I need to do more gaming

Because I haven’t really done much since last time. I especially need to take care of those Resident Evil games >.< So in a brilliant stroke to get me play a bit more different games again I just bough more games. That works, right? Hello? Well anyway, here is the bit I did the last few … um …. months?

• Party Hard 2
  

  35 hours playtime

  41 of 41 achievements

• Hexa Turn
  

  4 hours playtime

  20 of 20 achievements

• Mega Man X Legacy Collection / ROCKMAN X ANNIVERSARY COLLECTION
  

  39 hours playtime

  52 of 52 achievements

• Catmaze
  

  13 hours playtime

  21 of 21 achievements

• Contra Anniversary Collection
  

  14 hours playtime

  16 of 16 achievements

Party Hard 2: Technically, I completed this as last from the batch. But I got done nearly everything a few months ago already. The game premise is pretty simple. People party hard and you don’t like it. So you decide to do the sensible thing and murder everyone. You can do this the classic way or you try to use traps and gadgets you find. But avoid people seeing you because otherwise police may arrest you. But don’t worry, even after the 15th kill people still party hard, right besides the ashes of their recently electrocuted friends. The game has some weird humour which works okay enough, is more or less fun, can be played in local co-op, has weird mission targets and I think there was even some kind of story :P
Achievement-wise it is a bit more annoying due to some in-game challenges which must be fulfilled. Worst one is probably to complete every level without police being called (meaning neither shall you be witnessed killing someone nor shall any dead bodies be found). The reason I just “finished” recently is simple for the last achievement. Publish a workshop map. Meaning I had to make an own map with the editor. It is the third game which asks me for this (others have been SHODN and Blocks That Matter) and while I could have gone the easy route and just publish any random bullshit I always decide to try and create at least something average (so if you have the game convince yourself of my averagity) which I probably have achieved. Sad side of these achievements is that you have a lot of bullshit “for the achievement” maps which clutter the workshop and burying actual attempts at creating content.

Hexa Turn: The visual presentation directly associates with Hexcells and while both are puzzle games they are more or less opposites. Hexcells is a game where a perfect solution exists which can be seen if you just look for it. For Hexa Turn it is a bit different. Your goal is to avoid the little triangles to reach the squares. For this you can “block” one field per turn and then the triangles move again, although you get some limited power moves to block two field or to freeze a triangle. What irritates me first was that there is no “perfect” solution. One of the first levels I completed I was like “If the triangle just moves differently there is no way to ever win this level.” And this has been the main brain twist I had. For Hexa Turn the order you make your moves is important as the Triangles follow a simple algorithm which you have to manipulate. They always go the shortest way available to one of the squares. Knowing of this you have to look which triangle and which field to block first to redirect them. While this is mostly logical there are still a few levels you have to repeat as the triangle has two or more “viable” choices from algorithm but your “winning” move is only one of them. So even if you have the right solution it may not play out correctly which is a bit annoying. Achievement-wise the game is straightforward and nothing can be missed. However, there is one achievement you get for making 1000 turns. However, after completing the game you are only somewhere around 680 or so. “It is just you Adelion because you are so smart.” Yea, no. The game only counts moves from “succesful” games. So unless you replay levels heavily you will not hit the 1000 turn treshold. It is impossible.

Mega Man X Legacy Collection: After playing the Mega Man Legacy Collection 1 and 2, I continued with the X games (I will skip on X Legacy Collection 2 though) mainly because I played Mega Man X4 in my youth and remembered it fontly. I don’t think I have to explain the game or its gameplay. If you don’t know these games you should be banished from gaming. The Legacy Collection contains Mega Man X1 - X4. X1 is enjoyable and a good start into the series. Every X games has power-up capsules which make you quite a bit stronger and searching for them (although i used guides here heavily) is interesting. X2 and X3 i didnt like quite as much for reasons. Firstly, in X3 the power-ups where hidden a “tad” to well. Secondly, the games suffer from missable stuff. If you don’t do something at a certain point or order you will miss out on achievements and have to replay the whole game. Okay, they can be played through in 3 hours. Still is annoying, especially as in X1 and X4 you can get everything just by replaying the now boss-less stages. X4 is for me still the best of the four games because it has a better design, better movement and you have two characters and playing Zero is quite refreshing as melee character.
As mentioned achievement-wise you can miss out a bit, as these games have a lot of “secrets”. Other than that most stuff can be done with a bit of patience. In addition to the X games you have a Challenge mode where you fight two bosses at once from different games too. There are nine stages and every stage features a triple of duo-boss fights. You have two lives and you are allowed to pick three weapons from a pre-defined list (so basically for every duo chose a weapon helping you with the more annoying foe). Sadly, unlocking a stage for normal difficulty does not unlock it for easy difficulty. So be smarter than me and do it the easy way. Because after I started I had (due to ego and aggression problems) complete the Challenge Mode on normal. And there are a few matches which need a lot of training. Stage 9-3 is for me the most difficult. Others I got after replaying them over and over again.

Catmaze: This is a cute little Metroidvania of a young witch on her quest to help her mother. Genre typical you face bosses from time to time and get powr-ups which help you to go new routes. The aesthetics are nice and fit the game nicely. It isn’t overly difficult but you have to bring some patience as you can die easily if you play to carefree. And without the optional powerups it can become a chore fast. Overall a fun game although some sections could have been a bit shorter. But there is most often a save point close-by to present overall a fair challenge.
Achievement-wise you will get most stuff if you just play the game normally and do every side quest. And then you have this one achievement which asks for you the complete opposite. To ignore absolutely every sidequest and to help nobody. The problem? Some “help” quests are main route and have to be done but you don’t know which those are your first tree. So you have to replay the game a second time just doing minimal amount and behave like an ass.

Contra Anniversary Collection: Another game bought for Nostalgia as I played Probotector 2 for the NES in my childhood (funnily enough THAT version is not part of the collection). Contra is like one of this super annoying games without health bar where you die in one hit. I played this in co-op with my friend and after a few tries we got the first Contra done. Then we started Super C and got demolished. I later completed the collection alone after I learned that you can save anytime anywhere. While it is cheap there is at least one game I believe is near unbeatable the normal way (Arcade Version of Contra 2, surprise). Other stuff I may have managed as at least bosses have mostly useable patterns to avoid death.
For achievements you just have to complete every contra (Hard Corps even five times). Normally this wouldnt be to bad. But while there are 10 “games” there exists only like 5 different games. And the rest are just different versions. Sometimes this is the difference between arcade (super unfun for money making) and remake for NES (more polished and fairer), sometimes this is the difference in localization where once you play as shirtless soldiers and once as robots because reasons. So I had to play some games twice with very little change.

And that’s it. Now I will delete Nier: Automata to create disk space and probably install Gal*Gun 2 or maybe Tokyo Xanadu. Or I find motivation to finished RE0. Or play one of the many RPGs (like Startrail or the not-yet activated Baldurs Gate 2, Icewind Dale and Planescape Torment). Have to play more :P