What games have you been playing recently?

[fireball3k]

The first Mega Man is an outlier in terms of difficulty, in my opinion. The later games are easier, 5 in particular, but not tremendously so.

For instance, there's a bug in the first game where, if you're standing on a moving platform, the game keeps incrementing your gravity value as if you're falling. This is why you'll drop like a brick if you miss a jump in Guts Man's stage and the moving platforms dump you off of them.

[VinnyVideo]

MM2 is the only Mega Man I've played for any significant amount of time. It's easier than the first one, though I would probably not be very good at it on the original hardware!

Course clear! You got a card.

[littlelum]

The only Mega Man game I've played with the intention of playing it through was Mega Man X. I got it as a gift from my mom's coworker a few years ago. I gave up in the final gauntlet of levels, though.

The GameBoy games are available to me via Switch Online, so I may play those. Eventually.

[fireball3k]

@littlelum If you give the Game Boy games a play, it might be worth skipping the Game Boy version of Mega Man II. It's... well, it's a step down in quality from the other games and a big step down from 2 on NES. 3, 4, and 5 on GB are so good that they make up for it. Mega Man X1 is a great starting point, though.

Also, game I've been playing recently: X-Men vs. Street Fighter via the Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection on my Switch and Xbox Marijuana Series X. If I had a PS4 or PS5, I'd get it there, too. I love Marvel vs. Capcom. As of today, the longest I've been able to keep infinite combos with Akuma going is 21 hits against the wall. Also, the Raging Demon only costs 1 bar of meter in this game and works really well for setting up those infinites I'm talking about.

[MarioSyndicate]

Played 2 digimon fan games I played last year (But now on a steam deck):

https://gamejolt.com/games/digimonworlddestruction/473535/
https://dragonrod342.itch.io/digital-tamers-2

[DJ Coco]

Playing Spark the Electric Jester 3 on my Switch, and goddamn, what a good Sonic game

[littlelum]

I haven't really been playing FE7 very much lately. No reason in particular, I just don't really feel like playing it. This type of thing has happened to me with similar games, such as Awakening and Final Fantasy Tactics.

Anyways, I've also played the new Rhythm Heaven. It's fun. I think I may be losing interest in the series, unfortunately. Just don't really have the motivation to get all Superbs.

I have this problem with games where once I feel like I've beaten the "main" part, I tend to lose interest. Although I tend to lose interest in almost everything once I feel like I somewhat understand it.

Anyways, I hope I can find a game that I can get really into again soon.

[fireball3k]

I've been playing Guitar Hero II because I felt like getting the Xbox 360 set up again. That game's 20 years old and Jordan still kicks my ass. Thank God for Practice Mode.

[DogToon64]

Started playin' Planet Coaster for the first time in a few years. It's pretty much like RollerCoaster Tycoon (which, funnily enough, Planet Coaster's developers, Frontier Developments, developed RollerCoaster Tycoon 3), there are some differences and you're not limited to an isometric view, but it's basically a lot like it. I saw a stream VOD of Cybershell playin' RollerCoaster Tycoon 2 a little while back, and I learned some tips from his stream and found out some of that logic can work for Planet Coaster too. Huh, neat! I'm also gettin' closer to gettin' the platinum trophy in the game, I just have several more scenarios to beat (one of the PlayStation trophies requires ya to get all of the stars, which means ya have to complete all of the scenarios). I do plan on checkin' out Planet Coaster 2 at some point (especially since it's included with my PlayStation Plus subscription).

And speakin' of games I played for the first time in a while, I played Among Us (for the first time in several years) with a few family members. Had to learn some of the "language" in the game, what some things meant, and relearn some things I forgot since I hadn't played it since 2020 or 2021.

I also recently started playin' the firrst BoxBoy! game for the 3DS. I've been really enjoyin' it so far! And I think I might've found another series I might get into! ^v^
(I might get BoxBoy! + BoxGirl! on the Switch after I beat and enjoy the first three games.)

Oh yeah, and other games I've played include Garry's Mod, Minecraft, and Princess Peach: Showtime!.

If you can't handle the heat.
You can't handle the Neutron Style.

[Vert]

I beat Splatoon Raiders, and I have a lot of thoughts about it. Game of the Year? For me, I genuinely think the answer is yes (so far). I loved the series up until Splatoon 3, which was meant to be themed around chaos, but the loadouts, specials and maps felt so restrained in comparison to 1 and even 2 to some extents that I didn't have much fun online. Mahi-Mahi, one of my favorite Splatoon 1 maps, was turned from a fun and unique map to a Tetris block. I heard map design got better as time went on, but the launch period soured me heavily on the game, with so many of my matches ending in stalemates because of boring, symmetrical maps that don't allow for flanking, so you're just stuck splatting each other in the center until one team eventually manages to push forward.

The single player campaign was somewhat of a retread of Octo Expansion but still fun, and I've never been very big on Salmon Run, so overall I'd give it a solid 6.5/10; it was fun sometimes but I dropped it faster than 2. I didn't even buy Side Order because I'm not that a huge Roguelite fan and I heard it was lacking, neither having much content nor that many possibilities for unique builds. Yawn.

Raiders is basically a mix of your standard Splatoon SP campaign, mixed with some Octo Expansion, Side Order and Salmon Run. Ironically, Raiders feels very chaotic in comparison to 3; the power of the Switch 2 isn't used so much to show off the much better visuals (although the 4k and slightly improved ink and hair physics are nice additions) but to show off just how much s*** it can handle. I didn't actually measure frames or anything, but I'm very good at spotting framerate dips and I didn't notice a single one; considering just how insane late-game levels can get, I found that genuinely impressive. I have to give due credit to the interface team; after TOTK and MK World had such dreadful interfaces, Raiders shows someone at Nintendo still understands how to design a convenient interface. I never felt like things got too chaotic till the point I couldn't tell what was going on anymore, and a big part of that was because of the great interface.

And you'll spend a lot of time in menus, tweaking your weapons, powers, gadgets and so on. In comparison to Side Order, there's a ton of customization and possibilities to tweak your build to do some absolutely crazy s***. I typically prefer my games to gate me based on skill rather than gear, but I can't deny this is one of the best ways to handle it. Harder levels aren't just hard cause your gear sucks (though you absolutely need to keep tinkering with it if you want to stand a chance), but because you really have to concentrate and pick off the right targets before engaging with the rest of the group, lest you get yourself absolutely wrecked by a Inkstrike or Maws you didn't see coming.

So yeah, really liked it. Got a few gripes, like how it should've been easier to restart levels or how the visuals are a bit too desaturated at times, but they're relatively minor. Good ass game, got 40 hours out of it and for fifty bucks that's pretty damn good.

I make games with my friend DJ Coco sometimes. Check them out here: https://cliax-games.com/
Or check out my blog: https://vertette.github.io/

[DJ Coco]

Splatoon 3 was also the disappointment of the year to me personally, so it's good to hear Raiders kicks ass at least.
I will have to pick it up eventually, though right now I'm still busy with plenty of other games.