Kaiosama TLJ

Stargunner One of my favorite games, and it's another shooter where you don't die in one hit. Although this one is tougher than Tyrian, so you can die a lot if you are not careful. The only oddity that this game have is that despite having a story displayed in game (from a very slow ascending wall of text Star Wars style), the manual has a similar but totally different storyline. Part of me wonders what kind of communication failure happened among the devs for that to happen. Also, fun fact: This was the last game Apogee published under that name before they changed it to 3D Realms. YIIK: A Postmodern RPG This one is more of a dare than a suggestion, because since Ross said he believes videogames are art, then I feel he's obligated to review this one. Don't get me wrong, I don't think this game is a misunderstood masterpiece or anything, but it's creator thought it was. I know that this game already garnered the ire of the internet (and for good reasons), but hearing Ross's insight on a video game story is one of the reason I enjoy Game Dungeon, especially one that we could say it's a tryhard.

Paganitzu A puzzle game published by Apogee, but that's not the reason why I'm suggesting it. If there's one thing that I love about Game Dungeon other than Ross covering weird games, is Ross giving his commentary over cheesy storylines, and Paganitzu has that covered. I can see that it doesn't try to take itself seriously, but it's full of random jokes and jokes that probably were funny back in the time this game was published. But hey, if Ross could make Death's Hangover kind of entertaining (which is a cringefest of a game IMO), then I think this would be good for a funny episode.

The real horror of this game is of how buggy and broken everything is, I bet that if Civvie were the one doing this video he would have used a Gordon Ramsay clip at least four times. Oddly enough, this game reminds me of another Resident Evil clone called Deep Fear, maybe because it's also set in a isolated facility, a research lab deep into the ocean in Deep Fear's case. Thing is, Martian Gothic is even more baffling in the voice acting and general writing department than that game, which is saying something since many consider DF's writing and dialogue to be even more cheesy than the first RE.

This game is basically the "we have X at home" meme for Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines. But I must say that I'm impressed with one thing: This is the only game that we know were you can save scum the twist ending. And I think I have a theory of why... I think they were going for something similar to Ripper (and before anyone asks, it is that FMV game with Christopher Walken), where the true identity of the killer is not the same every time you play it. There's 4 possibilities (one even being the character played by Christopher Walken), but the big difference is that (to my knowledge since I didn't played the game) this is already set by the game once you begin, and the clues you find vary accordingly. But of course, because of the obvious low quality + overambition this is the end result. This game is nothing compared to the cringe of the game that Mandalore reviewed this Halloween:

Necroing this thread because I think the subject is good, and I have some games from the top of my head: * Hopkins FBI - A "so bad, it's good" example. It tries to be a more gritty cop story, but not only it's understanding of "mature" is "loads of blood and dead women with exposed breasts", it also takes a nosedive into total insanity with plenty of plotholes and bizarre plot points, and a main character that despite being labeled as the "hero" he seems to do a lot more harm than good (only losing to Halligan from Mystery of the Druids IMO). It's a entertaining story, FOR THE WRONG REASONS. (still has some horrible puzzles even by old adventure game standards) However, the original soundtrack this game got (excluding the 60s songs they used for some weird reason) is genuinely competent. Some are serviceable ambient soundtracks, and others are memorable hits IMO. This one is my favorite example: * Duke Nukem 2 - You know, I feel it was a good move for 3D Realms to change the series to be a FPS instead of a platformer. The first one was ok despite it's flaws, but the second game was all the flaws from the previous game doubled plus some new ones. Bad scrolling, frustrating level design, bullet spongy bosses, frustrating enemies and placements, and these are the ones I can think from the top of my head. Although, if there's anything that they had over Duke 3D is it's sense of humor. (3D basically became "edgy" and stole a lot of catchphrases and simply called it "satire") Soundtrack however, kicks ass. But then again, that's not saying much considering that the previous game only had PC speaker sounds, so any kind of soundtrack is a massive improvement over "The Rotating Blue Pillars of Auditory Violation".

Mega Lo Mania (a.k.a. Tyrants: Fight Through Time in the Genesis/Mega Drive) Since Ross's main strategy in Baldies was to breed and destroy, I guess this game could be right in his alley. You battle through many islands and eras, and you choose the amout of starting men and your initial territory and then you breed and reseach weapons to crush your enemies. In islands with more than one opponent, you can make temporary aliances to crush a particular foe or to not be overwhelmed (but it not always works), and the AI can also do the same. Weapons are the weirdest part though. Because each square has different types of resources (called elements), but the cost of the weapon is according to the square instead of being universal, meaning that a spear can cost a resource that can be harvested naturally in square A but can cost a different resource that needs to be mined in square B for example. Just like Baldies, managing your men is essential. You need to assign them to tasks like research, building new structures, mining resources, and build weapons in the factory (earlier eras like the stone age don't need a factory and assigned men to create their respective weapons). And of course, the more men that are idle, the faster their numbers will increase. One tip is to use few men in the earlier islands. Because you have a limited number to deploy, and the later sets of isles are really tough, especially considering it reaches to a poink where nukes are available. Also, in the last islands, you may want to develop more than one square because you gain the option to freeze one, making every men there to be carried later to Mega Lo Mania, which is the true final island of the game. And it's a simple big island with no resources to collect, no extra buildings to build, and no weapons to manufacture. But your men are powerful there (they shoot lasers from their eyes), so your main strategy is to breed and destroy.

UFO trilogy (UFO: Aftermath; UFO: Aftershock; UFO: Afterlight) A series that was inspired by X-COM, but instead of being turn-based it's in real-time (but you can still pause to issue orders if you want), so this could be right on Ross's alley since he's not a big fan of turn-based games. ? Also, another difference from X-COM is that the aliens already won. Society is gone, and you need to grab any survivor and resources you can to expand your territory and fight against mutant creatures and eventually the aliens. Ugh! A clone of the C64 game Space Taxi, but with a cartoon caveman theme. It has a simple premise too: A caveman wants to buy a diamont to his future wife, and he them starts a taxi service using a flinstones-style helicopter.

Maybe it's just me, but the TSA logo reminds me of Reboot:

When you were shocked that London was a AI because he speak like a normal human being, I was expecting a I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream reference, because that's kind of the case with AM too (and his "brothers"). Except that AM's voice is too iconic (and voiced by the author of the original novel, no less) that I can't imagine him with any other voice, even a robotic one. And also on the subject of AIs with human voices, there's also Angel from the Borderlands series. But Angel actually made sense because... Also, some people on Youtube already said this, but the Palace reminds me of the Orokin Towers in the Void from Warframe. It has the same feel, a pristine heavenly place that's also full of danger. Biggest difference is that in that game stealth is optional. Anyway, back to Echo. I feel like it's one of those games that tries to experiment on a gimmick that's sound good on paper (in this case, the clones and their learning behavior), but either it's not really a good idea, or it is a good idea but it was executed poorly. I would say that it leans more towards the latter. As for the story... I don't mind a story in a game if it is at least enjoyable in some way. In fact, I think it can enrich the experience and also make "game A" distinct from "game B" depending how it's executed. So yeah, even though I can respect John Carmack for being envolved in the creation of one of the most iconic game franchises, I still think he is full of shit for saying that "story in a game is like a story in a porn movie". But if the game has a bad story, it may not be the end of the world if the gameplay is good, but it will sure leave a bad taste in the mouth, so I kind of disagree with Ross when he said that even though he wasn't a fan of the story he would prefer it over none at all, because at least with no story you are free to take your own interpretations and "create" your own story and not suffer through pointless and/or annoying characters and plot threads, "less is more" as they say. "Kind of disagree" however because... Well... Balan Wonderworld is a game that exists now, and if any of you are aware of this game (and if not, what rock are you guys living under?), I can safely say it's an exception of what I said. And judging by what Ross showed, Echo seems to be that kind of story that was created by artists and animators that wanted to create something gorgeous, but they also have zero to very little experience or understanding of writing (because they are primaly artists and animators) and yet they decided to write a more dramatic and complex plot because it's far more "artistic" this way, and they probably thought "it can't be that hard, it's just putting some words in a sheet of paper to be read at loud, what can possibly go wrong?". (you can imagine that last sentence with Bubsy's voice if you want)

Kohan series There's 2 games, well, 3 if you count the fact that the first game expansion, Ahriman's Gift, is a standalone one. But they are RTS games that I don't see any other RTS copy much of it. I'm saying that because of how the game works. Instead of recruiting units, you create a company that's basically a collection of units, having at minimum a frontline of 4 basic units of the same type (could be infantry, archers...), but you can create bigger companies with additional 2 support units that range from healers, mages, tougher warriors like paladins, summoners that conjure temporary units, or even other basic units (but only in the first game), and a rearline of 2 basic units. (but this only in the second game) Company structure can be very important. It's creation is instantaneous, but you only have it's captain, that's usually a generic unit without any noteworthy skills, ready to go. It may need to wait near one of your cities/forts to fill/refill/heal it's ranks, so the shorter the company, the faster it will be at full capacity. Also, certain basic/support units can give a bonus to the whole company (like more defense or vision range) as long as you have at least one alive, and while you can have cavalry and infantry in the same company, it's regular speed will always be equal to the slowest unit. Some things to keep in mind when creating companies, aside from upkeep and formation. Speaking of upkeep, economy and resources works differently in this game. You have five: Gold, Stone, Wood, Iron, and Khaldunite (which are magic crystals). Gold is the only resource that stockpiles, and you spend it a lot in buildings and companies. The other resources act as a sort of cap/limit of upkeep for certain individual units (for example: archers require wood, and the more mystical units require khaldunite), and you can recruit units even when you don't have these resources, BUT doing so will affect negatively your gold income depending of the resource, and trust me, having a negative gold income is a slow death to your army. (literally, your units will start to slowly lose health if you have zero gold and a negative income) Building is a little different for a RTS because it's closer to a 4X game. You just have a city that has a passive gold income with many slots for buildings to generate more gold and/or other resources and allow certains units/companies to be created, and it can also spawn militia to defend itself. You can also create pioneers to build new cities. Also we have the Kohans, which are the hero units of this game. They can replace the generic captain and they range from warriors to spell casters, and they can grow stronger. They can be revived if they are killed, but they will lose all the XP they gained. The story is meh though. It's your typical good vs evil fantasy story where you face evil Kohan (the Ceyah, as they are called) that commands armies of undead and demons (and also some mercenaries). The second game I can say they try to spice things up a little, they even have one of the evil Kohans from the previous game going to the heroes side (although he behaves for the most part like a huge edgelord, but I've seen worse), but even so I felt the plot was a missed opportunity. But I want Ross to judge that part for himself.

"I can't say who, but there are enough signs that somebody on the development team really cared about The Chosen, and this was their baby. Someone here had a vision... and we're paying the price for it." - Ross about The Chosen: Well of Souls "I still don't know how to place this game. It did so many things right, then just sorta got drunk watching Captain Planet episodes. (...) I can tell a lot of heart went into this game and that took us into odd places. That's about the best I can ask from most games." - Ross about A New Beginning I couldn't think of a better way to start this topic without taking these quotes from Ross himself, since I think the title is self-explanatory. This is partially inspired by the topic "What is the Coolest Game YOU'VE Played?" by Rarefoil. But here it's for games that we can see the devs put some weight, but there's still clearly something wrong with it. So I ask: What games you've played, or know about, that you could see "somebody cared"? The Chosen: Well of Souls and A New Beginning are two different "flavours" of this. One is just a bad game all around with serious balancing issues and a very dull story, but just like Ross pointed out, if they made the game as a quick cash-in it wouldn't be that long and the story wouldn't have as much dialogue it actually has. The other is more competently made, but it shoots itself on the foot due to the cartoony and preachy nature of the writing on a plot that wants you to take it seriously. With that in mind, I could say that to fall into this category a game needs to be either really bad, but made by developers that (just like Ed Wood) are really passionate about it, or a potentially good game that might be misguided in one way or another. Or even something in between. One game that would give this award is Limbo of the Lost. To be honest, I never played this game, I'm familiar with it thanks to Mandalore's review. But it has reasons to deserve it in my opinion. For those unaware, this is a point-and-click adventure game that came out in 2008, and it's mostly remembered due to it's controversy of using stolen assets from many places. So many in fact that there's an wiki dedicated to it. I can see this game has a lot of heart despite shamelessly stealing from a lot of places. One reason is that this game was "sort of" being developed since 1990. Limbo of the Lost was first conceptualised by two guys, but they were extremely unlucky on finding a competent team to help them materialise their project properly, and a publisher interested in backing their game. They only got one extra guy later to help on the project. And the amount of plagiarized stuff only shows two things: One thing is that they weren't very competent by themselves to create, well, most of it (some few elements are original, still). And another thing is that they really wanted their baby project to see the light of day, no matter the cost. I mean, a LOT of the stolen material was so blatant that a lawsuit was guaranteed. Why even take this risk just to release a game that should ideally been released roughly seventeen years ago compared to the time it was actually released? And a game that I don't think had any hype surrounding it? They could've just gave up on the whole thing. But they persisted. If the creators of The Chosen: Well of Souls carry the spirit of Ed Wood, I could say that the creators of Limbo of the Lost also carry the spirit of Dr. Frankenstein. Just like the doctor they created a abomination, but Victor Frankenstein didn't created the monster "for the evulz", he created it to show the world he could do it. At least that's my take on it. I wanted to post other games that I think may deserve this award, but I'm tired for now. In the meantime you guys can share games that you've played that you may think deserve this award.

As someone that was inspired by Ross and wants to make it's own channel one day (well, the are other inspiration over the years, but Ross is one of the main ones), I'm extremely worried about his mental health. Ross, I don't know how bad is your financial situation, but that's still not a excuse to take a break once in a while. Unlike OP suggested, a beach may be out of question considering the pandemic, but you can still watch a movie, series, or even play a game of your interest, which the latter could be also good to discover a new candidate to Game Dungeon, but aim more to have yourself entertained. [EDIT] Ok, I was quickly browing Youtube and this video came out: I decided to share here because I think it's relevant to the topic.

Steel Empire This game might be of interest to Ross, if not for a episode, at least it could end up in Ross's Game List. This is a side-scroller shooter with a steampunk aesthetic, and the reason that I said that this game might interest Ross is because, just like Tyrian 2000, you don't die in ONE hit. Not only that, but the powerup to your main weapons is persistent even if you die (you power it up by collecting 3 "P" letters). You have a choice of two airships: One is faster and drop bombs while shooting (good against ground targets), and the other is a Zeppelin that has more hitpoints (and a slightly bigger hitbox). Also, this game is Japanese. Just to show that not every developer from the land of the rising sun creates a shooter based on a paper plane against a kaleidoscope of bullets. And also, this game is a remake, it was originally for the Sega Genesis/Megadrive. (and this version I've played a lot)

The link for their website is not working. Expired connection problem, and it's been like this for days. Luckily, this program can be found in other websites to download, you just need to google it.

The Horde I consider this one an ancestor of the "hero defense" and "tower defenses" genre, and a interesting choice for the show. This game is about Chauncey, a young servant with no family (he was raised by wild cows) that's rewared with a plot of land after saving his king from choking himself to death at the banquet. However, his land is constantly under siege by the Horde, which his a mob of red monsters that wants to eat anything in it's path. The objective of the game is to earn money to pay the taxes, while also defending your lands from the hordlings. The combat phase is in real time, and you need to rely on traps and other means to help you since they can come from all directions, and they can be too numerous for you to fight alone. (not until they deal a lot of destruction first at least) Also, this game came originally for the 3DO. And the intro cutscene has better quality on that system: Unlike the PC version, where they botched it:

Since you talked about TMNT, I'll tell you a curious fact: It started of as a independent comic book, and as far as I know, it's a lot gritty compared to the other media it spawned. Also, If you think that Blade just finding a machine to simply revert his mutation is ludicrious, Freedom Planet is far worse, because...

Yeah, although I would take off the "amazing" part since its Hunt Down the Freeman we are talking about. As far as I know, It was going to be a mini-series, but the main creator decided to make a game instead, despite not having any expericence to manage a project of that scope. And you can see the result.

Well... I never watched any machinima beyond Freeman's Mind, but I think I know how you feel based on my experience with other forms of medium that are not machinima. I think the main problem is that many machinima/SFM creators are mainly animators, not writers. And many amateur writers have a nasty habit of thinking that melodrama is the only kind of drama. (Also being incredibly tone deaf) Fun fact that is kind of related to the topic: Hunt Down the Freeman was going to be just one of those "serious" machinimas. (and I think it should have stayed that way)

What I look the most in a game is fun, and challenges can be fun, but challenges not always make a game fun. Personally, It really depends of how the difficulty is implemented, or if the game even needs difficulty at all. I could say 2 things that I hate to deal in games that might be relevant to the topic: Excessive grinding, and "perfectionism" design. I think the first one is self-explanatory. I don't mind some grinding, but only when it's not to the point where you feel you are making the same thing over and over again because you don't have enough power (like level, gear, or money) to progress, and especially when it feels that you are only playing that game and nothing else. This is a reason why I stopped playing GTA Online a long time ago, even when I had friends helping me, also the microtransactions were so predatory that they disgusted me. "Perfectionism" design is a little more specific, and the best example I can think of are bullet hells. I am no stranger to shooters, I played Tyrian, Stargunner, Sonic Wings, and even Wild Guns Reloaded, but I hardly considered these games "bullet hells" because even though I played some that you could die in one hit (Wild Guns Reloaded is a good example because I was really motivated to beat it multiple times) they where not 90% of the screen filled with bullets like some kind of pyschotic kaleidoscope. Trial and error are part of a good challenging experience for me, but extreme trial and error to perfectly avoid a kaleidoscope of bullets with pixel perfection? Hell no! I could try to learn, but for what? Bragging rights? Just give me a shield like Tyrian (it doesn't need to be infinite) and I will maybe reconsider. There are other things, but I'm tired of writing now, and some are not relevant to the topic.

Also a very accurate description. And I think I will stop posting in this thread for now because I think we are delairing it...

That's... A very accurate description. He's the main character from Hunt Down the Freeman. You know, that shitty Half-Life fanfic that got endorsed by Valve.

Actually, I was thinking more about this guy: He's a main character, but he tecnically counts as a villain, and it's even one of the selling pitches of that travesty.

Not every villain need to have a "smart" motivation, especially when they are insane. And I've seen worse villains with even dumber motivations before, so...

I have to admit, this game does have a interesting idea for the premise, but I kind of suffers from the "stupidity is the only option" trope, especially in the part where you drink the poisoned wine from the mayor. Also, even though I don't disagree with you that Fabian is annoying, I can see his motivation as a villain to be plausible. After all, that period wasn't called "The Dark Ages" for nothing, so I wouldn't be surprised if someone had gone insane and wanted to see everything burn by either trying to summon a demon or going out "Joker style".

Blood * Rambo cult - Seriously, I never seen a evil cult that packs so much heat like the Cabal. Usually, you see cultists in videogames hurling bolts of magic or hexes against you, not literal sticks of dynamite and also trying to make you a swiss cheese with all the lead they got. * Most satisfying death screams - I have to admit, of all the violent games out there no one gives me the same level of grim satisfaction from the screams of agony of the enemies than this game, especially the screams from the cultists. And saying that indicates that maybe I have a problem... ? * All-time favorite - Of the 3 Build Engine FPS of that era at least (second place going to Shadow Warrior). Deep Rock Galactic * Dwarves * Digging * Danger