Megadoomer

Megadoomer · Apr 15, 2025

I've been playing some of the Sega Genesis Classics collection on Steam lately (thankfully, I got all of the games before they were delisted, even the ones that were removed earlier like the Sonic games), and it's interesting to go through Sega's back catalogue since I mainly grew up with the Super Nintendo. I doubt I'll beat all of the games (though the rewind feature is handy; I'm not sure when that was added or if it was always there), but I'm going to try and give all of them a chance, at least.

A lot of them seem like they run on old-school arcade sensibilities (especially something like Altered Beast), but I'm looking forward to playing the games by Treasure in particular. (I mainly know them from Gunstar Heroes and Wario World, but I see they made Alien Soldier and Dynamite Headdy, among others) Now that I'm more familiar with Conan the Barbarian, I could see myself enjoying the Golden Axe games, since they seem like a barely lawyer-friendly adaptation of that series. (plus, the music in the first level is great)

Also, two of the achievements got the Fresh Prince of Bel Air theme stuck in my head. Again.

Megadoomer · Mar 28, 2025

Out of the new games announced in yesterday's Nintendo Direct, I think Marvel Cosmic Invasion might be the one that I'm looking forward to the most.

I enjoyed Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge (which was made by the same team that is making this game), I'm a big fan of Marvel (less than half of the roster has been revealed so far, so I'm curious about who the remaining eight characters are going to be), and this might help get me back into MUGEN. (a crossover between TMNT and Marvel is just begging to happen with these sprites)

I'm guessing there's going to be a few more cosmic Marvel characters (going by the Annihilation event, I feel like it will be Star-Lord, Gamora, Drax, or Moondragon - not all of them, but probably one or two), and Cyclops seems almost guaranteed between his recent renaissance and how popular the X-Men were in the 90s.

I'm hoping Daredevil, the Thing, and Black Panther make it in.

Megadoomer · Feb 21, 2025

I'm going to try watching a Godzilla double feature tonight, if I have time. First up is the original Godzilla, which I've never seen before. It's darker than the other movies in the series by my understanding, looking at the horrors of the atomic bombs less than a decade after Japan was hit by them. Godzilla stands in for the bombs, though he's arguably as much of a victim of them as Japan is. (though I'm not sure if that interpretation is used in this movie or not)

I'm also going to watch Godzilla vs. Megalon, where Godzilla does this:

Megadoomer · Feb 9, 2025

I've been watching Star Trek: The Next Generation on DVD. I've been enjoying it, though unfortunately, the case is designed in a way where it seems virtually impossible to get any of the discs out without cracking/damaging them in some way. (I'm on disc 3 and it froze partway through the episode "Haven", where Troi's mother appears) I don't know who designed the complete series set, or who approved the design, but it doesn't seem like it was tested at all. (and the set isn't even that old by DVD standards; it came out in 2016)

Also, I've been continuing with Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep; I've finished Terra's story and started Ventus's.

Megadoomer · Feb 3, 2025

Playing Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep for the first time. Given Maleficent's role in the series, a Sleeping Beauty world makes sense, though I was surprised to see that there would be worlds based on Cinderella and Snow White.

The voice acting for the main protagonists feels kind of flat/emotionless so far, and I'm hoping that I unlock a heal spell soon, but I'm looking forward to seeing what this game has to offer! Unlike KH1-3, I don't really know what worlds are in this game, so this (and Dream Drop Distance) will be an interesting experience for me.

Megadoomer · Jan 4, 2025

I'm going to see Sonic the Hedgehog 3 today; I haven't seen a Sonic movie before, so I'm interested to see how it will turn out.

EDIT: I had a great time with it. It was cheesy at points, and the character development was the most blatantly foreshadowed that I can think of since Spider-Man 3 had Harry Osborn say "they're my best friends - I'd die for them" at the start of the movie, but Jim Carrey was clearly having a lot of fun, and as someone who played Sonic Adventure 2 for the Gamecube as one of his first Sonic games (my only experience with playing Sonic games before that was a PC collection that included Sonic 2, Sonic 3 & Knuckles, and Sonic R), hearing Live And Learn blaring through a theater's sound system put such a huge grin on my face.

Megadoomer · Oct 30, 2024

I got a DC vs. Marvel omnibus; it feels absolutely surreal to see this image in an official release.

Also, I wound up watching a decent amount of movies this October. I'll put my thoughts/rankings under a spoiler tag.

1. Halloween (1978) - this is a rewatch, though it's been a year or two since I last saw it. It still holds up extremely well; watching more of the Friday the 13th series made me really appreciate the acting by Jamie Lee Curtis and Nancy Loomis. Their interactions felt really natural. Also, there were little moments where Michael was just standing in the background of a shot that creeped me out.

2. Army of Darkness - also a rewatch; it had been at least five or six years since I'd last seen it, possibly more. It drifts away from the horror-comedy of Evil Dead 2 to full-on comedy with only minor horror elements. Surprisingly short at an hour and 20 minutes, it had Bruce Campbell as a one-liner-producing machine, and some great physical comedy.

3. Child's Play 2 - everything below this point consists of movies that I'd never seen before. The puppetry or animatronics were amazing, Brad Dourif was great as Chucky, Alex Vincent did a great job as a world-weary child, and I was able to follow what was going on despite not having seen the first one.

4. Gremlins - this movie was barely a Halloween-themed movie; if anything, it's closer to a dark Christmas movie. It felt kind of tonally confused, like it wasn't sure if it wanted to be dark or silly. Still, the Gremlins (particularly Gizmo) were great, and the writing and acting were solid.

5. Friday the 13th Part 3 - it felt like the filmmakers finally got the formula down for the Friday the 13th movies with this one. There weren't any dragged-out moments like in the first two, and while the 3D shots were unintentionally hilarious (especially when watching the movie in 2D, which results in characters throwing stuff at the camera for no reason), at least one of them (towards the end) felt like it would be pretty unsettling.

6. Taste the Blood of Dracula - I'd seen a Christopher Lee Dracula movie before, but this one was in the same four-pack, and I hadn't seen it. Christopher Lee didn't have as many lines of dialogue as I was expecting or hoping, and it didn't go as dark as I thought it would. Also, the R-rating felt tacked on; only one scene felt like it earned the movie that rating, and it was completely gratuitous and unnecessary. Still, I had fun with it.

7. Friday the 13th - this movie is not well-written; it's a whodunnit where the one who did it isn't mentioned or doesn't appear until the last ten minutes, and any other suspects who are built up get built up at a point where it would be physically impossible for them to be the murderer. Impressive gore effects; I avoided watching the movie at all because of Kevin Bacon's death scene, and even knowing that it was coming, it was still uncomfortable to watch.

8. Alien 3 - the movie starts with 3/4 of the survivors of the previous movie killed off-screen and the fourth infected by a face-hugger, which is a death sentence. The survivor doesn't learn about that detail until the last half hour, and she's one of two living characters in this movie who's even remotely likeable. The movie just gets bleaker and darker from here. Most of the characters look identical, the rooms are lit in an unpleasant brown colour that makes the Xenomorph stick out like a sore thumb rather than blending in with its surroundings like it did in previous movies, and the whole thing was a huge downgrade from Alien and Aliens.

Megadoomer · Jul 21, 2024

Started the Resident Evil 1 remake on Xbox 360. (I've struggled to get into the pre-RE4 Resident Evil games, but I saw that this version has a Very Easy mode, which helps)

I'm already concerned when I'm running out of inventory spots (though arguably that's my fault for picking Chris, who has six spots to Jill's eight) and I've had to use a walkthrough to figure out how to progress when most of the doors are locked. (turned out that the central staircase has a hidden door on it, which leads to one of the keys) Also, the camera remains the biggest enemy in the game as of now. Still, I'll stick with it - I haven't encountered any of the storage boxes, and once I find one of those, that should hopefully make things easier.

Megadoomer · Jul 12, 2024

Replaying Resident Evil 4, since it was only $2 on the Xbox 360. I didn't realize that Leon only has his jacket for the first 45 minutes or so of the game. (Also, I prefer the Wii version's controls)

I just encountered one of the best Resident Evil characters for the first time in this playthrough - the Merchant. (Oh, and also Luis)

Megadoomer · Jul 1, 2024

I'm playing Dragon Quest 3 - it feels like a really cozy game, for the lack of a better word. (Also, I'm concerned that I'm a little overleveled - I'm on a solo mission to get an orb that's seemingly needed to unlock an airship, and it's surprisingly easy)

I haven't done any class changes yet - I have the option to turn someone into a Sage, though I'm not sure who. (Right now, my party's a Warrior, Priest, and Mage)

There are a lot of aspects to the game that I don't know much about - take Personalities, for example. I know they influence stat growth, but I don't know if there are specific personalities that I should be trying to give my characters.

EDIT: at least I'm not concerned about being overleveled - the Orochi fight took a long time, though I beat him on my second attempt. I turned the Warrior into a Thief, and that's working out so far. My Thief also stole Orochi's Sword.

Megadoomer · Jun 29, 2024

I might have to get a new Pro Controller for the Switch, since the D-Pad is acting up. It lasted much longer than my original JoyCons did (I got a launch day Switch, and the drifting got so bad that I had to replace them and get a Pro Controller around the time that Mega Man 11 came out in 2018), but it's frustrating because I have GameCube, Wii, and Xbox 360 controllers that all work perfectly fine.

Not sure how Nintendo dropped the ball so badly this generation when it came to controllers. It could be worse (my Wii U's gamepad, which is required to play some Wii U games, needs to stay plugged in at all times because it barely holds a charge), but it seems like the Switch's controllers have some pretty big design flaws.

Megadoomer · May 18, 2024

I've seen some rumours/leaks for MultiVersus, and if they're accurate about the next character, then I respect that kind of thinking outside of the box. (I don't think I would have ever considered that the character in question would appear in a Warner Bros. fighting game, or at least a family-friendly one, and I thought the character in question was owned by a different company)

I wasn't really a fan of what I played of the game, at least on Steam, but maybe it's better to play with a controller and/or whenever they add some single player content.

Megadoomer · May 15, 2024

I picked up a set of seven Godzilla movies after work - Minus One was the first Japanese-made Godzilla movie that I saw, and I figured this would be a good way to get into the series, even though I'm not sure about the quality of the movies in question.

Godzilla Against MechaGodzilla
Godzilla 2000
Godzilla vs. MechaGodzilla II
Godzilla vs. MegaGuirus
Godzilla, Mothra, and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack
Godzilla Final Wars
Godzilla Tokyo S.O.S.

At the very least, I figure it would be fun to watch them some afternoon to unwind.

Megadoomer · May 9, 2024

I picked up Baldur's Gate 3 and Hades 2 on Steam.

I don't know much about Baldur's Gate 3, but I heard lots of good things about it. As for Hades 2, it's in early access; I don't normally get early access games, but I played a LOT of Hades 1, so I figure it would be worth it.

Megadoomer · Apr 30, 2024

With the Xbox 360 digital store closing in July, I've been playing some of Rare's Xbox 360 games; I know the general assumption is that they went downhill after the N64, but I wanted to give them a shot so I could have an informed opinion. (I already had physical copies of Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts and Kameo, though I haven't played Kameo yet, along with the downloaded versions of Banjo-Kazooie, Banjo-Tooie, and Perfect Dark)

I tried Viva Piñata, and I wasn't a fan. Maybe the early game isn't that great and things get better once you get past the opening, but it feels like there's lots of micromanaging (which makes it seem like it wouldn't really appeal to kids - I sold my copy of Pikmin 1 originally for that reason), the voice acting comes across as patronizing (so it doesn't really seem like it appeals to adults), and every time a new type of piñata shows up, there's an unskippable cutscene. (which gets really repetitive)

I downloaded Perfect Dark Zero, but I only played a bit of it (playing it unlocks cheats in the Xbox 360 version of Perfect Dark). I'll try it out at some point and see how it goes. (also, I see that Rare made a new installment in the Jetpac series - I'm only familiar with that game through Donkey Kong 64, so I'll look into gameplay of it)

Shame that Goldeneye didn't get a re-release on the Xbox 360; that would have been nice to play. (I enjoyed playing Perfect Dark on the Xbox 360, with no nostalgia attached, but I don't want to get the N64 Online app or an Xbox One to play Goldeneye) Unfortunately, the model of Xbox 360 that I have isn't compatible with original Xbox games, even digitally downloaded ones, so I can't play the pair of original Xbox titles that they made.

EDIT: Looking up a one minute gameplay trailer of Jetpac Refueled makes it look super repetitive, so that doesn't seem like it's worth getting unless it's extremely cheap.

Megadoomer · Mar 11, 2024

I'm going to see Dune: Part Two today - it's the first theatrical release that I'll have seen this year. I didn't see the first movie in theaters (I watched it at home), so I'm looking forward to that big picture experience!

This year seems like it's going to be a slow one for movies, though that seems understandable given the strikes. It likely doesn't help that I haven't watched Joker or Ghostbusters: Afterlife, so I don't know if I'd go to see their sequels until I do that. (The Fall Guy looks like it'll be fun, though; David Leitch is a reliable action director) Deadpool 3 seems like it will be the highlight of the summer, and it doesn't seem like much is releasing around November or December.

(Alien Romulus could be good; I'm not much for horror movies, but I enjoyed Alien and Aliens, and I'm hoping this turns out like how Prey did for the Predator series, where it's a successful reinvention)

Megadoomer · Feb 12, 2024

Going through my Wii U games to make sure that they're up to date, and that the system is up to date. It's tedious (the only way to check for updates is to try launching the game and see if it updates), and it turns out that I haven't really needed to do it so far (there was a system update, and updates for Mario Kart 8, Splatoon, and Wii Sports Club, but that's it), though it has got me wanting to play Yoshi's Woolly World, Pokken Tournament, and DKC: Tropical Freeze.

It's also got me thinking about missed opportunities for the Wii U. For example, I could see older FPSes like Doom, Doom II, or Star Wars Dark Forces working well on the Wii U, with the Gamepad serving as a way to show the in-game map and a way to switch between weapons using the touch screen.

In general, I feel like more games could have made use of the second screen, though I suppose the Wii U didn't get many games outside of Nintendo's output. (Out of my physical titles, only about four or five of them are non-Nintendo ones, and two of those had exclusivity deals)

Deleted member · Jan 18, 2024

Hello Megadoomer,it is nice to meet you,today im your new follower.

Megadoomer · Dec 24, 2023

I beat Uncharted 1 - hadn't played a game in that series before, and I wanted to beat the first one before the end of the year.

It was tougher than I expected, even on Easy, and the gameplay was solid third person cover-based shooting, though the characters (or at least Nate, Sully, and Elena - the villains were forgettable) were definitely the highlight.

I haven't looked into the sequels too heavily, though I know they're an improvement. One thing that I hope they do is include a wider variety of locations - in this game, it felt like a lot of areas blended together.

Megadoomer · Nov 6, 2023

I beat Halo Reach through the Master Chief Collection, so I'm 5/6 of the way done. (I just have Halo 4 left)

Great game, and a lot more impactful since I beat Halo 1 for the first time shortly before playing this, though the ending scene is significantly less dramatic when you can make Noble Six's helmet look like this:

Megadoomer · Oct 27, 2023

Just watched Halloween Ends - a definite downgrade from the 2018 movie (almost all of the people of Haddonfield are completely unlikeable, and most of them inexplicably blame Laurie for Michael's rampage - even Allyson, who was sympathetic in the past two movies, is acting odd here, falling madly in love with a budding serial killer and being one of the people who irrationally blames Laurie for Michael's actions), and Michael Myers himself is really underused (he doesn't show up until 40 minutes in, and he barely shows up afterwards, with the majority of his screentime being in the final ten minutes), though I felt like it was a better movie than Halloween Kills.

The only other horror movie I've watched this October was The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, which was creepy, though the protagonists were unlikeable for the most part. The cinematography was great, though, and I can see why it's stood the test of time.

I'm not sure what else I'll watch in the next few days. Maybe Scream 2 (I've only ever seen the first one) or Five Nights At Freddy's. (I know very little about the series, so I'd be interested to see what it's like from an outsider perspective)

Megadoomer · Oct 22, 2023

Made it to the three-part (edit: my mistake; four part) finale of Gravity Falls!

This show is up there with Avatar: The Last Airbender/The Legend of Korra, Invader Zim, the DCAU, Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes, and the Simpsons for me. It's been a ton of fun, start to finish, and I can't wait to see how it ends.

EDIT: I just finished it, and I had a great time. Still not sure if Mabel or Stan is my favourite character. So many great moments, but this one in particular had me cracking up laughing.

Megadoomer · Oct 19, 2023

I'm hoping to finish up Gravity Falls before November 1st (since that's when Disney Plus is apparently cracking down on password sharing - I don't know if they've decided not to do it given the sheer amount of backlash, but my family's subscription is split between several houses). I'm halfway through season 2, so far, and I'm really enjoying it.

Plus, I finally have context for this:

I've just reached what seems like it's going to be a big reveal episode regarding the author of the journals.

Megadoomer · Sep 9, 2023

Just beat Halo 2 for the first time. Good game, and I like how it fleshed out the Covenant, but I can definitely see why the ending frustrated people when it first came out.

Megadoomer · Sep 3, 2023

I've been watching more of Doctor Who, going back and forth between the 11th and 4th Doctors, and it definitely feels like Tom Baker is having fun with the role. (mainly because of the big goofy grin)

I've also started playing Halo 2 for the first time (at the very least, if I have played it before, I didn't get far), and I just made it to the part where the point of view switches to the Arbiter.

Megadoomer · Aug 28, 2023

Just beat Halo 1 for the first time! While I wasn't a fan of the driving sections, and there were times where a poorly-timed checkpoint made some sections of the game frustrating since I was stuck with low health or ammo, it felt easier to navigate through the levels than I was expecting. Not sure whether to go for Halo 2 or Halo Reach when I continue with the series, though I'll probably focus on Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom for now.

Also, Dead By Daylight's DLC based on the movie Alien is coming out tomorrow! I played a bit of the Player Test Build, but I'm looking forward to trying out more of the Xenomorph.

Megadoomer · Aug 23, 2023

Just watched my first episode of classic Doctor Who (the parts before the 9th Doctor), Destiny of the Daleks. I had to look up a few things because I was missing context (like who Romana is), but I had a great time watching it. Tom Baker seemed to be having a lot of fun as the Doctor, and I don't know why, but this part got a laugh out of me.

I've also watched the first five episodes of the 11th Doctor, so I'm enjoying what I've seen of the series.

Megadoomer · Aug 4, 2023

With EVO happening this weekend, I'm going to post my attempt at a Marvel vs. Capcom 4 roster, with 18 characters per side. (I doubt we'll get an MvC4 reveal, but I figure we'll get something Marvel vs. Capcom related; I'm hoping for a MvC collection)

MARVEL

1. Spider-Man
2. Ultimate Spider-Man (aside from his Venom Touch and cloaking, Miles can apparently make electricity constructs like lightning swords, so that helps set him apart from Peter)
3. Wolverine
4. Storm
5. Magneto
6. Iron Man
7. Captain America
8. Thor
9. Hulk
10. Black Panther
11. Captain Marvel
12. Ms. Marvel
13. The Thing
14. Doctor Doom
15. Deadpool
16. Magik
17. Rocket Raccoon and Groot
18. Thanos

This turned out lighter on newcomers than I expected - just Miles, Ms. Marvel, the Thing, and Magik. Still, going bigger than 40 (20 per side) for the base game seems like a lot.

CAPCOM

1. Ryu
2. Chun-Li
3. Rashid
4. Juri
5. Mega Man
6. Zero
7. Dante
8. Nero
9. Morrigan
10. Jedah
11. Mike Haggar
12. Tessa (Red Earth)
13. Amaterasu
14. Leon S. Kennedy
15. Jill Valentine
16. Wesker
17. Phoenix Wright
18. Monster Hunter (based on Rise)

Again, not as many newcomers as I'd like (Rashid, Juri, Nero, Tessa, Leon, though give how heavily Mega Man and Monster Hunter would be revamped, they might as well be new), but it's hard to fit so many fan favourites into here on top of the newcomers. I heavily considered Akuma or Viewtiful Joe, but nowadays, Capcom seems more likely to save Akuma for DLC given that they know he'll sell (see Street Fighter 5 and 6), and I wanted a character from a new franchise. (In this case, Red Earth)

It turned out lighter than I expected on newcomers and villains, but I more or less just wrote the first idea that I thought of without tinkering with it.

EDIT: for DLC or some sort of special edition...

MARVEL

1. Shuma-Gorath
2. Venom
3. Gwenpool
4. Apocalypse
5. Squirrel Girl

CAPCOM

1. Akuma
2. Vergil
3. Lady Dimitrescu (Resident Evil)
4. Jon Talbain (Darkstalkers)
5. Asura (Asura's Wrath)

I figure it's a good mix of veterans and newcomers; I'm not sure if having both Squirrel Girl and Gwenpool in here is a little redundant, but they'd be entertaining picks that I'd like to see.

Megadoomer · Jul 23, 2023

I just finished the 10th Doctor's second season in Doctor Who. (Thankfully, "Blink" wasn't as jumpscare-heavy as I was expecting) I'm not much of a binge-watcher, but I watched five episodes back-to-back yesterday. I'm not super familiar with Doctor Who (I only just started watching it recently, beginning with the 9th Doctor), but this season finale brought back a villain who's (by my understanding) one of the Doctor's arch-enemies, and it didn't disappoint. It didn't take long for him to remind me of the Joker.

I think I've just got one more season to go for 10, but three seasons and some specials feels like a good amount. (by comparison, Christopher Eccleston only had one season as the 9th Doctor, which felt short) I'm not sure how I'm going to continue with the series once I finish this box set - I'm torn between continuing chronologically with the 11th Doctor (Matt Smith), or jumping back to a season from the 4th Doctor (Tom Baker) since at least one of them had Douglas Adams (the author of The Hitchhikers' Guide to the Galaxy) involved in writing it.

I'm enjoying this series, even if I'm lacking the history to make some of these reveals have the same impact. (whenever an alien threat shows up, or they reference a past adventure that the Doctor's had or some detail about his history, I never know if it's a reference to an earlier episode or if it's just being revealed there) David Tennant brings a lot of energy and joy to the role, along with selling some downright heartbreaking moments - it's VERY different from my first real exposure to him as Killgrave in the show Jessica Jones.

Megadoomer · Jul 17, 2023

I beat Perfect Dark for the first time! I hadn't played it on the Nintendo 64, but I picked up the Xbox 360 version a while back, and I figured that since the game takes place in the distant future of 2023, now seemed like a good time to play it.

I played through it on the Agent/easy difficulty, and even though the objectives were vague at times, it never felt unfair.

There were a lot of things that I wasn't aware of going into this game, but it definitely wore its movie influences on its sleeve.

Joanna was a fun protagonist, and it's a shame that more hasn't been done with the series because it seems like there's many more stories that could be told with her. (Hopefully something comes of the new game that was announced a while back - I know that Perfect Dark Zero exists, but what I've heard hasn't been positive; maybe I should give the game a chance to see what it's like, but I feel like it would be a step down from the original)

It has a good variety of weapons (with secondary modes for each), including unlockable Goldeneye weapons and plenty of cheats. The level design usually has enough landmarks to keep you from getting lost, though as I said earlier, it's sometimes unclear where you're supposed to go or what you're supposed to do at times, especially early on. (The last seven or so levels felt more straightforward to me)

Unlike the Banjo-Kazooie and Banjo-Tooie Xbox ports, I don't think I'll aim for 100% completion; I'm missing seven achievements, and I feel like I'll only get a few of them. (I only got three of the 26 leaderboard crowns in my entire playthrough, and some of them seem to require absurdly well-coordinated co-op play)

Still, I enjoyed the game; I don't play many first person shooters, especially single player ones, but despite my initial hesitation to get into the game, I had a blast with it.

Megadoomer · Jul 17, 2023

I'm making good progress through Perfect Dark, I think. I'm on the mission where you have to sneak onto Air Force One.

It has its flaws (the objectives can be vague at times, and there are no mid-mission checkpoints, so one of your AI allies dying at the very end of a mission means that you need to start from the beginning), but I'm having a good time with it, though admittedly, I'm playing on Agent mode (the game's easy difficulty).

I don't play many first person shooters (I tried Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, and an early mission in Brazil turned me off of the game; I felt like I couldn't even tell where enemies were supposed to be coming from), but I feel like the game has a good amount of weapon variety, especially with the secondary fire options. Joanna seems like a fun character so far, though it's kind of funny that the Rare voice actors made no attempt to change their accents - I get that Carrington could be from Scotland, or Joanna could be from England, but seemingly everyone in Chicago and Area 51 speaks with British accents, which is getting increasingly silly.

Unlike the other Rare ports on the Xbox 360 arcade (Banjo-Kazooie and Banjo-Tooie), I'm not going to aim for all of the achievements on this one; completing all of the missions on Perfect Agent difficulty might not be as difficult as I think, but completing every challenge (by my understanding, the enemy AI in the last few challenges outright cheats) and getting every Leaderboard Crown (which are mini-achievements like "complete Chicago: Stealth in 35 seconds", killing 8 enemies with a hidden crossbow, or beating the game under a certain total time) doesn't seem like something that I'll be able to do. I'll get a few of those, but getting all of them seems extremely frustrating and time-consuming.

Megadoomer · Jul 15, 2023

I beat Super Mario Bros. for the first time, though admittedly, it was the Switch Online version, so it was more like Super Mario Bros. mixed with the Tom Cruise movie Edge Of Tomorrow since I abused the rewind system. (The game doesn't seem to give you many lives - I only earned three throughout my playthrough - and I'm not great at old school platformers - I died about 35 times in the last two worlds, which were the only times where I kept track)

I had a lot of fun with the game, even if I had trouble with getting the timing down for the springs in the rare cases where they popped up. There were times towards the end where it really felt like Bowser was throwing his entire army at Mario, which is impressive given that this was one of the first NES games. (Plus, I liked how the castles got more and more complicated as time went on, and I had to figure out how to navigate through them)

Megadoomer · Jul 9, 2023

I'm hoping to see the new Mission Impossible movie on my birthday; it's weird to see a new movie come out on a Wednesday, but I'm not complaining.

So far, this year's been pretty good for movies; here are my thoughts on the new releases that I've seen so far, roughly in order of how much I liked them:

1. Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 3 - an amazing movie, and the best MCU movie in a while. I got a little choked up at the end, when "The Dog Days Are Over" started playing; James Gunn did an excellent job with making me feel connected to these misfits who started off as D-list Marvel characters, and I can't wait to see what he does with Superman

2. John Wick Chapter 4 - outstanding, non-stop action with insane choreography, and a great way to end this series. It made me want to look up more movies featuring Donnie Yen, because his action scenes were great in this.

3. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse - it felt very much like a "part 1", without a real conclusion (it just kind of stopped), but it was great while it lasted. Gwen got a lot more screentime/development than I was expecting, which was nice, though Peter got less than what I was expecting, which is a shame. (also, Mayday is great - if the comics are going to blatantly change characters/storylines for shameless movie synergy, I wish they'd incorporate her) A solid continuation from the original.

4. Creed 3 - well-directed by Michael B. Jordan; I was glad to see the Creed series step out from the shadow of Rocky as a franchise and give us a story that wasn't strictly tied to older Rocky movies.

5. Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny - a solid action movie that gave us a good ending for Indiana Jones as a character.

6. The Flash - it was a good movie, and I got choked up at points, but it wasn't as definitive of an ending for this era of DC's movies as it had been built up to be, and the inclusion of some post-mortem CGI cameos seemed to be in questionable taste.

7. The Super Mario Bros. Movie - it was basically what I expected; nothing too surprising beyond Chris Pratt's Mario voice being better than the trailers suggested and Peach being handled really well (I was worried she'd turn into a damsel in distress in the third act, to keep with Mario tradition). Jack Black as Bowser was a highlight.

8. Transformers: Rise of the Beasts - it was one of the better Transformers movies that I've seen, but that's not a high bar to clear. It was a solid action movie, and the human characters were likeable (which can be tough to do in a Transformers movie), but I'd put it below Bumblebee and the first live action Transformers movie. The big reveal at the end fell kind of flat, and the main highlight for me would be the final battle - I watched Beast Wars as a kid, so seeing the Maximals and Autobots team up was great, even if this movie didn't have the Predacons.

9. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania - I get that the people behind this movie didn't want the series to be a palate cleanser any more, and they wanted to be the big dramatic event movie, but I honestly would have been fine with it staying a lower-stakes palate cleanser. With Scott's convict friends, Cassie's mom, and Cassie's step-dad gone, a lot of the movie's heart felt like it was missing, and the movie constantly told us how much of a threat Kang was instead of showing us. (also, the second post-credits scene was a complete waste of time, simply telling us what had already been established a dozen times throughout the movie) The end of the movie felt like it was determined by focus groups, because it happened so abruptly, though it did give Paul Rudd a good closing monologue that book-ended the movie.

10. Shazam: Fury of the Gods - it was okay. The lack of focus on the kid actors caused it to lose a lot of the charm and heart of the original Shazam movie (Asher Angel did a great job with his limited screentime in this one), and the villains were forgettable, but it still had some funny parts, it was charming, and I'm glad I saw it in theaters.

As for upcoming movies, the Mission Impossible movies have held up really well, so I figure Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part 1 will follow suit. (though I'm guessing it will end on a cliffhanger) I'm not sure how Oppenheimer will go, but seeing Cillian Murphy in a lead role should be interesting.

I feel like I'm going to like Blue Beetle more than I liked The Flash (it probably helps that it's smaller in scale), though I feel like Aquaman And The Lost Kingdom is being sent out to die. (it has no advertising, and I'm not sure what they're going to do in terms of the story)

The Expendables 4 is coming out in September, and while I've generally enjoyed the Expendables series for what it is, I'm tempted to skip this one; it feels like a low budget direct-to-DVD sequel, between half of the cast missing (Bruce Willis is understandable, but it also doesn't have Arnold Schwarzenegger, Terry Crews, Jet Li, Wesley Snipes, or Antonio Banderas, and Sylvester Stallone seemingly has a very reduced role) and the focus on actors who have nothing to do with the premise of the franchise. (the third movie had that misplaced focus to a greater extent, and a PG-13 rating on top of that, but for the fourth movie, the only major cast members who are left are Jason Statham, Dolph Lundgren, and Randy Couture, and Randy Couture is easily one of the least-interesting people involved in these movies)

The Marvels should be good; I don't get the hate for Captain Marvel (the movie or the character), and Iman Vellani was amazing as Ms. Marvel. (she really embodies the character)

Megadoomer · Jul 9, 2023

Not sure if I should play Perfect Dark or Super Mario 64, though I'll likely give both a shot in the next day or two.

Also, I completed Lego Batman 2 100% - I was worried that finding all of the Gold Bricks would get repetitive, but it went much smoother than I expected. (funnily enough, the last achievement that I got was one for beating a mission in co-op mode - due to a lack of normal controllers, I wound up using a Guitar Hero controller for player 2)

Megadoomer · Jul 3, 2023

I beat Streets of Rage 4 yesterday; it was a fun beat-em-up, and it seems like there's a LOT of content/replayability, at least when it comes to unlockable characters. (it looks like you can unlock all of the playable characters throughout the series using their original sprites)

I think I'll try Lego Batman 2 next; not sure how long it'll be if I'm aiming for 100% completion, but I'm about 1/3 of the way through the story going by the chapters. After that, I'll try getting back into Tears of the Kingdom.

Megadoomer · Jun 25, 2023

I decided to try out the DuckTales remaster - after the tutorial level, I knew which level I was heading for first.

I enjoyed what I played of it, and it seems like a nice, relatively easy game that I can finish quickly.

EDIT: I'm already on the second-to-last level, so that was fast.

Megadoomer · Jun 20, 2023

My Xbox 360 can't play original Xbox discs, but there are downloadable versions of original Xbox games, so I figured those would work. As it turns out, the downloadable ones don't work either. (Something to do with the system's hard drive)

Still, I also picked up Lego Batman 2 and Strider, and I'm enjoying those so far. (Lego Batman 2 has the Danny Elfman Batman theme on its title screen and Clancy Brown as the voice of Lex Luthor, so I'm immediately interested)

Megadoomer · May 17, 2023

Dead By Daylight just announced its newest survivor, and I'm immediately sold.

Megadoomer · May 6, 2023

I beat Persona 4 Golden! I liked all of the additions from Persona 4, like costumes, or your inactive teammates helping out once you unlock their scooters, and I had such a great time that I completed the Persona compendium 99%, which I haven't done in the other Persona games that I've played.

(I'd gladly complete it 100%, but the final Persona seems needlessly time-consuming to unlock - it requires that you get the True Ending and play the game on New Game Plus, which is understandable, but it also requires you to be at level 91 to summon it and your level doesn't carry over into New Game Plus, meaning that I'd basically have to play a 70 hour RPG all over again just to unlock a single Persona. Since I'm playing on the Switch, it would just be for bragging rights)

Great game, but I think I'll take a break from RPGs - I have plenty in my backlog on the Switch alone (Xenoblade 2 and 3, Dragon Quest 3, an absurd amount of Final Fantasies...), but I'd rather play something like Streets of Rage 4, River City Girls 2, or Blaster Master Zero 3, where it's relatively shorter. Maybe I'll give Sonic Frontiers a shot; I know very little about that one, so it'll be interesting to go in blind.

Megadoomer · Apr 25, 2023

I've got an idea for the roster of a Netherrealm-made Marvel game, but I'm not sure which thread would work for posting it in, so I'll just post it here. (under spoiler tags, to keep this page from getting excessively long) I originally planned to have 32 characters, but looking into it, Netherrealm's starting rosters seem to hover between 24 and 28 characters, so I had to get rid of a few.

Netherrealm games often base their roster around the game's plot. (though not always, as seen with the Joker's inclusion in Injustice 2 - he only appears in the story mode once as a hallucination, and he's long dead by the events of the game, but you've gotta have the Joker) I'd rather avoid the "superhero civil war" trope, as Injustice already covered that pretty thoroughly, but there'd need to be a reason for the heroes to fight each other.

What I came up with is that Doctor Doom and Kang the Conqueror are having a war through time travel, which is shattering the space-time continuum. This leads to versions of heroes from different points in time (times that they'd rather forget) or alternate universes showing up in the main universe. (it also serves as a justification for mirror matches) Obviously, this would mean that Doctor Doom (1) and Kang the Conqueror (2) would be playable.

With Doom and Kang in here, we'd need to have the teams that are most famous for opposing them.

The Fantastic Four

-Mr. Fantastic (3) - he's Doom's arch-enemy, and he's distantly related to Kang; he kind of has to be in here. (plus, the Council of Reeds would provide a ton of different options for alternate costumes)
-The Thing (4) - the ever-lovin' blue-eyed Thing ain't about to miss a chance to smack Doom around!

While I could have included Sue and Johnny, I feel like it's going to be tough enough to fit everyone in here as it is. (maybe they'd be free DLC, or the first characters revealed for a season pass)

The Avengers

-Iron Man (5)
-Captain America (6)
-Thor (7) - all three of these are mainstays of the Avengers since the silver age, and they feel like they have to be in here
-Black Panther (8) - he makes for a nice contrast with Doom, and he has history with the Fantastic Four
-Captain Marvel (9)
-The Vision (10)
-Scarlet Witch (11) - all three are regular members of the Avengers, popular characters in their own right, and have plenty of opportunities for evil alternate versions of themselves
-Ant-Man (12) - specifically the Hank Pym version, though Scott Lang could be a premiere costume like Bizarro in Injustice. Hank's own worst enemy is himself, in more ways than one, and having him beat up his Ultimate version or a version who stayed as Yellowjacket in story mode could be cathartic
-The Wasp (13) - I feel like Ant-Man and the Wasp are severely under-used compared to the other founding Avengers. To differentiate her from Hank, she could focus on shrinking and flying, while Hank could have a moveset inspired by his Dr. Pym: Scientific Adventurer phase where he grows or shrinks various objects to use as weapons, in addition to his growth powers

I originally had She-Hulk and Hawkeye in here, mostly for the interactions (and in Hawkeye's case, having a version of him mention the Justice League in a mirror match - Netherrealm is owned by WB, to my knowledge, so I think they could get away with that), but I felt like I was overdoing it with Avengers members, so I cut them.

There are heroes who feel like they have to be in here, like the Hulk (14) or Spider-Man (15). I don't think I need to explain why they're being included - even if they don't have much in the way of ties to either villain, you'd have to be crazy to make a Marvel crossover without these two.

However, every single character that I've mentioned so far was made in the 60's; I figure it's time to get some newer characters in this. Ultimate Spider-Man (16) (Miles Morales) and Ms. Marvel (17) (Kamala Khan) are easily Marvel's biggest success stories of the 2000s; I'm sure some people might find issues with there being two Spider-Men, but they've been differentiated enough in other games, with Peter being more tech-focused and Miles having his stealth and venom blast.

Marvel's got at least one other major earthbound super-team that should be included in here - ~~the Great Lakes Avengers~~ the X-Men!

-Wolverine (18) - it would be more shocking if he wasn't in here.
-Storm (19) - aside from being one of the more popular X-Men, I could see there being fun with alternate timelines where she never met Professor X or she let the fact that she was worshipped as a goddess go to her head
-Rogue (20) - she's connected to Captain Marvel and a character that I'll mention later, and she was previously evil, so an easy alternate timeline is one where she stayed that way. Plus, I could see her having a unique action (like what Injustice characters have) where she pulls off her glove, grabs someone, and if it connects, her unique action is replaced with one of the opponent's powers/skills
-Magik (21) - I think her powers (summoning demons, the Soulsword, the Stepping Discs) would work well for a fighting game, and it would be pretty easy to make an evil alternate version of her
-Cable (22) - the heroes need a time traveler of their own to take the fight to Kang and/or Doom; I debated between him and Dr. Strange, but I figured I'd keep the focus on the Fantastic Four, Avengers, and X-Men.
-Deadpool (23) - he seems like some much-needed comedic relief, especially with She-Hulk and Hawkeye cut
-Magneto (24) - he'd be firmly on the side of the X-Men, though some of his time-displaced versions could be from the points in time where he was villainous. (if possible, I'd love for there to be a "Welcome to die!" reference in a mirror match)

While he doesn't seem to be affiliated with any of the other characters (though he was on the West Coast Avengers once), I'd like to include Moon Knight (25) in here - with this game involving time travel, it could be neat to have various versions of Moon Knight in different time periods, since the role is inherited. (there was an issue where Kang fought different incarnations of Moon Knight throughout history, and both Kang and Moon Knight are tied to ancient Egypt)

The roster needs more villains than just Doom and Kang. We've got a Fantastic Four villain and an Avengers villain, so I feel like it's time to include some X-Men villains.

Apocalypse (26) has a versatile power-set, and he could serve as a rival for Kang in ancient Egypt, along with a threat in his own right. (and he's got a long, confusing history with Cable) Plus, he'd have some great dialogue.

I think that Mystique (27) would work well as a villainous wildcard, with it never being clear who's side she's on. Plus, she's a shapeshifter, so there could be some fun with that, and she's got ties to Captain Marvel (seeing as she's Carol's former arch-enemy) and Rogue (since she's Rogue's adoptive mother).

I'd like to include a Spider-Man villain, since outside of Venom, Marvel vs. Capcom doesn't really use them. Doctor Octopus seems like a natural inclusion, though the concept of someone who can grapple you from across the screen seems like a balancing nightmare. I'll go with Green Goblin (28), who seems like he'd have a lot to work with between his pumpkin bombs, glider, and the fact that he's basically a super soldier.

While I could stop things here, there's one more character that I'd want to include, since most of his "family" is in the roster - Ultron (29). Aside from being one of the main Avengers villains, and having ties to Ant-Man, the Wasp, Scarlet Witch, and the Vision, a version of him could be reprogrammed by Kang or Doom to serve as a recurring villain along with Doombots and Kang's similar robotic duplicates.

There are SO many other characters that I wanted to include - aside from She-Hulk and Hawkeye, there's Taskmaster, Namor, Cyclops, Phoenix, Doctor Strange, Squirrel Girl, America Chavez, Shuma-Gorath... I could be here all day, but thirty already felt like it was too much for a base roster for the first game in a series.

Megadoomer

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