Week of 17 Sep 2023
“To everyone who loves games and Charles Darwin.”
Achievements Earned In:
- Brothers in Arms: Hell’s Highway
- Rio
- Vampire Survivors
- Space Invaders: Infinity Gene
I’m still doing my best to remember to load up Brothers in Arms: Hell’s Highway every day. Just so happens that this past week was when you could (legitimately) unlock the date-specific achievement on September 17th. This is marking the anniversary of Operation Market Garden, which is what the game is about. So… neat. That unlocked and I moved on.
Achievements unlocked: 3 (+1) | Completion: 39%
I figured it was time to finally buckle down and finish my vacation in Rio this week. I grabbed my three other controllers and got to work finish up the other modes, because I finally finished getting the gold medal on each of the minigames in Party Mode. I moved over to adding in Quiz sections after every minigame, and the game seemed really nice about cycling through the vast majority of the questions before recycling them. You have to answer them all correctly at least once, so the lack of repeats means it didn’t take too long. Next was Carnival Wheel, where you spin a wheel to choose the game you’ll play and points you’ll earn if you win. There’s an achievement to score over 700 points in this mode, but since it’s random you could very well get through this and NOT get the achievement. But, hey, I did it first try (barely). The next mode had even more of an RNG element, the “Dance” mode, but I got lucky again and got through that first try, too. Lastly was the Story mode, which I ended up having to play a second and third time on Monday and Tuesday, respectively. I’m not sure why it didn’t unlock the second time, but when I went through the final time I did so against 3 AI players, opting to not use my other controllers. And then it unlocked! So, whatever, all done. Definitely not the worst licensed film tie-in I’ve played.
Achievements unlocked: 50 (+14) | Completed
Wait, why does second place get to merge with others?!
So, I totally meant to just quickly jump into Vampire Survivors this week, get a little progress, but… man, did this game really suck me in finally. I just could not put it down! I finally got enough upgrades where I could easily get past the 30-minute mark in the levels, so I started working to do that in each one. Instead of moving past Cappella Magna, where I got this week, I went to the Bonus stages and first DLC stage. Mostly focusing on getting each of the character-specific achievements and weapon evolutions. There’s just SO much to complete in this game, and it’s one of those where you can’t put it down and get that “one more game” effect. I actually wanna go play it right now, even.
Achievements unlocked: 130 (+56) | Completion: 68%
I can assure that SOMETHING is happening here.
I guess it was time to turn my eye to Space Invaders: Infinity Gene, one of the most concerning Bingo games I started. I just have never enjoyed Space Invaders, from the arcade to the consoles to the handhelds. But I figured I’d jump in and just go for it, and honestly, the completion overall is very easy. First, you just have to beat the Normal (campaign) Mode on Easy to have access to all the levels. Then you can just beat Level 5-6 on whatever difficulty you need and unlock the corresponding achievement. Even better, using the Field weapon makes the end boss you have to fight in said level an absolute joke. You have to complete all 12 of the Bonus Mode stages for Insane difficulty and all 99 of the Challenge Mode stages for Nightmare difficulty, but with nine lives and endless continues this is all a matter of time. Speaking of continues, the final achievement, and the only one I’m concerned about, is to clear Normal Mode without using any continues. I’m not sure if this will be too hard? I’ve managed to get up to 5-1 so fare, so hopefully with enough practice (ew) and perseverance (more my speed) I’ll get through it ASAP.
Achievements unlocked: 9 (+8) | Completion: 75%
Highest ratio: 2.44
INSANE DIFFICULTY CLEAR (Space Invaders: Infinity Gene)
Lowest ratio: 1.07
CLASSIC UFO HUNTER (Space Invaders: Infinity Gene)
