2023 VGS NES Weekly Contest - Dr Mario

[BeaIank | 1,618]

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, welcome to the final week of our 2023 VGS NES WEEKLY CONTEST!

A week that will define CHAMPIONS! The puzzle genre and the Geral championship are up for grabs this week!

This' a week where our players will have to show that they have true grit to conquer the virus at DR MARIO!

Here are the rules:

• Play on virus level 10.
• Play on speed medium
• Play till level 16 or till you game over, whichever happens first
• Take your picture at the start of level 16 or at the game over screen
• You have very little time to take your picture at the start level 16. You can pause and prepare to take your picture. If there is at most two pills in the field, the picture will be accepted.
• Highest score wins
• Genre: Puzzle

The puzzle genre standings have @Glovessitting in 1st with 20 points, @mbd39 and @Dr. Morbis tied in 2nd with 19 points. Only the victory matters for these three valiant players!

May the most puzzled one win!

The contest ends Sunday, 10/01/23 at 11 PM VGS time.  Your user name MUST be written or typed on a piece of paper and be in the picture for your score to be valid.  The entire TV screen, or computer monitor if you are playing on an emulator, MUST be in the picture for the score to be valid.  No partial screenshots will be considered or accepted.  No screenshots by hitting "print screen" on a computer will be allowed.  You must take a picture of your computer monitor.  There may be instances where this will be acceptable, but it will be at the discretion of myself and the contest organizers.  Also, the use of turbo controllers is forbidden, as well as any cheat codes, Game Genies, slow motion functions, or save states if playing on an emulator.  Also, we will only be using NTSC systems for the contests.  The use of PAL systems will NOT be allowed.  Good luck everyone and have fun.

 

[BeaIank | 1,618]

1st	PII	127,600
2nd	mbd39	111,400
3rd	BlackVega	107,200
4th	Gloves	95,800
5th	G-type	93,400
6th	NESfiend	77,200
7th	SuperJimtendo	22,000

[mbd39 | 2,020]

"Play till level 26 or till you game over, whichever happens first "

Did you mean play til level 30? Because it says take your picture at the start of level 30.

 

[BeaIank | 1,618]

After we finish this season, I will put all my excel file results into a database so I can consolidate data about our players performance through my tenure as the organizer of the VGS NES Weekly Contest, alongside with @guillavoie

It will be fun to remember champions of the recent past and elevate our current champions with their mighty results!

[BeaIank | 1,618]

Just now, mbd39 said:

"Play till level 26 or till you game over, whichever happens first "

Did you mean play til level 30? Because it says take your picture at the start of level 30.

 

Fixed it.

I was considering level 30, but settled for level 26 to allow for more runs and less time lost by resetting if one gets a poor field to start.

[Gloves | 11,777]

95,800

[mbd39 | 2,020]

17 minutes ago, BeaIank said:

Fixed it.

I was considering level 30, but settled for level 26 to allow for more runs and less time lost by resetting if one gets a poor field to start.

We're playing til the level we're starting at? I don't understand these rules.

[BeaIank | 1,618]

1 minute ago, mbd39 said:

We're playing til the level we're starting at? I don't understand these rules.

You can only start at level 20. When I decided to change from 30 to 26, I edited the level at the wrong places. It is too hot here for me to think properly.

So you're playing levels 20, 21, 22, 23, 24 and 25.

[mbd39 | 2,020]

1 minute ago, BeaIank said:

You can only start at level 20. When I decided to change from 30 to 26, I edited the level at the wrong places. It is too hot here for me to think properly.

So you're playing levels 20, 21, 22, 23, 24 and 25.

Thank you, lol. I thought I was losing my mind.

[Bearcat-Doug | 5,105]

43 minutes ago, mbd39 said:

Thank you, lol. I thought I was losing my mind.

[Bearcat-Doug | 5,105]

1 hour ago, BeaIank said:

After we finish this season, I will put all my excel file results into a database so I can consolidate data about our players performance through my tenure as the organizer of the VGS NES Weekly Contest, alongside with @guillavoie

It will be fun to remember champions of the recent past and elevate our current champions with their mighty results!

That sounds great. I can finally see where I stand on the all time wins list since I think the old list only went through 2018.

[mbd39 | 2,020]

27 minutes ago, Bearcat-Doug said:

Maybe. I've been playing Journey to Silius.

I do like Dr. Mario but not as much as Tetris.

 

[mbd39 | 2,020]

It'll be a challenge to even beat level 20. Those later levels are tough.

 

[Bearcat-Doug | 5,105]

9 minutes ago, mbd39 said:

Maybe. I've been playing Journey to Silius.

I do like Dr. Mario but not as much as Tetris.

 

I tried playing and I think my run lasted about 10 seconds. 

[Bearcat-Doug | 5,105]

14 minutes ago, mbd39 said:

It'll be a challenge to even beat level 20. Those later levels are tough.

 

I thought I was at least decent at this, but I'm nowhere near good enough to even clear one level.

[Gloves | 11,777]

I'm not good at this kind of game in the slightest, so between this and yie AR kung Fu I'm assuming I'll lose the top spot handily to @PII, as predicted. 

[Gloves | 11,777]

Lol yeah just trying the game out, I can't play it at all, it's literally unplayable for me. Can't clear a single virus, let alone a level. 

[SuperJimtendo | 1,121]

Score:22000

9000

Edited September 25, 2023 by SuperJimtendo
Score

[Bearcat-Doug | 5,105]

13 minutes ago, Gloves said:

Lol yeah just trying the game out, I can't play it at all, it's literally unplayable for me. Can't clear a single virus, let alone a level. 

My best score was 2,100 points so at least it's not just me.

[Gloves | 11,777]

Put up a score, roughly the best I can possibly do. My mind simply doesn't work that quickly with this type of game. 

@BeaIank I'm not one to complain, but I'm not joking when I say it's unplayable for me. Literally every other game and ruleset this year I could go in blind and come out with a decent score even if I suck at the genre. Not this one though, this game and ruleset stick out to me like a sore thumb in that it feels like you need to already have a master level grasp of the game and a very specific skillset (and speed) to even play the game at all. I'm disappointed as I don't mind Dr Mario normally, but jumping straight to the last selectable level on the highest speed simply removes me from the competition, full stop.

You don't have to change the rules for me, but it feels super out of line with the rest of the games this year. Like, we could for instance start at level 10, and go to 15, or something. Maybe let people play on whatever speed they like but apply a simple multiplier for higher speeds. Then it's more about mastering and getting high combos, rather than sheer survival on an insane difficulty from the start. A notoriously difficult series like Ninja Gaiden was child's play in comparison to this. 

[mbd39 | 2,020]

Just now, Gloves said:

Put up a score, roughly the best I can possibly do. My mind simply doesn't work that quickly with this type of game. 

@BeaIank I'm not one to complain, but I'm not joking when I say it's unplayable for me. Literally every other game and ruleset this year I could go in blind and come out with a decent score even if I suck at the genre. Not this one though, this game and ruleset stick out to me like a sore thumb in that it feels like you need to already have a master level grasp of the game and a very specific skillset (and speed) to even play the game at all. I'm disappointed as I don't mind Dr Mario normally, but jumping straight to the last selectable level on the highest speed simply removes me from the competition, full stop.

You don't have to change the rules for me, but it feels super out of line with the rest of the games this year. Like, we could for instance start at level 10, and go to 15, or something. Then it's more about mastering and getting high combos, rather than sheer survival on an insane difficulty from the start. A notoriously difficult series like Ninja Gaiden was child's play in comparison to this. 

Reminds me of peoples' reactions when we played level 18 Tetris last year.

 

[BeaIank | 1,618]

3 minutes ago, Gloves said:

Put up a score, roughly the best I can possibly do. My mind simply doesn't work that quickly with this type of game. 

@BeaIank I'm not one to complain, but I'm not joking when I say it's unplayable for me. Literally every other game and ruleset this year I could go in blind and come out with a decent score even if I suck at the genre. Not this one though, this game and ruleset stick out to me like a sore thumb in that it feels like you need to already have a master level grasp of the game and a very specific skillset (and speed) to even play the game at all. I'm disappointed as I don't mind Dr Mario normally, but jumping straight to the last selectable level on the highest speed simply removes me from the competition, full stop.

You don't have to change the rules for me, but it feels super out of line with the rest of the games this year. Like, we could for instance start at level 10, and go to 15, or something. Maybe let people play on whatever speed they like but apply a simple multiplier for higher speeds. Then it's more about mastering and getting high combos, rather than sheer survival on an insane difficulty from the start. A notoriously difficult series like Ninja Gaiden was child's play in comparison to this. 

Sounds like this rule set would be more suited for tournament play. I went for it based on the skill level I saw on Dr. Mario World Championship top 8 streams and videos.

I will tune them back down to make it more palatable for a normal round.

[BeaIank | 1,618]

Rules amended to make it a more suitable challenge for a normal week round.

[Bearcat-Doug | 5,105]

3 minutes ago, mbd39 said:

Reminds me of peoples' reactions when we played level 18 Tetris last year.

 

I somehow got 5th place that week. Finishing in the top 5 during a puzzle week is like a win for me.

[Bearcat-Doug | 5,105]

7 minutes ago, Gloves said:

My mind simply doesn't work that quickly with this type of game.  

For what it's worth, that's basically me almost every puzzle contest.