Games Thrashed: 2023 Edition

Last year was another banner year in terms of game beating! And without further ado, here's the winner of retro game of the year for 2022!

That's right! Hydlide! A childhood game that terrorized me, I finally put it to rest after first getting it in 1995 at a Byway store! Not sure if this one is better than Deadly Towers but it's another one off the childhood list! lol!

JANUARY:

Power Insticnt (SNES): Now here's a REALLY cool fighter that not a lot of people talk about. This one was a lot of fun to play and has practice and survival modes! It even has destroyable side areas to extend arenas! Wow!

Crash Bandicoot (Switch)

FEBRUARY:

Sonic Mania (Switch) Wow! This could possibly be the best Sonic game ever made! Finished it with all the chaos emeralds too! Such a stellar game.

MARCH:

Phantasy Star (Master System) Played the excellent Sega Ages version by M2 on my Switch. One of the best JRPG's I've played in a long time. Lots of great quality of life improvements by the Dev team, great game!

APRIL:

Dragon Quest 2 (Switch)

Dragon Quest 3 (Switch) I think I like DQ3 slightly better than the second game on the Switch, but both are fantastic remakes!

JUNE:

Final Fantasy Adventure (Gameboy) An excellent game with an stellar soundtrack!

Shadowrun (SNES) Wow what a fun little action RPG! Very cool game with lots of fun things to do. I may tackle the game on the Genesis too someday!

Double Dragon IV (Steam) A flawed but fun beat em up. A little more time and polish and this could have been one of the best Double Dragon games ever.

Double Dragon V (Genesis) A pretty good fighting game, nothing mind blowing but fun. Finished it on HARD mode and did a 1CC to boot.

Ducktales 2 (NES) Hard to believe halfway through the year and this is the first new NES game I finished! Oh boy! Still this one is excellent though, and a crazy late release at 1993!

RBI Baseball (NES) Beat the game with a perfect 9-0 record with the American All Stars team!

JULY

Battletoads Double Dragon (NES) Not as tough as the origianl Battletoads but still has some tricky moments. Stage 3 in particular is long and quite brutal. Still, it's a lot of fun and I finished it as Billy Lee.

Power Blade 2 (NES) This game is quite rare and expensive, even cart only, but it's fantastic. I really like the different suits you can get and the Newt suit that has you climbing around like a monkey is awesome. While the music is really good it doesn't hold a candle to the first game.

SCAT (NES) As far as side scrolling shooters go, SCAT is actually quite good. It reuses a lot of sounds and effects from Natsume's other shooter, Abadox, but this one is a fun ride.

AEW Fight Forever (Switch) They did it. A company finally made WWF No Mercy 2! Beat All Elite mode on Normal setting as my created wrestler The Preacher. The gameplay is almost perfect as well as a modern upgrade. Hopefully we'll get an update with way more clothing options in the create a wrestler and a few more modes like a cage match, tournament and league modes would be awesome. Overall, my favorite modern wrestling game since Fire Pro Wrestling Returns. And I would pick AEW over Fire Pro Wrestling R anyday!

Double Dragon Neon (Steam) Finally got around to playing this game and I must say, it's REALLY good! And a lot of fun to play as well. The music is phenomenal too! Excellent addition to the franchise and I'll definitely be playing this one again!

AUGUST

Double Dragon Gaiden (Steam) The newest DD game and quite a good one! It's in the style of TMNT Shredder's Revenge but not as good. Don't get me wrong it's still a FANTASTIC game with the music being one of the standouts but not as good as the Turtles. Still, it's going to be a lot of fun to unlock all the characters and things, something Shredder's Revenge lacked. BIG thumbs up and finished the game as the Lee Brothers.

Smackdown Just Bring It (PS2)

Smackdown Shut Your Mouth (PS2)

Legends of Wrestling (PS2)

September

Xexyz (NES) Used the boss rush password to beat this one. Really cool little game and the shooter boss fights were good. I especially liked the boss design!

Willow (NES) Wow. Talk about an epic the scale of the original Legend of Zelda. Although way more linear this is a really awesome top down adventure game. Had a blast playing it and the music is top notch. Used a Nintendo Power magazine with the maps and all the tips, felt like a kid again playing with a mag!

Legacy of the Wizard (NES) Finally! Put this one to rest after having the game since...my first year of high school? Fun game but without some kind of guide there's no way I could have beat this one!

OCTOBER

The Oregon Trail (computer)

Super Mario Strikers (Switch)

NOVEMBER

Magic Darts (NES) A very fun and quick little game here! Played as the Alien against 3 expert computer players and beat them first place in 701 game mode. Like Championship Bowling this is an awesome and humorous cart!

Ikari Warriors (NES) I did it! Finally after all these years. Used the stage select code and the continue code but I don't care, I finally beat this game. That last level is an absolute nightmare.

Golgo 13 (NES) Finally! A childhood nemesis has finally been finished off! Used the stage select code to get to the last few missions but I beat all the previous ones when I was a kid. Still those last levels are brutal!

Prison City (Steam) Awesome new retro game! Difficult but fair with good music and excellent NES like graphics!