Factorio - Vic's thread make me pick up the game again, wanted to build a factory to score the last few production rate cheevos. I dropped it around the time I managed to start enriching uranium, but I might get back to at some point as I am quite please by the layout/design I ended up implementing.
Oxygen Not Included - got the new DLC and screwed around with it. The DLC is ok but nothing spectacular, just extra substances, critters, plants and some alternative resource/production chains. At least it's not expensive, but I wouldn't recommend it without a discount of some sort anyway (I got it for like 5-ish dollars). Base game is still one of the best of the last 10 years due to the substances physics with phase changes and the bizzaro science sandbox potential.
Rayman (PS1) - finished it.
Abe's Oddysey (PS1) - started it after I got done with Rayman, finished it a while back with all 100 mudokons saved. It was actually easier than I remembered. Possibly because the last time I played it I used a keyboard, or I got some perspective from Ecco the Dolphin what hard can really be, or I got better at platformers due to the other games of the genre I (re)played in recent years. The checkpoint spacing was also mostly fair bar two cases related to challening secret areas. Anyway a masterpiece, great ambience and creative art, fair but challening gameplay and fun puzzles. Oh and the way the enemies are all scripted differently is one of those genius ideas you wish you saw more often (scrabs and paramites having their particular behavioral quirks being parts of the puzzles, so good).
Ganbare Goemon: Yukihime Kyūshutsu Emaki/The Legend of Mystical Ninja (SNES) - finished it. Last boss turned out to be piss easy once I figured out the arrows in his first phase can be deflected back with coin toss attacks and not just the standard melee attack. Good game apart from the times you need to grind 800 coins to progress and the town sections.
Wargames: Defcon 1 (PS1) - this one is an oddball, a straight-to-vidya sequel of the cult movie set 20-ish years after it. Well honestly it has little plot ingame, really just the manual, so it barely feels like a sequel. It's also a similar case to the other unusual licensing target from around the same time - the games based on Jeff Wayne's Musical version of the War of the Worlds, where the PC game of that name was a strategy game and the console one a 3D vehicle action game. Also what is weird it doesn't support saving the game with a memory card just passwords. As far as playing it goes it is an ok co-op romp as far as games back then went, you get a pool of vehicles for each mission and blow stuff up (jeep/bike dropping airstrike targeting flares OP), you lose all your vehilces you restart. Nowadays probably too dated for most people, although at least it support the analog stick of the dual shock controller.
Rocket Knight Adventures (Megadrive): I try to beat it from time to time but I got rusty after a few months of not trying. In general it seem to follow the same style of (boss rush?) level design philosophy as Contra Hard Corps and I wouldn't be surprised if it was the same team. The game is easier than Hard Corps (go figure, it's not a one hitpoint wonder), but the pace and adrenalin rush arcade action gameplay is very similar. Oh and the music is so damn good. Bonus points for the funny evil pig cartoon steampunk empire, really good art in that area. Another great Konami game from the time they when they put out banger after banger.
Gley Lancer (Megadrive): This is one of my two go-to SHMUPs on the Megadrive, the other being Steel Empire. This japanese only release (go figure by the engrish title) is one of those easier SHMUPs on the platform despite being a one hitpoint wonder, which is why it appeals to me so much. Unlike Thunder Force IV it gives you better margins for error and doesn't feel nearly as unfair or frustrating when playing it. It has some decent music and the pixel art is really topnotch squeezing out the most it could out of the Megadrive's limitations, especially the opening level with the asteroids and jupiter in the background. There are also some animu cutscenes and some plot but I can't read nipponese so I can't judge the quality of that.
Stuff I played with my kids:
Sonic 2 (Megadrive), Mario Kart Double Dash (GC), Sunset Riders (SNES), Zombies ate my Neighbors (SNES), Kirby's Air Ride (GC).
About the only thing of note I want to say about any of these that I didn't already is that surprisingly, unlike Mario Kart, Kirby's uses rather "realistic" textures for the tracks and these have not aged well. As usual saturated colors and simple color palettes stand the test of time better.
