PS2 Backlog Committee's Top 10 Games of 2018

[isthatallyougot]

#19 Claire Extended Cut (PS4)



Being the month of October, I found myself in the mood to play something in the horror genre, and so I decided to fire up Claire on the PS4, a PS+ freebie. On the plus side the 2d visuals are well-done and the sounds and atmosphere are quite nice, giving off a spooky enough vibe. There was certainly some good here for the horror fan. However, things weren't as deep, either mechanically or psychologically, as I would have liked. I also found the map and navigation a bit cumbersome, and although not unlike some of the genre greats, this one didn't have enough special sauce to overcome its deficiencies. Not a bad game, but not enough to draw me in sufficiently to complete the (apparently very brief) game. 2/5

#18 The Witch and the Hundred Knight (PS3)



I only knew a little about The Witch and the Hundred Knight upon going in. I knew that it had a mixed reception, and I was aware that one of the main characters, the Witch, was more than a little rotten. I was in the mood for a niche RPG though, so I decided to pull it from the backlog to see what was what. I was immediately introduced to a plethora of unfamiliar terms and systems. GigaCals, Tochkas and Facets, among others seemed to avalanche and I found myself a little overwhelmed with information in the beginning. It was a little off-putting because the game did not do a good job of introducing the various concepts in a user-friendly and comprehensive manner. But I'm a patient bloke, and I stuck with things. And after several hours a good deal of the fog did indeed begin to lift, and I found myself intrigued enough to consider the possibility of getting into things. Just as I began to feel a movement and rhythm with everything, however, I spent a particularly long run through a "field", accumulating all manner of goodies, only to have the game crash back to the XMB. I was, like anytime something like this happens, a bit frustrated. For some reason, I decided to venture online to see if this was a known and/or fixable issue. Sadly, I found out that this is common, never-fixed (at least in the PS3 version), can happen fairly often, and even has potential to cause hardware issues with the PS3 fan. Um, no thanks. Besides that, the game had barriers to enjoyment prior to encountering that unaddressed bug. The top-down perspective play area is obscured by trees all over the place, often resulting in you not having a good vantage point for the action. Top-down is not my favorite perspective in the first place, but whoever decided it was a good idea to have the screen littered with trees towering over your little Hundred Knight - and blocking the player's view - ought to look for a new line of work. The Witch, who brought The Hundred Knight into existence, seems to be the villain, and what a mean, and cantankerous villain she is. She swears like a sailor incessantly and has no sympathy or mercy for anyone. She really is a vindictive, raging, evil bitch of a witch. Now, I did find that a bit interesting honestly, but the voice work that brought her to life was not great, making her character seem like a raging adolescent. Intentional or not, it wasn't my cup of tea, and I found her delivery quite grating.

When all is said and done, I'm a bit frustrated with this experience. It was not immediately accessible, but once I'd pushed past that barrier to get into it, it presented a crushing technical problem. This game reminds me of a girl who is convinced she's a real prize, unaware that they're lots of other fish in the sea. I mean yeah, she's got some charms, but how many hoops do I have to jump through to see the reward. I'll only work so much for it, but why bother, when there are so many more pleasant and agreeable alternatives out there. Not hard to move on to something better. If she'd only make things a bit simpler, she'd get more investment from those wanting to get to know her. I've heard the PS4 may have fixed the technical issues, but I don't know if I could wash the bitter taste out of my mouth. A regrettable 2/5.

[argyle]

You had more patience with Hundred Knight than I did - the constant barrage of tutorials up front was maddening to me. I've considered trying the second one to see if they corrected that, but there's so many other games I'd rather play that I'll probably never get around to it.

[isthatallyougot]

Yeah, it wasn't the most intuitive or user-friendly experience, no doubt.

[isthatallyougot]

#17 Q*bert Rebooted (PS4)



When I was a young lad, when arcades were still all the rage, and helicopter parenting had yet to reveal a populace terrified of the world, I would walk (or bike) a few miles from my home to a local establishment called The Fun Club. It was here that I found one of my favorite arcade games of the 80's in that bizarre, bouncing, cube-color-changing creature known as Q*bert. I think what I liked about it initially was that everything was clearly defined and immediately obvious in terms of what the objective was - not always the case with those old arcade games. Everything was clean, colorful and wonderfully quirky, and the sound effects and characters added to the fun and off-beat vibe.

Also during this time period, I was, like many children of the 80's, the proud owner of an Atari VCS or 2600. This machine was the "beneficiary" of many arcade-to-home ports, although the system was incredibly power-constrained, making these conversions the roughest of approximations most of the time. Nevertheless, the naive and ever-hopeful youth that I was, became convinced that the 2600 version of Q*bert was going to be AMAZING, and successfully begged my aunt to buy me a copy. Obviously what followed was initial excitement followed by a bit of disappointment, given the limitations of the 2600. It wasn't a bad effort, but the reality of the game fell well short of the fantasy of having Q*bert in my home to play whenever I wanted.

So when this reboot became available digitally, I was interested in seeing if I could finally satisfy the dream of that child long after it died. There are two parts to this release of the game. There is the original arcade game that has been ported and there is a reboot where Q*bert is reimagined. I was hoping to see a reboot in the vein of Pac-man Championship Edition - a fresh and exciting re-examination of the game, but what I got was a lethargic, unimaginative and boring attempt at things, failing to even get close to the original in terms of quality or fun. Happily though, the arcade original was fully intact and I was pleased to finally have an arcade-perfect (at least from what I remember) version of the game for my enjoyment at home. Unfortunately the dual-shock controls can be a bit finicky and not always as responsive as they ought to be, resulting in some unintended deaths. But still, it was great being able to play this and finally live the dream of my childhood. Unfortunately though, dreams fade with time, and this is just too-little too-late to make the impact that would have blown away my younger self. It's not bad, and I still enjoy the arcade original though, so it wasn't time wasted. 3/5.

#16 The Forest of Doom (PC)



As a kid, choose your own adventure books always seemed kind of magical to me. The idea of reading a "regular" old book with possibilities to make your own decisions and experience various outcomes was incredibly exciting for me. And much of that appeal is present in gaming in general. Despite some games having more of a linear nature, everyone will have somewhat of a unique experience in all but the tightest of "corridor games". We get to live out adventures and interact with untold variety of different worlds and have an impact on them.

With all that gaming has to offer, it was only a matter of time before someone would merge the CYOA novel with the digital entertainment that so many of us love, and that's exactly what we have in The Forest of Doom - a digitized version of an earlier physical book. In terms of the narrative, it's nothing fancy or exceptional, but it gets the job done as standard fantasy fare. The mood is set nicely by an epic-feeling, if overly short and looping, soundtrack. There are a nice variety of pieces of still-frame art to add flavor to some of your encounters. I didn't find them to be great artistically, but they were good enough to add to the sense of place, creating a deeper level of involvement than text alone. Overall, the presentation was quite well done and I found it engaging. There are quite a large amount of items to collect and use, some of which can be pretty important in completing your quest. I really appreciated the in-game map, which helped you keep a sense of your bearings on repeat plays as you tried to find the two missing items needed in order to complete the story. The dice-roll combat was classic old-school, and while not incredibly exciting, it did up the drama a bit in particularly tight encounters.

There are some things I had issue with in this game. Firstly, the fact that you couldn't retrace your steps was frustrating. I'd have like the option to turn around and go back from whence I came, although I suppose this is true to the original. But it also makes it easy to hit a dead-end where you are funneled to the climax without any possibility of "winning", and that's an annoyance necessitating starting over. Also, much of your prospects for success can be hampered or enhanced by your initial dice rolls for your stats, giving maybe too much weight to the initial set up. And if you strip away the interactive elements, the concept of choice, you're really just left with a middling (generously speaking) fantasy story. Yet, there's something nostalgic in this type of experience, albeit in digital form. I can't say I was blown away, but I did enjoy my time with it, and I think the genre has potential. I'll check out more of what this niche brings to the table down the road. A 3/5.

[isthatallyougot]

#15 War of the Monsters (PS2)



Growing up, I really loved 50's era campy monster movies - everything from King Kong to the Creature from the Black Lagoon, although my favorite movies and character came from the Godzilla entries. So when firing up War of the Monsters from Icongnito for the first time, I decided to make a run through the game as the Godzilla-like character, Togera. Reliving the vibe of these colossal clashes, albeit with unlicensed versions of these classic characters along with some unique creations, was a compelling premise for me, for sure. I really enjoyed the fact that the world/buildings could be destroyed as these behemoths squared off, indifferent to the havoc and human misery they were creating. Watching the little humans flee in terror in some levels was a really nice touch and added a great deal to the flavor of being a massive titan. Unfortunately the campaign was quite brief and the various monsters, while playing somewhat differently from each other, weren't unique enough in practice to warrant going through an identical set of missions multiple times. I also found the camera to be a little too loose, but in fairness, there is a lock-on feature to minimize that issue. The controls weren't as tight or involved as I would have liked and things felt overly floaty in action oftentimes. Because of that, I didn't feel as big and weighty or powerful as I would have liked, despite the chaos surrounding the fights. War of the Monsters is certainly a decent game, and a game with an outstanding premise in my view, but it just isn't great enough to warrant a strong recommendation for me. It's worth the modest amount of your time to go through the campaign once, and you may get more mileage out of this one if you get into the two-player action, but I didn't play in that mode at all. This War knocks down 3 buildings out of 5.


#14 NFL Gameday 2004 (PS2)




I have a real affinity and sense of nostalgia for the NFL Gameday franchise, dating back to its roots on the PS1. Being a huge NFL fan and a new owner of the first gaming console from Sony, and a prior Madden player on the Sega Genesis, I was eagerly awaiting the new offering from EA Sports on my shiny new 32-bit console. But as EA ran into trouble with developer Visual Concepts (who made the greatest NFL game ever in NFL 2K5) and had to skip a year, there was a void left in the realm of digital pigskin. Thankfully, Sony (989) stepped up to the plated and delivered NFL Gameday, an incredible experience to fill that vacancy in the beginning. And I enjoyed multiple iterations of that franchise on the PS1.

As time shifted to the PS2, and after Madden had regained its foothold on the PS1, ultimately delivering the better NFL experience (in my view) on that console, I had also gradually shifted back to a regular and exclusive Madden player, in terms of NFL gaming. The launch of the PS2 and its wonderful versions of Madden, along with the horribly reviewed early entries in the Gameday franchise, only cemented my stance, and I found myself foregoing the idea of playing any new versions of NFL Gameday, despite my affinity for the PS1 entries.

Fast forward to three or four years ago where my curiosity finally got the better of me, and I ordered NFL Gameday 2004 online, hoping to see if that formerly beloved franchise was ever able to right its ship and offer an interesting version of the classic sport. It was not an urgent situation obviously, and only this year did I find myself reaching for the box to see what was what.

I was pretty impressed with things graphically at the outset, given the fact that my last memory of the franchise was on the prior generation's machine. It wasn't as good as Madden of the day in some regards, but it held its own nicely from a visual standpoint, given the time period. I thought there were some really nice animations at times, although there are often some hard/awkward transitions from one to the next, making things less fluid. I also loved hearing the late Dick Enberg again. His smooth delivery wasn't perfectly replicated, of course, but it was wonderful hearing the long-time broadcaster's voice. As for the gameplay itself, it's um, not bad. I can't give it the praise I wish I could because of several factors, but hey, it's video game football, and that's pretty good for an NFL fan, generally speaking.

Unfortunately, the transition to a new generation of consoles, saw 989 lagging further and further behind, and despite making some strides as time progressed on the PS2, it unfortunately delivers some slower and less responsive gameplay in comparison to the competition. (I couldn't believe how slow it felt to control Michael Vick after trading for him to my beloved Panthers.) The AI is not very adept either, resorting to a weird mix of cheating at higher difficulties while simultaneously still being easily exploited. Of course, multiplayer would alleviate this complaint, but it's a little hard to find an online match for a 2003 release on the Playstation 2. I also thought that there were some weird and unintuitive design choices. In the way of example, there is no global depth chart, forcing you to micromanage everything by formation which is very tedious. The menus in general were also poorly designed and frustrating. The commentary is inconsistent with the on-field action, which is not that uncommon in sports titles. One hilarious and unfortunate oddity is that one of the darker players I've ever seen in the NFL, DeShaun Foster, is white in the game. There were also many instances of throwing a pass to a receiver running a hook/curl, and when he catches the ball facing the line of scrimmage, he almost always runs back to the line a couple of yards before the game gives you control again, even if he's stationary when making the catch. Obviously, this results in some bad outcomes. When you add up all the little things, it becomes a hurdle to significant enjoyment.

Despite the collection of negatives, I won't say GameDay 2004 is horrible, but it lags too far behind the competition of its day, and that makes it difficult to recommend. Unfortunately this series just lost ground in the race for pigskin dominance and was never able to recover. It's a generous 3/5, making concessions for the time period, my nostalgia for the franchise and the fact that I just love the NFL and sports games in general. But if you're hankering for some PS2 gridiron action, you'd be far batter served playing any version of Madden or the incomparable NFL 2K5.

[canedaddy]

War of the Monsters' single player is meh, but there's nothing better than PvP. Love that game.

[isthatallyougot]

Sadly I never got to play the multiplayer in WotM, but I'm sure it's a good time.

[isthatallyougot]

#13 Kirby Mass Attack (DS)



Kirby is one of several longstanding franchises that I've never experienced. Despite knowing that Mass Attack is not the most traditional Kirby going in, I decided to pull this one off the shelf and give it a try. The Pink Puff provided plenty of polish for which Nintendo is popular. Everything was colorful and cute, and the stylus-only controls were interesting and sometimes innovative, making the omission of traditional controls a relatively minor issue - something I found surprising and quite impressive. There were a wide variety of scenarios, types of levels, and ways to interact with the world in this Kirby title, and because of that, the game remained fresh throughout its often-lengthy 40+ stages/bosses. The downside to some of the levels being quite long was that if you did make a mistake or lose all your miniature Kirbys, you'd also lose a fair bit of progress and have to do it all again. But, I won't knock too much off for that because the game isn't overly challenging, unless you're going for all the unlockables via the acquisition of certain medals scattered and sometimes hidden about the levels. Speaking of which, there are a good number of min-games to acquire and play outside the main campaign, and they are mostly quite fun. I especially enjoyed the Kirby pinball table, and I probably spent near as much time with that as I did the main game. But while the game was obviously well-made and polished, it never deeply connected with me. It had some nice ideas and execution, but it wasn't compelling in the way that better platformers are, in my view. Despite the solid implementation of stylus-based gameplay, it didn't feel as good as traditional button presses which I am used to in this genre. The constant swiping and tapping were done about as well as I could hope for, yet the old-dog part of me did find learning this new trick less satisfying than the familiar ways of playing. I will say that if you're really taken with the game, it can be quite lengthy, allowing for significant play past the end credits, earning new things and enjoying those bite-sized experiences. For me, though, it was good enough to warrant my time, but not entertaining enough to earn a strong endorsement. Having consumed this cuteness, I don't currently consider myself a constituent of the cult of Kirby, but I carry no contempt and can't kick this classic curvaceous clump to the curb, especially considering that the current case wasn't conclusively characteristic of the contents of the complete collection A 3/5.

#12 Mega Man 9 (PS3)



I love a good platformer and I love a good challenge, so in theory Mega Man ought to be right up my alley. Having never played any entry in this venerated franchise, I decided to give 9 a try, knowing that it is quite beloved by fans of the series. The retro graphics neither entice nor repel me. I'm able to enjoy any game I find fun, regardless of visuals, so it gets no added points for being old-school from me. It had suitable music to match the visuals, sounding authentically 8-bit in nature. Again, as with the visuals, it wasn't a real pro or con for me. What IS most important for me in the vast majority of cases is that I'm having fun. Now fun can be measured differently, so perhaps it's more appropriate to say that I want to find myself thoroughly engaged in what I'm playing, and various factors contribute to that sense of engagement. In the case of platformers that comes usually from a sense of joy in simple movement. Running, jumping and performing various actions can feel quite satisfying if the controls are right. In the case of Mega Man 9, I certainly found the controls to be precise, which is very important, but I didn't garner enough pleasure in those actions. It wasn't like Mario, where I'm simply thrilled to be bounding around. As to why I wasn't properly enjoying myself, I think there is an easy explanation. This game is absolutely punishing. One mistake will undo you, and it's incredibly easy to make a mistake at any point in any level. I found myself re-runnning levels over and over again even when I was playing very well because of a single small error, albeit different from the time before. On the other side of that coin, there is a satisfaction in learning a level so thoroughly, an achievement that only comes with great repetition. And it is very satisfying to beat a boss and earn a new weapon - such a nice sense of accomplishment. But, the cost to value ratio is skewed too heavily on the cost side of the equation for me personally. Mega Man 9 is not a bad game, by any means. Quite the contrary, it's a well-made, incredibly precise and satisfying in very clear ways. But despite its obvious strengths, I was just unable to find the desire to press on at a certain point. I might be open to trying another in the future, and I see the appeal, but I can't count myself as a member of the Blue Bomber fan club from playing this entry in the series. A 3/5.

[Phaseknox]

I love a good platformer and I love a good challenge, so in theory Mega Man ought to be right up my alley. Having never played any entry in this venerated franchise, I decided to give 9 a try, knowing that it is quite beloved by fans of the series.

You've never played a Mega Man game before? I haven't played 9, but you really should start with the classics so I would suggest getting Mega Man Legacy Collection which includes the first six games.

By the way, I'm enjoying your list of games. Keep them coming.

[isthatallyougot]

I love a good platformer and I love a good challenge, so in theory Mega Man ought to be right up my alley. Having never played any entry in this venerated franchise, I decided to give 9 a try, knowing that it is quite beloved by fans of the series.

You've never played a Mega Man game before? I haven't played 9, but you really should start with the classics so I would suggest getting Mega Man Legacy Collection which includes the first six games.

By the way, I'm enjoying your list of games. Keep them coming.

Thanks phase.

I have Mega Man Legacy collection both physically and digitally. And I think I could really get into the franchise. It may have just been poor timing with my entry into the series with 9. I'm not turned off the series because of my experience. I enjoyed it, I just got too frustrated at the time. Usually I have enough patience, but for whatever reason I didn't with that one at that time.