2022 games played ranked

snapshots at end of 2022, placements may differ in other lists

Elden Ring
Elden Ring
This was insanely fun during the first week scrambling with 5 other people on where each person has been and what they have seen. Coming up with theories on what’s happening to a certain npc or not even running into the same ones. Discovering new zones before anyone else and wonder how far this hole goes. Nothing better than talking about an event in a place with a friend only to realize they had something entirely different but you both can’t explain why.

Probably the longest I’ve binged a game in a while. Finally finished my 1st run and loved nearly everything about it. The zones were way bigger than anticipated which definitely kept having me guessing how long this game actually is. All the traditional areas were some of the best content in the game. Most of the bosses were sick even if the “side” content reused some. The last back part of the game is insane with the amount of the quality it has. If this game gets dlc comparable to any other fromsoftware title then I am set. I really hope they add another traditional area in the dlc too.

Only 1 downside is you really need to limit yourself if you want to explore even a little bit. You get so many souls that it is very easy to overlevel. Not to mention other methods of changing the entire experience of each boss fight. Would definitely recommend staying anywhere between 110-130 for the entire game.
Still need to do more runs for different builds and endings.

edit: Finished all the endings now and ng+3. Game is still sick as fuck and the best fromsoftware.

1

Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective
Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective
Such a unique premise and loved how they handled the puzzles. The satisfaction of figuring out the Rube Goldberg machines was great. Story was a huge standout and consistent across the entire playthrough. It just looked amazing with the sprites and background areas mixing in wonderfully making every scene or animation a treat.

The music was fantastic along with being able to recognize some of what was used in Ace Attorney. It's very hard to play Ghost Trick without picking up on some of the similarities with AA even having one of the cast members bringing it up constantly. You owe it to yourself to play this if you enjoyed any of the AA games. Regardless it is still an incredible game for everyone.

2

Mega Man X
Mega Man X
Newfound appreciation for this after playing the games before it. Having an escape option for minimal backtracking is nice. Sigma stages being easier when you don't really need to worry about weapon ammo. My 1st run I didn't use the dash nearly as often as I should have been. Probably played it 3 or 4 times now and still enjoying myself.

Dash and wall jumps are such a huge advancement that going back to just sliding and I think even MM9/10 removing that is going to feel awful.

3

Mega Man Legends 2
Mega Man Legends 2
God this box art is awful.

Wow I finally get it now. This was incredible from the opening scene that gripped me instantly to the ending. Especially after that, I'm annoyed this is yet another MM to cancel their next game with no chance of Capcom intervening.

The first town you're set loose in is during a cozy snowstorm! There is even a way to set your difficulty inside the game! I went for the highest one, which I didn't know at the time but gave me a lot of extra zenny drops. This made getting lots of upgrades and just flavour stuff in the game very manageable. You get to explore more diverse areas than the 1st game, actually use your ship more than once, and a lot of dungeons. 🐵

The only negatives I can think of are targeting has become a bit worse and I wish there was a button to swap between your special weapon/throw. I'm going to take a small break from my rest of the series binge after this one but what a way to end it.

4

Yakuza 5 Remastered
Yakuza 5 Remastered
Ambitious as fuck and I loved all the variety. Very hard for me to pick a favourite part as they all had their strengths. The story wrapped up nicely in the end somehow and they only forgot 1 character! I do wish the game was a bit harder and they went more in depth with the final 2 side activities. They did Akiyama dirty with the least chapters and worst bosses...

5

Return of the Obra Dinn
Return of the Obra Dinn
One of those games where you wish you could just forget about it all. I need more games to be made like this.

The only fault was the very abrupt ending, but the journey to get there more than makes up for it. I had a few little nitpicks too, like how some first-time memories would be a really long scene but only give you a little bit of time before it wants to lead you to the next body. Then, if you want to survey and note things down, you would need to keep reminding yourself not to press the next body button while it fills in the fates—probably a skill issue.

6

Mega Man Zero 2
Mega Man Zero 2
This goes back to the later classic games with 4 separate stages to pick from into the midpoint and then 4 more separate stages. While I do miss how unique the previous game was, I don't really mind that they went back to this.

One of the big new additions in this one is that Zero can acquire different forms. These change how you look, and come with their own strengths and weaknesses. Some are clearly better than others, but there is still a lot of variety to be had here, especially with the order you unlock them. I really liked how to unlock a form. You generally needed to lean towards one certain playstyle for that stage, such as lots of buster kills, dash slashes, air slashes, etc. The stages in general felt a bit longer, each with their own little gimmick, making them memorable. Going for S ranks though was much easier as they increased the amount of damage you can take before failing. There are even more incentives in this one, as you gain EX skills from each boss if you get to their stage as an A/S rank. While these EX skills are not required, they do give you more options for your playstyle. Elves still seem to be the same, so it's pretty useless, but they also added subtanks without needing them if you're really struggling. They also fixed the continue system, so you don't screw yourself the entire game if you just want to play it straight.

It easily beats the first game(even though it's great!) for me, as I loved replaying this with the different forms. I thought the music in the first game was great, but this was even better. The only real complaint is that the home base was a bit of a downgrade.

7

Live A Live
Live A Live

I loved every chapter in this although combat did drag in a couple of them. All the protagonists were great with very interesting stories and different styles of gameplay.

Very excited to see how the remake changes things up but I already noticed we're going to lose the different fonts on each chapter. I definitely need to play more games like this and Dragon Quest IV.

8

Mega Man X4
Mega Man X4
It really seems like they tried too hard to course correct from X3 and made this game so easy. All the stages are so short especially the Sigma ones and there really wasn't many items to find (I can see this being a positive for most). Mega Man making shitty voices and cutscenes a staple now is hilarious. Cyberspace was easily my favourite stage for just being so fun to speed through. It did feel like a lot more stages just let you go super fast compared to the previous ones.

Zero is fun as fuck though so I'm glad for that. Despite my complaints I still loved everything else about it and rate it a bit higher than X2/X3.

If this is a preview of how the Mega Man Zero games will play like then I'm in for a great time.

9

Mega Man Zero
Mega Man Zero
Zero with a new redesign for some reason, is still a blast to play. I'm not sure why, but I just expected this to be like the X games with Zero instead. Even though it was a bit more linear, I did like how the stages connected to each other in the overworld. They may lack a bit in variety, but they are short enough to not be an issue. I assume the missions were very short to make up for the very weird continue system. I get that it's meant for you to get good with the stages (I got real good at Neo Arcadia Core) to 1 shot them, but I felt like they could have explained the ranks a bit clearer. Other than the intro, there was a lot less time spent on dialogue after a mission. I did love how you could explore the base each time you finished a mission and there was a new reploid to talk to, with some of them giving you new weapons. The story in this one somehow hit harder than the other X games. The ending was very good, but maybe just because it reminds me of other fav games with this trope.

Cyberelves and grinding on weapons/crystals seems like such huge steps backwards. Weapons grinding is at least self-explanatory, but why does it exist other than as padding? Just a tip after a few replays, use your newest ability on the saber to level up very fast(can max it out in like under 10 min). Cyberelves, on the other hand, are just annoying. Your rank in the mission goes down if you have any equipped which is simple enough and it seems like you are free to use them outside of missions. You also seem to get a lot of them just randomly. I got some for killing enemies, while I would redo the mission and not get it the next time. There's probably something behind collecting them all, but fuck that. Then to level up the big cyberelves, you need to grind so many crystals, which again just seems like huge padding. God I hope the next few games actually fix these issues and give you a good reason to use any leveled up ones.

Have to mention it the music here is insane. Had a lot fun going for an S rank run and hard mode.

10

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
Yeah it is very easy but just exploring the castle was amazing. The music was great for the entire playthrough. Alucard's movement is sick and I wish other CVs had his backdash. I love all the inputs on weapons, spells, and just general skills. His transforms also make it a breeze to explore everything fully. Weapon variety was a bit lacking though it doesn't really matter. Really wish the later part of the game got scaled up.

11

Dragon Quest IV: Chapters of the Chosen
Dragon Quest IV: Chapters of the Chosen

I should have hated this game. DQ XI was my first for the series.I didn’t think there was anything interesting left to experience in DQ. Very simple combat and being way too generic were my main criticisms. Somehow DQ IV keeps the simple combat but is anything but generic.

The story is split into 5 main chapters(6 being additional content) with the 5th chapter being about half the length of the game. For the first 4 chapters you are playing as a different character in each with their own goals and story. They meet up with some sort of ally and continue towards their goal on different sides of the continent. Chapter 1 was the most basic but it makes sense as the start of the game. 2 became more interesting with your trio and the final location was very memorable for multiple reasons. 3rd chapter was the highlight personally as it was so unique for me. Playing as a shopkeeper and choosing to do the mundane tasks at the start was great. Going out and exploring when you get some money only to find a town that requires a shopkeeper and will reward you handsomely. After getting the reward you understand what the larger point of this chapter is. You can stay and choose to become insanely rich or continue again exploring. Chapter 4 was an ok chapter but didn’t really stand out other than the boss.

It’s only in the 5th chapter when you get to play as the main protagonist of the story as you go around the world recruiting each of previous chapter protagonists. The game becomes a bit more open as you can do lots of events out of order towards a linear goal. After your short trek throughout the various islands you will be powerful enough to fight the final boss. This final boss and the post game boss were a nice challenge assuming you don’t grind hard.

After playing this I am looking forward to DQ V (monster collecting) and DQ XIII(althought it might be a mini DQ XI) which I didn't think I would say in 2022.

12

Mega Man X2
Mega Man X2
Pretty much just more X1 with a few downgrades imo. The x hunters kinda force you to do stages in a certain order if you want to collect the parts and they also kinda ruin the feel of the original stages. Each stage now needs an entrance and exit that could or could not be used so you end up just finding dead ends for no reason in most stages. It feels like you just get more disappointed when you explore which didn't happen in X1.

Also did they run out of time or budget with the final Sigma stage? It's just a copy of the original stage into a very easy final boss if you got the parts. Idk it's weird to complain because it's mostly the same game and it's still great.

13

Yakuza 6: The Song of Life
Yakuza 6: The Song of Life
You've got to admire how proud they are of the dragon engine. They went to a lot of lengths 😓 to show it off in this game. Onomichi is such a beautiful area, and it shines so much here. I do appreciate how every substory is voiced in its own little cutscene style. Unfortunately, combat is still at its worst here, being a huge step down from the older engine. They also removed a lot of combat challenges when compared to the other games, which makes the DE combat tolerable for now. The combat does become better eventually in other games(not Kiwami 2 lmao).

One of my favourite stories in the series and was solid for most of the runtime. It really gave off detective story vibes at some points, while also being a cozy little adventure. It did feel a bit slow at times and a bit of a rehash, but I didn't mind as it is very easy to tell which Yakuza game this pulls the most from. Between the trip back to the orphanage, seeing all the kids grown up for the first time, going to a new area with a new child to take care of, Daigo indisposed for the story, a Rikiya-like friend + Ryudo-like family, and many others I'm sure I missed. Replaying it for legend just made me enjoy all the hints they throw at you regarding the overarching plot.

It's odd how many new things they added while leaving out some major players... all of the activities and areas were simply removed... no closure on many things... 1/3 of the substories were locked behind a baseball sim...
Anyways, what a great send off to Kiryu, and I am very sad we are never getting another game. This really was Yakuza 3 - 2 and I loved it.

14

Pokémon Puzzle Challenge
Pokémon Puzzle Challenge
One of the best pokemon spinoffs with great music. Way too much fun setting up chains and was perfect for gbc.

15

Phantasy Star IV: The End of the Millennium
Phantasy Star IV: The End of the Millennium
Surprised by how much I liked this game even without playing the other 3 in the series. I might have missed a few references but it was easy to pick up what happened in the others. The setting was amazing and I really enjoyed the story for about 80% of it. Combat was decent especially if you don't grind which seems to be a common theme in past jrpgs. Overall it was a nice short jrpg almost 30 years old now.

16

Nex Machina
Nex Machina
A fast-paced twin-stick shooter that glued my eyes to the screen for the entire run. Multiple modes are full of their own challenges, but essentially it's all about the scoring. Co-op sounds like it would be really great here; maybe next time.

17

Environmental Station Alpha
Environmental Station Alpha
It's a PC game where your controllers will not work. Go into the menu and change the setting for "d-pad only" to yes. Even with this, your Dualsense 4/5 won't work with the d-pad, but at least it stops the endless scrolling. I tried to use DS4Windows but still couldn't get the d-pad to work. I just had to put up with playing this with a stick that felt awful. Also, opening my map resulted in a freeze three times, so that's always great.


The music was great and really added to the eerie atmosphere. You can tell what game this is taking heavy inspiration from, but then it surprises you by giving you an insane upgrade so early. The other upgrades also really highlight the strengths of this game. If you love hookshots in particular, you will enjoy yourself. So many little stunts and just general movement between rooms make it so satisfying to master your hookshot usage. Most of the boss fights were great, even if you could tank a lot of them. 

After beating the final boss, you unlock a meaty postgame. In my opinion, it changes the feel of the game too much from what I wanted. Not to mention that there are optional items that highlight this unique style, effectively making you a god. I know Metroid does that eventually too, but it happens near the end and is really just for the collectathon/final boss. The game can be completed without these items, but they are necessary for the postgame. Honestly, I think the postgame, while cool for what it was, just dragged on way too long and should have ended after just a few events. There was also "dlc" added during the postgame, but it is somewhat separate. That at least had some good bosses, but it is easy to tell they regret making you so strong. I finished the game with 148%, although there is still a good amount of % to be had. I just got too burned out, especially with how repetitive some of the final things to do were.

Is it better than the game it borrows a lot from? It's pretty close, but it didn't really scratch that feeling of being truly lost in the main game for me. There were a few occasions when a path was item locked, only to return with the item to find another item lock 2 feet away. It just kind of makes you feel bad about taking the time to come back and would make me just want to wait until the last stretch of the game to collect. It also isn't really the prettiest game to look at. It's a good game, but I'm still on the lookout for another great metroid-like that ticks all of my boxes.

18

Mega Man X3
Mega Man X3
Glad to see they attempted to fix the weird extra boss rooms from X2 in every stage by just putting it in the halfway point. Shame it just feels like there are way too many obtuse requirements for upgrades. Zero is kinda annoying here with how you can use him but its a step forward I guess. It's still just a good X game with some good difficulty at the start.

19

Kirby Super Star Ultra
Kirby Super Star Ultra
It was pretty fun how you just kept unlocking more and more games. Milky way was the best one because you could go in any order and it was the most for Kirby. Meta Knightmare Ultra and Helper to Hero were pretty close too. 0 desire to do the boring Cave Offensive for all the chests. Wheres my Top Ride....

20

Boomerang X
Boomerang X
I normally hate FPS, but I had a great time here. It starts out very easy and gradually becomes more difficult towards the end. I tried a bit of the NG+, but it was still the same environments with just harder waves, so I dipped out after a few arenas. Endless mode is also cool, though it doesn't seem to be for me. I would definitely play this up again, but I can't see myself going for the other modes without being on edge all day.

21

Mega Man 4
Mega Man 4
Secret items, alternate paths, a charge shot, a better weapon selection screen and better stage design imo. Probably my favourite post robotmaster stages too when I usually just think they are ok. Some of the bosses did feel a bit too easy but still had a great time.

22

Hotel Dusk: Room 215
Hotel Dusk: Room 215
Really liked the art style and the mystery was enjoyable. A bit slow due to the start and how you're forced a recap for each chapter. Could have cut the recap easily since its very easy and can't fail even though game has game overs for other obvious things.

23

Monolith
Monolith
I'm still not too big on roguelites, although this makes a strong case for them actually being good. Very similar to some famous roguelites, without becoming tedious later in the run. I can see shmup fans trying to find out every secret here, but I was satisfied with my few completions. May still go back for some runs throughout the year, which is more than I can say for any other roguelike.

Tried a few runs with and without the DLC. The DLC seems to add a lot of choices and some nice qol in the rooms but I just saw no reason to play it without the DLC. Worth picking up both when they go on sale for under $10.

24

Mega Man 6
Mega Man 6
Stages were pretty unique due to the story and looked great. Game was much easier overall but had some unique bosses. New rush was cool at first until you had to skip/see the animation each time you switch to it. Don't be dumb like me and leave Plant man & Flame man until the end.

25

Death's Door
Death's Door
Combat was decent but a bit too simple for having no diversity. Everything just seemed way too short whether it be the combat set pieces near the end of each dungeon, or puzzles in all around the world. Post game content was neat and umbrella run is fun.

26

Mega Man & Bass
Mega Man & Bass
This game was so made for Bass that it shouldn't have been a choice. Idk how you get to add all those abilities to him and give Mega Man nothing. Interesting stage selection choice and CDs were fun for little bit. Shame the final 2 stages are a slog especially on Mega Man.

27

Mega Man 2
Mega Man 2
does every mega man sequel have a quickman?

28

Mega Man IV
Mega Man IV
What an insane jump in quality. Much longer than the other games with a lot more effort put into it. Adds a few new mechanics too with especially the shop playing a much larger role in the entire series. I really wish this didn't have slowdown or it might have been my favourite one out of the NES games.

29

Space Invaders Extreme
Space Invaders Extreme
Solid game that throws a lot of colour and visuals to get you pumped by the "basic" gameplay. The DS music was great although I know the psp has different music so it might be worth to play on there. I will need to play it again to clear the other stages. Unfortunately I'm not too big on scoring but I can see it being loved by those kinds of people.

30

Mega Man V
Mega Man V
Definitely was unlucky with my 1st stage pick because venus easily has the most slowdown. It's a pretty great game with almost everything being new but somehow it just didn't amaze me. Feels like the difficulty is such a joke in this one... kinda bummed me out. Charged shot is completely broken and I still had fun. It's up there but I think MM IV is just better.

31

Mega Man Legacy Collection
Mega Man Legacy Collection
Replayed all the games on turbo cpu with 3 benefiting the most. The challenges were really fun for the most part. It was way too jarring doing the mix/mashups going from games before slide era to after.

32

ElecHead
ElecHead
Just a solid short puzzle game that excels at making you feel clever.

33

Battle Mania Daiginjou
Battle Mania Daiginjou
Fun little game that I wish was a bit longer. Really liked all the boss designs.

34

Axelay
Axelay
A very nice forgiving shmup other than the last stretch imo. Really liked the stages alternating between vertical and horizontal. A few weapons seemed meh or I didn't use them properly.

35

Judgment
Judgment
I originally expected this to have more emphasis on problem solving but it really is leaning more into the other Yakuza games and they tossed in 20 tailing sequences that make Assassin's Creed look considerate of your time. I did tolerate it because I really like the series at this point, but I must imagine what someone feels when this is their first game.

The combat is pretty good, with shades of Akiyama in the moveset. Bonus points for the first DE combat I enjoyed. Sadly, with no coliseum equivalent here and no climax battles, I can't help but feel we're losing out on a lot of combat gameplay. The drone racing was amazing and possibly the most difficult minigame in the series so far. The sidecases were great when they didn't ask you to tail people or get spliced into the main story (which makes them feel like filler). Unfortunately, that takes out more than half of them. The friend system was also interesting, and then you realize each restaurant/shop has one, with multiple ones being the same. Girlfriends are introduced here as a more personalized hostess while also being just worse in general. Half your girlfriends are half your age making it so fucking weird. Y6 at least had a unique minigame, whereas here they turned it into stupid texts. You could take your hostess on dates to karaoke to see a video of each of them in a certain song. Now you take your gf on pointless activities with nothing special about each of them. The loss of karaoke really didn't help how I felt about hostess/gf. Chases now are auto-run, with most of them not even having you catch up to them. I miss actually throwing bottles at them and cutting corners rather than just qtes.

My most hated aspect of the game was the stupid Keihan gangs. This shit gets spammed all the time and always alerts you with a text. During the event, it's rare to take one step without running into enemies. Of course, once the event is over, you must then be told by text over and over for the entire game. The random crafting materials out in the world made me feel like a little kid running to pick up a piece of candy. They're easy to pick up but also just seem so pointless when I didn't really interact with any extracts. Sure, some of them are used for drone crafting, but it was much easier to buy them at Ebisu. It really just feels like there is a lot of padding compared to the other games.

I did like Yagami and his buddy dynamic with Kaito reminded me of the great parts of Y0 with Kiryu and Nishiki. Too bad they didn't decide to put more effort into this. Imagine deciding to leave the Kaito and Yagami fight as a filler sidecase in the main story for no reason. Even with the other sidecases in the story not being voiced, it was a huge disservice to have this one lumped in. The rest of his allies were pretty good with no complaints, and the story was enjoyable with a solid mystery that sticks the landing.

I know these don't really matter for most players, but I have to complain about the final quickstarter projects. Even if you do everything else in the completion list/trophy and game the VR each time you are forced to go in, you will still need around 10m more yen to fully complete. It's just another hour or so in VR to get it, but at this point you really shouldn't need to grind for more. I was even gaming the quickstarters for the entire game, letting the meter fill to 50% before contributing.

They removed Puyo Puyo in the remaster and replaced it with Virtua Fighter 2 when you can already play Virtua Fighter 5 & Fighting Vipers...

36

Chrono Trigger
Chrono Trigger
A really good game in most aspects that gets brought down hard by the shitty combat. Luckily it's a short game so you don't have to deal with it for so long. Another huge downside is 1 of the characters being so barren compared to the rest of the cast. Music is still great.

37

Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars
Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars
Back when Mario spinoffs went wild. The characters, towns and minigames all felt like they had a lot of effort put into. Unfortunately the game does drag near the finale. Otherwise it was a nice comfy short jrpg that is worth playing because you get to see Peach call Bowser an idiot.

38

Super Monkey Ball: Banana Mania
Super Monkey Ball: Banana Mania
Barely played the originals so went into this pretty much blind. Loved all the story levels and some of the alternate modes were cool. Challenges seemed great at first but then you see the stage counts and realize you can't just pause or suspend. You have to do them all in 1 sitting and without hitting retry once like I did because dumb. Finished all the main game levels but master(should come back eventually) and marathon which is 100+ stages together fuck that. Tried out all the party games which seemed good except for Monkey Target. Went back into the original to feel the difference and yeah its trash in this game. Favourite party games are fight, golf and shot.

Unfortunately like that 1 annoying thing in challenge modes, there is another annoying thing present in all of main game. If you die like <5 times in a stage it asks you if you want to turn helper mode on. It repeats this for every stage in every session with no option to turn it off???? Seeing that graphic every time, pressing no everytime, having to also press skip each time to get past the replay. So many little things added up to bring down this game which they could have easily circumvented by having toggle options in the menu. Yeah the dlc is shameless too.

39

Yakuza 4 Remastered
Yakuza 4 Remastered
Having more than 1 playable character was great unfortunately you hardly spend time with any of them. If each segment was 50% longer it would have been much better. They needed more content involving all of them too (that substory was my fav). Most of the characters had great combat too which is a huge plus. Story is just pure nonsense like the others but I liked each mc. Everyone complaining about the final boss is just weird. Just overall felt like a really short game which I believe yakuza 5 fixes.

Also it doesn't really matter but the trophies and hostess shit was awful.

40

Mega Man Xtreme
Mega Man Xtreme
Obviously it's a worse version of X and X2 but it works well enough. Absolutely need to fiddle to get the start=dash keybind to be on a more sensible button. Music is worse but they did a good job somewhat of keeping the feel of the stages. Most of the upgrades are still here and the collectibles too. Bit annoying that you gotta go through sigma stages twice for no reason if you want to see it all but whatever. I still couldn't get the hang of the auto wall dashjump since I was too used to manually doing it.

41

Mega Man 7
Mega Man 7
It was decent for me. Not sure what held it back but it had some fun stages. Rush search was just tedious for this kind of game so I didn't really bother with it. Other than the graphics and search it was just a run of the mill classic Mega Man. Possibly the best Wily stages in the series though.

42

Air Zonk
Air Zonk
Fun game with unique friends, weapons that all change the charge shot (except 1?) and isn't a bullet hell.

43

Mega Man 3
Mega Man 3
what a mixed bag of a game. protoman, rush, a slide and I even liked some of the boss rematches but the slowdown is awful throughout the entire run.

44

iS: internal section
iS: internal section
What a wild trip of a game.

45

Mega Man 8
Mega Man 8
Started hating the voices at first but it just became so funny. Stages feel at their worst gimmicks but not a huge deal. Bosses are a joke if you abuse weaknesses. I could see the new item system being awful if it continued for another game. Honestly just a good game because it's a one off. If the rest of the series became this I would quit.

46

Mega Man 2: The Power Fighters
Mega Man 2: The Power Fighters
1 of the endings is an advertisement for the next game lmao. Adding the few new moves to each character was fun and different robot masters. Duo was the coolest with his combo but felt like I couldn't really combo as 1p on the others.

47

Magical Drop III
Magical Drop III

48

M.U.S.H.A.
M.U.S.H.A.
I appreciate how a powerup saved you from death since I still suck. Shame about the slowdowns but overall a great entry for myself into the genre.

49

Gato Roboto
Gato Roboto
Mini Metroid with some really fun movement.

50

Final Fight
Final Fight
It's very fun to go through with a friend. There was lots of variety with attacks, and most bosses were good. Throwing enemies at your buddy never gets old. 

51

Star Parodier
Star Parodier
bomberman shmup

52

Kirby's Dream Land
Kirby's Dream Land
It felt very weird to play and finish a game in an hour after my most recent games. Nice little palette cleanser that might get me to play more games again. Sat on the start screen for a few minutes.

53

Yakuza: Like a Dragon
Yakuza: Like a Dragon
Why couldn't this have been a spinoff instead...Just to talk about the good things first, I really enjoyed exploring another new city with Yokohama. Dragon Karts, Can Quest, vocational school, and the movie theater, all being new activities, were great. Nearly every new character was good, and even Ichiban was a decent mc when he and the entire game weren't reminding you he was a gamer.

But my god, the combat is awful. Every fight just gets inflated to be at least twice as long as before. The positional combat just drags it out even more if you really want to take advantage of it. The bosses and "setpieces" are at their worst. The first dungeon plays out like every other dungeon, with hallways full of enemies that never prove a threat to you. Constant healing stations and random items litter pointless, samey-looking sewers. Then you get to the first boss, where you walk into the restaurant to find your patriarch so he can explain himself. You meet your captain, whom you took the fall for in prison for 18 years. You expect this amazing buildup to end in a satisfying fight, like every other game. Instead, you slowly select your skill and use them while hitting your little qtes just to make sure you do an extra 10 dmg! You get a little break from this occasionally to remind you of what could have been. Do you change anything up from gameplay in the lead-up to this boss? Of course not; you just keep selecting the same skill to use and watch a meter mindlessly go down. Oh, now you're out of mana, and the boss still has 15% of his health bar. Well, I guess it's time to just hit your auto attack and make sure you perfect guard their attacks even if you're in no danger. Well, that sure was a fight, but you really toughed it out and understood the extent of the boss's mechanics.

Except for 1 or being generous 2, this is how every boss fight plays out. I want to especially highlight a terrible one because it was done almost perfectly in Yakuza 6! The lead-up to Joon-gi Han and then his actual fight were such a disappointment. Y6 players will obviously know him, so seeing him pop up here already was a red flag. First off, you can tell his personality is very different and worse for it. He isn't such a charismatic, ruthless leader anymore, having been reduced to just a calm guy following orders from his leader. Moving on to the actual boss fight isn't up to par at all. I feel like new fans would be just as disappointed as I am, as the fight was so basic when we're halfway through the game at this point. Going away from these boss complaints, the random battles out in the world have worse spawn rates than Y5 and Judgment! Everyone is also forced to start the game on normal when every other entry could start on hard.

Yeah, I understand later he's not the same, but being a body double twist is awful, even by Yakuza twist standards. It really felt like they just wanted to use a great design again no matter what while also ruining what made Joon-gi Han so great in the previous game. Even the other twists in this game were a new low. Mirrorface is probably the worst twist I've seen in a series full of increasingly weird twists. Other than Ichiban pouring his heart out, everything after the Kiryu fight I wish I could forget and erase from the game. If I could, I would remove Kiryu too, but with RGG's recent summit introducing even more Kiryu games, it seems like they do not want to give him an ending.

The story otherwise was decent, with some pretty good moments in Chapter 12. That entire chapter was a huge highlight, especially when they decided to include the first boss of the game near the end. I really was not feeling the combat for most of the game until this chapter. Some jobs needed to be done better because many skills are simply useless or not transferable while stuck in a useless job. Not to mention, even if you just wanted to experiment, it is a huge hassle to always go back to one spot to change a job. There were many times when I wanted to swap things around to learn a specific skill but quickly decided to just stay with what I had.

Aside from the strange inclusion of a fake Joon-gi Han, I thought the rest of the party was a good addition. Nanba and Adachi were the best ones, with Saeko losing a lot of relevance after a few chapters. Zhao and JGH were kind of interesting since you recruit them from a different faction, but they didn't seem to have as much screentime. Of course, there is another optional character too, but the game just forgets about Eri almost entirely. Eri is never shown in any cutscene in the story and really only exists for the business minigame. Even in the story cutscenes, there is so much inconsistency with who is shown. Sometimes you just see the main trio of Adachi, Nanba, and Saeko, while other times they sprinkle in JGH and/or Zhao. Sometimes it's a combination of these five, with no rhyme or reason for any of the changes. Even in substories, you will only see Ichiban, which makes it just feel so awkward. Each of the characters also has their own bond links, where you can usually learn more about them. Each one of these stories ends the same way, with their problem being solved after an easy fight, leaving them all feeling pointless. Also, tossing in Kashiwagi and Lau Ka Long when they are both clearly dead is insane.

54

Mega Man X8
Mega Man X8
I really don't like the shop system and feel like being able to find your upgrades in the stages would be way better. Most of the stages were a drag but at least a couple of them let you play. Navigators were good here and even had the option of turning them off.

55

Mega Man X6
Mega Man X6
This one might be a bit overhated. Yeah it still has all the issues of 5 with forced revisits on annoying stages, armour meta (needing 4 to make a set and just how required they are), too much story that I don't care for, the annoying beep each time Alia would have talked, and parts collecting being awful. Bosses were worse and the finale wasn't a highlight this time.

But Zero did get a slightly different campaign this time and you can even collect everything with him solely. The nightmare system was pretty cool making the different routes even more distinct. 5 and 6 are honestly pretty even for me. Now to think if 7 is even worth playing.

56

Mega Man X5
Mega Man X5
What the fuck happened to X4? Please shut up I don't give a shit about any of this story stop talking. Alia talking in every stage each time you take a step is real fun. Every time you come across some sort of new thing in the stage you will get a text tutorial because she doesn't trust you to press forward without hurting yourself. So many stages here were a big disappointment and somehow beats X3 in backtracking???? X starting with the fourth armour seems so stupid and Zero with his buster(only if you pick him at the start but then you lose the fourth armor) is even worse. Zero's buster isn't even good or used for anything. Naked X is a struggle until you get some armour but with how they work here you need to find all 4 specific pieces first. It's awkward to be able to use X or Zero at any time because they expect you to play X to get some items. I just want to play just Zero in his own campaign. There's also the unnecessary bloat from the extra life/energy at the end of stages. Speaking of, I get it Alia I need to find weapons to use weaknesses on the bosses real glad you mention this every time I exit a stage in the 5th game of the series. Thank god the final couple stages (rematches lmao) save this from being a disaster.

Zero is still fun to play despite everything the game does. The countdown timer is interesting if only it was shorter. It felt way too lenient and I even failed on my Zero run but got an extension from plan B.

At least there is no way the X games could get any worse.

57

Mega Man Xtreme 2
Mega Man Xtreme 2
Dunno how to feel about this one. It's such a weird game having a mixture of X1-X3 but then having zero play as if he is between X3, X4 and Xtreme 1(half his weapons are the awful selection screen ones). It even has callbacks to the original Xtreme which is nice.

May have just been spoiled by the other X games but I can't see this as anything but just ok.

58

Metal Slug
Metal Slug
Had some fun with this and I hear the sequels only get crazier. Game looks really good for its time.

59

Mega Man: The Power Battle
Mega Man: The Power Battle
It's pretty fun for a few runs. Was cool to see new models of the old robot masters and music. I liked how you could use the weapons on all 3 characters even if some animations looked weird. Wily being reused on all routes is a bit of a downer. You can wall jump with classic! It's so short and just a boss rush so can't really go wrong with playing it.

60

Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon 2
Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon 2
I wasn't feeling this one at first but around the midway mark it started to get good. Bosses still felt a bit too easy though the subsequent playthroughs gave them proper fights.

I really feel like the episodes drag this one down hard though. Most of them are the exact same levels with the same characters. Whereas the 1st game you had great variety already with your 2nd run! Being able to get new abilities as a "penalty" was great. In the 2nd game sure at the very end you get to play it like cotm1 but by that point I was so burnt out. Even with how cool the concept is of the last episode I just don't want to touch this again for a long time.

61

Mega Man Legends
Mega Man Legends
It's ok but takes a while to get to the fun parts for me. Once you begin exploring all the dungeons I was starting to have a great time. Yeah everything about combat and exploration is simple but it just clicked down there.

62

Mario's Picross
Mario's Picross
Good introduction to picross even if it felt lacking in some areas. Really tedious to fill in the 0s and 15s especially with the laggy cursor.

63

Mega Man: The Wily Wars
Mega Man: The Wily Wars
Bootleg versions of the originals. Wily tower is very cool though and should have been unlocked from the start. Fast enough to get to the part worth playing. Way more excited for sequel wars whenever it is finished.

64

Seirei Senshi Spriggan
Seirei Senshi Spriggan
yeah it plays like musha and didn't understand a word.

65

The Misadventures of Tron Bonne
The Misadventures of Tron Bonne
Started off great and liked the variety of things you could do. Unfortunately, it quickly became repetitive with all the busy work and especially with that event happening near the end kinda soured me on it. The Servbots made it worth playing.

66

Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble!
Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble!
Animal buddies still suck and losing Diddy for Kiddy is awful. Liked the bonus rooms and overworld map though.

67

A Short Hike
A Short Hike
cozy game but the dialogue did become annoying after a bit. finale was very cathartic for me.

68

Mega Man 5
Mega Man 5
Most of the weapons suck, the bosses are boring and the music is just ok. Great stage design saves it.

69

Downwell
Downwell
Bonus points for being short and bar 1 upgrade having no difference in power from your 1st run. Still felt like I was getting sick of it. Don't see a reason to go back.

70

Inscryption
Inscryption
This started off great, and I liked the escape room aspects mixed in with a good card game. Sadly, there is a sharp drop in quality about halfway through the game. It almost made me want to stop when I realized even the videos were not as I expected. The ending did feel a bit rushed, but I probably missed some secret tying it all together.

71

Rohga: Armor Force
Rohga: Armor Force

72

The Legend of Valkyrie
The Legend of Valkyrie

73

Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete
Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete
The most average jrpg with awful voice acting especially Nall who I hated. Lots of fart and sex jokes. Cutscenes felt like I was a kid again home from school watching the tv at 11am. Story and characters were nice though. Outtakes at the end were cool and you don't hear them enough in games.

74

Ninja Gaiden
Ninja Gaiden
Birds are way worse than medusa heads. Wall clinging was annoying on hit but decent enough game.

75

Carrion
Carrion
A short metroidvania with basic "combat" and puzzles. It did get a bit repetitive near the end but nothing too bad. Having no map wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.

76

Streets of Rage 2
Streets of Rage 2
Not really my thing but great music.

77

Bells & Whistles
Bells & Whistles

78

Ms. Pac-Man
Ms. Pac-Man

79

Crime Fighters 2
Crime Fighters 2

80

Golf Peaks
Golf Peaks
card based mini golf

81

Rockman EXE WS
Rockman EXE WS
A linear classic MM game with a few cheap deathspikes. Still not a huge issue because the game is pretty easy and you always start with 9 lives. It is about 30 minutes long, with an extra stage on ng+. There are alternate paths in a few stages with different bosses making it worth going through.

Chip system was ok (miles better than Network Transmission) even though it was a pain to equip different ones. I mostly just stuck to the perma ones which just seemed busted too. The movement increasing ones + elec team style makes you zoom through the entire run. The different styles in this game have their own buster and attributes adding some variety. You also keep everything in ng+ making it very fast.

82

Flynn: Son of Crimson
Flynn: Son of Crimson
Very basic game that really didn't have anything notable. Needed more bosses that were actually hard as the entire game was way too easy.

83

Trace Memory
Trace Memory
The story was decent but I expected a lot more from the puzzles. The side plot was way more interesting though I doubt it makes it into the sequel. Don't really feel like playing it if it will just be the same quality but x3 as long.

84

Xexex
Xexex

85

Rockman & Forte: Mirai kara no Chousensha
Rockman & Forte: Mirai kara no Chousensha
I didn't even know this console existed before this game. It looked awful graphics wise but it had a few things going for it. Forcing you to rotate the console for 1 stage was out there and Bass actually has different weapons than Mega Man. It felt like the game wasn't made just for Bass this time so that was cool. Entire game becomes way too easy 10 minutes in though with the most boring ending stage in the series.

86

Strikey Sisters
Strikey Sisters
Haven't played breakout since smartphones became commonplace. This was a nice game to play in short bursts when I had some free time.

87

Mega Man
Mega Man
ok game but it was rough in some areas. Liked how there was a couple of utility weapons

88

Ys Seven
Ys Seven
Leveling up skills is awful and the entire crafting system was pretty shit. Most bosses were good and outside of a few awkward characters I liked most of them. Still don't care at all for any story in Ys.

89

The Simpsons Arcade Game
The Simpsons Arcade Game
Pretty basic with not many different attacks. Some of the team attacks were cool but a bit annoying to trigger. Why do Smithers and Mr. Burns sound like that?

90

Mega Man: Dr. Wily's Revenge
Mega Man: Dr. Wily's Revenge
Really wasn't as bad as everyone makes it out to be outside of a few gotcha moments with spikes and the surprise rematches. Makes me more intrigued to see what the 2nd gameboy game does.

91

Super Star Soldier
Super Star Soldier
Gets pretty cheap at stage 6 and tosses so many enemies at you.

92

Mega Man III
Mega Man III
Love how faithful they are to the original to make even worse slowdown. At least the music was improved.

93

Mega Man Battle & Chase
Mega Man Battle & Chase
who knew Spring Man was so popular

94

Mega Man II
Mega Man II
Way too easy but I like how they combined multiple games into 1. Boss "rematches" were nice this time and adding a slide to 2 is good. Music was pretty bad...

95

Hyper Duel
Hyper Duel
I think I just don't like lots of bullets on the screen. Maybe when I get more accustomed I'll like it more.

96

Katana Zero
Katana Zero
Pretty disappointing for me. The story was a huge slog and made me hate anytime I was outside of missions. The dialogue choices seemed mostly pointless which just added to how boring it was. Combat was alright for a bit but quickly became repetitive while not offering much variety in the missions. I was expecting a lot more and closer to hotline miami. Slowdown mode seemed very pointless but maybe I missed some niche usage in hard mode which I didn't bother with. Music was alright.

97

Donut County
Donut County
Was a nice relaxing game to just eat everything. Dialogue is awful and actively ruins it.

98

Advance Wars
Advance Wars
Shelved

Just really couldn't get into it. Maybe my expectations were too high but hopefully the sequels are a bit better for me.

99

DuckTales: Remastered
DuckTales: Remastered
Shelved

Froze twice in the little I played it.... Once in the middle of the Amazon boss so forced to restart the level and 2nd time on Transylvania intro. Protondb and Valve led me astray.

I wasn't too invested but I never watched the show so makes sense. I'll maybe go back if it becomes more reliable or I get bored.

100

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