So the initial plan before Twitter actually started cutting off its functions was that I would make a media thread on Twitter, look at it all at the end of the year, and write hindsight reactions to what I tweeted out. One major problem stopped this: my ADHD compelled me to stop updating the NeoCities page in favor of hacking my 3DS.
Since Twitter is now rate-limiting all of its users, I've scrapped the initial plan and now I will only provide a hindsight commentary for tweets up to Final Fantasy XVI, since that would be the last thing I added to the media thread.
Let's begin.
That was a fun little platform and find the collectibles game, at least until the collectibles were hidden by charge chalnenges challenges and graphics. I hope the Activision buyout deal is blocked and Kotick's career ends in botched crypto schemes. END TWEET
How is there a typo on the first tweet?
I think I started playing Spyro 1 because I saw that it was super-cheap on PlayStation and wanted to see if I was more compelled to finish this game than I was compelled to endure Crash Bandicoot: I was and it turns out that Insomniac is the better Sony Developer to Naughty Dog.
I watched the previous movies (Sinners and Winners, My Lucky Stars) last year.
I'm disappointed at the lack of crime origins, but I appreciate the return of Curly and the "just do the finale" treatment of Kidstuff. END TWEET
This was a Jackie Chan-prompted marathon brought on by Keets, who was aware enough of Jackie Chan's lack of appearances in this film to not hype him up. My favorite one out of the trilogy was the middle one, My Lucky Stars, for several reasons ranging from the set pieces to the Arle costume they had "Jackie Chan" hide in.
Yeah, this is a good show. I do think that the episodes could end and begin in better places, it feels like they end when you have to get up from a movie to do a chore only to come back and see that there was only 10 minutes left. END TWEET
The episodes feel better-paced, and it was a fun ride until the real dungeon boss shows up from nowhere. END TWEET
On one hand I really enjoyed the fighting and slow improvement in the main cast,
On hand I would have liked the training/recovery arcs to exist so that the flashbacks to the butterfly mansion didn't feel so out-of-nowhere. END TWEET
I'll just write about the whole series here since I chose to just binge the series while dog-sitting and learning how I could mess up Jiffy Pop on my sister's stove.
It's been a good. long while since I've looked at a new shounen anime like Demon Slayer and it's been a fun ride if it also lacks some mini-arcs that I would apprecieate from a shounen series like it. I would compare it to Kingdom Hearts, where the one thing I would ask for is side quests to get distracted on.
Multiple years and a friend falling into the Hades hole because of the sequel trailer later.
Also there's apparently more I have to do before the game is actually finished.
I need to pick this up on PS5 so I can look at the art in higher resolution. END TWEET
I did eventually pick up the PS5 version only to discover that the PlayStation and Xbox versions of Hades do not support cloud saves through Steam or Epic Games. Relegating my PS5 save to being a Hard Mode run, Hades is a really nice action rogue-like. I am decently excited for the sequel and the only other thing I have to say is that I wish that the combat didn't assume that I would want to dash once at a time rather than dash repeatedly.
The game had a good start and it's really fun to hide and throw a bunch of balls to catch six pokemon at once, but the battles are very rough and the ending just melted at "THESE SPECIFIC THINGS NEED TO HAPPEN NOW REGARDLESS OF HOW IT EXECUTES!" END TWEET
I love doing running around and catching pokemon in this game, but I really hate doing the battles. It feels like they just took out all of my favorite Pokemon battling tricks to try and even the playing field for new players, but now I'm just trading blows and staring at the turn order in impatient confusion.
You know what, you all are stupid, fixed camera angles with tank controls are great. The only hitch is that my brain breaks when Samonosuke is facing west.
Also Capcom is cowards for not working on the HDs of 2 and 3. END TWEET
I will live and die by the funtions of Tank Controls in close quarters. Puppet Combo cannot be the only guy that gets this, we need to bring back tank controls in more than just PS1 styled tribute games, they aren't outdated they just fill a niche no one has been brave enough to try since the PS2.
I really enjoyed it and they nailed the first fully 3D Kirby, the things that hold it back are that the trickling reveals of the Waddle Dee challenges can be annoying and while the Waddle Dee town is nice, I'd still like the stylish Kirby menu. END TWEET
What I think past me meant by that last note is the Sakurai-style start menu screen where everything is lightly scattered all around the screen.
I was not expecting that level of "not okay after the 70s" with Adrian. END TWEET
This is the epecific reasons I associate success with sports cars and leather. END TWEET
This is how Sam Raimi makes movies and I love it. END TWEET
So this was all from one long movie night with my friend Keets, who would go on to hassle me over the mid score I gave Rocky II, so I didn't really have a good chance to process all of this.
Rocky 1 was a fun little character study between Rocky Balboa, the boxing bum, and Apollo Creed, the big-name career boxer looking for a quick spectacle. That's the most of what I absorbed without diving deep into the society of 1970s Philedelphia.
Rocky II kind of slid over my brain as the book that sports movies go by, in much of the same way that a lot of young people cannot appreciate Seinfeld for being the genesis of the modern TV sitcom.
The Quick and the Dead may have gotten me into a brief and eclectic western kick. To put it simply I went from this fantastical, but still fatal and revenge-fueled Western story to Cormack McCarthy's Blood Meridian. It was a real ride.
I really just went into a theater to watch two episodes I've alreadyseen and a single episode of the upcoming season.
Okay END TWEET
I payed like $17 to see this...
I was aware of the genres and ar of Rocky I and II, but I was not ready for Rocky to confront fear and mortality.
Also I love the alleged reaction of Mr. T's mom to his role in this movie. END TWEET
Rocky III is where I really start loving these movies and witnessing the emotional growth of Rocky racing the back-to-back losses of his loved ones and the weight of his career made manifest. Also that beach scene is amazing.
We have transitioned from Rocky the Man to Rocky the Super Man.
Also, my Blu Ray of Rocky IV still had Sico, Paulie's Birthday Robot so that's a big plus.
Did you know that you can just rent Sico? Its design has tragically changed, but Sico is a real robot. END TWEET
Sico, the robot present in Paulie's birthday, is in fact a real robot; and you can rent him on his International Robotics webpage if you also think that this is funny.
Stallone is a criminal for trying to erase this historic, plot-critical character from Rocky IV.
So I have purchased this game 4 times in various forms, and I've only just now beat it on the SNES Mini.
Fun game up until Ganon's tower introduces you to the cruelty of the invisible walkway and my twitchy thumbs. END TWEET
And it only took me eight deaths!
It was also really funny to be talking to this with some people on Discord and them not realizing until I reiterate that this is my first time committing to beating this game. No speedrunning, no sequence-breaking, no glitches, just me giving A Link to the Past an honest play-through.
I was going to joke about the true nature of Willows, but then I realized that Cotton was goblinizing as the game progressed.
Great character, it took me all 3 continues to realize how to dodge the final boss's last phase. END TWEET
The joke was going to be about opioids, but as I said,
she's a goblin.
I regret to also say that the other Cotton game I've been playing, Panorama Cotton, is way too intense for me to beat.
I forgot that Yakuza 6 was like that. END TWEET
Keets has been a Yakuza fan since it was on the North American PS2, he did not have a good time telling me about Yakuza 6.
A dog survives the movie and French Ben Shapiro gets it, so it's a 10 regardless. END TWEET
I hope that dog gets a spinoff.
Ray Tracers is a pre-Dual Shock arcade driving game.
Attached with the cover art is a video summary of gameplay and the ending I got.
I was not prepared and playing the Japanese version didn't help. END TWEET
Due to size constraints from using NeoCities's free service, I cannot reupload the video from Twitter without kneecapping my storage, so I pray that this YouTube Embed of the Longplay of Ray Tracers, starting at the playthrough of Brody. Please understand that the version I initially played, the US version, did not have the radio chatter, and there is no fan translation, so I have no context for Brody's ending.
Still don't feel like I can program as a job, but I'm also not looking at C++ slack-jawed. Writing everything in a notebook helps. END TWEET
So since completing this course, I have forgotten the keywords of Python, Mimo has updated their course so I am no longer at 100%, and I have lost the notebook. It is somewhere, but I got so tired of having three dailies on my phone at a time that I just let all of those lapse.
This is all of the best parts of Torna and the two good parts of Future Connected.
Spoilers in Al Bhed:
Kuddy muja ed frah oui payd dra vehym pucc yht dra pacd lrynyldanc zicd Sehalnyvd Aqed Kysa, zicd mega Yinuh. END TWEET
I forgot that I started writing spoilers in Al Bhed around this time.
Future Redeemed is worth playing with the previous Xenoblade games and DLCs as background. I also played this severely overleveled while deliberately trying to break the game, which is how I recommend approaching all Xenoblade games.
There are clear seams from cuts and edits, but it stayed a pretty fun kids movie to point at and go "Yo, that's a photo of Glass Joe!"
Also the Nintendo Film splash had the wrong color mario sprites and it is taking everything I got to stay normal. END TWEET
I forgot that they used the red, blue, and pale Mario sprite in the logo splash and I was feeling normal and this tweet is bringing the Film Robert back into me.
Whatever, I saw Disk-Kun and I'm happy to see the Famicom Disk System.
Majora's Mask is my favorite Zelda game, and Project Restoration fixed a lot of my problems with the 3D version while keeping its inoffensive changes.
Finished just in time for TOTK's launch. END TWEET
I really did beat that the day before Tears of the Kingdom came out.
The Project Restoration patch, found here, is a patch meant to be applied with the LayeredFS feature in the Luma Custom Firmware on 3DS and apparently the Citra 3DS launcher, you still need to furnish your own copy of Majora's Mask 3D, which I used my physical copy of. The changes it keeps is moving Shiro to the middle of the Gerudo Hideout, where he then realizes that he can't swim his way out, rebuilding the Twinmold fight so you have to shoot the first phase with your arrows (and you can punch phase 2 to death), and lightly moving a few other things. I recommend it if you want something like a Majora's Mask but slightly different playthrough.
Yeah, that game is the only game in 2023 actually worth $70.
A single point deducted for the lack of aim assist/acceleration on motion aiming, as well as the slow start.
I want a version of this on stonger hardware. END TWEET
Okay, two things:
First off motion controls are really easy to make wrong. At the time of tweeting this I was on a Fortnite binge to get the stuff I wanted from the Mega Season, so I was very familliar with the tweaking to acceleration and input buffering needed to really make it work just for pointing a gun. Tears of the Kingdom seemingly lacked this and it bothered me when I was trying to build an army of death robots to wipe out the monsters at Fort Hateno.
Second: the game really chugs when you build something more complicated than a bunch of propellers and a go kart. I hope the Switch 2 is as good as a flagship phone.
Immaculate Belt-Action Beat-Em-Up film. END TWEET
If your film can be adapted into an arcade belt-action beat-em-up with very little missing, it's fits in the Belt-Action genre.
Miles once again lying and only telling the truth when the train is in the river.
It feels like an anime compilation movie. Elaboration in Al Bhed.
Ruf ec drana kuehk du pa y fruma udran vems frah dra haqd naycuhypma yldeuh ec veht Semac END TWEET
Not mentioned in that tweet was when I talked to Keets about a very specific bit of damage the movie kept attacking: in the PS4/PS5 game Spider-Man: Miles Morales one of the lines in the middle is "Why did you lie to me Miles?" and when I told him that he nearly crumpled. Also he keeps asking me how they did Victorian Paper Vulture like I have some kind of insight (very little) so I guess I know how well the animators did.
This is indeed one of the games you would buy and play forty times between Blockbuster rentals because Fortnite could not exist in the 2000s.
Also I got the Friendzone Oyu ending, after a friend kept hyping up Kotaro being a flat-earther. END TWEET
Not pictured are the weeks between playing, the hour or so of PS2 troubleshooting, and Memory Card exchanges to try and get the save bonueses, whatever they may have been. Also I forgot to share my results in the original tweet so:
I should give this game another playthrough, but things are remaining hectic this year.
Apparently necessary pre-watching before playing Onimusha 3.
Why do I know enough films now to assemble the genre "Autistic Career Crime Character Studies"? This isn't a complaint, but it is weird to notice. END TWEET
After that comment, someone on Twitter asked for an elaboration on what I meant by "Autistic Crime Character Studies" and I realized the only other films I could think to mention were Drive and Baby Driver.
Did you know that in 1954, Don King shot a man in the back for attempting to rob one of his gambling houses? That was legally justified, what wasn't was the man King stomped to death in 1966: he only got 4 years and a pardon.
Anyways Rocky V is a good movie. END TWEET
I have no elaboration on that besides linking to Don King's page on the Crime Museum website, while also stumbling across an article from Talk Sport describing how this was during his criminal career in Cleveland before becoming the promoter that would eventually screw sports careers for all-around paydays and I need to get out of the Don King hole. I guess it was also cool that Tommy Morrison was a good fit for the movie, which I think is rare for athletes in movies.
Peak END TWEET
Peak.
I played this game on someone else's stream. Nintendo honestly believed that almost 100 people would sit in a room and play this instead of 100 strangers on the internet. This should have never come out.
Like 60% of this game required features that my phone did not have.
Please refer to the linked clip.
You know what: I appreciate that the analog stick is there with camera-relative movement, I still prefer tank controls.
>The rest of the gameplay asks for way too much precision from my aging reflexes, but I still saw at least one of each technique. END TWEET
Some additional comments of what I can recall from my experience in Onimusha 3:
Overall I had a really fun time fighting through the underworlds and Capcom is still cowards for not rereleasing these games or even soft-annoucing Onimusha remakes in the RE Engine.
It's really fun to watch Robert De Niro play Mentor around a sprout, a returning player, a casual, and a handful of former EVE Online players.
Also the nearest boathouse to Hereford is unpainted brown brickwork. END TWEET
The naming of this movie feels superficial to the actual Irish Crimes Plot, but whatever it's a really fun organized crime/CIA Intervention film. Glad that Keets pulled this up as required Jean Reno Viewing.
I pressed the D-Pad and the character didn't move,
already incorrect,
and then I fought down a hallway and saw that it was just Dynasty Warriors.
I then turned off the PS2 and went to replay Onimusha 2. END TWEET
I'm sure that Onimusha Dawn of Dreams is a good game, I just started up that game expecting to play and Onimusha game instead of a Dynasty Warriors with some Onimusha mechanics.
Played this with a friend where, after being stuck in Mission 8 for several hours, we cheated up the ninja armor and revival leaf.
The actual stealth gameplay is decently satisfying and the combat is shockingly close to Bloodborne in mobility. END TWEET
Hey, you know what mades tank controls really fun: when you can use that stealth stance to dodge around, or even just backflip over some enemies. The only real trouble I've had is in fighting the Tengus in stage 8, where they come in with a lot of agression and a lot of cliff behind you. I kind of want to go back and try following some Grand Master guides, just to see how those are supposed to go.
I basically redid a kinda sloppy mission just because they gave me a Novice rank for being spotted while taking out some archers.
This has been a year of tank controls for me, and I am currently in a dangerous position where I really want to play Bubsy 3D.
I had a whole lot of fun with it, but I was really missing strafe motions and quick turns when I was in those maze levels. END TWEET
I kept dreading World 2-2 because of the low-ceiling maze level and I was so excited to reach World 4-2's maze where all of the enemies could be shot from standing height.
Also it is really funny to me how the game Ghouls and Ghosted me with "CAN YOU BEAT THE GAME WITH HALF THE TIME TO FIND THE JET PODS" and I only hit the 30 second warning once, on Extra 4-1.
I've been having more problems with bumping into the bottoms of platforms in this game than in the first, but it was a fun little continuation into a pretty hard game. I needed three tries on Extra 6-3 boss before I learned how it wanted me to attack it. END TWEET
This was actually a harder and more interesting game than Jumping Flash 1, considering how the worlds have expanded from dioramas to borderline tech demos. The one complaint I do have after so many months is that World 6-1 is really hard to play without a map, everything is floating and too far from the PS1's render distance to easily navigate, so I had to mad-dash through the level to find all of the Muu-Muus.
This is Kamen Rider Concentrated so hard that it can only exist for 15 minutes. END TWEET
So for years I always thought that Kamen Rider G was like a "get everyone together for a funny show" self-parody, but it turns out that Kamen Rider G is like those dried bouillon cubes where you only need one for a full pot of soup.
Running the patcher like this was a headache until I realized that it included LayeredFS-Patchable files.
Great game, ailments were unreliable except Puff-Puff and Morrie's skills are overpowered END TWEET
So this is going to be a bit of a long ramble about my experience playing Dragon Quest VIII:
WAIT THE END POINT OF A SHONEN MANGA LOOKS LIKE IT'S ACTUALLY CLOSE AND IT'S ONE HELL OF A RIDE END TWEET
Yeah, when I saw Oda's letter about how the end was in sight, I wasn't expecting...
You know what? Remaining message in Al Bhed.
Ugyo cu frah dra Fyhu ynl ahtat yht drao najaymat dryd Bmiduh fyc eh dra amajydat ulayh ynuiht dra ecmyht, E yccisat dryd fyc dra mycd uv fryd E fuimt rayn ypuid dra Mucd Lahdino ihdem drao belgat ib uh dra ajahdc uv dra Najanea. E fyc drah ypcumidamo yspicrat po yh Ycdnu Puo-acxia myto lmyesehk du pa Tnjakybihg, bihldiydeuh yjuetat vun dra lebran, yht drah drana yna ceq udran Jakybihgc fedr Jakybihg Bnesa aqbmyehehk dryd ra ghuf dra bnuvaccun eh Uryny, yht drah E caa dryd yvdan gethybbehk Oung ec lusbmada fa'na kuehk du Ampyv, yht E ryja hajan paah cu yhkno du maynh dryd Gaadc ec uhmo fydlrehk dra yhesa.
Anyways, I'm glad that the Viz digital manga subscription is dirt-cheap.
Played through this whole game to test a controller and two things:
1) what was that plane level
2) Watching my friend going all nostalgic on the cameos was really funny. END TWEET
God, this was all the way back in September, I'm updating this on November 2nd and I guess I got too caught up on an October marathon to keep up with this thread.
Anyways, the Spider-Man PS1 games are certainly a PS1-era mood where they clearly wanted to do an old-fashioned action game with a bunch of hidden inputs that sell hint books, strategy guides, and magazine subscriptions. Keets and I managed to find the most important attack inputs through an archived game manual, and we still needed a full minute on that damned plane level.
People are insane, the costumes being this bulky and goofy are fantastic.
Also love how they just rapidly tap the finisher commands to make the them stronger. I thought it was just a Gou thing, but then I saw Tomari start doing it. END TWEET
The first Kamen Rider series I finished in a while, the last series I finished was Ex-Aid and since then I kind of fell off due to one of those hobby shifts. The only thing I really want to say about Drive is that I'm shocked at the overall lack of recap episodes in Build, or maybe the episodes I watched omitted the recap episode?
You know it would be nice if all Bethesda-likes in the future would include perks that just let me have godlike mobility and break most encounters over my knee.
Also glad I bought my launch edition copy last year for around $15 (pictured). END TWEET
So my final build in the game included a double-jump, mid-air and aim bullet-time, a Sandevistan, Rebecca's shotgun, Mantis Blades, and maxed out agility. I'm just picturing Adam Smasher trying and failing to kill a vaguely latina woman in a motorcycle helmet doing CS slides and bhopping while at Sandevistan speeds and the Arasaka executive watching the security feed quietly swearing off hard drugs.
Overall, I really enjoyed my time with this game, but there were still significant bugs like the infamous cops driving burned-out cars and occasionally bodies either getting back up to perform idle animations or retracting their entire bodies into their necks until they look like the heads they put in the Shapes in Texhnolyze.
This is the definitive version of DQ1, it's the only one with an opening cutscene.
Also, my insistence on bringing the princess with me to fight the DracoLord means that when I die, I get a revenge EXP farm from the Guard Dragon. END TWEET
Petty arguments against the SNES version of DQ1 aside, let me describe how I play DQ1:
Tank Controls continue to be superior, even without quick-turns and strafing. This game aged pretty well outside of the giant snake fight: darn thing bites much faster than I expect and blocks too much of the arena at once. END TWEET
This was my first time actually beating RE1, mostly because I never had the chance to find a version that didn't have the alleged deaf clownfarts OST. I tried my hand at writing a bigger RE1 guide, but I wanted to try beating the RE Trilogy on October and instead could only finish 1 and 2. My thoughts in summary were that replaying the game to get a perfect state at the storeroom typewriter was fun, I really want to do a Chris run now, and RE4 has inadvertantly prepared me for the master bullet conservation strategy of "shoot them into the ground and stab."
Also Albert Wesker being in that researcher photo was the funniest thing I've seen as someone who's only played all the way through 2Make, 3Make, 4, 5, and 7 at that point.
WOO, BEAT THIS GAME BEFORE HALLOWEEN!
The Zapping System features the funniest tricks against the player for pressing buttons without thinking and trying to out-think the system.
I did not fire the sub machine gun once after saving it for Claire B. END TWEET
Well I can't do the Chris Run now, I need to do Claire A/Leon B, then The 4th Survivor. I can feel the enormous sequel jump from RE1 to RE2 in this one: from the zombies being much less predictable to take down, do the greater enemy variety, to what feels like the introduction of what I think is Hideki Kamiya's favorite menu style of the menus having modern day browser tabs.
Also as someone that played RE2Make before RE2 Classic, the PS1 version is much better than what the remake did. Aside from the existing content boost of the PS1 original just doing more with the A/B routes, the PS1 graphics and style just does so much more to the gator kill and Birkin's transformations.
Also the breakup backstory and the things that Leon puts up with from Ada and antagonistic Annette Birkin is important to Leon's character.
Lost Judgment is a pretty fun game, the side quests, overworld, combat design, and cutscene quirks all fight me so much that a friend interviened to make me finish it.
Also it's really funny that I just juggled the final boss to death. END TWEET
The Yakuza/RGG/Judgment style of Open World does something to my brain that just stops me from progressing in the game, I have to do nothing but fights, nothing but Club Sega, or nothing but story, and so much keeps coming up at once.
Quick thanks to Keets for kind of pushing me through Lost Judgment.
Discovered this game from a Game Sack video: a tank-controlled shooter with Dual Shock rumble support (no sticks).
I like it a lot, but the boss and enemy design is either braindead or pushing your skill and understanding of tank controls, no in-between. END TWEET
I need you all to understand: this game rules and I'm specifically giving it a 7 because the bosses keep sporratically changing between too stupid to fight or the toughest fight of your life. Aside from that it has immaculate Treasure vibes and a really funny character unlock system where you have to learn the other 3 characters' names once per character.
My favorite character is the first one you can unlock: Steyr Harquebus, a girl with a minigun and psychic super attacks.
So this is where Beast Style wound up, except they turned it into some kind of janky Royal Guard style.
Also Kaito having an illegitimate son is kinda funny.
Also what was the point fighting that final boss right then? END TWEET
Keets kept having my play this DLC and, the DLC just being a main storyline, it went by pretty fast. The one thing I have to note is that YongYea's character being comically pathetic and his fight having no stakes is not a good sign, not like I intend to play Man Who Erased His Name or Infinite Wealth dubbed anyways.
ARMORED CORE IS ACTUALLY BACK AND I'M DEEP IN THE MECHA HOLE AGAIN
Yeah this game got really hard at times, no shame it playing it patched because I do not want to the unnerfed bosses move.
Now I want an expansion with more content. END TWEET
When I wrote that I was still trying to S-Rank all of the missions (currently on hold).
This is the brand new Armored Core I never thought I would get after Verdict Day, there are distinct missions on distinct maps, the online element is entirely optional, you can use Shoulder weapons, your AC moves close enough between a 3rd Gen AC and NEXT that I can dig it, and there are multiple routes like Last Raven and For Answer. My only issue is that they keep lobotomizing the bosses with each patch when, no, the bosses are supposed to be filters, let them stay unhinged. Also the Ibis MTs have a terrible habit of doing Dark Souls-level target seeking, which annoys me as someone that likes to play light-weight ACs.
My original joke was that I was going to copy-paste the first media thread tweet, but then I had thoughts,
there's something noticibe about how Spyro feels in-game. He's much looser and it's harder to react.
Maybe that's just the 30 FPS gamefeel. END TWEET
I played this for a joke that hit me over watching a Christmas Firepit smolder, and it was a fun, quick playthrough. The game really does feel a lot looser compared to the remake in the Reignited Trilogy: I could put that blame on the framerate between the PS1 and the PS5, but even with my stubborn D-Pad-Only faith it just felt loose and really difficult to get precise movements down. Maybe Toys for Bob did some necessary tuning for the modern video game feel.
God I hate Bobby Kotick, I hope the next I see of him is pulled out of Lake Mead by a Tik Tok Magnet Fisher (alive, I think that would be funny).