What's up guys? It's time for yet another 12-in-12, the initiative to beat twelve games in twelve months and take out the backlog! Newbies to this concept can check out my maiden post on the subject; then you'll get what's up here. Also check out last year's 12-in-12.

As always, here's the successful hit list for 2023:

• Dark Souls [PS3]
• Marble it Up [Switch]
• FAST rmx [Switch]
• Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom [Switch]
• Terraria [Steam]
• TMNT: Shredder's Revenge [Switch]
• BIT.TRIP RUNNER [Steam/PC]
• Cogs [Steam/PC]
• Furi [Switch]
• Geometry Wars 3 [PS3]
• Symphony [Steam]
• Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night [Switch]
• Super Mario Bros. Wonder [Switch]
• Castlevania: Dracula X [SNES]
• TMNT: Tournament Fighters [NES]
• TMNT: Tournament Fighters [SNES]
• TMNT: Tournament Fighters [Genesis]
• TMNT 2: Back From the Sewers [GB]

(yep, those TMNT games are each different!)

That's a total of eighteen games beaten this year! Huzzah!

April

I spent the first few months of the year dabbling in classics, but Dark Souls [PS3] had hung out in my backlog -- with an unfinished save -- since 2016! I decided to push through it, while streaming, and it turned out to be a great experience. I may come back to it some day, but I'm beginning to see flaws in the structure of the Soulslike genre. I think a little more work could be put into discoverability, but the art direction and world building is stellar. It has absolutely earned its place as a classic and I'll never forget my first time through.

I also picked up Marble it Up [Switch] in March and finished it in April, so despite the drought in game progress since Box Pusher in 2022, it feels good to knock out a long-running, 100+ hour RPG. Those are the true phantoms of a backlog, right?

Toward the end of the month, I knocked out the last of the cups I needed to finish in FAST rmx on the Switch. It's a great racing game if you're looking for edge-of-your-seat, white-knuckle driving! I got it years ago, but lacked the grit to finish out the races (placing at least 3rd) until recently. I'll come back to it from time to time, like I do most racing games that I hold onto.

June

After picking it up on release day in May, I finished Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom [Switch], a game I'd been anticipating for six years! There is a whirlwind of thoughts in my head for this game, and it's definitely changed how I view video games, and the Zelda series as a whole. I correctly predicted that we're getting a third game: the plot lends itself to a continuation for this pair of protagonists. I give it a year max before Nintendo announces work on a third game. Overall, TotK was a wonderful romp, but a kind reminder that I'm getting too old for certain genres that require huge blocks of time to get anywhere in. There are still some sidequests and collections to complete, but I've done all the shrines and exposed all the map, and most of the equipment is found too. I hope the next Zelda leans less on device-building and open world mechanics.

July

At the beginning of the month, my partner and I finished up Terraria [Steam]! We ended up cheesing through some parts using the Builder's Workshop, but everything we skipped was essentially farming and repeating stuff we had already done. We still beat bosses and crafted ingredients legitimately.

Having beaten both Terraria and Minecraft, I'm solidly convinced that sandboxes and crafting/survival games are not my cup of tea. They're two of the most famous and popular games in the genre, and I'm walking away from them rather disappointed in all the time I spent doing what amounts to busy work.

In Terraria, the primary way you discover the game is through the Guide NPC, and later other NPCs, depending on the quest. Almost none of the game is clearly conveyed to you, and it reeks of a game that has organically grown in scope creep for ten years, just like Minecraft. You really can't make appreciable progress in games like this without a wiki. Discoverability is a huge part of games, especially for games with interacting systems or concurrent mechanics.

Additionally, it's not enough to have one or two primary crafting stations. In Terraria, there are dozens of them! If I were to redesign the game, it would be in its progression. I'm totally cool with bosses being the gates for world progress, but the crafting stations and whatnot would be a single crafting station, and a single chest that has tabs/pages you can unlock or purchase. The visual mess that you end up with by the endgame is overwhelming, even though you know what everything's supposed to do.

If I ever come back to Terraria, it will be to build random creations, just like Minecraft. Sad to say, the genre has an extreme amount of work to do in the accessibility and discoverability departments. I shouldn't need an online resource to grok your game.

August

I had picked it up a few weeks prior, but once I got into TMNT: Shredder's Revenge [Switch], I couldn't put it down for a good few days! It's the spiritual successor to Turtles in Time, right down to a lot of the bosses! It feels more complete, featuring bosses and enemies from both new and old TMNT, though the focus is mostly on the old style. I like that you can finally play as Master Splinter and April O'Neill; a first since Tournament Fighters, on the SNES!

There is at least one unlockable character that I won't spoil, which is nice, but it seems all additional content will be coming in DLC form. That's disappointing, because I bought the game in physical form with the expectation that a classic-styled sequel would have 100% of its content from launch day. The release of the DLC gives me some trepidation about buying new Turtles games, despite the quality gaming experience. I expected better from Dotemu, considering that Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap launched earlier in the Switch's life and had 100% of its content on day one. What happened, guys?

September

This month, I targeted some older games in the backlog, starting with BIT.TRIP RUNNER, the first in the BIT.TRIP series.

It was essentially a precursor to games like Harmoknight on the 3DS, but unlike Harmoknight, RUNNER will bump you back to the beginning of the level if you hit ANY obstacles! The variability in playing the game is mostly "how many of the gold bars did you get?" You unlock bonus levels by completing the normal levels while getting all of the gold bars.

Also, despite being a rhythm game, I didn't feel much like I was interacting with a beat or any particularly well-placed musical sounds. Mid-level checkpoints would go a long way to improving the game's accessibility.

Machinations

Later in the month, I tackled Cogs, a fun gear-based puzzle game that's also a sliding tile and PipeDream clone, all in one! I had got it as part of a Humble Bundle back in 2011 or so, and had barely played it. I was surprised at how well I adapted to coming back to this. It's still worth booting up just to study the puzzles a little. Glad to have come back to check it out. That said, I'm definitely more of a Move guy than a Time guy. I enjoy how the Challenge modes allow you to pick between time and moves as a way to challenge yourself and get easier stars. After 300 stars, you can unlock the credits, which is a level! It's one of the most complicated in the game, and it certainly tested my skill in sliding tile puzzles. Much like Box Pusher from last year, I think Cogs has burned me out on this style of game. It was a solid playthrough, but I'm kind of over it.

Escaping a cosmic jail

Toward the end of the month, I finished out Furi [Switch]. I had left off on the third boss, then over the course of the past week, butted my head against the wall of challenges that are this game's bosses.

Overall, I believe the game is an interesting blend of bullet hell and edge-of-your-seat reflex-oriented combat. Though every boss is meant to be an immense challenge, only one of them felt unrealistically unfair and tedious: a female sniper named The Burst.

She begins the boss fight by hiding, and can shoot you from across the arena, which is 3-4 screens wide and tall. This shot can take one of your three life stocks in a single hit. Living up to her name of Burst, this makes sense for a super or something; as a primary attack, it's bonkers! Her game of keep-away is what is most annoying, because the actual combat against her was fairly well done. The hide and seek phases and one-shot kills are what make this boss fight ridiculous. By contrast, the very next fight after her is more intense and imposing, and yet he does less damage than her auto-lock one-shotter.

As the credits rolled, I was blown away by the landscape in this peaceful realm. Discovering the true identity of The Stranger was crazy, and defeating the mothership was a satisfying end to the saga for me. I do wonder what would have happened if I chose the other option, but that's what Youtube is for.

This game sat around in my backlog for a solid five years. It's a relief to bring it to rest. I might some day play through just so I can fight the rest of the bosses. We'll see. The Burst is such a bitch that I really don't want to fight her again.

October

Angular Ownage

I'm on a roll at the end of the year now, aren't I? This month is off with a bang with Geometry Wars 3 [PS3]! I bought this game very shortly after getting a Playstation 3, back in 2015. I had played the OG at a friend's house on Xbox back in 2009 or so, and had Geometry Wars: Galaxies on both my DS and Wii at some point, so the third entry in the series was a must-own, naturally. Its gameplay is wonderful and the same it's always been, with the bonus of drone behaviors you can upgrade that isn't as grueling as Galaxies, but just as rewarding. I have to admit that I don't like the weird and warpy levels, because they're zoomed in too much. The biggest issue I have with this game is the frequency that enemies will end up spawning on top of you. The pillar of light that appears before a spawn is super helpful, but perhaps not quite enough warning. Overall, I'm still satisfied with this game even if it kicks my ass from time to time.

Liberating My Music

The next target was Symphony [Steam]! It's a Galaga-style shmup that is similar to Beat Hazard in that it analyzes your music and generates levels (in this case, enemy patterns) to play to. There's a story involved, but it's really just an excuse to play more levels.

Overall I felt it was okay, but it's much easier to earn Kudos than it is to acquire Inspiration, so I reached a point toward the end of the game's progression where I would have to farm songs on lower difficulties to get more dependable rates of inspiration. There are also rare items that I still haven't unlocked yet, despite seeing many multiples of other items that, if bought, cannot be converted into a resource, nor can kudos be exchanged for inspiration. As a result, I ended up with millions of kudos, but lacking the inspiration (by around 80%) to purchase all of the equipment upgrades that I wanted to.

It was okay but I think I'm done with music games. Between Guitar Hero, Hatsune Miku, Taiko Drum Master, Beat Hazard, and now Symphony, I've played so much of the genre that I don't think there's much left to explore.

Déjà Vu of the Night

Later in the month, I struggled my way through Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night [Switch]. To be honest with you, as a backer of the game at the $100 tier, I am somewhat disappointed in the game. Not because it's bad, per se, but because it has so many technical problems. I intend to write a more thorough review when I've had some time to refine and reflect on my thoughts.

I think this is one I'll be 100%ing, despite the difficulties that come with the Switch version. The nostalgia is strong for me, and the smooth framerates and responsiveness of Symphony of the Night all through Order of Ecclesia were all fantastic! That's what lets me down the most about Bloodstained; Igarashi's past games were all great in the technical department. His staff at Konami must've had more experience or something.

I may eventually pick Bloodstained up on Steam at a steep sale so I can experience the "proper" version, but thus far I will probably not be getting aboard another Igarashi project without some proof he has a capable and dedicated team that can churn out a minimum of a solid 30 frames per second, and no input problems. This is not an unreasonable standard, even back in the mid 2010s when it was being developed. Perhaps Inti Creates should've been contracted for the main game instead of just the two Curse of the Moon games.

There are all sorts of other weird things that happen to me on Switch too, like Great Swords auto-attacking a second time if you attack in the air with any buff that increases attack speed. If you strike an enemy with the air attack, it cannot hit with the attack that starts as soon as you land. This seems like a design error; either the sword shouldn't auto-attack when you land, or it should be able to hit both times.

This marks the twelfth game beaten this year! Hell yeah!

November

A Wond(er)ous Adventure

I received a copy of Super Mario Bros. Wonder [Switch] for my birthday, and once I started playing it, I couldn't put it down. It was a blast the whole way. I ended up 100%ing it in around 15 hours. Like many other games, I want to give it the attention it deserves in its own review. It's a great game, though, so if you have a Switch, you owe it to yourself to try Modern Mario. It's great!

Following that, Bloodstained's 100% completion wasn't too far away, so I finished that up just after 100%ing Mario! I've not felt like I was making progress like this in quite a while.

X Does NOT Mark the Spot

The next target in my continued onslaught is Castlevania: Dracula X, part of the Advance Collection on Switch. After having played through it now, it's definitely not as good as Rondo of Blood, and is straight confusing if you go from Dracula X to Symphony of the Night, due to the differences in story and, in some cases, total lack of certain characters or stages from Rondo.

The chief problem I have is the relationship between the clunky movement and the invulnerability from being hit. Too often in Dracula X, you get hit out of the air, only to get knocked into another hit that you have no control of, and can sometimes be juggled, with little recourse available to you. This is because your only special move is a backflip, and the landing lag prevents you from doing any evasive maneuvers. Richer lacks his attacking dash, his slide (and its dash), he can't run or spin his whip, he can't angle the direction of his whip... Honestly one of the weaker entries in the series.

That said, the music and graphics are both great. A mod of this game with a double-tap dash and some better movement options would turn it around completely. You can still have clunky movement without super-short invulnerability times and overly aggressive AI. It feels like it was meant to be an arcade game with its janky mechanics.

Not Quite Turtley Enough

I wanted to beat the Tournament Fighters games from the TMNT collection. I was quite let down by the lack of techniques available for each character, and the utterly unfair CPU opponents that I was up against. There's not much room for juggling, parrying, reversing or blocking a grab, etc. I appreciate how different each of the NES, SNES, and Genesis versions are, but because they're so different, I feel each one is missing some depth that it would have if perhaps there was a more unified vision for the final product.

They're okay for what they were, but definitely not a reason to buy the collection. All that's left for me on the collection now are the 2nd and 3rd GameBoy games, the latter of which I'm saving for last since it's a Metroidvania!

I knocked out TMNT 2: Back From the Sewers [GB] just in time for the end of the year!

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That's it for 2023! I'll see you again in 2024!