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I haven't played too many different video games so far this year.

I started the year with Paper Jam Bros. and Super Mario RPG, I finished up Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D, I had a Curtain Call relapse, I played Doom and Doom 64 and spent 80 hours on Hyrule Warriors in April alone. The only games I've played in 2016 that are completely new for me have been Paper Jam Bros., Botanicula and Ninja Smasher (which is this year's out-of-nowhere gem that I'm already speedrunning).

After last year's success, I had every intention of getting around to this year's iteration of A game a day earlier. Then I started playing more Kingdom of Loathing, and actually put a lot of time into my fanfic writing (19 chapters published so far).

But now the summer's drawing to a close. Even if I have a bunch of stuff to do the coming two weeks, I'll try to end the gaming summer on a high note by dealing with some of the stuff in my backlog.

Format will be identical to last year, so anything I said about it last year still applies.

So let's roll.

Games
2016-08-01 - Freedom Planet (completed 2016-08-07)
2016-08-02 - Fist of the North Star: Ken's Rage (Kenshiro's story completed 2016-08-07)
2016-08-03 - Escape Goat 2 (completed 2016-08-03)
2016-08-04 - Rhythm Thief & the Emperor's Treasure
2016-08-05 - Dust: An Elysian Tail (completed 2016-11-04)
2016-08-08 - Knytt Underground
2016-08-09 - Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon
2016-08-10 - Darksiders (completed 2016-10-25)
2016-08-11 - The Legend of Dark Witch Episode 2: The Price of Desire (completed 2016-08-11)
2016-08-12 - The Wonderful 101

Monday 2016-08-01 - Freedom Planet




Format: Wii U (also available on Windows)
What it is: Literally a Sonic fangame - was initially a Sonic 3 ROM hack, even - that at some point became a standalone game but the origins are still super clear. Has been said to be one of the best Sonic games in quite a while, understandably.
Release date: 2014-06-21 (Wii U version in October 2015)
Owned since: 2016-04-26
Status: Bought in the Humble Nintendo Bundle, completely unplayed.
Available: On Wii U eShop, DRM-free on GOG, Steam
Verdict: Well, this feels pretty close to what you'd get if you asked Treasure to make a Mega Drive Sonic game and also to make it as deviantArt as they could. And if you think "Treasure makes Sonic" actually sounds pretty sweet, make no mistake - this is still a Sonic fangame and the deviantArtness of the characters and story really cannot be overstated. Some impressive spritework going on at times and nice animations, controls are responsive and there's a good Sonic style soundtrack, but the voice acting is... well, something. I'll get around to beating this and try characters other than Lilac the Hedgehog eventually.

I tried the demo of Freedom Planet that was on the Wii U at... last year's E3, I think?

It was an alright game, though I recall having a hard time focusing on it because the backgrounds were really busy. It also got me questioning how much I actually like old Sonic games. They were fun as a kid, but I have a feeling I might not like them so much today!

Tuesday 2016-08-02 - Fist of the North Star: Ken's Rage




Format: Xbox 360 (and PS3)
What it is: Mother fuckin' Hokuto no Ken aka Fist of the North Star Warriors. Punch enemies (that there's a lot of) until they explode or get cut into pieces or whatever the fuck.
Release date: 2010-03-25 in Japan, early November 2010 elsewhere
Owned since: Not 100% sure, but I believe April 2015.
Status: Downloaded and played the demo, later bought a used copy of the game that has since not been in my X360 once.
Available: On disc and digitally.
Verdict: Well, despite a bug that caused me to have to play the same stage three times, pretty good. Since Hyrule Warriors is the only other Musou I've played, I'd be comparing it to that in my head, and Hyrule Warriors it ain't. It's a bit slower, less enemies, but more, well, punchy in general. So far I've only been playing Kenshiro's story, but unlocked Rei, Mamiya, Toki, Shin and Jagi as well. The camera has a variety of issues and movement options are few. Still, definitely something I'll be playing more of. Got a bunch of DLC as well. Might pick up some of that, at least the ones that gives more characters and missions, in the future.

Wednesday 2016-08-03 - Escape Goat 2




Format: PC (also PS4 and PSVita)
What it is: Puzzle platformer where you play a purple goat and solve rooms to escape.
Release date: 2014-03-24
Owned since: 2015-06-19
Status: Completely unplayed (but I've played through the first game)
Available: DRM-free on GOG and Humble Store, also on Steam and PSN
Verdict: Much more HD graphics than the simple spritework of the original, but that's not a complaint. Anyway, I beat it. In one session, pretty much. Just shy of 4½ hours. Didn't find any secret rooms, so it was like 88% completion, but for the sake of this project, I'll consider it finished. Might go back to find the secret rooms some time. Good game, if short. Some of the final stages were quite frustrating and the very last one I had to look up a Youtube video to figure out one part of. Woop.

Thursday 2016-08-04 - Rhythm Thief & the Emperor's Treasure




Format: 3DS
What it is: A rhythm game. That's about all I know.
Release date: 2012-01-19
Owned since: 2016-04-26
Status: Unplayed, got it in the Nintendo Humble Bundle.
Available: On the eShop and retail.
Verdict: This game is aggressively anime. And not actually one of the better rhythm games I've played, though it's not terrible. It's actually not only a rhythm game, it's kind of a point-and-click game as well - you run around Paris and search for things and there's a story and sometimes there's rhythm minigames. You record sounds to use for things to solve puzzles, and then there's the goddamn hunting for... it's not even pixel hunting. You just tap the screen all over and hope you find hidden things. Now, these are not required to progress, so you don't NEED to do that, but it's an annoying thing. The minigames used varying methods of control - some touchscreen, some buttons, some tilting, some a mix - and were of wildly varying quality. The timing was super finicky in some of them. Might beat this eventually but it's not going to be very high on my priority list.

Friday 2016-08-05 - Dust: An Elysian Tail




Format: Xbox 360, PS4, computers, iOS. Will be played on X360.
What it is: Metroidvania with nice painted style graphics.
Release date: 2012-08-15 on X360, later for other systems.
Owned since: 2013-11-29
Status: Played the demo, bought on sale and didn't play afterwards.
Available: Digitally.
Verdict: This is... this is very much "I want to be Vanillaware: The Game". Like, if the creators were to tell me that this game was not in any way inspired by Muramasa: The Demon Blade, I wouldn't believe them. Given that Muramasa is a great game, that's not necessarily a bad thing, but it is a bit blatant. The fighting system is pretty smooth with a few weird quirks I don't like, and the level design isn't always the best, but this is a good game. A bit hard, but I'm playing on one difficulty level above Normal - but you'd think that even then there wouldn't be as many enemies that can kill me in one or two hits that there's been, and save points don't heal you to full on this difficulty so I've used quite a bunch of healing items. Still, this is a game I'm going to play through. According to my save file I'm 46% done and I've played just shy of 5 hours, so I'm assuming it'll be like 10-12 hours by the end of the game.

Alright, it's weekend. No new game today, instead, weekend is cleanup phase where I keep playing some of the games I've played during the week to get closer to beating them, or actually beating them. I think I'm close to the end of Freedom Planet, and I want to play more Ken's Rage and Dust.

So next game on Monday, if I don't come to the conclusion that I have far too much to do next week to play video games a lot.

Ken's Rage (well, Kenshiro's story, at least, more story modes to be had) and Freedom Planet have been beaten, so that's three out of five so far. Not bad.

Freedom Planet became a serious drag towards the end. There's two other characters to play but I really don't feel any incentive to play those right now.

Monday 2016-08-08 - Knytt Underground




Format: Wii U (but is on a whole bunch of systems)
What it is: The third major Knytt game, after Knytt and Knytt Stories. Exploration platformer thingy, kinda Metroidvania style. Underground also features the return of the ball gameplay from Within a Deep Forest.
Release date: 2012-12-18
Owned since: idk really
Status: Bought on some eShop sale. Completely unplayed.
Available: Digitally on the eShop, PSN and probably Steam
Verdict: Well... huh. At first, I was all like "Knytt Stories it ain't", when playing Chapter 1 and Chapter 2, both short. Then? Then Chapter 3 happened. I figured before starting it that 3 would be of a somewhat similar length, I'd be done with the game in an afternoon, but... yeah, no. Chapters 1 and 2 are just tne prelude, 3 is the real game. It's a massive map to explore, to find six places marked on your map. That said, it's not without issues. It's a big Metroidvania-style map, but rather than the kind of progression you'd have in a Metroidvania, you have all your two abilities right away and is just dropped into the world. It makes the experience kind of... aimless. But it's fun to explore, and without spoiling too much, it firmly establishes a connection between Within a Deep Forest and the Knytt series. I'll complete this eventually, probably, but... after all, Knytt Stories it ain't.

Tuesday 2016-08-09 - Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon




Format: PC, also on PS3 and X360
What it is: Everything about 80's movies distilled into a single neon-glowing game. With laser eye dragons/dinosaurs.
Release date: 2013-04-30
Owned since: 2013-12-01 (for given values of "owned")
Status: Started playing a little back then but it looks like I have to start over anyway
Available: Digitally.
Verdict: I didn't get overly much played for a variety of reasons, but I took a few garrisons and did some sidequests. It's a fun game that does not take any part of itself seriously and uses every 80s action flick trope you can think of. Mark IV Style, motherfucker. First Far Cry game I ever play and probably also the only one I'll ever play.

Wednesday 2016-08-10 - Darksiders




Format: Xbox 360, also on PS3 and PC
What it is: Action-RPG-style game in which you play literally War, the horseman of the apocalypse (and in the sequel you play Death). Kinda Zelda-esque gameplay.
Release date: January 2010
Owned since: 2014-01-20
Status: Played demo, bought on sale, full version unplayed.
Available: Digitally.
Verdict: Well, this is definitely more Castlevania/God of War than Zelda when it comes to atmosphere and gameplay, but the similarity to Zelda is there in the progression - dungeons in which you solve puzzles and then find an item which is then used to solve further puzzles to find the boss that you use the item to beat. Some parts of it are a bit wonky but it's a perfectly alright game. I'll return to this eventually, and then I have the sequel as well...

Thursday 2016-08-11 - The Legend of Dark Witch Episode 2: The Price of Desire




Format: 3DS
What it is: Very Mega Man-inspired 2D platformer action game with a Gradius-style powerup bar. Second game in the series, said to be an improvement upon the first one which was generally good but had a bunch of issues.
Release date: 2016-02-11 in Europe, earlier elsewhere
Owned since: 2016-07-22
Status: Played the demo and then bought the full version on sale.
Available: Digitally on the 3DS eShop.
Verdict: Beat the game, lol. Yeah, it's not a long one, which was good for today. It's definitely an improvement over the first game, but still some things I don't like too much - only having three hit points at the start and enemies not dropping health too often chief among them. There's another character to play with as well, but that's going to have to be another time.

Friday 2016-08-12 - The Wonderful 101




Format: Wii U
What it is: Platinum Games, baby! Action game in which you have a small army of units that you can make shapes with to make things like a sword or hammer or stuff.
Release date: 2013-08-23
Owned since: 2015-05-17
Status: Played a few stages back when I got it, but not too much.
Available: Physically and digitally.
Verdict: This game is seriously wonky. When you manage to actually get going, it's nice Platinum action, but there's so many things that work against you. The Wonder Liner through which you make your weapons sometimes doesn't cooperate at all, dodging and blocking is a total crapshoot and even without that there's so many things to keep track of that enemy tells are super iffy to see, you can't tell what's going on or what you're supposed to do or what just killed you half the time and... yeah. I really don't know what to think of this game.

And that's about it for this year's iteration of A game a day. Weekend remains go back and play whatever, and on Monday I start my internship so then it'll just be some late afternoon/evening/weekend gaming. Ten games in two weeks, three of them fully completed, one of them kind of completed. Some I'm definitely continuing in the forseeable future.

Next year I should really get started earlier.