the evade button. This is the first time since the Dreamcast I've really dove into the game and I'm finding it very fun.

Virtua Fighter 5 Ultimate Showdown (PS4, being played on PS5): Incredible. The Yakuza team just did a straight unaltered port of VF5 Final Showdown (missing the cool license challenges and customization options), but the online kinda works (server based, not rollback). I've now spent some quality time with this version of the game and am really enjoying it.

Other Games:

Yazkuza 0: I'm very slowly playing this and the new Infinite Wealth at the same time.

 

[sirlynxalot]

Vf3 is underrated. And the DC port got a lot of flack for supposedly being cut down graphically, but someone in the past few years ripped some of the models from the arcade and the DC version and found they had a similar poly count, so might have just been that it was starting to look dated by 1999 standards.

 

[RBjakeSpecial]

Vf3 is underrated. And the DC port got a lot of flack for supposedly being cut down graphically, but someone in the past few years ripped some of the models from the arcade and the DC version and found they had a similar poly count, so might have just been that it was starting to look dated by 1999 standards.

OMG the VF Discord community just released a texure pack for FlyCast. We all hopped on last night and applied it and the DC version looks WAY better with it. Really recommend it (go to the modding section of the VF Discord - pop those into your flycast - roll back net code!!!!) Super fun.

I agree that VF3tb is underrated. The game has a really cool vibe - kind of a fever dream inside a liquid televisions slightly shitty CGI demo from the late 90s. The music is cool and the core gameplay is fun as hell. Very fast battles, hail mary 50%+ combos you can try and trick people into .. the cool ass stages!!!!

I'm still playing a lot of VF5US, but VF3tb is sneaking up and becoming my 2nd favorite VF game.

 

[fake]

I finished Final Fantasy III Pixel Remaster. Like II, I'd say only bother with this one if you're trying to play through the entire mainline series. It has a lot of firsts for the series – summons, job system, etc. – but you can get more refined takes on those elsewhere.

Fantasies Final'd: I, II, III, IV, VI, VII, X, XIII

Next up is either V or XII.

 

[RBjakeSpecial]

Balatro (PC / Steam): Engine building rogue lite poker game .... playing it over and over and my life feels empty. 10/10

Going on a work trip here - I plan to play a lot of Yakuza 0 (Steam) on my ROG Ally. I'm about 4 hours in and enjoying it.

 

[LoneSage]

Bomberman - this is the 1990 Irem arcade game. I didn't even know Irem made Bomberman games. But anyway, thanks to Neo Bomberman, I have seen the light and can finally understand why Bomberman was so ubiquitous in the 90s. It's addicting the same way Angry Birds was. Bomberman was basically phone games before phone games. Different from phone games, though, is you can see the quality. It's a quality game. I think this took me an hour to beat, but well worth it. Don't even ask me how many times I continued. I guess I'll be on the Bomberman train for the next month trying as many games as I can.

 

[RBjakeSpecial]

Helldivers 2 (PC): I wasn't going to get this because I'm not into PVE grind fest type of games. My brother bought it for me so I'd play it out of guilt and I have to say... it's not bad. It isn't blowing my socks off, but I find that I'm partying up with him and playing a game or two every other day. I think if I focused on this game I might get sick of it very quickly.

Really though just playing way too much Virtua Fighter with the discord crowd - loving VF3tb more and more.

 

[Average Joe]

PSO: Blue Burst
Still insane to me how thriving this community is and how you can just play this for free.

Elden Ring
Hit the 100 hour mark on my new character. Kind of taking it a bit slower now and doing guided walks of stuff I have yet to see instead of rushing the bosses/endgame.

Fightcade: SSF2T
Just a few matches here and there. Been trying to improve on this one a bit more so I need to buckle down and put in more time.

 

[LoneSage]

Bomberman - the NES original. I'm a guy who can still enjoy playing NES games, but even this was too much for me. Honestly one of the most mindnumbing games I've played. I got to stage 10, looked online how many levels were left, found out there were 50 in total and promptly turned it off.

Still playing Irem's arcade Bomberman every day. There's something about that game that has got me absolutely hooked. That game has the whole package.

 

[Heinz]

Couple games of Beyond All Reason (PC), an updated total anhiliation.

I struggle to play games nowadays.

 

[RBjakeSpecial]

PSO: Blue Burst
Still insane to me how thriving this community is and how you can just play this for free.

Elden Ring
Hit the 100 hour mark on my new character. Kind of taking it a bit slower now and doing guided walks of stuff I have yet to see instead of rushing the bosses/endgame.

Fightcade: SSF2T
Just a few matches here and there. Been trying to improve on this one a bit more so I need to buckle down and put in more time.

Are you playing on the Ephinea PSO BB server? I made a character the other day and found that grinding just the early levels was very difficult.

I play SSF2T on FightCade occasionally. The competition there is tough. If you see me on FightCade (JThor6) hit me up.

 

[Average Joe]

Are you playing on the Ephinea PSO BB server? I made a character the other day and found that grinding just the early levels was very difficult.

I play SSF2T on FightCade occasionally. The competition there is tough. If you see me on FightCade (JThor6) hit me up.

Yeah, Ephinea.

Just hit like 21 with a RAcast.

Just hopped into a group session for the first time and the game is still fun as hell.

 

[fenikso]

GBC (FP-GBC)

Crystalis
Donkey Kong - I've never beaten this game. Playing it a few levels at a time before bed, when I feel like playing, has been the best way. I now think I'll beat it sometime this month. I've been playing it on the FunnyPlaying FPGA GBC clone and it's been great. That being said, I know that this game was built around the Super Gameboy, and I'm thinking I'll do the last few levels on my Super Gameboy 2.
Street Fighter Alpha Warriors Dreams - Still impresses me how playable this game is.

SNES

Super Castlevania IV
Tetris & Dr. Mario - Played a fair bit of Tetris, and then jumped over to Dr. Mario... Tetris I can play by muscle memory, it barely requires thinking, Dr. Mario I've never spent enough time on for that to be the case. I was doing a lot better than when I tried to play the GB version (didn't like that version at all).
Street Fighter Alpha 2 - I need to get off my ass and patch the ROM on my FX Pak Pro. It'd be cool to see this play without all the loading, and the better arcade soundtrack.

 

[wataru330]

Rumble Fish 2, Switch.

20 years really went by in a blink. This was a game center staple at the hole in the wall toritsu-daigaku arcade my classmates and I frequented.

 

[Average Joe]

Added PSO Episode III C.A.R.D Revolution to my rotation since I've had a copy of it for a while and never played it.

I must say that I think this game is quite overlooked as it is fun as hell, has solid visuals, excellent music, and gameplay that feels ahead of its time. The story and characters seem kind of lame so far, but the gameplay loop carries it a lot since it's rather addicting.

Another case of Sega bungling a really solid release by just putting it out at a bad time.

 

[TimKunming]

Kabuki Klash, MVS.

My kids love the characters, the gameplay is simple and fun, and the colors are vibrant and attractive.

 

[LoneSage]

Gaiares - this is the first time I beat the game. I remember getting this back in 2003-ish and being blown away. At that time, I had known for years that it was considered one of the best shooters on the Genesis and it did not disappoint. But man it was tough, still is tough. At that time I could only make it as far as the third level Death boss. The huge screen-filling bosses are still impressive. The music still licks tits, Zz Badnusty's tits. The game takes inspiration from Gradius (there are at least two bosses that look straight out of Gradius) and R-Type with the TOZ system that is like the R-Type core, but still manages to feel unique on its own. Amazingly the game was made by the same guys who worked on the Valis games. With a game this good it makes you wonder why there wasn't a Gaiares II or at least another shooter from Telenet. The only disappointments I had with the game were the two boss rush levels (level 6 with the mini-boss rush and level 7 with the boss rush) which feels like a cheap recycle and the final boss fight with ZZ Badnusty which was super easy and completely out of character with the massive boss fights from before. Anyways, this is probably my favorite Genesis shooter.

Interesting anecdote from the creator on why he chose the title for this game:
"I came up with the name – ガイアレス. The resu (レス) part stands for L-E-S-S – or less, as in to be without. So without Gaia, or Earthless, since Earth has been ruined, and humanity is trying to figure out a solution. I was only in charge of coming up with the basic setting. I placed importance on the game itself, and I didn’t think much about the story. Perhaps it’s because the characters are reviving the Earth, so that’s why English players thought the “res” stood for “rescue”, as opposed to “less”."

 

[fenikso]

GB

Donkey Kong - Beat this today. Last world was fun, but the final battle didn't do much for me. It did feel good to finally put this in the finished column.
Tetris DX - Just too easy, but since I cant seem to find my copy of the OG, it'll have to do.

Time to get back into Crystalis, another game I've owned forever and never beaten.

 

[terry.330]

Accidentally beat Tunic, apparently you can fight the last boss early. I accidentally teleported to the wrong area and was locked into a fight and when it was over the credits started to roll. Fortunately the game gives you the option to go back and get the real ending instead of just sending you to new game+. Kind of shitty if you ask me since I expect that most people playing this will want to actually complete the game and not just rush through it. Kind of deflating to have finished it by accident.

 

[MCF 76]

Playing original Dead space on 360. This game is still so damn good. Finishing up hard mode going to go through impossible again after that.