Summer Gaming: Summer Gaming Challenge: Completed

So last night I officially completed my 10th and final game from my Summer Gaming Challenge list

1. Sin & Punishment: Star Successor (Wii)
2. Vay (Sega CD)
3. Super Mario Sunshine (GCN)
4. Wario Land (VB)
5. Battletoads/Double Dragon (SNES)
6. Panzer Dragoon (Sat)
7. Kung Fu (NES)
8. Gex (3DO)
9. Chrono Cross (PS)
10. FFXII (PS2)

11. Final Fantasy VIII (PS)*

It was great to get this many games crossed off my backlog, especially so many games that are well known and that I probably should have finished years ago.

My favorites were easily Vay and Sin & Punishment. Its hard to say which one I liked better since they are obviously so different its extremely hard to compare them. Vay was very simple and I just happened to be in the mood for simple while I was playing so that was very nice, but the parts I loved the most was the Working Designs humor spread throughout the game, and the major plot twist part way through. I liked the humor so much that I literally talked to every NPC in the game mulitple times to get every ounce of comedy I could squeeze out of them. Generally I dont spend a lot of time with NPC, but I felt compelled to this time around.

Sin & Punishment was just a non-stop actionfest. It looked fantastic, played flawlessly and was both fun and frantic at the same time. One of the best games I've played on the Wii and probably even on any current gen system.

The only really snoozers on the list for me were Super Mario Sunshine and Final Fantasy VIII.

The use of the jet pack nozzle on Mario took away all the platforming elements from the game almost entirely. The game had a very unique style, but felt borrowed from something else and not very "Mario" to me. The music, setting and characters all seemed very un-Mario.

FFVIII drove me nuts from the beginning. The Draw system seemed pointless, GF were not my cup of tea, levelling was pointless, the main characters was a douche from the get go and never got any better, the supporting characters were all very uninteresting. I didnt actually finish the game, but was saved at the last dungeon about 30 hours in. I feel I gave it more than a fair chance.

Both Chrono Cross and Final Fantasy XII surprised me.

I came in with very low expectations of FFXII. The story and characters kept me interested enough to keep plugging away with a battle and levelling system that I didnt particularily enjoy at the beginning. Luckily both grew on me over time and I'm glad I got to see how the story played out from start to end. Not a fantastic game, but decent.

Chrono Cross was similar. Slow start and akward battle/levelling. The story was kind of unusual, but not that intriguing at first. That changed drastically during the last several hours of the game. Not only did the story make much more sense and get a lot more interesting, but it made the plot from Chrono Trigger seem even more epic that it already was. It was pretty cool at first having so many different characters available for your party, but it became apparent fairly quickly that I'd never use 90% of them. Glad I stuck with this one to the end because the last few hours of plot were wonderful.

The rest of the list were solid entries into their respective genres. The blend of both series in Battletoads/Double Dragon was incredible. The pacing and boss fights in Panzer Dragoon were spot on. Kung Fu, while simple and short, had kind of a Super Mario Bros fun to its simplicity. Warioland was what you'd expect from a Wario platformer, it didnt blow me away, but it delivered what I thought it would. Gex was slightly less interesting than I thought it would be, but was average and worth keeping around for the novelty.

Definitely a fun way to clear a few games off my backlog and already have a few games in mind for next year!!