It looks like we have a yearly tradition on this blog now, where I pull out an Excel document that catalogued all the video games I played to completion the previous year and say my thoughts on each one. A little bit later than the last time, but considering I made a 2-hour video in January about my favorite art/media experiences of both 2020 and 2021, I think it’s fair to say I had good reason.
That said, the 2021 games that made it into that video won’t be covered as deeply for this second time, I go over them pretty well in the video so I’ll only share thoughts that skipped my mind. I also won’t at all be covering the games I reviewed separately on my YouTube channel, there’s not even enough left for quick thoughts due to the nature of the games I reviewed. While I was originally going to make an exception for Doki Doki Literature Club Plus, it made it into the 2-hour retrospective so there’s no air left anymore other than to say again it’s an all-time favorite and a 10 out of 10 I highly recommend.
With the formalities out of the way, let’s begin:
- Shrek Super Slam -
I bought a Nintendo GameCube off of eBay at the start of 2021, with the intention of not just diving into retro gaming after some disillusion with modern gaming, but also because I no longer own my childhood PlayStation 2 let alone it’s games and felt it would be interesting to try different versions of some of those games if I have to buy them again anyway.
Super Slam had to be first as it was my first PlayStation 2 game, and yet honestly even I am surprised it still held up as well as it did playing it again. This was a great test to get used to the controller as muscle-memory came back quickly, as did the reasons why this game is very fun. I have very little complaints about it, which is why it got a mention in the video and unironically so. I ended up completing all the bonus objectives, unlocked every character and stage, even did them a bit faster than I expected as some challenges seemed pretty hard even with the prior knowledge. Admittedly some of that was control or timer based and once I got it things went much easier.
Just a very solid fighting game with the characters from the first two Shrek films, and even brand new characters that fit the world and style so well part of me always wondered if they’d be used for a future film. Like I said, the right choice to test out the GameCube.
8/10
- Madagascar The Video Game -
I suppose it really isn’t shocking the next game for the GameCube was also a Dreamworks game. I’m also going to break a few hearts now and say this is the last GameCube game on the list, as while I did play around with some other games I bought, this was the last one I beat and that’s the criteria.
Again the PS2 version is from my childhood, as is the film, and both of those things have aged a bit to me much more than the Shrek examples. Madagascar the film is mediocre with some great moments, and honestly so is the video game, I guess it’s a perfect adaptation despite how much it deviates! Marty, Alex, Gloria, and Melman do all feel fine to control and the environments work quite nice. The Penguins are an okay change-up but they felt a lot less fun than I remembered and a bit more stiff. The game is a bit slower too, and I think it’s because I’m older and not because of the different hardware, I doubt the PS2 version actually felt different than the GameCube version ultimately.
That said, some jokes land well and again nothing in the gameplay is really offensive or unplayable. This licensed game reeks of needing too much free-time with nothing else to play, I think I liked it more as a kid due to a limited library and now that I don’t have that, it’s just an alright game I have nostalgia for instead of a game I’ll play a lot. Will definitely go back to the Shrek game more often.
5/10
- Red Dead Revolver -
I’d previously played the second and third Red Dead games, I’ve even covered my thoughts on Red Dead Redemption II both on this blog and that already mentioned video, but until 2021 I hadn’t played the very original Red Dead game. Revolver, from the PS2 era and one of the few games picked up for the “PS2 on PS4” program, all shiny with HD upscaling and trophy support. I’ve talked fondly of the program and a couple of those games already, but unfortunately I won’t be as fond speaking of this specific game.
For it’s time it would not have been all too bad, but by today it feels very confused in what it wants to do. A lot of games were back then, trying to mix things up and experiment, give something unique and for the time a lot of that experimenting worked for me. Even the Madagascar game I just discussed did that exact same situation with it’s rotating cast of playable characters. Heck, while I don’t like I game I do understand what it was going for and can understand if there’s still a fanbase.
Red Dead Revolver is a love-letter to both the corny westerns and the more serious ones, it’s always silly but people are still dying with chunks of blood and gore flying out of them. It’s very arcade-like, something I would not mind trying again with this series despite how far away that is from Redemption II.
It’s too hard for pointless reasons a lot of the time, I was actually enjoying the first levels a lot for the atmosphere and hints of story but after the cliff level not only did the difficulty spike rear it’s head far too high, but the disjointed nature of the story did as well. There’s tons of playable characters and they all have to connect to this plot and I wish they didn’t. This would have worked better as vignettes if they wanted to keep the multiple characters, or they would have had to scrap the other characters besides Red if they wanted to keep the story.
I got a big mad at it some times, but like some other retro games I’ve played I think it was good for it’s time but now something I give a negative score to as I don’t see the point of going back to it. Madagascar the game had nostalgia going for it so maybe this game is actually better, but this game also annoyed me much more anyway.
4/10
- Fallout 4 -
As I said in the video, I love this game and really don’t care about the things some long-time fans feel isn’t up to snuff. The crafting is fun and rewarding, the quests are great to complete, the world still feels realized and unique, the characters are both lovable and hateable in the right circumstances. I don’t mind the loss of the karma system since it’s clear to me the companion system has taken it’s place and effectively so. While I can see why the story writing is considered weaker to many, I don’t really see that as so bad a thing since this game is more fun than the previous ones and again the character writing is still great in the right places. New Vegas does branching a bit better but even then I feel overwhelmed by that game and don’t honestly feel every choice is as fleshed out as others feels. 3 is more concrete in the binary path of it’s main plot and the open-ness of the side stuff, so yes while there is a bit less choice for the side content here in 4 again there are at least things it does with the combat and companions that I am okay with the trade-off, and 4 is more open in it’s main story as you can flip whenever you want until it’s finally time to make your decision, and it makes it clear how final that decision is.
And as usual, the DLC is great. The story ones are fun and add new ideas and characters, and the creation stuff honestly gave me more than I expected and actually help out way more than I thought. I had only played the Xbox One version before, and with my new PS4 copy from that year I managed to earn every single PlayStation trophy in the span of only a month or so, and even with the prior knowledge that is a relatively small amount of time. Those tickets were the biggest nightmare, even making a whole settlement happy wasn’t as time-consuming
I really love this entry and my complaints are incredibly minor. 3, 4, and New Vegas are all thrown into a pile that fans pick their favorite out of, and honestly I don’t think that’s fair to any of them as each one does have unique attributes that just get ignored or outright insulted if it’s not the favorite, something I’m guilty of too. Ultimately it’s the one I play the most of the three and I think I’ve stated my reasons well enough. It’s also a Bethesda game and so it’s too buggy and clunky to be perfect, but when you have a favorite you ignore that for the score anyway so here we go:
10/10, but like a buggy and clunky 10 so theoretically a low 9 or a high 8 that I love like a perfect 10 despite itself.
- Spider-Man PS4 -
I suppose let’s “rip the band-aid off now” despite how really it’s not a band-aid and wouldn’t even need a description like that if game opinions didn’t cause so much pointless debate versus other media.
This game is fine. Sometimes pretty good and very fun, certainly above mediocre, but at the end of the day it’s fine.
While very competent and again quite fun plenty of times, part of me wonders if this game kicking out the sour taste of bad Spider-Man games is why some people really latched onto it like they did. For quite a while this fairly new game was “the best Spider-Man game ever!” and while it’s still very highly regarded I am seeing that statement slightly die. Sure, there are some concepts done better here than in previous Spider-Man games.
The gadgets really feel fleshed out and are a great evolution of not just this character but also from Insomniacs Ratchet & Clank games. The way it treats collectibles is a highlight, once you unlock one type you can just immediately go collect all of them without any need to unlocked another ability or finish a story beat, once it’s on the map you can grab it. You also don’t need the gold medal in every challenge in terms of in-game completion bonus nor the trophies, bronze is good enough, and as someone who is getting tired and annoyed at how much you have to do in some games I love that Insomniac recognizes that beating something with a good score really is enough plenty of times. There’s a lot of technical things right with this game, enough that I do think playing it again might make the score higher.
But let’s cut the chase for real here:
This story is stale and not always interesting. I heard plenty of people say this is one of the best Spider-Man stories ever, and I could only find myself agreeing with that if I read and played a lot of Spider-Man stories and found them full-on bad or boring. I didn’t like having to get back together with Mary Jane as it felt cliched and incredibly tired considering how often I see these two have relationship issues in other stores. The corny jokes sometimes just felt genuinely not funny instead of “ha ha the characters think he’s not funny”. I also think the villains are sometimes there just to be there, which isn’t too different than other superhero games but as an Arkham fan I also know it can be done so much better now that I felt more should have been done since there is a bit of Arkham influence here, hopefully next time there are more villains whom are only in side quests instead of forced into the main plot as that helps so much so.
Again, I think it’s worth another try, but I also think I’ve enjoyed a lot more Spider-Man games more than I did this. Mechanically it’s fantastic, but plot and character wise I wasn’t nearly as strong. Maybe that won’t bother me a second time and I can just melt into the combat and web-zipping instead.
6.5/10
- Super Mario 3D World -
This one got a full segment in the video, not just tacked on during the montage like Fallout 4 and Shrek Super Slam, so it’s just best to mostly skip this one. As I said there, it’s such a fun game and I didn’t even play Bowser’s Fury yet! Sometimes jumping around as Mario is all I need as he and his friends control so incredibly well, and this series really understands that games are often at their best when they are fun.
9/10
- Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney Trilogy -
Mostly can say the same thing here as 3D World, but I am also going to do something I realized during the video editing made much more sense to do here in the blog post. I will quickly chop up my thoughts on each individual game in the set:
Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney - Amazing how well this first game holds up and how much it can pull you in. Despite sometimes feeling non-sensical, once it pulls you back in it feels so right you don’t care anymore. Lovely story and great introduction to the series.
Justice for All - Weaker, but not always. Some cases feel so good and the new gameplay mechanics do feel right at home, as do the new story ideas that pay off very well both here and later.
Trails and Tribulations - Easily the best, a near perfect culmination and great send-off for this story arc. Best cases out of the three even with how iconic some of the early ones are.
8/10 - Ace Attorney
7/10 - Justice For All
9/10 - Trails and Tribulations
- Dead Rising 2 -
I’m in a weird spot with this game in that, a lot of me swears I’ve talked about it off-hand on this blog before but I really don’t have a clue if that’s true or not. It could have been on a post I deleted when I revamped the blog, it could be something that never made the cut the first time, I could have never actually done it, and it could just be staring me in the face and I don’t know where to look!
I love Dead Rising 2, it’s a favorite of mine and that’s why it was the first game I played after I was finally able to move back into my apartment. I played it on the Xbox One where everything feels buttery smooth and just like many other times I went from start to finish without any worry on what to do.
The Dead Rising games not only have zombies as the antagonistic force, there are also human villains and an in-game timer. It’s wise to just play the game without trying to beat it when you first go in, as you carry your level and such when you start over. If you keep at it, you can even master the games to the point where just like I said, you actually can start at level one and beat the whole game no problem. You’ll have spare time, bosses won’t be such a hassle, and you’ll get the golden ending while barely even having to pay attention.
I really need to remember my own advice and finish Dead Rising 1 some day. I gave up because it felt hard, but of course it did, that was also how Dead Rising 2 felt the first time I played it and it’s such a long ago memory I have to remind myself I once truly sucked at it. If I can get this good at Dead Rising 2 I can also master the original, but I’m positive I will still prefer this sequel. It’s a game with a time limit that is somehow a fun blast and practically soothing to the soul. I love it, from blood to guts to combo weapons to psychopaths to orange juice.
10/10
- Dragon Ball FighterZ -
When it comes to FighterZ, it’s placement on the list is not so much that I finally played the game this year, it’s that I decided to finally finish it. I enjoy fighting games but am not all that great at them, and sometimes I get through some or even most of the story campaign and just end up telling myself I’ll finish it some other day. That was the case for FighterZ even though I was really enjoying my time with it.
Dragon Ball FighterZ is a mechanically well-structured game, even as someone bad at fighting games I found combos easy to figure out and the characters felt different to play while rewardingly so when I found ones I liked. I stuck with mostly Majin Buu, Krillin, Vegeta, and Nappa, so when it came to the final story arc and I was stuck with Android’s 16 and 18 it was a bit too jarring and then I just forgot to finish it.
But, I picked it back up, learned how to play as those two and finally finished the story. It was worth it as now I can play as Android 21, so the roster is close to full (I don’t have the DLC). I can picture coming back to it, doing the story again with the characters I’ve enjoyed playing as the most. All in all, there’s lots of reasons this is considered one of if not the best Dragon Ball games.
8/10
- Halo The Master Chief Collection -
As said in the video, I decided to get the collectibles across all the games in this collection. I may be short one data pad, but I got everything else. Every skull, every terminal, countless easter eggs and I even did a lot of the playlists. The playlists personally sell this collection for me more than anything else, the remaster of 2 is beautiful but if there’s any gameplay improvements to 3 I can’t tell and I’ve played 3 a lot. I’m also fairly critical of Halo 1, and even though I liked Halo 4 it’s not one I go back to much. ODST and Reach were great additions, but again, I mostly play this game by opening up a playlist I haven’t done yet.
This has become a game I just play when I want to listen to some podcasts and the like. I assumed that might end when I got the collectibles, but since there’s still some playlists left, that may not be changing anytime soon after all. A great collection and one of the best releases on the Xbox One, which admittedly showcases how few first-party releases there were and why Microsoft really needed the change ups that thankfully seem to be happening in full force.
10/10
- Batman Arkham Knight -
Arkham Knight got a very decent amount of time in the big video, so I will wrap up my thoughts pretty well with some stuff I didn’t mention.
Did you know that during the opening where you play as the cop, there’s a bit where a nightmare citizen grabs you and forces your hand in the air after you’ve drawn your gun, and you can fire all of your bullets harmlessly into the ceiling? If you do, you can still keep clicking it empty after you are freed, so you don’t end up killing any of the civilians.
Also, massive spoiler so feel free to skip, but you know when Joker finally takes over Batman’s body and you gun down the rogue’s gallery in Batman’s head? Riddler hides behind a hostage and you’re supposed to just fire your shotgun as Joker would never care. BUT, if you angle it right, you will only kill The Riddler and the hostage does in fact survive, she cowers in fear but the game acknowledges you avoided killing her as she even mumbles to herself. It’s such a nice little touch you the player can do, and in a way, technically foreshadows that Joker really isn’t fully in control like he thinks. Batman did not allow him to kill an innocent.
Great game that I understand why I hated it first go around. First time playing, a 4 or even a 3, but on replay?
8/10
- Dead Rising 2: Off The Record -
When I bought the Xbox One version of vanilla Dead Rising 2, I actually purchased the bundle with DR 1 and Off The Record. Off The Record for those that don’t know is an example of a practice Capcom is fairly fond of, taking a game they already released and making a brand new version of it that’s mostly the same but with minor changes that do add to the formula in sometimes big ways. It’s a mixed practice, sometimes this new version is the better by far and sometimes it’s weaker but still at least contains what you loved from the regular game.
The latter is my feelings for Off The Record. I can see why some fans might like this version better; Frank West has a dedicated fanbase and it’s earned as he does have a unique character that is admittedly less cliched than Chuck Green. There are some new survivors whom are just as interesting as the regular ones, and the returning survivors and psychopaths mostly feel no different so they basically at least still work as well as they normally do. There is some new dialogue both spoken and written to re-justify some of the scenarios and they don’t detract nor add other than sometimes it’s pretty funny to watch a survivor gush over Frank as it’s so poorly timed on their part between the zombie outbreak and Frank’s fallen stardom.
I really don’t like the new final boss fight though. The special ending secret boss has a new phase I also really didn’t like but I’m mostly talking about the basic final boss, whom I could not figure out the pattern to.
Sandbox mode was a great addition though, allowing the player to have an overtime mode without going through a game over is a fun concept even if you can level up way faster as the game wasn’t really ready for the amount of PP you get from taking pictures.
It’s a solid and fun game, based on a much better game, but like I said I can actually imagine people preferring this version so all-in-all I think this was a worthwhile experiment this time.
7/10
And there we have the end of part 1. Part 2 will be coming soon, probably before this week is over but we will see. Thanks for reading.