Games I Beat In 2014 #41-50: July-August

This is the fifth batch of Games I Beat In 2014. Thanks in part to the Suffering Saturday Streams, seven of the ten games in this set were games I beat for the first time. Four of them were games I’d never played before (I had never even heard of Green Grappler before.), while the other three, I had played without beating. Once again, the title and first few words of each entry are found below.

#41 (#16 NEW!): Déjà Vu II: Lost in Las Vegas (Game Boy Color)

For a style of game as popular and influential as the MacVenture was, it’s shocking that only four were ever made. I previously covered the first MacVenture, Déjà Vu, and today I’ll discuss the final game in the series, Déjà Vu II. While I’m tempted to copy-paste most of the intro to my previous coverage …

#42 (#17 NEW!): Low G Man: The Low Gravity Man

Games which advertise a gimmick as a main feature should generally be avoided. This goes double when the “gimmick” isn’t a gimmick at all (Think of when DVDs first came out–remember when “Scene Selection” was on the box as a “Special Feature”?). Today’s game is a double whammy in this regard. Can it overcome these …

#43: Castlevania (NES)

The very first Game I Beat In 2014 invented the genre that would later be called “Metroidvania”. It’s a weird choice for the genre name, since the formula is all Metroid–“Metroidlike” would be the more accurate term for it. While people today associate Castlevania with the Metroidvania style, thanks to the popularity of games like …

#44: Crash ‘N the Boys: Street Challenge

It’s rare that a sports game from the NES era has a point at which it can be called “beaten”. This, though, is one of them. And while I’m not big into sports games–as my brother and I acquired separate interests, and stooped playing sports games against one another, I fell out of playing them …

#45 (#18 NEW!): Green Grappler

I’m an entrant in the latest Speed Runs Live Mystery Tournament (Edition #5). This is a double-elimination tournament in which you and an opponent are assigned a game and a goal, and, having (ideally) never played the game, try to complete the goal first. Other people can also jump in on these races for fun. …

#46 (#19 NEW!): Mighty Jill Off – Jill Off Harder Edition

It has been observed that playing video games, especially those made in the 8-bit era, is a very mild form of masochism. For better or worse, old-school games in particular tended to punish you for the slightest mistake, or, in the case of the bad ones, just because they felt like it. This would continue …

#47 (#20 NEW!): Michael Jackson’s Moonwalker (Sega Master System)

To say Michael Jackson was kind of a big deal from the time Thriller was released until about 1993 (When his legal troubles really ramped up) is an understatement. Thriller has sold approximately 87 trillion copies since its release, and the follow-up, Bad, is a Diamond-certified album in the US as well. Toward the end …

#48 (#21 NEW!): Super Ghouls ‘N Ghosts

Ghosts ‘N Goblins pioneered the idea of armor that shattered at the slightest touch, leaving you clad only in your underwear, facing down zombies, ghosts, demons with heads in their crotches, and other associated monsters. The goal? Rescue a princess, of course. It wasn’t long before several sequels followed. One, Ghouls ‘N Ghosts, is best …

#49 (#22 NEW!): Ghosts ‘N Goblins (Arcade*)

“Nintendo Hard” is a trope for a reason. Part of that reason is the fact that many NES games were ports of arcade games designed to eat your quarters (In this sense, arcade games can be thought of as the original microtransactions). The ones that weren’t ports were nonetheless informed by the “Kill the player …

#50: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Arcade)

As I write this at the end of August 2014, there’s a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie playing in theaters. This amuses me, as the 1980s cartoon incarnation of the World’s Most Fearsome Fighting Team was something all my friends and I watched growing up, so it’s cool to see the franchise still going strong …