Super Punch-Out! (the SNES one, not the arcade one)

SNES, Wii, New 3DS, Wii U, Switch Online, SNES Classic Mini, Anywhere SNES is emulated

Just a great action game from yesteryear. Everyone should play this. It's not exactly a hidden gem, but it's rarely a topic of discussion.

I played this game for the first time last year and it really stuck in my head because I found it fun to play, but impossible to do well at. Maybe if we put our heads together, we can crack it. Or we can just swap stories about how our stations are failing and we're airing Citizen Kane three times a day because it's public domain.

Mini Maker is a gamified 3D art tool designed to combat perfectionism. I think it would be fun to see what we all come up with.

Saga Frontier 2 has aged very gracefully thanks to choosing a watercolor 2D aesthetic and containing one of the best soundtracks on the PS1. This is Squaresoft at their height, when they were an absolute hit factory. Saga Frontier 2 was overshadowed by the other Square titles of the time, but based on its' own merits it deserves a seat at the table as one of the greatest PS1 RPGs.

A classic Metal Gear directed by Shinta Nojiri, director of AC!D games and designer of MGS4's Act 3?? Scripted by Tomokazu Fukushima, the guy they say was REALLY responsible for the cool stuff in MGS1 and 2??? Playable with a mere FOUR BUTTONS????? We all should have signed up for this a long time ago.

I don't think a lot of people played it. It's a shmup with a zelda like overworld and RPG elements.It's also not that long.

I'm resubmitting this one! Here's what I said the first time:

Vantage Master is an obscure Falcom strategy series that I don't know much about. I think it would be great title to try out for the game club, esp. because of the multiplayer aspect. The vibes seem cool at least!

The English windows version is still freely available on Falcom's website at http://www.falcom.co.jp/vantage/index_e.html (as of March 2024)

Tokyo Twilight Ghost Hunters: Daybreak Special Gigs

PlayStation Vita, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Windows

> **Note:** The game nominated is the expanded *Daybreak Special Gigs* edition, but feel free to play the original for a more compact experience – you'd mostly be missing a few extra monster-of-the-week chapters.

## My History

*Tokyo Twilight Ghost Hunters* was the game that made me realize that I'd rather play weird games than good games.

January 1st, 2016. I'm on the couch at a friend-of-a-friend's house in Leksand, Middle of Nowhere, Sweden. I'd just picked up *Tokyo Twilight Ghost Hunters* on the final day of the PlayStation Store's new year's sale – why, I'm not entirely certain, but perhaps it was because it was Japanese, and I was intrigued to find absolutely nobody talking about it. Everyone else is still asleep after the previous night's celebrations, so I boot up my PS Vita and go for it.

What I found on that day was baffling. I didn't understand a single decision made in the design of this game. Dialogue choices are made through a “sense wheel” followed by an “emotion wheel” – so you can respond to someone's question by angrily gazing at them, or angrily licking them. Despite stellar presentation for the game's visual novel segments, the battles all take place essentially on a plain black-on-white paper representation – though as it turns out, there *are* 3D representations of every environment, but you only *see them* for a split second when attacking an enemy. And the battle system? It's based around laying traps, but… since enemies are ghosts and thus invisible, I don't think I successfully sprang a single trap for the entire game.

I couldn't in good conscience call it a “good game” – how would I recommend this to anyone? But I couldn't bring myself to dislike it, either. That cognitive dissonance eventually led me to cast aside the idea of “good” and “bad” games, and to my current video game consumption habits: Thanks to *Tokyo Twilight Ghost Hunters*, I play things I find intriguing, and whether it makes for a pleasant or unpleasant time, I'm always glad I experienced it.

All these years later, I'd like to revisit it through this expanded edition, released after I played the original.

## The Game's History

As it turns out, *Tokyo Twilight Ghost Hunters* has a rich heritage, and there's a reason why it is the way that it is. The game is directed by a man named Shuuhou Imai – a man who, reductively speaking, really only ever makes one game over and over. He's the creator of the [*Tokyo Majin Gakuen*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tokyo_Majin_Gakuen_Denki) series, which stretches back to 1998, and was nothing short of a phenomenon. This game is an honorary entry; the *first to be released in English,* 17 years later.

You might've seen [*Kowloon High-School Chronicle*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kowloon_High-School_Chronicle) on the Switch – that's another one, and if you're acquainted, this game will be familiar to you. Most all his games feature high-school kids, supernatural powers, a visual novel-style story mode, a story structure that's divided into “monster of the week”-esque anime-inspired “episodes”, and some variation on that bizarre “emotion wheel” system… which has truly never worked, but at this point, it's iconic. Then he slots some other genre into that metagame – a tactical RPG in the case of *Tokyo Majin Gakuen* (or a card game in the case of its WonderSwan spinoff *Fuju Hōroku*), a dungeon-crawling RPG in the case of *Kowloon High-School Chronicle*, and a board game in the case of *Tokyo Twilight Ghost Hunters*.

In past years, I've gotten enough into Imai's works that I can say nigh-certainly that I'm the biggest non-Japanese fan of *Tokyo Majin Gakuen* and its progeny – I even found myself writing the Wikipedia articles for the series and *Kowloon* a few years back. I'm sure I'll be sharing little nuggets of knowledge throughout the month with y'all! I'm immensely excited to see what you'll think, and to get to discuss the game – a game I've never been successful in getting anyone else to play.

Attack of the Friday Monsters! A Tokyo Tale

Gorgeous game, a great on-ramp to the Boku no Natsuyasumi series/Kaz Ayabe works. Perfect for summer AND a 3ish hour runtime

Really cool Enix action RPG with great music, atmosphere, cool power ups, and multiple branching pathways with their own power ups and stories.

PC, Switch, 3DS, Vita, PS4, Wii, Mobile

Nominating this again.

I just like Terry Cavanagh and this is a great game. Excellent aesthetic, catchy music, good sense of humour, accessible, short runtime, available on a bunch of platforms. It's the perfect game club game (imo)!

It is a classic of the roguelike and dungeonwandering genres. It is free. It can be played in ASCII or tiled modes. Lots of classes and approaches. Playthroughs tend to be quick for new players and can be longer as one builds up experience. There are a lot of learning moments to the game, but the basics can be learned in minutes. It can be learned blindly, but there are very helpful wikis and resources to help you learn as well.

It's as much music video and audio drama as video game. You start out as DNA pooped out by a rat as it dies, and continue on through some sort of life. Make sure to play it with the accompanying audio tape.

COOL VITA GAME ABOUT A COOL GIRL WHO FLIES

Fascinating exercise in minimalism, has hidden features and a massive world with secrets. The sheer openness would be interesting for a group as everyone will find and experience different things.

The Castle is an adventure game where you explore a castle and rummage around for keys and solve puzzles to progress. It's probably what people would call an early example of the Metroidvania concept. It's pretty massive for the time with over 100 rooms. I think everyone would find it interesting!

Windows, macOS, Linux, and Nintendo Switch

1. This game will either entirely repulse you or ruin ur life (but in a good way)

2. I want more weirdos to play it with

3. a) The demo is easily available for download on the computer based platforms on the developer's website (https://www.factorio.com/download), or, on the Nintendo eShop (an aside, the controls and performance for this game were not meant to be on the Switch, but apparently it's been well received on that platform due to it having an apparently well thought out control scheme (as another related aside it apparently runs well on Steam Deck too))

3. b) The demo doesn't *really* capture what the experience of playing the game is fully like, but there is more than enough substance to the demo for it to make it clear whether it's your thing or not. If your experience is anything like mine it'll end up having probably like 12 hours of solid entrancing gameplay to it

4. Factorio now an expansion pack named Factorio: Space Age, but the vanilla version could already easily occupy one for hundreds of hours. At any rate, if you get hooked on the demo, don't be in any rush to get the expac.

https://youtu.be/OiczN-8QKDA?si=8UrB3mTiRWupz_Iz

5. For those who love it playing it can be like defragmenting your brain and I love it, 1,820 hours on Steam and that was the count *before* the expansion pack came out

It's the second Mystery Dungeon game ever and the first Shiren game. It has a fantastic fan translation, and it feels very modern in this age of roguelikes being the all the rage for the past decade. Shiren takes Rogue and adds a unique Japanese and JRPG sensibility to it that I find extremely appealing. If you haven't played a Shiren, it's a great place to start!

It’s a pleasant exploration platformer, that allows you to install and build custom levels. I thought it could be fun to figure out how to make levels and share them on the forum.
This link is where I installed the game: http://egomassive.com/ks/

it just got an english patch and the dreamcast is one of the most insert credit consoles! I think people would love exploring a recent fan translation together especially for one as famous and bizarre as this

It’s a well-made hack of Super Mario World that I haven’t played much of. Super Mario World hacking is a fairly vibrant scene, so it could be interesting to see what they’re up to!
It’s on SMWCentral at: https://www.smwcentral.net/?p=section&a=details&id=28856

It's really funny and silly with its broken NP s but also really beautiful and addictive.

Hydra’s Castle Labyrinth - https://miimoka.itch.io/hydra-castle-labyrinth-fp

It’s a freeware metroidvania (I’m playing a version on 3ds I found on hshop), and if you’ll forgive the comparison, I think it has a lot in common with everyone’s favorite freeware game by a Japanese solo dev, cave story. It has a very handcrafted charm, including little bits of friction that are rough around the edges. There seems to be a confident vision of what game design should be mixed with the sense of exploration and oddity you can get from these solo dev projects. There’s lots of back tracking involved with no map, but when you find do find a new ability it’s like a great gust of a second wind. It’s been perfect to play for short bursts on train rides or before bed.

This is more of a me thing, but it’s also emblematic of a whole scene of games I’m just beginning to discover, and by that I mean games not commercialized on steam and/or passion projects inspired by forgotten classics. I’m sure not all of them will be as good as cave story or hydra’s labyrinth but it’s a cool feeling to think “oh I really like games like this

It might be fun to play a competitive game against each other for a month. Community is the best way to get into fighting games.

PC, PS2, GCN, Xbox, GBA, NDS, PSP

https://forums.insertcredit.com/t/monthly-game-club-nominations-meta-discussion/2702/227

As I mentioned here I picked out a random month, June 2003 and people can choose from the following: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2003_in_video_games#Notable_releases
June 1 Sonic Pinball Party — — GBA —
June 2 Toontown Online Windows — — —
June 3 Midnight Club II — Xbox — —
June 9 Donkey Kong Country — — — GBA
June 17 Mega Man Network Transmission — GCN — —
June 17 Space Channel 5: Ulala's Cosmic Attack — — — GBA
June 17 Unlimited Saga — PS2 — —
June 18 Sonic Adventure DX: Director's Cut — GCN — —
June 19 Drome Racers — — — GBA
June 19 Mace Griffin: Bounty Hunter[39] Windows PS2, Xbox
June 20 Neighbours from Hell Windows
June 20 Star Trek: Elite Force II[40] Windows
June 20 Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness — PS2 — —
June 23 Advance Wars 2: Black Hole Rising — — — GBA
June 23 Rock 'N Roll Racing — — — GBA
June 24 Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Wrath of the Darkhul King — — — GBA
June 24 Magic Pengel: The Quest for Color — PS2 — —
June 24 Mega Man Battle Network 3 — — — GBA
June 24 Stuntman — — — GBA
June 24 Wario World — GCN — —
June 25 Arc the Lad: Twilight of the Spirits — PS2 — —
June 26 Indiana Jones and the Emperor's Tomb[41] PS2
June 30 Ape Escape 2 — PS2 — —
June 30 The Simpsons: Road Rage — — — GBA

June 2025 (we did a different year but same concept)

Alundra is the best Zelda game ever made.

The Ur-Quan Masters is an open-source remake of the 1990s classic Star Control II. The game is a remarkably open game: you can explore star systems, mine planets, upgrade your ship, and perform diplomacy or battle with a number of other civilizations. There is a big overarching story involving throwing off the shackles of the eponymous "Ur-Quan Masters," and the game has several ways of giving hints and nudges toward accomplishing the goal of winning the war. (Blind exploration, home base reminders, rumors from other species, and even paratextual clues like a map that would have been included with the game.) You can follow a guide if you would prefer to beat the game in one go, or you can just get your hands dirty and see what happens. (Time does pass in game, and you can eventually lose.)

So why this game? The original game writers are working on a sequel as I write this, Free Stars: Children of Infinity. The game has a lot of ideas that would be iterated upon in games as diverse as Mass Effect and Fallout. And I want to get frungy with y'all.

The Ur-Quan Masters is an open-source remake of the 1990s classic Star Control II. The game is a remarkably open game: you can explore star systems, mine planets, upgrade your ship, and perform diplomacy or battle with a number of other civilizations. There is a big overarching story involving throwing off the shackles of the eponymous "Ur-Quan Masters," and the game has several ways of giving hints and nudges toward accomplishing the goal of winning the war. (Blind exploration, home base reminders, rumors from other species, and even paratextual clues like a map that would have been included with the game.) You can follow a guide if you would prefer to beat the game in one go, or you can just get your hands dirty and see what happens. (Time does pass in game, and you can eventually lose.)

So why this game? The original game writers are working on a sequel as I write this, Free Stars: Children of Infinity. The game has a lot of ideas that would be iterated upon in games as diverse as Mass Effect and Fallout. And I want to get frungy with y'all.

The legendary indie rpg about basketball and ghosts. Is it still funny? Let's find out.

A super impressive fan remake of Zelda II by HoverBat - manages to completely capture the feel of the original game but with a ton of quality of life improvements. It's still hard as nails but feels a lot more modern in its difficulty, so I think is quite an accessible way to learn to appreciate what the original brought to the table.

Super Famicom; Ported to PS1, Switch, PS4/5, Steam, Xbox Series X/S

Clock Tower is a landmark game in the survival horror genre, pioneering the ubiquitous "pursuer" motif. It draws heavy inspiration from the films of Dario Argento and presents an incredible atmosphere through its pixel art and animations, giallo-inspired music, and tense gameplay. A survival-horror point-and-click-adventure game combines two intimidating genres; despite the learning curve, I find the game to be an easily playable short and sweet atmospheric classic.

As someone who has no nostalgia for Hamtaro, I played the handheld trilogy based on screncaps and things I heard. Ham-Ham Heartbreak is easily the best of them! The setup is that a mean hamster named Spat hates love, so he goes around shit-talking and causing issues which cause the other hamsters to be upset with each other.

It is a really enjoyable adventure game with fun solution logic. You talk or interact with the environment to acquire specific verbs, and you then decide how to apply them to solve puzzles.

It also won me over with the incredible art design and animation, and while I figured it would be adorable I was surprised with how genuinely funny this game is. Spat is a great villain in this game, and he repeatedly gets stooged in fun ways. A great game for screencapping!

This is the best non-20s game I have played this decade.

If anyone is curious about the other titles:
Ham-Hams Unite! is the first game in the trilogy released on GBC, but Heartbreak follows the same formula and does basically everything better. Still worthwhile if you really like this format!

Rainbow Rescue is the third game and it was released on GBA. It has an incredibly beautiful pixel art style, but the gameplay deviates to a mini-game focus to solve issues. Your mileage may vary, but I really disliked the minigames so this was a major disappointment. If anyone tries it, I hope you get more from it.