30 Days of Games

[VashTheStampede]

Waiting for FQ to chime in with some Yakuza minigames

I'm never going to 100% a Yakuza because I refuse to learn mahjong. Ain't got time for that in this life.

 

[The Eye in the Sky!]

Worst minigame: NFL Quarterback Club for SNES - the longest pass QB skill game.

In order to throw as far as you can, you have to mash the A and B buttons as fast as you can. The only way to do it is with a turbo controller or to use your palm and rub the buttons really fast. I couldn't afford a turbo controller, so we did the palm method. That led to burns and blisters on the middle of our palms when we had friends over doing long competitions for the QB challenge.

The other games were just normal control scheme or moving a reticle for accuracy.

Not the long pass, that was hell.

 

[shortkut]

I'm never going to 100% a Yakuza because I refuse to learn mahjong. Ain't got time for that in this life.

Just wait until you’re an old lady. It will come naturally

 

[rktaker]

worst minigame: i have a soul no clue

 

[Fire Queen]

I'm never going to 100% a Yakuza because I refuse to learn mahjong. Ain't got time for that in this life.

your loss

Waiting for FQ to chime in with some Yakuza minigames

*cracks knuckles*

worst minigame...there are some contenders. i sure have played every single one of them in every single game. just for funsies let's go game by game

yakuza 0: honestly there weren't any dud minigames here aside from maybe the catfights since those are so luck based. this is the one i learned riichi mahjong for after all
yakuza kiwami: the bowling is honestly the biggest bitch here, but again mostly pretty easy
yakuza kiwami 2: easily the gravure photo shoot. not because it's difficult but just because it's...uncomfortable. it would be one thing if it wasn't fmv, but...
yakuza 3-4: the fucking batting cages. i don't want to talk about it.
yakuza 5: i also never want to think about pachinko ever again. if you think you know what pachinko is, you don't. you have no fucking idea.
yakuza 6: the song of life: again, solid all around. the baseball sim is really fun, as is the iconic live chat. i'll honestly use this space to criticize the neutered cabaret club minigame in yakuza 3. it's so fun in 0 and kiwami 2. it is not even close to that in y3.
yakuza: like a dragon: again, solid all around. ichiban rules. if i had to pick one i'll go with golf.
like a dragon gaiden: the man who erased his name: the minigame completion isn't as strict as other games. i'm sure there are a ton of sega master system games that would have pissed me off had i had to play them. instead i will just go with golf again. don't get me wrong, i love a good golf minigame, it's just that the stripped down version they have to make do with in these games isn't always as fun.
like a dragon: infinite wealth: again, solid all round. we'll pick the ufo catcher here.
like a dragon: ishin!: fresh on the mind. i spoke about this in my big writeup on all the games but the sensual healing is not to be taken likely. just like in real life, it's so hard to not get distracted by thinking about the meiji restoration while you're trying to hitch a one-way ride to bonetown

my non-yakuza answer is fruitball from kingdom hearts birth by sleep.

 

[TD]

Also I love Blitzball

I think things like this are why the minigames that SE puts into their games are so polarizing and part of why there's so much variety. One minigame could be one that others love, while others hate the minigames.

It warms my soul to see a lot of people qualifying SE minigames as the worst.

 

[Nae'blis]

Favorite cinematic: I've always liked the ending cinematic in the first Darksiders game. "No... not alone." War is a badass dude.

Worst minigame: I don't know why, but I've always disliked fishing minigames. In any game.

 

[Fool's Requiem]

Worst minigame: NFL Quarterback Club for SNES - the longest pass QB skill game.

I've only ever heard bad things regarding the QB Club series.

I ran across something relevant to the Lu Bu boss thing. This guy forced himself to try to beat Lu Bu at Hu Lou Gate at level one in every DW game. As expected, he had the hardest time in DW2 because of the fact that enemies are more difficult, and because officers reheal themselves when they recover from being knocked down.

 

[shortkut]

Worst minigame: I don't know why, but I've always disliked fishing minigames. In any game

The fishing in Link’s Awakening was easy and short

 

[Nae'blis]

The fishing in Link’s Awakening was easy and short

Best fishing minigame.

 

[Smacktard]

OoT was my favorite fishing minigame. It still hasn't been topped.

Stardew and Animal Crossing are both quite nice, though.

I also remembered how much I hate Gracie the Giraffe's car-buffing minigame on GC Animal Crossing. That was fucking impossible. You have to rapidly press A. I can mash A with the best of them, but I never once beat it. I think you can only do it with a turbo controller.

 

[VashTheStampede]

Worst minigame: I don't know why, but I've always disliked fishing minigames. In any game.

My opinion is a game cannot achieve true greatness without a fishing minigame.

 

[Fire Queen]

every video game should let you pet the dog, have a fishing minigame, and require you to learn how to play riichi mahjong

 

[VashTheStampede]

every video game should let you pet the dog,

have a fishing minigame,

and require you to learn how to play riichi mahjong

 

[Fool's Requiem]

every video game should let you pet the dog,

you have to add a mod to Fallout 4 just to be able to pet the dog like shown in the first trailer.

 

[The Eye in the Sky!]

I've only ever heard bad things regarding the QB Club series.

The N64 version sucked and coincided with Madden really hitting its stride at that time. QBC played so much slower than Madden.

I preferred the SNES Quarterback clubs vs Madden and it really took me until the PS2 Maddens to switch fully. You could tackle players after the plays in those games, which was fun to mess around with.

 

[Smacktard]

Best mechanic:
This is tough since everything in a video game that's not strictly graphics or UI is a mechanic, really.

I'm a platformer bitch, so I gotta go with the Jump. Specifically, Mario in original SMB is the first game I can think of that nailed the feeling of momentum, weight, and hang time that made the game control so good -- something other games still failed to get right for a decade or more after its release. It's not perfect (Mario Maker 2 = ideal IMO) but it's pretty close to it.

For something a little more complex, timed hits in RPGs made boring, repetitive combat so much more fun and interactive. For me, these revolutionized RPGs. Super Mario RPG introduced these. Is there nothing that fat Italian plumber can do!?!

Another great one is early Elder Scrolls games allowing you to kill essential characters to the plot. They're not knocked out or replaced. They're just dead. Too bad, you fucked up your game's main quest. Reload from an old save, or don't, whatever. That true freedom is hella cool. Being able to levitate or jump as high as you want was a cool mechanic, too. Morrowind is just stacked to the tits with cool mechanics.

Oh, and pausing battle to draw your attacks in Okami as the screen turns to black ink on brown rice paper effect. Beautiful. Stunning. Radiant. Good game. Good boys and girls who made the game. Good job, Japan.

Oh, and dang, the hang glider from BotW is just so nice and fun to use. See that cool thing 2000 meters away? Leap from a ledge and soar peacefully towards it with the press of a button. Drop quick, catch yourself and glide some more. Beautiful, seamless, intuitive, and promotes exploration, which is what those games are about. I'm sure other games did it before, but nothing *quite* like it in all the other games I've played. It's more enjoyable than soaring as Batman in Arkham, or shotting web in Spider-Man.

Edit: oh, derp, Portal. I knew I'd forgotten something. That shit was mindblowing when it first dropped. I still to this day think that mechanic is one of the best I've ever seen in gaming -- and yet, I think there's so much untapped gameplay potential there. I think they really only did about 5% of what they could do with it, and it's a shame that those seamless portals haven't really been skilfully adapted to FPS firefights and other types of creative gameplay than just puzzle/platformers.

Edit edit: actually Titanfall 2 did some really cool shit with Portals. Good job Titanfall 2, picking up Valve's slack. We need more games like you.

Also, I thought today's topic was going to be pretty bland and boring but here's got me really joggin my noggin about video games and that's nice

 

[Fool's Requiem]

I like how each next category comes earlier and earlier each day.

 

[Joseph Snapple]

Favorite Game Mechanic: Honestly this covers multiple games but really any mechanic in a JRPG that just lets you delete enemies that don't really pose a threat but would otherwise waste your time. I'm in my 30s, thank you for respecting my time.

 

[Nae'blis]

I gotta go with the Jump.

I'm also a sucker for platforming, so I'll agree with you here. Or perhaps take it a step further and say Double Jump! That extra jump mid-air is just so sweet when you lay your hands on it!

 

[Fool's Requiem]

Favorite Mechanic: Dead Space. Isaac's suit is the HUD. Nothing littering the screen during play.

HM: The Dead Space Stomp.

I'm sure there's something else I can think of, but maybe later.

 

[Quagmire]

Favorite Mechanic

Any game that lets you creative in how you beat a mission. The current GTA and RDR2 remind me of times in Vice City, one of which I had to get to the dump(I think) and rescue Vance. I had already unlocked the helicopter with a machine gun, went and got it, flew in, shot the bad guys with it, landed, Vance got in and flew away. Now I feel like Id get a mission failure for going to far off the intended path.

Any game that is extremely breakable and can turn yourself into a God basically. Morrowind, FFVI, Cyberpunk 2077, FF Tactics, etc.

 

[Spiner202]

Favourite Mechanic: The first thing that came to mind is the secondary weapon feature in Perfect Dark. Every gun has another way that you can use it, and a lot of them are unique and even superior to the normal way of shooting the weapon.

 

[VashTheStampede]

Favorite Mechanic

I love me a Skill Tree, ESPECIALLY if the design has meaning to the story/vibe of the game. Gives short term and long term goals and tangible character progression.

Honorable Mention: Adaptive Music. First time I played Lumines blew my mind.

 

[Fire Queen]

favorite mechanic is a fun one because that could mean absolutely ANYTHING. as a result it's hard to narrow down to just one so here's five

eternal darkness: sanity's requiem has three attributes it tracks for each playable character: health, magick, and sanity. sanity goes down whenever you're seen by one of the enemies in the game. if it gets too low? well, weird things start happening. the walls start bleeding. you might leave a room only to enter an impossible room only to discover you never left the first room at all. your character might die (or at least look like it). if it gets really bad? your save file might appear to get deleted or corrupted. your controller might appear to get disconnected. your tv may appear to change channels or lower the volume.

earthbound did a lot of things i wish every rpg did, but one of my favorite aspects is that after beating the boss for an area, that area's enemies run away from you and not towards you. ultimately a minor thing, but it does make you feel really cool and make traversing areas way easier once you've cleared the hard part

i'll be shocked if anyone else here has played THE MISSING: j.j. macfield and the island of memories from the mind of swery65 (of deadly premonition fame). it's the type of game to have a content warning every time you boot it up because the main way of progressing through the game is, for lack of a better way of saying it, self-harm. your character is immortal and has regenerative capabilities, which means that if you need to rip off and throw your arm to solve a puzzle, or decapitate yourself so that your head can roll through a narrow area, that's fine. you do still feel the pain, though. she's fine, don't worry about it. i don't want to go too much deeper into this game because it's so good when going in blind

i haven't been able to show any love for celeste in this thread yet, so let's talk about coyote time. like any good platformer, celeste is equal levels challenging and forgiving. when you step off of a ledge, there's a small window where you can still jump even though you're technically not standing on anything. creator maddy thorson dubbed this period of grace "coyote time" in reference to none other than warner bros. favorite whipping boy wile e. coyote, famously known for running off of ledges without falling, at least until he realizes he can fall.

lastly, let's talk fire emblem: genealogy of the holy war. having finally finished it for the first time earlier this year, i practically can't shut up about it now. there are so many things crammed into this super famicom game. like, yeah, there's the whole love system and marriage and even kids, foretelling all of the eugenics everyone would eventually do in awakening, but my favorite wrinkle is the hidden jealousy system that few people understand even till this day.

and though i haven't yet played it, shouts out to fire emblem: thracia 776. different characters have different values for how likely they are to make a critical hit on a follow-up attack. this is known as the Follow-Up Critical Coefficient, or the FUCC

 

[Smacktard]

i haven't been able to show any love for celeste in this thread yet, so let's talk about coyote time

I always see Celeste referenced when this mechanic is brought up. I know they cpined the term, and the game uses is more liberally than most platformers, but I think the number of platformers that use this is underestimated. I know the Donkey Kong games have it when you roll off an edge, but I think (although don't have proof) that even SMW and SMB3 had the mechanic. When I was coding a platformer, the lack of coyote time became VERY obvious almost immediately.

 

[VashTheStampede]

There should be a "this is good content" reaction

 

[TD]

I wasn't sure what I was going to say originally but I'm now going to steal Vash's as my number one:

Favourite Mechanic: Skill trees. For me, the glory days of gaming were not necessarily these uber long games, but give me a shorter game with replayabiliry any day. That's where skill trees really shine in my opinion. You can play a game quite differently on nearly every single playthrough and I love the concept of playing a game in different ways. Unfortunately for me, a lot of modern games with skill trees also tend to be uber long and that ends up more annoying than not because I feel like I never get to try certain playstyles. But a tight condensed game with a diverse skill tree? Give me that any day of the week.

Honourable mentions:
- Fast Travel, while some games can pull it off without, most don't, so it's just better that it exists
- Respec, something that I wish was a standard in all games, unlimited respec would be nice too as most games have limited respecs
- Quick save, honestly, I'm a busy adult, I don't always have time to play to the next save point or checkpoint so quicksaving on a whim is great
- Animation canceling, speedrunners, perfectionists, whomever, excellent tool in any repotoir to be able to perfect a game

 

[shortkut]

- Fast Travel, while some games can pull it off without, most don't, so it's just better that it exists
- Quick save, honestly, I'm a busy adult, I don't always have time to play to the next save point or checkpoint so quicksaving on a whim is great

I’ve never been a big gamer, but these two are things that make a game accessible to me

 

[canadaguy]

Ok I am quite a bit behind, so rapid fire.

Best Plot Twist: Discovering the true nature of the Zero Dawn project.

Best Cinematic: The train from Uncharted 2

Worst Minigame: Straight up any mini game that is forced on you to progress in the game. Other than that, whatever I can just ignore it.

Favorite Game Mechanic: Not so much tied to a game, but more to systems (and it feels pretty standard now) but standby/suspend modes.

 

[canadaguy]

every video game should let you pet the dog, have a fishing minigame, and require you to learn how to play riichi mahjong

Ok so for sure you are aware of the Can You Pet the Dog twitter account then?

 

[The Eye in the Sky!]

Gonna go with something simple but amazing mechanic - portals! Specifically from the namesake game. The amount of cool stuff you could do with physics, timing, and placement changed how I thought of games when the orange box came out. Physics in games started making big jumps around that time and then Portal came and said, lets make this stuff accelerate and let players use that to add an extra dimension to their game.

 

[Joseph Snapple]

Anyone else having trouble with today's lol

 

[VashTheStampede]

Easiest Final Boss

OK this might be cheating, but I'm going to go with  Lucien from Fable II. I know a lot of people hated this "fight" because of several reasons but I absolutely loved how it went down.

Spoiler: Massive Fable II Spoilers

This fuckin piece of shit asshole kills your sister and shoots you as a child at the beginning of the game. Then, towards the end, he tries to shoot you again but your dog takes the bullet and dies in your place.

GOD I WANTED TO MURDER THIS FUCK

At the end of the game, you get your chance, obviously. Once he realizes he's fucked, he launches into a big evil monologue that in other games would be the prelude to the real final fight. But you can just shoot him once and end him unceremoniously. Cute, but anticlimactic.

BUT the real controversial bit is that if you wait too long, wanting to hear what he has to say...one of your party members will get bored with him and cap him, stealing your kill and vengeance. That's what happened in my game, but instead of being enraged like many other fans of the game, I could not stop laughing. The sheer audacity created one of the most memorable moments in my gaming life.

 

[Smacktard]

Anyone else having trouble with today's lol

I could think of plenty of easy boss fights, but easy FINAL boss fights was a bit tougher. I thought of a bunch of different games, but I kept coming back to Mario games. Basically, it's turtles all the way down.

I thought of Bowser from SM64 because it's basically the same fight AGAIN, but just enough changes that it can still be tricky.

I also thought of Bowser from Super Mario Galaxy. I remembered it being super easy, but I watched a YouTube vid, and it was more complex than I thought.

Mario Sunshine is pretty easy too, but you still gotta be on your toes a little bit.

But the real answer is: Bowser in Super Mario Bros. The fight is almost the exact same as all previous Bowser fights, maybe just with one additional slight difference. Still, you can just run right under him with good timing, or even easier -- just damage boost right through him and win.

 

[TD]

Easiest Final Boss Fight: In a series known for being challenging, I'm a little surprised that I'm going to be choosing something from a From game. But for me, this title unequivocally goes to True King Allant from Demon's Souls.

You have to be... extraordinarily bad to not steamroll this boss.

For those unaware, here's a clip of someone fighting it with a level 1 playthrough.

 

[Fool's Requiem]

Easiest Final Boss: Bowser in Super Mario Bros 3. You just dodge him until he kills himself.

 

[VashTheStampede]

You have to be... extraordinarily bad to not steamroll this boss.

See I hate this because I'd never make it that far. I'll never know if I'm very bad or extraordinarily bad.

 

[Spiner202]

Easiest Final Boss: This is a tough one because I feel like most of the easy bosses are pretty forgettable. Also, in certain games, it isn't that the boss is necessarily easy, just that you're so powerful by the end that they don't pose much of a challenge.

I'll go with Bowser in SM64 because that's one of the few bosses that is both very memorable and also not very difficult.

 

[Fire Queen]

yeah easy final bosses is an interesting category because depending on the game, enough grinding and cheesing can make any final boss into a trivial pursuit. most fire emblem final bosses are a bitch no matter what you do but in fire emblem: awakening you can clear that map in two turns or less even with just the most rudimentary grinding (and our good friend galeforce). in skyrim you can bonk alduin on the head with a warhammer a couple of times.

i'm gonna go with a recently released game that i liked a lot. sonic frontiers. great game overall that i really enjoyed and definitely my favorite 3d sonic since sa2b. but if you weren't playing on hard mode the final boss is literally just three quick-time events. that was a bit of a letdown for me.

 

[VashTheStampede]

Wait, Sonic Frontiers was good???

Might have to check it out after all

 

[TD]

Wait, Sonic Frontiers was good???

Might have to check it out after all

I've heard very mixed things about it - not sure if you have PS Plus Extra, but it just came out on the gama catalog too.

 

[The Eye in the Sky!]

Most RPG bosses are pretty easy because I am always over leveled or over powered so I'll avoid that genre.

Easiest final boss: Uncharted 2.

This was the only one that stood out besides something like a Mario game because of how stupid it is. The game is nearly perfect until this point.

All you have to do is run in circles and shoot at weird tree crystals behind you. The camera makes things a little wonky but its stupidly easy unless you're on hard difficulty.

 

[Quagmire]

lastly, let's talk fire emblem: genealogy of the holy war. having finally finished it for the first time earlier this year, i practically can't shut up about it now. there are so many things crammed into this super famicom game. like, yeah, there's the whole love system and marriage and even kids, foretelling all of the eugenics everyone would eventually do in awakening, but my favorite wrinkle is the hidden jealousy system that few people understand even till this day.

I think we've talked about this one, just wish non mounted units moved faster, the maps are so big, it takes non mounted units for ever to get across

 

[Quagmire]

Easiest Final Boss

I do agree Bowser in SM64 is probably up there, I really cant think of any others off top of my head

 

[rktaker]

best mechanic: hate to do this again but i have no clue


easiest boss fight: probably Lillith from Diablo 4 think it took me two attempts and mostly cause i’m a dummy

 

[Nae'blis]

Easiest Final Boss: Bowser in Super Mario Bros 3. You just dodge him until he kills himself.

You don't even have to dodge him, either just get a fire flower and jump on top of the door all the way to the left and his hitbox misses you while you pelt him with fire balls. Or you can just duck on the brick part and the hitbox misses you, you just have to jump away the last time before he breaks through.

 

[Joseph Snapple]

I could think of plenty of easy boss fights, but easy FINAL boss fights was a bit tougher. I thought of a bunch of different games, but I kept coming back to Mario games. Basically, it's turtles all the way down.

I thought of Bowser from SM64 because it's basically the same fight AGAIN, but just enough changes that it can still be tricky.

I also thought of Bowser from Super Mario Galaxy. I remembered it being super easy, but I watched a YouTube vid, and it was more complex than I thought.

Mario Sunshine is pretty easy too, but you still gotta be on your toes a little bit.

But the real answer is: Bowser in Super Mario Bros. The fight is almost the exact same as all previous Bowser fights, maybe just with one additional slight difference. Still, you can just run right under him with good timing, or even easier -- just damage boost right through him and win.

The problem I was having with it is that a lot of the bosses that immediately came to mind are from, like, games meant to be broadly accessible and that means beatable by children. So various Kirby bosses, Bowsers as noted, etc. Perfectly valid answers but just didnt feel personally satisfying to mention.

So anyway I'm gonna go with Yu Yevon from Final Fantasy X. Which was good because it took me a bit to get thru Jecht.

 

[Smacktard]

The problem I was having with it is that a lot of the bosses that immediately came to mind are from, like, games meant to be broadly accessible and that means beatable by children.

I think many games listed so far are beatable by children. Hell, Gunstar Heroes has a pretty tough final boss but I still rocked that game as a 6 year old haha. And the original SMB isn't *that* kid-friendly

So various Kirby bosses, Bowsers as noted, etc.

Tbf the Kirby bosses are usually very difficult compared to the rest of the game. I think Dedede is easier than Krakko too in Kirby's Dreamland, so that would be a good example.

 

[Quagmire]

The problem I was having with it is that a lot of the bosses that immediately came to mind are from, like, games meant to be broadly accessible and that means beatable by children. So various Kirby bosses, Bowsers as noted, etc. Perfectly valid answers but just didnt feel personally satisfying to mention.

So anyway I'm gonna go with Yu Yevon from Final Fantasy X. Which was good because it took me a bit to get thru Jecht.

Story wise it makes sense and I dont consider Yu Yevon to be the final boss, but his aeon you fight before instead