What Have You Been Playing? End of the Summer Drought Edition ’14

by John "ANC" Barnes on

The periodical-ish discussion returns

Meant to do this earlier, blah blah, you all know me and you all know how this works. The big fall release frenzy is about to commence, with games such as Bayonetta 2, Hyrule Warriors, Persona 4 Ultimax, and I presume some sort of Call of Duty game on the way or out already in other territories.

Oh, and Smash Bros. for 3DS next week! Zounds!

Spelunky – It will never die, though I will. A lot.

Wario Land II – This year’s Club Nintendo reward for me. Still a pretty great game since the last time I played it on GBC, and being able to cheat on the treasure chest matching game by bringing up the Virtual Console or Home menus is fun to abuse.

Persona 3 FES – After finally (finally!) watching Azumanga Daioh (shut up!) I got all wistful ‘n shit about friendships and youth and a high school experience I never even had, so I had a sudden urge to fire up P3 again for more of the same. Haven’t played it in a couple weeks since getting stuck on one of the minibosses (why did I pick Hard when I just wanted to play breezily!?) so that’s probably done for now. Shovel Knight – I have beaten the eight knights and am now dragging my feet on the final section, mostly due to the bad habit of dying and then turning the game off instead of persevering. It’s not like I need the money, I’ve bought all the equipment! I just feel like such an ass for dying stupidly. Or something.

Mega Man II – It went on sale on 3DS so I bought it to have on the go. God, that soundtrack and some of those setpieces are amazing. Wily’s castle piddles out after the first two stages, really, although the final fight is still pretty funny. Super Smash Bros. for 3DS Special Demo – Thanks, Ray. Villager and Mega Man are pretty damn fun. I wonder if the changes to edge grabbing are gonna piss off the hardcore.

Sugoi Hebereke – A Super Famicom party fighting game from Sunsoft (think Power Stone but several years earlier) in the same series as Ufouria: The Saga on the Wii and Wii U Virtual Consoles. It supports four players with the multitap. The single player fighting is nothing to write home about, though functional enough. Still trying to discover everyone’s moves so that when I finally get some friends I can promptly alienate them by owning them in this crazy fucking Japanese game they’ve just learned about. Demon’s Crest – Guess I felt like popping this in again since Halloween is coming up, and also because I can – eBay prices have gone nutso for this game in the last few years and I feel lucky. Heads up, though: it should be out on Wii U Virtual Console by the end of the year. Dripping with atmosphere thanks to incredible music, backgrounds, and spritework. In retrospect the level design could be tighter and combat could be a little more exciting, but hot damn is it gorgeous and moody. Somewhat reminiscent of Actraiser in that way.