Beat every Game Boy game - 2020 - 225/497

[Floating Platforms | 717]

On 12/4/2020 at 11:20 AM, koifish said:

I gave Roger Clemens a look. That's a pretty fun baseball game. Much harder than the other games, but still speaks to me of a higher overall quality than the other baseball games I've played on GB. I really like the multiple perspectives in fielding, even if it is throwing me off since fielders throw the ball toward base directions based on their perspective instead of being consistently down=home, up=2nd, etc. Still, looking forward to it.

What I'm not necessarily looking forward to, is studying hyper lode runner. I brought a lot of projects onto my plate this month, and so I don't know that I'll finish any more GB games this year. We'll see though.

Congrats on both of those!  The inverted controls seem to be the biggest challenge. I know of two streamers that tried the game. One gave up for now and the other decided to make the goal to finish one game (not even win) because the controls and difficulty were too much.  I hope you keep your optimism with it if you ever make a full run of it!

As far as I know, mercy rule is 10 runs at the end of the inning, regardless of series, if the game offers it at all.

Game & Watch is intimidating, too. At least its the smallest one.  I'm watching Gilgatex do the GBA gallery #4 and he needs 170 stars to get the first ending.

You'd think that with how semi-popular the game is, no one currently knows if 80 stars on this version will give a different ending yet. I'm sure you found the same video I did that only shows the modern version of the 4 games with an ending. I'd think the "to be continued" part is referencing that they planned to do G&W 2 and beyond, but crazy that we don't know for sure.

[koifish | 556]

I didn't know people streamed game boy games. I'm surprised people would show up to watch that, seems like a hard sell to stream not only a 20-30 year old game, but also one that is mostly forgotten (like almost all of the games we play in this contest :D)

[twiztor | 851]

was compiling my 2020 'games beaten' list and thought i should check it against the VGS lists. The only GB game i finished this year that hasn't already been beaten is Mole Mania. 

i fully recommend this game. innovative idea, some GREAT puzzles, and lots of fun. 

[Gaia Gensouki | 1,073]

I beat Tiny Toon Adventures: Bab's Big Break and Mighty Morphing Power Rangers: The Movie.

[Floating Platforms | 717]

On 12/11/2020 at 3:57 PM, koifish said:

I didn't know people streamed game boy games. I'm surprised people would show up to watch that, seems like a hard sell to stream not only a 20-30 year old game, but also one that is mostly forgotten (like almost all of the games we play in this contest :D)

Some do stream it, but GB is low on the pecking order. I would say only GBC is lower, because I don't know a single console challenge person who is specifically playing those games. It's either original GB or GBA for handheld.  NES, Genesis, SNES, etc can be kind of popular, but yeah if I was trying to actively build an audience, I would not be streaming Game Boy.  Honestly the only reason I do stream at all is because I wanted to have a recording of my quest to beat everything and figured I might as well have the option for people to stop in and chat while I do.

[Tanooki | 4,934]

If I were setup to or knew how to stream, considering you can talk or not, and don't have to have your face on camera (ugh) Gameboy (lineage) would be what I'd throw up for people to enjoy.  Underappreciated, underrated, and some really solid adventures or pick up and plays to really dig into.  I wouldn't be surprised if I had a quiet space that I'd start to do some light take on what Jeremy Parish does with his 'Works' videos and start going into back history on things I am aware of.

I've decided to buckle down and mostly center retro wise on just one system going forward in the last month or two and it has been Gameboy.  I like to play but I also like to buy and upgrade/repair beaters too as it's fun to do and I don't mind making a few bucks either off it.   So with that I think since I'll have a year of time to try this go around I may try and commit in 2021 more to trying to inch up the scale of completed stuff.

[Splain | 2,570]

On 12/12/2020 at 10:52 AM, Gaia Gensouki said:

Mighty Morphing Power Rangers: The Movie.

Nice job! Did you use "duck-duck-stand, duck-stand-stand?"

And when should we set up our VGS-sponsored GB stream where we all take turns streaming?

[Gaia Gensouki | 1,073]

1 hour ago, Splain said:

Nice job! Did you use "duck-duck-stand, duck-stand-stand?"

I don't quite understand, what you mean by this? If you mean attacking I usually did an attack while standing first and then ducked and kicked until they were dead. The final boss was a bit annoying though. And I died more from pits and the weird jumping mechanics than from actual enemies.

PS: I beat Snow Bros Jr.

Edited December 14, 2020 by Gaia Gensouki

[Splain | 2,570]

2 hours ago, Gaia Gensouki said:

I don't quite understand, what you mean by this? If you mean attacking I usually did an attack while standing first and then ducked and kicked until they were dead. The final boss was a bit annoying though. And I died more from pits and the weird jumping mechanics than from actual enemies.

Lol sorry, that was an Angry Video Game Nerd quote, weird for me to just drop it like that... I had just recently seen an old episode where he played Power Rangers games on various consoles. The thing that sent him over the edge at the end of the episode, was the part in Power Rangers the Movie for GB, where you have to destroy a hallway of sand(?) blocks while a spiked machine slowly closes in from the left, giving you little room for error or delay. And since your character alternates between punching and kicking, you have to figure out a pattern of ducking and standing to make sure that you hit the blocks at all 3 heights while you inch forward. I've never actually played that part myself. Anyway, he says "duck duck stand, duck stand stand" out loud to help him do the pattern correctly. But he still dies and flips out, of course.

[Gaia Gensouki | 1,073]

I have a question regarding Tiny Toon Adventures 2: Montana's Movie Madness. In the description it just says complete, but apparently there is a higher difficulty course that gets "unlocked" after beating the game, i.e. they give you a button combination that you have to press. Judging from a Youtube video the real ending credits only appear after beating this game on the hard course. So is this one required for beating the game or is the regular course enough? Someone must have beaten this game in the previous years, so I'm curious as to how it was handled back then.

[Gaia Gensouki | 1,073]

Just beat Asterix. It could have almost been a great Game Boy platformer, but it had one major flaw that soured the experience a little bit: the weird momentum when walking/running/jumping. Once you start walking or running you gain a certain momentum and require some time and space to stop, which is fairly difficult to control. But then they throw really challenging platforming sections at you that require precision controls which is very difficult to pull off with this game. Luckily this game is quite generous with 1ups so I somehow still made it through. Though given the length of some of these levels and the difficulty I would have wished for maybe a checkpoint in the levels. Apart from these few grievances it's still a very solid game.

[Splain | 2,570]

11 hours ago, Gaia Gensouki said:

I have a question regarding Tiny Toon Adventures 2: Montana's Movie Madness. In the description it just says complete, but apparently there is a higher difficulty course that gets "unlocked" after beating the game, i.e. they give you a button combination that you have to press. Judging from a Youtube video the real ending credits only appear after beating this game on the hard course. So is this one required for beating the game or is the regular course enough? Someone must have beaten this game in the previous years, so I'm curious as to how it was handled back then.

This actually did come up, but I never actually changed the requirement. There's nothing in the manual about the hard mode, but it's definitely got the good ending. The code works without having to beat the game first, but since there's no way to know the code without beating the game, I guess 2 playthroughs are what's required.

https://connect.gocollect.com/discussion/comment/3072321#Comment_3072321

[Splain | 2,570]

Finally finished Megalit. I didn't want to start it a third time in 2021. It starts out as a delightful game, but then ramps up too much for its own good. It's like Krusty's Fun House in that way. There's no practical way through it without writing down solutions, which is tedious when you don't know if the thing you're doing is actually going to be part of the final solution. Then, as you get deeper into each cluster of levels, you have to use those written solutions over and over to get more chances at the later levels, which toward the end takes several minutes per level since your character moves as slow as molasses. I should be happy that there are passwords, but the combination of having 5 levels between passwords, a time limit on every level, a life counter, and an absolute snail of a character all work together to turn a great puzzler into a frustrating one.

[Floating Platforms | 717]

On 12/12/2020 at 8:56 PM, Tanooki said:

If I were setup to or knew how to stream, considering you can talk or not, and don't have to have your face on camera (ugh) Gameboy (lineage) would be what I'd throw up for people to enjoy.  Underappreciated, underrated, and some really solid adventures or pick up and plays to really dig into.  I wouldn't be surprised if I had a quiet space that I'd start to do some light take on what Jeremy Parish does with his 'Works' videos and start going into back history on things I am aware of.

I do have friends that stream without talking or showing their face. I personally only do face and am making plans to do graphical overlays at some point in 2021, but keep my mug out of there. I'm sure some would want my voice out too, but oh well!

I've toyed with the idea of doing a YouTube review of each game, but more in the vein of SNES Drunk or Game Boyle rather than Jeremy Parish (I really wish he would find the time to finish the entire series, but seems unlikely with his pace). The time investment to get anything edited felt like it would be too much time away from beating more games, though.  I'd gladly watch anything you produce. Maybe start at the end of the release spectrum and work forwards and meet Jeremy at the middle!

 

In terms of this challenge, I've been absent for a couple weeks, but I'm desperately trying to get Riddick Bowe Boxing done before the end of the year.  I would hate to either start over next year or not have it count at all, and I'm sitting at second place only to Bowe.  I've made it to round 4 against him, but still haven't knocked him down once in several attempts. I have Wed & Thurs off, so there should be a few more hours left to keep plugging away.

Still, it looks like we've beaten the record, which is fantastic!  Really looking forward to what the next year brings as VGS continues to grow.

[koifish | 556]

In the same spirit as others, I too am trying to get it over with before I have to do it again (in this case a THIRD time) so I am trying my damndest to clear NBA Jam Tournament Edition right now. I am enjoying it, but my wrists aren't. Whoever thought it was a good idea to have you hold Originally I praised the decision, but by over halfway through, I feel like whoever chose using start for turbo should have been banished from making GB games. Seems this was a common trend for Midway ports on GB, so I guess I am just meant to suffer. At least this game is good unlike Mortal Kombat :P

[Floating Platforms | 717]

Down goes Frazier Bowe! Down goes Frazier Bowe!

It took a lot of tries and my hand and forearms are cramped from all the attempts (I played with my two fingers on A & B for more dexterity, instead of using my thumb for everything), but I somehow managed to knock the champ down.  I'm  not sure how much of it was me getting better and how much was luck based. It seemed like Bowe fought differently each time I faced him, and changed a bit from round to round.  I think I was trying to beat him for about 3 or 4 hours total and the farthest I got was round 5, where just about every fight of mine ended anyway, but couldn't knock him down.  In the winning bout, I knocked him down for the very first time ever in the third round and surprisingly, he didn't get back up in time.

The game has flaws for sure, namely that you can't be as responsive and fluid as the CPU and they will cheese extra rounds by blocking everything when they're in danger of getting knocked down, but overall I still love this game for its challenge and the sense of accomplishment I get from it. Even with the frustrations, I still think it's my favorite boxing game behind the Punch Out series.

Either on Jan 1 or 2, I'll be able to get started with the 2021 games and will likely have a decent amount of time to devote that whole weekend and first week.  I'll be starting with Lethal Weapon to get a first time clear for the challenge off the list right away.

@koifish, good luck with NBA Jam TE! Those controls sound like a huge pain

[bronzeshield | 293]

2 hours ago, Floating Platforms said:

That ending screen is pretty terrific.

[koifish | 556]

15 hours ago, Floating Platforms said:

@koifish, good luck with NBA Jam TE! Those controls sound like a huge pain

Thanks, sounds like you dealt with it a lot too from your boxing description. I'm tempted to do two things: 1) build a custom GB grip/arcade stand (like the hyperboy) only it makes the start select keys into more of action buttons set close to A/B, or 2) kidnap the designers who made the choice and lock them in a room, forcing them to beat all 27 teams for next year's challenge. I'm sure that the police will drop all charges once they see my reasoning.

 

Incidentally, anybody that's used a Hyperboy that can say whether or not it makes start/select more comfortable to use as action keys? I assume that the list of people with hyperboys and the list of people that would actually bother playing midway gb ports would have to be at its highest in a place like this.

[noiseredux | 232]

I had a Hyperboy YEARS ago - I don't remember the Start button feeling "good." But I feel your pain - I tried playing NBA Jam TE on GB last year, and the Start button for Turbo thing was a total deal breaker for me. If you do build something that could magically turn the Start and Select into legit arcade style buttons, that would be amazing.

[Floating Platforms | 717]

I'm afraid I don't have any experience with Hyperboy and don't own either NBA Jam cart yet.  It's been a long time since I've played any NBA Jam, but how viable is it to avoid turbo altogether? I tend to remember it ran out super quick on arcade/SNES, so most of the game was without it. I imagine you've already tried that just from resting your hands if nothing else.

[koifish | 556]

1 hour ago, Floating Platforms said:

I'm afraid I don't have any experience with Hyperboy and don't own either NBA Jam cart yet.  It's been a long time since I've played any NBA Jam, but how viable is it to avoid turbo altogether? I tend to remember it ran out super quick on arcade/SNES, so most of the game was without it. I imagine you've already tried that just from resting your hands if nothing else.

I did try it; On early teams it isn't so bad, or on games where the enemy team doesn't play aggressively. On bad days, though, it is all but impossible to do anything against the AI, or so it seems. They are merciless; It often feels like the game is designed to punish you for wanting to play it. I noticed this in hang-time for the N64, the AI was ruthless. The terrible teams would still get team fire against you...or maybe I'm just really terrible at Jam. Either way, this game has turned into a suffering fest. I am 20 wins in, I am up against the last and toughest teams, and I am just throwing myself at the wall. I will power through however.

As for turbo, you basically get it forever, as it runs down very slowly in this version. You will wish you had no turbo use though, it is painful to play more than two games at a time, and win or loss they all take about 15 minutes.

[bronzeshield | 293]

On 12/28/2020 at 11:52 PM, Floating Platforms said:

I've toyed with the idea of doing a YouTube review of each game, but more in the vein of SNES Drunk or Game Boyle rather than Jeremy Parish (I really wish he would find the time to finish the entire series, but seems unlikely with his pace).

I don't think his pace is the problem, but the fact that he's started about nine billion different library projects! The cynical part of me wonders if he put the Game Boy stuff on the back burner because he committed to doing the Japanese library (which is a big part of what makes that project interesting), but then discovered how many more views he got by covering North American NES/SNES/N64 releases, thereby discussing everyone's favorite greatest hits.

I don't begrudge him that -- whereas most projects go "initial mission > branch out > get overwhelmed > stop posting", he's avoided parts 3 & 4 of that equation and kept going, so kudos to him. But it's a little as if someone started a channel dedicated to obscure Italian science fiction movies, and then started talking about Star Wars, Star Trek, and the Matrix a lot. At one point he put the Game Boy project on hiatus for well over a year, and that was a real downer.

(He does cover Japanese N64 games, which I appreciate, and his Virtual Boy series was very good.)

SNES Drunk is always fun, and Game Boyle is especially good and criminally underwatched. I love his enthusiasm and eclectic tastes, and he's an open-minded guy who doesn't fall into the easy trap of being needlessly snarky -- which JP sometimes does because he's trying to cover so many games and lacks the patience for anything with a learning curve, unless it's too popular to dismiss. (I remember he branded Amazing Spider-Man an unplayable, impossibly difficult mess, so I pulled out the cart I'd bought a while back, played it for the first time, and beat it easily in under 2 hours.)

Edited December 31, 2020 by bronzeshield

[Floating Platforms | 717]

11 hours ago, koifish said:

I did try it; On early teams it isn't so bad, or on games where the enemy team doesn't play aggressively. On bad days, though, it is all but impossible to do anything against the AI, or so it seems. They are merciless; It often feels like the game is designed to punish you for wanting to play it. I noticed this in hang-time for the N64, the AI was ruthless. The terrible teams would still get team fire against you...or maybe I'm just really terrible at Jam. Either way, this game has turned into a suffering fest. I am 20 wins in, I am up against the last and toughest teams, and I am just throwing myself at the wall. I will power through however.

As for turbo, you basically get it forever, as it runs down very slowly in this version. You will wish you had no turbo use though, it is painful to play more than two games at a time, and win or loss they all take about 15 minutes.

Well damn. I can easily say your hands have it worse. I can't imagine stretching my hands in a reasonable way.  I'll keep my fingers crossed for you (or is that bad to say here?)

 

10 hours ago, bronzeshield said:

I don't think his pace is the problem, but the fact that he's started about nine billion different library projects! The cynical part of me wonders if he put the Game Boy stuff on the back burner because he committed to doing the Japanese library (which is a big part of what makes that project interesting), but then discovered how many more views he got by covering North American NES/SNES/N64 releases, thereby discussing everyone's favorite greatest hits.

For sure, that was the pacing I was talking about.  Still, even at 1 review per week it would be 10 years before the series was done.  I certainly don't blame him for wanting to diversify, but it is sad that we won't get to see his full treatment on some of those later titles - despite that obvious snark. Agreed on Game Boyle. I like that he usually takes the time to try to beat the games and brings that into his review and its all presented in an upbeat way even when the game is bad. Looks like he is also branching out into GBC though.

[koifish | 556]

I never realized there were so many people that made videos and articles about game boy. The only one I know of is "game boy works" which is a project that goes over every GB game in the order that they were released (based on Japan IIRC). His is pretty thorough to me, though I can't guarantee that he has cleared them all.
The bit about the guy hating on any game he can't instantly glide into is annoying; I have found many games here that were not exactly good, but were not worthy of being dismissed simply for being hard to get into. Think of not only how many games, but how many things in life you would avoid, simply for reason of them being too much effort to appreciate. It's not a good way to do things IMO.

2 hours ago, Floating Platforms said:

Well damn. I can easily say your hands have it worse. I can't imagine stretching my hands in a reasonable way.  I'll keep my fingers crossed for you (or is that bad to say here?)

Amusing thought. I've taken to shifting between a 3-finger keyboard arrangement (which is, of course, hell to do while also holding the dmg and moving the d-pad with a completely different grip) and doing a "claw" where my pointer finger presses the A/B buttons and my thumb holds turbo. I wish it was like the snes/n64 ports and had a shoulder button, truly all would be made easier. Alas, just gotta keep going.

Last night I had the ultimate tragedy: After beating the new york knicks in double overtime, I made a mistake on the password and had to redo it...and then I found I had read the previous password wrong too, and so I went down two whole games. I spent several agonizing hours of work beating them again, and after a little more struggle I am on the last two games, Chicago Bulls and Houston Rockets. Bless my hand as I take on this finale of physical hardship.

[Floating Platforms | 717]

1 hour ago, koifish said:

I never realized there were so many people that made videos and articles about game boy. The only one I know of is "game boy works" which is a project that goes over every GB game in the order that they were released (based on Japan IIRC). His is pretty thorough to me, though I can't guarantee that he has cleared them all.

That's actually the same guy. Jeremy Parrish is the one that does Game Boy Works. The hating the games part doesn't always show up, but there have definitely been times when he plays a small portion or doesn't spend time with a particular mechanic and dismisses the whole thing. But there have also been a couple of times when he doesn't play far enough and says the game is easier than what it actually is when playing the whole thing.  Considering the deadlines for putting out new videos as he does, I can understand that it's impossible to get a full picture of everything, though.

Congrats on making it back up the ladder. Give in to the powers of Dr. Claw!