NES Completions thread 2023 - 600/677 (bonus games - 75/100)

[nerdynebraskan | 356]

I believe that Devil World is done.

The Internet seems to claim enduring Round 10 is as close to completing the game as possible, as it loops forever but Round 10 is the first round where you face the stiffest group of enemies in the maze. That complement are supposed to just appear in every round afterwards, and that seemed true through my Game Over in Round 12.

Edited June 10, 2023 by nerdynebraskan
spelling error

[nerdynebraskan | 356]

Gumshoe is done. This is easily the second-hardest of the Zapper games, and is really only realistic because of the unlimited continues. But it is another first-time clear for me, so that's neat.

[nerdynebraskan | 356]

Raid 2020 is done.

[scaryice | 587]

I've been saying for a while that I wanted to play Wizardry, but after spending a bit of time with it, it's a little rough. Not sure how I'm supposed to map out a floor when I get randomly teleported with no indication of it happening. I guess there's a spell to give your coordinates, but still...

[nerdynebraskan | 356]

Metal Slader Glory is done. I didn't know too much about this one, and hadn't played it before, but it was a very ambitious piece of software.

And with this completion, I have set a new single-year points record. 875 points and counting! And yet, I have only clinched a third-place finish on points and could still finish second in completions for the first time in a decade. But only if anyone else wants to rejoin me in this thread!

[scaryice | 587]

On 6/13/2023 at 4:33 PM, nerdynebraskan said:

Metal Slader Glory is done. I didn't know too much about this one, and hadn't played it before, but it was a very ambitious piece of software.

And with this completion, I have set a new single-year points record. 875 points and counting! And yet, I have only clinched a third-place finish on points and could still finish second in completions for the first time in a decade. But only if anyone else wants to rejoin me in this thread!

Congrats! It was close for a while, but it looks like you're going to win the title once again. As for the overall progress, unfortunately, it looks like we hit the "500 wall" again as we seemingly do every year.

[McBryce | 375]

Sorry, thought this was done already. I beat Best of the Best a couple weeks ago.

[PII | 1,886]

@McBryce I always say your name like: MCBAIN

.....MCBRYCE.!

[nerdynebraskan | 356]

The Super Mario Bros 3 challenge is done. I've been working on this one off and on for the last two weeks, and I finally got through a long-play on one life.

My three previous best attempts had all stalled out at the end of World 6, but I do know Worlds 7 and 8 better as I've played them a lot more because of the way I've historically used warp whistles. It's not to say that I didn't feel tension in my chest through my whole go at World 8, though. I definitely had to create a list of notes for where I needed certain power-ups to comfortably get past certain levels on my first try. In case anyone is curious, here was my strategy:

Use P-wing on Second World 4 castle (guarantees clearing the really high jump over the lava)

Use P-Wing on World 5-8 and then cloud to skip 5-9

Have any tail power-up in World 6-2 and 6-4

Play World 6-9 instead of 6-10; it's much easier, especially with a fire flower

Use hammer suit in last World 6 castle; it's the toughest castle in the game, but much more manageable when you can kill Thwomps and Boos

Have some kind of tail (preferably P-wing) for World 6 airship

A fire flower/star combo is enough to power through the first plant stage in World 7 (if I need another P-wing...)

Bring a tail into the first World 7 castle

Use P-Wing in World 7-8

Use cloud to skip second World 7 castle and music box to skip second plant stage, then a tail (preferably a P-wing) on last airship

Bring a tail to the fast airships in World 8; P-wings are actually too risky because of some kind of off-screen death hazard that I randomly run into when trying to fly over all of that

Use P-Wing on World 8-1

Use last two level-skip clouds on World 8-2 and mini-castle

Use P-wing on Bowser's castle

Oh, and @scaryice, I think you've shorted me half a point on your last couple of updates. The big clue is that my overall score and my bonus score don't match (one has an even number and the other is a .5).

Edited June 25, 2023 by nerdynebraskan

[scaryice | 587]

15 hours ago, nerdynebraskan said:

The Super Mario Bros 3 challenge is done. I've been working on this one off and on for the last two weeks, and I finally got through a long-play on one life.

Congrats! It took me a few weeks too, on the Famicom version. Here's my notes from then, just for comparison's sake:

Spoiler

W1-W2: Easy, nothing to discuss. Get the pwing on 1-4. I go to 2-4 rather than 2-5.

W3: 3-8 is the only hard stage. I play it very slowly and make sure to get all the coins to get another pwing. If you get the hammer from the first hammer bro, then you can use the music box on the second if necessary to avoid an encounter. Otherwise, you'll have to play an extra stage for the bridge. I play 3-4, skipping 3-5 unless necessary.

W4: Only once I get here do I start doing the card matching minigame and the mushroom houses, to save time (except for the guaranteed frog suit from the first one in W3). The stars are probably the only thing that really matters from the minigame, so I use up the mushrooms/flowers when possible to free up space. Use a hammer to skip the first mini-fortress. The end of 4-4 can be tricky, so I always use the frog suit there. I play 4-6 rather than 4-7.

W5: The second half is where the challenge actually starts. I play 5-3 rather than the fortress, and 1-7 rather than 1-6. The last three stages here are pretty terrible. I used to always use clouds to skip the 2nd mini-fortress and 5-9, but I think they're better saved for harder, later stages. 5-8 with the lakitu is super annoying; I got hit there way too much.

W6: Don't forget to get the guaranteed hammer bros suit here at the first mushroom house. You can use both hammers to skip 3 stages here. Cloud 1 used on mini-fortress 2, and pwing 1 used on mini fortress 3. I played 6-6 and 6-10.

W7: Cloud 2 used on 7-4, pwing 2 used on 7-6, pwing 3 used on 7-8, cloud 3 used on 2nd mini-fortress. It's important to save a music box to use on the pirahna plant.

W8: This isn't so bad since you'll have so many items left, and like me, you probably have played this way more than W6-7 due to warping here all the time as a kid. Use cloud 4 on the mini-fortress, and there should be enough pwings to use on last four stages before Bowser's castle (airship, 8-1, 8-2, tank). You can fly above the airship/tank stages making them a piece of cake. 8-2 is the easiest of those four, so you could easily use a pwing on earlier stage and skip it there if necessary. For Bowser, I used the hammer bros suit - you can just walk right up to him and mash the B button for an easy kill.

 

[nerdynebraskan | 356]

Spider-Man is done.

[PII | 1,886]

WORLD GAMES Is done.

[Tablew/chairs | 248]

I did digger t rock cause it doesn’t seem like anyone else ever wants to do it even though it’s not a bad game and it can be done in less than a half hour

[Tablew/chairs | 248]

On 6/16/2023 at 11:47 AM, scaryice said:

Congrats! It was close for a while, but it looks like you're going to win the title once again. As for the overall progress, unfortunately, it looks like we hit the "500 wall" again as we seemingly do every year.

The problem is there’s so many nes games that I would just never want to play again and looking at what’s left most I would describe as a punishment. If there was only a handful left I would commit to do some but I don’t know how realistic finishing the list is at this point. Scary did you stick with wizardry? I enjoyed it but it was stressful, I wasn’t really familiar with that type of game when I played it and I used the players guide.

[PII | 1,886]

@scaryiceApparently when playing RAINBOW ISLANDS it's necessary to acquire a "Large Diamond" in each of the 7 Worlds in order to be able to play the final 8th World.  I checked the pastebin and it does not have any special instructions.  Anyone have any thoughts or a standard by which we have considered the game to be beaten in the past?

[PII | 1,886]

4 minutes ago, Tablew/chairs said:

On 6/16/2023 at 10:47 AM, scaryice said:

Congrats! It was close for a while, but it looks like you're going to win the title once again. As for the overall progress, unfortunately, it looks like we hit the "500 wall" again as we seemingly do every year.

The problem is there’s so many nes games that I would just never want to play again and looking at what’s left most I would describe as a punishment. If there was only a handful left I would commit to do some but I don’t know how realistic finishing the list is at this point. Scary did you stick with wizardry? I enjoyed it but it was stressful, I wasn’t really familiar with that type of game when I played it and I used the players guide.

I often find myself thinking that there just needs to be a bunch of hardcore gamers who want to take down the brutal games right off the bat.  Regardless of whether they're taken on early or late, one of the reasons I liked pain points so much was that when I saw a 10 with an additional 4 or 5 pain points on it, it made it more exciting to take on and felt like more of an accomplishment to finish.

[TheGameDisplay | 55]

I'll help out a little bit:

Mach Rider

Michael Andretti

Might & Magic

Mutant Virus

[Dr. Morbis | 2,088]

On 6/27/2023 at 5:31 PM, TheGameDisplay said:

I'll help out a little bit:

Mutant Virus

Major congrats on Mutant Virus!  My buddy @the_wizard_666 told me it's a son of a bitch to beat it, so I'm wondering just how many hours/attempts it took you to take that one down?

[TheGameDisplay | 55]

Thank you! You can see some snippits of me grappling with this game in my YouTube community posts and shorts

I started just after 12am on June 23nd. I played for probably 4-5 hours, during which I made it to Level 4. After multiple attempts to beat it I couldn't stand to look at the dancing dots on the screen anymore, and made the decision to leave my AV Famicom on all night so that I could start from where I left off the next day (this game really should have had a password system).

The next day I played on and off whenever I had the chance, probably totaling another 4 hours or so. I still couldn't beat Level 4, but I was getting close. Progress greatly increased when I decided to map things out and carefully plot my route, deciding where was best to drop each counter measure bomb and finding the ideal order to tackle each room. I also used this day to get a better understanding of the game's mechanics, like how it takes approximately 8 minutes from the start of Level 4 before virus starts spreading within unvisited rooms automatically, and how once all rooms have virus in them it's not long before one of the rooms is breached and begins flashing on the map. Visiting this room and turning some of the virus blue will stop the flashing, then you can leave and try to get back to whatever it was you were doing. If two rooms flash at once you only have a brief moment before you Game Over, if a third starts flashing, you're done like dinner. But if you're down to just 2 rooms left, I found that you can let the room that you're not currently working on flash pretty much forever and you won't die.

So with all of this knowledge I got to a point where I was just a small patch of virus away from clearing my second last room of Level 4. The super gun is crucial, as it bounces off walls, has very long range, and passes over virus which has already turned blue. The problem is that you lose it if you die, and Level 3 and Level 4 only have 2 Super Gun item pick-ups. Well, I died just before clearing that second last room, and despite all my efforts, I just couldn't fight back as the virus was spreading too quickly. At this point I was experiencing the virus effect (this game's cursed version of the Tetris effect) and decided I couldn't take anymore. I didn't really want to leave my AV Famicom on much longer, as 24 hours was already pushing quite a bit past what I normally prefer, leading the the YouTube short you will find on my channel where I reluctantly turn the game off.

Honestly, the game was making me feel pretty blah. Staring at those dots for so long, I needed a break, and I kind of dreaded going back to it. I didn't play the game again until 12:15am on June 27th. I expected to be able to use what I had learned to finally reach Level 5, and then maybe I'd stop there and leave my AV Famicom on all night again, allowing me to give the final level a shot the next day when I was refreshed. I ended up making it Level 5 without too much trouble, only dying a few times along the way, so I decided to give the level a go as I hadn't been playing for overly long.

The most important thing to know about Level 5 is that there is a Super Gun pick-up which you KEEP even when you die! A huge issue in Level 4 was that because you were limited to just 2 Super Guns, even if you had lots of lives you were pretty much toast if you lost both of those. You can try to juggle the Super Gun with other items so that if you die you can the pick up the Super Gun again with full health, but that's easier said than done during the heat of battle.

So building off of what had brought me success in Level 4, after arriving in Level 5 my immediate goal was to map out the level, locate all items, and plan my route. I spent all lives that I had remaining from Level 4 doing this. With everything organized I proceeded to make my first real attempt, which unfortunately ended in failure, but still provided a good learning experience. Now with all of that behind me, I made attempt #3, which ended with great SUCCESS! Level 5 seems very overwhelming, but for me, that never disappearing Super Gun power-up made all of the difference. I found it easier than Level 4 for that reason. 

So at about 5am I took that photo which I posted above. All-in-all I played the game for about 15 hours. My left thumb was absolutely dead. Constantly cranking down on the D-Pad to stop my propulsion. The arrow was actually imprinted into my thumb. I look back on the game as not being as bad as it initially seemed, but it's still not one that I'm in any rush to play again.

I apologize for the life story. XD

[scaryice | 587]

On 6/27/2023 at 6:04 PM, Tablew/chairs said:

Scary did you stick with wizardry? I enjoyed it but it was stressful, I wasn’t really familiar with that type of game when I played it and I used the players guide.

Nah, I was annoyed by some things and quit. Plus, it's a little too basic compared to some of Vita Wizardry-inspired games I've already played (and the PS2 Wizardry). I'm sure I could take it down easily with a guide, but I've been keeping a list of turn-based rpgs that I've completed (ranking them by system), and I don't think I want to beat it that way since that would make it hard to rank.

 

On 6/27/2023 at 6:06 PM, PII said:

@scaryiceApparently when playing RAINBOW ISLANDS it's necessary to acquire a "Large Diamond" in each of the 7 Worlds in order to be able to play the final 8th World.  I checked the pastebin and it does not have any special instructions.  Anyone have any thoughts or a standard by which we have considered the game to be beaten in the past?

It looks like people did get all the diamonds in previous years, as far as I can tell. Also, the bad ending says "this is not the proper way of ending this story," so it seems similar to Bubble Bobble where we always required the good end.

 

[scaryice | 587]

10 hours ago, TheGameDisplay said:

I apologize for the life story. XD

I love reading about NES strategy, so by all means feel free to post more. 

I remember there was a entire Nintendo Age thread about Mutant Virus strategy 5+ years ago, not sure if it was archived anywhere.

[the_wizard_666 | 1,325]

15 hours ago, TheGameDisplay said:

Thank you! You can see some snippits of me grappling with this game in my YouTube community posts and shorts

I started just after 12am on June 23nd. I played for probably 4-5 hours, during which I made it to Level 4. After multiple attempts to beat it I couldn't stand to look at the dancing dots on the screen anymore, and made the decision to leave my AV Famicom on all night so that I could start from where I left off the next day (this game really should have had a password system).

The next day I played on and off whenever I had the chance, probably totaling another 4 hours or so. I still couldn't beat Level 4, but I was getting close. Progress greatly increased when I decided to map things out and carefully plot my route, deciding where was best to drop each counter measure bomb and finding the ideal order to tackle each room. I also used this day to get a better understanding of the game's mechanics, like how it takes approximately 8 minutes from the start of Level 4 before virus starts spreading within unvisited rooms automatically, and how once all rooms have virus in them it's not long before one of the rooms is breached and begins flashing on the map. Visiting this room and turning some of the virus blue will stop the flashing, then you can leave and try to get back to whatever it was you were doing. If two rooms flash at once you only have a brief moment before you Game Over, if a third starts flashing, you're done like dinner. But if you're down to just 2 rooms left, I found that you can let the room that you're not currently working on flash pretty much forever and you won't die.

So with all of this knowledge I got to a point where I was just a small patch of virus away from clearing my second last room of Level 4. The super gun is crucial, as it bounces off walls, has very long range, and passes over virus which has already turned blue. The problem is that you lose it if you die, and Level 3 and Level 4 only have 2 Super Gun item pick-ups. Well, I died just before clearing that second last room, and despite all my efforts, I just couldn't fight back as the virus was spreading too quickly. At this point I was experiencing the virus effect (this game's cursed version of the Tetris effect) and decided I couldn't take anymore. I didn't really want to leave my AV Famicom on much longer, as 24 hours was already pushing quite a bit past what I normally prefer, leading the the YouTube short you will find on my channel where I reluctantly turn the game off.

Honestly, the game was making me feel pretty blah. Staring at those dots for so long, I needed a break, and I kind of dreaded going back to it. I didn't play the game again until 12:15am on June 27th. I expected to be able to use what I had learned to finally reach Level 5, and then maybe I'd stop there and leave my AV Famicom on all night again, allowing me to give the final level a shot the next day when I was refreshed. I ended up making it Level 5 without too much trouble, only dying a few times along the way, so I decided to give the level a go as I hadn't been playing for overly long.

The most important thing to know about Level 5 is that there is a Super Gun pick-up which you KEEP even when you die! A huge issue in Level 4 was that because you were limited to just 2 Super Guns, even if you had lots of lives you were pretty much toast if you lost both of those. You can try to juggle the Super Gun with other items so that if you die you can the pick up the Super Gun again with full health, but that's easier said than done during the heat of battle.

So building off of what had brought me success in Level 4, after arriving in Level 5 my immediate goal was to map out the level, locate all items, and plan my route. I spent all lives that I had remaining from Level 4 doing this. With everything organized I proceeded to make my first real attempt, which unfortunately ended in failure, but still provided a good learning experience. Now with all of that behind me, I made attempt #3, which ended with great SUCCESS! Level 5 seems very overwhelming, but for me, that never disappearing Super Gun power-up made all of the difference. I found it easier than Level 4 for that reason. 

So at about 5am I took that photo which I posted above. All-in-all I played the game for about 15 hours. My left thumb was absolutely dead. Constantly cranking down on the D-Pad to stop my propulsion. The arrow was actually imprinted into my thumb. I look back on the game as not being as bad as it initially seemed, but it's still not one that I'm in any rush to play again.

I apologize for the life story. XD

Awesome dude!  I honestly wish the game had passwords.  It's pretty fun, but hard as hell.  I don't know how many hours I logged, but my console was on for the better part of a week.  Your final level map looks similar to how I ran it by the end, though I didn't need to map it out.  There were a couple easy ones I would go in to grab the countermeasures and just leave, so that if they got alarms I could just pop in and out to keep the timer going.  I think most gamers can figure out the first two stages easily enough, but mastery over the game is not something that will ever come easy.  Congratulations on what I feel is the toughest NES completion I've ever done.

[TheGameDisplay | 55]

52 minutes ago, the_wizard_666 said:

Awesome dude!  I honestly wish the game had passwords.  It's pretty fun, but hard as hell.  I don't know how many hours I logged, but my console was on for the better part of a week.  Your final level map looks similar to how I ran it by the end, though I didn't need to map it out.  There were a couple easy ones I would go in to grab the countermeasures and just leave, so that if they got alarms I could just pop in and out to keep the timer going.  I think most gamers can figure out the first two stages easily enough, but mastery over the game is not something that will ever come easy.  Congratulations on what I feel is the toughest NES completion I've ever done.

Thank you so much for that, and congratulations on beating it yourself! Once you figure out how everything works there certainly is some fun to be had. It's really satisfying when you clear a room, seeing those once seemingly impossible to manage floors turn completely blue. But it only takes one mistake for your whole attempt to go south. Patience and perseverance is a must!

[McBryce | 375]

Formula One: Built to Win. Holy shit what a frustrating game.

 

[TheGameDisplay | 55]

29 minutes ago, McBryce said:

Formula One: Built to Win. Holy shit what a frustrating game.

 

Nicely done! Surprised by your review, though. I beat Built to Win last year, and enjoyed the bite-sized 2 lap races as opposed to longer marathons of some other racing games where one mistake right near the end can ruin your whole day. I also don't remember having any issues control-wise, and thought the system for upgrading your car was neat. The last few races of the final tournament kicked my butt, but I built up enough points in the beginning races to be able to afford the losses. Having the battery back-up was also nice so you could easily take a break and come back to it. My one complaint was probably that the music wasn't too appealing to listen to. Combine Built to Win's gameplay and Ferrari Grand Prix's soundtrack and you'd probably have my ultimate NES racing game. XD