NES Completions thread 2024 - 662/677

[Khromak | 770]

27 minutes ago, nerdynebraskan said:

Captain America could have been a B+ title, but it suffers from a severe case of Copy/Paste Syndrome. You spend way too much time playing through nearly identical levels and fighting progressively harder versions of the same bosses and mini-bosses. And the developers artificially pad the length further by punishing you with much higher difficulty and backtracking penalties for every time you die as the game goes on. It's a decent concept that devolved into a slog in its execution. The Avengers' plane is nice for skipping levels, but you get it so late and that stage has the jerk-ass mini-bosses right at the top so be very careful not to be killed by them.

Thanks for the advice! I played it for an hour or so earlier and noticed that, while EXTREMELY similar, there were some minor differences in the stages. When watching the videos I probably just assumed it was the same level, not realizing it was an almost-identical-but-slightly-modified "new" stage. I found the combat to be really clunky. It's not so bad when you're fighting 1 enemy, but when they're coming from both sides it feels really cheap, especially when enemies take a bunch of hits to kill. I ended up using all 3 continues before even making it to the second city (New York). It's funny because I killed a couple (mini?) bosses and they were quite a bit easier than the regular enemies. There were some "zerg" type battles where enemies swarm you from both sides of the screen. These were quite difficult as Captain America but I could manage to squeeze by only taking a few hits. Then Cap died and I was trying one with Hawkeye and holy crap, it's basically impossible. I have no idea what you're expected to do, as the enemies charge at you and take like...6 arrows to kill, which are slow as hell to fire. Maybe you're supposed to just avoid them until the time of the event runs out?

IDK anyway I decided it wasn't worth my time, at least for now. I'm sure someone else will take care of it. I'm sure I could figure out some tricks or work around the jank at some point, but for now it just feels like a frustrating mess. I like the boomerang-style attack with Cap's shield, but it's also really slow and enemies will body you quite a bit in the mean time.

I can't imagine trying to deal with those controls at the later levels where enemy patterns, HP, frequency, etc. presumably get worse.

I'm taking a stab at BTTF 2&3 right now and actually enjoying it (thus far). I will probably shut it off at the end of the night tonight and come back for a full attempt some other day(s) when I have more time, but I'm getting a feel for it. I wrote up a little spreadsheet with all the item locations and other details on it, will use that as my checklist for when I go to beat it too.

Edited March 24 by Khromak

[nerdynebraskan | 356]

On 3/20/2024 at 11:23 PM, Dr. Morbis said:

I'm curious what you think is so terrible about leaving a NES on for extended periods... the console overheating and burning down your house?... your power bill?... the game getting corrupted?... a power out losing your progress?...   Seriously, what is the issue?

I leave my NES on overnight all the time, even with games with battery saves if there's a difference from turning it off (ie: Final Fantasy to keep my place in the battle script instead of having to start over with the first battle out of 256).  I just pause the game, turn off the TV, then walk out of the room; I've literally never had a problem in my life...

My concerns are a mix of the console being damaged from overheating, the game corrupting, and the possibilities of a hiccup in the power coming from the wall. I'm happy that you've never had problems, but I haven't been so lucky. 

Also, in other news:

I reached the final boss of Little Ninja Brothers tonight. It should be done soon. I'll probably start Clemens Baseball or Carmen Sandiego next (unless @Foochie776 is playing it).

Edited March 25 by nerdynebraskan

[Khromak | 770]

Similar concerns to Nerdy's. Games I play for a long period of time in a single session, like 6-8 hours or w/e, tend to feel warm by the pins, so my concerns are mostly related to that heat building up over the course of 72 hours or w/e it takes to finish a game.

I haven't had any games or consoles damaged by leaving them on and I have, but I prefer not to do it.

That said, I currently have my BTTF2&3 game left on with my NT mini, because I wanted to abide by the rules and I made more progress tonight than I thought I would.

[Daniel_Doyce | 477]

34 minutes ago, nerdynebraskan said:

My concerns are a mix of the console being damaged from overheating, the game corrupting, and the possibilities of a hiccup in the power coming from the wall. I'm happy that you've never had problems, but I haven't been so lucky. 

Also, in other news:

I reached the final boss of Little Ninja Brothers tonight. It should be done soon. I'll probably start Clemens Baseball or Carmen Sandiego next (unless @Foochie776 is playing it).

I am planning to wrap up RotTK1 by Tuesday and am willing to do Carmen Sandiego next, if that sways you towards Roger Clemens Baseball.

3 Bases Loaded games left, ugh. Where's the guy who said he beat all 4 Bases Loaded games and like 20 other 9/10s within the first week of the competition a few years ago?

[scaryice | 597]

13 hours ago, Reed Rothchild said:

@scaryice Is this a record pace for all the years you've run this thing?

 

We started off just okay, but we've really been crushing it since 300. Not quite a record yet, but it could be depending on how we finish:

	2024	Rank
50	01-Jan	1st (tied)
100	02-Jan	7th (tied)
150	03-Jan	8th (tied)
200	05-Jan	8th (tied)
250	07-Jan	7th (tied)
300	12-Jan	7th
350	15-Jan	4th (tied)
400	21-Jan	4th
450	28-Jan	3rd
500	03-Feb	3rd
550	13-Feb	3rd
600	02-Mar	2nd
650
677

The record for 650 is April 8th, and the record for all 677 is June 12th.

[Khromak | 770]

2 weeks to get 13 games, one/day essentially. That's gonna be rough!

I'll be beating BTTF 2&3 today or tomorrow, I'm about 1/3 of the way through, ish, and I have a good rhythm going.

[Gaia Gensouki | 1,079]

Is one of the good endings required in Kid Kool? Because if it's okay to let the King die, I might be able to grind my way through the game since it seems to have unlimited continues.

[nerdynebraskan | 356]

10 hours ago, Daniel_Doyce said:

I am planning to wrap up RotTK1 by Tuesday and am willing to do Carmen Sandiego next, if that sways you towards Roger Clemens Baseball.

3 Bases Loaded games left, ugh. Where's the guy who said he beat all 4 Bases Loaded games and like 20 other 9/10s within the first week of the competition a few years ago?

I was leaning towards Carmen, but I suppose I could let you have it if you're interested in starting it next week. Have you done it before? Last warning to @Foochie776; if you started this game buddy, you'd better get in here and let us know.

And I've not been super worried about the Bases Loaded games. Last I heard, @Khromak was playing the first one and @McBryce had committed to 3 and 4 (and was making good progress on the latter).

Edited March 25 by nerdynebraskan

[mbd39 | 2,030]

1 hour ago, Gaia Gensouki said:

Is one of the good endings required in Kid Kool? Because if it's okay to let the King die, I might be able to grind my way through the game since it seems to have unlimited continues.

I don't see Kid Kool listed among the special completion requirements. Seems like any ending is fine. https://pastebin.com/JJ6Zy2Di

 

[Khromak | 770]

I kinda gave up on BL1 since I couldn't figure out the pitching trick, it wasn't working for me consistently. I can give it another try once BTTF is done, but I'll probably lean into something else for now. I don't want to "claim" anything since the list is pretty small at this point, but I'm thinking I'll either try Gauntlet again, try to work through Athena, or try Captain Marvel  again, in my order of preference. 

[Daniel_Doyce | 477]

4 hours ago, nerdynebraskan said:

I was leaning towards Carmen, but I suppose I could let you have it if you're interested in starting it next week. Have you done it before? Last warning to @Foochie776; if you started this game buddy, you'd better get in here and let us know.

And I've not been super worried about the Bases Loaded games. Last I heard, @Khromak was playing the first one and @McBryce had committed to 3 and 4 (and was making good progress on the latter).

Up to you man, just let me know either way. I have beaten it before. I can just knock out the other Koei games left.

[nerdynebraskan | 356]

Little Ninja Brothers is done. I played through the action stages on "Normal" this time; I think I beat it the first two times on Easy.

@Daniel_Doyce

Like I said, if you're ready to start it this week, you can have Carmen Sandiego. You seem to prefer not playing the Koei games back-to-back.

[Khromak | 770]

Back to the future 2&3 is done. God damn do I have some opinions about this game... the action is pretty good, controls are a bit slippery but you get used to it. I LOVED the arcade style mini games, just the right combination of puzzle and platforming for me. Until the end... when they got diabolical. I had to look up solutions for a couple of them and even then, they took dozens and dozens of tries to execute. Overall though, I really enjoyed this game. I absolutely love the strategy and planning involved in the first game (BTTF2). I was using a map from gamefaqs and a spreadsheet of my own creation and having a blast planning out my route. As a blind play, I imagine it would be really rough though. You'd spend so much time going the wrong way, and finding where the secret entrances are would take AGES. 

[mbd39 | 2,030]

BTTF Parts 2&3 would be held in higher regard if it had a save or password feature. It desperately needed one.

 

[Gaia Gensouki | 1,079]

Kid Kool is done. I got the bad ending, but I doubt that I will ever go back to this game to get a better ending. I liked The Krion conquest by Vic Tokai, but this one is really quite bad.

[McBryce | 375]

23 hours ago, nerdynebraskan said:

I was leaning towards Carmen, but I suppose I could let you have it if you're interested in starting it next week. Have you done it before? Last warning to @Foochie776; if you started this game buddy, you'd better get in here and let us know.

And I've not been super worried about the Bases Loaded games. Last I heard, @Khromak was playing the first one and @McBryce had committed to 3 and 4 (and was making good progress on the latter).

I'm going to have a nice block of free time this Friday, so I am going to try and get BL3 done then.

I'm up to 30 wins in BL4.

[Daniel_Doyce | 477]

Romance of the Three Kingdoms 1

I'll start on Carmen Sandiego now

[Khromak | 770]

Well, we came ripping out the gates with a few games in a single day, but we're falling behind a little bit. 9 more to go guys!

I'm about halfway through Racket Attack, and really enjoying it. I might beat it tonight, might be tomorrow, depending how/if it gets more difficult as it goes on.

[Khromak | 770]

Never mind what I said earlier. I got stuck HARDCORE on one of the matches so I will absolutely not be finishing the game today lol.

Will be back at it this weekend, hopefully it doesn't continue to get harder and this is just a player who has a style that counters mine...

[McBryce | 375]

Bases Loaded 3 is in the books.

[nerdynebraskan | 356]

I've started Clemens Baseball. I'm 3-0, with 30 regular season games to go.

[Khromak | 770]

Racket attack is done. Not gonna lie, this game got TOUGH for me at the end and I was raging at it...a lot...

It's fun enough though and I enjoyed the mechanics generally, but sometimes it felt like I would be standing right next to the ball and hit the button and either my character would swing at air, swing in the wrong direction, or walk right through the ball. Definitely glad to have it done

[bronzeshield | 293]

56 minutes ago, Khromak said:

Racket attack is done. Not gonna lie, this game got TOUGH for me at the end and I was raging at it...a lot...

It's fun enough though and I enjoyed the mechanics generally, but sometimes it felt like I would be standing right next to the ball and hit the button and either my character would swing at air, swing in the wrong direction, or walk right through the ball. Definitely glad to have it done

I have been there and feel your pain. I didn't find it that tough (but tennis games are a specialty of mine) but the whole "swinging at empty air for no reason" thing got really tiresome.

I still think it's the best of the US-released tennis games on the NES, though; the others are unapologetically hot garbage, while at least Racket Attack tries to be decent.

Edited March 31 by bronzeshield

[McBryce | 375]

I finally got a Vaus controller that works so I am going to try and get Arkanoid done within the year.

I am not going to guarantee anything because I know this game’s reputation, but I’m going to give it a shot.

if anyone who’s taken this down before has any strategies or words of wisdom it would be much appreciated. I’m going to make liberal use of the level skip and pause buffering, but with the caveat that I have to beat a level first in order to skip it. So far I’m through 1-4.

This seems like it’s going to be absolute hell.

[Khromak | 770]

7 days to get 7 games if we want to break the record for fastest to 650. Who's working on something that could be done in that time? Do we think we have any chance?

My list is looking pretty slim, I'm open to hearing about any game on the list that's not too tough or crazy long but I think that pretty much eliminates everything still left haha.

I'm considering trying Athena (long and difficult) or Gauntlet (difficult as hell) again, or possibly seeing if I can get the pitching trick to work in Bases Loaded, though I could also barely score a hit in the batting of that game, so I'm not likely to be winning any games there any time soon.

Wouldn't count on much in the way of completions from me, but I'll give those a shot throughout this week and see what I can come up with. I'll be out of town this upcoming weekend to see the solar eclipse, but will probably bring some kind of NES with me to attempt some games in my down time.