I know I've said this before, but Activision Anthology is one of the best video game collections ever made, even rivaling my favorite Namco Museums on the PSOne. It was so cool how you could get those virtual badges that were based on the real ones you used to could get. Does that make Activision the creator of achievements?
The Week in Badges
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 On 09/22/2023 at 09:57 AM by KnightDriver See More From This User » |
"I dont' need no stinkin' badges" you might say, but they're really nice to get in video games, and they have cool designs. I got several this week I'd like to share in addition to making comments on all the others things I played this week. It's self indulgent, I know, but maybe one of these games will spark some conversation. Onward.
Retro:
Activison Anthology (PS2): I had to buy this again because its the only Atari Activision collection out there for consoles. I love the deisgn aesthetic for these games, some of the best on Atari 2600. I dove right into my favorite, Stampede, and quickly unlocked all the bonus stuff for that game like the commercial and the patch (badge, whatever).
The Incredible Hulk (PS2): My friend Mad Krammer used to play Hulk and this sequel Incredible Hulk often back in the 2000s. I may have too, but I don't remember. So I played the opening levels of this again. It's pretty good. Hulk can grab items in the city and use them as weapons, which I did frequently. I particularlly like grabbing and throwing things too. This game is based on the '08 film.
Spider-Man (PS2): I played through the tutorials and several missions and right away I could see this is a good game. It's made by Treyarch who went on to do the COD: Black Ops games and others. They're a great developer. I'm excited to pick up the two sequels they did for Spider-Man all based on the Sam Raimi directed Spider-Man films. Also, all the voice work is done by the real actors including Bruce Campbell who does the tutorial narrations.
Game Pass:
Disneyland Adventures (XSS): I was thrilled to have to return to this for rewards points. I have long since 100% completed this game (well, 92% really because of the annoying gameplay of the Song of the South attraction). This time I dove right into Tomorrow World and Space Mountain, one of my favorites. I got the silver badge this time (love the design!).
This game recreates Disneyland in California in great detail. I only wish they would do one of these games for all the other Disneylands in the world, especially Disneyland Japan.
Cassette Beasts (XSS): Still my goto for daily Game Pass Rewards. I play until an achievement pops. I had to pull myself away from it because I wanted to do more quests. Each of your cassette tapes is a different beast that you can use to fight with. You level them up and then can transform them. You can add skills to them along the way which shows up as stickers on the tapes. There's even a thing called "bootlegs" for each one I have't figured out yet. I love the music/RPG mashup in this game.
Social Game:
Earth Defense Force 2025 (XSS): Mad Krammer got his final achievement for his Ranger by beating Hardest difficulty. We had to wait for an experienced player to show up in our online game to make that happen, so MK helped me get the Hard achievement for my Air Raider. Now I need only Hardest and Inferno achievements for all four characters. I nearly got the Hardest difficulty one for my Wing Diver before we had to stop. It was a lot of fun playing as Air Raider. I discovered that you can attach a fixed turret or boost pilon to any vehicle and go mobile with it. Here's a quick vid I made of what it looks like on a tank.
Super fun.
Cooldown from Social:
Pikmin 4 Demo (Switch): I finally got to my Switch and played this demo. I'm loving it so far. The dog mechanics are neat and how you can upgrade him. I may use the related Bloom app on my phone, but I'm not sure I want to get caught up in that, but maybe.
Casual:
I've finished gold medals on Suduku, Mahjong and Wordament and so I'm chasing other achievements until the next month starts. Playtime is reduced now so I started going through my GBA carts on my DS Lite. First up was Advance Wars. I'm several missions in. I do 10 turns per session to keep the play time down per day - can't let myself get totally burried in games, there's real life to deal with. Anyway, I'm expecting to lose anytime in AW becuase it gets hard, so I'm playing a little crazy by focusing on tank action. I love rolling out the biggest tanks I can afford and smashing the opposition. This will probably not work as a strategy later in the game, but I'm having fun, which is the point. When I fail, I'll move on to the next game in my collection, culling the bad ones from the herd.
And that's a badge filled week. Got any badges? Don't need no stickin' badges? Let me know.
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