Bingo Bonanza 2024

[ArtikSkarab]

For Another PSNP Event (N2): Mega Man X Legacy Collection

 

Used that for my X entry in the A-Z Protagonist Platinum Club. It's a pretty cool collection of games (Mega Man X1-X4 and a double boss challenge mode) that really made me see that I have some issues with the Mega Man X games. Usually, they have a pretty rough 1st Maverick fight (except X1) unless you go around and collect a lot of power-ups before trying anything. That is extremely apparent in X3 with is probably thee weakest of the 4 games with it's extremely long stages and rough damage on Mavericks. Still, X2 was a blast to go through (even the Covert Ops trophy) and X4 was more fun than it looked (though having to go through the game twice is annoying). Still a great value for fans of Mega Man.

 

Did a random roll for my next focus and got  a 5. Went left to right and my next square would be DLC Pack. I have a question on that one: How are episodic games treated? I thought I would maybe go through and finish Life Is Strange: Before the Storm and the episodes can be bought separately as DLC. What would be the ruling here?

 

Card below:

Spoiler

 

Edited January 21 by ArtikSkarab

[GhastlySoulsc]

 

I keep forgetting that finishing the story is enough to tick the box off, so I keep going for the platinum. Anyhow, I just finished Control, which is one of my current favorite games. I can't not recommend this game, I just think it's that good. I redeemed it from Playstation Plus, but I wouldn't have minded actually buying the game.

 

Spoiler

B1 - Favorite Genre:

B2 - Free to play:

B3 - Historical Fiction or Mythology:

B4 - That you can beat in one sitting:

B5 - Developed in a Foreign Country:

 

I1 - Has no Platinum trophy: Thunder Ray 

I2 - Platform Exclusive:

I3 - Starts with the first letter of your PSNID:

I4 - Sci-fi or fantasy themes:

I5 - Frightening/Horror:

 

N1 - Redeemed from PS Plus: Control

N2 - Strategy, Simulation or Management:

N3 - Player's Choice:

N4 - Oldest in your backlog:

N5 - Play as an Antihero or Bad Guy:

 

G1 - By an Independent developer:

G2 - That you meant to play last year:

G3 - In-game weather effects:

G4 - Recommended by a PSNP member:

G5 - Cult Favorite:

 

O1 - With mystery or detective themes:

O2 - Non-violent:

O3 - Cooperative game:

O4 - With gorgeous Vistas:

O5 - With minigames in it:

 

[Squirlruler]

6 hours ago, ArtikSkarab said:

I thought I would maybe go through and finish Life Is Strange: Before the Storm and the episodes can be bought separately as DLC. What would be the ruling here?

Yea, that is fine

[jones_jr02]

I looked at this challenge last year and held off because I wasn't sure I'd see it through but i'm going to give it a go this year. 

 

Heres my card, overall fairly pleased so here goes

 

Oh also i'm on a Chromebook at the mo and its not letting me post the image of my bingo card, any idea how to work round that?

 

https://bingobaker.com/#65a81eda5e0ee5c4

[Squirlruler]

2 hours ago, jones_jr02 said:

I looked at this challenge last year and held off because I wasn't sure I'd see it through but i'm going to give it a go this year. 

 

Heres my card, overall fairly pleased so here goes

 

Oh also i'm on a Chromebook at the mo and its not letting me post the image of my bingo card, any idea how to work round that?

 

https://bingobaker.com/#65a81eda5e0ee5c4

You need to take a screenshot of it and upload it to an image hosting site like imgur or imgbb

[jones_jr02]

59 minutes ago, Squirlruler said:

You need to take a screenshot of it and upload it to an image hosting site like imgur or imgbb

 

Fantastic, thanks for the help

[Copanele]

3 more entries for the bingo card:

With Minigames in it

Last Game You Acquired

Strategy, Simulation or Management

Based on a Non-Gaming IP

With a # or Punctuation in the title - Aquapazza: Aquaplus Dream Match

 

Retro Re-release(Originally w/o Trophies)

Non-Violent

Frightening/Horror

Underplayed(Owned by <1000 Players) - Jet Car Stunts[NEW] - at the moment of posting it has 661 game owners

That You Started but Didn't Finish

 

With an Isometric View

That You Can Beat in One Sitting - Fight! - You don't even have to play Arcade Mode if you wish, the entire list can be done in one sitting

Player's Choice
Anthropomorphized Animals - Donut County[NEW] - Mina is the only human in the game, the rest of the characters are anthropomorphized animals

Ultra Rare Platinum

 

You Think You Will Dislike - Jump Force - I expected this game to be hot garbage. I was right

Metroidvania or Rogue-like

Released the Year You Joined PSNP

Redeemed from PS Plus

In-Game Weather Effects - Elden Ring - There's rain that impacts your lightning and fire spells and a blizzard that hinders your vision

 

By an Independent Developer

Has Snacks

Sci-Fi or Fantasy Themes

In a Series New to You - Skautfould Shrouded in Sanity[NEW] - This is a part 1 of a 5 games series, only part 1 and 2 are available on PS. It's the first time I play this series

Reboot or spiritual successor

 

[Baker]

 

Game #4: Redeemed from PS Plus.

 

 

This game has been in my wishlist for a long time so when it got to PS Plus Premium I decided to upgrade to it from Essential for the hefty price of €1 as my Ps Plus expires tomorrow and I had no intention of renewing. So I had 3 days to play this game. With a playtime estimate of around 20 hours I no lifed it for the past 2 days.

 

It has some RNG item drops you need to get where it will take some many hours. Luckily I got most of them quick apart from 2 which both took around 1.5 hours.

 

The game was alright. I kind of hated the battle system. It’s very slow but most important at one point more than half my attacks just always missed. It seems that when you are under levelled you just can’t hit enemies. The same goes the other way around, if you’re over levelled enemies can’t hit you. It was pretty boring..

 

I will definitely play Trials of Mana now too. Maybe I will resubscribe now for a month to PS Plus Extra to play it.. 

Edited January 18 by Baker

[scarysoldier123]

 

Got 3 games done!

 

Hercule Poirot: The London Case

I have been on a sort of murder mystery binge with other media. After watching the latest Kenneth Branagh movie recently, I wanted to give this game a shot. I liked it quite a bit actually. You can feel the fairly low budget of the game, and the actual gameplay is sometimes pretty bad (mainly the exploration part). I still managed to enjoy the story, the setting and most of the characters. I want to try some of the other games as well after this! 
The category:

Self-explanatory. This game is owned by only 238 players. Wish it would be higher, as it’s always nice to support smaller devs.

 

Sly 2:

This game is great! I used to love the Sly games on PS2 when I was a kid. I think this is the most popular of the three for fans, but this is actually my least favourite of the trilogy (I still really like it). I think the heist/gang aspects are a big impovement on the first game, but the story and characters aren’t quite as good for me. Still really charming.

The category:

This has actually been on my backlog for years. I think the Vita version isn’t quite as good and I still have the original games on PS2. I started this on Vita years ago, but never quite finished it. I was supposed to finally do that last December, but I was too busy with my studies and other stuff. Glad I finally finished it.

 

Manual Samuel:

I didn’t really know what to expect from this game. The art style isn’t really for me, and the humor was a bit of hit and miss. Occassionally it was quite funny tho. When I got used to the (intentionally) weird controls, I actually found myself enjoying it quite a bit. The game is fairly short. I liked the first few chapters the most, but especially the final 2 were at times actually awful. Also the time trials were not fun at all.

The category:

So like I already mentioned, the game wasn’t appealing to me at first glance. I actually ended up being ok with the art style, and found it fitting and even charming at times. Why do I have this game then, if I didn’t expect to like it? Well, it came with one of those Curve digital’s Instant Indie Collections. So all in all, was I correct in my expectation? I wouldn’t say yes. But I wouldn’t say I really liked it either. It was fine, and I’m overall fairly happy I played it.

 

I have added an extra requirement for myself of getting the platinum/100% before considering a game finished for this event. This might cause me a lot of problems later, but at least for now I’m sticking with that. For example I already finished the story of my ”HYPE” game The Quarry, but I still need a lot of trophies from that, so I will get back to it at some point.

[Charizarzar]

 

2 down, many more to go! As you guys can see I have a loose sort of plan again of what I hope to do, but it really depends on how much long-winded stuff I have the energy to play this year.  But next on the agenda is Kingdom Hearts followed by Tomb Raider which reportedly has over 200 trophies, so it may be a while till my next update.

 

DLC Pack/Standalone

Middle-earth: Shadow of War: The Desolation of Mordor - I started this when it first released, managing a couple of story missions, but I died and got annoyed because there's a speedrun/permadeath element to one of the trophies and there wasn't a lot of info about it at the time. But after going back, it really wasn't so hard and was honestly pretty fun - I should've just got on with it years ago!

 

Historical Fiction/Mythology

A Plague Tale: Requiem - Struggled to get into this as much as the first game to start off with, especially with the watering down of the French accents and the slightly repetitive gameplay and drawn out chapters, but it really grew on me towards the end, and the score is amazing. The ending took me by surprise a bit too, but I'd still be down for a third game.

[Biscoito18]

B-1 Spawned an expanded universe: 

B-2 Starts with the First Letter of your PSNID (B): 

B-3 Award-Winning:

B-4 That "Everyone" but you has played:

B-5 Has no Platinum Trophy: 

 

I-1 Aliens or Robots: Albedo: Eyes From Outer Space

I-2 With Mystery or Detective Themes: Enigmatis 3: The Shadow of Karkhala

I-3 Racing or Sports: 

I-4 Redeemed from PS Plus: Tinykin

I-5 Recommended by a PSNP Member: 

 

N-1 With a Female Protagonist: Paradise Killer

N-2 Plataform Exclusive:

N-3 Player's Choice: 

N-4 That you meant to play last year: 

N-5 Released in your Birth Month (May): 

 

G-1 With Minigames in it: 

G-2 Originally Released in 2024:

G-3 HYPE!: 

G-4 With Gorgeous Vistas: 

G-5 Last Game You Acquired: 

 

O-1 Based on a Non-Gaming IP: Marsupilami Hoobadventure

O-2 In a Series New to You: 

O-3 Retro Re-Release (originally w/o trophies): 

O-4 For another PSNP Event: Metal: Hellsinger

O-5 Ultra Rare Platinum:

 

Updating my card with "Albedo: Eyes From Outer Space" for I-1 Aliens or Robots. I didn't even have to choose between the two options, this game has both. It starts with 60s sci fi style aliens with huge eyes and tentacles and then their natural enemies appear, which are another race of robotic aliens. If the controls were good it would be worthy a recommendation.

And "Metal: Hellsinger" for O-4 For another PSNP Event since I'm also using it on my Kaleidoscope Challenge 2024 card.  Nice gameplay and music, but a bit forgettable.

[Heather342]

Hey, I'd like to join in this event 😊. I generated my bingo card, see image below. Thanks!

 

 

[Treilio]

I would like to join too. Here is my card:

 

[DrBloodmoney]

One more entry down!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Box: "Released in your Birth Month" 

Game: "Blacktail"

 

What The Outer Worlds did to Fallout is basically what Blacktail does to The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion - takes the basic gameplay style of it, and makes a much smaller, more contained, but far less broken or janky version, with a lot less filler, and a lot more specificity of personality and a more targeted, tighter narrative and thematic slant.

 

Blacktail is essentially a Bethesda/Obsidian style game, but set in a world of Slavic Folklore, with the player taking the role of the young outcast Yaga - banished from the human village for witchcraft, as she discovers the mysterious forrest form her adopted new home - the Baba Yaga hut - and searches for her lost sister...

...while discovering her past, taking part in a war between mushrooms, kissing magical frogs, killing Gnomes and creatures,casting spells, brewing potions etc.

 

The story is good, and the voice acting and music pretty good too and the design is somewhere between Oblivion, Alice: the Madness Returns, and some of the more fairytale-themed Atrifex Mundi games...

...plus there's actually a pretty real sense of mystery and explorational wonder, as the game, while a little rough around the edges, is brimming with ideas and odd mechanics, and never seems to do things the "normal" way!

 

 

I didn't even realise until looking at what boxes this might fill, that I accidentally covered one of the more difficult ones for me - as this is a rare "released in December" game!

Definitely covering that box with this one, as those are tough enough to find!

[steel_swamp42]

Here's my generated card. I already have some ideas for most of the categories here, I just need to figure out where to start. Good luck to everyone here!

[OpenScars]

 

Independent Developer: Geometric Sniper

Cult Favourite: Resident Evil 4

[Copanele]

One entry checked:

 

With Minigames in it

Last Game You Acquired[NEW] - Lies of P - one of the rare instances when I instantly play a game that I buy

Strategy, Simulation or Management

Based on a Non-Gaming IP

With a # or Punctuation in the title - Aquapazza: Aquaplus Dream Match

 

Retro Re-release(Originally w/o Trophies)

Non-Violent

Frightening/Horror

Underplayed(Owned by <1000 Players) - Jet Car Stunts - at the moment of posting it has 661 game owners

That You Started but Didn't Finish

 

With an Isometric View

That You Can Beat in One Sitting - Fight! - You don't even have to play Arcade Mode if you wish, the entire list can be done in one sitting

Player's Choice
Anthropomorphized Animals - Donut County - Mina is the only human in the game, the rest of the characters are anthropomorphized animals

Ultra Rare Platinum

 

You Think You Will Dislike - Jump Force - I expected this game to be hot garbage. I was right

Metroidvania or Rogue-like

Released the Year You Joined PSNP

Redeemed from PS Plus

In-Game Weather Effects - Elden Ring - There's rain that impacts your lightning and fire spells and a blizzard that hinders your vision

 

By an Independent Developer

Has Snacks

Sci-Fi or Fantasy Themes

In a Series New to You - Skautfould Shrouded in Sanity - This is a part 1 of a 5 games series, only part 1 and 2 are available on PS. It's the first time I play this series

Reboot or spiritual successor

[ArtikSkarab]

Have two more completions to add to my card.

 

DLC Pack or Standalone DLC (O1): Life Is Strange: Before The Storm

 

A prequel mini-series for the original Life Is Strange starring Chloe and delving more on her relationship with Rachel Amber before her disappearance and the return of Max. Made by the secondary Life Is Strange team (Deck Nine instead of Dontnod), it's a 3 2-hour episode dialog focused choice game that delves into grief, teenage rebellion, budding romance and no supernatural elements contrary to the 1st game. Overall, I have mixed feelings on this product. On the positive side, some of the big emotional scenes really hit hard. Whenever either of the main protagonists get in big rage mode of get knocked down by their grief, I could really feel it. On the other side of the coin, I wasn't a fan of Chloe in the original game and, while my stock is higher, still am not a total fan. Also, this game really can't go too wide with it's choices; the main timeline events are already set in stone and the characters can't change too much on their relationships as well. In the end, I'd recommend either playing the 1st game or True Colors (I haven't played enough of that one, but I've only heard great things) and going back to this in you want to play more in Chloe's life.

 

Underplayed (Owned by <1000 Players) (I4): Röki (PS5) (NA) (At time of completion: 783 players on this stack)

 

While looking at my card, I noticed that I had this square and figured I'd better get on this one quickly before all of my options are gone. Looking through my game list, I found Röki, a small point-and-click adventure game that was put on PS+ in October 2023 which had a low enough amount of players  and decided to give it a shot. It's a decently charming game about Tove, a small Norwegian girl whose younger brother Lars gets kidnapped by some creature and has to go rescue him from Rörka, the guardian of Winter. This is a game fully engulfed in Norse folklore; from trolls and drau to Tomtes and the Yule Cat. It actually made me look up some of those creatures to learn more about their history. As for some negatives on the game, it's story is pretty average and it features a lot of backtracking, even following a guide. Also, some of the trophies are really specific and require a lot of actions to be made on a game that doesn't feature neither manual saves (autosaves only) nor chapter select (would have to play through the whole game again). Still, it's a 7ish hour game that is on PSN+ Extra if you are interested to try it; especially if you're looking for filling either your mythology or low player squares.

 

Not decided on what square to go next, but I do have a question about 1 of them. My B3 square (Side-Scrolling, Bullet Hell): I assume there is supposed to be an implied OR in that square and I can do either a bullet hell or a side-scroller?

 

Current state of the card below:

Spoiler

Completed squares:

I4: Röki (PS5) (NA)

N2: Mega Man X Legacy Collection

O1: Life Is Strange: Before The Storm

 

Edited January 21 by ArtikSkarab

[Heather342]

First slot stamped on my bingo card 😊

 

That you've been meaning to get to -> Sonic Origins Plus.

 

I've had this one in my library since it released, and it was a nice hit of nostalgia playing through these again (although Sonic CD was a new experience for me as I'd not played that one before). I used to play these games on the Mega Drive with my brother when we were kids, and some of those final bosses with no rings were pretty tough. No idea how we managed to finish these games with finite lives haha! Sonic 3 and Knuckles is definitely the best of the games on offer, although the music in the later levels of Sonic 3 has changed so that was pretty jarring 😅. Shame they couldn't use the original music for all of it but still a fun experience.

 

Edited January 25 by Heather342
Reposting image

[ExHaseo]

Two more down this past week.

 

G2 - Side-Scrolling, Bullet Hell - Natsuki Chronicles -

I wasn't really sure if this meant just side-scrolling bullet hell games, or if it meant side-scrolling or bullet hell. So I just went with a side-scrolling bullet hell. I literally just went through the sale ordered from price low-high and got the first/cheapest bullet hell I saw. Which was Natsuki Chronicles.

I'm really glad this just happened to be the one I got, because I really enjoyed it. I've always really liked the base gameplay of shmups, but always hated the biggest tropes of the genre. Most notably, get hit once and you die, and when you get hit you lose all of your power ups. It's also always annoying having to rely on RNG to get the weapon you want. These things always just makes the games super annoying. Being punished for making a single mistake and making the game nearly impossible just isn't a fun time to me. So I was really not looking forward to this square. Which is why I just bought the cheapest one and was going to push through it to get it out of the way.

 

But Natsuki Chronicles feels more like a real game. It has RPG elements, a story, and even in arcade mode feels a lot fairer than most shmups I've played. In story mode, you buy your upgrades and weapons. You level up by playing and unlock more weapons this way. Every stage also has it's own individual level. The more you play it the higher it gets, and for every level up, you gain a shield that blocks a hit. So if you're bad like me, you aren't just slamming your head against the wall from dying in the same spot every time. Instead, you're always making some more progress with each level up. Which is nice. And it's how most other genres of games are.

Then in arcade mode, you do lose power ups when you get hit, but you also gain a one-hit shield for every power-up you get. Even without any shields, you get 3 hits by default in this game, and they slowly recharge. So if you get hit twice, but then don't get hit again for a while, you can possibly get it all the way back up. Which is great, it doesn't harshly punish you for a single mistake and then rewards you for adapting and getting better. Plus, in arcade mode, even if you do lose all of your powerups, the game at least gives you the default weapon at max power. So you aren't completely useless if you do lose all of your upgrades.

 

So I really enjoyed it. I originally wanted to go for the plat, but you have to beat every level on all 4 difficulties, and I can not do the hardest difficulty. There's a sort of training/tutorial stage that doesn't have level ups, and I just couldn't beat it. But still, an overall fun game. I really wish more shmups were like this.

 

G3 - Adventure - Tomb Raider Definitive Edition -

Ironically, I actually bought this game for last year's event, because I had the reboot square last year too. But when I booted it up, the screen shake from just walking around made me super nauseous. It still does. But I remembered how I got through it the first time I played it (I originally played the PC version on initial release). When you aim, the screen stays steady. There's no sprint or run in this game either, so you don't lose much speed when walking around while aiming. So whenever I started to get nauseous, I would just walk around with the aim up. Sometimes I would also mash the dodge button. The screen still shakes, but it shakes less, which is kind of funny to me.

Anyway, I mainly gave this game another chance because I really enjoyed doing the DLC of Shadow of the Tomb Raider and wanted to keep playing, but couldn't. So I jumped on this. It's pretty interesting going from the last game in the series to the first. The improvements made are very obvious, and I had forgotten that the first game was so much darker. By Shadow, the graphic death animations feel a bit out of place, but in the first game, they completely fit with the tone.

It's a real bummer that they never fixed the screenshake or at least made it optional, because the game would be a lot easier to recommend if they did. But with it the way it is, I would only recommend it if you reaaaaaaally like the series. Starting with Rise of the Tomb Raider is an overall better game, and the overarching story really starts there anyway.

 

 

I was originally planning on doing Tales of Vesperia Definitive next, but I've been getting pretty into FFXIV again lol. At the very least, I only sub to FFXIV every other month, because I'm broke. So once my current sub runs out, I'll have to do something else. I'll probably end up doing Persona 3 Reload once that happens. If it does end up on PC Game Pass anyway. I've heard it's coming to game pass on launch, but I haven't seen anything that clarifies if it's only console or not. If not, I'm too broke to buy the game lol, so I'll have to wait otherwise.

[Treilio]

11 hours ago, ArtikSkarab said:

Not decided on what square to go next, but I do have a question about 1 of them. My B3 square (Side-Scrolling, Bullet Hell): I assume there is supposed to be an implied OR in that square and I can do either a bullet hell or a side-scroller?

 

 

Correct, this was posted earlier in the topic:

 

[Xhortastic]

Finished my first game of the year for the Bingo board.

• B3: This Bed We Made (PS5) for 'Last Game You Acquired'

I enjoyed it quite a bit. It's an interesting maid/detective game. It's not the longest one out there, but I did think it was fun to play. There are a few endings to see, and because I did my first playthrough blind I was pleasantly surprised by some actions that influenced the outcome. Of course there are some things that annoyed me by the end, such as the inability to run, skip through dialogue or cutscenes and the pinpoint accuracy needed to have the action icon pop-up on certain items. Overall I did like it a lot and I would recommend it to anyone looking for a short-ish detective game in a 1950's setting (and also wants to clean more in a video game than in real life). At the time I started playing (and currently still) it was my latest purchase, made on the 2nd of January.

 

 

 

[JayDeLosDioses]

Normally I mark squares when I'm 100% done with a game, or at least have the platinum, but since I want to try to get GTA V on PS4 to 100% I need to get to it now. Before the editor is gone.

 

So I'm marking the Platform exclusive square with finishing the story of FF16. I've been done for a few days now, grinding out final fantasy mode here and there.

The game itself is ... fine I guess, honestly I expected more. It looks amazing but the combat is boring, maybe I'm doing something wrong?

 

You just sit there waiting / dodging for your powers to recharge because the sword does like no damage to anything that's more than a minion in late game and it's even worse in the few missions I've played so far on the hardest difficulty.

 

The story also feels cut, probably for DLC content, if not the ending is the most unsatisfying ending I've seen in a while.

[Baker]

Game #5 done: That you meant to play last year.

 

 

Last year I was subscribed to PS Plus Extra for 8 months and I’ve downloaded this game many times. The 3 playthroughs necessary put me off from the game but after Secret of Mana it was time to play this.

 

Fun game. Definitely a step up from Secret of Mana. And now I really want to play Legend of Mana too to finish the trilogy.

 

Edit: And I could use some advice or examples for ‘Spawned an expanded Universe’ as I don’t fully understand what’s meant by it. 

Edited January 24 by Baker

[graphic_violins8]

Got another one down with Thomas Was Alone for No Humans!

 

 

Two away from a BINGO, debating my next move.  

B2 - Hue

I4 - Thomas Was Alone

N3 - Gris

G4 - Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster

O4 - Viewfinder

 

Side note, question.  I know that "+" technically isn't punctuation, but how do we feel on counting it.  A sentence like "Barry+Jules=4eva" is still kind of a sentence after all.

Edited January 24 by graphic_violins8