The amount of differences between this version of the game and the later NES upgrade is just too large to get deep into. This game isn't bad, but the way shooting upwards works here is too different from the NES - there it was instantaneous, but here, your shot doesn't go in a diagonal immediately, it kinda has a... leadup? It's hard to explain. The jumping is also weird, and the hitbox while jumping is wacky. Stuff that you think will hit you doesn't, and viceversa. It was challenging, but beatable on one credit.

Also did anyone else notice that the PC version is missing the voices from the attract screen? The subtitles are still there.

13th game cleared in 2024 (Contra: Anniversary Collection.) Time to clear: About 2 hours. A single achievement for clearing it. Oliver North sightings: None.

Even though the game has some great music (most of it), decent visuals, and being able to create your own Sonic OC is fun... the actual gameplay feels lacking, movement and jumping in the 2D sidescrolling areas is very imprecise, the homing attack doesn't work all the time, you're -forced- to slow down in several places to wait until a danger passes, and the story. Oh my god.

The story boils down to THE POWER OF FRIENDSHIP WITH MY NEW BEST FRIEND ORIGINAL THE CHARACTER CAN DEFEAT ALL. And the story beats themselves aren't bad, it's just how everyone treats your Mary or Gary Stu character like they're the best character evurrrr. It gets very grating.

Infinite (the bad guy for most of the game) got dealt a bad card. And the game's story makes no sense UNLESS you read the prequel comic. And even that's a bit lacking.

But anyway. The thing that made this game a definite "Not recommended" was the forced grinding to get the achievements. You have to get 10K / 50K / 100K rings, kill 5K / 10K enemies... and get a character from every race to max level. For reference, I beat the game with 4000 rings or so total, my character didn't reach max level, and I didn't even have 2000 enemies beaten. And that was after almost 8 hours. I beat the game (and the extremely short Episode Shadow DLC) and that's enough for me to shelve it. And while it is possible to grind the rings and XP easily with daily mission bonuses, it's just not fun enough to do.

14th game cleared in 2024. Time to clear: 7 hours or so (again). 25/48 Achievements obtained. Hot slash fiction between Foxhack the Notafox and Infinite? I'll get back to you on that.

Very fun game, my only complaints are the lack of an indicator in the map (which was added just after I bought the game, so it could've been worse), the relatively short length and content, and being completely lost for most of the game.

The game is also incredibly easy to break progression in, by design. It's not a bad thing, but I spent too much time getting to places I wasn't supposed to way sooner than intended.

12th game cleared in 2024. Time to clear: 7 hours or so. No achievevements. Chairs sat on: All of them.

I downloaded this game to clear my head after Shantae and Just Cause 3 and accidentally finished it in two and a half hours. The extra half hour was just achievement cleanup. Whoops.

The game is fun, well designed, but the humor is a bit hit and miss and memey at times, and yet it's not that bad that it causes pain. The game's short enough that the humor doesn't overstay its welcome.

I wish I hadn't figured out the trip button is basically a dodge roll until the very end of the game. You need that technique to survive the final boss and the extra content.

11th game cleared in 2024. Time to clear: 3 hours. 37/37 achievements obtained. Crimes committed: Uncountable.

The game is... okay. Even if Risky Boots basically lost all her character development to go full evil again.

The main reason why I'm rating this 3.5 out of 5 is the fact you have to complete the game over 20 times to get all achievements. That's insane and an extreme way to add padding to a game that will likely bore you to death before you even clear the game a second time.

10th game cleared in 2024. Time to clear: About seven hours? 16/46 achievements obtained. Hips that lie? Yes.

I really wanted to like this game more than I did.

It's not a bad game, it's very arcadey and doesn't take itself seriously, but the story was kinda predictable and the main campaign ending was a complete letdown. I also accidentally beat two of the expansion storylines before beating the main game so uh, oops.

While I got all the collectibles in the map (going around picking stuff up is relaxing, the world map is very pretty) I decided to not go and do all the races and such. The driving physics aren't the best, and I was just getting tired of hitting a rock and flying off in whatever direction the game randomly chose. So, I only finished the story parts. I don't think I'll return to this game anytime soon.

9th game cleared in 2024. Time to clear: Way too long. 53/66 achievements obtained. Faceplants after getting shot out of the sky: Too many.

I originally bought, and beat, this game back in 2012, obtaining all the achievements except challenge DLC ones, thinking they would be too tough. So I started playing this a few days ago, went through the first few stages again to remember how to play this... and took on the challenge levels.

Two of them were extremely easy, but I had to resort to video guides for the other two because I had forgotten how some mechanics worked (and one of the challenges involved grabbing an item that was not visible.)

It's a shame this game was lost to bankruptcy. It was something really special, the music was great, and while simple, it was still challenging enough to be entertaining. I keep hoping this will be brought back, especially since the game ended on a cliffhanger of sorts... but that probably won't happen.

6th game cleared in 2024. Time to clear: 17.6 Hours across 13 years according to Steam. 18/18 achievements obtained (challenge achievements completed this week.) Laser-powered weight loss sessions: Too many.

I really liked Glass Masquerade 1 + 2, so I bought 3 during the previous Steam Holiday Sale. This game isn't... quite as good as the previous ones. They added a newer, honeycomb / hex shaped puzzle shaped mode, which is okay, but they also added a mode where you can only use a small amount of pieces, until you clear them out, then you get more of them to add. I didn't like this very much, it both made the game easier and harder by forcing you to figure out where these pieces go before letting you do anything else.

Also, the pieces now have a very noticeable shine to them which can sometimes obscure the smaller details needed to figure out where they're supposed to go.

The final puzzle artwork is still pretty good, but I think they cheaped out on the music this time around.

5th game cleared in 2024. Time to clear: 5 Hours according to Steam. 7/7 achievements obtained (all puzzles cleared, most with 4 medals out of 5.)