Cheerful Ghost: An Awesome Community For Gamers

Mega Man 11 First Look - The Evolution of a Classic Series

I've always been an armchair fan of the Mega Man games but never played any of them regularly until I got an NES Classic. I latched on to Mega Man 2 and haven't let go since (expect an upcoming Cheerful Ghost Radio NES Review episode in the new year). As such, it was fairly natural that I took note of Mega Man 11 and then found it totally awesome that Travis got it for me this year as a gift on the Switch! I wanted to write down some of my early thoughts on the game and will check in regularly as I make progress with it.

This Isn't Mega Man 2 But That's Ok

Beyond the 3D graphics at first blush Mega Man 11 looks and plays like the classic games we love. It's hard because... Read All I've always been an armchair fan of the Mega Man games but never played any of them regularly until I got an NES Classic. I latched on to Mega Man 2 and haven't let go since (expect an upcoming Cheerful Ghost Radio NES Review episode in the new year). As such, it was fairly natural that I took note of Mega Man 11 and then found it totally awesome that Travis got it for me this year as a gift on the Switch! I wanted to write down some of my early thoughts on the game and will check in regularly as I make progress with it.

This Isn't Mega Man 2 But That's Ok

Beyond the 3D graphics at first blush Mega Man 11 looks and plays like the classic games we love. It's hard because the game feels just like the classics but under the covers are a slew of new mechanics. In fact, these new mechanics I found annoying at first but after clocking about 3 hours into the game are finally working for me.

The new stages are much longer than any Mega Man stages I've played so far which is to say, they are much longer than the stages in Mega Man 2. At first this seemed odd to me, how can you have a Mega Man game with super long stages and get through it and then I realized that Mega Man 11 is aimed a much more modern audience. The stages in NES Mega Man were short due to cart limitations and password saves states and replay-ability. Mega Man 11 sticks It's flag firmly in the save state world and expects you to complete a stage one time and move on. Gone are the days where the game expects you to turn it on and replay each robot boss battle on your way to beating Dr Wily. Mega Man 11 expects your gonna pick a difficulty and play each stage until you complete it until the end of the game.

This focus on stage length, difficulty and your game progress is all tied together through a new mechanic i'd not seen in a Mega Man game focusing on an in game currency, screws. Fear not, this isn't tied to any micro-transactions and screws are something you can collect easily in each stage by finding them or killing enemies. Collect enough screws and you can visit Dr Light and buy a ton of items such as E-Tanks and Mega Man enhancements like the ability to get a wider buster shot, lessen your push back when you take damage and increase the amount of energy that drops from enemies. These power ups unlock at certain points in the game and each one is a different amount of screws to unlock. Say you are having a particularly hard time in the Block Man stage? Collect enough screws to max out on E-Tanks and other items to make the stage easier. The screw currency gives the game focus in that you can unlock abilities and power ups making subsequent playthroughs easier. If you want the game to be more difficult you can avoid all this entirely but I'm working my way through it the first time and it's nice to get a bit of help.

Block Man Down, Acid Man to Go

After about three hours I finally defeated Block Man. The Block Man stage is quite punishing and once you complete a section it tosses it back to you in a harder form until you master each section to finally confront Block Man. Turns out Block Man isn't too hard, or isn't if you use the Super Guard power-up and some E-Tanks (which I recommend) and as such is one of the best stages and bosses to take on first. According to some searching, Acid Man goes down smooth with the Block drop weapon so I'm now working on that stage.

Another part of Mega Man 11 worth a series of accolades is the level design. So far the Block Man and Acid Man stages are quite different and contain very clever puzzles that are hard but fair. I've taken a peek at a few other stages such as Bounce Man which feels like a level designed by people that love crazy bouncy castles.

So far Mega Man 11 takes the best elements of the series and solidly moves the game forward for a new audience. If you like Mega Man games and don't mind coming back to the same levels and slowly getting better a bit at a time, Mega Man 11 is for you. You can download a demo of the Block Man stage on PC, Switch, PS4 and XBone to give it a shot if you're not entirely sure if this is something you might be into. I've heard Mega Man 11 looks better on the PS4 and XBox One and all I can say is the game looks great on the Switch. It's a bit jaggy in handheld mode but once it pops to the TV it looks fantastic.

Happy Holidays To All Ghosts!

Wanted to send everyone a special Holiday greeting and hope that today is a fun and restful day. As we open our IRL loot boxes please drop what you got from the Holiday Loot Elf in the comments to share!

Pictures get you a bonus accolade!

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 12/25/2018 at 09:07pm

I got some really cool stuff starting with a Nintendo Switch + Mario Kart 8 bundle. Couple Switch games, Annihilation on Blu-ray a coffee grinder, Mario Land on 3DS, Mario Checkers and a Velvet Revover CD(remember those).

http://i.imgur.com/4G8gzKS.jpg

jaelte wrote on 12/25/2018 at 10:31pm

I think they're excited.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 12/26/2018 at 01:19am

Travis Admin wrote on 12/26/2018 at 04:15am

Velvet Revolver, damn, that's a name I'd forgotten long ago.

I got some sweet Vault-Tec socks, a Vault-Tec shirt, and a TLJ Poe Dameron jacket (which is both near-screen accurate, and comfy/functional) from my wife, the full Mission: Impossible movie series on Blu-Ray from a friend, a pretty awesome seat cushion, some albums on vinyl (including a first-run pressing of The White Album) and other odds and ends from family, Tabletop Simulator from Tim, and a mystery game (I think on Switch?) from Jon when it gets here later in the week!

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 12/26/2018 at 04:45am

I got some clothes and a $20 Gamestop Gift card, which means I'm going to turn that into $20 Steam wallet money probably. I have bought myself a few games w/ the Steam sale including Atlas (I'll have to write about that one), Wolfenstein 2, and Command & Conquer 3 & 4 including C&C3 DLC that I did not have.

@Jon I'm jealous, although not the Switch bundle I would choose (I want the Smash Bros. one). It's funny, I thought if I'd save some $ I'd get one, but now that I've saved some I don't know if I want one. LOL BTW Could you please tell me if it uses discs or cartridges? I'm curious to know what physical format Nintendo chose for the Switch. (I've also been having dreams where there's a Nintendo or someone stole mine lol.)

Travis Admin wrote on 12/26/2018 at 05:08am

Greg, it's a tiny cartridge.

Travis Admin wrote on 12/26/2018 at 05:10am

The horsepower it has (though nowhere near the other current gen outings) combined with a disc to spin up would make the battery life abysmal, which is already something I wish was a bit better on the Switch.

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 12/26/2018 at 05:25am

Awesome, good to know. That means the media can't really be scratched or badly dirtied and thus unreadable. However, a tiny cartridge means it could be lost easily. And that is what I'm thinking about when thinking about buying a Switch (that and which game(s) to get first).

Travis Admin wrote on 12/26/2018 at 03:10pm

Here's a good look at the size: https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/zYQvTSD6HCCw7suXf4ZtkFZMeRY=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/8023253/20170221_162415.jpg

Travis Admin wrote on 12/26/2018 at 03:12pm

Actually here, this article has a number of comparison shots and, while the one I added above was probably more than enough to let you know how big it is, some of the comparison photo captions are pretty funny

https://www.polygon.com/2017/2/21/14691596/nintendo-switch-cartridge-size-comparison

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 12/26/2018 at 03:37pm

The Switch game carts are really tiny. I’d say the size of a quarter.

Travis, glad to hear you got the Mission Impossible series. It’s univerally great(except 2 but even 2 is fine I’d you like bad movies).

I also got two Steam gifts in Darkest Dungeon and The Duck Talea remake.

Travis Admin wrote on 12/26/2018 at 04:25pm

I thought MI:2 was better than 1, but then 1 was also better than 2.

1 was just ... unsure of what it wanted to be. Campy while trying to be serious, or serious while trying to be campy. And it felt like a lot of important stuff was cut, the plot worked but felt unearned in a way. It just didn't really hold my interest much aside from the campy parts, when they really doubled down on the spy feel.

2 knew what it was all about but at the same time what it was all about wasn't great. It was a consistent tone but a messy plot (and some real misogyny that hasn't aged well). Apparently John Woo's original cut of that movie (as in, the cut that he took to the studio and said "I'm done, here you go") was 3 and a half hours.

So I think I prefer 1 overall, but 2 didn't have the lulls where I kinda checked out like 1 did.

3 was great though. JJ is a natural for that kind of plot. So natural, in fact, that he did the show Alias which is basically Mission Impossible without the masks. I kinda wonder if the studio saw Alias and said, yep, this is what we want for MI:3!

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 12/26/2018 at 08:25pm

I don't think I can look at Mission Impossible 1 objectively. I saw it in the theaters in the 90's, my friends and I were nuts for it and watched it on VHS a lot. We quoted it, not quite as much as other films, but it was a favorite. So I love MI:1. That said, Brian De Palma made a great film but you are right it's a couple styles. I think he wanted to make a dark noir spy movie but by the end it's more actiony and by the time John Wu makes MI:2 it's all 90's crazy motocycle gun fights with Limp Bizkit in the soundtrack. JJ grounds the franchise as a solid action series and I think from there it really picks up a lot. MI:3 is a pretty simple movie compared to the first two, which I think the series needed. Plus it features Philip Seymour Hoffman as the bad guy and I think, to date, he's the best villain in the series.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 12/26/2018 at 08:26pm

If you watch the MI:3 special features JJ gave Tom Cruise Alias on DVD and he watched them all then asked him to do MI:3 which was, I think JJ's first film as a director.

Travis Admin wrote on 12/26/2018 at 09:52pm

OK that makes a ton of sense. Awesome bit of trivia!

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 12/27/2018 at 12:52am

Thanks for the pics, Travis! That is small! I thought they'd be bigger, but you know how technology is.

If you want to join this conversation you need to sign in.

Cheerful Ghost Radio Episode 45: The 2018 Holiday Special!

Pour yourself some eggnog, cozy up by the fire, and join us for the Cheerful Ghost Radio 2018 Holiday Special! We talk about some recent news that Blizzard is scaling back Heroes of the Storm, chat about what we've been playing over the past month, and discuss some of our favorite games to play and films to watch around the holidays.

Links and notes about topics we discuss this episode:

Unforeseen Consequences: A Half-Life Documentary: https://cheerfulghost.com/jdodson/posts/3960/unforeseen-consequences-a-half-life-documentary-is-a-must-watch

The Future of Diablo: https://kotaku.com/the-past-present-and-future-of-diablo-1830593195

Heroes of the Storm: ... Read All

Sony Just Released A New Lemmings Game on Mobile

Sony just released a brand new Lemmings free to play game on iOS and Android which is a interesting turn as just yesterday I pined for a new mobile release. It's a classic franchise that deserved an updated version and after I heard the news this morning I downloaded it and gave the first few levels a try. So far, the game is fine, it uses energy that slowly refills over time or you can purchase an instant refill for money. That energy is what you use to activate your Lemmings abilities to float to the ground, build up and dig. It lacks some of the polish of the DOS original but as I've said, so far it's a fine port. I'll do a more formal review later but I wanted to... Read All

LGR Looks Back At Holiday Lemmings

Lazy Game Reviews is a YouTube channel about game reviews, retro reviews as well as retro PC hardware reviews. It's one of my favorite channels and I wanted to share one of his latest videos that was seasonally appropriate. Holiday Lemmings started out as a few level demo and got a full fledged release later on. I had all the Lemmings demos I could get my hands on but never was able to buy the full versions. It's not a hard game to find now but I wish Sony would do more with it and release a new Lemmings game on all platforms including mobile.

Cheerful Ghost Radio Episode 44: Captain Marvel and Avengers Endgame Trailer Special

Marvel dropped trailers for Captain Marvel and Avengers Endgame in the same week, and our heads exploded in anticipation. RIP Jon, Tim, and Travis. But we were prepared for this: our hosts have been replaced by Life Model Decoys.

Captain Marvel Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1BCujX3pw8

Infinity War Endgame Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ee1172yeqyE

Cheeful Ghost Game of the Year Awards 2018 Nominations

It’s that time again, folks! We are gearing up for our Game of the Year awards, and we need your nominations!

Please listen closely, as our menu options have changed. We have changed up the categories a bit this year, so please read those carefully.

Then drop your nominations in the comments below, and we will compile them into polls for final voting.

Best AAA Game: This category is for the Call of Duties and the Fallouts, the big games with big publisher backing.

Best Indie Game: The games that go their own way, sometimes self-published.

Best DLC/Expansion/Update: Any addition to a game that had a very positive effect, from something as simple as an update or... Read All

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 12/17/2018 at 08:52pm

Best AAA: Fallout 76
Best Indie: Jurassic World Evolution (I think it's indie)
Best DLC: Jurassic World Evolution: The Secrets of Dr. Wu & Ark Survival Evolved: Extinction
Best Ongoing: Minecraft

jdodson Admin wrote on 12/17/2018 at 09:09pm

Best ongoing: Terraria & Fortnite

jdodson Admin wrote on 12/17/2018 at 09:42pm

Best mobile: Egg, Inc.

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 12/17/2018 at 11:19pm

I'd like to give best ongoing to Terraria, but it's been too long since it's been updated. I expect next year we'll finally see an update.

Travis Admin Post Author wrote on 12/18/2018 at 03:26am

Yeah Terraria hasn't even gotten an update since April 2017, hard to call it ongoing for this year but I think it's fair game since development is ongoing.

Frontier Developments did JW Evolution. They're kinda on the cusp. Like AA instead of AAA. I think you could reasonably count them in both camps.

Here are mine.
Best AAA: Red Dead Redemption 2 . Game of the Decade. Hat tip to God of War which I was convinced would be my GotY until I played RDR2.

Best Indie: Graveyard Keeper. I still can't drive past a graveyard without thinking about it.

Best DLC: No Man's Sky NEXT

Best Ongoing: No Man's Sky for basically killing it and coming back from the brink of hatred.

Best Mobile: Egg Inc came out in mid-2016 or I'd call it my mobile GotY. I'm going with Alto's Odyssey.

Will_Ball Game Mod Super Member wrote on 12/18/2018 at 04:18am

I think the only 2018 game I played this year was Revenge of the Bird King. I don't really count the re-release of Shenmue for Xbox One/PS4 a new game. I vote for Revenge of the Bird King for every category!

vdogmr25 wrote on 12/18/2018 at 06:22am

Best AAA: Monster Hunter World
Best Indie: Monster Prom
Best DLC: Little Nightmares: The Residence
Best Ongoing: Starcraft 2 (manily co-op mode getting more maps and commanders)
Haven't played anything from this year on mobile.

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 12/27/2018 at 12:53am

Best New Early Access Game & Most Improved: Atlas :)

Travis Admin Post Author wrote on 12/27/2018 at 04:35am

How is it possible for it to be most improved when it just launched? Did they release a patch that fixes the massive launch mess?

Travis Admin Post Author wrote on 12/27/2018 at 04:35am

Also, you just made up those categories

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 12/27/2018 at 05:19am

Yes, it suffered a horrible launch, but was resolved. I also call it the most ambitious. So, Best New Ambitious Early Access Game & Most Improved: Atlas. LOL And yeah, I made up those categories, although Best Early Access seems like a good one to add, officially.

Travis Admin Post Author wrote on 12/27/2018 at 04:24pm

I could see the benefits but I would worry about a few things

* I think people are wary of Early Access, at least the crowd here, and don't use it much (though I could be way off on that)

* People use Early Access for different levels of testing. Some games will be amazing ideas but still quite broken, some will be practically finished, with Early Access just being used as a pre-order where you get to play it early, and some games remain in Early Access long past the point where they should be, so the developers can use it as a crutch: "Oh you're having issues? Well it's still in early access, don't worry. Here buy our new DLC for our game that hasn't been released yet!"

* It's hard to judge games that aren't done cooking yet

* Early Access devs can just disappear and leave people with a wasted purchase, and it would suck to give something the CG Early Access GotY and then it ends up being vaporware.

Travis Admin Post Author wrote on 01/01/2019 at 10:27pm

Nominations are closed, voting is open!

https://cheerfulghost.com/Travis/posts/3974/cheerful-ghost-game-of-the-year-awards-2018-voting-round

If you want to join this conversation you need to sign in.

Angry Video Game Nerd Reviews The Home Alone Games With Macaulay Culkin

Macaulay Culkin has been showing up in a few YouTube shows I watch regularly including the most recent episode of The Angry Video Game Nerd talking about all the Home Alone Games. The Nerd has reviewed a few Home Alone games before but talking about each one with Mac himself is pretty incredible.

Macaulay Culkin has also showed up in two Red Letter Media shows re:View and The Best of the Worst. In re:View Jack and Mac talk about the 90's incredi-bad film Hackers and in Best of the Worst he reviews a couple terrible films alongside Home Alone 4!

re:View (Hackers): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lM7_oyCZqj0

Plinketto (Best of the Worst) Prototype, Quigley & Home Alone... Read All

SIGIL Is An Upcoming Free Megawad For Doom by John Romero

To celebrate the 25th anniversary of Doom, designer John Romero is releasing SIGIL a free Doom megawad that continues the original Doom campaign. Can't use enough words to say how badass this is and how simple the concept is. John Romero is releasing a free Doom wad you can play for free but also, if you want, get a Limited Run pressing of it for a $40 box and $166 Beast box.

The box copy comes with a 2 CD jewel case with the Megawad plus original music by Metal God Buckethead. For original Doom fans the Megawad seems like a must play and for avid PC game collectors this Limited Run pressing seems just as important. Please believe I'll be playing the Megawad on launch... Read All

Blizzard Halts Heroes of the Storm E-Sports And Cuts Team To Focus on Other Projects

"Over the past several years, the work of evaluating our development processes and making hard decisions has led to new games and other products that we’re proud of. We now have more live games and unannounced projects than at any point in the company’s history. We’re also at a point where we need to take some of our talented developers and bring their skills to other projects. As a result, we’ve made the difficult decision to shift some developers from Heroes of the Storm to other teams, and we’re excited to see the passion, knowledge, and experience that they’ll bring to those projects. This isn’t the first time we’ve had to make tough choices like this. Games like... Read All "Over the past several years, the work of evaluating our development processes and making hard decisions has led to new games and other products that we’re proud of. We now have more live games and unannounced projects than at any point in the company’s history. We’re also at a point where we need to take some of our talented developers and bring their skills to other projects. As a result, we’ve made the difficult decision to shift some developers from Heroes of the Storm to other teams, and we’re excited to see the passion, knowledge, and experience that they’ll bring to those projects. This isn’t the first time we’ve had to make tough choices like this. Games like Diablo II, World of Warcraft, StarCraft II, Overwatch, and more would not exist had we not made similar decisions in the past.

Despite the change, Heroes of the Storm remains our love letter to Blizzard’s worlds and characters. We’ll continue actively supporting the game with new heroes, themed events, and other content that our community loves, though the cadence will change. Ultimately, we’re setting up the game for long-term sustainability. We’re so grateful for the support the community has shown from the beginning, and the development team will continue to support Heroes with the same passion, dedication, and creativity that has made the game such a unique experience.

We’ve also evaluated our plans around Heroes esports—after looking at all of our priorities and options in light of the change with the game, the Heroes Global Championship and Heroes of the Dorm will not return in 2019. This was another very difficult decision for us to make. The love that the community has for these programs is deeply felt by everyone who works on them, but we ultimately feel this is the right decision versus moving forward in a way that would not meet the standards that players and fans have come to expect."

Heroes of the Storm is a very cool MOBA (Multiplayer online battle arena) set in the Blizzard-verse where characters from Diablo, Warcraft, Starcraft and the Nexus get together and duke it out. Heroes of the Storm is different in that it's a bit more accessible, exp is earned as a team and has a huge assortment of different maps and objectives(most MOBA games feature just one map). That said, it's struggled to find a massive audience even though it's totally free to play and has the backing of Blizzard in the wake of titans such as League of Legends and DoTA 2 and it looks like that struggle has cause Blizzard to halt it being a top tier game in it's crown after 3 years.

The good news is that Blizzard supports games for a long time after they've been released so the servers should remain online nearly indefinitely. The sad part is streamers, pros and the community will falter a bit and eventually lessen to a dedicated few. Still, Heroes of the Storm is a great free game to get in and play with friends and if you are looking to give the whole MOBA craze a shot I can't think of a better game to start with.

https://news.blizzard.com/en-us/blizzard/22833558/heroes-of-the-storm-news