Beat Every Game Boy Game - 2023

[PekoponTAS | 171]

20 minutes ago, Floating Platforms said:

I don't remember if anyone beat it last year, but I did beat it early on in 2021. I had to map out one of the levels from my video replay to see where power-up possibilities were. Beast of a game, but still addictively fun. I think it's certainly currently in my top 5 hardest so far. Wave Race takes my #1 spot and Hyper Lode Runner is probably #2

I never tried Hyper Lode Runner, but Wave Race was certainly a hard first playthrough for me too. At the time of my first playthrough I would have ranked it #2 right below Quarth, but over time Wave Race became one of my favourite GB games.

I tend to play through it once a year, so maybe I'll do so for the thread this year.

Also I highly recommend everyone play Gremlins 2, as it's the biggest asshole of all time. I've never seen a game with such unbelievably cruel level design, and this is coming from the guy who unironically thinks Wizards and Warriors Fortress of Fear is a great game.

Just wait till you get to "the jump", and you'll see what I mean. You'll know which one when you see it.

Edited January 11, 2023 by PekoponTAS

[Floating Platforms | 715]

22 minutes ago, PekoponTAS said:

I never tried Hyper Lode Runner, but Wave Race was certainly a hard first playthrough for me too. At the time of my first playthrough I would have ranked it #2 right below Quarth, but over time Wave Race became one of my favourite GB games. It's a game you can definitely master, and it's not that hard for me to finish on both difficulties these days. Probably one of the only GB games for me that started off as a pain and became a favourite. I've always wanted to go back and try out Wave Race 64 and Blue Storm because of how much I loved the GB game.

All that being that, it's a massive task to get good at it. Stage 4 was the biggest hurdle for me, as I couldn't play that stage at all for a long time. During the curving parts you want to go down it basically in as straight a line as possible, but of course I had no clue about that for ages. XD

Wave Race was a blast as well, except for that 4th level, like you were talking about.  Yeah, adjust the boat 2 clicks back and forth and you can slide through, but I could never get to that part of the stage alone and the other boats always knocked me off course and ruined everything. I had to assume the 1 point on that track always and try to make it up in other spots.  Overall it took me twice as long to beat Wave Race as it did to beat Quarth, though.  I would say that there is no reason to try Hyper Lode Runner, honestly. If you really like that type of action puzzler, then maybe. But it was not a satisfying experience at all.

[PII | 1,884]

42 minutes ago, PekoponTAS said:

Also I highly recommend everyone play Gremlins 2, as it's the biggest asshole of all time. I've never seen a game with such unbelievably cruel level design, and this is coming from the guy who unironically thinks Wizards and Warriors Fortress of Fear is a great game.

Just wait till you get to "the jump", and you'll see what I mean. You'll know which one when you see it.

I've been playing Gremlins 2 a bit here and there lately.  Always heard this one was rough.  It's not too bad so far (most of the way through the 2nd level) but I'm sure it'll get much rougher...

[PekoponTAS | 171]

Stage 3 has the ridiculous jump that's only possible to get through by holding the jump button down for the correct number of frames so you don't jump too high or too low. Stage 4 was designed by actual trolls. XD

It's a funny game because outside of its overall game design, it's an extremely polished Sunsoft title. If you were to watch a playthrough online, you'd be easily swayed into thinking it looks pretty good. I have a strange respect for Gremlins 2 GB, and I think back on it fondly and laugh at how many times I fell into some dickhead trap.

While it's an asshole game, it's not really all that bad. It's just really rude. XD

Edited January 11, 2023 by PekoponTAS

[PII | 1,884]

35 minutes ago, PekoponTAS said:

Stage 3 has the ridiculous jump that's only possible to get through by holding the jump button down for the correct number of frames so you don't jump too high or too low. Stage 4 was designed by actual trolls. XD

It's a funny game because outside of its overall game design, it's an extremely polished Sunsoft title. If you were to watch a playthrough online, you'd be easily swayed into thinking it looks pretty good. I have a strange respect for Gremlins 2 GB, and I think back on it fondly and laugh at how many times I fell into some dickhead trap.

While it's an asshole game, it's not really all that bad. It's just really rude. XD

Rude seems like a very appropriate word for this game.  The bats are super rude.  The jump sounds like a good time.  I'm looking forward to it.  I say that now....  It's funny you mentioned wizards and warriors fortress of fear.  That one is on my list to play.  It's funny though because Wizards and Warriors was just what I thought of as soon as I saw how short range Gizmo's attack with the pencil is.  

[Floating Platforms | 715]

1 hour ago, PII said:

I've been playing Gremlins 2 a bit here and there lately.  Always heard this one was rough.  It's not too bad so far (most of the way through the 2nd level) but I'm sure it'll get much rougher...

Oh yeah, I second @PekoponTAS's take.  stage 4 is like something made in super mario maker by an aspiring kaizo level creator.  Fortress of Fear is fun, though

[bronzeshield | 293]

Quick note on Qbillion. Right now it says the win condition is "Complete all levels", but the game lets you select Levels 1-30 up front, and gives you a password for beating Level 30 even if you go straight to it and don't beat any others.

From then on it gives you a password anytime you beat a level ending in zero; in effect, beating levels ending in 1-9 doesn't matter. So I think the win condition should be "Complete every tenth level starting from Level 30, i.e. 30, 40, 50, etc. up through 120".

Not coincidentally, I just fired the game up for the first time in ages. In the past I'd beaten every level except 119 and 120, and tonight I was able to blast through Levels 30, 40, etc. up through 110 within about 75-90 minutes.

So, if we follow the win condition above, everything required is done except Level 120. However, 119 and 120 are fiendishly difficult, so much so that I abandoned the game back in 2012. I tried coming back to it in 2013 and 2016, but otherwise I haven't touched Qbillion again until now.

If I can just clear 120, I'll view the game as beaten even for my own list (which is usually pretty stringent), and regard 119 as an extra...

Edited January 11, 2023 by bronzeshield

[Splain | 2,561]

Yeah, that makes sense, the real actual condition is just to beat the last level, with whatever you have to do to get there. I'll change it when I get to my compy.

[bronzeshield | 293]

30 minutes ago, Splain said:

Yeah, that makes sense, the real actual condition is just to beat the last level, with whatever you have to do to get there. I'll change it when I get to my compy.

Is that the 486? I've been wondering how you type with boxing gloves on.

[Floating Platforms | 715]

Alien3 is done

The only reason there were no prisoners left alive is because it took about 15 tries to get the queen to do what she was supposed to do and everyone walked right into her path while I was waiting for the RNG to go my way.  On Monday, I got the Queen killed in my second try, but then I ran into a glitch or softlock where the item I needed was no longer where I left it near the ship. This time I kept that item, but the queen just would not cooperate using the same method (maybe there was a different way, but I had no intention of experimenting too much) and it took forever.  It didn't help that my stream was losing connection constantly. What should have been 40 minutes took another 2 hours.

Anyway, the game is fun to learn. I love unique experiences on the Game Boy and this is sort of like a fetch quest adventure game, sort of top-down Metroid like thing and I wasn't expecting that.  There are unfortunately too many areas of the map that are useless and empty and a couple items are totally hidden and not represented by dots like all others. So, there's a good amount of puzzle solving and figuring out paths and sequences of events. I'm sure I didn't go for the most efficient method, but it worked for me.  The fans in the ventilation shaft puzzle areas ended up posing a bigger threat than the aliens. I had to constantly refer to my notes telling me which directions would be safe and which would pull me into instant death.  Inventory management is a real problem as you have 3 key cards in 5 slots, plus a map, plus possibly another key item. Dying will send you back to the opening spot, so you can't leave the key cards otherwise you will soft lock. A couple of the weapons are useless if you know what you are doing. Some of the items are one use (or no use found at all. It's a strange game. But it was interesting and enjoyable for having decent gameplay and mechanics, not being overly difficult, and being something totally different than what most games are on Game Boy.

On Monday, I'll plan to start Beavis and Butt-Head.

[T-Pac | 7,534]

Bubble Bobble is clear! (default 100 levels)

As one of my top 10 video games of all time, I was happy to revisit it after a few years and see that it holds up just as well as I remembered.

-CasualCart

[Floating Platforms | 715]

Beavis & Butt-Head is done

I never lost all my lives, so I don't know if this screen also shows up if that happens, but it does follow the final story cut-scene and comes before credits.

Well, this was basically my second game in a row that played a little like an action point & click. This one had less clicking than Alien 3 and also was much more linear, even if the paths were winding. I did get lost at one section because I assumed the way up to the next area was a wall.  I wish the inventory system would have been better and allowed me to drop things I didn't need anymore. The game is incredibly easy and virtually none of the enemies posed much of a threat.  The birds sucked.  Oh, and the side-view sewer level can go to hell.  That was pure garbage with the floatiest jumps and inconsistent ladder grabbing and stupid spiders that sucked health. Terrible and out of place. The rest of the game was fun. The cutscenes matched the show's humor pretty well. Nothing overstayed its welcome and honestly I wouldn't have minded something a bit longer.

Tomorrow I'll start my attempts of In Your Face.  Now that we know about the tournament stuff, it should be 

[bronzeshield | 293]

10 hours ago, Floating Platforms said:

Tomorrow I'll start my attempts of In Your Face.  Now that we know about the tournament stuff, it should be 

...it should be what? Oh no, did In Your Face get in your face?! 

[Floating Platforms | 715]

17 minutes ago, bronzeshield said:

...it should be what? Oh no, did In Your Face get in your face?! 

Haha. The downsides of multitasking.  Looking back on it, I stand by my cliffhanger

[Floating Platforms | 715]

Came so close to beating In Your Face (assuming it's only 5 matches), but the Utah CPU came from behind and beat me 25-23.  I have some moderately successful strategies now so I think I can get it done tonight and then move on to Prophecy: The Viking Child if there's enough time. If not, I'll boot that up Monday.

[Floating Platforms | 715]

In Your Face is done

Using the strategies I learned from playing last night, I got this sorry excuse for a basketball game done on my first try of the day. I have no idea why this game is called In Your Face when I don't think I blocked a single shot.  Stealing was the name of the game. You touch a guy, you steal the ball. You get touched, it's stolen from you. I've never experienced such a stupidly easy stealing mechanic in a basketball game. It's also not uncommon for the CPU to steal the ball from you mid-shot, so all of that got pretty frustrating. It also didn't help that the game didn't seem to follow conventional rules for half-court play. I would shoot and miss, get my own rebound, but the game refused to let me shoot again unless I went all the way back to the clear line first. Maybe the ball was stolen and stolen back 3, 4, 12 times at some point and that's why but it didn't make sense.  In terms of shooting, a super fast double tap seemed to work best for me. Wait much more than a fraction of a second and it's a travel. The CPU took some getting used to, but eventually I was able to steal their inbounds frequently and get in good position to score. Losers out helped me go on runs. When they scored, it was easy for them to steal all my inbounds passes as well, and trying to run up just meant they took it away physically. It also seemed like there were times when I simply wasn't allowed to make a shot and I'm thinking the game was rubber banding.  Anyway, the game is trash. Playable, but trash.

Alright, so that meant I started playing Prophecy: The Viking Child.  It's also pretty terrible.  The biggest obstacle I'm facing is that the game soft locks a bunch at the bosses. There have been several instances where the boss will disappear during the fight. Their health bar is still there. They can still damage you and be damaged, but their sprite is invisible.  If that happens, you cannot progress to the next stage after beating them. Since there are no saves, passwords, continues, you simply have to start from scratch.  It happened to me 3-4 times on the first boss, once on the 2nd and once on the 5th (in 3 hours of playing). I've only made it as far as stage 5 so far (of 8), and I think most of my time will be spent retrying the levels not because I'm losing, but because I'm forced to by bad coding.  The levels are pretty quick once you get the hang of them, at least. And all the bosses so far have had exactly the same attack pattern. Fingers crossed it's done on Monday when I try it next.

[darkchylde28 | 1,546]

Gargoyle's Quest is done.  I'd have grabbed "The End," but a text decided to come in at that exact moment and the game had scrolled by before I got access to my camera controls again.

[T-Pac | 7,534]

I started Wario Land today, hoping for a first-time clear.

Is this generally considered an easy game, or am I in for a difficulty-spike at the end like in Super Mario Land 2?

Edit: I just saw that the win-condition for this thread is to collect all the treasures, but that sounds too cumbersome to me. I still want to clear the game, but I'll leave it to someone else to meet the thread requirements on this one.

-CasualCart

[Floating Platforms | 715]

It's been a really long time since I've played either, but I don't recall a big difficulty spike in SML2.  I remember having a tougher time with Wario Land in general, but I've never collected all the treasures.  I'm 75% sure it may be possible to go back into levels and get missed treasures after the fact, if you get done with it and don't want the fun to end.

[Matt 4120 | 240]

For Wario Land, you can go back into levels and get the treasures. Sometimes you may have to grind for coins but nothing awful.
 

I’ll do it if no one else does. I enjoyed playing it last year.

I haven’t had any time at all to play Game Boy, but I am hoping to do a few within the next couple weeks.

[Floating Platforms | 715]

Okay, I think I figured out how to prevent the boss disappearing glitch/soft lock. I'm 90% sure it's happening when I hit them on their way off the screen, so they flicker and finish going off screen and come back invisible, causing the problem.  But, I also learned that after you hit them, you can jump towards them, cross paths and not get damaged, so that makes it a lot easier to keep them away from the edges.

Now I just have to navigate the terrible combat and bad hit boxes, beat boss 6 (which is the first one that has a different thing going on) and learn levels 7 & 8. Hoping to get it done this week.

[Floating Platforms | 715]

Prophecy: The Viking Child is done.

Don't let that To Be Continued screen fool you like it fooled me. From all research and information I have, this is the actual ending.  The nerve of this game. No passwords or saves: fine, whatever. Combat that makes you feel like you're clapping off rhythm so that you can hit the enemy with the very tip of your sword: annoying, but adjustable. Hit boxes that involve empty space causing damage: Ummm.  Health that is slowly, but constantly ticking down no matter what: what? Enemies that re-spawn with no warning and can damage you instantly upon arrival: No thank you, please send it back. Crazy, super-involved music that's unique to each level: Okay, this I can get behind and I'm into. Having to choose between music or sound effects because the cartridge can't handle both: Oh... Virtually all bosses have the exact same attack pattern: honestly, thank you because otherwise this would take too much more of my time than it already has. Bosses that go invisible in certain circumstances and then make it impossible to move onto the next stage: Did anyone play test this? This is why it took so much time. I figured out how to keep it from happening after a while for the most part, but having to start from scratch because the boss blips away on level 5 is frustrating.  With all said and done, the game is not the worst I've played, but it's far from good and well below average. Only the graphics and music are worth anything.

Next up tomorrow is James Bond 007

[T-Pac | 7,534]

On 1/23/2023 at 9:25 AM, Matt 4120 said:

For Wario Land, you can go back into levels and get the treasures. Sometimes you may have to grind for coins but nothing awful.
 

I’ll do it if no one else does. I enjoyed playing it last year.

I haven’t had any time at all to play Game Boy, but I am hoping to do a few within the next couple weeks.

Have at it, dude!

I managed to clear the game, but only with the worst ending. And I'm not particularly inclined to revisit the levels and gather every hidden treasure.

-CasualCart

Spoiler

1 minute ago, CasualCart said:

I cleared Wario Land [GB] for the first time!

I got the worst ending as far as I'm aware - where the Genie grants Wario a birdhouse instead of a castle haha.
This game turned out to be a lot more fun than I anticipated from briefly testing it out a few years back. I don't know why it took me so long to give it a proper playthrough.

The biggest hurdle in acclimating to the gameplay is trying to override your brain's "Mario" instincts, since the methods of attack are just a little bit different for Wario.

-CasualCart

 

[Floating Platforms | 715]

Here's an update on my upcoming games for any soft dibs list

143) James Bond 007
144) Adventures of Star Saver, The
145) Mighty Morphin Power Rangers
146) Mortal Kombat 1 & 2 (Playing the combo cart, or should that be "kombo kart")
147) WWF King of the Ring

After that, just one more viewer poll to round out the titles leading up to milestone game 150: TMNT (which has already been done here)

[twiztor | 850]

hope i didn't step on any toes, but i played thru SML3: Wario Land.

i got all 15 treasures and beat the final boss. more details in the Backlog 2023 thread if you're interested.