Wish this Set March 2022 - RetroAchievements/RANews GitHub Wiki

Game	Console	Genre
Patapon	PlayStation Portable	Rhythm

• Writeup by: {% rauserpic Chauckles %}

A cheeky mix of rhythm and strategy, Patapon is a game of army building, planning ahead, and Pata Pata Pata Ponning. Rather then directly controlling your eyeball-man army or giving them specific directions, you'll bang on your mystic drum to signal to your Patapons to change tactics in a pseudo-turnbased fashion. There's nothing else like this game out there and I honestly think more people need to experience it.

On top of probably the coolest visual style to grace the PSP, Patapon has a super funky dynamic soundtrack that'll stick with you every time you put the game down. Seriously, this game is a work of art.

Game	Console	Genre
Thrillville: Off the Rails	PlayStation Portable	Simulation

• Writeup by: {% rauserpic deng %}

I played a ton of this game on my PlayStation 2, and the PSP version has everything intact aside from the voice acting. I was never able to finish all the missions as a kid, but that didn't stop me from playing all the content this game has to offer.

Essentially, Thrillville: Off The Rails is a Theme Park Sim. The difference between this game and other games in this genre, however, is that rather than playing as an omnipotent being in the sky, you get to walk around your park and interact with everything. You can talk to all your guests, ride all the rides, and play all the arcade games. The theme park management is pretty undercooked compared to other games in the genre (RollerCoaster Tycoon support when), but the mini-games are where this game shines - I must've spent hours upon hours designing and playing on my own Go-Kart and Mini-Golf tracks and trying to get the best scores in Entertainer. The mini-games range from flash games to full on first person shooters, and while some of them are clones of games we already support on RA there is still a lot of fun to be had here and you can get a lot of achievements out of it.

Game	Console	Genre
MySims	Nintendo DS	Life Simulator

• Writeup by: {% rauserpic roli300 %}

MySims is a series of games starring, well, the Sims, although a ... "chibier" version of them. These games have no relation between them except for a cameo here and there. Also, it's one of those games that released for both the Wii and the DS but with vaaastly different story and gameplay experience. But enough with the introductions.

In this game you start out moving into a new city, which seems to be declining in inhabitants. While exploring the city you can befriend the citizens through "conversations" in which you must make use of your emotions to help them out. It seems that in this city squash is a fairly popular game, which you can play any time you feel like. After exploring the city and helping your neighbors, some areas may get an upgrade and some new ones will open up to you.

All in all it's a fun game with lovable albeit simple characters. I also can't recommend the entire series enough, especially the MySims Agents Wii version. Go play them! And if you are a dev, please! Make a set for this poor game!

Game	Console	Genre
Zoop	SNES	Puzzle

• Writeup by: {% rauserpic kewlpinguino %}

Viacom New Media must have expected Zoop to take over the world. They dubbed it “America’s Largest Killer of Time”, and developed versions for what seems like everything they could think of: Genesis, Atari Jaguar, Game Boy, Game Gear, Mac, DOS, PlayStation, Saturn, and SNES, to name them all. It didn’t, evidently, take over world, but it’s a fun play for fans of puzzle games. Zoop takes a twist on the genre; Wikipedia describes it as a multi-directional Plotting/Flipull in real-time, which sort of captures it, but it’s honestly hard to conceptualize without watching a video. Zoop’s suited to handhelds—I personally prefer the Game Gear version over the Game Boy one, because it’s full color—but it works just as well on consoles, where there’s some zany looking shapes and a nice jazz soundtrack missing from the portables.

Game	Console	Genre
~Prototype~ Half-Life	Dreamcast	First-Person Shooter

• Writeup by: {% rauserpic miccmike %}

I mean, who am I kidding? I think everyone and their mothers love Half-Life.

This game set the standard for how the future of FPS games would look. The dark visuals, bordering on survival horror. Gordon Freeman is the most famous silent protagonist since Link. The crowbar as an object is basically synonymous with the series to a lot of people.

I should probably mention, the reason this is tagged Prototype is not because it is incomplete. Well, sorta. The whole game is here, all the levels, all the bells and whistles you would expect from Half-Life on PC. It was however not properly optimized, so some of the loading times can be a bit long. Other than that, this is the same amazing game. The ability to earn quality achievements alongside experiencing this legendary game again is something I've been yearning to do.

Game	Console	Genre
Uncharted Waters	SNES	Simulation

• Writeup by: {% rauserpic LiveFastCyYoung %}

Is there a brand of retro games more daunting to try and get into than Koei's run of simulation and RPGs on the SNES? Uncharted Waters may be the easiest of them all but, that does not make it any less rewarding! You play as a young Portuguese sailor attempting to restore the family name to prominence. The game is as close to an open world RPG I can think of on the SNES, with missions from the King of Portugal being the only things you truly must do. Otherwise, it's up to you if you want to try and take it easy by trading commodities and building your fleet slowly or, taking on the life of a pirate and attacking other fleets. The game has a living, breathing economy, with national price indices fluctuating depending on the amount of trading you've done at ports. As you gain fame from completing missions from the King of Portugal, other ports will open up leading to even more tradable commodities.

Where the game will make it or break it for you is in the sailing. Some players will see it as a relaxing game where you can kick back and enjoy sailing from port to port. Others will find it far too slow however. Either way, I’ve barely scratched the surface of what this game has to offer and this game has been without a set on RetroAchievements for far too long. Check it out and give it a request!

Game	Console	Genre
Oddworld: Abe's Exoddus	PlayStation	Cinematic Platformer

• Writeup by: {% rauserpic BahamutVoid %}

A great example of a sequel that is completely superior to the original, and Oddysee was no slouch. You're still rescuing your fellow slaves, the sprawling levels are still full of puzzles, and you're still mind controlling evil corporate drones. The amount of control you have has been greatly improved. You can scream "All o' ya" to get everyone ready at once, you can slap your friends or pat their shoulders to apologise, and you can mind control the local wildlife and even your own farts. You can finally Quick Save, and you'll need it as the game ramps up the challenge to compensate. This time you aren't just a desperate escapee, you're the hero taking the fight to the Glukkons directly for turning your dead comrades' bones into the highly addictive Soulstorm Brew.

Game	Console	Genre
Capcom vs. SNK 2: Millionaire Fighting 2001	Dreamcast	Fighting

• Writeup by: {% rauserpic Retrokaiser %}

Capcom Vs. SNK 2 isn't just a solid fighting game, it's also the greatest cross-over 2D fighter in history. (Okay, that's debatable. Marvel Vs. Capcom 2 is also right up there). Featuring an incredibly great roster from both Capcom and SNK. You can't go wrong with this one.

Gameplay is super smooth and responsive. All of the characters are a joy to play and offer something new to the table. (Yes, even all of the Ryu clones have interesting moves). All three of the different kinds of arcade modes and the scoring system itself offers a lot of replay value, giving a lifetime of enjoyment.

I quite enjoy the graphics and how the art mixes in 2D spritework with 3D backgrounds. It sounds dumb and cheesy, but the two art styles work well with each other, giving a very lively and charming world. However, they are also a big tease! You'll see characters that should've been playable on the main roster, like Leona (from King of Fighters) and Alex (From Street Fighter 3).

Soundtrack is also quite a banger. You'll hear pop, you'll hear jazz, you'll hear techno, and even some rock. The voice of the announcer is super cheesy and sounds like a bad lounge act singer. However, this is what I loved about the character. His announcing is so over the top that it just works and gives this game a serious sporty feel.

Lastly, there's an awesome editing system where you can edit all of the characters sprite colors. You can make Zangief look like the Incredible Hulk, you can make Morrigan look a bit more revealing, and you can make M. Bison don a pink outfit in support for Breast Cancer Awareness. You could spend hours alone on just editing the sprites.

Overall, this fighter is the real freakin' deal. One of Capcom's greatest works and one of the greatest 2D fighters of all time. Why wouldn't this deserve a set?

Game	Console	Genre
Deadly Towers	NES	Action

• Writeup by: {% rauserpic Akai %}

Let me preface this. The game I'm going to pitch is not good. It's odd, confusing, and a decent example of Nintendo hard. However, it was part of my childhood thanks to a lovely discount bin at a local video game shop ... and I want others to suffer enjoy it as I did long ago.

That game is Deadly Towers.

You play the role of a warrior prince who must kill an evil wizard. To do so, you must destroy the barrier to his tower, which requires you to conquer 7 other towers; destroying their guardian, taking their bell, and then burning it in a nice little bonfire. Sounds simple right?

Well, first off; your character is near useless to begin with, and poor to boot. Guess being a prince didn't count for much. Most enemies will take large chunks of your health, and some you may accidentally come across can kill you outright. You'll need to buy defensive equipment as soon as possible, except first you'll need to earn enough money. Which requires killing enemies. Which sucks.

You don't swing your sword, but rather throw it in this game. It works on mega man like rules, though in mega man you can have 3 shots on screen... in this game you're only allowed one sword on screen barring a late game item. Also initially, your sword moves slow. So if you miss, you're defenseless for a while. This gets better near the end of the game with gauntlet upgrades, but getting to that stage is the hard part.

So assuming you're able to kill enough monsters and collect enough money, the next fun part comes in. Finding the shops. There are multiple hidden zones in the game, coming in three types: Dungeons, Parallel Zones, and Hidden Rooms. Both the rooms and zones are fairly small, usually only consisting of a screen or two, but with deadly enemies and some type of reward or shop. Dungeons are a different story however... if you're not using a guide you'll want to whip out the graph paper. They're absolutely massive, consisting of 200+ screens. Once you enter, you can only leave by finding the exit, and while you're in there, you'll also want to find the hidden shop. Fun!

Oh, and I forgot to mention that the entrances to these zones are random and totally hidden ... stepping on a random tile will take you to these. It almost looks like a glitch at times!

Once you manage to struggle through the beginning of the game, get good equipment and numerous life ups, the game becomes more manageable. Most people however will not get to this point, and simply give up. I can't blame them.

That's my stream of consciousness of this game. Is it good? No. Do I want others to suffer?

Take a guess. :)

Game	Console	Genre
Mega Man Star Force 3: Black Ace	Nintendo DS	Action RPG

• Writeup by: {% rauserpic MatheusBrazuca85 %}

Mega Man is a famous and traditional platform franchise with some ramifications on it, like the modern playing style X series with dynamic upgrades to the Classic series way of play, a Metroidvania spice in Zero and ZX series, or a more "open-world" with Legends. Heck, it even has a solid RPG series with Battle Network on Game Boy Advance.

But while it's a RPG too, this game is less about a robot shooting his weekend villain and more a story about a boy making bonds strong enough to make him want to live, being tested on these bonds and showing off they aren't fake and superficial things ... To finish a three games series with a message about him growing up, believing in his dreams and start thinking about the future.

Mega Man Star Force is a series with the focus on story, and that's the main thing you need to know before playing it expecting great gameplay or something like Battle Network. The gameplay isn't bad; after all, Star Force 3 is so fun to play with no invincibility frames that I spent almost 20h just fighting for fun with Spade Magnes V3 because it IS FUN to quick kill your opponents, although they can do the same thing if you don't take care before attacking God how I hate Sirius V3. Still, the main point of the game is the anime-like story about a boy, his friends, and how he changes his friends' lives while they change his life.

Now talking about the gameplay from SF3: it's dynamic and fast, that's it. SF1 felt a little slower than Battle Network and SF2 was slower than a Snorlax running; the third game is just the best and that's a fact. Now you don't need a transformation to use a row of three chips, you can actually use your stylus/mouse for input stuff, there's a game option to remove invincibility frames for a TRULY FUN experience, the quests are more fun to do, the bosses are better, no more content locked by online systems, and the best thing even Battle Network didn't have in six games: ALL CHIPS/POWERS ARE AVAILABLE TO PLAY.

Star Force 3 has a "illegal program system" mechanic where when you use normal chips without any element with a certain item equipped, you gain some noise %. If you manage to get 100% or more, you gain a chip from this system, which can be any chip from the game itself, a chip from Star Force 1 or 2, a more OP version of the chip with the X letter, or a secret chip with some OP stuff but these are rare. And better, it is EASY to get up to 300% for three illegal chips so you don't need to do complex stuffs for this fun system. I mean, you can farm the easiest boss/Spade Magnes V3 early in the game to get those chips with a 5 seconds quickkill and some enemy search program.

Mega Man Star Force 3 is a end to a nice story and a fast game if you want it to be this way, with a FUN OPTIONAL GRIND experience to people who like to play it more than once or are fan of this game like me in both options. Still, Black Ace version is better than Red Joker just because "Black End Galaxy" is a way better attack than "Red Gaia Eraser"; after all, it's more edgy, and attacks with a black hole and a sword. Is there anything more cool than a Kamen Rider inspiration in a Mega Man game? I don't think so.