What are you currently playing? 4.0

[Foggle]

Eh, the Abominations never bothered me too much. They aren't really fun to fight, but they don't pop up very often.

I think F.E.A.R. 2 has one of the all time best cutscenes in video game history. I am referring to the Assassins' introduction after you meet Snake Fist.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

So, I just started playing Contra: Hard Corps for the first time ever (yeah, I know, I'm having some strange ADD with gaming right now and can't stick to one solid game like I usually do). Incidentally I now think it has the best opening stage in any game ever created. I ended up dying about 10 times on it before I beat it but they were all awesome deaths and it was the most bad-ass stage I've ever played in a game. The fact that you get to choose which stage to go onto next is even more awesome.

[Daxdiv]

I'm playing Katawa Shoujo. Finished up Act 1 and if what one of my friends on twitter is to be believed, I'm pursuing Emi, a disabled girl that has prosthetic legs but is the captain of the track team. Not sure how I ended up with that route, but I might as well stay for the ride since this game is actually pretty good so far.

[gunswordfist]

So, I just started playing Contra: Hard Corps for the first time ever (yeah, I know, I'm having some strange ADD with gaming right now and can't stick to one solid game like I usually do). Incidentally I now think it has the best opening stage in any game ever created. I ended up dying about 10 times on it before I beat it but they were all awesome deaths and it was the most bad-ass stage I've ever played in a game. The fact that you get to choose which stage to go onto next is even more awesome.

Best shoot em up ever made. It's my 2nd favorite 2D game. It took me and my brother like amonth to get past the first street and like a year to beat the game when we were 11/12 (!!!) Unfairly hard but it's so so addictive.

[Foggle]

I'm playing Katawa Shoujo. Finished up Act 1 and if what one of my friends on twitter is to be believed, I'm pursuing Emi, a disabled girl that has prosthetic legs but is the captain of the track team. Not sure how I ended up with that route, but I might as well stay for the ride since this game is actually pretty good so far.

Eh, what I've seen of that game didn't really impress me. Then again, I'm biased because I hate visual novels (especially the kind that KS is) and would much rather read a traditional book for a lot of reasons. Kenji is awesome, though.

[Spark Of Spirit]

So, in addition to playing Revenge of Shinobi, I also decided to try out another Sega Genesis classic that I missed out on in my childhood, Rocket Knight Adventures. All I can say right now his holy crap! I had heard this game being hyped up from some people before and expected it to be a decent platformer, but this is way better than I even thought it would be. The platforming involving the use of the rocket can be really creative, and in addition to that the game is also a really fun and unique sort of hybrid between a classic 2D beat-em-up and shoot-em-up (and I say that because the character's main attack is swinging his sword but that also automatically acts as a short-ranged projectile in and of itself). There's definitely no other game like it that I have ever played. I know that there is is a RKA game for the SNES as well. Is that game any good, because I might give that a shot after this one. I also might look into the XBLA game when I get a chance.

Anyways, I've been playing more of Rocket Knight Adventures and it continues to impress. Its so good that it may honestly rival S3&K as my favorite Sega game when I'm done with it, and right now I'm only playing the game on Easy mode, so I'll definitely be playing it at least one more time through to see how challenging it can get on Hard mode. Honestly, with gameplay this good I don't see why this series never took off in popularity like other popular platformers did. Its freaking brilliant.

I wasn't blowing smoke when I listed this game in my platformer thread. It really is one of the best games ever made, and easily Konami's best platformer. How this game was not a success on the level of Sonic or Mario at the time just floors me. The sequels, unfortunately, aren't quite as good as the original game. They're really good games, don't get me wrong, but none of them are quite the same as the perfection of the original game.

In Rocket Knight Adventures, every level is epic and dynamic, different, and tons of fun to play through. Few games outside the Mario or Sonic games managed that at the time. The only thing the sequels have over the original is that it doesn't have this theme in the first stage like the others do.

As for Contra Hard Corps, it really is fantastic but it has one deep flaw. The game was not made for one hit kills, the original had a life bar, so the game's difficulty is not as fine tuned as the other games in the series. Oddly enough, the Japanese version is easier due to the life bar, but the game is still hard.

[gunswordfist]

Last night I finally got whatshername on Earth Bound. Apparently this series loves having you wait forever to get a party member. Anyway, I went to the bear cave and leveled her up to like level 13 just from trying to get through it. We got our asses kicked and for once I didn't just reset it after a loss because she leveled up so much and I had a lot of money left over anyway. Will go back to that cave again and then back to town to see what something Scott Pilgrim referenced is about.

Just got my ass kicked in Streets Of Rage Remake again. I did get farther though. Finally beat that damn ship level with Adam and didn't at the machinery stage.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

As for Hard Corps, yeah, its one of the hardest games that I've played in a while. I still can't get past the 2nd stage, just yet, but its a testament to how much fun it is that I'm willing to put up with the OHKs in order to try and progress, because the gameplay is just so much damn fun. I have to admit, though, I don't think that I would be able to beat this game unless I could save between stages. Well, eventually I could get good enough at it, probably, but that's certainly not happening anytime soon. That said this is one of those games in which I actually don't get frustrated when I die, probably because its so common that I'm already used to it.

As for RKA, I managed to get up to stage 5 last night. The game is really creative and so far I haven't experienced a single dull moment in it. It really is on the level of Mario and Sonic. Its just a shame that its sequels weren't as good because if they were this series may have taken off like those other series, and it really deserved that level of success. I almost feel bad that I missed out on this game when I was a kid. This easily would have been one of my favorites.

[gunswordfist]

I've also never heard of it when I was kid. Weird enough, same goes for Castlevania SOTN....also, all pre-Hard Corps Contra. Jeez, Konami didn't get enough love from me.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I got up to stage 6 today before getting the game over screen, so I'll probably be able to complete the game in just 1 or 2 more goes since everything more or less becomes easy once I know what I'm supposed to do.

I really think that this will easily crack its way into my top 25 games list, and that's not to say that I haven't played a lot of games and just any game can make it into my list (although recently enough both RE4 and S3&K both easily cracked my list), but I was really blown away by how extremely well-executed this game is. To be honest for being the first game of its own series, it easily blows away the first Mario, Sonic, and Donkey Kong games, as classic as those are, which is saying a lot. Of course I hear that none of its sequels even come close to its level of quality despite being good games in their own rights, but that really doesn't surprise me given how perfectly this game was put together.

[gunswordfist]

Yeah, they game is one of the best first entries out there.

Also, it's ironic that you are playing two games from the same guy (Contra Hard Corps, RKA)

[Rosalinas Spare Wand]

WarioWare DIY is fun as fuck. Should've bought this game so much sooner, these mini-games hit the sweet spot of difficulty for me.

I wanna make a mini game where you're Bateman and you attempt to get doubles, but I'm too lazy to even do that.

[Foggle]

I wanna make a mini game where you're Bateman and you attempt to get doubles, but I'm too lazy to even do that.

Oh god. With KoG and Cirno boss battles?

[gunswordfist]

Yesterday, I just got Jeff on Earth Bound. Still walking towards wherever the hell he's supposed to go.

[Kiddington]

Pokemon Ruby

Trying something different this time; I plan on importing a bunch of Gold/Silver era Pokemon from my recently completed Fire Red file, and building a 2nd Gen. team (stuff like Ampharos, Houndoom, etc. etc.), rather than just sticking with Hoenn exclusives. I figure this would be a good way to spice up an otherwise not-so-exciting game; Generation 3 is definitely the weakest of the bunch that I've played (the remakes are great, but the Hoenn games are kinda boring), but this should make things a little more interesting, if nothing else.