Category: Games

2016 in Games

January 26, 2017

Once again, it’s time for the long awaited analysis of my game-buying and playing habits of the past year.

All told the year was slightly down on 2015, and the number of systems I bought games for continued to be small. In total I purchased 65 games for 4 systems, to a total of $1836, or $28/game. Notably, 2016 was the first year since I started keeping records (way back in 1993) that I didn’t buy any new hardware, which meant I was not swayed by Sony and Microsoft releasing iterative updates of both their consoles. While the numbers weren’t much different from 2015, looking back at 2016 as I am now gives me pause for the console gaming future.

Here are the games purchased per system in percentage format:

And the dollars spent per system, again by percentage:

As you can see my gaming was more or less split between the PS4, Vita and 3DS with the Wii U an almost forgotten fourth entry. As far as I can surmise the Wii U may already be a dead console for me, unless the Nintendo Switch is dead-in-the-water and I buy the upcoming Zelda game on Wii U as it’s last hurrah.

Vita sales continued to be strong but I believe they have passed the peak and the system will decline sharply in 2017 (not a risky prediction since it’s already effectively ‘retired’ by Sony). I expect the PS4 will continue to be strong for a while, especially in this house as it’s difficult to resist the allure of deeply discounted games (such as Far Cry Primal for $5), but it remains to be seen how much the 4K updates will eat into the lifetime of my version of the console. The 3DS is a bit of a wild card at the moment; it hardly seems the Switch is a replacement (and Nintendo says it isn’t) but at the same time there’s not a lot on the horizon for it at present. 2017 could be a difficult year for the venerable handheld.

Before I get to my favourites from this past year, a few comments on specific games:

Puzzle And Dragons relaxed it’s hold on me somewhat this year. I still play it every day – as I have for nearly four years! – but it’d best days are behind it and I have little patience for the forced difficulty of some of the more recent dungeons. Mostly my logins these days are 5-10 minute bursts spending stamina in trivial dungeons. I have almost all the gods and many ‘broken’ teams and can beat almost anything the game throws at me. I think the game would benefit from a big round of powercreep to bring the fun back.

Egg, Inc. is a crazy ‘chicken hatching’ game for iOS that has stolen my soul these past two months. It’s the first mobile game in years that I have spent money on, and has the notable honor of being the game that broke P&D’s hold on my in the mobile sphere. It’s little more than a crazy ‘tapper’ (although you can quickly research away the need to tap) but it has a good sense of progression, is generous with rewards and is fiendishly addictive. Highly recommended.

Bubble Bobble for ZX-Spectrum cost me £5 in a UK retro games store and is not included in the above charts due to it’s uniqueness. At present it’s my only Spectrum game (on cassette!) and I can’t play it since I don’t own the machine. Waste of money? You be the judge 🙂

This year to mix things up a bit I’ll list my favourite games from each of the main three systems I played on. In no particular order (well…) they are:

Stranger Of Sword City (Vita)

This is a monstrously long and difficult Wizardry clone that dominated my time for about 150 hours during the late summer. The story, graphics and atmosphere of the game are superb, but what made it really shine was the way it took liberties with the genre (no resurrection spells, permadeath, forced character restarts) in a way that could have been disastrous but instead ended up being revitalizing. Dungeon crawls are popular right now, but too many of them are needlessly complicated with labyrinthine and un-fun dungeons. It takes a careful hand to avoid such pitfalls in design, and the makers of SoSC walked that path well. While I wouldn’t actually recommend this due to it’s difficulty, it was just the right game for me at the time and beating it was very satisfying.

Odin Sphere Leifthrasir (PS4)

Vanillaware took their PS2 classic and ran it through the Dragon’s Crown machine to make it a much better game for PS4. This is quite simply one of the best 2D beat-em-ups I have ever played and I would have loved it even were it not for the fact it happens to be one of the prettiest games I’ve ever played as well. Multiple characters, numerous endings, breathtaking art and wonderful music make this a close contender for my game of the year. In fact I loved it so much I beat every inch of it to get the platinum trophy (which took over 100 hours). Highly recommended.

Monster Hunter Generations (3DS)

Not just the latest installment in my favourite game series of all time – the best version yet. This owned me as all the others have, and I played it like a fiend for months. Easily my game of the year, and I can’t wait for the upcoming sequel due some time this year. You can read about it on next year’s post 😉

My Collection: Wonderswan

November 17, 2016

In 1999, Bandai – no doubt tempted by the oodles of cash Nintendo were raking in via their Gameboy – released their own handheld system called the Wonderswan. It was notably designed by legendary hardware engineer Gunpei Yokoi (who created the Gameboy and many other Nintendo products) and was less expensive, more powerful and had longer battery life than the Gameboy. Bandai leveraged their contacts within the anime industry to deliver a wealth of licensed games unique to the system. It was quite a success in Japan in the first couple of years, obtaining almost 10% of the portable market. Then along came the Gameboy Advance, which killed the Wonderswan almost immediately, and despite two updates in as many years, the Wonderswan was discontinued in 2003. It was never released outside of Japan.

I bought mine in Japan in 2004 for Y3600, or about $31. This was the final iteration of the system, called the SwanCrystal. It boasted better battery life and a colour screen compared to the original version, but is reverse compatible with all Wonderswan games. Mine came with two games and I bought 7 more at a total cost of an additional $45 (approximately). Here are the games I bought that day:

I bought it in Akihabara, on the first or second day of the trip at a branch of ‘Super Potato’ if memory serves me correctly. Of the games shown above, only Final Fantasy IV (Y1900) and Front Mission (Y1800) cost much at all – Densha de Go! was an incredible Y80 (about $0.70)!

I still have fond memories of playing the system in the inn at night during that very trip to Japan. In those days, this was extremely advanced handheld technology.

The system uses a single AA battery and has a (non backlit) 224×144 resolution colour LCD screen. It’s very reflective, which made taking photographs difficult. As you can see the cartridge-to-system ratio is enormous, and the cartridges for the WS are not just big compared to itself, but amongst the biggest handheld system cartridges I’ve ever seen. The pool game (Sidepocket) was made before the colour version came out and is B&W only. Here’s a shot of the graphics:

The Wonderswan feels more like a toy than it’s competitors, but delivers in the gameplay department. The screen refresh is much better than it was on the gameboy, and the graphics and sound are still impressive today. I forget the battery life but it was surprisingly long for a single AA, and I very much enjoyed playing the FF games on this system long before ports came out for the Gameboy Advance. As you can see, it took me over 28 hours to reach the end of Final Fantasy IV:

The game is of course all in Japanese (as would be virtually every game for the system) but I had played it multiple times before so that didn’t bother me. Here’s a photo of the fight against Bahamut:

Note the unusual controls of the system, specifically the two d-pads on the left. This was so the games could be played either vertically or horizontally, or even by two people at once. No game I have supports vertical (or 2P) mode so I don’t know what it’s like, but the small size of the system would make holding it vertically uncomfortable for an adult.

As with most retro game systems, and despite being at best a footnote and at worst unknown, the WS seems to be appreciating in value these days. A boxed SwanCrystal can be picked up for about $80+ on ebay, although apparently mine is one of the less common colours (‘blue violet’) and may cost twice that. Games range in price from a few dollars up to over $1000. And yes, that’s no mistype: go and search ebay for ‘Judgement Silversword’ to see what I mean. I just checked ebay for the ‘value’ of my games and found most of the WS Colour ones to be going for about $20-30 each (boxed).

However to me my most prized game is actually this one:

It’s an adventure-type game based on the Uzumaki manga by Junjo Ito. It’s B&W since it was for the basic WS, and virtually unplayable for me due to the language barrier, but I’m a big fan of the manga so I couldn’t resist buying the game ‘for the collection’ when I saw it a few years after I’d bought the WS during a later Japanese trip. Here’s a screenshot:

This game was also the reason for the one-and-only Wikipedia edit I ever made. But that’s another blog entry…

Con Haul

October 31, 2016

I’m shamelessly borrowing a post format from AW here; everything I purchased at the local comic con I attended yesterday. I arrived with $106.50 on me, and left with nothing! Here’s the swag…

A pack of Voltron tattoos from 1984. The guy that sold them to me (from a mostly full box) seemed surprised when I said I’d use them. ($2)

Three packs of trading cards. As should be obvious by now, I can’t pass up non-sports cards. At $1/pack these were a bit pricey though. ($3)

A stuffed stegosaurus. I bought this for KLS from the girl who made it. This is actually the second one I’ve bought over the years, although this one is cuter and fatter! ($7)

A Japanese money box ‘sound bank’. I haven’t opened it yet. I think it’s a tiny bank that plays a sound effect from Super Mario Bros. when you put coins in. ($5)

Loads of comics. The average cost was just under $0.50 each. I tend to gravitate to non superhero stuff pre 1990 if possible. That’s the first eleven issues of Indy! ($14.50 in total)

An Avalon Hill fantasy board game from 1979. Yes it’s complete, and yes it will be played. The rules seem delightfully complex! ($10)

A fat Rilakkuma thing. I overpaid for this, but it was my white whale in a UFO catcher in CA early this year. Plus it’s cute! ($40)

Dungeons & Dragons lite-brite set (from 1983). Yes it’s unopened and yes it will remain that way! How could I have passed up such a curiosity! ($15)

Not a bad load of loot is it? For those keeping tabs this totals to only $96.50. What about the other $10 you ask? That was the admission fee.

After a string of disappointing years the con roared back this year and impressed me to no end. Next time I’ll be sure to have more cash with me 🙂

Robot Claw