Weekly Roundup

[fake]

PS45
Alien: Isolation
God this game is pretty boring. I got to the part when you rejoin your shipmates (mission 5) and I have not felt scared or tense yet. I don't know if I can put 20 hours into this. I'm glad I only paid $8.

 

[Takumaji]

Tiger Heli (7800) - Still playing it, still having big fun, that was 30 Eurobucks well spent.

P-47 II MD (Genny) - I stand by what I said, it's a solid little hori shmup which is fun to play, even though it feels unfinished and slightly unpolished, despite its otherwise nice visuals with lotsa parallax scrolling. Not a must-have by any chance except perhaps if you're a serious Jaleco fan, I like it and will defo get my money worth of fun from it.

Mutant League Hockey (Genny) - Heh, wow, I never thought I'd play another hockey game but here it is... made by EA and based on the NHL '94 engine so it's a serious game with a zombie/monster theme, great for the upcoming Halloween season. Switch off refs, grab yer axe and start slaughtering, plays very well and looks awesome, great sound too. The fights are a bit weird but I'll get them down one day. I guess. Love the atmosphere, teams, silly graphics, the horror theme works quite well. Ahh, the days when EA still were a decent company... Good game, recommended.

 

[Ralfakick]

Kinda gloomy all weekend but today and had my plans on Friday cancelled so was a good weekend to play some games

11/23/25

Sega Saturn
Battle Garegga
Street Fighter Zero 3

PS5
Outzone

Switch
Mr Driller
TMNT Fall of the Footclan and Turtles in Time
ACA Road Fighter

 

[Average Joe]

Switch
FFXII Zodiac Age

Fightcade
Jojo's Heritage for the Future

Phone
Chaos Zero Nightmare

 

[terry.330]

Saturn

Gun Frontier- Meh. Very bizarre soundtrack.
Thunderforce V- Amazing as always.
Layer Section- Masterpiece, even if the port has issues.

 

[Neodogg]

Saturn

Gun Frontier- Meh. Very bizarre soundtrack.
Thunderforce V- Amazing as always.
Layer Section- Masterpiece, even if the port has issues.

Meh on Gun Frontier? We played it for SoTM was a good time…

SOTM December 2023: Gun Frontier - Raffles 'n Shit Edition

Here we are, Gun Frontier. Released by Taito in 1990, the level of detail and heart imparted on this game indicates that they expected it to become something of a landmark shooting game. A number of factors prevented that from happening - the rank system in the game is pretty brutal, which...

www.neo-geo.com

 

[terry.330]

Meh on Gun Frontier? We played it for SoTM was a good time…

SOTM December 2023: Gun Frontier - Raffles 'n Shit Edition

Here we are, Gun Frontier. Released by Taito in 1990, the level of detail and heart imparted on this game indicates that they expected it to become something of a landmark shooting game. A number of factors prevented that from happening - the rank system in the game is pretty brutal, which...

www.neo-geo.com

Meh on repeatedly getting kicked in the balls? Yes.

 

[Taiso]

PC

Wizardry Variants Daphne-This game has me by the short hairs. I play this on mobile as well, since it's a shared account.

Sword of Convalaria-I played this a little bit when it was first released on mobile but I didn't stick with it. Now they're doing a crossover with The Witcher 3 so I figured I'd give it another go and see if I can get Geralt and Yennefer in the party. Will start soon.

PS5

Gigasword-Fucktons of fun, an 8 bit style 'metroidvania' with good puzzles that get progressively harder to solve as you advance, some challenging enemy placement and a weapon that has real weight to it when you swing it. The story is pretty compelling as well, and it takes its time to lay the foundation through the early training stages. You play through the archetypal 'hero's journey' but the lore and worldbuilding are effectively seeded without wasting too much of your time in the telling. I was engrossed and it made me want to advance all the more. I think I'm about 2/3 of the way through it. For 15 bucks, it's been well worth it.

 

[fenikso]

Switch 2

Castlevania Advance Collection - Nintendo is doing their black friday sales, so I took the opportunity to pick up both of the Castlevania collections I didn't already own. Playing CotM on the Switch 2 right now.

 

[Ralfakick]

Switch 2

Castlevania Advance Collection - Nintendo is doing their black friday sales, so I took the opportunity to pick up both of the Castlevania collections I didn't already own. Playing CotM on the Switch 2 right now.

I recently played that Haunted remake on one of the collections Dominus? that was a lot of fun.

 

[fenikso]

I recently played that Haunted remake on one of the collections Dominus? that was a lot of fun.

That was one of the collections I just picked up, so I'm stoked to give that a go.

 

[Neodogg]

Meh on repeatedly getting kicked in the balls? Yes.

Skill issue

 

[Takumaji]

Been playing Doom 32X CD on the tower of power and Earthion, bought a Genny boot from the UK for 25 shipped, gonna get me the official cart once it's available but I wanted to give it a try now.

So, Doom Deluxe 32X + CD, it's the definitive version for me, tons of stuff, awesome improvements, and dat sound/music, so good. Really went back into Doom, and went back harrrrd.

Earthion is awesome, the music is beyond what I thought would be possible on the Genny, Koshiro did an amazing job here. Lush arrangements and the voices keep on piling and piling, it's almost as if there would be extra sound channels, and don't get me started on the bottom-end, wow, what a bass. The game itself is excellent, great visuals, good challenge, some bosses can give you quite the beating. Definitely Genny GOTY stuff.

 

[Ralfakick]

Been playing Doom 32X CD on the tower of power and Earthion, bought a Genny boot from the UK for 25 shipped, gonna get me the official cart once it's available but I wanted to give it a try now.

So, Doom Deluxe 32X + CD, it's the definitive version for me, tons of stuff, awesome improvements, and dat sound/music, so good. Really went back into Doom, and went back harrrrd.

Earthion is awesome, the music is beyond what I thought would be possible on the Genny, Koshiro did an amazing job here. Lush arrangements and the voices keep on piling and piling, it's almost as if there would be extra sound channels, and don't get me started on the bottom-end, wow, what a bass. The game itself is excellent, great visuals, good challenge, some bosses can give you quite the beating. Definitely Genny GOTY stuff.

I think my Earthion physical was delivered this afternoon, can’t wait to crack it open

 

[fake]

Dragon Quest I HD-2D Remix
I just put a few hours into this. It doesn't quite have the same visual style of Octopath that I was hoping for but this is probably the closest we'll get to the DS style DQ games for I-III. Definitely more enjoyable than the iPhone version (which I think is based on the SFC remakes).

 

[RBjakeSpecial]

Monster Hunter Wilds (PS5): The recent Final Fantasy collaboration - the Omega Planetes fight - is amazing. It's like an MMO raid where you need 2x DPS, Tank, and Healer and is very difficult. I just got to the point where I can take it down with the NPCs so I don't need to rely on any randos. The RNG is rough on the drops so the grind feels wonderful.

Phantasy Star Universe (PC / Clementine Server): I stepped back into this and it's glorious. All the jank from 2006. The server has some people on it and it feels great to revisit the nostalgia.

 

[LoneSage]

Last bump of 2025.

Double Dragon Advance - in 2003 I didn't like it as much as everyone else, but now I get it.

Double Dragon NES - fuck this game is hard. Only one continue? Turns out the latter levels get kinda weird.

Super Double Dragon - it sucked 20 years ago and still sucks today.

Mystic Defender - enjoyed it more now than I did back then. Weird little game.

The Legendary Axe - finally beat it. I only first played it around 2010, but it still holds up. Even the goofy jumping platforming is fun. Just, fuck that last maze level. That's just lazy design.

The Legendary Axe II - just started this, on level 3, not as good as the first but nowhere near as bad as I had heard. Of course I can understand the disappointment if you were a fan back in 1990 and got something completely unrelated.

 

[neo_mao]

Bare Knuckle 3 - beat it for the first time. What a great series. Not as impactful as the first 2, but still great and a lot better than idiot YouTubers led me to believe. Gameplay is butta…the roll, dashing and star additions are all awesome.

Thunder Force 4 - Finally got to level 5…a first for me. Everything about this game is amazing. Is this the best shmup of that generation?

 

[MCF 76]

Lost Planet 1 & 2 on 360

 

[Johnny16Bit]

The Legendary Axe II - just started this, on level 3, not as good as the first but nowhere near as bad as I had heard. Of course I can understand the disappointment if you were a fan back in 1990 and got something completely unrelated.

Stick to it, I'm pretty sure you're going to love that one - it's absolute rad A+++.
Superb soundtrack, great game design, efficient story telling, and an increasingly bizarre atmosphere that completely tilt the whole game into awesomeness. And all that in 256Ko IIRC. One of my favourite games on the system even if I did rage at the many resets caused by my finger slipping on the 2 middle buttons as I wanted to throw a bomb/star.

 

[Takumaji]

I think my Earthion physical was delivered this afternoon, can’t wait to crack it open

Which physical version did you get? Been looking to preorder the MD version but can't find any shop that has it. The official site says "release in 2026".

 

[Ralfakick]

Which physical version did you get? Been looking to preorder the MD version but can't find any shop that has it. The official site says "release in 2026".

The PS5 version, yes I saw that too Mega Drive is 2026 hopefully

 

[TimKunming]

Got my Saturn set up through SCART with the Retrotink this past weekend. Played a lot of rounds of Pocket Fighter with my kids. Still just as charming as I remember it, and very accessible to younger players.

Great sprite work, too.

 

[Taiso]

PS5

Final Fantasy Tactics: the Ivalice Chronicles-I knew it was a matter of time before the grindy customization of this game would snare me and it finally happened when I unlocked Beowulf, Reis, Construct 08, Orlandeau and Cloud. Now I can actually focus on grinding up specific characters while relying on some of these powerhouses to preserve the fight and give me a chance. Angel Rings are, for many of these battles, a must because you never know when some bullshit is going to drop one of your characters. It also helps having 'broken' characters like Orlandeau in your lineup to pull you out of close fights and win the day. The Lucavi battles have been pretty challenging until I had access to Orlandeau.

Speaking of 'broken' characters, Cloud is an absolute beast with Materia Blade+, which is easily unlocked if you have a Dragoon with Treasure Hunter in your party at the stage where it can be found. Getting him so early in the game feels like a cheat code but given how much he sucked in the original due to a variety of factors (late game unlock combined with not being arsed to level him up by that point, mostly), it's nice to see him kicking ass this time around. I just mastered the SOLDIER job and am now working on mastering Samurai. I'll probably do Chemist with him after that, as I tend to master Chemist with every character so they can use all the items.

Final Fantasy XIV-just grinding tomes to buy the new gear and working on the instance that drops the item needed for the i780 weapon.

MOBILE/PC

Wizardry Variants: Daphne-still very heavily into this. Love it.

Sword of Convallaria-The Witcher 3 event has been fun and the game is very generous with the free resources required to pull the four characters (Geralt, Ciri, Yennefer and Triss) and their unique weapons but I'm not sure I'll play much once the event is over. They keep introducing new timed activities that are intriguing but there's almost too much to do. By comparison, Wizardry Variants: Daphne is a much more tightly focused experience and while it has some gacha bullshit in it, it's not nearly as bad as Convallaria's. Still, this game is an impressive tactical RPG with nice art direction, deep customizable gameplay, aa wonderful score by Hitoshi Sakimoto and all on a mobile device, no less. It really is crazy how far mobile gaming has come.

 

[Average Joe]

Steam

Clair Obscure
Ultra Street Fighter IV

VR

Walkabout Mini Golf