Your Games Completed of 2023

The 3DS version is the definitive one.

Starfox
The game that started it all (although I guess 'it' ended up being a bit all over the place) and is none the simplistic by comparison for it either, if you love Starfox 64 (I concede) or the 3DS remake you should vibe with this, I have to say I still find the Super FX graphics pretty charming even today and they do make for pretty sweet looking explosions, since I guess they're the main standout in this version. There's a level in this where you fly through an asteroid field and take out an armada of ships including sometimes flying inside the bigger command ships and blowing up the engine from the inside and flying out as it explodes and you really do feel like some kind of badass.

Learned today there was a sequel to this, Starfox 2 (big shock) and it was only actually officially released on the SNES Classic apparently. I think this is kind of nuts to just drop something like that in one of those mini classics everyone was doing, but okay. As for the game itself it's definitely the most different of the strictly rail shooter games in the series, I can see it being quite divisive. You pick a main pilot and a wingman and instead of choosing a route from Corneria to Venom as usual you have all the spots on the map open and you fly to them in real time to intercept enemies approaching Corneria at which point you swap to the Space combat mode like it was an RPG transition.

I didn't get far testing it but, I think I like it?

EDIT - BRUH there's a Rom Hack of the first game running on the Super FX 2 chip used in games like Yoshi's Island and Doom. It looks healla' smoother but they sorta go too fast, cool shit nonetheless.

Christmas NiGHTS into Dreams
Hell yeah, sorry Starfox, I like you a lot but I wasn't having you be my last game of 2023!!!!

Also, I have never played NiGHTS before and I was aware this was somewhat short but I didn't realise it was basically demo short. I mean it was given away free in a magazine at some point (which is awesome btw) so I should have known, either way still counts!

As for the game itself, you fly around a 2D level collecting coloured orbs and then you put them into to a container and after you get 20 you go back to the christmas cake and put them there, roll on the next level. You can 'loop' things and collect them by closing your air trails around them or fly into some things like enemies and send them flying, flying through several things like gates in a row nets you points. I have issues seeing where I'm going sometimes and the time limit sometimes felt a bit tight (if you run out iof time you revert back to a kid and have to find the cake again). but otherwise I had fun playing this short but sweet demo even if it did loop Jingle Bells the entire time. :)

Another cool thing about this is it takes the time and date before you play it and playing it at different times affects the looks and sound of the game slightly, so me playing at christmas made NiGHTS dressed in Red and White, 'Jingle Bells' was playing but say, if you play at New Years a different song plays and NiGHTS is dressed normally….hey I thought it was a cool thing for what is essentially a demo!

Fuck Saturn emulation (This is on Xbox, I believe)

Despite being a massive Saturn head (it's probably the console most people I know associate me with) I have never been able to get into Nights. It's one of those games I prefer to see videos of or see others playing, than enjoy playing myself.

I had (and presume still have) the demo this came on originally.

Marvel’s Midnight Suns
Shadow of the Colossus
The Callisto Protocol
Observation
DOOM Eternal
Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak
God of War Ragnarok
Shadow Warrior
Hitman
Hitman 2
Hitman 3

I hadn't apparently completed anything in months, which I suppose is the side-effect of mainly playing Baldurs Gate and Monster Hunter(s) for months, so was never likely to actually get anything finished. And yet!

Robocop: Rogue City

It's actually good! An honest-to-goodness decent licensed AA game! Really satisfying shooting mechanics strapped to a very much not open-world FPS/RPG hybrid that frequently felt a bit Fallout-lite. And probably not just because of the green text.

Quite a pleasant surprise, and I liked it enough to finish and platinum it, as well as do the other standard 'good AA game' thing and recommend anyone that fancies it gives it a try it when it goes on sale.

Monster Hunter World: Iceborne

This might be the third time I've listed MHW in one of these threads, but I think the inclusion is warranted; over the course of December I finally killed AT Velkhana, Fatalis, Alatreon, Safi'jiva, and Kulve Taroth (yes, in that order, which Alastor will probably recognise as completely ass-backwards), as well as finally finishing all of the Assignments, Special Assignments, and Optional Quests. Theoretically, I have now exhausted all of single-player content, bar the Events (and trophies). I even made myself do the Tempered Furious Rajang Event solo, just to make sure I could. In short, it is done. Again.

At least until Marit decides to restart it, which she has expressed a desire to do, and I decide to tag along from the beginning, anyway. (I might do a "clean" Great Sword-only run with a character called Guts.) We've also both bought the PS5 versions of Rise/Sunbreak, and I'm still playing 4U on and (mainly) off. We haven't even started Generations.

I love Monster Hunter. Bring on Wilds.

Robocop: Rogue City

It's actually good!

I have this on my eneba wishlist for when a cheap Argentinan Xbox code appears. It's currently still over €25, so not yet… but I'm patient.