I got through the last of my PS2 games, or so I thought. Here's what I got to this week.
GBA
Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo
I played this on Switch Classics because I regrettably don't have the cart, but i want it desperately. I learned about this game from the HD Remix version on Xbox. I love the chibi characters from Street Fighter and Darkstalkers, the bubbly music and Tetris Attack style gameplay. It's different from Tetris in that it is about color matching rather than shape matching. I prefer this style over Tetris.
PS2
Pinball Hall of Fame: Gottlieb and Williams Collections
These are just matchless pinball simulations by FarSight Studios. I have them on multiple systems: PS2, Xbox and Wii. Pinball is hard though, and I struggled to unlock Tournament Mode in both collections.
Grandia III
I got party-wiped somewhere deep into the game. I thought I might finish it too. At least I got to the part where you can fly around the world in an airplane. Ah well, I hate those encounters that surprise you with something you can't beat, sending you back to the drawing board to come up with a better strategy. It breaks my momentum so badly. I'll return to it, though. I have the loose discs and need to find a true case for the game as well.
Okami
I got deep into this as well before getting a bit lost in an area that made me take a break. The game doesn't lead you from objective to objective that well. I'd like to know the exact artistic influences going on here. I assume Sumi-E and Japanese Woodblock etchings but what else?
Taito Legends: Volume 2
Lunar Rescue is a fav. It's a 1979 shooter that takes its inspiration from both Space Invaders and Lunar Lander. I like it better than either of those. Puchi Carat (shown above) is like Bust-A-Move but with a Breakout style paddle instead of the shooter. It has cute characters and is very colorful. There's also a kind of story progression in it. I love mixing up puzzle games with questing. Insector X is a cute 'em up I like but is crazy hard. I also ran through a bunch of regular shmups such as: Gun Frontier, Metal Black, and Grid Seeker. Finally a Space Invaders update in Majestic Twelve. I love the Taito collections but my Volume 1 on PS2 would'n't work. I have it on Xbox anyway but, grrrrr.
Burnout Dominator
More Burnout 3 style gameplay on your PS2, exclusively. What's great is when you get fully up to speed with the super boost and start knocking cars off the road into wild slow-mo crashes. The game controls so well in these moments. It's a joy.
Odin Sphere
I love the Vanillaware games. They always have such a gorgeous and unique art style to them. This one is a 2D hack 'n slash game with an art style that reminds me of medieval book illustrations or paintings with Mannerist era distortions. I've had this game for ages and I never want to give it up no matter what it goes for these days. I don't even want to know.
GrimGrimoire
Another Vanillaware game for your PS2 with a great art style but this time 2D RTS gameplay. It's just darn cool. The story and dialog is quite amusing. One phrase went, "archmagnitude, Sir Gamel Dore". Say that aloud, it's hilarious.
God of War II
This was even better than the first one with small improvements and the same amazing story and visuals. I did, however, get stuck on a puzzle deep into it and stopped for now. There's always got to be one that stumps me, darn it. I, of course, could just look it up, but I don't like breaking my stride in a game these days.
Purchases
With some trade money in hand, I was looking for GameCube stuff for next week but didn't find any at Game Junkies. Instead, I found the first and third Ratchet & Clank games I needed, so I got those. Which means, I'll be on PS2 a few more days next week. Ah well, I really wanted to move on but those are the breaks. You gotta grab what you can find in the brick and mortar world.
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