New Review Scale

For a while my verdict for games really doesn't make sense. It was just what I thought during that time and it was never the same. So I am making a scale that match with the game I am playing right now

Tiers

S - A must play game. Can't put it down. Enjoyed every moment of it 

A - The game did what it should. Entertain me from start to finish 

B - The game has it flaws but I enjoyed it. 

C - The game is enjoyable but there is certain aspect of the game made me can't finish the game

D - Games that I Rage Quit 

E - Avoid this at all cost 

F - Why????

Genesis

History 
Finally after a while I finish all the genesis games that it is my list. I never own a Genesis before but I've played it once around the 90s. I remember it was Sonic 2 and Mortal Kombat 2. It was some good memories. 

The Games
16 bit games are the same as normal 8 bit games. I think game of the 90s are more or less the same.  There are some games that stood the test of time but most of them didn't age well at all. 

The Good 
Sonic and anything Sonic adjacent it a good game to play in this machine. Other than that a couple of side scrollers. 

The Bad
Everything else. Most of the games really are just too hard to be played and it is not really fun.

The Ugly
Faux 3D graphics. They control bad and the gameplay just doesn't make sense 

Conclusion

The Genesis is probably great for its time but most of the games really are unplayable and the rest just trash. 16 bit is coming back but with modern gameplay which is awesome. But for now, this will remind in the far corners of history.

NES (30/787 games) 3.81% replayability
Master System (5/280 games) 1.79% replayability 
Gameboy (31/555 games) 5.59% replayability 
Genesis (28/776 games) 0.04% replayability
Neo Geo   (20/136 games) 14.71% replayability 
Game Gear  (10/257 games) 3.89% replayability 
SNES ( 784 games)

Neo Geo

By Evan-Amos - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=18260466


History 
I never own this console ever in my life. I've played a couple of games for this console in the arcades. So that's about it. I think the Neo Geo was never available in my country. Even if it is. It probably was very expensive. 

The Games
Basically all of the games are arcade games. It ranges from the fighting, shooting, driving and some action games in there. The thing I notice is that the games are face paced and are design to suck your quarters a lot.

The Good 
There are two genres that the Neo Geo excel is which is fighting and shooting. But there are only two types of fighting game that are the most popular which is the King of Fighters and Samurai Showdown. Metal Slug and any side scrolling bullet hell game. Those games are fun

The Bad
Everything else. It seems all the other games are mostly a miss. The sport games doesn't translate well to arcade (except Winjammers) and the others are just weird in a sense

The Ugly
Because they are arcade port they are insanely difficult. Its a good thing that you can have unlimited quarters.

Conclusion
There are classics in the Neo Geo but most of them are just a forgotten relic in time. Out of 136 games I've only manage to finish or enjoyed around 20 of them. They are still releasing Neo Geo games for future system. In that sense this console will never die.


NES (30/787 games) 3.81% replayability
Master System (5/280 games) 1.79% replayability 
Gameboy (31/555 games) 5.59% replayability 
Genesis ( 776 games)
Neo Geo   (20/136 games) 14.71% replayability 
Game Gear  (10/257 games) 3.89% replayability 
SNES ( 784 games)

The 16-bit console war begins now

Genesis does... what Nintendont. Oh so they say during the 90's. I wouldn't know since my household has a no console policy during that time so I mainly stick to handhelds as my primary mode of gaming. So to figure out if the 16-bit era was truly great I am going to play all the games side by side to see who has the better library



On the genesis corner : 776 games
On the Super Nintendo corner: 784 games

A couple of criteria needs to be established

• Games will be selected by fun factor so I am not going to play all the titles in it
• I will also try my best to play RPG's (which a genre I don't quite like) and also sports 
• For every game from a console is done, I will switch to the next 16-bit console. It will be Genesis and SNES vice versa
• The same games will be played for both console. For fighting games will be played for both half of consoles. Like 6 characters for Mortal Kombat for genesis and 6 for SNES
• Reviews will also change 

Review criteria 

Game no:

Genre: 

Platform:

Difficulty: Easy, Moderate, Challenging, Hard Insane

What is it about:

What is great:

What's not so great:

SNES vs Genesis version:

Music: So-So, Ok, Catchy, Masterpeice

Status:

Should you play: Yes or No and why?

Let the games begin... 

Neo Geo

History 
No history with this console. But this console is the home version of the arcade machine. I did hear that this console is very expensive to come by.

The Games
The Neo Geo console is built on arcade ports. So it's has tons of fighting games, shooters and sports. It has the occasional racing and puzzle games as well. Most of the games are recommended to be played with two players. 

The Good 
The pixel art is amazing. Games like Garou has frame by frame pixel art which looks amazing. Some games combines 3d background images with 2d pixel arts. Other than that, the games are addictive in nature. It's a good thing that you have unlimited continues which means you can play the games from start to finish. 

The Bad
Some games perspective is a bit wired. The player will occupy 70% of the screen which makes playing the game a little to hard. Furthermore, some of the games look like they were design on a shoe string budget. The pixel arts only have a couple sprite animation per character and most of the games are just another generic fighter, shooter or sports game. They also recycle most of their sprite work for every game that comes the following year. 

The Ugly
The difficulty on some arcade games are borderline insane. The computer knows when to block and attack which makes playing the game not fun (I'm looking at you samurai shodown). The controls for some games doesn't translate well in 2D. 

ConclusionA great console that would be even better if you get a friend to play with you. Now phase 1 is almost complete. Is down to the main event. 

NES (30/787 games) 3.81% replayability
Master System (5/280 games) 1.79% replayability 
Gameboy (31/555 games) 5.59% replayability 
Genesis   776 games
Neo Geo   (20/136 games) 14.70% replayability 
Game Gear  (10/257 games) 3.89% replayability 
SNES 784 games

Game Gear

History 
This console was my first handheld console. I piratically begged my dad to buy me one for my birthday. The game that I got was a copy of Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (the game was not that great by I've played until multiple times). After a while my dad got me a multicart 18 in 1 game with a lot of different great titles likes Sonic Chaos and Power Rangers. The Game Gear was an awesome console because of two things. Colour and back light. There is also a very slight problem with it. It eats a lot of batteries. 6 to be exact. I remember lugging around a case full of batteries for every time a battery would die. Eventually I got a wall adapter so I can continue playing my games without any trouble (need to put a rubber band on the console since the adapter wouldn't stay on properly). The console died after 1 year but it gave me a lot of great memories. This was also my last console that I own for a while since I am a kid with no income and my mom doesn't like me playing games.

The Games
There are all genre of games represented in the Game Gear. Most of them are ports of Genesis or Master System games. Most of the great games are not from Sega apparently.  A lot of sports games for the Game Gear which doesn't play well in my opinion

The Good 
The side scrolling action genre games play well in the here. Fighting games as well translate properly and controls are responsive. Some games are even better than their genesis ports.

The Bad
The small Game Gear screen makes seeing anything in front in close to impossible. You will die multiple times in sonic because of missing a jump. Some games are not fun to play at all due to the fact the controls are not all there

The Ugly
The crushing difficulty and where some games really butcher the source material. Spider-man for the Game Gear sucks.

Conclusion
The Game Gear Games does not age well. Only 10 games from a total of  257 games that survive the test of time. Well at least this system is put to rest and will go on in gaming history as the handheld that tried to beat the Game Boy


NES (30/787 games) 3.81% replayability
Master System (5/280 games) 1.79% replayability 
Gameboy (31/555 games) 5.59% replayability 
Genesis
Neo Geo   (136 games)
Game Gear  (10/257 games) 3.89% replayability 
SNES

Game Boy

History
Now we are going through my favorite type of gaming consoles. Handhelds.. We will start with the first of it kind. The Game Boy. My first encounter with the Game Boy was always around the holidays at my cousins house. He will have a copy of Super Mario Land and Aladdin. We need to bring our own batteries but it was possible to beat that game in a couple of hours. The Game Boy with its monochromatic green screen is a challenge to play with. The lighting needs to be just right to play it which means that I usually can't play during the night.

Games
For a console with only 4 shades of gray and two buttons there were a lot of games for this machine. Every genre that you can think off is here so there is a lot of variety.

The Good
All of Nintendo's  games are of top notch quality and are still good to play until now. Konami is a close 2nd with also great games. Console ports which lacks is graphic fidelity but still great in gameplay. Rare also makes good ports of their SNES games

The Bad
Console ports which lacks in processing power. Framerate gets a bit choppy at times which makes the gameplay sucks. Games that really doesn't make sense to do it on a monochrome screens. It looks to chaotic on the screen.

The Ugly
First person anything. Nothing works in first person due to the slow framerate. Some games are borderline unplayable... The hard ass difficulty where you need cat like reflexes to beat the game.

Conclusion
Only 31 games out of the 555 that I could still play. The Game Boy will always be one of my great 8-bit portables. It doesn't stand the test of time but the memories will be there forever.

NES (30/787 games) 3.81% replayability
Master System (5/280 games) 1.79% replayability 
Gameboy ( 31/555 games) 5.59% replayability 
Genesis
Neo Geo
Game Gear  ( 257 games)
SNES

Sega Master System

Another console bites the dust.

History

I've never owned a Master System. The only memory I have of this console is at my friends house where he/she only have one game for it (Alex Kidd). Other than that there is no memory about this console. I was quite excited in trying this new system. Boy.. I was wrong

The Games 
Like the NES, the Master System has the same array of games but this system does not age well

The Good 
The Master System is good for one type of game. And those games are platformers. There are some notable ones. Anything Disney made looks surprisingly top notch. With hand drawn pixel art animation for each frame which makes the game looks amazing. The Master System also has a higher clock speed for an 8-bit console. This means that games like Ninja Gaiden performs fluidly and the colors are also bright.

The Bad
Almost everything else. Since most of these games are ported from either a Game Gear or a Genesis. A lot of their port conversion will lose something in the process. As a result, games that run on 16-bit hardware looks choppy on the 8-bit system and does not play well. Other hardware limitation as well as button limitations makes controlling any characters cumbersome and difficult. One button is usually for jump and another button is for attack. Which makes me wonder, some games like RPG requires more than a 2 button input doesn't play that well.

The Ugly 
One hit kills. Bullet swarms at random. Sluggish game controls. Gaps that are longer than the jump mechanic. A very boring library. These games does not age well.

NES vs Master System
The NES has the better library while the Master System lacks a decent one = 1 point NES
Same games for both system runs faster on the Master system, looks better on the Master System but plays like crap on the Master System. The NES games are built with the hardware limitation and the gameplay was design around it. = 1 point NES
Mario, Donkey Kong, Zelda, Gi Joe for NES... and the Master System has Alex Kid, Sonic and Streets of Rage (these games doesn't stand the test of time) = 1 point NES

Overall the NES is a better 8-bit console

Conclusion
Tried 280 games but only a handful of them stand the test of time. This system is not missed by any and 95% of the games sucks. Now I am moving on to the longest handheld every built.. The Gameboy


NES (30/787 games) 3.81% replayability
Master System (5/280 games) 1.79% replayability 
Gameboy ( 555 games)
Genesis
Neo Geo
Game Gear
SNES

Nintendo Entertainment System

I finally did it. I finish the entire library of NES games. So I am going to give my ramblings about the NES.

History
This was the first console I got me into gaming. I remember I got this after my parents were separated. My dad sees his way of giving love is by buying expensive stuff. But I was not complaining. I remember that the version that I have was the Famicom version with the top cart slot. I had only one cart which was a 120 games in 1 where most of them were just modded versions of other games but there was one stand out which was Contra. I remember me and my brother can't wait to get back home from school to play 2 player co-op. Good times indeed. Eventually my Famicom system was busted (probably due to dust), and so my dad got me another off-brand "system". It was call the micro genius machine. It is just the NES with a better body and controllers. I think I had that console until I was around 10 where after that I stop playing with games for a while a mostly played PC games. But I will never forget the console that started it all

Games
The NES has wide array of library with a multitude of genre to choose form. The problem is I think the developers are idea can't translate well to the NES due to its hardware limitation.

The Good 
Some of the games does stand the test of time. Of course Mario being one of it. The key to any good game is balancing the difficulty and the speed of the game. Great games are tend to be faster than crappy games. They have a clear objective and usually the pixels are not all over the place. A good example of this is Gi JOE. They game is clearly fun and deep. The enemies are challenging but not to the borderline of insane. Games that work for the NES are side scrolling action platformers, top down shooters (which I get it during that time can't work, I myself find that genre boring). Other than that is quite tough.

The Bad
Some of the games have slow framerate which makes it hard to enjoy. While others have the ability to put you in a situation where you need to time precise movements to jump and dodge attacks. The game play is fun but it is extremely taxing on a player with only 2 lives. Besides that there are a vast majority of shooting clones. From top down to side scrolling, on the ground, the air and in space. I think that is an easy design choice of avoiding bullets.

The Ugly
Some games are clearly on meant to be on the NES. Among them are 3D adventure games. Due to the limited number of colours and pixels that can be displayed. You need to have a lot of patience to play a game that requires a lot of reading. I myself did not fancy any text based RPG. Games with one hit kills, and there are a lot of them. I can imagine way back in the past where a kid just a got a cool game only the end up dying in the first 2 minutes. Dying again and again.. And again. Which makes me wonder, do the developers who develop the game at least test their own product. I do understand that NES games are surprisingly short. So up ramping up the difficulty, it will make the play factor a little longer. Racing games also doesn't fare well. They are trying to do a 3D approach but, the NES doesn't have MODE 7 graphics so there is no depth in the tracks. Which makes racing a little more challenging.

Why?
Why most of the games comes with a timer?
Why is the difficulty ramp up to extreme?
Why most of the games involve you going from left to right?

Conclusion
There were 787 games on the NES that I've played but only 30 still stands the test of time. Which is not bad considering there were a lot of crappy games than good ones. Consider this is my last foray into the 8-bit machine. Thank you for everything and making me to who I am as a gamer today. Next on the list... Master System

NES (30/787 games) 3.81% replayability
Master System
Gameboy
Genesis
Neo Geo
Game Gear
SNES

Am I ready???

I am trying to do the impossible. I will play every video game in the history of videogames. Well anything that can be emulated by my PSP, PC, and Shield. So what does this mean for my new games releases and stuff. Well I still play them. This is a marathon not a sprint. So I guess we go as slow as possible.

Here are the list in order of consoles that I will try

Phase 1
NES
Master System
Gameboy
Genesis
Neo Geo
Game Gear
SNES

Phase 2
(coming later)

Phase 3
(if phase 2 is ever done)

There are a couple of caveats during this review. Since I am not going to play a game that is boring. The purpose of this experiment is not to finish all games in the list but more to see after 20 years does the games still hold up until today.

So here are the rules to make it on the board

1. Must be played for at least 30 mins to make a review. If the game can't hold me for 30 mins I can skip and move on to the next game. If not there will be a lot of unfinished games in the lot.

2. Minor Japanese text is acceptable.

3. Graphics won't be a factor since all of them have standard 2D sprites.

4. Review format will be reformatted.

5. After everything is done, a postmortem will be conducted.

Wish me luck

PlayStation 4

When the first announced the PS4 at the end of 2013. I was like... meh. Graphics look nice but there probably won't be any good games for it. That change when they showed the trailer for Batman Arkham Knight. After seeing that, I must have this console just for this game.

Fast forward to 2014. My wife decided to surprise me by throwing a birthday party 3 months early. And my gift was a PS4 with a copy of Battlefield 4. Awesome...

After hooking it up, I noticed that I don't like battlefield. So after downloading a lot of free PS+ games. I notice a couple things about the PS4.

1) There are not great must have games... Yet
2) Remote play with the vita only works if the WiFi is good.
3) It's very quiet
4) Updates can be run on standby mode.
5) It's the most beautiful console design since the GameCube.