Beat every Game Boy game - 2019 -- 219/497

[Gaia Gensouki | 1,067]

I had some spare time with my 3DS and beat Gargoyle's Quest and Donkey Kong Land on the Virtual Console.

I can't believe that GQ hasn't been done yet. This was my first time playing it and I really enjoyed it. It may have had some down time like when grinding for vials so that I could purchase extra lives. But the main levels were excellent and really fun. Surprisingly the regular levels were more difficult than most bosses. Also, the second to last level was really challenging and required quite some grinding.

DKL is overall pretty decent, but you can tell that this is a stripped-down conversion of a console game. It may look stunning for a Game Boy game, but unfortunately it didn't feel optimized for the small screen. Also, some of the controls were a bit janky and took quite some time getting used to. I can only assume that the later games in this series are maybe a bit more suited for a handheld?

[Tanooki | 4,930]

Wow good job, Gargoyle's Quest is a pain, not GnG bad but up there despite no crazy re-run of all stages.  DKL is a chore as it's so ACM busy on a no-color screen coupled with the lack of care for the square vs rectangle screen roots it's a true chore to take down as are the sequels pretty much.

 

I'd love in the new year to see a GBC competition done.  Clearly this has been done yearly to be strictly black and white only, not even the black hybrid carts and the GBC has a good solid library to take a shot at.

[bronzeshield | 293]

1 hour ago, Tanooki said:

I'd love in the new year to see a GBC competition done.  Clearly this has been done yearly to be strictly black and white only, not even the black hybrid carts and the GBC has a good solid library to take a shot at.

There were GBC comps in 2016, 2017, and 2018, with varying degrees of participation. The German-language message board CiBo is also doing a GB+GBC comp this year:

https://circuit-board.de/forum/index.php/Thread/27501-Can-CiBo-Beat-Every-GB-GBC-Game-in-a-Year-2019/

Personally I'd enjoy a GBC comp as well, though I'm not yet sure how much I'd participate. Then again I did beat Snoopy Tennis this year on easier difficulties; haven't cracked Hard yet, though I'd be happy to try for 2020.

EDIT: It looks like 2016 did OK at NA, with 71 GBC games beaten out of 452. However, 2017 and 2018 were sad -- only 28 and 18 GBC games beaten, respectively.  There was some inconsistency with the threads being updated in those years, which didn't help.

BTW "Townsville" is a good search term to use at GoCollect for the old GBC threads, since it's unique to an obscure Powerpuff Girls game.

Edited December 2, 2019 by bronzeshield

[Splain | 2,560]

Wow, some good clears here, just a couple games away from the record. Been traveling for holidays, but got everything updated. I'm almost done with Great Greed, I'm at that part in the final castle where I'm grinding near a pot thing that refills your HP/MP. I can't decide if this is a fantastic game or a mediocre one.

In my opinion, Donkey Kong Land 2 and 3 are more enjoyable than 1, but the graphics still toe the line between looking great and looking too muddy and busy. And zoomed-in. But if you compare them to other styles of GB platformers like Jetsons or Bonk, it's neat to play something that looks like it's actually happening, rather than just cartoony outlines.

If people aren't sick of me running too many of these, I'll happily start up a GBC completion thread. Or if anyone else wants to do it that's great. Should it be a 2020 thing or a "forever" thing?

[koifish | 555]

I continue to crawl through the puzzles. I almost beat Ultra Golf twice now, but found that for some reason, my cart freezes on the second course, 15th hole when it transitions from the field view to the green view. First time I thought it was just a freak incident, but now I think it is a constant, so I am going to have to beat it again on an emulator to finish it off.

[bronzeshield | 293]

3 hours ago, koifish said:

I continue to crawl through the puzzles. I almost beat Ultra Golf twice now, but found that for some reason, my cart freezes on the second course, 15th hole when it transitions from the field view to the green view. First time I thought it was just a freak incident, but now I think it is a constant, so I am going to have to beat it again on an emulator to finish it off.

Huh, that's interesting. What hardware are you playing on? It could be an obscure compatibility issue, like Burai Fighter Deluxe and Road Rash on the GBC (both crash).

[Gaia Gensouki | 1,067]

17 hours ago, Splain said:

If people aren't sick of me running too many of these, I'll happily start up a GBC completion thread. Or if anyone else wants to do it that's great. Should it be a 2020 thing or a "forever" thing?

I'm open to any of these threads as they're a lot of fun. But I'm not sure how many of these yearly completion threads can be sustained. The NES competition seems to be the most popular one with GB and SNES lagging quite a bit behind. So it could be that a "forever" thing may be a better choice for a system like the GBC or a system with a vast library, like the PS1.

[koifish | 555]

I would probably only switch to maybe a two-year format for slower/less popular systems. The NES is the clear baby of this site, as most likely it was the genesis of many user's love of video games. The game boy isn't quite so loved, so it probably needs more time to be fully completed. If you add GBC, then you probably need to make it an even longer total run time.

[koifish | 555]

  

On 12/2/2019 at 7:52 PM, bronzeshield said:

Huh, that's interesting. What hardware are you playing on? It could be an obscure compatibility issue, like Burai Fighter Deluxe and Road Rash on the GBC (both crash).

I was playing on a GB Light as well as on a GBA SP AGS-101, so it doesn't seem to be anything specific. Either way, I moved the save off to an emulator and it worked, so I'm gonna beat it there, once I can play the back 9 more consistently. As with Nintendo's Golf, Konami seems generous with the first course but then aims to smash you up on the second.

[Splain | 2,560]

Finished Great Greed finally.

So what should we do with this thread? Change anything? Don't reset until 2021? Restart in 2020 as usual? Sure, it's a little silly to restart when there's so little chance of us finishing the whole set in a year, but if we keep it open "forever," it's certainly going to stagnate at a list of 100ish games that nobody will want to play, and then it's like not having a GB thread. It would be interesting to incorporate some sort of twist, like King of the Hill, or maybe some sort of personalized element, since it seems a few of us are trying to beat every GB game (or something similar.) But maybe nothing needs to change.

My dream is for us to put together a ranked list of all GB games, I have some ideas on how to incorporate that, but it might work better as a separate project.

GBC games will be in their own "forever" thread once the holiday craziness dies down.

[Floating Platforms | 713]

Personally I like the yearly reset, but wouldn't mind seeing it paired with a king of the hill type system so multiple people could finish the same game and get some sort of points.  Getting to around 50% complete each year isn't bad at all and the drive to do better each year is a motivator.  Having a forever thread means people could ignore the sports more like you're saying and also possibly create some apathy since they could do it anytime, and thus do it never. I still consider myself to be pretty new to this whole thing, but it seemed like some of us were focusing more on the ones that were never completed with the extra points incentives.

I am one of those types that is trying to beat all GB games, but life keeps getting in the way of my already limited playing time. I didn't even reach my goal of beating 25 games this year thanks to multiple family matters that popped up the last couple months. I'm happy to contribute as much as I'm able to (going to shoot for at least 30 games done in 2020) and I'm intrigued by the ranked list and what that will look like. I've been writing mini reviews and keeping tabs of my own personal 1-10 score for each game I've completed since starting my quest.  So I'll keep watching this space, and I'm hoping I'll be able to get my next completion done in mid-January.

[koifish | 555]

Feel like I might be posting the last completion of the year here, but I finally finished the Champ course of Ultra Golf and got the coveted 'Champion.jpg' award. Really, it was just a shot of my guy holding a trophy! Feels like a raw deal. Either way, I had to play one hell of a game to get there. The game seems to treat golf like its Mario Kart, with magical super-players rubber-banding around to match your score. Even after a very fortunate set of wind conditions on two par 5s which resulted in two eagles, the AI player to beat was ALSO given eagles on those holes. In the end, foe 'Jack' and I tied, but as I had held #1 for longer (or something), I was given the title.

Overall, a good golf game. I think Nintendo's Golf is much more challenging and engaging, but Ultra Golf has less frustrating putting than that game, so I think it's about even. I think that Golf has a slightly better interface though, one big thing being that in Ultra Golf, if you are on the edge of the green, you default to sand wedge, and if you want to use the putter, you have to aim the shot, choose the putter, then it resets you back to the aiming screen, and if you decide to undo your current putting aim and try again, then you are automatically set back to sand wedge, and you have to redo the extended putter selection process, which gets annoying when you are used to a smooth, unified interface like on Nintendo's offering. Also, the one thing I really dislike about Ultra Golf is that you can't end a tournament midway, you have to finish it through. I think that's really dull, and a big pain when you screw up and know for sure that you won't win. At least NES Open Tournament Golf gave you some kind of award for your troubles. To be fair, however, NES Open Tournament Golf came out years later, on a much more powerful and memory-packed system, so that comparison doesn't hold much weight. Still, I think my issues vs. Nintendo Golf are more worthy of consideration, given they came out on the same system and around the same time.

bgb00044.bmp

[Splain | 2,560]

Wellllp, last year I said something like "next year will be the best year ever, MARK MY WORDS" when talking about total beaten games. (USA) So I went ahead and slammed out Ren and Stimpy: Veediots and Adventure Island for some quick clears, which brings us to 218 to tie the 2016 record. Tomorrow I'll slam something else out, maybe Jetsons. It's a bit silly, but I really wanted this to be the best one yet. AND IT WILL BE.

[bronzeshield | 293]

I just cleared In Your Face in both 1-on-1 and 2-on-2 modes. Wasn't quick enough to get a picture of the brief ending with my smart phone (more evidence that when it comes to taking a very quick picture, a real camera or a dumb phone is still faster).

So, the record is ours! No more trawling through archived NA threads to be reminded of the high-water mark, because that high-water mark is 2019.

[Splain | 2,560]

Hooray!!