Sunday, 29 December 2019

2019 Review


It's almost new year, reader! And it's perfect time for 2019 review article. But don't expect something very spectacular for this special article. It only consists 12 MVPs (Most valuable pictures) and top/most-viewed 12 articles like last year edition because i'm lazy git. 

I) MVP (Most Valuable Pictures)

This game is all about killing penguins with mostly gruesome yet comical method. Not all penguins are evil and deserve to die but good penguins (which are hatless) are very few that you can almost ignore their existence. The game makes me like to kill penguins. It can't be helped. Either you kill all (evil) penguins or the world is doomed, you choice. Anyway, i'm not the only one who like to murder penguin. There's this standing dragon-crocodile that like to bite a whole penguin and shred it to pieces. He doesn't move from where he stands so he simply stretches his neck to prey on any penguin that happens to walk in front of him. He's initially sleeps (while standing, of course) and you can "gently" wake him by using my pan. But he doesn't have grudge on me and start to do his job on those penguins as if i just wake him up from slacking off and he feels grateful for that. He's my best reptilian friend besides flying lizardman in Magic Sword

 
Imagine if some subdued criminal big boss keep saying "Stupid!" repeatedly like some child that doesn't accept that he's lost to some sport match. Hilarious, isn't? ;D

This intermission screen is simply gorgeous yet informing that the dragon named Saphira, destroyed siege engines in the middle of a castle. Also i like the detail of men being blasted along with their machine proofing that the siege engines are manned. But in the game, there's no one beside them much like siege engine in Warcraft 2 or 3.   
What you always do in JRPGS besides talking with NPC? Checking every chest, right? Brom here doesn't let you do that. Yes, it's very rare occasion that a NPC doesn't let you take their belonging on their chest although it's very reasonable in real life. But Brom later become party member and i'm quite sure he now permit me to take whatever inside of his chest here. I hope.

Ghost Pilots is rather generic vertical shmup made by SNK. But you can see a grim reaper on title screen or maybe he's Death from Castlevania that somehow got lost here. Poor bastard.  
I really envy to those kids who can ride on young triceratops even it only happens in the movie. Therefore this picture is simply the best in the movie.
Or maybe this moment where a giant Mosasaurus eat a shark like a dolphin eat fish at aquarium only much much bigger in size of the eater, of course. With such huge size, you expect it to be star of this movie beside T-Rex and you're right! It will devour the main antagonist later on.

In Codepurple's entry, the jury heavy's head turns into President Vladimir Putin's after he ate the bad sandwich (it's made from various ingredient including bear's *ehm* sperms). It's simply remarkable reaction.

After dealing with her abyssal/demonic self, Destroyer Fubuki takes a breath-taking sunrise watching with Carrier Akagi and Carrier Kaga. The scenery is very beautiful, don't you think? 

10 & 11. Area 51 (PS2)
I played Area 51 farther and i found BGG. Not BFG from Classic Doom, mind you! It's BGG that probably stands for "Boom Glow Gun". It fires 3 orbs per shoot like semi-automatic burst of real Sub machinegun  or assault rifle. They will bounce on walls and floor. If they hit an enemy, they will latch into him and later explode for further damage. It takes exact 3 orbs to kill an Illuminati soldier. This gun is definitely for more tactical method than frontal ones. If you press "aim down the sight" button, it will emit laser pointer that let you know where the orbs will go and/or deflect but in activating said laser will drain the ammo periodically. No reload is necessary instead you have to let the gun "idle" to recharge its ammo. That means you don't need to pick any ammo to fill this gun but you can't holster it to let it recharge by itself, leaving you vulnerable while concentrating on charging it. 50 is the maximum ammo of this alien gun.
 The moon landing is made up all along! Those crazed conspiracy theorists are correct! At the behest of Illuminati, they create moon landing scene at the heart of Area 51. There's looping record of dialogue between Neil Armstrong and Houston. Hilarity ensues when Neil forgot his line which ruining the atmosphere really bad.

Hilarity also happens here where a robot with roller skates, carries a giant bomb and tries to hit me with it. The robot is step up from that suicide bomber from Gunforce but easy to dispatch. I was thinking about putting the gif of the dynamic entrance but we're too good for that, right?  
II) The Top 12 Articles
Dimahoo is arcade shmup that features dragons, fortress turtle, and RPG items including champion beef. People love cartoon meat from the best cow, afterall. 

One of the goal of writing in this blog is: to let anyone know about obscured gems or at least less known and Kuon is one them. Anything FromSofware release that isn't Soulsborne, Metal Wolf Chaos or Tenchu, tend to be not famous. RIght? Even though i'm proud what i did here, i admit that i don't have fun on playing this Survival Horror Game. What did you expect from me who's the reincarnation of Joseph Frost (the lamest S.T.A.R.S. member), anyway?
Here's another example of obscured gems that need more acknowledgment because  XQuest is really damn good. Your ship moves fast yet slippery and there's lots of thing here that will lethal to touch such as enemy's bullets, mines, and walls. The game not only demands you to move carefully but also fast. Finishing a stage (by collecting all blue gems and passing the exit gate) within short time, will nets you bonus score that's essential for extra life. This well-designed game is made by one man: Atomjack. I salute you, sir!  

This isn't unsurprising as the game starring 8-bit version of James Rolfe or better known as Angry Video Game Nerd, the famous youtuber. The game consists of 8 stages with 2 kind of game type: 1) Platformer in which Nerd throws bottles at enemies and jumps around 2) Horizontal shooter in which Nerd wears a jetpack and shoulder-mounted bottle launcher. The bottle is Rolling Rock beer bottle, of course. Even though it's quite well designed, i feel that the game has so little replayability value. But still worth to give it a shot, mind you. Wait! Did i just say shot as in drinking liquor? Nevermind.

This is also reasonable. As we know that this Jurassic Park Movie is home to the quite famous "Prattkeeping" meme although the story premise is not far from Dinosaurs go wild and kill people, which is dull and not satisfying. Also Dr. Hammond is nowhere to be seen there. Spy_jeers02.wav 

Well, this game is unlike other Medal of Honor that is First Person Shooter. Although it's top-down shooter, it's still fun to play as i tend to love the genre. Besides it's pretty well designed too. You can strafe, use mounted machine gun, drive a tank, and select arsenal that fits to your liking. Besides top-down shooter mode, there's also crosshair shooter mode to mix things up.    

Inindo is about an Iga ninja that seeks revenge on the infamous Nobunaga Oda. But before he confront the demonic warlord, the ninja must kills Giant Rats and leveling up. Because it's JRPG, y'know? The first dungeon feels short but from 3rd dungeon and beyond are long making the game quite tedious.
 
The 2nd part of the review surpass the 1st ones on viewer count by not significant margin but i'm fine with that. Even with horror effect (including jumpscare) here and there, the game is actually pretty easy what's with relatively easy enemies and strong magic weapons at your disposal like summoning these demonic hands a la Jedah Dohma from Vampire Savior. As i watched someone else playing this game to completion, i know that there's no real threatening enemy in this game unlike Nemesis or Lickers in Resident Evil. Even the bosses are not as dangerous as the famous S.T.A.R.S hunter. I feel ashamed that i give up too early but i don't see the reason to play the game again now that i know the premise of the game. Sorry.

 
Airwolf marks the first horizontal shooter that i review. Even it's made in 1987, it really stands out among its peer by having this dodge maneuver that makes the helicopter invincible for awhile. The popularity of this review also thanks to the fame of movie series that the game based on. Maybe.   

Speaking of late 80's arcade game, Wrestle War also one of top 12 review on reader count. I'm very happy and proud of this fact because that mean i save lots of people from mangling their own hand. If they heed my warning about how hand-wrecking the game is, that is.   

 
This is quite expected as Resident Evil 3 is very famous and everyone has played it. Well, except me. That's why they're curious how sucks i do at this game. Because i'm bad at making conclusion as usual, not many people read the 2nd part of this review. It's not even in the top list here, like not at all. But strangely, this the one where i don't fight Nemesis more than once. Nonetheless many people love to read this article. 
   
This is quite surprising because this game is based on movie that's kind of box office bomb. But the game itself is fantastic. It's arcade-y combat flight simulator kind of like Ace Combat but you control a dragon instead of modern aircraft. The dragon can breaths fire or picks rock and later drops it like a bomb. She (yes, it's she) can also eats sheep to restore her health. There's also energy (or mana if you like to call it) that you can use for speed boost (or nitro boost if you will) and various spell casting. Besides casting magic, the dragonrider can shoot variety of arrow. There's also sub-mission besides main mission, to get equipment for multiplayer game. This game simply remarkable and you should try this. Medic_laughhappy02.wav   

The 2nd place goes to Tales of Phantasia! Is it because the first "Tales of..." game (it's the remake of the same game in SNES)? All i know is: it's the only "Tales of..." RPG that released in GBA. Instead of using screenshot that i took before, i use the quite recent ones where we're in full party! Turns out, the key to defeat Dhaos is magic. Not clergy magic that Mint posses that allow her to heal and cast de-buff on enemies. No! We need elemental magic that deal damage. Therefore we recruited Claus the summoner and Arche the witch. Claus is the one with cone hat can summon elemental deity to deal huge damage in large area with massive TP cost so he's basically heavy mage. His weapon is book including "Adult" magazine but it's weak and rather useless. Arche flies with her broom and attack enemy with it like someone ride the Chicken Legs in Golden Axe but -you know- flying. She's definitely another magic user with light to heavy magic. That all sounds great but there's one problem: our party still only have 1 tank and that is Cress the swordsman! I hope there's favorable change on our party in the future.    

What a shock! The 1st place of top article this year belong to Fighting Stage Edition #3! It also the most read Fighting Stage review of all time. Will there be another edition that can surpass the reader count of this one in the future? Who know. This article marks the return of Fighting Stage review after ±2 years hiatus and i'm not sure the reason behind the long absence. I blame my ignorance or laziness for that. I can gather the material for this kind of article in short time but picking for the appropriate pictures can be finicky but i can promise that i will make another edition with less than 2 year absence. Anyway, the reason behind the popularity of this edition most likely because i pick some screenshot from the famous and the pioneer of fighting game made by Capcom. It's none other than: Street Fighter 2. Anyone who expected screenshot from SF 2, will likely disappointed as i decide to use screenshot of Asura Blade instead. Because i reckon both the game and that dead dork behind the tall rock, need more recognition. He truly deserves it, really.

As per usual, i thank to you, dear reader. I hope you enjoy my writings so far. Special thanks to:

  • Bbcpersian7.com for the clipart of Indonesian flag that i keep using in 17th August articles.
  • Those who are my inspiration to write this kind of non-sense articles: VGJunk (that no longer active writing) and Ray Hardgrit.
  • Twitch streamers that i followed. They provide me with more gaming insight in some occasion while entertaining me.

To quote Soldier's cheer from Team Fortress 2: Everyone of you deserve a medal!
Also i wish you good luck on year 2020!

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