Ephemeral Enigmas
@ephemeralenigmas
Giving offbeat, obscure, forgotten, or just cool and interesting games the attention they deserve on my blog once a week. Also a contributor to Hardcore Gaming 101. He/Him
This is not what I expected the Soulful Babies to look like
It took a while, but it was all worth it because now I can select a portrait from the "Soulful Babies" category for my PlayOnline mail account
I look forward to trying Final Fantasy XI Online with friends through the PlayOnline service, surely this registration will be a simple process in which no setbacks or unexpected challenges occur
For this #RandomGameSaturday, I have Tales of Xillia 2, the experimental sequel that really should get a port to newer platforms. This one features a new protagonist who suffers from both unrequited love and a crippling amount of debt the player has to try and pay off, something we can all relate to
47. Mr. Driller W It's Mr. Driller on the Nintendo Wii! It's a fun one of those! You should play any version of Mr. Driller because it's great! I really don't have anything else to add to this!
The music chosen for this scene and the way it's used (especially at the end) slays me every time
I've learned that Critical Boost applies to all weapons, not just the buster, so you can crush bosses fast that way too Dynamo Man took me hours to beat back in 2003, if only younger me knew it could be done in 30 seconds with One Weird Trick
46. Warioware D.I.Y. Showcase Despite being a companion piece to the DS game, this has unique microgames of its own! Unfortunately, I think they're the worst batch in the entire series. Frequently unclear directions and needlessly confusing controls made this a surprisingly obnoxious experience
45. Muscle March One of the best ideas for a game to ever hit the Wii: help muscular men fit through holes to catch a protein powder thief! The motion controls don't even work that well, but it's impossible to hate on this game It's just so aesthetically joyous that I wish there was more to it!
On this holiday, y'know, #RandomGameSaturday, I have Tekken Advance, the one time they tried to put the series on the GBA for some reason. I don't think this one's well regarded, but I remember playing it quite a bit when it was new and finding it fun. That's the power of novelty, I suppose!
GBA screen crunch honestly doesn't bother me, but this is a pretty egregious example because you literally can't see that there are walls you're supposed to slide under lol
44. Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars - The Director's Cut I really enjoyed this one! The story and central mystery are engaging, the writing's detailed yet sharp, the puzzles are (usually) reasonable, and I like the diversity of weird characters on offer. Game's funnier than I expected, too!
A common criticism of Mega Man & Bass is that the Bass Buster only does 1 pip of damage to bosses. A late upgrade increases that to 2, but if you're spicy with it, the Critical Boost can be gotten sooner and makes the Bass Buster do 3 pips at low health Just don't get hit and bosses go down fast!
The intro level of Mega Man & Bass has always been funny to me because it's a "Robot Museum", but once you go in, it's made up of a lava corridor, a battleship underneath a bunch of spikes, and a rainy section with precariously placed platforms Doesn't seem very safe or educational for the public!
43. Trinity Trigger This game's... fine, but what I like about it most is that it feels like a lost 3DS game put on modern platforms 10 years after the fact. You can tell the budget was tight and it's very repetitive, but having a simple action RPG you can play local co-op with friends in is nice
For this #RandomGameSaturday, I have Arcana, HAL Laboratory's DRPG that's a lot friendlier than many of its contemporaries in the genre. Add in good music and nice, colorful visuals and you have quite a cool game! The box art is also very funny to me and really not indicative of the game at all
42. The Monkey King: The Legend Begins A remake of Chuuka Taisen that redoes the visuals, adds dialogue, and makes things far too easy for its own good. With the right power-ups, you're unstoppable even on Hard mode! There's also a weird Wii remote tilting gimmick that doesn't amount to much
I don't think Wario should be allowed to make video games anymore
Completed my Natural Four Job Fiesta run, which is also my fourth one! Knight, Summoner, and Chemist are still the GOATs, but Geomancer was... interesting! It's not *good*, but since they made most locations give you the same !Gaia moves, you can semi-reliably spam Wind Slash and that's kinda nice
On this #RandomGameSaturday, I have Jake Hunter Detective Story: Ghost of the Dusk, one of the few games in this series to get a release outside of Japan. I really liked the DS one, so I've been hoping for more of these to get translations into other languages at some point. Maybe someday!
41. M&M's Kart Racing A baffling racing game with seemingly minimal interest in its license and some of the worst/funniest track designs you'll ever see You tilt the Wii remote to turn and they mapped jumping to the same motion so you unintentionally jump all the time, which really says it all
