2018 Gaming Challenge

Starting date: 2-24-18

Difficulty: Hardcore

Completed games at sign-up: >700

Link to your list: http://myvideogamelist.com/list/GigaDeathNullGolem

Link to your blog entry: https://myvideogamelist.com/blogentry/GigaDeathNullGolem/1735

• [X] 1. Re-play a game Nuclear Throne I had played the alpha/demo a while back... Played it off and on. FINALLY BEAT it. It so counts!
• [X] 2. Play through a game on 100% Venetian Blinds 11-3-18I mastered this 2600 demo/test cart. hah
• [X] 3. Finish a game you put on-hold or dropped before 2018: Minecraft. 2-23-18 This classic is completable and I've picked it up and put it down many times over the years but never actually finished it. It easily would win this slot. The game has seen a lot of updates and changes throughout The initial version I started to play it in (1.4.2 I believe) Very satisfying game and really felt good to complete it. Also had a cool Ending!
• [X] 4. Play a game that you can finish in one day: Confess My Love. 3-1-18 Was mentioned in the 2018 gaming challenge thread. I liked it, was short. not really a 'good' game but was short enough to Complete 100%. Scratches that Doki Doki itch.
• [X] 5. Play a game that has been on your Plan to Play list for too long: Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney. 2-26-18 I sorted my wishlist by date added and picked something from the 30 or so games I added on the day I signed up. I was tempted to pick the oldest of them, but went for something that was most well known and seemed like it should not be on such a list for so long. This could have rightfully won several spots (6, 32, 46) but for me Slot 5 seemed most appropriate since thats' what got it played! I also picked the DS version, not because it was necessarily better but it's also the first DS game I've played. (and i've meant to do that too for too long) so double win for Phoenix Wright.
• [ ] 6. Play a game in a language that is not your mother tongue: STALKER Lost Alpha (backlogged)
• [ ] 7. Play a co-op game: Nah, probably not.
• [ ] 8. Play a game on the hardest difficulty: Nope
• [X] 9. Play 25 matches in an online game: CSGO. 11-25-18
• [ ] 10. Collect all achievements/trophies in a game: Meh I dunno.
• [X] 11. Do an evil run of a game, i.e. make most immoral choices possible the entire playthrough: Hard West 3-24-18. Technically there is no 'evil route' in this game but it meets the idea of an evil playthrough nicely all the same.
• [X] 12. Play a game using a controller you have to buy separately from the console: Hexen 3-24-18. That's right back in the day FPS games were often keyboard only by default, and a mouse was a luxury.
• [ ] 13. Play a game featuring a female protagonist: Super Metroid Did not play
• [ ] 14. Play a game with a historical setting: Nothing really unless you want to count alternate dystopian japanese post apocalyptic settings from 199X.. (Played several of those)
• [X] 15. Play a game that is set in space: Space Megaforce/BS Super Alesete. 2-11-18 Space is pretty broad it seems every game takes place in space if it's a science fiction game. 'Space' Megaforce is a vertical scrolling shooter that scrolls its way through space. It's fairly good and challenging. It's certainly a decent enough SHMUP for the SNES, with many weapons to pick from. I'll have to pick it up again at some point and try other weapon combinations, its a fun game and has good replay value.
• [X] 16. Play a game featuring a non-human main character: Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse. 1-30-18 This old Sega Master System game is something i've wanted to check out forever since seeing the box art on the genesis for it (it's a really amazing looking poster that i've had for a while now actually) It could win a few challenges (such as spot 5) but I figure it wins the spot for this challenge because it is indeed STARRING one of (if not the very) most world famous non human characters ever designed in human history... Mickey Mouse! It's not a bad game at all for SMS, and I'd even reccomend it if you like stuff like Duck Tales, Chip N Dale or other capcomish type platformers. Excited about that disney ReRelease of the old capcom games? You might enjoy a look at this one.
• [X] 17. Play a holiday-themed game on that holiday. I played Demon's Crest for Halloween 10-30-18
• [X] 18. Play a game where you can control more than one character Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III The Manhattan Project. FOUR RADICAL characters! 9-22-18
• [X] 19. Play a game developed by an Indie-developer: Cho Ren Sha 68K. 1-1-18 Is a Doujin (Japanese fan/Interest) SHMUP. It was released in mid 90's for the 68K, a super-deluxe system few know of and even less ever owned. It has been updated throughout the ages. I started the year out with a recent update. Does not get more 'indie' than that. It's also fairly good (Slightly similiar to Super Aleste)
• [ ] 20. Play a game published by EA or Square Enix: Hitman (2016). Did not play
• [X] 21. Play a game with a score written by a composer you like. Batman: The Video Game (NES) 3-25-18. I didnt know I like Naoki Kodaka but I looked him up after this one, and saw many of my favorites. I like Sunsoft titles on the nes they usually look and sound great.
• [X ] 22. Play a game that was published by the same publisher as one of your favourite games: SWAT 4. Sierra. Half-Life is one of my favorite games and it's a publisher before steam era...
• [X] 23. Play a game that was developed in the country you're from: Bank Heist 20th Century Fox. lol.
• [X] 24. Play a game originally released in the 80's: Rambo III. 2-3-18 Kind of a strange slot to pick something specific. Rambo III would do nicely. I gave both 'ports' a go on both Genesis and Master System. Did not like either
• [X] 25. Play a game originally released in the 90's: Summer Carnival '92: Recca. 2-3-18 Way too broad for my habits so I will try to do better! This game is called Summer of '92 :D and it was a game I added to GB database but never got around to playing. It is really pretty impressive for the NES with some of its various video and audio effects. Not a bad game but there are other Caravan Shooters I have found myself enjoying more than this one. It's still a rather decent enough one for the NES, which is a system that usually sees secondhand ports of much lower quality, and this one does several things with the system that are pretty slick.
• [X] 26. Play a game released in 2018: Return of the Obra Dinn. 10-21-18
• [ ] 27. Play a game originally released in the year you were born in: Hydlide and Nuts & Milk Did not Play
• [X] 28. Play a launch title of any console you like: PikMin. 2-28-18 Wikipedia says launch title, and while it's six months in it's still an early release, so i'll use Pikmin for this slot. I wanted to pick something for a platform i dont have too much experience with (Luigi's Mansion and a little bit of Metroid Prime being only other game(s) i've played here for gamecube). The game itself was alright.
• [ ] 29. Play a game on the oldest console you own: Girl's Garden Did Not Play
• [X] 30. Play a game originally released on an arcade: Altered Beast. 2-11-18 This is a tough category for me because if it's originally released on arcade I'll not go for something that has a port unless it's a port that imitates the original as close to 'arcade perfect' as can be. Altered Beast is a notable exception, it's by no means a good game but the Sega Genesis version is alright in this regard. You still get some of the digitized speech and overall the audio isnt terrible. As far as genesis ports go its up there, it's not a very good game to begin with but I played it due to historical significance.
• [X] 31a. Play an (J)RPG: Phantasy Star. 2-10-18 I'm going to stick this in the RPG slot even though it is a JRPG. This old game on Sega Master System is one of the most reelvant historical games I've played in a while. It's supposedly the first JRPG released in NA... It's an amazing demo for the Sega Mega Drive and I really had a good time playing it (I played a SMS Power Translation patch on the Japanese version) This is a true classic that really did influence a lot of stuff for the genre. It easily wins spot 31.
• [ ] 31b. Play a (W)RPG: Vampire The Masquerade: Redemption ABANDONED
• [X] 32. Play a Visual Novel: Doki Doki Literature Club. 1-26-18 DDLC could go in several challenges for me (33,50) I lack much experience in this genre but this will do nicely. I doubt I could have done better than to find a narrative heavy game as enjoyable as this game. I not only 100% compelted it but found a mod that adds a new chapter to allow for other outcomes. Excellent game! Play it! (This is well deserving of Challenge 32 on many people's lists!)
• [X] 33. Play a game from a genre you don't like Enduro 11-5-18. Not a fan of racing.
• [X] 34. Play a Racing game: WipEout. 3-6-18. Meh game but rather good soundtrack from the era.
• [ ] 35. Play a Puzzle game: Puyo Puyo Tetris (Abandoned)
• [X] 36. Play a Horror game Halloween 11-4-18
• [ ] 37. Play a Music/Rhythm game played a few things but nothing completed (some things in VR)
• [ ] 38. Play a Card or Board game: Wartile Did not play
• [ ] 39. Play a game recommended to you by another challenge participant. Meh
• [X] 40. Play a game featured in the recent user updates: Inside. 2-5-18 I'm going to pick this for slot 40 because its a game I see several post about. It's really a great somewhat short game that manages to find nice balance between the 'experience' type games of things like Firewatch with a solid game. It manages to do it because it's so minimal. It also manages to do a nice wow factor, hence the amount of status updates you see about it.
• [ ] 41. Play a game featured in the newly added games section Meh
• [ ] 42. Play a game with a score of 7.0 or below. Meh
• [ ] 43. Play a game from the above/below you user's favorites: Donkey Kong Country. (Thomiaouss) Did not play
• [ ] 44. Play a game you yourself requested to be added into the MVGL database Did not play
• [ ] 45. Play a game that starts with the same letter as your username: Giga Wing Did not play
• [X] 46. Play a remake/remaster of a game: Titan Quest: Anniversay Edition
• [X] 47. Play a game that is based on a movie/tv series/book/comic
• [X] 47A (Movie) Arumana No Kiseki/Miracle of Almana. 2-11-18 I could do a cheap shot and put this on spot 6 despite it not really having any language in it beyond the title screen. I wanted to put this in here because it is very much a very weird Konami version of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. This game is by no means good. it's somewhat broken in it's bionic commando grappling hook-like whip mechanic, and many other aspects of it are difficult too (it reminded me of the pain of selecting different weapons in the Indiana Jones raider of the lost ark for 2600!) but the music in it is astounding. check it.
• [X] 47B (Based on TV): Gun.Smoke. 2-3-18 I'm going to cheat here. First, I love this game and want to put it in my list. Second, I want to explore something later this year for slot 14. Third, I want people to know more about this game. Here's the kicker, Gun.Smoke is a game most people erroneously mistake as the tv series. It probably was titled that to drum up interest but it really has nothing to do with the tv series. It's fantastic and very fast paced vertical shooter that has a really slick control setup. The arcade version (The PSX version is what I played via capcom gen 4) is really cool. I played the NES version a bit with a friend in Dec 2016, but we quit since it didnt support co-op, but liked what I saw and knew I had to check out more of this game. Chances are most are like me and if you've ever seen this game you probably think its based around the tv show and may even ignore it for that reason, therefore I think it deserves my slot 47. Hunt down and play this classic capcom arcade shooter.
• [ ] 47C (Based on Book: Alice 2: Madness Returns Backlogged.
• [X] 47D (Based on Comic/Manga): Strider 4-20-18
• [X] 47E Toy line: G.I. Joe: The Atlantis Factor 2-18-18 This is a terrible sequel to an otherwise alright original. I'd intended to get it off the backlog for along time. It looks nice but everything about it pales to the original and somewhat stinks in it's own right. Here's a PSA: dont play it. Geee Eye Jooooooe!
• [X] 47F Tabletop Game: Warhammer 40K Dawn of War II: 2-14-18 Rather good game and maybe one of the best GW franchise game I've played. It's a nice game in that it maanges to emulate 'some' feel of the tabletop. It's unique in that its not really an RTS but more of something mixed between a RTT (real time tactics) and something like league of legends even. I wanted to put it in slot 47 because it is quite good with the lore, and seem like a good VG adaption of another form of media. (especially considering most of these games are not very good imo)
• [X] 48. Play a game that was made into a movie/tv series/book/comic
• [ ] 48A (Made into Movie) Did Not Play
• [ ] 48B (Made into TV Series) Did Not Play
• [ ] 48C (Made into Book) Did Not Play
• [X] 48D (Made into Comic): Fatal Fury. 2-3-18. I'm going to Use Fatal Fury for this. While it isn't awful it's just not a very good game imo. (It even has less historical context than Mortal Kombat did in US) Why, I even played a SNES port of it which was sub-par. However, this is a game that did inspire media where it came from (J) (Not that I care... It just seems relevant for the slot.
• [X] 49. Play a game with an adjective in the title: Advance Wars. 1-16-18 I'm going to cheat a bit for slot 49. While the 'Advance' is not really an adjective describing this game, as many games do that on the system (like Super, for SNES). It's simply really good. Further, in this game it pretty much defines what you do in the game. (That makes it somewhat notable.) You advance a little bit each turn. (So I guess it's not even an adjective but a verb!) But if you are not playing it right you fall back, lol. I was looking for a game that would win with the adjective slot and this was the best I could come up with. But hell this is a fantastic game (and a great series as a whole so I've read) Advance this up in your playlist if you haven't played it.
• [X] 50. Play a game which is available on Steam. Undertale. 1-28-18 For this slot I was going to do another game but the more I thought about it it was hard to come up with a good candidate to cinch in a win it. I could have done a free game or something like a half-life/valve project, but one thing about steam is I hate steam and one of the reasons I hate it is it is TROLL AND SPOILER CITY. Therefore Undertale seems deserving of slot 50, due to it's strong association with trolls and spoilers. It's an okay game that I feel is somewhat clever (and certainly more playable than some other games which feel a bit similar) That gets a ton of hype and you can't read anything about the game without .
• [ ] 51. Play a game On Grouvee top 250 dont care
• [ ] 52. Play a Game on Grouvee Popular Games dont care
• [X] 53. Play a RTT (Real Time Tactics) Dawn of War Retribution 3-31-18
• [X] 54. Play an RTS (Real Time Strategy) Command And Conquer Tiberian Sun
• [ ] 55. Play a TBS (Turn based Strategy Suprisingly Did not play!
• [X] 56. Play a TBT (Turn Based Tactics) Into The Breach. 3-16-18. I played the heck out of this and really enjoyed for its solid design and many variety of units to experiment with. Still tackling harder comps and difficulty levels but I dont think I can cinch in a win on hard.
• [ ] 57. Play a MOBA (Multiplayer Online Battle Arena) Nope.
• [ ] 58. Play (and Complete) any kind of MMO (Massive Multiplayer Online) game such as MMORPG Did Not Play
• [ ] 59. Play an Interactive Movie Did Not Play
• [X] 60. Play a First Person Puzzle, Adventure, or Walking Sim: The Witness. 3-17-18. Not even knowing what to expect of this I was surprised. This flavorful game flows nicely between these genres and it's worthwhile (albeit at times taxing)
• [ ] 61. Play a First Person RPG: Kingdom Come Did Not Play
• [X] 62. Play a SHMUP, scrolling shooter or twinstick Shooter: Twinbee Yahho! Deluxe Pack. 3-3-18. This was a short fun game. It might not be the best shooter but its thus far the best thing i've played on Saturn.
• [ ] 63. Play a Beat Em Up or Brawler: Mother Russia Bleeds Did Not Play
• [X] 64. Play a Fighting Game: Garou Mark of the Wolves. 2-15-18. This is a fantastic neogeo fighting game I played on Fightcade (was recommended to me)quite a bit different from others. quite easy to pick up and have fun playing despite its complicated mechanics.
• [X] 65. Play a Sports Game Boxing Rather good 2600 game. 11-7-18
• [ ] 66. Play a Metroidvania: Axiom Verge Did Not Play
• [ ] 67. Play a Survival Horror: Silent Hill 2 Did Not Play
• [ ] 68. Play a Stealth game: Metal Gear Solid 2 Did Not Play
• [ ] 69. Do a Speed Run for a Platformer that you have or have not played before of Your choice Did Not Play
• [X] 70. Play a VR game Pixel Ripped 1989. Sure. Whatever,
• [X] 71. Play an Adult Game. Gotta Protectors: Amazon's Running Diet and Honey Select (I play quite a few adult games)
• [ ] 72. Play a Light Gun Game or Rail Shooter. Did Not Play
• [ ] 73. Play an actual Coin Op Arcade Game (and win) on physical cabinet. Hyperspin setups allowed. Freeplay allowed. Ugh. Did Not Do this.
• [ ] 74. Play a Pinball game. software alllowed. Ugh Didnt play.
• [X] 75. Play a game in DOS Box. Tyrian 2000. 7-29-18
• [ ] 76. Play a game developed by Blizzard Did Not Play
• [X] 77. Play a game developed by Nintendo. Popeye 4-13-18
• [ ] 78. Play a game published by 1C Company Did Not Play
• [ ] 79. Play a game with >3 votes, no 5 star votes and at least one of them is 1 star vote Meh
• [ ] 80. Play a game one of your friends on grouvee is playing Meh
• [ ] 81. Play a game that you have already played a while back that just got reviewed by a user in a way you DO NOT agree with! Meh
• [X] 82. Play a game you've already played but a different port/platform of it. (Not remaster, since thats seperate challenge). Batman (Genesis and NES) 3-25-18
• [X] 83. Play a game and stay up all night playing it OR skip school/work to play it: They Are Billions 3-13-18. This game is pretty nuts and not the best yet, but I did enjoy it. I manged to win eventually on 26% The game is very intense and keeps you on edge, since its an ironman/rogue type save deleter I was afraid to go to bed and feared that i'd be toast the next day since it only gets more fast and furious as you go deeper. the run lasted about 14-16 hours.
• [X] 84. Play a Readable Disc based game Woder Boy III MOnster Lair 2-3-18
• [X] 85. Play a ROM Cartridge based game. Ninja Gaiden II: The Dark Sword of Chaos 3-25-18. This game is simply awesome. It's extremely hard..
• [X] 86. Play a game you are ashamed to admit that you like. Gold Rush: The Game. 3-5-16. Between the low quality of the game, the tie in with a TV show, and an overall redneck feel to the whole thing, I feel some shame at my enjoyment in the strange satisfaction of mastering machinery and 'doing the work'.
• [X] 87. Play a game on the Sony Playstation or Nintendo 64. I played several Comps that were for the PSX. Capcom Generations 4- Blazing guns, Parodius, and Gokujyou ParodiusL: deluxe pack. 2-3-18
• [ ] 88. Play a game on the Nintendo Gamecube or Sony Playstation 2. Killer7 Didnt do it.
• [ ] 89. Play a game on the MSX/MSX2, PC-8801 or PC-9801 Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake Didnt do it.
• [ ] 90. Play a game on the Commodore Amiga, Commodore 64, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST or ZX Spectrum . I had played a bit of a rerelease of Berserk for the C64. Really good game. Endless and Did not complete it though.
• [ ] 91. Play a game on the Sega Saturn, Atari Jaguar or Panasonic 3D0 Didnt do it.
• [X] 92. Play a game on the Sega Genesis or Super Nintendo Entertainment System. Trouble Shooter. 5-15-18
• [X] 93. Play a game on the Nintendo Entertainment System or Sega Master System. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 3-25-18. This is an average game but it had been on my backlog a long time and I didnt get far in it.
• [X] 94. Play a game on TurboGrafx-16/PC Engine, Turbo-CD/PCE-CD or SuperGrafx Atomic-Robo-Kid Special 5-13-18
• [X] 95. Play a game on Gameboy Color, Gameboy or Super Gameboy Kirby's Pinball Land 5-30-18
• [ ] 96. Play a game on Nintendo DS or Gameboy Advance. Didnt do it.
• [X] 97. Play a game and cheat by hacking Elex. Fucking annoying difficulty balance/grind. 3-18-18
• [ ] 98. Play a game and corrupt your Save Game (accidental or intentional). Whew. Didnt happen.
• [ ] 99. Play a game and create a mod for it with intent to distribute. Didnt do it.
• [ ] 100. Create a game or participate in ongoing development. Didnt do it.