Beat every Game Boy game - 2020 - 225/497

[Gaia Gensouki | 1,075]

I've been playing through a few random Game Boy games recently and so far I've managed to beat the following games:

Aerostar, Battle Arena Toshinden, Battlezone/Super Breakout, Centipede (Accolade) and Dig Dug.

Aerostar was a surprisingly fun shooter, though the platforming elements were a bit unusual and the cause of many deaths. I may not be well-versed in fighting games, but BAT seemed also surprisingly decent for a fighting game on the Game Boy. Also, I've played Dig Dug for the very first time and I liked it for the most part. It's a very cute game, but at times the enemy placement could be really rough and hey were respawning way too quickly, which made it somewhat frustrating at times.

[koifish | 556]

Nice work.

[Splain | 2,571]

Great job! I'll see your 5-game cluster and raise you one. Just gimme a day or two.

[Gaia Gensouki | 1,075]

Nice! There's still time to beat a bunch of games this year. So let's do it.

I'll also try to tackle a few unbeaten games. I already started Fighting Simulator, but that game is tough to get into, difficult even if you understand what you're doing and seemingly also quite long.

[Gaia Gensouki | 1,075]

I've cleard a few more short games: Nemesis, Gradius: Interstellar Assault and Mr. Chin's Gourmet Paradise. Out of these I liked Gradius the most. Despite its name it's not a port of the arcade/NES game, but a completely new(?) game that feels very fresh and that's a lot of fun. Despite the graphical downgrade I might actually prefer this gradius game over the NES one.

For Gourmet Paradise there is no real ending screen after finishing one loop, so I took a screenshot fo the first stage with my current score. I hope that's sufficient, because you otherwise wouldn't get such a score in the first level of the first loop. Also, while the game seemed rather difficult at first it soon became easy because you can use cheap strategies to safely lure the enemies into traps. The only downside to this is that it takes an awful lot of waiting around.

[Mae247 | 207]

Back at it again soon!

[Gaia Gensouki | 1,075]

I finally beat Hook! This game was a massive pain. It seriously suffers from the extreme close-up, which makes it hard to navigate through the levels and also to jump correctly as you often have to do blind jumps. Some jumps were also very frustrating and there were cases where I ran out of marbles and could not possibly finish the level. Why couldn't they make the items re-appear? After all, the enemies respawn all the time. Anyway, glad that it's done now. I once ran out of continues at around the last third of the game which was insanely frustrating, but just now I had a good run.

[Floating Platforms | 720]

I'm looking to join the party again here as well.  I have a few longer games on the docket, though so updates may not be too frequent with new clears.  I still need to conquer Penguin Wars one way or another too.  I have a thought about a strategy, but haven't tried it yet.

Today I was able to complete Dragonheart.

This was my first time playing it and I thought it was a lot of fun.  I really appreciated that the 8 levels were all their own little mini areas instead of part of one large map you have to traverse because the first person perspective wreaks havoc on my navigation ability. Even in these relatively tiny maps, I got lost a couple times. Once you find the map in each section (there are even maps to find in straight corridors for some reason, which I found funny), you can move around in map view, which is so much easier, but you can't see NPCs that might stop you to talk or fight.  The fighting of people was a breeze.  I started trying to play with strategy and using my shield for a bit, but quickly learned I can just mash "A" with a down thrust and I can't get touched.  The dragons gave me a bit of trouble. Brute force worked most of the time, but I didn't ever get a real handle on how to mix defense and offense effectively.  You get one life to get through the level and if you die in battle, then you have to do it all over again using your password.  Overall it was a pretty basic and linear adventure but having the short episodic approach was great and I loved the dialogue that was a lot funnier than I would have expected.  The game was also generous with digitized pictures and cut scenes, so overall the game looks great, too.

 

[Gaia Gensouki | 1,075]

I beat Kitchen Panic, which seems to be a Japan-exclusive arcade style game. You have to rid an oversized kitchen of bugs with your trusty bug spray and once you've killed a certain number of critters a door appears and you can go on to the next level. The enemies become increasingly more challenging plus you have to kill more and more to move on. After every five levels you're up against a boss. Interestingly you can chose between one of four different item combinations that will change your abilities during the boss fight. It's really not bad at all and worth a playthrough, even if it's a rather simple game.

[Gaia Gensouki | 1,075]

And here's Mogura de Pon, a "whacky" little game since it's quite literally a game boy whack-a-mole game. And that's all it is! Sure, you can whack bears, penguins etc. as well, but fundamentally every game is the same. The story mode just consists of a succession of increasingly demanding games, where you have to whack X amount of enemies in Y seconds. It's okay for a short diversion, but if I imagine that someone back in the day might have payed full price for such an overly primitive game it makes me a little bit sad.

[Splain | 2,571]

Great job guys!! I had actually started Dragonheart last year sometime, and I really liked seeing a point-and-click on the GB. Unfortunately I didn't get too far, since I died a couple times on the 2nd or 3rd dragon boss, and I didn't have the patience to re-do the whole level just for another shot. Someday though. Anyway, I beat six games! Now on to some slightly more ambitious stuff.

Yoshi - this one has been on my hit list for a long time. Very happy to finally beat round 16.
Jeopardy Teen Tournament - Don't trust the screenshot, it's not a great game. (I make that joke every year.)
Breakthru! - I have a sinking feeling that there might be an ending to this game beyond just looping. I'll have to look into it. (I say that every year too.)
Jetsons: Robot Panic - Not a great game, but it does actually feel like some effort went into it.
Pipe Dream
Hatris - straight up CONGRATURATIONS.

I never really noticed how similar the labels are for Pipe Dream and Hatris. Same checkerboard surrounded by white.

 

[Splain | 2,571]

Awwww yeah it's over now boyeeees

[Gaia Gensouki | 1,075]

For a moment I thought I was in another thread and was looking for a misprint, but there is none.

Is this guide just for collecting purposes or does it actually help with some games?

[Splain | 2,571]

Just collecting. It probably doesn't have anything in it that can't be found online, but I like how it makes every game seem like an absolute blast, even if the game is boring lol. Reading Nintendo Power as a kid was the same way. "There's a secret room right there??? I gotta get this game so I can check it out!!"

[Tanooki | 4,934]

NP and those 8-16bit era guides were peak strategy guide awesomeness and usefulness.  Not having to worry about trying to map out these huge 3D spaces they could literally just reprint images of each stage, or draw a really good copy of it, have pop up boxes, lines, tip boxes, etc.  They were just fantastic and it really sucked you into wanting the game as much as helping you if you're stuck or missing a secret in a game.  NP was equally hype mag and strategy guide or a few titles in each issue on top of the 2 secret codes and tactics spaces they setup too.  Top Secret and Classified if I remember right.  I have that GB guide, there's also the NES Atlas and the SNES book too which covers the good points of the 91-92 years they got permission to cover from third parties.

[ZeldaFreak | 3,600]

According to the list, Asteroids has not been completed, so I'll just trust that it's up to date!

[Gaia Gensouki | 1,075]

Since Bingo is over it's time to beat a few more Game Boy games. I did all the individual games in Cool Hand once (I only uploaded fotos of me winning solitaire and cribbage), won a single game of Soccer Mania (which must be one of, if not the, worst soccer game I've ever played) and finally completed Chase H.Q. as well. Before the bingo week I had started playing Sword of Hope II, but that will take some more time since it's starting to get really grindy and difficult.

[Gaia Gensouki | 1,075]

I beat Daffy Duck: The Marvin Missions. This was such a frustrating game, but another unbeaten game off the list.

[koifish | 556]

48 minutes ago, Gaia Gensouki said:

I beat Daffy Duck: The Marvin Missions. This was such a frustrating game, but another unbeaten game off the list.

Wow, I can't believe it. I tried this game last year and thought it was one of the most sloppy and least enjoyable games on the whole system. Even sports illustrated for kids ultimate triple dare was a gift by comparison! Congrats on suffering through.

[Splain | 2,571]

1 hour ago, koifish said:

Wow, I can't believe it. I tried this game last year and thought it was one of the most sloppy and least enjoyable games on the whole system. Even sports illustrated for kids ultimate triple dare was a gift by comparison! Congrats on suffering through.

Lol same, I tried it earlier this year, and I kept dying at the same bottomless pit where you have to use the weird jetpack-jump mechanic to get yourself onto a ledge. I tried to be really patient, but I just don't have what it takes

I beat a couple games for Bingo, and I didn't even end up submitting everything. I'll gather up the pics and get them posted.

[Gaia Gensouki | 1,075]

Good to know that I wasn't the only one suffering from this terrible game. And every level kept getting worse. Levels 3 and 4 were some of the most brutal levels I've played in quite some time. It didn't help either that certain jumps etc. seemed to work or fail randomly. Or in one part of level 4 you had to run through a section as quickly as possible before a cannon shot the only block you could land on. I don't know how a child was supposed to beat this game.

[koifish | 556]

Ishido: The Way of Stones is done. I can't stop bolding text, help!

 

 

[koifish | 556]

Popeye 2 is also complete. I've never played it before, and I was impressed with it. The only thing I'd say is that it is pretty short, and very generous with lives and continues. Every boss fight also have a very easy solution to beat it without dying. That said, I thought this was a good game. I would recommend it if you need a new game boy side-scrolling platformer. 

[Gaia Gensouki | 1,075]

Not sure if this counts, but I "played" Sanrio Uranai Party, which is basically a very primitive program for creating a horoscope. You input your date of birth and the current date and it tells you what to expect for that day. It told me that everything I attempt today would go well, but that I shouldn't get cocky. I also am supposed to have luck with money and love. If this game says so, then it must be true, right? Also, my lucker number is 7, my lucky color red and my lucky food hamburger. It can also tell you how romantically compatible you are with another person. Unfortunately you need to know their date of birth and blood type. So I chose the only sensible solution for that: I chose a character from an anime and turns out I'm not compatible with her. Not sure if this counts as "game completed", but that's about all you could do with this software. It's honestly really weak and not even the cute sanrio mascots can hide that this is a cheap, soulless moneygrab.

Then I somehow was in the mood for chess and played The New Chessmaster. The AI was much weaker than on the SNES, so it wasn't too difficult to beat.

[Floating Platforms | 720]

Finally got Penguin Wars out of the way.  Again, I don't expect it to count for this challenge because I did use that level select code but that's going to be good enough for me.  I got through Stages 1-20 on my own and then dealt with 21-40 in the groupings of 4 that the code allows.  Even with that, the back half took me over 9 hours (played for 43.5 total including emulation practice).  Someday when people smarter than me get wind of this ending and can properly develop strategies that I can steal from, I'll possibly try the full 1-40 run.  In the meantime, I'll move on.  Short review is that stages 1-20 are fun, exciting and challenging. Stages 21-40 are garbage torture that find every excuse to punish the player and give unreasonable advantages to the computer.

Now that I've got that monkey off my back, this weekend I'm going to tackle Turok.  Looks like it's a 4-5 hour game, so I should be able to finish it, and then my plan is to start on the Sports Illustrated Football/Baseball next week. It'll take a bit of time to get through those two championship seasons but at least it will be steady progress.