[blog] R2D21999's Random Garbage

Game #46: City Connection

Platform: Switch
Main Story: 28m 28s
Rating: 2/10
Date Completed: March 26, 2021
Extra Details: NSO Version

Game Synopsis: You're driving a car and painting the streets.

Blog: Not only is this game insanely boring, the controls are generally garbage!

The main objective of this game is to drive over every tile and cover it in paint. Meanwhile avoiding obstacles such as police cars and cats.

You can shoot cans at the police cars to get them out of the way, but your ammo is limited. Fortunately cans constantly spawn along the platforms so running out shouldn't be a problem.

Because you need to cover every tile, you need to be able to jump to higher platforms. This is where the main issue lies with the game. The car doesn't always make the jumps even though it looks like you would. I don't know why.

Also whenever you need to turn around, you can't jump for a good solid 2-3 seconds. Which is as jumping is very essential in this game, and it can be very troublesome when the cats can't be shot. It adds an unnecessary layer of frustration on the game.

Even if the game didn't have awful controls, it's just too boring and uneventful. It doesn't help that the game is incredibly short too.

I don't hate it completely though. I don't consider it so bad it'd be a 1/10. So I gave it a 2.

TL;DR: A boring NES arcade game. I wouldn't bother with this one.

Game #47: Wrecking Crew

Platform: Switch
Main Story: 2h 53m 46s
Rating: 4/10
Date Completed: March 27, 2021
Extra Details: NSO Version

Game Synopsis: Play as Mario as he works at a demolition site. Watch out for those weird creatures!

Blog: I'm starting to think that I'm just not all that interested in NES arcade-y style of games.

I really didn't care for Wrecking Crew. This seems to be similar to a puzzle game in which you need to destroy a bunch of walls and ladders of a certain color. You do all this while avoiding enemies and trying not to get stuck.

If you do get stuck, you have to sort of quit out of the level in order to reset the level and start over. Unfortunately when you start over a level your highscore goes back to 0. I think that's kind of dumb.

I also think the game overstays it's welcome with having 100 levels to get to the end. I suppose that's more of personal preference though considering I don't like this game.

That's all with this game. Honestly aside from resetting the score, the game doesn't really do too much wrong. Unfortunately it doesn't do anything to make it interesting. That's honestly the worst offender when it comes to this game.

TL;DR: Wrecking Crew is just such a boring game. Thank god Mario stuck with being a plumber.

Game #48: Donkey Kong 3

Platform: Switch
Main Story: 7m 40s
Rating: 6/10
Date Completed: March 27, 2021
Extra Details: NSO Version

Game Synopsis: Donkey Kong has invaded a boy's greenhouse. Play as the boy and defend your plants!

Blog: Is it strange that I actually kind of liked this one?

I don't typically like arcade NES games but this one was pretty good.

The goal of the game is to keep bugs away from your flowers as well as making sure to keep Donkey Kong from falling down from his ladder thing. You win the level by either surviving the wave of bugs, or spraying Donkey Kong until he can't get any higher.

As much as I enjoy the game, the game is pretty flawed. For example, I learned that it's extremely easy to win by just focusing on pushing Donkey Kong up to the top and only focusing on the bugs some of the time.

That wouldn't be such a problem if there were more levels. There's only 4 or 5 unique levels until they begin to loop. That's just not interesting enough for me to stick around.

If there was something that Nintendo could do to make this more interesting, maybe they could find a way to implement an online leaderboard of highscores with NSO. That would be great and encourage me to play games like Donkey Kong 3 even longer.

TL;DR: Donkey Kong 3 is fun but it's pretty short-lived in terms of variety.

Game #49: Vice: Project Doom

Platform: Switch
Main Story: 1h 23m 04s
Rating: 7/10
Date Completed: March 27, 2021
Extra Details: NSO Version

Game Synopsis: You're an undercover detective on a mission!

Blog: I really enjoyed this game. The gameplay was solid. Music was good. The graphics look amazing. That's mostly everything you'd want in an NES game.

One issue is the story. I have no idea what I was reading. It all seemed like a jumbled mess to me. It's like they were trying to pull out every 80s secret agent cliche they could think of. None of it really worked. This wouldn't be as much of a problem if the story wasn't so prominent, with a cutscene at the end of every level.

Another smaller off put is the levels where the game turns into an on-rails shooter. I don't really enjoy those. Luckily there's not many.

TL;DR: Vice is a really fun game, but don't expect anything remotely understandable from the story.

Game #50: Kung-Fu Heroes

Platform: Switch
Main Story: 1h 14m 17s
Rating: 4/10
Date Completed: March 28, 2021
Extra Details: NSO Version

Game Synopsis: Play as Kung-Fu masters and rescue the princess

Blog: This game is confusing as hell to me.

Your goal is to defeat as many enemies in a level in order to open doors and progress. You can punch or jump kick onto enemies. You can also punch rocks for different effects.

My issue is that this game can be confusing. Sometimes you're able to beat enemies just fine with a punch or a kick. Sometimes that doesn't do it at all and you have to hope that a rock you punch will be sent forward and destroy the enemies in front of you(that's one of the rock effects mentioned before). I just really don't like that, because at that point the game is leaving it up to chance instead of the player's ability. That's just not cool.

There's a chance that I'm able to level up my punching and such, in the UI at the top of the screen it shows a fist with a number next to it and once every few levels it'll go up. I have no idea what makes this go up. There's nothing about this that's understandable to me.

This game was also unnecessarily long. There's like 8 worlds but 4 or 5 levels in each world. The levels also weren't consistent with their length. You'd have levels that are short but others that are stupidly long.

This just wasn't a fun time.

TL;DR: Kung-Fu Heroes overstays its welcome with simple gameplay that's also really confusing.

Game #51: Journey to Silius

Platform: Switch
Main Story: 52m 42s
Rating: 7/10
Date Completed: March 28, 2021
Extra Details: NSO Version

Game Synopsis: You must fight off robot terrorists and avenge your father's death.

Blog: Yet another good NES game! I'm really glad that I'm finding NES games I actually like.

I've never played Mega Man, but this is kind of how I would think Mega Man plays when you get to the basics. You shoot a variety of enemies, there's these mini bosses that drop different weapons upon defeat, the weapons function differently based on stuff like damage output and firing speed, and of course bosses at the end of every level. It's pretty great and I probably don't do it enough justice by comparing it to Mega Man.

One thing that isn't so great is how cheap getting hit by certain things in the game is. Sometimes you need to do a trust fall where you can't see the enemies below you until it's too late and you get hit with massive damage or even die because you fell on a robot. There's some points where an enemy is placed where it's just seemingly impossible to not get hit. There's a lot of these moments in the game and it just really hampers my enjoyment.

However, I would still recommend trying out Journey to Silius.

TL;DR: Journey to Silius is great, but be wary that the game will often have moments where it could feel unfair.

Game #52: Crystalis

Platform: Switch
100% Complete: 7h 38m 57s
Rating: 8/10
Date Completed: March 31, 2021
Extra Details: NSO Version

Game Synopsis: After centuries of war, you wake up from your cryogenic sleep and discover yourself in a world of fantasy. Take up the sword of wind, find the other three swords, and fight the forces of evil.

Blog: I really enjoyed my time with this game. Imagine the original Zelda for the NES... but better... or at least I think so (I didn't enjoy the original Zelda).

The combat was fun! Being able to charge sword elements for range attacks was great! Enemies have weaknesses and resistances to the different swords that you'll eventually have so you'll need to experiment.

One thing is that there's apparently a required minimum level you have to be to beat bosses. Such as being level two or higher to beat a boss, level four or higher, etc. While I can see this being an issue(especially since you won't be able to find out otherwise until you fight the boss). I definitely didn't run into a boss I wasn't already leveled up for due to me grinding and enjoying the combat.

Something I would recommend is using a walkthrough every now and then. There are going to be times where something doesn't make sense or you might have no idea what to do. For example there's a fight with someone where you have to lose against him twice in order to progress, and then win the third or so time. This isn't the only time where something obtuse like this happens and it's a weird part of the game that I could personally do without.

Also the story is great for the first two-thirds of the game, but the last third it gets kinda weird and I don't really understand it very well. That might just be my fault though.

TL;DR: Crystalis is a fantastic NES Zelda-like, but a guide might have to be used every now and then.

Game #53: Shadow of the Ninja

Platform: Switch
Main Story: 56m 27s
Rating: 6/10
Date Completed: March 31, 2021
Extra Details: NSO Version

Game Synopsis: It's the future! And as a ninja you must take down an evil emperor!

Blog: This game is like Cheerios to me. Not terrible, but nothing substantial.

Shadow of the Ninja feels rather uninspired and a game that's been played and done on the NES. It's a watered down Ninja Gaiden.

However, it really doesn't do anything terrible. Something annoying is that some of the later bosses, despite being hit at thw weak point, their health bars often won't go down but the bosses will at least show themselves being damaged. However there's nothing else that I find rather annoying with the game.

TL;DR: Shadow of the Ninja is just rather forgettable. There needs to be more done with it. It's not a bad game though.

Game #54: Bioshock

Platform: Switch
Main + Extra: 20h 20m 51s
Rating: 9/10
Date Completed: April 12, 2021
Extra Details: Bioshock Collection Version

Game Synopsis: Welcome to the world of rapture! An underwater city with absolutely nothing out of the ordinary!

Blog: One of my favorite things I love about games is the atmosphere that they're able to provide. If a game has a good atmosphere there's a good chance that I'll really enjoy that game. It's sort of my weakness when it comes to games.

Bioshock has a really engaging atmosphere. I love exploring Rapture, a city that was once prosper is now dilapidated. The insane citizens having gone through extreme body and dna modifications. The radio messages giving a better sense of what Rapture was originally like, and how it turned out the way it did. There's so much to take in and that's definitely not a negative. I wouldn't be surprised if there was something I'm missing out on.

The gameplay is also pretty solid. It feels like there's real weight when smacking around enemies with a wrench or blasting enemies with guns. That's all good, but I'd say that the plasmid system is probably a more focal aspect of the gameplay. Using various plasmids and seeing what works is just so fun and satisfying. I love shocking enemies and then delivering a fatal blow with the wrench or catching a grenade with telepathy and tossing it back. It feels great!

The game isn't too difficult nor is it too easy, granted I did play on the Normal/Medium difficulty. I imagine it could be easier or harder depending obviously, but I didn't feel a need to raise or lower the difficulty. Although late game enemies did feel like bullet sponges. Probably the toughest enemies were the Big Daddies and I rather liked fighting them. I like planning on how I'm going to be taking down a Big Daddy through various plasmids and weapons, as well as using the environment to take cover or set traps when needed. It makes a dummy like me feel smart.

If there's something that puts a damper on the game, it's the hacking sections. When the player hacks something, there's a pipe puzzle where the player needs to move pieces around to get the water flowing from one side to the other. If the water either doesn't make it to the end on time or the water flows into one of the bad pipe sections, then the puzzle closes out and the player has either taken significant damage or a security alarm is set off.

Very early game, the pipe sections aren't an issue. However, about halfway through the puzzles get even more difficult, and often times even impossible. There have been multiple times where I try to hack something and I get a pipe puzzle that is literally unsolvable due to either not having the correct amount of a certain pipe piece, or having the pathway completely blocked off by the bad pipe pieces. Hacking is everywhere, and it becomes infuriating when I hack something and I take unreasonable damage because of an unsolvable puzzle.

There's ways of dealing with this but none of the answers are particularly attractive. Supposedly you can buy engineering plasmids to make things easier or remove bad pipes. However, I can't tell if the lower difficulty plasmids worked as I would still get impossible puzzles. Also you need to buy plasmids and plasmid slots with a currency called Adam, and that's not something you come by too often. So I'd rather use Adam interesting and more effective things like new plasmid abilities. You could also use hacking tools to skip it entirely, but you can only carry five at a time and those aren't easy to come by either. Hacking just sucks.

I had a really fun time with Bioshock anyway. It was great!

TL;DR: Bioshock is something I'd really recommend to people especially if you like atmospheric games. I do wish that hacking was much better than it is.

DLC/Expansion #1: Bioshock: Challenge Rooms

Game: Bioshock
Platform: Switch
Main: 2h 15m 29s
Rating: 6/10
Date Completed: April 13, 2021
Extra Details: Bioshock Collection Version

Synopsis: Go through three challenge rooms, solving puzzles and defeating enemies.

Blog: Fifty-four games and I'm just now talking about DLC? Wow!

Anyway, there's a "DLC" for Bioshock that people can play which introduces three challenges to the game. The challenges being called "The 'I' in Team", "A Shocking Turn of Events", and "Worlds of Hurt".

The 'I' in Team is a challenge in which the player must kill a Big Daddy and save a Little Sister. However, the player doesn't have any weapons or any plasmids to harm the Big Daddy directly. It's a puzzle. Despite how complicated that might sound, the solution is fairly simple. I won't explain it here because I don't want to just give the answer, but it's pretty easy once you figure out how certain objects react to things.

A Shocking Turn of Events is another puzzle where a Little Sister is stuck on top of a ferris wheel and the player must shock the control panel a certain number of times in order to rescue her. This puzzle is much more complex and there's various solutions that the player can take. However, I really don't feel obligated to keep playing and finding all of the solutions.

Worlds of Hurt is probably the meat of the DLC. The player must fight through various different arenas with lots of enemies, starting with nothing but a wrench. Eventually you'll have access to different weapons, but you must buy ammo to use them, as well as various different supplies like first aid kits and even plasmids. This one is a lot more fun than the other two in that I could actually see myself playing this mode more.

That said, the DLC was pretty underwhelming. I feel like that they don't really fit in with the main game at all, and the only section really worth playing is World of Hurt.

TL;DR: The Bioshock Challenge Rooms are only worth it for Worlds of Hurt, but the other two challenges aren't as worth it.

Game #55: The Binding of Isaac: Afterbirth+

Platform: Switch
Main Story: 32m 27s
Main + Extra: 57h 46m 24s
Rating: 8/10
Date Completed: April 28, 2021

Game Synopsis: Play as Isaac and go through floors of randomized enemies and items to beat the end bosses.

Blog: The Binding of Isaac is one of the first games to come to mind when I think of roguelike. I played the original flash version in school when I was supposed to be working. I liked it, so I of course downloaded Afterbirth+ on my Switch.

I have no idea what's going on with the story, but that's not a bad thing. The game starts out with God telling Isaac's mom to kill her son. Between that start and the multiple endings, there's not really much in terms of story. It's more set-up for players to make theories of what's going on. I actually really like that and with the way the endings are presented it doesn't really feel lazy.

The gameplay is similar to your typical rogue-like; where almost everything is randomized like the room layouts, items, enemies, most bosses, etc. It's really fun and you don't know what you're going to get. However, I do feel like that randomness to Isaac can be a double-edged sword at times. Maybe you'll get a particular item set-up that makes your run considerably worse than usual. Perhaps you'll get a boss where it's extremely difficult to hit their weak point with the items currently held. Perhaps you'll get a room and enemy set up where it's impossible for you to not get hit. These moments can be so frustrating and really make me want to put the game down.

And yet for those moments of frustration there's times where the game can be super fun. Such as having items that can melt away enemies life bars in seconds, finding a secret room and obtaining an item that turns a hopeless run into a great one, or maybe even finally defeating that super secret final boss that you've been fighting against over and over.

I really enjoy The Binding of Isaac Afterbirth+. Honestly I may come back to it every now and then... especially with the Repentance DLC that's suppose to be incoming to Switch that will add in a second game's worth of content.

TL;DR: The Binding of Isaac is an enjoyable rogue-like that unfortunately does suffer from some of the same issues that other rogue-likes can suffer from.

Game #56: Eliminator Boat Duel

Platform: Switch
Main Story: 1h 31m 23s
Rating: 7/10
Date Completed: April 28, 2021
Extra Details: NSO Version

Game Synopsis: Race other boats and earn money to make your boat the best in the waters.

Blog: Eliminator Boat Duel is actually pretty good, and I don't really like racing games.

I think what I like about it is that this is a racing game that constantly changes its angle and gameplay with three different "modes".

There's the first mode which is a side view of the two boats at the starting line, the main goal being to start at the right time. Not too early or else you'll receive a penalty and not too late or your opponent will get the lead on you.

The second mode is a top-down view where you need to traverse a course while avoiding obstacles and also getting the lead on your opponent. This is probably my favorite mode of the three, as the first one isn't really used and the third mode is flawed as we'll get into later. I like the feeling of threading through the obstacles and even smashing the other racers into the obstacles if I can manage it. Definitely the best mode.

The third one is a view from behind the boats where you need to travel between flags and avoid the obstacles. What I don't like about this mode is that it's difficult to see the obstacles from this point of view. Not only that but sometimes the obstacles are even seemingly impossible to avoid without either having to go outside the flag line things or using one of the very limited jump boosts. I really hate these sections.

One thing that I also want to complain about is that with the modes changing so often, the game decides at the beginning of each new mode that the players start at the exact same place. So it doesn't matter how far ahead you were from the other boat in the last mode, because in the next mode you'll once again have to start side-by-side. That kind of sucks.

What I do think is pretty cool is the upgrades system. At the end of the races you earn money which you can then use to spend o upgrades for your car. You can make it go faster, make steering better, upgrade your hull, or buy repairs. However, during the game you can lose these upgrades by smashing into obstacles. The game will prioritize your repair upgrades being depleted first, but after that it will start to affect everything else mentioned previously. It's a cool concept honestly.

The races can also be pretty tough. The strategy I often found myself using is to grab the boosts you find along the track to prevent the other racer from getting them. This will assure that you stay ahead for most of the race.

Graphics are also really nice. I'm constantly amazed at how good some of these NES graphics actually are.

TL;DR: Eliminator Boat Duel is a pretty good boat racing game, but I wish that over-the-shoulder section didn't exist.

Game #57: Rygar

Platform: Switch
100% Completion: 1h 59m 56s
Rating: 7/10
Date Completed: April 28, 2021
Extra Details: NSO Version

Game Synopsis: Save the land by using your shield-whip thing and getting the five sacred treasures.

Blog: This game was pretty fun! I'm on a roll with these NES games. Maybe the next one will be good (spoilers: it won't).

One thing I will mention off the bat is that it's going to be confusing on where you need to go. I recommend following a map or guide to know what you're doing as I feel that I had a better time when I did.

I think the combat is very solid. I haven't played Castlevania, but it's kinda how I imagine that the whip combat is pretty similar. There's also this EXP system where it'll level up your health and damage as you defeat enemies. Apparently there's two separate EXP systems for leveling them up, I'm not sure what it is that makes them level up individually but I know that's how it works.

I will say that the game is pretty easy. There's some enemies that'll give you trouble, but all of the bosses are extreme pushovers.

Music was pretty good and it had some pretty good-looking NES graphics.

TL;DR: Rygar is a good game but a map is recommended and it could use some more challenge overall.

Game #58: LEGO Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy

Platform: GameCube
Main + Extras: 8h 8m 47s
100% Completion: 23h 45m 29s
Rating: 9/10
Date Completed: April 29, 2021

Game Synopsis: Play through the original trilogy of Star Wars movies in Lego form.

Blog: The first Lego Star Wars game was great, this sequel improves upon it in almost every way.

Now, from looking at it the only difference seems to be that they're based on different movies. The differences go much deeper than that though.

LEGO Star Wars II introduces many concepts that would be implemented in later Lego games. Red bricks, gold bricks, custom characters, stud multipliers... collectables up the wazoo. This game even introduced building... how did the first game not introduce that? That's like the whole point of Legos is to build with them.

The ship sections are also so much better than the first game. I think choosing to have those levels function similarly to the normal levels is a much better idea.

One thing I didn't think was as good: the hub world. The hub world is painfully dull in comparison to Dexter's Diner. There's nothing wrong with using Mos Eisley Cantina, that's definitely a good choice, but I think having it being limited as a circle surrounded by a pit is just boring.

Also, while I do appreciate the character customization... there couldn't be more options? At least let me choose the color of the pre-existing hair and clothes. I wanted to make Samus, but there wasn't any possible way to have long blonde hair... if I was able to change Leia's hair though I could. Disappointing...

LEGO Star Wars II is definitely recommended for those who maybe interested in Lego games.

TL;DR: LEGO Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy is great. I do wish there was better character customization and that the hub world was more exciting.

Game #59: The Immortal

Platform: Switch
Main Story: 56m 28s
Rating: 2/10
Date Completed: April 30, 2021
Extra Details: NSO Version

Game Synopsis: You're a wizard searching a dungeon for your wizard friend.

Blog: What the hell is this game?

The Immortal game is like an ex girlfriend. It looks really good, and the music is great; but everything else about it functionality wise was awful and screwed me over.

Controls are confusing. It has this weird diagonal view of the room, so you think you're trying to go one way when you're really going another. The perspective of the room is confusing. Why couldn't it be from the side of the rooms instead of the corners?

Combat is also very confusing. It seems the way to win is to quickly swing the attack left to right, but every once in a while the enemies will manage to sneak in a last-minute attack that I'm not sure how I'm suppose to avoid.

Then there's the god damn bats. What the fuck! The bats are like three whole pixels. They're hard to hit, and even worse is that they do a good amount of damage to you.

Although that damage might not even matter! As there's instant death traps and pits. Sometimes you might walk on a bad tile, and you won't know it's there until it's too late. Then you get to start back at the last checkpoint! Which you don't get to see very often.

I will never play this game again.

TL;DR: The Immortal is a game that relies on unfair instant death mechanics and confusing controls with bad camera angles. Play this with a rewind feature if you must play it, but otherwise I'd skip it.

Game #60: S.C.A.T.: Special Cybernetic Attack Team

Platform: Switch
Main Story: 49m 05s
Rating: 6/10
Date Completed: April 30, 2021
Extra Details: NSO Version

Game Synopsis: Get into a robot suit and protect the Earth from extraterrestrial forces.

Blog: S.C.A.T. is simply okay for me.

It's a shoot 'em up. Sometimes you travel vertically, sometimes you travel horizontally. There's upgrades along the way.

Honestly there really isn't much to say about this game. It's not terrible in any sense, but it doesn't do anything that makes it stand out amongst the crowd of NES shoot 'em ups.

It's very much a forgettable game.

TL;DR: S.C.A.T.: Special Cybernetic Attack Team has nothing that makes it stand out for me, but others might enjoy it more.

Game #61: World of Tanks Blitz

Platform: Switch
Multiplayer: 40m 39s
Rating: 3/10
Date Completed: May 1, 2021

Game Synopsis: Fight as a tank against other tanks.

Blog: World of Tanks is just boring.

Not only is it really boring, there isn't much about that's all that great. The controls don't feel too great for example. They feel clunky and slow, which is probably the point because they're tanks but I still don't like it.

Also this game rewards players for putting lots of money into the game, as it gets them access to better tanks. I kid you not, there's like 14 different tiers of various tanks. It's absolutely ridiculous.

And of course, this game has microtransactions everywhere. At least I didn't pay for this game, but it's still so gross to me.

TL;DR: World of Tanks is a free-to-play tank vs online game with bad controls and of course it's littered with microtransactions.

Game #62: Rogue Company

Platform: Switch
Multiplayer: 56m 59s
Rating: 7/10
Date Completed: May 2, 2021

Game Synopsis: A multiplayer shooter with various different characters to play as.

Blog: I actually had a bit of fun with this one.

Rogue Company is a third person team shooter where you compete against another team through some different modes. The modes are essentially all the same but it's still pretty fun.

I think something major that this game could use is something like a story mode or campaign. It's apparent from the tutorial and mission introductions that there's some personality to the characters. I would love to see these characters fleshed out a bit more. It's quite a shame to see potential like this just not being used. I'd spend some money on a good campaign.

I'll also applaud this free-to-play game for not shoving microtransactions in my face. Unlike World of Tanks, I didn't feel a desire to buy things such as characters because I was very much content with the ones I had already available to me.

TL;DR: Rogue Company is actually quite fun for a game that's free. I wish the game modes were a bit more different and that there was a story mode.

Game #63: LEGO Indiana Jones 2: The Adventure Continues

Platform: Wii
Main + Extras: 24h 05m 00s
100% Completion: 25h 58m 04s
Rating: 2/10
Date Completed: May 6, 2021

Game Synopsis: Play all the Indiana Jones movies in Lego form, from Raiders of the Lost Ark to Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

Blog: I know many people don't consider Lego games to be very good. This one however is so terrible in comparison to every other Lego game. I would absolutely consider this to be the worst Lego game, and I haven't played all of them; but I'm confident that there isn't a Lego game as worse than Lego Indiana Jones 2 on the Wii.

If you're a fan of either Indiana Jones or the Lego games. I highly recommend avoiding this game.

In terms of Indiana Jones content, it's piss poor. This game ignores important sections of the movies and replaces them with the most boring levels with absolutely no substance. Like, where the fuck was the very beginning section of Raiders of the Lost Ark. You know, the part where he steals that idol and then runs from the bolder. It's only one of the most popular scenes in any piece of media. The developers really thought it was worth replacing that with a generic vehicle section where you need to crash into cars with other car? And why is the Crystal Skull split into 3 different hubs with levels? Does it really need to be like that?

In terms of the Lego gameplay, it's awful. Instead of having a single hub with the levels of the movies being accessible from there, they decided that every movie needs to have its own hub, except for the Crystal Skull which again has 3(why!?!). That might sound interesting, but the hubs themselves are indeed not. Places clash with each other visually, like why is an island with cold snow a bridge away from a hot sandy desert?

Each hub also has the same couple of levels recycled. There's an awful vehicle level, a level where you have to beat waves of bad guys, a forced boss fight level, and then two other levels that don't follow that formula. If these levels were only used once I would not complain but since they aren't, none of the hubs feel unique.

There's no true free play mode. Well, there kind of is but there's no reason to use it because you get literally nothing out of doing it. However, instead of free play mode they tried something new where you have to solve puzzles with two particular character abilities. Such as a character with a wrench and a female character(for some reason being female is an ability that lets you jump higher?). The problem with these levels is that you can't change into these characters with the press of a button. You have to find them out in the hub, and they can often be ridiculously far. To make matters worse; in order to know what kinds of characters you'll need, you have to go and start the level then leave if you don't already have both characters. So often times I find myself going into one of these levels, find out I need a character or two that's on the other side of the hub, leave the level, go to the characters and change into them, and then finally going back to the level with the right abilities to progress. It feels like a chore, and you need to do this 4 times for each hub if you want to complete them.

They tried something new in this game where you're able to create your own levels. That's great and all, but what's not great is that it seems to be very restrictive for no reason. Depending on the type of backdrop you choose, the types of stuff you can use is restricted to the 6 hub worlds. So if you choose to make a level that has a backdrop of Kingdom of the Crystal Skull part 2, you can only use enemies and objects available within that backdrop. You can't use the ones from the other hubs, and similarly it works the opposite. That's so stupid! Why?! What purpose does it serve to do that?

This game doesn't even look good. How does Lego Star Wars 2 on Game Cube look better than Lego Indiana Jones 2 on the Wii? How did that happen?

This game insults me with the poor decisions made. At almost every turn. However since it wasn't a buggy mess at any point, it's a 2/10 instead of a 1. Still awful though.

TL;DR: Lego Indiana Jones 2 is not just a bad Lego game, it's a bad game. I do not recommend this one.

Game #64: Ori and the Blind Forest: Definitive Edition

Platform: Switch
Main + Extras: 10h 12m 20s
Rating: 9/10
Date Completed: May 7, 2021

Game Synopsis: The forest is dying. Do some cool parkour and help the old tree dude.

Blog: Ori and the Blind Forest is a great time.

There's so much about this game I enjoy. I love the movement of the game and the upgrades along the way only improve that experience for me. The combat, while difficult to get used to initially, is in my opinion really good. The art style is gorgeous.The music is exciting and majestic. The story is fine, not the most unique but it's not bad.

There are a few things that bother me.

The first is the narrator. I don't have a problem with narrators in general, they can give some much needed exposition. However, I feel at some points in the game that the narrator just really isn't needed and can often point out the most obvious things that are happening visually, and therefore taking away the impact of those visuals. It's really unneeded.

Another thing; I really wish the cutscenes were skippable. The way Ori works is that if you die it respawns you at your last save point. That's fine, I don't have a problem with that. But if I save before a cutscene and then die after that scene, when I respawn I'll have to watch that cutscene again and I can't skip it. Just let me skip them after I've seen it, please!

This was a fantastic game though, and I'm hopeful for the sequel to be even better.

TL;DR: Ori and the Blind Forest is a fantastic platformer and I recommend people try it out when given the chance.

Game #65: Clubhouse Games: 51 Worldwide Classics

Platform: Switch
Main + Extras: 11h 05m 10s
Multiplayer: 44m 51s
Rating: 6/10
Date Completed: May 14, 2021

Game Synopsis: Play a bunch of tabletop games from around the world.

Blog: Clubhouse Games is fine. It does what it sets out to do, which is to be a compilation of various tabletop games. It's not exactly something remarkable.

Something I really don't like is that when playing against CPUs in luck-based games, it often feels to be unfair. It's especially apparent when the CPUs have a changeable difficulty. Obviously when playing against real people it doesn't feel that way as they're in the same situation as you, but the CPUs feel like they have an upper hand just because they're computers.

Otherwise I don't have any complaints. Visuals are great and bright. The music and sound isn't distracting which is key in a game like this. There's lots of games so there's bound to be something that everyone will enjoy. Also the online actually functions, there wasn't a moment where I had to wait more than a minute.

TL;DR: Clubhouse Games: 51 Worldwide Classics is exactly what it is. If you like various different tabletop games, this will do great for you.

Game #66: Lego Harry Potter: Years 5-7

Platform: Wii
Main + Extras: 16h 33m 34s
100% Complete: 20h 55m 10s
Rating: 8/10
Date Completed: May 20, 2021

Game Synopsis: Play through the last 4 Harry Potter movies in Lego form!

Blog: I'm not at all familiar with Harry Potter. My only interaction with anything Harry Potter has been 2 videogames, including this one, and going to the Harry Potter theme park at Universal Orlando.

Even with my limited Harry Potter knowledge, I very much enjoyed this game and I would say that it's a Lego game almost on par with the Star Wars games.

The Lego theme fits very well with the Harry Potter theme. I like when building Legos as a wizard that they're able to use telekinesis and build that way. I also enjoy seeing various spells used on different types of Lego structures. It really feels as if they took the care to implement Legos into Harry Potter without it being out-of-place.

A few things, I felt a majority of the characters were way too similar. That they all had the same magic powers and abilities. It felt pointless to play as anyone else if they didn't have something that set them apart. Then there's some characters where they're the only ones with a certain ability. Like why is Arthur Weasley the only one who can fix things? Why is Hermione the only one with a magic bag? It just seems strange to me.

Also trying to buy or choose a character with different costumes is a nightmare. Their portrait will be there for a few seconds before automatically going on to the next costume. I swear it takes 20 seconds for Harry Potter's costumes to finally loop. Please, just have a manual way of doing it, maybe have me press a button or something.

The character creator is also just awful. There's like 5 hair options... and you can't even change the color. At least let me use the hair and clothes from characters I've unlocked and bought! Even Lego Star Wars 2 on the GameCube let me do that!

Those are complaints that are probably specific to me, but overall I think it's an enjoyable game.

TL;DR: Lego Harry Potter: Years 5-7 is a great Lego game that could have been polished, but good nonetheless.

Game #67: Lego Batman: The Videogame

Platform: Wii
Main + Extras: 11h 22m 52s
100% Complete: 22h 42m 18s
Rating: 6/10
Date Completed: May 30, 2021

Game Synopsis: Play as Batman and fight criminals... in Lego form!

Blog: This is one of the few Lego games that isn't following pre-established movies or episodes of a tv show. As far as I'm aware, the story was only created for this game. Which is pretty cool.

But even so, this game just feels rather uninspired and generic. It's not bad, but that other Lego games have done similar things to this one, and Lego Batman doesn't really add anything.

Something that this game does is that you're able to play from the villains' perspective after finishing the heroes' side. The villains side is significantly better. I call it the heroes' view, but really you only play as Batman and Robin. Which gets old. With the villains, you get to play as a different villain with almost every level. It's so much better and gives variety!

A nitpick I have is that there's a lot of times where minikits are in the oddest places. Like, one time I'll find one behind a tree, or a wall or something. Another overused minikit is having to break a number of a specific items. I wish that some of these were just used better. I like puzzles, not laziness.

TL;DR: Lego Batman: The Videogame is not a bad game, but a lot more could have been done with it.

Game #68: The Outer Worlds

Platform: Switch
Main + Extras: 52h 26m 15s
Rating: 7/10
Date Completed: May 31, 2021

Game Synopsis: You've been woken up from years of frozen slumber to a colony of planets under the control of a corporation. Will you take down the corrupt corporate government? Or will you join them?

Blog: I have not played Fallout. Keep that in mind as you read through my blog post.

The Outer Worlds is a good game! I like the story, I love the various different paths you can take through the story. Apparently you can even kill literally everyone. That's so fantastic!

I liked the leveling up system and the skills, but I feel as if by the end of it that I should of had more perks and skills than what I ended up with. Which I did a majority of the quests available so I don't know what happened there.

One complaint I have, and it's an overall complaint, sometimes the game has ways of making it seem as if different things are deeper than they really are. One that sticks out is the combat. Weapons have different types of damage: there's physical, plasma, corrosion, and shock. Those are the main 4. None of that matters though, what really matters is how much damage your weapons can do and the type only really matters against automechanical enemies.

And then there's the elephant in the room: the Switch version. The Switch version looks like garbage on certain parts of the colonies. Sometimes it's fine, like when you're on a ship or other, but on the planets... oh my god! This was patched btw, I can only imagine how bad it was before.

One personal issue is that I think there's no real reason to explore. Sure you'll find more ammo, money, and consumables that way, but you're honestly better off just following the various quests and buying something from the store every now and then. There's nothing outside of the quests that you can't find within them.

TL;DR: The Outer Worlds is a good game, but please play on anything other than the Switch.

Game #69: Lego Pirates of the Caribbean: The Videogame

Platform: Nintendo DS
Main + Extras: 5h 19m 23s
100% Complete: 10h 2m 1s
Rating: 5/10
Date Completed: June 3, 2021

Game Synopsis: Play through the 4 Pirates of the Caribbean movies... in Lego form!

Blog: There's nothing about this Lego game that makes it stand out. It's boring, dull, and lazy.

What's really awful about this is the cutscenes. Now, I've played some Lego games on the DS and they've usually fine. What happened to this version? Why is it so dark? Why is it so blurry? What the hell was going on that the developers thought it looked good?

Honestly there's really nothing else to say about this game. This game is just so uneventful and I'm pretty sure they also skipped sections in the movies.

TL;DR: Lego Pirates of the Caribbean: The Videogame is a beaming example of a boring Lego game.