The Little Mermaid Needed A Save Battery / Appreciation Thread...

[AirVillain | 488]

Capcom fans hate admitting that Capcom makes mistakes, but they make a lot of them and the lack of a save feature on such an important game like The Little Mermaid is certainly near the top of stupid blunders. 

I find this game a too long and difficult to complete in one sitting. 

I also don't like leaving my NES on when I leave the room because it will spontaneously combust.

My cousin's best friend's sister's boyfriend's friend said that HIS cousin's friend's older brother's NES blew up when they left the room once and it caught the whole house on fire.

They had to wait until the following FOLLOWING Christmas to get another one. 1990 & 1991 were bleak years for them. 

I would love to be able to go back to my recent game progress and retain my inventory in The Little Mermaid. Having strong bubbles and distance in my shot is important and going back to the middle levels with these items intact is crucial. 

Anyone trying to justify the lack of a save feature in such a lengthy Capcom title is grasping at straws. It's like Donkey Kong fans explaining holes in the DKC canon by saying "It's because he likes bananas!!"

Anyways... this game could REALLY have benefited from a save battery feature. I like playing it, but sometimes it's just too tedious and too long for me to sit down and play front to back. 

Edited April 22, 2023 by AirVillain

[Tanooki | 4,932]

Uhh this seems squarely a YOU issue.  I'm not some big Capcom fan, sure I enjoy some of their games, but I was more a fan of what Konami/Ultra pumped out.

That said, of all the Disney titles on NES, outside of maybe the learning mickey title and Adventures in the Magic Kingdom, Little Mermaid is the easiest game under that license they put out.  It's not terribly long, nor is it really all that hard either if you pace yourself given how she and the enemies plod along.  At best, maybe, just maybe it could have used a password system like mega man had, but even that's a stretch.

Are you going to next tell me that Duck Tales and Rescue Rangers titles and Darkwing are just utterly impossible?  How about Little Nemo?  All of them perhaps could have used a by stage password to pick up where you left off, but they're not nasty.

[twiztor | 850]

Is this a joke thread piggybacking off the SMB3/SMW debate?

agreed with @Tanooki.  It is neither a long nor particularly challenging game.

Per HowLongToBeat, Little Mermaid takes <45 minutes to complete, start to finish. (https://howlongtobeat.com/game/10052) i played through it for the first time in a couple decades last year or the year before, and can confirm that i breezed through it. 

[RH | 4,903]

I'm going to have to argue that D:TLM (as we REAL fans call it!) benefited from NOT having a battery save feature.

We all know this game was made for girls, and girls can't hang for longer than 5 minutes.  It was a cost saving measure.  However, CAPCOM knew that the real gamer-men boys were fans of whatever they made and could probably beat it in a weekend as a rental from BI-LO.

It was a bold move, and it separated the men from the boys... and girls.

[Ankos | 435]

29 minutes ago, AirVillain said:

I also don't like leaving my NES on when I leave the room because it will spontaneously combust.

1. This is about SMB3 right?

2. A man left his SNES (SFC) on for over a decade and it did not go boom, so your NES will probably be fine. That or this is evidence for the SNES being better than the NES for not being a fire hazard

[RH | 4,903]

2 minutes ago, Ankos said:

1. This is about SMB3 right?

2. A man left his SNES (SFC) on for over a decade and it did not go boom, so your NES will probably be fine. That or this is evidence for the SNES being better than the NES for not being a fire hazard

The SNEZ is objectively better because it was engineered many years past the NES.  This is also true for the SNES < N64 < GC, and so on.

However, the question of which one has the better library is up for debate, regardless of system capability.

[CodysGameRoom | 2,008]

lol at people seriously responding in this thread

[RH | 4,903]

6 minutes ago, CodysGameRoom said:

lol at people seriously responding in this thread

[Tulpa | 3,492]

Mods, I'd like to file a copyright claim against AirVillain for using my cousin's tragedy of 1990 from the SMB3 thread. I'm asking damages in the amount of $1,000,000, or a clean label Shatterhand, cart only.

[Link | 2,709]

It's not a real Disney game. They just slapped Ariel in a shmup. It doesn't even make any sense. If you took her and Ursula out nobody would like it. 

[Reed Rothchild | 9,520]

Troll thread.  No grown man has actually played The Little Mermaid.

[Ankos | 435]

1 hour ago, RH said:

The SNEZ is objectively better because it was engineered many years past the NES.  This is also true for the SNES < N64 < GC, and so on.

However, the question of which one has the better library is up for debate, regardless of system capability.

I wasn't trying to be serious with that statement about fire hazards. I don't think many people have had issues with their NES machines catching fire. I wonder if there are cases where later more powerful machines could be considered genuine downgrades due to having design flaws though

[RH | 4,903]

2 hours ago, Ankos said:

1. This is about SMB3 right?

2. A man left his SNES (SFC) on for over a decade and it did not go boom, so your NES will probably be fine. That or this is evidence for the SNES being better than the NES for not being a fire hazard

In a way, that article is both impressive AND sad, keeping a game running for THAT long. I wonder what that game is about.  Is it an RPG or something like a soccer management sim. (I'm too lazy to google it.)

28 minutes ago, Ankos said:

I wasn't trying to be serious with that statement about fire hazards. I don't think many people have had issues with their NES machines catching fire. I wonder if there are cases where later more powerful machines could be considered genuine downgrades due to having design flaws though

Ah, I assume we're all just having a bit of harmless, trolling fun.  I can't think of a single example of where a console successor was worse when strictly looking at it's design.  I mean, there was the Genesis/Sega CD and then the Saturn which was intended to be a 2D powerhouse that was shoe-horned into being a 3D console.  But even then, it did just fine in the Japanese market.  I dunno.

[Ankos | 435]

34 minutes ago, RH said:

In a way, that article is both impressive AND sad, keeping a game running for THAT long. I wonder what that game is about.  Is it an RPG or something like a soccer management sim. (I'm too lazy to google it.)

It is this game judging by the label

[TDIRunner | 2,733]

I never would have though that rating a game at a 9 instead of a 10 would have hit such a nerve with a bunch of fan boys.  I especially enjoyed the apples to oranges comparison.  It really put me in my place. 

[Reed Rothchild | 9,520]

3 minutes ago, TDIRunner said:

I never would have though that rating a game at a 9 instead of a 10 would have hit such a nerve with a bunch of fan boys.  I especially enjoyed the apples to oranges comparison.  It really put me in my place. 

No boy scorned like a Mario 3 boy

[Jynx | 140]

17 minutes ago, Reed Rothchild said:

No boy scorned like a Mario 3 boy

Aside from Paper Mario Thousand Year Door fans who get angry when people like the first one instead. ^_^

[fox | 1,666]

Every thread on this site is a troll tread nowadays 

[AirVillain | 488]

ZING!



Haha... Okay... Where to start.... 
 

19 hours ago, Tanooki said:

Uhh this seems squarely a YOU issue.

Haha, nah.... just joshin' with ya. Everything you said about TLM was correct. It's very easy.

 

19 hours ago, twiztor said:

Is this a joke thread piggybacking off the SMB3/SMW debate?

agreed with @Tanooki.  It is neither a long nor particularly challenging game.

Per HowLongToBeat, Little Mermaid takes <45 minutes to complete, start to finish. (https://howlongtobeat.com/game/10052) i played through it for the first time in a couple decades last year or the year before, and can confirm that i breezed through it. 

Yes. 

But 45 minutes??? Haha... that's way too long. I think it's about a 12-15 minute playthrough.  Literally... 20 minutes if you take your time? 

 

19 hours ago, Ankos said:

1. This is about SMB3 right?

Yes. 

 

19 hours ago, CodysGameRoom said:

lol at people seriously responding in this thread

Hahaha... oh man. That Little Mermaid sure is a tough one!!! 
 

18 hours ago, Tulpa said:

Mods, I'd like to file a copyright claim against AirVillain for using my cousin's tragedy of 1990 from the SMB3 thread. I'm asking damages in the amount of $1,000,000, or a clean label Shatterhand, cart only.

Oh no... what have I done??? I liked Shatterhand 

In all seriousness, though, when you said "tragedy" I got worried I misread your earlier post. Had someone's house actually burned down I would have not "joked" about it. 

I also didn't realize it was actually your cousin, so sorry about bringing it so close to home. 

 

18 hours ago, Link said:

It's not a real Disney game. They just slapped Ariel in a shmup. It doesn't even make any sense. If you took her and Ursula out nobody would like it. 

This is an entirely other thread titled "Mega Man 7-12, The Disney Series". 

I've mentioned it multiple times across the forums... I'll start taking some notes to make the thread whence I'm bored one day. 

 

17 hours ago, Reed Rothchild said:

Troll thread.  No grown man has actually played The Little Mermaid.

Haha, well you're right about the first part. 

However, the second is offensive. The Little Mermaid is one of my favourite games! It's got great controls and gameplay, along with excellent music and graphics. 

Plus it's Capcom and Disney... AND LITTLE MERMAID!!!



It's wonderful.
 

16 hours ago, TDIRunner said:

I never would have though that rating a game at a 9 instead of a 10 would have hit such a nerve with a bunch of fan boys.  I especially enjoyed the apples to oranges comparison.  It really put me in my place. 

Hahaha.... This made me LOL. 

Moi? SMB3 fanboy? .... And you think I'm cheesed? 

Nah man, haha.... You must not understand what's going on here. 

I think it's FUNNY that people actually think SMB3 is difficult enough to require a save battery. Like The Little Mermaid, SMB3 is a very, VERY easy game, so.... get the sarcasm???

I guess SMB3 is so difficult for you that comparing it to TLM is insane.  

 

16 hours ago, Reed Rothchild said:

No boy scorned like a Mario 3 boy

Anyways.... just a fun, light-hearted discussion. 

[Jynx | 140]

I know this is a joke thread, but I had Little Mermaid as a kid. ^_^

I only still like the game because I grew up playing it, but if I were to answer the joke thead seriously, I wish Little Mermaid had extra loops that got harder. It's a short game that would have been good for it. 

Let's transform the thread into the official Little Mermaid disscusion thread. 

Edited April 21, 2023 by Jynx

[RH | 4,903]

Never played it and I don't own it for the NES, but I do for the Game Boy.  Is it like DuckTales and more or less the same, just with narrower graphics?

[Link | 2,709]

8 minutes ago, Jynx said:

I know this is a joke thread, but I had Little Mermaid as a kid. ^_^

Let's transform the thread into the official Little Mermaid disscusion thread. 

I was gonna say that only works when you start a thread on April 1. But @RH is helping

[Tulpa | 3,492]

16 minutes ago, RH said:

Never played it and I don't own it for the NES, but I do for the Game Boy.  Is it like DuckTales and more or less the same, just with narrower graphics?

It's slightly more free-roaming than Ducktales, as most of it is underwater and Ariel has free range of motion there. There's a little bit of platforming when she's out of the water, but it's brief.

Some of the attack mechanics are Ducktales-esque, though it doesn't have anything like the pogo-ing that made that game more memorable.

[AirVillain | 488]

Now we're talkin'!!!!

Loves me some Little Mermaid Love!!

 

19 hours ago, Jynx said:

I know this is a joke thread, but I had Little Mermaid as a kid. ^_^

I only still like the game because I grew up playing it, but if I were to answer the joke thead seriously, I wish Little Mermaid had extra loops that got harder. It's a short game that would have been good for it. 

Let's transform the thread into the official Little Mermaid disscusion thread. 

GREAT IDEA!!! I mean.... at its heart, the thread was ALWAYS a Little Mermaid appreciation thread. The reason why I can speak so knowledgeably on the subject is because I like the game so much, haha. 

I still like the game for many reasons:

1) Great gameplay & mechanics (Capcom - It's basically a "flying" platformer shooter version of Mega Man/Duck Tales). Ariels swimming is neat and the way you can throw things in any direction is cool. Using her tail to hit things/search for items is fun too. 

2) Great music (TLM FTW!). It's fuckin TLM, hello!

3) Excellent graphics and visuals (Disney, then translated very well by Capcom). Capcom port of a Disney classic, what more needs to be said? 

But I agree having extra loops that got harder would at least add to the challenge. If not making the game more challenging with longer levels in the first place. 

But alas.... I understand why Capcom would turn down the difficulty/shorten the game length for this title. 

Also, the story is all messed up, haha. I don't know if they thought they need to "do something different" from the movie to keep things interesting, but they completely butcher the story and it doesn't really make sense at any point in the OG TLM canon. 

But whatever, I think that kinda makes it even funnier. Like... the story is so bad it's funny. 

So yeah... I like it because it's a short game with great gameplay and graphics that's a quick little game whenever I feel like playing a game just for fun. 

Maybe I don't want it any longer? It could stand to be a a bit more difficult though, haha.  

 

19 hours ago, RH said:

Never played it and I don't own it for the NES, but I do for the Game Boy.  Is it like DuckTales and more or less the same, just with narrower graphics?

Dang, you're missing out! 

Looks like it's a port onto Gameboy (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Little_Mermaid_(video_game)).... so it looks the same, just with less awesomeness b/c it's on GB (obviously). 

Play it on a Super Gameboy and I bet it'd be decent (similar to how Kirby's Dreamland is still good).

But I would 100% ALWAYS reccomend someone go and get this game, especially if they like Mega Man, Duck Tales, or Chip & Dale. 

It's like Duck Tales in the way that Duck Tales is like Mega Man. Similar, but different power-ups. So if you've played the GB veriosn you know Ariel swims in the water, so it's similar to a "shooter". 

Like I said before... I call it a "flying platform shooter". 

 

18 hours ago, Link said:

I was gonna say that only works when you start a thread on April 1. But @RH is helping

Nnnnooo!! We can do it!!

Little Mermaid will survive 

 

18 hours ago, Tulpa said:

It's slightly more free-roaming than Ducktales, as most of it is underwater and Ariel has free range of motion there. There's a little bit of platforming when she's out of the water, but it's brief.

Some of the attack mechanics are Ducktales-esque, though it doesn't have anything like the pogo-ing that made that game more memorable.

Yeah.... kind of like a non-scrolling shooter for me. Ariel swims (flies) around and throws (shoots) bubbles/stuff she picks up. 

Edited April 22, 2023 by AirVillain

[Estil | 1,264]

On 4/20/2023 at 1:08 PM, Tulpa said:

Mods, I'd like to file a copyright claim against AirVillain for using my cousin's tragedy of 1990 from the SMB3 thread. I'm asking damages in the amount of $1,000,000, or a clean label Shatterhand, cart only.