I wrote that essay back in 2021, and three years later time proved all of it correct. This game straight up killed the series.
As somebody who likes Tetris but essentially had no idea about PuyoPuyo until I came across that comment, that was a brilliant yet depressing read. I’m currently busy with life but wishlisted some PuyoPuyo games for this winter, just because that article outlined such an interesting game. It’s kind of hard to find something for current platforms in Europe though…
If you want functional online, the Switch version of Puyo Puyo Champions is the only title worth bothering with. Specifically Switch, other platforms are ghost towns.
If you want singleplayer content, 15th Anniversary, 20th Anniversary, and Chronicle are all peak. None of these games were released outside of Japan and they’re older titles you’ll have to emulate, hence all my salt about the state of things today, but at least they do have fantranslation patches.
So there’s a sale now and I got champions on steam for like 2,50 euros. Let’s see what kind of ride I’m in for, thank you again for the input :)
Unfortunately you’re not going to find opponents very easily on Steam, as I mentioned. Japan is pretty much entirely on Switch, and the game failed to really take off in the west so you gotta play where the Japanese players are.
Yeah, I anticipated that. Just digging my way through the lectures now and will then play single player against ai or preferably multiplayer against my kids.
What a great article!!
So, I’m a huge Game Boy fan. I’d heard about how good Puyo Puyo is, so I got a Japanese copy of Puyo Puyo Tsu. From what I can tell it’s a great port. But I struggled so much getting into it! And then I read your comment…
Puyo Puyo Tsu is hard. It’s really damn hard. I’ve witnessed many new players struggle with even basic 3- and 4-chains, nevermind making the real big chains the game mode demands of you. And unlike Tetris where casual players do not need to know fancy T-Spin setups just to get started and play, you really can’t get far at all in Puyo Puyo Tsu without at least some understanding of chaining fundamentals.
…and I feel justified. 😅 What do you recommend is a good way for a new player to get into the game? Something to read, a video, or something else?
There are some old English-language resources available on the wiki. But I’ve never quite liked the way we try to teach the game by just showing pictures of an idealized chain built in a frictionless vacuum, it’s a very “draw the rest of the owl” approach. Nor do I know what a better approach looks like for a game this abstract.
At one point I was working on a video where I’d build a chain step-by-step and overexplain my thought process on each piece. But that sits on a large mountain of unfinished projects and ideas. I’m retired from the game now because, well, I can’t continue justifying my competitive energy towards a game that just has no future as long as its publisher hates it, so it’s never going to get finished.
Flatout 3. I just checked on steam, and it’s tagged as “psychological horror”. Being a fan of the first one, and still having spent lots of hours playing the second one, I was totally not prepared for the utter monstrosity of the third one
Never played 1, but I really liked 2. I didn’t know 3 existed until now, and I’m having a blast reading the reviews. I think I might have to buy it (with the intention of refunding) just so I can experience the horror firsthand.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pF6QaE69Dus Rerez did a video about it that just about covers everything there is to the game, I found it amusing
I remember buying Duke Nukem Forever in a Humble Bundle, a bundle that I had virtually every other game for the price. I remember only paying $1 and I gave *all* that money to charity.
I played DNF. I still felt robbed. To this day I haven’t completed it due to how terrible it is (if my memory serves me, I’ve been minaturised and I’m driving around in a tiny car? But the controls are awful and Duke now seems like a Trump like character whose charm is entirely devoid in modern times. It was already wearing thin back when it was released, too).
Fucking Randy “greaseball” Pitchford fucking up another game. If I see Gearbox touch anything, I’ll presume it dead and buried. They haven’t done anything decent since 2015 (Homeworld Remastered Collection).
Hah, i played full price for that game.
I pre-ordered it for Playstation…
Did you learn your lesson?
That’s pretty early in the game.
My first thought is The Fortress of Doctor Radiaki for DOS.
A game I never played but is still memorable is early 2000s there was a game in Babbages in my local mall called “Prison Tycoon” that had a cop beating a black man on the box.
I bought Haze for PS3 the day it came out even after reading a lot of mid to negative reviews, both because I really love all three TimeSplitters games and wanted to support the devs, and also out of a feeling of ‘how bad could it really be?’. It was incredibly boring, graphically underwhelming, and I ended up beating it the same day I bought it. Tried to trade it in and even on release week EB offered me an incredibly insulting amount, like $7 or something, and I still took it.
Same as a lot of other gen-xers: E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
Gotta be Seven Samurai 20xx
Evergrace. Half-baked and outdated in every way. Life is too short to play bad games just because they’re cheap.
The OST is a nightmare too, that game is a purgatorial experience
Back to the Future on NES. All I remember is a series of pain in the ass mini games having little to nothing to do with the plot. One of them was called “That Sinking Feeling”, where Marty apparently had to platform his way out of his own stomach.
And E.T. of course, fuck that game.
Ni No Kuni 2. Looking for a new RPG, missing that anime aesthetic so I searched up “best JRPGs” (yes, yes I know now that it’s supposed to be perjorative); kept seeing this recommended, including by randos on Reddit (so not just paid review sites).
After 45 minutes of the most cliche-filled cutscenes and a prolonged tutorial for basic gameplay, I finally can just try it out and… It’s the most boring, generic gameplay ever. Dull story, bland characters, bland gameplay, too long of intro. 2/10
The only other game that comes close is Assassin’s Creed 3. Finished the tutorial mission, made it to Boston, started chasing collectibles and trying to 100% the first map. Sunk in about 5 hours and can’t find the rest of the collectibles, so I decide to move on and come back later.
That’s when it hits you with “PSYCH! That was just the Prologue, and all that time and effort invested in this character is MEANINGLESS. Here’s a brand new character to build up.”
I hate that. I don’t mind when the game begins with an OP character to show you the ropes only to take all of it away, but please make it short. I loved Metroid Prime, for example. Investing 5 hours to have all of it mean nothing to your character, and next to nothing for the story fucking sucks. 4/10, would probably still finish just because I loved 1+2.
Root Letter. They said it was like Ace Attorney. It was not like Ace Attorney at all! 🤬
The Lion King.
For the Sega Master System?
Was that game bad? I just remembered it being hard as hell
It taught me about failing even when you try your best. Which kind of sucks when you don’t have any other games.
Hard as hell, and unfair. Plenty of jumps powered by seemingly inconsistent mechanics that need to be done perfectly, otherwise instant death.
Played it recently as an adult after beating some other retro games from my childhood for the first time. In Lion King, I made it one level further and put the game down again…to level 3.
Well, I had gotten to Level 3 as a kid, but I was able to clear the Ostrich Run in Level 2 much more consistently after some practice. It was a fluke as a kid.
The game has 10 levels.
Paper Mario Sticker Star. Moreso disappointed rather than hate, but it left a bad taste in my mouth for the whole RPG genre (when I played it for the first time, I was 6, and thought all RPGs were like that) until I played the TTYD remake a few months ago
I’m going to say Battletoads. The game was mostly pretty fun, until you got the jetski section where it was biologically impossible for a human to react in time. The only way to get past this level was to perfectly memorize the sequence of buttons to push.
Myst.
I came for the graphics and because I liked adventuers. Was disappointed by the static graphics and I didn’t understand what to do at all.
Myst is certainly a bit of an odd one. There are more modern versions with full 3d graphics, and some of the puzzles are all time classics, but Riven was always the better game. There’s a remake of that one which just came out, though it also doesn’t hold your hand as far as figuring out what to do.
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