nerdynebraskan | 356 Posted March 15, 2020 Share Posted March 15, 2020 On 3/10/2020 at 11:50 PM, Crabmaster2000 said: Just wanted to give shout outs to Kid Dracula, mbd39 and Table/chairs for helping me out with Xevious, Bump n Jump and Tetris 2 respectively. All three offered some great tips for these games and thanks to their insight probably saved me many hours when I beat these 3 this last week. I know they are already done for the thread, just wanted to say a public thanks to these guys. Really happy that the awesome community spirit that was at Nintendoage migrated over here. Really appreciate the help guys! So, which games do you have left on your personal quest? And how many are still on this list? Also, Space Shuttle Project is done. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tablew/chairs | 242 Posted March 15, 2020 Share Posted March 15, 2020 Conan i hate games where pressing up is jump Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nerdynebraskan | 356 Posted March 16, 2020 Share Posted March 16, 2020 Mappy Land is done. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gaia Gensouki | 1,073 Posted March 16, 2020 Share Posted March 16, 2020 YEAH!!! I finally beat Adventure Island II. This took me a long time since this game frequently crosses the line between challenging and punishing/trollish/sadistic. How else could you call some of the enemy or obstacle placements? Or combining one-hit deaths with a strict time limit? Or how you sometimes have to do extra levels for no apparent reasons? Or when you die during a boss fight you not only have to do the whole level over again, but the boss moves to a different level? This is just ridiculous and I can't imagine that many children have actually beaten this game back in the day. Just unbelievable how difficult this game gets. And it's only worth 5 points... For comparison, Mickey's Mousecapades was 6 points... On a side note, Dragon Quest/Warrior IV still takes a bit of time since I temporarily lost interest after learning that I can't control my companions during battle anymore. But I will try to beat it within this month. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scaryice | 587 Posted March 16, 2020 Author Share Posted March 16, 2020 (edited) 12 hours ago, Tablew/chairs said: Conan i hate games where pressing up is jump I'll take up to jump over B any day. Now that just feels wrong. Edited March 16, 2020 by scaryice Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scaryice | 587 Posted March 16, 2020 Author Share Posted March 16, 2020 3 hours ago, Gaia Gensouki said: YEAH!!! I finally beat Adventure Island II. This took me a long time since this game frequently crosses the line between challenging and punishing/trollish/sadistic. How else could you call some of the enemy or obstacle placements? Or combining one-hit deaths with a strict time limit? Or how you sometimes have to do extra levels for no apparent reasons? Or when you die during a boss fight you not only have to do the whole level over again, but the boss moves to a different level? This is just ridiculous and I can't imagine that many children have actually beaten this game back in the day. Just unbelievable how difficult this game gets. And it's only worth 5 points... For comparison, Mickey's Mousecapades was 6 points... It's still way way easier than AI1. There's warps too which help quite a bit. Also, there's the good game factor, which means that harder good games are always worth less than they objectively should be because of their popularity. Like how Battletoads is 2 points. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Strikezone1 | 154 Posted March 16, 2020 Share Posted March 16, 2020 7 hours ago, Gaia Gensouki said: YEAH!!! I finally beat Adventure Island II. This took me a long time since this game frequently crosses the line between challenging and punishing/trollish/sadistic. How else could you call some of the enemy or obstacle placements? Or combining one-hit deaths with a strict time limit? Or how you sometimes have to do extra levels for no apparent reasons? Or when you die during a boss fight you not only have to do the whole level over again, but the boss moves to a different level? This is just ridiculous and I can't imagine that many children have actually beaten this game back in the day. Just unbelievable how difficult this game gets. And it's only worth 5 points... For comparison, Mickey's Mousecapades was 6 points... I beat AI2 for last years thread and I had similar thoughts/complaints about it. It's difficulty is definitely underrated. It starts out pretty easy, but really starts to ramp up around island 5. Once your inventory of hammers & dinos depletes, you're almost better off hitting the reset button and starting over as opposed to continuing. The level you go to next depends on which egg you choose at the end of each level, and it changes based on the order you go/have already gone. It isn't quite as sadistic as AI1 but it's not too far behind either, especially for a warpless run. Congrats on beating it! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NESfiend | 1,515 Posted March 17, 2020 Share Posted March 17, 2020 Got crazy busy at work for a while and went on and off with heavy shreddin. I hit a big wall that I chalked up to gimmicky controls for a long time. Had some time off today and finally figured out what I was doing wrong. Made it to the last stage. Should be there soon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kid Dracula | 126 Posted March 18, 2020 Share Posted March 18, 2020 Played through the 3 Adventure Island games. I think I am in the minority but I have always enjoyed the original the best. The dinosaurs were an interesting addition but felt a little gimmicky. The original is some of the best platforming ever. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daniel_Doyce | 475 Posted March 18, 2020 Share Posted March 18, 2020 Still working on Bandit Kings. Hope to finish it up this weekend Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gaia Gensouki | 1,073 Posted March 18, 2020 Share Posted March 18, 2020 Just beat Ghostbusters. I have to admit, that I've first heard about this game from the AVGN. It seemed absolutely horrible and having played it myself I can agree with some of the criticism and some not. First of all the setup seems weird with you having to buy equipment first and not knowing when you can actually hunt ghosts etc. But after I understood how the game worked it actually got mildly enjoyable. Driving from place to place busting ghosts and upgrading your equipment is somewhat fun for a while. Even the dreaded staircase scene has a lot of tension when you're playing this for yourself. I would get really invested and hyped about about making it through that level. The constant back and forth and the frantic rushes forwards or backwards were more exciting that I thought they would be. The final confrontation with Gozer was the highlight of the game and maybe not amazin, but still quite tense and cool. Where this game fell apart for me however was with some of the grinding and the repetitiveness. In order to have a realistic chance at the staircase level I needed that extremely expensive noise whatever device, that slows the ghosts down, as well as the armor upgrade. This made for a whopping $120,000 that you have to earn. With a maximum of $3,000 that you can get out of clearing one screen of ghosts that makes at least 40 of those plus the associated driving stages. And all of this for just one shot at beating the game and when you die you have to do everything over again! That is not just aggravating, but it also gets extremely tedious after a while. The depressing thing however was that I almost succeeded on my first serious try, but I was too slow during the fight against Gozer and the Marshmallow Man got the best of me. This sucked really hard just as failing on floors 17 or 20 after investing so much time into grinding for gear. If they had done something to make the staircase level easier and more interesting, the game would have been much better, but as it stands now I probably won't ever replay this game. I would have liked it if you could have used the doors to hide inside and evade the oncoming ghosts. Or maybe you could have aimed your proton packs at the ghosts to scare them away etc. It's too bad because I actually wanted to like this game after learning how it works. But the horrendous reputation that this game has seems maybe a tiny bit overblown? I think that this game suffers from what I would like to call the Hydlide effect. The original Hydlide was a 1984 game and probably quite great for its time, but the NES port came out 5 years later which is a huge gap for those early video games, so it was hopelessly outclassed by all that has come after it. And apparently Ghostbusters was originally an early 1984 PC game with a NES release in 1988. I can imagine that this simulation aspect where you take on the role of the ghostbusters with their many minor side gigs, them racking up cash etc. might have actually fit pretty well in a PC environment. It's also pretty faithful to the movie. Anyway, sorry for the long rant. I just needed to vent a little. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Strikezone1 | 154 Posted March 18, 2020 Share Posted March 18, 2020 15 hours ago, Kid Dracula said: Played through the 3 Adventure Island games. I think I am in the minority but I have always enjoyed the original the best. The dinosaurs were an interesting addition but felt a little gimmicky. The original is some of the best platforming ever. If by 'best' you really mean frustrating/trollish/brutal then I agree, lol! AI3 is easily the best in the series IMO (although I haven't yet played AI4). It has the a more balanced, less frustrating difficulty. I personally like the dinos, thought they were a refreshing addition to the gameplay. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gaia Gensouki | 1,073 Posted March 18, 2020 Share Posted March 18, 2020 Dragon Warrior IV is done! Like I said earlier, I was a little bit turned off by the fact that you can't control the attacks of your team mates in chapter 5 of this game. During many battles it wasn't too much of a problem, but nevertheless I constantly had situations where I would target a certain enemy, but various team mates attacked the same enemy and one or several attacks would be wasted. Also, they were notoriously bad at using buffs and debuffs. I think I got about 2 buffs in the course of the whole game! This may sound pedantic, but buffs and debuffs make a big difference in more challenging battles. Healing was also quite problematic, which is why I would often tend to heal with the hero instead of relying on my team mates. Without wanting to spoil anything, but the final boss was extremely memorable due to how crazy this whole battle was. I barely made it. My cleric and mage died near the end, so I was completely relying upon my hero as a healer and Alena as a damage dealer. Later on in the game she got so badass, that she became my main dd. I gave her a weapon that allowed her to attack twice and with her high chance for critical hits this made a huge difference. I think her high damage output is what saved me during the final boss fight. While the AI controlled team mates curbed my excitement for this game, there were actually so many great parts to this game, that it could have almost become my favorite DW/RPG on the NES. There is just so much personality with all these different characters. Instead of just playing only the hero and some other characters coming along, we're put into the shoes of these companions during the first four chapters of this game. And this was brilliant! I got to see all the towns and people of that world from various perspectives and this made so much of a difference in world building. Furthermore, the NPCs seemed to have a certain daily routine with what they're doing during the day or the night. And some move around or do various things as you're moving around town or maybe even jsut waiting around. I think one guard walked into a bar, sat down at the counter and when you talked to him he would say something along the lines of "Drinking beer during a shift the best". Stuff like this made me laugh out loud. And this is just one of many examples for cool NPC behavior in this game. I was not expecting such a sophisticated AI in an NES! I would be hard-pressed to think of any RPG even in the 16bit generation with such small, but lovingly created details. It truly is a remarkable game and possibly way ahead of its time. My final verdict on the NES DWs: III >= IV > II > I Looking back I am glad that I went on and played not just the first game, but also the later games in this series on the NES. But I might need a short break from RPGs now... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Red | 437 Posted March 18, 2020 Share Posted March 18, 2020 6 hours ago, Gaia Gensouki said: It's too bad because I actually wanted to like this game after learning how it works. Try the Sega Master System version. It looks, sounds, and plays better than the NES one. It has more items, cars, and a less frustrating staircase level. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nerdynebraskan | 356 Posted March 19, 2020 Share Posted March 19, 2020 Snake's Revenge is done. @Kid Dracula Are you saying you played through all three Adventure Island games recently? Impressive, if I'm reading you right. I can't say I've ever beaten any of them, even though I'm pretty good at platformers. You're *this close* to 400 points for the year, so I hope you keep playing. @Gaia Gensouki Did you legitimately beat Ghostbusters? Whoa! I've only been able to clear it by exploiting the effective invincibility glitch on the stairs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gaia Gensouki | 1,073 Posted March 19, 2020 Share Posted March 19, 2020 @nerdynebraskan Yes, I did it legitimately, which is why it took me many tries. But I needed full gear and on the staircase I really took my time. Sometimes I would stay in a spot for like a minute or so and wait for the ghosts to go away etc. But even then it was still a gamble since the ghosts would sometimes just gang up on me. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scaryice | 587 Posted March 19, 2020 Author Share Posted March 19, 2020 18 hours ago, Strikezone1 said: AI3 is easily the best in the series IMO (although I haven't yet played AI4). It has the a more balanced, less frustrating difficulty. I personally like the dinos, thought they were a refreshing addition to the gameplay. I'll second AI3 as the best one. It has everything 2 has, plus more (like the ability to duck). Also, I've beaten AI4 and it's much easier than the others. Decent game, but not too memorable. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kid Dracula | 126 Posted March 19, 2020 Share Posted March 19, 2020 11 hours ago, nerdynebraskan said: Snake's Revenge is done. @Kid Dracula Are you saying you played through all three Adventure Island games recently? Impressive, if I'm reading you right. I can't say I've ever beaten any of them, even though I'm pretty good at platformers. You're *this close* to 400 points for the year, so I hope you keep playing. @Gaia Gensouki Did you legitimately beat Ghostbusters? Whoa! I've only been able to clear it by exploiting the effective invincibility glitch on the stairs. Yeah it was my first time playing through 2 and 3. I didn't find them too diifficult but did find 2 annoying for the same reasons Gaia listed. Played through 1 and 2 one evening and finished 3 the following day. You should definitely play through the whole series, I don't think you'd have much trouble other than the last few levels of the original. How many total games have you completed of the library? Hearing Crabmaster, Bronzeshield and table w/chairs talk about their goal of completing the entire library has inspired me to keep track starting this year. I am up to 110 completions now and plan to dive deeper into the obscure titles and genres. I will definitely hit 400 points but my playing will slow down significantly soon as my wife is 9 and half months pregnant with our first child. Let's keep up the pace gang! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bronzeshield | 293 Posted March 19, 2020 Share Posted March 19, 2020 (edited) Down goes Castelian: Beaten on Novice difficulty, on my second-to-last credit of my last continue. Seldom have I played such a complete bastard of a game. It seems like the designers took every possible opportunity to make the player feel beleaguered, persecuted, and unfairly treated. I suppose the idea is to make your triumph all the sweeter, but I'd rather just have responsive controls, consistent physics, and environmental cues, thanks. A recent TAS turned up a really elegant shortcut in Level 8, which worked quite well and was a huge help. Not only does it save time, but it temporarily prevents a really nasty group of enemies from spawning, allowing you to make a series of difficult jumps without having to deal with them. Edited March 19, 2020 by bronzeshield Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bronzeshield | 293 Posted March 19, 2020 Share Posted March 19, 2020 (edited) On 3/18/2020 at 12:10 PM, Gaia Gensouki said: It's too bad because I actually wanted to like this game after learning how it works. But the horrendous reputation that this game has seems maybe a tiny bit overblown? I think that this game suffers from what I would like to call the Hydlide effect. The original Hydlide was a 1984 game and probably quite great for its time, but the NES port came out 5 years later which is a huge gap for those early video games, so it was hopelessly outclassed by all that has come after it. And apparently Ghostbusters was originally an early 1984 PC game with a NES release in 1988. I can imagine that this simulation aspect where you take on the role of the ghostbusters with their many minor side gigs, them racking up cash etc. might have actually fit pretty well in a PC environment. It's also pretty faithful to the movie. I've always felt that Hydlide was unfairly treated, and I'd almost agree with you that the reputation of Ghostbusters is overblown, because the main body of the gameplay is kind of enjoyable... ...but the staircase sequence in the NES version is just unforgivable. Not only is it unfair and physically taxing, but I hate, hate, hate games that play stupid games with physics in which your frame of reference and the enemies' aren't the same. That is, you occupy the game's environment, but the enemies are tethered to the screen/display itself, and are immune to scrolling. Ghostbusters does this, Castelian does this (on the horizontal axis, with the randomly-spawning "satellite" enemies), and the recent SNES homebrew Sydney Hunter and the Caverns of Death does this. It's just a cardinal sin of design that breaks immersion, wastes time (since it intrinsically forces you to wait out enemy patterns you can't otherwise affect), and feels both lazy and unfair to the player. BTW I think using the door glitch/health rollover glitch in the stairway sequence isn't even an exploit, because it can so easily happen as part of routine gameplay. When I beat the game as a kid, I figure I must have triggered it by accident. So all wins that use it are "legitimate", IMHO, though kudos to Gaia Gensouki for the skill involved in beating Ghostbusters without it! Edited March 19, 2020 by bronzeshield 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crabmaster2000 | 501 Posted March 19, 2020 Share Posted March 19, 2020 On 3/15/2020 at 11:17 AM, nerdynebraskan said: So, which games do you have left on your personal quest? And how many are still on this list? Also, Space Shuttle Project is done. I've got 111 games left on my personal list currently. Took a quick browse over what's left on here and it looks like there are about 28 that crossover between the two lists. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tablew/chairs | 242 Posted March 20, 2020 Share Posted March 20, 2020 battle of olympus 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tablew/chairs | 242 Posted March 20, 2020 Share Posted March 20, 2020 On 3/16/2020 at 4:58 AM, Gaia Gensouki said: On a side note, Dragon Quest/Warrior IV still takes a bit of time since I temporarily lost interest after learning that I can't control my companions during battle anymore. But I will try to beat it within this month. On gamefaqs there is a game genie code to let you control all characters, one day i'd like to try it out that way 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bronzeshield | 293 Posted March 20, 2020 Share Posted March 20, 2020 (edited) I've started working on Fist of the North Star, and something really weird happened: I made it to the final boss Shula (aka Shura), lost my last life, then got a GAME OVER and continued for the first time (I think?). But then I somehow selected the Vs. mode, since I've never used the Continue function in the game before and was thrown off. That immediately put me into a battle against Shula again, which I won, and then rolled over into battles against the first 4 bosses, all of which I won. Then it dumped me into a corrupted version of Stage 5, whereupon I immediately fell through the floor and got another GAME OVER. Then I went to continue the regular game, only to be dumped back into the corrupted Stage 5 over and over again, and fall through the floor over and over again. Is this a known...thing? And, by the way, if I make it to Shula/Shura without continuing, lose, and then continue, will I be able to reach him again on that playthrough, or do I have to start again from scratch? Edited March 20, 2020 by bronzeshield Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bronzeshield | 293 Posted March 20, 2020 Share Posted March 20, 2020 ...well, I guess I don't need to know the answer to that, because Fist of the North Star is done: Janky-ass game, to say the least. On my unsuccessful next-to-last run, almost all my character deaths came from getting knocked into pits in Level 6. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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