With the SNES Classic only days away, I decided to wet my appetite by playing a few games that won't feature in the upcoming release.


The Ren & Stimpy Show Veediots (1993)

There was something about brutally difficult licensed games. Back in the day you'd pick up a game like Bart's Nightmare or Super Star Wars with the idea that it should be relatively easy-going only to be met with continuous game-over screens.

Veediots continues this tradition, presenting a 2D platformer that seemed destined to soak up quarters in the arcade.

At first the game seems innocent enough. I don't entirely get the reference, but you control Ren dressed up as a mouse and you've got to avoid Stimpy who is trying to hunt you. When you complete the level, you end up inside Stimpy's mouth where you must defeat a beaver that is controlling his tongue before progressing. That level is simple enough and then you've got to escape and the game becomes incredibly difficult.

With 90 seconds on the clock, you must escape Stimpy's mouth as quickly as possible. What makes an otherwise routine stage difficult is that the top of the stage is caving in on the player. Not only are you reminded of your inevitable doom, it makes navigating through the stage difficult as your jumps will be compromised later onto the stage. Furthermore, instead of having bottomless pits, Veediots have two pixel high nerve endings. This means if you come into contact with it's hit-box, it's an automatic life. In addition, there are times where you must make use of the 'dirty sock' power-up which speeds the player up in order to perform the necessary jumps. Blend it altogether and you've got yourself a brutally difficult level.

Suffice to say as a 6 year old, I could never complete the stage and it's only through the power of save states I was able to make it through.

I'm not really a fan of that sort of cheap difficulty. There are like 5 scenarios in that one level that would be considered the difficult part of a Mario level. Back then it seemed like games were designed that way so players would have to memorize the levels and keep replaying the level but over time it just doesn't hold up.

It's a shame they programmed such cheap game design because the game looks gorgeous. The sprites are all well animated, the game seems to be filled with a lot of references from the show and Ren controls well. If the stages weren't so busy or there was a more lenient continue system this could have been one of the better licensed games on the system.


Super Fire Pro Wrestling Special (1994)

I played a match between Hashimoto & Black Tiger II and got my arse kicked inside 3 minutes. One of these days I'll get better at the old school entries.

This is the infamous Suda entry for those wondering.

Right now, I'm playing Rayman Legends. And it's all thanks to the PS Store's flash sale. Got it for only 10 bucks.

Digimon World

Currently digivolved my Gatomon to Angewomon
Working on Patamon now

Right now, I'm re-playing Persona 4. It kinda just clicked to re-play these games after Persona 5 got released. It's still kinda fun, but I'm slogging through Naoto's dungeon and I'm kinda losing my patience. It doesn't help that after a few years, I can already pinpoint all the problematic things about Persona 4 that annoy me. Nanako and Yukiko are still adorable. Rise and Kanji are still awesome. But I cringe badly at Yosuke. Persona 3 at least just had that Operation Babe Hunt incident that you can totally skip by playing the FeMC on the portable version. Persona 5 wasn't really an improvement on that point.

I might just boot up Dragon Age: Origins and play a totally gay elf that romances Zevran to get the annoyance out of the way.

At the moment, I'm currently playing Pokemon Sun, I've already beaten the main game, just making my way through the post game stuff ala catching the Ultra Beasts, filling up my Pokedex (Rotemdex), and what not.

In between F1 2017 on PS4 (The best damn F1 game they've ever made, it's so deep) i'm doing a reply of OoT on the 3DS, after that i've got Majoras Mask sitting and waiting.

Hey, Oncall, you're following in my footsteps! I just started Majora's Mask on the 3DS. Have you played the original OoT? If so, how would you compare the two?

I haven't touched a video game for the past few weeks. Real life took over. Mixture of organising a holiday, preparing for job interviews, and going to job interviews, has left me with little free time. So I'm still mid-Disc 2 on FF7, a few hours in on Okami and Majora's Mask. Said holiday starts on Saturday. I'll take my 3DS with me, but I don't expect to play much. Reading has took over as the dominant relaxing activity.

Sept 27, 2017 1:26:53 GMT Kaye88 said:

Right now, I'm re-playing Persona 4. It kinda just clicked to re-play these games after Persona 5 got released. It's still kinda fun, but I'm slogging through Naoto's dungeon and I'm kinda losing my patience. It doesn't help that after a few years, I can already pinpoint all the problematic things about Persona 4 that annoy me. Nanako and Yukiko are still adorable. Rise and Kanji are still awesome. But I cringe badly at Yosuke. Persona 3 at least just had that Operation Babe Hunt incident that you can totally skip by playing the FeMC on the portable version. Persona 5 wasn't really an improvement on that point.

Those dungeons can be slogs at times, but the rest of the game is so great that I didn't have a problem looking past that.

Emperor,

Yeah, the random dungeons tend to get tedious after a while. I remember my latest playthrough of P3P, I had gotten so tired of Tartarus at the end that during the end-game, I just blitzed through the last set of floors and didn't really pay much attention to the last few boss fights. I think my issue with Naoto's dungeon is that the mood color (science green!) and the music is kinda boring, so it irks me. I know I never had any issues grinding through Yukiko's Castle or Marukyu Striptease because they were more vibrant dungeons, with the red and the pink and purple.

Emperor,

I have played both and far prefer this 3DS version. For want of a better description it feels cleaner and slicker. Water temple is still rough though, I hate that place.

Never played Majoras mask so looking forward to getting into that once I beat OoT again.

Destiny 2 is still consuming my time that has been devoted to gaming. Like most multiplayer games not named Overwatch, I am getting to the point where I am getting a bit tired of the game. Bungie still has my support, but with the main story finished and the raid frustratingly difficult, it is easy to lose motivation as of the first month. Although, my tone is completely different when I'm playing my friends doing clan related actives. I might go back and replay a game in my PS4 library.

Actually, I still need to give time to Breath of the Wild. I don't even know if I'm a 25% completed, and I've had the game since early May.

Since it was free on Playstation Plus, I played Life is Strange. I was originally kinda put off by it due to people saying that it's dialog is kind of cringey but overall actually really love it so far. It starts off super cringe, but eases up on it by the third episode. Just finishing episode 4 and...woah. Can't wait to finish it, so I can get to Before the Storm.

Finished up Death of the Outsider, it was good fun, but I just didn't find myself as drawn to it at Dishonored 1 and 2 proper, it's the first one I didn't immediately go back through for a murder spree run. I think that comes down to the fact that there weren't other powers keyed to a murder play style, you only unlock the set powers and that's that, and they really seemed more keyed to a stealth run, one power being basically worthless if you kill (since you can only take the image of the living). Was fun, and a solid way to round out the titles, fully ending the arc of the characters, just my least favorite piece of the bunch.

Battlefield 1 on PS4.

Waiting for COD:WW2.

And, just bought a mini SNES. I have an original SNES, but you know...

Sept 28, 2017 2:12:18 GMT G/B said:

Since it was free on Playstation Plus, I played Life is Strange. I was originally kinda put off by it due to people saying that it's dialog is kind of cringey but overall actually really love it so far. It starts off super cringe, but eases up on it by the third episode. Just finishing episode 4 and...woah. Can't wait to finish it, so I can get to Before the Storm.

Episode 1 and 5 probably are the weakest episodes. Bet you didn't see the end of 4 coming because I sure didn't.

Oct 1, 2017 23:29:49 GMT X-zero said:

Sept 28, 2017 2:12:18 GMT G/B said:

Since it was free on Playstation Plus, I played Life is Strange. I was originally kinda put off by it due to people saying that it's dialog is kind of cringey but overall actually really love it so far. It starts off super cringe, but eases up on it by the third episode. Just finishing episode 4 and...woah. Can't wait to finish it, so I can get to Before the Storm.

Episode 1 and 5 probably are the weakest episodes. Bet you didn't see the end of 4 coming because I sure didn't.

Sadly the way they did it was a bit of a mess but I'm glad I finally got around to it.  Both endings do kinda suck with the bad one less thought out (I got the "good") Playing episode 5 gave me a replay of that awful bit of dialog from Chloe  saying "hella cash".  Immediately  remembered how bad some dialog really is.  Telltale can take a page on a game's performance, as playing this was pretty smooth and not stuttery.  Have you played the new one?  I might as wait til all episodes come out.

Oct 1, 2017 23:55:42 GMT G/B said:

Oct 1, 2017 23:29:49 GMT X-zero said:

Episode 1 and 5 probably are the weakest episodes. Bet you didn't see the end of 4 coming because I sure didn't.

Sadly the way they did it was a bit of a mess but I'm glad I finally got around to it.  Both endings do kinda suck with the bad one less thought out (I got the "good") Playing episode 5 gave me a replay of that awful bit of dialog from Chloe  saying "hella cash".  Immediately  remembered how bad some dialog really is.  Telltale can take a page on a game's performance, as playing this was pretty smooth and not stuttery.  Have you played the new one?  I might as wait til all episodes come out.

Nope, I also played it because it was free on PS plus. I may eventually but pretty backlogged on a lot of stuff. Also not sure how it will work without Max's powers.

I did both endings but keep the "bad" one. The good one gave me the telltale feeling of nothing you do actually matters so decided to go with other one since it made me feel like the things I did matters for better or worse.

In all fairness to some bad dialog...kids talk like fucking idiots.

I really thought the "good" ending was perfect for the story, wrapped the entire experience up nicely, as over the course they grew and became more responsible, and in the end sacrificed their happiness for the greater good.

I don't know, Rags. I have a few cousins who are in high school and they do say alot of stupid things but Life is Strange lingo certainly isn't it. I did like that in the alternate universe (you know the universe where Chloe gets it super bad) Chloe said she hated the word. I also thought the "good" ending was the best myself. Even though it was bitter sweet.

Oct 2, 2017 6:46:57 GMT G/B said:

I don't know, Rags. I have a few cousins who are in high school and they do say alot of stupid things but Life is Strange lingo certainly isn't it. I did like that in the alternate universe (you know the universe where Chloe gets it super bad) Chloe said she hated the word. I also thought the "good" ending was the best myself. Even though it was bitter sweet.

Speaking of dumb things how does one lock someone inside a dorm room.

I'm re-playing the Dragon Age series now. I saw a "Dragon Age: The World of Thedas" book in my local city library, borrowed it, and I am all in. I have only finished Dragon Age: Origins and Dragon Age 2 once each. Inquisition was a bit too open world for my liking, but we'll see.

My first Origins playthrough was a human female rogue archer who became queen after she married Alistair. She stabbed Morrigan at the end of Witch Hunt, too. She's not having anything to do with her king's illegitimate children. This time around, I'm a male city elf rogue who dual wields daggers and has already romanced Zevran. I plan to recruit Loghain this time around, but since I don't want Alistair wandering around as a drunk when DA2 hits, I'll have him marry Anora so that everyone's alive and well! This is exciting. LOL.

Oct 4, 2017 8:07:35 GMT Kaye88 said:

I'm re-playing the Dragon Age series now. I saw a "Dragon Age: The World of Thedas" book in my local city library, borrowed it, and I am all in. I have only finished Dragon Age: Origins and Dragon Age 2 once each. Inquisition was a bit too open world for my liking, but we'll see.

My first Origins playthrough was a human female rogue archer who became queen after she married Alistair. She stabbed Morrigan at the end of Witch Hunt, too. She's not having anything to do with her king's illegitimate children. This time around, I'm a male city elf rogue who dual wields daggers and has already romanced Zevran. I plan to recruit Loghain this time around, but since I don't want Alistair wandering around as a drunk when DA2 hits, I'll have him marry Anora so that everyone's alive and well! This is exciting. LOL.

Did you get the ultimate bow on your first playthrough? Because DA:O like a few other games make you do terrible things for the best bow in the game.

Nothing. Bad few months for PC master race as windows 10 update broke nearly every game for people. Nothing run rights with the combo of windows 10, and intel chip and the 1080 graphics card from nvidia. I am moving to linux or windows 8 with no internet to game.

Oct 5, 2017 9:09:04 GMT c said:

Nothing. Bad few months for PC master race as windows 10 update broke nearly every game for people. Nothing run rights with the combo of windows 10, and intel chip and the 1080 graphics card from nvidia. I am moving to linux or windows 8 with no internet to game.

Windows 10 is such a horrible system. Shame so many got trick into installing that "upgrade". But PC just Divinity - Original Sin 2 which I hope will come to console really soon.

X-zero,

I KNOW. I didn't like having to force the poor smithy to off himself, but I needed the bow. T_T

I'm not that far in this time around, but I've got the Sorrows of Arlathan from the Witch Hunt DLC on my pack. I'm still thinking if Far Song would still be needed. Then again, I always equip Leliana with Marjolaine's Recurve for poetic justice. My City Elf only uses a bow for special circumstances.

Oct 5, 2017 22:52:51 GMT Kaye88 said:

X-zero ,

I KNOW. I didn't like having to force the poor smithy to off himself, but I needed the bow. T_T

I'm not that far in this time around, but I've got the Sorrows of Arlathan from the Witch Hunt DLC on my pack. I'm still thinking if Far Song would still be needed. Then again, I always equip Leliana with Marjolaine's Recurve for poetic justice. My City Elf only uses a bow for special circumstances.

I didn't even know about it the end of my first play through and by then it was too late so had to get it on my second. Hate how the force an overly evil way to get a bow. Archers aren't seen as evil in dragon age. If anything thing consider dragon age's theme the strongest staff should be locked behind an evil deed. Never got around to witch hunt so didn't see what weapons it offered.

I was so pissed when my laptop automatically updated to Windows 10, it's the thing that got me to turn off automatic updates. As soon as it installed I started having crazy problems with it, no problems before, and no problems since I wiped my computer and set it back to factory. Terrible.

I'm surprised at all the Windows 10 backlash. I think it's a great OS, but I can understand why people have an issue with the forced updates. Not had any issues with games breaking, but I never play the cutting-edge games so that might be why. It does suck if you can't game on it though, but huge issues like those will be fixed in short order I imagine.

Right now I'm staying at a friend's house and I've had an opportunity to check out a couple of games on their Xbox One. In particular they own a Rare games collection which attracted me more than most of the newer games.

Rayman Legends
My first Rayman experience and it's a good 'un. Wonderful platforming experience. There's a good amount of variety, from high-speed Sonic-esque levels to puzzle solving to slow, careful platforming, often all in the same level. The game has a huge amount of levels, and the co-op mode is fantastic. Good boss battles. My favourite aspect of the game are the musical levels. A bit hard to explain, but the music in the background is timed with your jumps and enemy kills (assuming you play the level "properly"). If you know the song, as I did with the "Eye of the Tiger" level, then the rhythm of the music can help you time your jumps and attacks for the optimal route. It's brilliant. I only have one small problem with the game, that being the sprites are very small and can sometimes be confused with your ally in co-op mode. That might be only because our TV is relatively small though. Overall it's a wonderful platformer that plays like a charm.

Conker's Bad Fur Day
I've heard tales of this game's wackiness and adult humour, but even that couldn't prepare me for this game. It's obscene and downright hilarious, and quite honestly I'm not sure why more games like this were made in the early 2000s. While it gets full marks on characters/story/humour, the gameplay is lacking. The camera in particular is god awful. There is manual camera movement, but it rarely allows you to look where you want to look, and the automatic camera movement overrides it the moment you take a step. This makes the already finnicky 3D platforming thrice as difficult. It doesn't help that this is compounded by the game demanding a lot of its mini-quests be done several times over (like taking the fucking cheese to the fucking mouse). The game is hardly unplayable, but it's quite frustrating more often than not. In a game without the kind of personality it has, it would be a dealbreaker, but as it stands I'd be happy to see it through to the end.

Perfect Dark
I played Goldeneye not too long ago and it hasn't aged well at all. I can't say the same about Perfect Dark. I generally struggle to play FPS games with a controller, but Perfect Dark was just so easy. I guess the main reason for this is that the game auto-targeted for me and I didn't seem to be able to die no matter how many times I was shot. However I didn't play the game for very long. I got stuck early and wasn't very motivated to wander the monotonous levels back and forth, especially when I had no idea what to look for. A game like Doom makes it very clear what you need to get: a locked door of a certain colour requires you find a certain keycard. Perfect Dark is full of locked doors. The ones on the first level were optional, and perhaps not openable. Then on the second level I battle down a long linear corridor only to arrive at a locked door. Surely I must go through that door, but I couldn't find anything remotely resembling a key.

I finished Cuphead last Saturday and it is absolutely a GOTY contender for me. EXCELLENT game, It was so good I beat it in one day. 7 to 8 hour game granted but I could not stop playing it. Such a good looking game, plays really swell and it is easy to play. Quite challenging admittedly too!

I am in Chapter 3 of DanganronpaV3, it is more of the same which is a very good thing. If you at all liked the 1st two entries you will like this one.

Stardew Valley was finally released on the Nintendo Switch two days ago. Ever since, it's been hard to get the system out of my hands. I never expected myself to fall in love with a Harvest Moon-esque game at this point in my life. I picked the standard farm to get a feel of the game. I didn't expect it to be that overgrown, so it's a chore to get the trees and rocks out of there. I've been growing my spring fruits and vegetables. Living the life as a humble farmer is now what I need. In 2017, I can be on the toilet and be playing the Switch. This is the future millennial's wanted.

Played a few more hours of Conker's and experienced the same issues as mentioned previously. The game insists on ramming its tedious missions down your throat by making you do them three times, not made any less frustrating by the dreadful cameras. The last straw was the mission where you have to get drunk and piss rock creatures down tunnels. Even when you get the perfect angle to do that, it doesn't work, and they get up and punch you, then you can't piss anymore and you have to spend two minutes waddling over to the sober up place and back to the get drunk place. I might return to it at some point because the game's personality is so fun and infectious. The Great Mighty Poo is one of the best things I've ever seen in a video game.

In other news, today I sat down with a friend and we completed Shadow of the Colossus HD in one session. Finished in just under 8 hours. Didn't think I'd ever get the chance to play the HD version. It's breathtaking. I thought I remembered a lot more about the game than I actually did. It was refreshing to repeat old mistakes and learn new things.