The Daily Backlog 56

Two backlog completions and two more additions! Hey, I'm nothing if not consistent!

Boy, the Ghoul is Gone

Afternoon backloggers!! We’re back for another wonderful week of gaming and backlog arm wrestling! Now, you may think that just means completing the games in your backlog whilst using your muscly arms, but what I really mean is actually arm wrestling on a pile of games from your backlog. You may want to use caution though because those game discs can be fragile and you wouldn’t want to scratch them resulting in having to suffer through skipping cutscenes. Honestly, that’s every gamer’s nightmare and I wouldn’t even wish it upon the “story skippers” out there.

While, unfortunately, I didn’t actually arm wrestle any games over the weekend I’m happy to say that I was able to complete two more games from my backlog!! The first being the infamous Ghoulboy from Dolores Entertainment on the PS4. As you may recall from my rants of last week, I wasn’t too hot on this game. At first glance it definitely had potential and I really enjoyed the graphical style, but from top to bottom it was kind of a stinker. The final stretch of Ghoulboy wasn’t too bad to get through either, with the last few stages offering the most challenging platforming moments I’ve encountered in the game up to that point. But like the rest of the game, it only seemed challenging on the surface instead of actually being challenging. None of the traps or enemies were that much of a threat. Especially after leveling my health and attack up to the max.

And then there was the final boss, who I basically beat by just standing in front of him and mashing the attack button. I think I may have dodged his attacks two or three times, but after a few seconds he was defeated! And I was treated to a single screen ending sequence. The perfect anticlimactic ending to a mediocre game! At this point, I’m not sure I could even recommend the game even if you were to be able to get it for a significant discount. I’d just avoid it unless you have a morbid curiosity for inferior platformers. In which case you can find it on the Playstation Store here.

No More Corpses to Riddle

The second game I beat over the weekend was Riddled Corpses EX by Cowcat Games! Well, technically I finished it this morning, with me squeezing in the final boss fight just before I left for work! And unlike Ghoulboy, I can’t praise Riddled Corpses enough! There’s just something about it’s simplicity mixed with the perfect amount of challenge and grind that makes that game so dang addicting. And the best part was unlocking the different characters to see how you can best use their different abilities to succeed in each stage.

Ok, I will admit, it was a bit of a grind to get all the characters, but because the gameplay was so fun it never really felt too tedious. That and it took me that long to beat the game in the first place! The best character by far was the final one you unlock, Erika who basically has all of the special abilities that the previous three characters did before her. You do get one last character for beating the game (Nora), but now that I’ve finished the game, I’m not sure how much use she’ll get. Plus all she gives you is an extra turret which is kind of disappointing given the last Erika’s abilities loadout.

Let me tell ya, just getting to the last boss was a struggle and a challenge! Technically there are 6 total stages, but you can’t just warp straight to the sixth stage once you reach it unlike the previous 5. No, instead you need to gun your way through stage 5 all over again if you happen to die at the last boss (which I definitely did). But, after grinding out a butt ton of gold and buying up all the sub weapons I could hold on to, it was a cake walk. Relatively speaking of course. Because even with all that gear, you still need to dodge and weave through a curtain of bullets during the Stage 5 and Stage 6 bosses!

I gotta say, I’ve enjoyed every minute I spent with Riddled Corpses EX both in single player and in 2 player co-op. And honestly I wouldn’t hesitate to pick up a second copy of it on a different console (preferably physical!). It’s a fantastic little shooter that I didn’t expect to get sucked into quite as much as I did and I’d definitely recommend it to any shooter fans out there! If your interested in trying it out for yourself you can find it on the Nintendo eShop here!

Tit for Tat

So, you may be looking at my completed game list and my total backlogged games and you may be wondering why after beating two games it still didn’t move?! Well my observant reader that’s because I may have added two more games to the backlog! The first being Devil May Cry 5, which was wholly expected! I mean, I’ve been raving about picking this game up for months now!

The second game on the other hand, was a bit of “purchase on a whim” and it’s called Xenon Valkyrie+ on the PlayStation 4! Now, there’s a bit of a story behind Xenon Valkyrie+ and that’s that I really wanted to support the developer behind it, which if you didn’t already know, is Diabolical Mind and Cowcat Games. The same people behind Riddled Corpses EX! You see, I loved Riddled Corpses so much that I really wanted to play their other games! And since Cowcat sent me a review code for the last game of theirs that I played, I thought it only fair to send a little something their way. And the best way I knew how was to break my “no games in 2019” covenant and buy one of their games!

Xenon Valkyrie+ looks fantastic as well, with many of the same aesthetics as Riddle Corpses. Only this time it’s a side scrolling rogue-like! Fun!! I’m not sure if I’ll play it straight away, but believe you me, it’s definitely on my near future “must play” list!

Devil May Cry 5, however, I dove straight into head first with blatant disregard for everything else I was playing! And so far this game has not disappointed! It is every bit as over the top and flashy as I was hoping for and it’s fun to boot! Nero plays just like I remember which is definitely a good thing because that means I was able to jump right in and feel right at home. I can already feel my completionist tendencies surfacing making me want to triple S rank each of the missions and I’m really looking forward to getting to the higher difficulties so I can test my DMC mettle!

The only thing I’m unsure of at the moment is the new playable character Capcom introduced in 5, V. He’s definitely a badass in his own right and a very cool character, but he handles much differently than Nero and most likely Dante. I’m guessing I’ll just need a bit more time with him to really figure out how he’s supposed to be played, but for right now I’m not too sold.

Since I haven’t gotten too far in the game yet, and since this post has already gone on for way too long, I’ll hold off on saying too much more about Devil May Cry 5 for now. But I can guarantee you’ll be seeing more of it in the coming weeks!

56 is a Tetrahedral Number

Well my friends, that’ll do it for today!! Two completions topped off with two more backlog expansions! But you know what, I’m OK with that because I’m really looking forward to playing more of these fantastic games from my backlog!

Until tomorrow, have a great rest of your Monday!

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Currently Playing

Stardew Valley (Switch) - The Wife

Mario + Rabbids (Switch) - The Trio

Devil May Cry 5 (PlayStation 4) - Me

Total Backlogged Games: 735 ...it didn’t get any lower but at least it's not higher!

Total Completed Games: 13 … this got higher! Huzzah for progress!!

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