What video game(s) are you playing at the moment?

[607]

Oh that F zero game that 607 was mentioning is actually quite a good one. Balloon fight actually looks like a game I would like. You might like the professor layton puzzles, alot of them are quite tricky puzzles, I think you can get that for Switch lite.

Hm, I think I'm not so good with puzzles.
I got Super Mario Maker 2, and made a cool video related to it, in which I tell the story of recreating Mario levels I drew as a kid. https://youtu.be/u23OI6gJVL4

[Shmoley]

I've been playing this game called Terraria, I've played it a lot in previous years and I'm going through the calamity mod. It's really fun but lots of people call it a "2d Minecraft" but in opinion that isn't true at all! Sure you can build, break and fight just like Minecraft but Terraria has so many other differences. Sooooo yeah, I recently beat the moon lord without the nurse and that's a first for me, can't wait for the 1.4 update!

[Nessy]

My non-Lemmings gaming has been pretty packed lately

First off, I borrowed a copy of Doom 2016 from my brother and managed to beat it not too long ago. Epic game! The Doom series is always going to have a special place in my heart because I have such amazing memories of my childhood self playing the first two DOS games with my dad. It's one of the very few games that we can both understand and enjoy.

Next up, I finally started playing Super Meat Boy (another epic game!) and Final Fantasy VII (the original not the remake). I've been interested in playing a Final Fantasy game for a long while now and I thought the 7th one would be a good starting point. So far I'm really enjoying it

[combatmatrix088]

In some sense I'm playing three games simultaneously at the moment: Terminator: Resistance (2019), the new Halo 2: Anniversary 2020 PC port, and Doom (2016) but I can't finish any of them due to the lack of time lol.

[WillLem]

I'm currently playing through the entire SSX series again. Finished SSX on PS2 and now playing SSX Tricky on GameGube (actual consoles rather than emulations).

My general playing process for these it to choose 3 or 4 characters, build them all up to full stats, win gold medals on everything, and complete their trick book.

It's a fantastic series: anyone who has an X-Box One should check out SSX 3, which is easily the best instalment and has recently been rereleased in HD. Unfortunately I don't have an X-Box One, but I'm quite happy playing it on GC for now

[Shmoley]

In terraria, I've made it to the final boss of the calamity mod! Her name is Supreme Calamitas and she is sooooooooooo hard! Seriously, I haven't done a single point of damage to her..
Edit: Actually, my record on her now is getting her down to 20% hp.

[Nessy]

I'm not playing this but my brother is and I thought I'll share it on here anyway.

I've been watching my brother play a Paper Mario romhack called "Paper Mario: Master Quest" which is supposed to be an INSANELY hard version of the game where enemies and bosses are buffed as hell and overpowered moves and badges are nerfed by having them either take less damage or cost more FP. My brother has managed to get all the way to Chapter 7 at the time of writing this post and I am completely amazed at how he managed to beat some of these bosses.

His first major roadblock was Chapter 3's boss which is actually two parts. In the vanilla game the first part is supposed to be the true boss while the second part is extremely easy and is merely there to prove a plot-related point. In Master Quest that second boss is now a more legit boss battle that has to be fought after fighting an even tougher first part. His other roadblocks were Chapter 4's boss and Chapter 6's boss... and Chapter 6's boss was already a fairly notorious boss battle in the vanilla game.

[WillLem]

I've been watching my brother play a Paper Mario romhack called "Paper Mario: Master Quest" which is supposed to be an INSANELY hard version of the game

Nice! Thanks for sharing. I love a bit of Mario, and there are some really great ROM hacks out there to be found. You never quite know what you're going to get with some of them; I can imagine that playing more difficult versions of the game must be quite daunting at first.

Apparently there's a version of NSMB Wii somewhere with Princess Peach as a playable character, albeit a "skin" so she doesn't have her ability to glide after a jump. I've always thought that Peach should become playable as a reward for rescuing her.

[The Tomato Watcher]

I've always thought that Peach should become playable as a reward for rescuing her.

That is actually how they did it in Super Mario Run. I never got to play as her though; I didn't cough up the $10.

I've been playing a LOT of Super Mario Maker 2 recently. Especially since the Super World update came out, I've been working a lot on that. I've also played a lot of Multiplayer Versus, which is... an experience.

I've recently gotten back into Tetris 99, and I'm as bad as when I left.

I've played a decent amount of NSMBUD. I've gotten about halfway through the game. I have a separate co-op file with my brother, who is not a good sport, let's say. I've also been trying to get gold medals on the challenges. Everyone says the New Soup games are too easy, but those challenges are extremely difficult, especially if you're going for gold.

And, I suppose I should mention this to cover all my bases... I've been playing some Fortnite, too. Listen, I'm not super into it or anything; I just find it fun. Most of the time...

[combatmatrix088]

Finally got my hands on Minecraft Dungeons, and finished it in just a few hours, so that is a little disappointing. Though the combat is quite good, and character-building is really satisfactory, it enriches the story of the game. Had a lot of fun creeping in the dungeons!

[607]

I've been playing a LOT of Super Mario Maker 2 recently. Especially since the Super World update came out, I've been working a lot on that. I've also played a lot of Multiplayer Versus, which is... an experience.

Could you share a level code so I can follow you?
My levels can be found at http://folk.simpsite.nl/smm-levels

I got Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town, which released in Europe today. It is a Switch remake of the GBA game Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town, which is probably my most played handheld game. It's good so far! Several quality of life changes over the original, but also a stupid quality of life decrease, which I had frankly expected going off other games in the series: names have a maximum of 8 characters, instead of the maximum of 12 that was in the original. Why??
I've also noticed that everything, including the names of all characters, was retranslated from Japanese. That's a bit strange, as it means that some of the characters have different names than in the GBA game (assuming you're not playing the Japanese version).

[The Tomato Watcher]

Could you share a level code so I can follow you?

Sure thing! My Maker ID is CK6-THR-01G.

One thing to note is that some of the levels may be significantly lower quality than the others. Those are my brother's. Pretty much any level whose title is all in lowercase is his. I suggest you avoid them.

[Proxima]

I'm in the middle of two games at the moment.

Tametsi (on steam) is a Minesweeper-inspired puzzle game, where each level has been algorithmically generated to ensure that it can be fully solved without ever having to guess. Many levels use the standard square grid, but there are also grids based on the hexagonal tiling, the octagons-and-squares tiling, and several others -- one particularly interesting one is the square tiling without corner adjacency. So far I've solved 131 of the 160 puzzles, so getting near the end, but the endgame puzzles are all extremely hard, so who knows how long it will take me to finish

Adventures of Square is a first-person shooter based on Doom, but the blood and gore are replaced with cartoon violence -- your character is a square shooting up circles, but they still explode into ludicrous gibs. I've never played an FPS before, but I decided to try this out after Alex Diener, one of the Youtubers I follow, started playing Marathon, and watching him made me reflect on how FPSs can have a lot of the gameplay experiences I really enjoy from other genres -- exploring a large level, gradually getting to understand how it fits together, and hunting for secrets. I've just completed the first episode, and it's been great fun even though I was extremely bad at it to begin with I am definitely getting better, although the final boss was far beyond my current playing strength -- I was only able to defeat it with the help of savestates during the fight. Still, a really fun experience.

[grams88]

The Fallguy game is very fun to play, I got the award that only 22.6% of people who play the game get and won a full episode episode. It is very hard to at least win one full episode. Anyone else tried this game, it's quite fun and competitive if that is the right word to use.

[WillLem]

Currently really enjoying Tetris Worlds on GameCube.

I'm at Rank 14 (of 15) for most of the games now, still on Rank 12 for a couple of the more difficult ones but working my way up!

Here are the games in order of difficulty [with my current rank in square brackets]:

Sticky Tetris: "Clear the Bottom Line". Players must try to clear the bottom line of "Garbage Blocks" - as well as increasing in speed, each level introduces a random stacking of garbage blocks for extra difficulty. Same-colored Blocks stick together in this mode, hence the name. If 25 same-colored blocks connect, a Critical Mass is formed and are cleared from the Matrix. Sticky Tetris also features the gravity/cascade game mechanic, but is made slightly less predictable and more difficult to manage because the tetrominos are made up of blocks which can separate from one another, adding to the mayhem! [Rank 12]

Fusion Tetris: "Activate the Atom Blocks". In this mode, as well as garbage blocks there is a single "Fusion Block" at the bottom of the Matrix. Players must try to connect falling "Atom Blocks" to the Fusion Block. Atom and Fusion Blocks are not cleared in line clears, and clearing a line containing an Atom or Fusion Block causes a Cascade. This is only slightly easier than "Sticky Tetris", mainly because the Atom Blocks are single bricks, which makes them easy to manoevre amongst the garbage blocks. It's also that bit more predictable, making it feel more achievable even though it is technically just as difficult as Sticky Tetris. [Rank 12]

Cascade Tetris: "Go for a Cascade".The player must try to clear lines that cause Cascades. Cascades occur when a cleared line cause other Blocks to fall and clear another line. This game is mainly to introduce the gravity/cascade game mechanic for the later games which feature it. It's tricky but fun. [Rank 14]

Square Tetris: "Go for a Square". While the player plays Tetris, they also must try to combine Tetriminos into 4 x 4 "Squares". Lines cleared containing "Square" blocks cause large bonuses. This takes a bit of getting used to but is fairly easy once sussed. [Rank 14]

Hot-Line Tetris: "Go for a Hot-Line". In this mode, there are six "Hot-Lines" in the Matrix. The player must try to clear lines that are on the Hot-Line. Lines cleared anywhere else earn no points. This is essentially lots of edge-of-seat gameplay trying to clear lines near the top of the matrix. Oodles of fun. [Rank 12]

Regular Tetris: "Go for a Tetris". A normal Tetris game, where bonus points are awarded for Doubles, Triples, Tetrises, T-Spins and Back-to-Back Tetrises. Losses occur when the Tetriminos reach the top. [Rank 14]

Good points:

+ The music is excellent, very immersive and can be randomised so you're not hearing the same tune over and over.

+ Interesting and absorbing variations on the game which I've never seen previously (I particularly enjoy "Cascade" and "Hot-line").

+ Includes the "easy spin" feature which I think dramatically improves any version of Tetris in which it's implemented - it gives the player that bit more control over the game, and allows for much faster and longer gameplay.

+ The "story mode" is quite cute and gives the game some character. The "worlds" themselves are also quite a nice feature, adding a bit of peripheral interest to the game (literally!). It kind of foreshadows the much more extravagant and immersive Tetris Effect in this regard.

Room for improvement:

- None of the games reward combos (where consecutive lines are cleared), with the exception of Back-to-Back Tetrises (4 simultaneous line clears). I didn't realise how much I actually relied on combos to increase my score/rankings in other Tetris games I've played until I played Tetris Worlds. The flip-side of this is that it has re-trained me to prioritise other aspects of the game - namely T-spins, back-to-back Tetrises and faster clearing (i.e. all of the games are played to a 2-minute clock, which brings me onto...)

- All of the games are played to a 2-minute clock! This is fine for challenge modes in other versions of Tetris, but there's no escaping it in Tetris Worlds. You are allowed to play beyond the clock if you're still clearing lines and haven't topped-out, and each time you "Level Up" you get another shot at the 2-minute task, but you can only successfully "Rank Up" if you manage to complete the task within the 2-minutes.
It actually makes "Levelling Up" a bad thing if you haven't managed to complete the current task, since the task then becomes harder - for instance, it's possible to be on Level 15 (the highest level) and Rank 12. If you managed to complete the Level 15 task (having missed out on 13 and 14) you'd only rank up to Rank 13, despite completing the more difficult task. What this essentially means is that if you miss the goal, the tendency is to just hit "restart" (which starts you again from the level below your current ranking) rather than carry on playing, which is very unlike any other version of Tetris I've played, and not necessarily in a good way.

That said, I'm generally loving Tetris Worlds; each game is in fact "completed" once you achieve Rank 11 (having completed Level 10) - that "world" is then "freed" (story mode) and playing beyond that is simply for the personal bonus of being on a higher Rank. So, I have fully completed story mode and yet I'm still genuinely excited about reaching Rank 15 on each of the various games, so it does have that compelling factor to it.

It's a good solid 8/10