Beaten

Disney Afternoon Collection –

I didn’t precisely beat this.  In fact, I didn’t finish any of the games in this 6 game collection, but I have played it enough to feel like I’ve had my fun.  Maybe when I have a shorter docket of games to play or maybe just some Saturday when I feel like plowing through DuckTales 2 I’ll get back to it, but for now I’m done.  This is more excellent work from Digital Eclipse.  Just like with the terrific Mega Man Legacy Collection, the Disney Afternoon Collection takes six NES game and emulates them perfectly on modern systems, along with bringing in a lot of encyclopedic material to complement the package. The games themselves are not quite as uniform as Mega Man. DuckTales and DuckTales 2 are upper echelon NES games, true classics. Rescue Rangers and Rescue Rangers 2 are fine games, really as good as can be expected from licensed games.  Darkwing Duck is too hard to be fun, which is unfortunate because there is a lot to like about it.  And Talespin is an interesting failed experiment.  It is an attempt to combine a shmup with a platformer that doesn’t really work.  It just isn’t fun to play.  Still, the game is interesting enough that I don’t mind its inclusion here.  I don’t like these games as much as the Mega Man ones from MMLC, this is the kind of retro compilation I hope we get more of; ones that really work to provide some accuracy and context for the games instead of just slapping 60 or so ROMS on a disc and calling it a day.

Dragon Quest VIII – read about it here.  Confession: I didn’t actually beat it.  I’ve got a couple of hours left, but I really didn’t want to play it anymore.

Super Mario 64 – read about it here.

Ongoing

The Last Guardian – I don’t know that The Last Guardian is going to go down with Ico and Shadow of the Colossus as one of the most important and striking video game experiences I’ve ever had, but I can’t imagine it finishes much off that list.  There is something special about Fumito Ueda’s games.

Persona 5 – This was my second most anticipated game of the year, after Breath of the Wild.  But with the comedown off of that game, along with a loss of free time, has kind of prevented me from really digging into this like I would have liked.  I’ve just cleared the first dungeon and am finally getting into the swing of things.  It is good.  I don’t know that I like the cast as much as Persona 4’s, at least not initially.  To be honest, Persona 4 is one of my favorite games of the last 10 or so years and the long wait between it and Persona 5 does the game no favors.  I don’t think it could ever live up to my expectations, largely due to reasons that have nothing to do with the game.  It’s been almost 10 years since Persona 4 came out; I am not the same person I was back then and I am not in the same place to really fall in love with this game.  I like to think I’ve matured, at least somewhat, and this series hasn’t. I don’t really think it should.  It is not a problem for a game to be aimed at 15-25 year olds just because I am no longer in that age group. I will always have the memories of being absolutely engrossed by Persona 3 FES and Persona 4 in 2007-2008, and today’s kids deserve to get that same kind of experience from Persona 5.  I guess I’ll just have to appreciate it from an aesthetic and mechanical standpoint.

Fire Emblem Echoes – 

I am burning through this pretty fast; I should have it done by the end of the weekend.  It is a hard game to articulate my feelings for.  The things it does well it does very well, but the things it does poorly it does very poorly.  I think I like it better than the previous 3DS games – which are very good – but I don’t think there is a single map in this game I will remember.  I’ll have a full post before too long.

Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island – I’ve cleared the first world, which is close to as far as I’ve ever made it in this game.  I’ve got to be honest, I’ve always felt the Yoshi’s Island games were inferior to regular Mario games.  People told me that the original Yoshi’s Island would change that, but since it has never grabbed me enough to get me to finish it I doubt that.  This time isn’t changing my mind so far.

Lufia 2 – At some point I am going to knuckle down and finish playing this, instead of fiddling with it in fits and starts.

Upcoming

Yakuza 0 – This might be me being optimistic, but assuming I finished up The Last Guardian (which should happen as soon as this weekend) and Persona 5 (could take years) I am anxious to get back into this.

Super Mario Sunshine – I’ve got to get access to my Wii to get this going, but I can’t wait for a new Mario experience as I play through the whole series.  This, Lost Levels and New Super Mario Bros are the only ones I haven’t really played.

Terranigma – I promise.

Xeodrifter – This was on deep discount, so I picked it up and as soon as I finish with Fire Emblem.