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

[NESfiend | 1,515]

On 10/16/2023 at 9:50 PM, PII said:

I've come to like these golf games a bit.  So I might very well play it some more at some point.  It's sort of relaxing compared to almost everything else I tend to play. 

 

Funny you say that about golf games as you are also a big racer fan like me. I love NES golf games and I play them more and more as I get older. They go really well with a beer, background tv, and being too tired for fast action.

During rad racer week in the contest, there were two or three nights where I didnt get my nes fired up until 11 p.m, dead tired. Played one race and concluded I didnt have it in me to get anywhere, so I said fuck it and played a few rounds of NES Open (my favorite nes golf game). I cant race half asleep and beer buzzed, but I can shoot 63 or 64 on 18 holes and occasionally throw in a hole in 1. 

In the last year or 2, I have changed my answer to "whats your favorite game" to NES Open. In optimal conditions, that wouldn't be my first game choice. But it only seems fair to call it my favorite when I play that as much as all the other games put together in my old age

Edited November 9, 2023 by NESfiend

[PII | 1,894]

4 hours ago, NESfiend said:

and being too tired for fast action.

Yeah, this part for sure.       ...and the beer.

Racing is def. one of the types of gaming that require the most wide awake state of mind, although if I'm say, half way there, I find I can use it to wake myself up really well.  In fact, if anyone out there has a bad brown bean habit they'd like to drop just forget about the coffee and play a WipEout game for 15 - 20 minutes instead.  It's MUCH more effective.

My gut instinct on the hole-in-ones is to be like ¡WOW! but I've never played that one so I don't really know.  I'll have to see how long it takes me to reach your success level (if I'm able).  I've always heard that NES Open is really good and I was thinking about it briefly just the other day so maybe I'll make that my next NES golf to get to.  I could see myself getting to a point where I have and play them all consistently/casually..

4 hours ago, NESfiend said:

In optimal conditions, that wouldn't be my first game choice. But it only seems fair to call it my favorite when I play that as much as all the other games put together

That's how I feel about "Loopz."  I've finally ceased to have it as my number one go to game in the last year or two after spending a lot of consistent time with it for years.  I still haven't mastered "Game A" at difficulty levels 8 and 9 but I may manage as much at some point.  It's sort of half way for me on the "how-awake-I-need-to-be-scale" maybe just because I've been playing it for so long...

 

...

Funny you say that about golf games as you are also a big racer fan like me.

...

You know what else is funny?

I've been told a few times that I'd make a Good Lawyer!

Edited November 9, 2023 by PII

[Khromak | 770]

Beat 8 eyes! This was my first time ever playing it for more than a few minutes. I looked up a guide to give me some pointers on the gameplay and some maps for the hidden items, as I typically do with these kinds of games. I just don't have the patience to attack every wall in every room. 

It was actually a really fun game and I enjoyed the use of the falcon quite a bit. I think the puzzle would've been pretty tough to figure out as a kid, not because of the logic part but because you need to find all the scrolls to know what the riddle is. 

[Khromak | 770]

I beat every level of Lunar Pool by grinding my ass off. Some of them are really absurdly difficult and require some real mastery of the game, which I definitely do not have. It's a fun game and very deterministic, but still very difficult especially when balls get stuck in the corner or there are awkward patterns to the stages.

That said, you don't get the credits/congratulations unless you beat the whole thing in 1 CC, so there's very little chance of that happening. I thought about checking this before playing through the levels, but I was enjoying myself so I said screw it and played through it all.

I tried going through the whole thing start-to-finish, ran out of lives around level 6 and decided there's no chance in hell I'm beating it all in one shot, unless I dedicate a month of my life to practicing.

[nerdynebraskan | 356]

Big Nose Freaks Out is done.

[mbd39 | 2,026]

17 hours ago, Khromak said:

I beat every level of Lunar Pool by grinding my ass off. Some of them are really absurdly difficult and require some real mastery of the game, which I definitely do not have. It's a fun game and very deterministic, but still very difficult especially when balls get stuck in the corner or there are awkward patterns to the stages.

That said, you don't get the credits/congratulations unless you beat the whole thing in 1 CC, so there's very little chance of that happening. I thought about checking this before playing through the levels, but I was enjoying myself so I said screw it and played through it all.

I tried going through the whole thing start-to-finish, ran out of lives around level 6 and decided there's no chance in hell I'm beating it all in one shot, unless I dedicate a month of my life to practicing.

I played this for a weekly contest in 2016 and got second place. I think I made it to around stage 20.

You get a ton of extra lives if you can beat multiple stages in a row without missing shots which helps with a 1cc. Not sure that it's worth the effort though.

 

[Gaia Gensouki | 1,076]

It's been a while since I've last visited this thread and it seems that you've been making steady progress and beating lots of difficult and long games. Awesome!

I'm also amazed at how you, @nerdynebraskan, managed to not only beat over 200 games, but also get to over 900 points. This must be a new record. Congratulations on this achievement!

I wished I wouldn't have been absent for such a long time, but I had a whole lot of work piled up and was under constant stress. Right now I have my first vacation this year and finally found some time for relaxation. I'm currently helping with the N64 challenge, before trying my hand again at some NES or Famicom games. But the year is almost over again and it felt like the blink of an eye.

[nerdynebraskan | 356]

@Gaia Gensouki is alive!

I believe this is my third year beating over 200 games for this challenge, but only my first time eclipsing 900 points. I've scored about 60 points better than my previous single-year best.

I've definitely been wondering about what happened to you. You were crushing me. You mentioned something about needing to slow down. And then, you were just... gone.

I hope you can beat at least one more game. As of right now, your effort this year has earned you the mantle of being one of only four players to score 690+ in a year. But I'm still the only one who has ever scored 700. It would be a shame for you to stay stalled out there with more than 100 games still on the board.

[BlackVega | 583]

Ultimate Stuntman completed

 

[BlackVega | 583]

Dizzy the Adventurer completed

[the_wizard_666 | 1,325]

That one was one of my favourite completions last year.  Hope you enjoyed it!

Anyway, sorry I have been AWOL this year.  My last NES completion (barring the City Connection run I did early on to get something this year) was December 31, hadn't really fired the system up except to test shit since then.  That said, I've knocked off 3 Famicom games in the last week, and while none were on the list for this year (hell, one just had the translation patch release this week!), it's got me wanting to play more shit.  Gonna do a couple personal games to get the ball rolling, then maybe take a look at what's left and go from there.  There's a few on the list I can pound out pretty easily (both Wizardry games, Romance 2, maybe a few others), but I like to save games I've already beaten numerous times for other people to enjoy.

Also, with only a little more than a month left in the year, I thought I might suggest something for next year...and no @scaryice, I'm not gonna push for the rest of the unlicensed list to get added (though I'd love to see them back on the list...just kinda beating a dead horse at this point).  What I was thinking is a small adjustment to the scoring for the bonus games.  Get rid of the .5 points.  Like either 4 points or 5, but man, having half a point is annoying as hell I'd also suggest maybe expanding the Famicom list.  I'd like to see a few games return, and a wider variety of titles too.  I've been really enjoying the library to date (29 completions on my personal list so far), and I've found the suggestions to be a great starting point when gazing at the wall of kanji on my shelf

[BlackVega | 583]

Recently beat Mr. Gimmick and Super Glove Ball using a real power glove and oh my was it exhausting and janky but still better than the completely unbeatable controller mode

[TheGameDisplay | 55]

I beat Rally Bike at the end of October and just realized that it's still on this list! It's a really fun game, but the last couple of stages during the second loop are quite vicious. Even almost a month later, I still have all of the stages completely memorized. That's really a requirement if you're going to pull of the near-perfect runs the game wants from you in the end.

Aside from a couple of Famicom games, I have not beat any NES games during November. I've decided to dedicate the month to something else, but will be back in full force on NES games in December!

[Gaia Gensouki | 1,076]

Takahashi Meijin no Boukenjima IV aka Adventure Island IV is done and with this I should have over 700 points.

It was an overall really fun game. They infused this platformer with some Metroidvania elements, although I'm not sure if it qualifies as a true Metroidvania. Nevertheless, you'll be doing quite a bit of exploring and backtracking. The difficulty is has also been decreased. It's now a much more manageable game than its predecessors, which were notoriously difficult. However, if you like the previous games as is, i.e. straigthforward platformer with a high difficulty, then you might be disappointed by the direction this game took.

Some things that I wish I knew when I started playing this game:

1. There are several minigames scattered throughout the adventure. You have a better chance of winning them the higher your fruit count is, i.e. you can collect 8 fruits to regain one heart which then resets your fruit count to 0. So before you start a minigame collect 7 fruits to have a much better chance of winning. Some games even seemed impossible if you didn't bring some fruits with you.

2. Southwest from your starting point, i.e. your hut, there is a whack-a-mole minigame. If you win it, you earn a fairy that will revive you once. Beat this mingame or one of the similar ones that are unlocked later throughout the game. The fairy is a literal lifesaver similar to the fairies in Zelda: A Link to the Past.

3. After doing the whack-a-mole minigame climb the ladder up and go to the right on the next screen. There is another minigame where you have to climb a pole quickly. You do this once to get a necessary item, but after that you can redo this game to earn a few consumable items. First you just get a heart to refill one heart at any time, then a potion that will refill all of your hearts once and finally you can get an item that will immediately bring you back to your hut. There you can fully recover and get a password to save your game. After that you can use the egg in your inventory to get back to the last place where you put your egg.

If I had known these things earlier I could have avoided a few deaths and didn't have to do some long passages of the game. Not sure if anybody cares about these points, but at the very least they're a reminder for myself if I should ever replay this game. But before that I would rather be interested in trying out Super Adventure Island II since that one is also supposed to be Metroidvania-like.

[nerdynebraskan | 356]

Welcome to the 700 club! You earned it, given how much you put into this earlier in the year.

[Gaia Gensouki | 1,076]

World Champ is done. It starts out decent, but gets extremely repetitive really fast.

[Gaia Gensouki | 1,076]

Just beat Zombie Hunter, the highscore game from the famicom referendum. It's a side-scrolling action-RPG similar to Zelda II, but without any of the exploration, talking to people etc. It's just straight up action, though it's lacking the in-depth combat of Zelda II. Instead you grind for experience points and money, maybe pick up a treasure cheast here and there, upgrade your equipment and stockpile healing items like a squirrel prepping for the winter. Occasionally you will come across cave entrances or similar things where you can press Up + B to enter a shop an buy some stuff. However, it only works at some of those entrances. Sometimes you can even find shops when you jump up the screen.

Anywasy, it's a simple and repetitive game, that's still fun enough to kill a few hours.

[BlackVega | 583]

Beat Darkman for the 1st time and oh my gosh it really wasn't enjoyable

[mbd39 | 2,026]

On 11/27/2023 at 7:16 AM, TheGameDisplay said:

I beat Rally Bike at the end of October and just realized that it's still on this list! It's a really fun game, but the last couple of stages during the second loop are quite vicious. Even almost a month later, I still have all of the stages completely memorized. That's really a requirement if you're going to pull of the near-perfect runs the game wants from you in the end.

Aside from a couple of Famicom games, I have not beat any NES games during November. I've decided to dedicate the month to something else, but will be back in full force on NES games in December!

Wait. Why is that cart in backwards??

[nerdynebraskan | 356]

35 minutes ago, mbd39 said:

Wait. Why is that cart in backwards??

Because he was playing an NES game on an AV Famicom. The pin configuration is different enough that the cartridge has to face backwards. It's also true if you play Famicom games on an NES top loader.

[mbd39 | 2,026]

27 minutes ago, nerdynebraskan said:

Because he was playing an NES game on an AV Famicom. The pin configuration is different enough that the cartridge has to face backwards. It's also true if you play Famicom games on an NES top loader.

Interesting. Thank you.

 

[Tablew/chairs | 250]

I beat temple of doom this was my first time finishing it… oh wait I beat it every year 

[DefaultGen | 5,426]

I'm considering taking one for the team and playing Ultima V next year. Anyone have tips to make it less painful?

Not that the other Ultimas are painful, but in Exodus the spells Rot, Descend, and Map kind of break the game, so a party of Wizard and Clerics was cruise control. In U4 the game actually gets harder and more tedious the more you level up so leveling up is bad. Anything like that here?

[the_wizard_666 | 1,325]

54 minutes ago, DefaultGen said:

I'm considering taking one for the team and playing Ultima V next year. Anyone have tips to make it less painful?

Not that the other Ultimas are painful, but in Exodus the spells Rot, Descend, and Map kind of break the game, so a party of Wizard and Clerics was cruise control. In U4 the game actually gets harder and more tedious the more you level up so leveling up is bad. Anything like that here?

Apparently dismissing your allies and doing a solo run makes the framerate almost acceptable, but then you also have to do a solo run of the game.  Honestly, I doubt it would be half as bad as it is if the game ran smoothly.

[DefaultGen | 5,426]

23 minutes ago, the_wizard_666 said:

Apparently dismissing your allies and doing a solo run makes the framerate almost acceptable, but then you also have to do a solo run of the game.  Honestly, I doubt it would be half as bad as it is if the game ran smoothly.

IIRC at least one of the previous Ultimas scaled encounters to the number of people in your party, maybe I'll try it. Most of these games are taking down notes of mantras and whatever anyway and the fighting is just a nuisance.

Edited December 19, 2023 by DefaultGen