I just beat __

SparksMarioWiki said:
I guess Dino Piranha is too much? Don't worry, I struggled too when I was younger. I'm super awesome at the game now!
Click to expand...
My first time getting to Dino Piranha on Wii, I had NO CLUE what to do with Lil' Eggie running around the planet.

Also, if it counts, some tough SMM2 stages.
 
Just beat Pokémon White and oh my Goddddd I love this game so darn much. Being limited to only the newly introduced Pokémon during the main story is great, and it sucks that it was poorly received back in the day because I love it. Makes the game feel so fresh and different from the other games. I also love the story, N is probably my favorite character in all of Pokémon, and Cheren & Bianca are cool too (I think this game has the best rivals). Additionally I like how the gym leaders are actual characters, and not just bosses that you fight one time and then never see again. They actually do stuff outside of their gyms and help you during the story, and that's just awesome. The presentation is slick, I love how fast the battles are, and the animated Pokémon sprites are great. Just an all around fantastic game

I kinda want to check out the sequels, but tbh I'm not as into them as other people are. When I first played White 2 all those years back, I loved every second of it, I put like 300 hours into my save file. But every time I've tried revisiting it I always get bored and drop the game. Still to this day I've only ever completed the game once, back in 2013. Idk why that is, since it doesn't really have any issues aside from maybe being too similar to the first game, but I mean it's a sequel that takes place in the same region so what can you do.

There's a cool feature in B2W2 called memory link, where you can connect your B1W1 save file to the sequel, and it unlocks a bunch of bonus content. More boss fights, more story stuff, and you even get to catch N's Pokémon. I've never tried it before but next time I play Black 2 I'll give it a go.

For now though, I'm gonna work on White's post game.
 
Well I don't know if this counts, but I just beat "Five Nights At Pinkie's" gamemode in Garry's Mod. I'm a brony; it's a brony mod. But yeah I beat it, and nights four five and six were just torture LOL.
 
Larry Cheatsy Koopa said:
Well I don't know if this counts, but I just beat "Five Nights At Pinkie's" gamemode in Garry's Mod. I'm a brony; it's a brony mod. But yeah I beat it, and nights four five and six were just torture LOL.
Click to expand...
It technically counts. It's a game within a game, so I say that's valid!
 
Paper Mario: The Origami King. The Thousand-Year Door may be a better all-rounder, but I actually do like Origami King a lot.
 
I just beat Pokemon Dream Radar. If you've never heard of it, it was an AR game you could download from the 3DS eShop for $3. Think Face Raiders but Pokemon. By playing it you could catch several Pokemon and send them to Black 2 and White 2, and they'd all have their hidden abilities and would be caught in Dream Balls. Some of these Pokemon weren't available in the gen 5 games so it's great to be able to obtain them here. Technically it's an "endless" game, but you see the credits after catching Landorus, which I swear I did back in the day but I guess not.

The reason I was playing it was because I'm currently going through Black 2 and I realized I could get a God damn Spiritomb through this. In case you don't know, Spiritomb is one of those Pokemon that's hardly ever obtainable in the games, and even when it is, it's super tedious to get. So I'm really happy to have one in Black 2! (I actually have 3 lol it's super easy to farm these)
 
Jurassic Park III: Dino Defender (2001, PC) (second time)

So I posted about this game about 3 and a half years ago, when I was 17 I finally returned to this game for the first time since childhood and beat it. (Link to that post: https://www.marioboards.com/threads/14380/post-2236173)

Well, today, I felt like another nostalgia blast and I beat the game for a second time. I still remembered how to do most of the game so it wasn't too hard, and the last level was actually much easier than I remember. The hardest part was easily the fifth level (there are six levels in the game), as you have to have quick reactions and do a very specific set of moves to evade the dinosaurs. This time I beat it considerably faster, I think it took me only about 2 hours to beat it today as opposed to about 3 hours last time.

This is also the very first time I've played the game on Linux, thanks to Lutris and Wine-GE (I wasn't a Linux user at the time of my last playthrough.) Unfortunately the videos were a bit glitchy/flickery on Linux, which makes them a bit annoying to watch but you can still see and hear what's going on, and everything else worked perfectly.

My thoughts on this game are basically the same as they were when I was 17. It's extremely nostalgic, being one of the very first video games I played on my PC when I was probably about 4-5 (though I don't think it was my very first game, that would be LEGO Chess, which unlike this game I sadly no longer own.) But other than that, it doesn't really hold up well. It's extremely short, the movement and controls are quite stiff and clunky, the graphics haven't aged all that well (although I guess they kind of have a 2000s charm), and the later levels especially are basically just having to do a very specific sequence of movements in order to avoid dying. Also the swimming was super underutilized, it's only used briefly in the tutorial level and first level.

I think being awarded with the Dino Cards and a special message for beating the game is a really charming reward, but idk if trying to print them out would even work. I might have to get out a Windows laptop and beat the game on there and even then I'm not sure it would work because of how ancient this game is. It might be a nice trophy to have them on my wall after all these years.

JP3:DD might be the single most extreme example of a game that I absolutely adore for nostalgia reasons, but which I'd otherwise consider a bad game. Though the music is pretty good too so there's that. If and when I lose the ability to play this game I will genuinely be very sad because it's an iconic part of my childhood. Until then I can see myself revisiting this game every few years for that nostalgia blast.

(edit: also save files actually worked this time for some reason even though they didn't looking back at my previous post, so I didn't need to beat the whole thing in one sitting but I did anyway)
 
Lego Indiana Jones 2: The Adventure Continues - 100% complete

I feel so awesome about this. This is the very first time in my life I've 100%ed a game that is NOT a Mario game, and the seventh game overall in my life I've 100%ed (or eighth if we are counting originals and remakes separately) - the previous ones being Super Mario 64, Super Mario Galaxy 1 and 2, Super Mario 3D Land, Super Paper Mario, and Paper Mario The Thousand-Year Door (both versions). This is also the first game I've 100%ed that has a literal % completion tracker in-game.

Lego Indiana Jones 2, despite what others might say of it, has always been an extremely nostalgic childhood favourite of mine, and my favourite of the LEGO game series. I first played it when I was around 7 or 8 and it's always been a favourite since.

It's format is very unique and cool with having 6 hub worlds (3 for the original 3 adventures and 3 for different parts of Kingdom of the Crystal Skull), which each have 5 "story" levels (which follow a pattern of mini-boss level, puzzle level, fight level, and vehicle chase level in some order, and finally a final boss level), 5 "treasure" levels which take place in the same locations as the story levels and are unlocked after they're completed and require specific characters to solve puzzles, 5 "bonus" levels which are in hidden locations in the hub world and finally 1 "super bonus" level where you must collect 1 million studs. Additionally, there are unlockable characters and vehicles in hub worlds, and hidden special bricks which can unlock special features.

While I played Indiana Jones 2 a lot as a child and completed all of the levels for the first time when I was about 13, I never fully found all of the characters, vehicles, and special bricks until today nor did I get "True Adventurer" in all levels hence not achieving 100% until now.

However, if there's one feature that really makes Indiana Jones 2 stand out as a nostalgic childhood love and my favourite LEGO game, that would be the level builder. In those days I didn't have Minecraft or Mario Maker, so this game was my outlet for creativity, building so many bizzare, wonderful, and silly levels that my young mind could conjure. I think it's a really unique take on level building to have several in-game characters you control who place things down, and it makes level building feel more "personal". Plus, it's funny how some of the builders are just random Indiana Jones characters. Finally, the music in Lego Indiana Jones 2 is excellent, and the Level Builder theme is my absolute favourite (it originates from "Nocturnal Activities" from the Temple of Doom film).

It was definitely super satisfying to roll the credits one last time and hear the epic Indiana Jones theme, then to finally see my score as 100.0%

indy2credits100.gif


I will definitely revisit Lego Indiana Jones 2 from time to time, mainly for the level builder, however I don't think I'd complete it to 100% again, and I think this is the only Lego game I'm interested in going for 100% since there aren't any others I'm quite as fond or nostalgic for, though I definitely still play other Lego games.

  • Achieve 100.0% on your save file - verified in-game by file select, rolling credits, or checking all boxes individually to confirm the game says "100.0%".
    • Complete all 96 levels; for each of the 6 worlds that is 5 story levels, 5 treasure, 5 bonus, and 1 super bonus
    • Achieve "True Adventurer" (collect at least a certain amount of studs in every level, this amount varies between levels) in all 90 levels that aren't super bonus levels.
    • Unlock all characters and vehicles in all hub worlds
    • Unlock all secret bricks (10 red, 10 green, and 10 blue) in each hub world and buy all the special features they unlock.
    • Complete all 4 level builder tutorials
    • Purchase all unlockable items in the level creator interface
 
Super Mario RPG (2023 Nintendo Switch remake) (main story and all post-game content completed)

I came back to this game recently after a long hiatus (interestingly the last time I played was apparently on 27/2/2003, my 21st birthday, so crikey that is a long time haha) and today finished all the post-game content after having beaten the final boss last week.

Goodness Culex 3D was extremely hard, I took many tries to beat him, and my successful attempt used a lot of turns, and I really don't feel like trying again to attempt to lower that since it was so challenging to beat him in the first place, even with max level party and plenty of great accessories including the Lazy Shells. I also found a lot of other postgame bosses very hard, such as Booster rematch, though others were really easy for me like the Bundt rematch.

What a great game full of lots of funny dialogue, unique locations, original characters, diverse enemies and bosses, and great music. This remake is a vast improvement over the 1996 SNES original, and fixes nearly all issues I had had with the original, which were mostly to do with its dated gameplay. I found the battle system much more enjoyable than the original, enjoyed the updated soundtrack with the option of listening to the original versions of songs, and enjoyed the modern graphics coupled with the remake's faithfulness to the unique quirky art style of the original.

My complaints with this remake are very few and far between, I would list:
  • They removed the Bruce Lee reference
  • The post-game content is a little bit too much of a difficulty spike compared to the final boss and other end-game bosses
  • Only half of the credits music and parade sequence is modernised even if you don't have the original music setting turned on, meaning we were deprived of an official modern remix of the credits track in full, and also deprived of an official Luigi model

Overall, Super Mario RPG remake is an excellent Mario RPG experience, and I would give the game a 9/10 and a strong recommend to any Mario fans who own a Nintendo Switch. I found the adventure much more fun to play through than I ever did the original.
 
Paper Mario: The Origami King (main story completed for the first time)

Just came back and finished this game, like with Super Mario RPG previously, I was returning from a long hiatus having started this game I believe last summer or maybe even before.

Overall, I'd say this game was an 8/10 from me. It definitely wasn't the "return to form" that I remember the rumours hyped it up to be before its announcement 5 years ago, it definitely aligns itself with the "modern" identity of the series and has few similarities or references to the series pre-Sticker Star; however it is BY FAR the best out of the modern trilogy and in its own right was a very good game, if with some major flaws. In my opinion it really picked up as it went along; the last two chapters were the most fun by far. I don't think I'll ever go for 100% but I watched the 100% ending online and it's nothing much but it's heartwarming. I was already somewhat spoiled on some aspects of the game, including the final boss and ending, as I watched Fawfulthegreat64 playing this game on live stream 5 years ago, but it was still fun to experience.

Pros:
  • Original story with an original villain and some original characters, which is a lot better than SS/CS but still not on the level of the original triology.
    • My favourite original characters Olivia, Bobby, Professor Toad, and Olly.
    • It was also really fun to have Bowser Jr, Kamek, and Bowser as partners in the later stages of the game.
    • Bobby's death was a particularly special moment and one that's unrivalled by even the first three games, since although they have some references to death such as Bobbery losing Scarlette to illness, those are only mentioned rather than seen and happen before the events of the story to characters we don't meet. But Bobby is a friend that Mario and Olivia get to know and joins them on their adventure, and then sacrifices himself onscreen and doesn't come back. I found this moment very moving and hope to see more of this in future Mario RPGs.
    • The ending was really moving as well, I liked how Olly's speech reflects how annoyingly same-y the Toads in the modern games are, and I found Olly's redemption at his end compelling, and it was a very well written plot point that Olivia actually used Olly's 1000 crane technique, which he had planned to use for evil, to save everyone by undoing Olly's creations, but sacrificing herself in the process since she too is one of Olly's creations.
  • Excellent soundtrack
  • Good graphics
  • Fun puzzles
  • Fun mini-games; In particular enjoyed the game show in Chapter 5.
  • Interesting new locations. I particularly liked
    The Origami Castle
  • Excellent funny and witty writing.
  • Exploration is good in this game; I'm glad they got rid of the world map
  • Reasonable length and difficulty level
  • Luigi has a bit more of a role again compared to the previous two games.
Cons:
  • Poor battle system - this is by far my biggest issue with the game. This is my least favourite battle system among all the Mario RPGs (including SPM's real time combat). The entire battle system revolves (pun intended) around different spins (pun intended) on a puzzle where you have to slide and rotate to line enemies up before attacking them. While novel, it quickly grows repetitive, boring, and quite frankly I'm not good at it and find it frustrating, in part as I am unfairly disadvantaged in these puzzles due to my disability. Meanwhile:
    • There is no progression system and hence no real motivation to actually engage in non-compulsory fights, a flaw shared with Sticker Star
    • There are no permanent hammer/boot upgrades like in the first two games; hammer/boot upgrades are temporary items which only increase the damage you do rather than give you new moves, except Hurlhammer which I never really used
    • There are no FP, Badges, Stylish Moves, Special Moves, Superguarding, Stage Hazards, or random Audience interactions
    • Partners do take part in battle, but they are purely RNG and you can't control them nor do they protect Mario by taking attacks for him, and they are only temporary during certain parts of the game.
    • Literally every Action Command is "press A at the right time"
    • Items (fire flowers, ice flowers, POW blocks, and tails) do exist but I never really found a reason to use them
    • There are no status effects, at least for the most part, besides a few boss fights where you can freeze the boss, and maybe a few other things I'm forgetting.
  • Boss fights are a little bit better since they involve a bit more thinking and strategy but they still ultimately revolve around each boss having a gimmick, which feels unfair at first but when you figure out the gimmick it becomes easy as pie (even the penultimate and final bosses are easy once you figure out their gimmicks.)
  • Though Origami King has some original characters, it is still evidently affected by character restrictions - for example, we don't see variations on Toads, Goombas or Koopas akin to Zess T., Professor Frankly, or Kooper. I wish there were more original species too.
  • I didn't like how the main chapter bosses are literal items of stationary, and in my opinion there was wasted potential for
    e.g. a mysterious shadow boss for Chapter 5, an ancient and evil undead monster sealed away in the underground temple in Chapter 3, etc.
  • The final chapter is too short.
  • I didn't like the white outlines
  • Text scrolling: you can't scroll text boxes backwards, and can't instantly complete a text box unless you've seen it before. This is a flaw shared with the other "modern" Paper Mario games and the TTYD remake.
  • I didn't really like the confetti system, it felt mostly pointless and is clearly just a cheap copy of Colour Splash's paint hammer
 
Last edited:
Mario & Luigi: Brothership (2024)

FINALLY beat this game. Golly that was quite an adventure. I overall had a ton of fun with this game, and I think this is EASILY the best Mario RPG, not counting the remakes, that we've had since Dream Team (2013) and it gives me hope for the future of the Mario RPGs. I don't think I enjoyed this quite as much as the first four games, and idk maybe part of that is just nostalgia, and part is simply that I enjoyed those games' stories, characters, music, gameplay, etc. more overall which isn't any fault of Brothership. I will certainly replay this game one day, but not for a long time since it's very long and I have a lot of other games I want to play through rn.

Pros:
+ A beautiful revival for the fantastic Mario and Luigi series which is a great sign for the series' future.
+ Good story with plenty of original characters, including original villains, and an original setting of the land of Concordia
Reclusa in particular is an absolutely brilliant secret/twist villain and final boss, in fact I might even say he's my second favourite original villain in the series after Fawful. In my opinion the story got really good close to the end, with the reveal that Zokett was actually Cozette and Reclusa was the true villain (this plot twist I was sadly spoiled on), Reclusa being unleashed, the whole fake Mushroom Kingdom sequence that really reminds me of like Coraline where there's an illusion world where your dreams come true that's actually a trap - that felt beautifully eerie, and the moral on the power of bonds vs solitude.
+ Good soundtrack
+ Good gameplay - I especially liked the battle plug system which is imo the game's best innovation gameplay-wise.
+ Good balancing/difficulty level.
+ I enjoyed the organized side quest system
+ Plenty of good bosses
+ Lots of interesting islands and islets to explore
+ Good graphics - I enjoyed the artstyle which seems faithful to how Dream Team's giant battles looked, so it's good they based the artstyle off the series' roots.
+ Some nice references to the previous M&L games, such as a few returning enemies, a few reefs, and one of the side quests alluding to how Bowser addressed Starlow as "Chippy" in BIS.

Neutral/mixed points:
? I have mixed feelings about Luigi being essentially controlled by AI and automatically following Mario and doing tasks automatically with the L button. On the one hand, it is simpler and easier in a way, but on the other hand it makes Luigi feel secondary to Mario which I'm not a fan of, and I enjoyed how the previous games controlled the brothers together.

Cons:
- Too long / pacing issues: I find it hard to complain since this is the first non-remake M&L we've had in 9 years but I do have to say this game is really long, and some parts did feel like a drag. It took me about 50 hours to beat this game, which is longer than almost any other game I've ever completed, although to be fair that's partly on me since this was with completing all of the side quests (besides a couple of the recipes since I didn't have the materials and wasn't going to grind forever after to collect them all) and fighting most enemies I encountered.

While it's true that I adore DT which is also pretty long, at least in my experience DT isn't quite as long as this game, and I felt like DT did better to keep me entertained the whole time compared to Brothership having more parts that felt like a drag, I guess part of that is because of DT having the Dream World to keep things interesting.

- Despite all the great original characters in this game, I do still miss Toadsworth who hasn't appeared since DT, and I still believe that this game is under some form of character restrictions that won't allow things like diverse Toad designs that were allowed in the first 3-4 games in the series. And I find it suspicious how the only proper character (excluding common enemies like Capnaps) to return in-person rather than being merely referenced in reef form, is Starlow, who is also the only original character who was allowed to appear in-person in Paper Jam.

- No in-game music player, unlike DT, PJ, and the remakes.
 
Last edited:
Most of Luigi's Mansion 2 HD.

I loved every minute of it. Despite the mission based format (and five mansions) being different than what I'm used to, I feel like this over topped LM3 for me during my playthrough. I will always love the piano\ghost mission songs, I'm not sure why its so good but it is. I have the base game 100%, but I'm planning on playing Scarescraper solo off and on, unlocking everything and nabbing every ghost. I like this one better because its actually possible solo (my best is 16F on Hunter).

I experienced little glitches, mostly just disappearing Luigi and money clipping into walls from my max surges. Speaking of money, I had the last upgrade halfway through Clockworks, double that by the time I beat every stage with every gem and Boo, and double more by the time I three starred every stage.

10/10, would play again.
I may have taken 51 minutes in this stage on my first run because I didn't see the rope to open the Kitchen/Dining Room elevator
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back