Beat every Game Boy game - 2020 - 225/497

[koifish | 556]

38 minutes ago, Splain said:

As opposed to using passwords? It has a password system, it's just kind of hidden behind the unintuitive UI.

Oh, I was confused because I was seemingly able to go to any stage from the start, and I thought that since the game had no save battery, you'd have to get them all in one go. I didn't realize that levels past 16 required you to enter a password. So I guess the real victory screen comes from beating level 50, which implies having finished the previous levels. I had never tried loading a later level, so I didn't know the passwords were there.

[Splain | 2,570]

13 minutes ago, koifish said:

Oh, I was confused because I was seemingly able to go to any stage from the start, and I thought that since the game had no save battery, you'd have to get them all in one go. I didn't realize that levels past 16 required you to enter a password. So I guess the real victory screen comes from beating level 50, which implies having finished the previous levels. I had never tried loading a later level, so I didn't know the passwords were there.

I guess I should update the requirement to something like "complete level 50" because you don't necessarily have to do levels 1-15.

[Floating Platforms | 717]

6 hours ago, Splain said:

@Floating Platforms great job on Tetris 2. Sooo, "Complete Level 80" should maybe be the requirement for that one, since there's actually an ending screen there, unless you think completing the 30 puzzle levels should also be part of it. You're the resident expert, what do you think?

Expert is a strong word since I beat normal mode on low speed and still took forever, but I'll take it!  Good question on the completion.  I would say beat level 80 would likely be enough (starting on level 30 is okay - even though you'd miss the first two cutscenes).  I thought the puzzle mode was more fun, but aside from seeing that full card with the minimum move icons, there's no reward or congratulations for doing it. No rockets. No musicians and dancers. It's all about personal satisfaction.  So you could probably leave puzzle mode off?

Pagemaster stinks by the way. If I wasn't going for best ending, I might be done with it but I'm still in exploratory mode for those stinking library cards (not ready to give in to a walkthrough either).

Edited September 29, 2020 by Floating Platforms

[Floating Platforms | 717]

The Pagemaster is done.

It's not the worst thing I've ever played, but it takes a lot of getting used to.  The jumping is super floaty and the walking is super slippery. The levels are confusing with cheap enemy placement.  Still, as I said before, if you're not trying for the best ending of collecting all 8 library cards, it wouldn't take too incredibly long to get through.  Most of my time was scouring levels to find out which ones had the cards and where.  I learned a lot about how to skip a ton of unnecessary levels and sections of levels, but also learned I don't need to ever play it again.

The custom Super Game Boy border is probably the best part of the whole thing, but the color palates used for the actual levels (that you can't change on the SGB from what I could tell) were absolutely horrendous monstrosities that will sear into your eyeballs.

I'm going back to sports next with NHL '96.  

Edited October 2, 2020 by Floating Platforms

[Floating Platforms | 717]

NHL '96 is already done.  I went with the "New Playoffs" mode which was single elimination for each round, so I only needed to win 4 games (with 5 minute periods) to get this absolutely amazing ending screen within about 90 minutes of playing.

At some point, I'll try to explore whether the "Sevens" mode gives a different screen, but based on how quick and dirty this game was plopped out, I seriously doubt it.  The game was extremely easy. Hold A for a power shot (slap shot?) and you'll get a goal most of the time. The siren for scoring a goal is both annoying as all hell and weirdly mesmerizing. There's a little jingle that plays underneath it as well. Very strange but I grew to love it.  Control wise, it's not really easy to know where you are if you don't have the puck, but it didn't turn out to be much of an issue at all.  What was an issue was the graphical chug. The game runs terribly and you'll get a lot of tearing, disappearing players and never good frame rate.  There's also a delay between getting the puck and seeing your star highlight to show you have it, so I would pass or shoot on accident a lot.  Again, it wasn't a problem and I won each game handily, but worth mentioning.  Also worth mentioning that this game does let you change the in-game colors so I picked a cleansing blue after the eye melting reds, greens and purples that Pagemaster forced on me.

Next I'm taking on Tasmania Story.  I played for a little while today and it is not good.  Made it to stage 6 of 10 (I think). I just need to learn better routes to take in this weird Pac-Man style thing. Will probably have it done on Monday.

[Splain | 2,570]

Nice job on those clears, I'm traveling but I should be back at a computer tomorrow.

The last dungeon in Ultima is a huge pain to even get to, there's basically a whole other dungeon you have to finish first, complete with lots of dying. So I'm rolling my eyes a lot but pushing ahead.

[Floating Platforms | 717]

Tasmania Story is done!

It took some practice, but I eventually got there.  Collect 5 special animals across the 10 stages to see the Tasmanian Tiger and get the ending screen trivia tidbit above.  It's a Pac-Man/Mappy mix and the controls are a tiny bit wonky so you'll use the trampoline to reach a certain platform but the game will send you to the one above or below your target.  The hit boxes are very strange and while you have a bomb attack, the enemies can kill you from the other side of the bomb before they are hurt. It's very easy to get trapped or misjudge when you'll be safe to sneak past.  Honestly, those shortcomings are what make the game worthwhile. If things worked as expected, then it would be a 10 minute pointless game.  As is, it created enough motivation for me to feel like I could do it if I just gave it one more try.  The graphics were terrible and overall the game is really not good, but it was tolerable.

Next up is another Pac-Man inspired game, Lock N Chase. I'm expecting this to be a bit more polished.

[Splain | 2,570]

I remember @beatthegameboy had said that Tasmania Story was pretty enjoyable once he had played it enough. I've never reached that point, personally. I can't seem to get past level 1.

While avoiding Ultima, I played through World Circuit Series. I also updated the requirement to require at least the middle difficulty/speed. The easy difficulty (Formula 3) is extremely easy, the hard difficulty (Formula 1) is extremely hard. It simply moves too fast for me to be able to turn in time and I hit the edge of the track on every turn. There's even little indicators to tell you what turns are coming up, and that helps, but there's still not enough time. For me anyway. The middle difficulty (F-3000) is a good balance between having good reflexes and memorizing every turn. I had to go through it a few times before finally placing 1st, and the game literally tells you to try harder when you don't get 1st. Classic.

It's kind of a weird version of an RC-style racer; it's an overhead view, but your car never faces down, where the RC-ness gets tricky. Your car can't even physically turn more than 90 degrees in either direction. So the tracks, which show an image of real-world tracks, are these weird adaptations where you're always facing generally upward. It's weird.

And don't even think about stopping in the pit for new tires, even when they noticeably degrade and you start sliding out of hairpin turns. None of the other racers ever take pit stops and you're guaranteed to be in last place when you come out. It's better to just stick it out, and clip the insides of the turns to minimize speed/position loss. Maybe on the hard difficulty there are situations where it's worth it?

 

[Floating Platforms | 717]

The key with Tasmania Story was to get out of my own head and realize that there's no time limit in the levels and that you don't have to keep moving.  Once you understand how the enemies follow you and how you can start to bait them, it gets easier.  On the later levels, I would spend a little bit of time circling around them to set bombs and fall on their heads to get them clumped together or in a line, because the biggest danger is when they can come from both sides and trap you.  It took a bit to get the hang of it, but wasn't too bad after that.

Lock N Chase is done.

Yeah, that was certainly better than Tasmania Story.  I am not really good at this game, but it didn't matter because there were unlimited continues and you could keep going from the same level, so all I had to do was keep trying and I got through it.  I really liked all the gimmicks this game added to the Pac-Man formula, but I never got the hang of how to use the blockades effectively (which is the main gimmick).  My favorite levels were the last ones from each half in the pyramid where you need to push the key around.  Overall, each level felt unique and fun for a different reason and the game didn't drag anything out too long.  Good stuff.

My next game is Hunt for Red October, which I have no experience with, so we'll see!

[koifish | 556]

6 minutes ago, Floating Platforms said:

The key with Tasmania Story was to get out of my own head and realize that there's no time limit in the levels and that you don't have to keep moving. 

Just an amusing thought on this point: What I've been finding with Hyper Lode Runner is that it's the total opposite. You're basically always moving to keep ahead of the bad guys, with the exception of the sections that are designed to twist your brain around. I don't know if it's just because I've never played Lode Runner before, but these puzzles are tough as nails! I can't believe a puzzle game this hard exists on Game Boy, other than Brain Drain anyway. The level of thinking you have to do around it is so much I've nearly wanted to quit a few times already, and I'm not even to level 10 yet. Incredible stuff.

I might need to go back to Extra Bases just to get a break from Lode Runner at this rate!

[Gaia Gensouki | 1,075]

Finally beat The Final Fantasy Legend. That bug was extremely frustrating, but now that I got through the game I'm finally relieved and satisfied. Also, I did this with 4 mutants, so that was a fun challenge.

Anyway, I've already started playing Final Fantasy Legend 2, but something tells me, that this is going to be a very long playthrough. There are already a few things that I prefer compared to the first game, but I'm not entirely sure if the progression system is that much better. But time will tell. So far it's great.

Edited October 12, 2020 by Gaia Gensouki

[koifish | 556]

Nice work on FF Legend. I see you played through in Japanese, interesting how "see you again" is written there in the original as well. I always wonder about why things like that are done in certain games. I try to play JP games, especially RPGs, but they trip me up with how much I end up rushing for a dictionary. Vocab is the eternal killer next to grammar.
I felt the same way about saga 2 when I tried it last year. It's kind of different, and I'm not sure I like it as much. The recruiting is something I definitely missed, it was useful to pick players and mix and match them as you went. I have heard FF Legend 3 described as a weird game for the series, that it's actually just too similar to other RPGs. I've heard there is a remake on the DS that changes things about it, but I haven't looked into that.

Anyway, did it take you long to get to the point of playing games in Japanese?

 

[Mae247 | 207]

Completed these over the past 2 weeks and enjoyed them all for the most part!

 

Arcade Classic No. 4: Defender / Joust- Defender can get very boring at times as well all know haha

Battletoads & Double Dragon: The Ultimate Team - fun and reminded me of playing on the NES

Beavis and Butt-head- because why not, shut up butt head! 

Bomberman GB- pain in the ass at times but overall keeps you engaged and enjoyed playing this one for the first time in years

Chuck Rock- Jumping was the bane of me in this stupid game!

Flipull- To answer your question on levels, I got to 49 and no further. This games takes patience!

Spot: The Video Game- Only reason I played this was the nostalgia trip from the Sega genesis version

 

I will post more later so splain has time to catch up.

[Gaia Gensouki | 1,075]

@koifish Thanks! I can only assume that they use English here and there to maybe make it sound cooler.

Grammar can get pretty rough in games or even anime/manga, because they usually default to a very colloquial style of speech, which is usually not taught in your typical text books or language classes. Sometimes they also have weird quirks that you wouldn't hear in everyday conversations or maybe even dialects, e.g. the Osaka dialect is very common for comedic relief characters.

But yeah, learning enough vocabulary to actually play and enjoy these games took a long, long time. I first started learning Japanese in a school course once a week which lasted for about four years. By that time I was comfortable reading Kana and simple Kanji, but I had to always play with a dictionary next to me and even then I hardly understood what they were saying. My first game was Dragon Quest I on the GBC and it took a lot of time to make it through.

Later I spent about six years learning Japanese at a university and in Japan. It was only then that my Japanese took off and that I got somewhat comfortable playing these old games. I still remember buying Pokemon FireRed and Ruby brand new in a Japanese store and playing those on my DSLite (If I had known that I would one day be so much into old games, I would have bought much more games considering how expensive they've become).

But this is where vocabulary comes into play again: RPGs are chock-full of weird and unusual words, so much so that I had to specifically learn RPG/video game vocabulary. For example, how often do you hear words like "tackle", "quick attack", "mercenary", "bandit", "special move", "experience points" etc. in everyday life? But in RPGs they're quite common and you will have to learn a lot of these words at the beginning. However, the silver lining is, that after a while most words will just repeat.

Ultimately it depends on how much time and energy you're investing into learning Japanese and the specifics of Japanese video games. You can easily do it much, much quicker than I did, because these games were usually secondary in my mind and I had the awful habit of taking long pauses with learning Japanese. That obviously sets you back a lot when you're trying to learn a different language.

Sorry for the wall of text. I hope that it somewhat answered your question.

[koifish | 556]

17 minutes ago, Gaia Gensouki said:

Sorry for the wall of text. I hope that it somewhat answered your question.

Not at all, it was very informative. I've definitely learned some weird words via trying out various japan-only games. The thing that always disheartens me a little is that everybody I know who made it over "the hump" was someone who spent some years living in japan. Dunno if I'm going to get that chance, so it's the book trials for me.

Related to saga 2, I was idly browsing eBay the other day and stumbled upon some guidebooks that square put out for the game back in its release day. The interesting point was that it appears they made two books, one that was the 基礎データ編 "basic data guide" and one that was the 完全クリア編 "perfect clear guide", and I found myself trying to figure out what the difference was, or why you'd sell two separate guidebooks if one has way more info than the other (by that naming you might think so anyway). Unfortunately I couldn't find a lot of inside photos and I couldn't find nor read well any explanatory pages.

Complicating the matter further is that the basic data guide has two versions, one that matches the perfect clear guide in format, and one that is hard-cover with a CD included. I am curious why I can't find a matching version for the perfect clear guide. I also don't seem to find any images of what the differences are between the two versions of the basic data guide, beyond the cover and the CD anyway. Such are the language trials and tribulations of knowing exactly how much you don't know I guess.

 

[koifish | 556]

Oh and I'm stuck on a level in lode runner again, but I did finally make it to double digits, even if it's only stage 11.

[Gaia Gensouki | 1,075]

Learning Japanese is indeed disheartening and the only thing you can do is just to study hard and maybe find language partners online or offline. I've heard of a select few people who managed to learn a great deal of Japanese via books or video games or anime, but these are usually the exception and not the rule. Also, these people tend to spend an insane amount of time on their hobby. Learning with books/language courses is usually more time-efficient.

As for guidebooks I've noticed that there are often multiple books for any given game, often by different companies and it can be difficult to distinguish between them. I would assume that the perfect clear guide probably features mostly dungeon/world maps whereas the data guide may have all the statistics and whatnot, maybe like a monster/item guide. Unfortunately the Japanese ones aren't that well documented so it's hard to find information on them, not to mention that buying and shipping is very expensive.

[Splain | 2,570]

Ok, I found a longplay of Flipull where the guy also got to level 49. The block counter is glitched, and even when the actual number of blocks in play is lower than the Clear limit, the game doesn't register/acknowledge it and the level can't be completed. In the longplay he literally cleared every block in play and it just gave him a "no more moves" message and treated it like a death. So I'll change the requirement to just Reach level 49.

I guess they never expected anyone to get that far? I don't know why I'm disappointed, there are plenty of games that end in a glitch.

[Mae247 | 207]

1 minute ago, Splain said:

Ok, I found a longplay of Flipull where the guy also got to level 49. The block counter is glitched, and even when the actual number of blocks in play is lower than the Clear limit, the game doesn't register/acknowledge it and the level can't be completed. In the longplay he literally cleared every block in play and it just gave him a "no more moves" message and treated it like a death. So I'll change the requirement to just Reach level 49.

I guess they never expected anyone to get that far? I don't know why I'm disappointed, there are plenty of games that end in a glitch.

I thought i phucked up lol. I was like damn! All that for nothing WTF!!!!

[koifish | 556]

Gonna have to use a cheat device or something to auto-clear level 50 and see what happens. You could be the first person to ever share with the world the ending screen of flipull! Just think, it's like unearthing an Egyptian tomb...full of gym socks. Not particularly notable but definitely valuable to game archeologists.

[Mae247 | 207]

Just now, koifish said:

Gonna have to use a cheat device or something to auto-clear level 50 and see what happens. You could be the first person to ever share with the world the ending screen of flipull! Just think, it's like unearthing an Egyptian tomb...full of gym socks. Not particularly notable but definitely valuable to game archeologists.

From what I figured out just in the past few hours if that it wasnt possible even with cheats

[Mae247 | 207]

I can only find where its possible on the on the FC twin version. I thought it was just me being a phuck up!

From what ive read in old forums this is a common problem on the gameboy.

Sorry guys!

[Splain | 2,570]

https://gamehacking.org/game/1297

I have Game Genie and Gameshark, but I don't know if any of these codes will do what we need; they'll all hit the same problem since the level doesn't clear even when there are no blocks left. I'll play around though. This is important!

[Floating Platforms | 717]

On 10/8/2020 at 10:17 PM, koifish said:

Just an amusing thought on this point: What I've been finding with Hyper Lode Runner is that it's the total opposite. You're basically always moving to keep ahead of the bad guys, with the exception of the sections that are designed to twist your brain around. I don't know if it's just because I've never played Lode Runner before, but these puzzles are tough as nails! I can't believe a puzzle game this hard exists on Game Boy, other than Brain Drain anyway. The level of thinking you have to do around it is so much I've nearly wanted to quit a few times already, and I'm not even to level 10 yet. Incredible stuff.

I might need to go back to Extra Bases just to get a break from Lode Runner at this rate!

I've heard that Hyper Lode Runner is possibly one of the most annoying games on the system. My guess is a big part of the issue is that you can't see the full screen to know where the enemies are until it's too late?  I don't envy you and don't look forward to getting to it on my challenge.  The people I've tracked ended up spending 30-35 hours. Thankfully it has passwords at least?

4 hours ago, Splain said:

Ok, I found a longplay of Flipull where the guy also got to level 49. The block counter is glitched, and even when the actual number of blocks in play is lower than the Clear limit, the game doesn't register/acknowledge it and the level can't be completed. In the longplay he literally cleared every block in play and it just gave him a "no more moves" message and treated it like a death. So I'll change the requirement to just Reach level 49.

Crazy what we're learning about Game Boy games this year!  It's exciting that there's still new things to discover, even if it is a disappointing "ending" to a puzzle game.

I had the day off from work today, so I managed to beat "The Hunt for Red October" and got either Sean Connery or Alec Baldwin waving to me as a reward.

8 stages that are pretty dang difficult and in some moments unfair with the airplanes/helicopters constantly coming around.  There are no continues, but each level does have several extra lives to collect, which are pretty much vital to success.  It's an interesting game, and kind of good. Think of it like a slow moving shoot-em-up where you're better off baiting your enemies than running and gunning.  Each stage has a boss fight and some of those get to be quite difficult or confusing. If the game had continues, or more varied weapons, or a more effective cloaking power-up, I think it would be a lot better.

Next up is Killer Instinct. I'm going for every ending with this one, so it might take a couple of sessions depending on my skill level. After that I'll be on my 50th game milestone and will be playing Castlevania Adventure, which has already been done here, but I'm excited to finally get a chance to beat that one.

[koifish | 556]

1 hour ago, Floating Platforms said:

I've heard that Hyper Lode Runner is possibly one of the most annoying games on the system. My guess is a big part of the issue is that you can't see the full screen to know where the enemies are until it's too late?  I don't envy you and don't look forward to getting to it on my challenge.  The people I've tracked ended up spending 30-35 hours. Thankfully it has passwords at least?

Well the enemies being hard to see isn't a big issue, as you can pause and hit select to see all of them. Their AI is one thing you absolutely have to master, controlling their movement is basically essential to setting up certain sections for completion. The passwords will help, but it's less the getting to the stage and more the challenge of figuring out the technique. Pretty much every stage or every other stage will be a "normal" layout but will then have one little section where you have to figure out a new trick in order to get the last pieces. I think it's great fun, but I can also say that it's one tough cookie. Good luck when you play it! It helps that there's little reason to fear game overs, unless for some reason you want to top the scoreboard (which won't be a realistic goal anyway until you've cleared every stage, or just spend hours and hours playing easy levels over and over again, since the game is like SMB1 in that nothing stops you from squatting in one area and maxing the points counter).

12 hours ago, Mae247 said:

 

Arcade Classic No. 4: Defender / Joust- Defender can get very boring at times as well all know haha

I can't believe anybody managed to get 100k on that version of defender. I assume you did it on super game boy too? It was all but unplayable when I tried on a GB Color. Still, man, you're really kicking ass this year. I don't think anybody will ever match your total at this rate!