April Post
17: Altered Beast - Genesis (via Genesis Classics Switch version) - Beat 5/2
When I was a kid, the first Genesis game I ever saw was Altered Beast at my Mom's cousin's house. I was in awe because all I knew was the 2600 and the NES. This game looked amazing and everybody was raving about it. I'm assuming this was early 1990. I never got a Genesis, and none of my friends that ended up with one ever owned Altered Beast. All I had were sleepy memories of this amazing looking game from this one night when I was like 8 years old.
So now I know that Altered Beast actually sucks.
18: Infamous: First Light - PS4 via PS5 - Beat 5/2
Once upon a time, Infamous was my favorite Sony franchise. Second Son kind of ruined that for me, though. I did like this one more than Second Son. I just couldn't stand Delsin. I like Fetch a bit more. Definitely worth playing.
19: Castlevania: The Adventure - Game Boy via Castlevania Anniversary Collection - PS5 - Beat 5/2
This game was straight garbage. The hit detection, the cheapness, the horrible slowdown. I know this was a very old Game Boy game, but this was just awful. Even for the system.
For a series that I've been with since the beginning, I'm realizing that my INITIAL love for the series was definitely seen through rose tinted glasses.
20: Castlevania 2: Belmont's Revenge - Game Boy via Castlevania Anniversary Collection - PS5 - Beat 5/5
This may be the biggest game to game improvement I've ever seen in a game series. All the problems with the first are fixed and it's just so much better. I really enjoyed this one. Aside from the Dracula fight and the the penultimate fight. They were just too cheap and reliant on memorization. I don't know if I'm going to play Castlevania 4 next or Bloodlines. I've never played Bloodlines, so that may be the one. But I also haven't played 4 in ages and I'm looking forward to playing an A+ Castlevania game again. Might be a coin flip situation.
21: Castlevania Bloodlines - Genesis via Castlevania Anniversary Collection - PS5 and Switch - Beat 5/5
Having the password feature was really nice for when my daughter wanted to watch Bluey. Just booted up the Switch and put in the password!
Ok, so I don't see why people rave about this game. It was good. I enjoyed it a bit, but to me it doesn't even hold a candle to 4. Taking away the 8 way whip was dumb. That was a great evolution when the series jumped to 16 bit, and they threw it away. Also, it looked less like a legit Castlevania game and more like a cheap knockoff. The series has a very distinct art style going back to the original game all the way to today. This game sticks out like a sore thumb. That being said, the colors were beautiful, and the water level - I think the second level - was one of the best looking in all the series. Just the enemies didn't look like what I expect from the series. And the animation had a bit of jank to it. If this came out before 4, I think I would look at it differently. It played much closer to the originals than 4 did. It's a solid 7.5-8 out of 10. Not the masterpiece it had been built up to be.
22: Super Castlevania 4 - SNES via Castlevania Anniversary Collection - PS5 - Beat 5/6
Visually, this game wasn't anything near as good as I remembered. Every other aspect of the game was better than I remembered. This will always be my favorite classic Castlevania game. Debating whether I want to jump right in to Symphony of the Night now. I've actually been wanting to play the Streets of Rage series lately.
23: Good Job! -Switch - Beat 5/14
Well, went a little bit without beating anything because I was out of town. This was a fun game. A little repetitive, but pretty funny when the physics would go crazy. Simple and fun. It's been sitting on my backlog forever.
24: Streets of Rage - Genesis (via Genesis Classics Switch version) - Beat 5/21
I never played this one. I remember playing part 2 with my cousin for a bit back in the day, but never the original. It's a pretty good beat-em up. It didn't feel cheap or padded out. I do wish you got more than 3 continues, but that was a non issue at the end of the day. I'll probably play part 2 after I finish Biomutant...
25: Biomutant - PS5 - Beat 5/23
I didn't like this. The narrator was so stupid. It was like doing stuff with my son. I'd be doing whatever and then he'd say some stupid shit that had nothing to do with anything that was going on. About halfway through the game, it popped up basically saying: Oh yeah, the narrator is shit. Do you not want to hear his stupid bullshit anymore? Just click this button.
Where the fuck was this like 10 hours ago?
The combat sucked. The dialog sucked. The performance sucked. I actually was excited when I realized the game wasn't in performance mode and switched over. Then the frame rate sucked just as bad.
By the time I realized I really didn't like this game, I was in way too deep and felt like I had to finish it. If you want me to give a full breakdown about how much I disliked it, just let me know.
26: Mortal Kombat 11 - PS5 - Beat Story Mode 6/1
This was a great looking game. I was a big fan of the art direction, and the facial capture was great. The story mode was fun, even if it was dumb. My big gripe is the gameplay. Take Street Fighter. If you played any Street Fighter from 2 onwards, you know how to play the game. Yes, new things are added over time, but it's still Street Fighter at it's core. Mortal Kombat must have lost its way at some point between 3 and 11. 3 was really the last MK that I really played. Knowing how to play that does not help me in any way with 11. Maybe some would see this as a good thing. Growth or whatnot. I didn't like it. It didn't feel like the MK that I knew.
27: Huntdown - PS5 Beat 6/4
Fantastic game. The looks, the sounds, the gameplay... everything was top notch. Loved every second of it.
So my Switch 2 will be here tomorrow. Not sure if that's going to help or hinder me from finishing more games over the next few months. Honestly, I have a feeling a lot of Switch backlog is going to get cleared out.