VGS NES Weekly Contest - Gradius 2

[ihavethatpma | 10]

2 minutes ago, Dr. Morbis said:

Wow, Great first post ever!!!!

lmao, I just realized this is the first time I've posted in the two years I've been a member.

[Sumez | 2,929]

Well Gradius II is too fun a game not to

Seriously, replaying this port immediately made me want to go back and beat all the Gradius games I haven't. Just fired up Parodius!

Edited August 29, 2021 by Sumez

[Richardhead | 2,813]

Score updated on page 8. 
 

[BeaIank | 1,617]

Current standings posted.

[docile tapeworm | 4,194]

On 8/27/2021 at 7:20 PM, Dr. Morbis said:

.... but I'm not gonna sink that kind of time into gaining a couple extra points in the regular season (that it looks like is completely pointless if they let fifteen people into the tourney - you only need to participate in like 20% of the season if that's the case).

i think if your regularly posting scores and have podiumed a time or two you deserve a shot at the crown, even if you dont have a high reg season point total.

[Krunch | 303]

Hey everyone I've tried like 25 times now and im still not close to participation

So

[ihavethatpma | 10]

11 minutes ago, Krunch said:

Hey everyone I've tried like 25 times now and im still not close to participation

So

I believe I was hitting 31k shortly after the first boss fight, try upgrading your speed a couple times first, it made things a lot easier. 
 

Also my controller kept sticking and pulling me to the right, I found a rebuild kit and replaced all the pads, now somehow it’s worse haha.

[Krunch | 303]

2 minutes ago, ihavethatpma said:

I believe I was hitting 31k shortly after the first boss fight, try upgrading your speed a couple times first, it made things a lot easier. 
 

Also my controller kept sticking and pulling me to the right, I found a rebuild kit and replaced all the pads, now somehow it’s worse haha.

Nice to see you around again.  I'll try more speed but I won't lie I'm working with a handicap (playing on a laptop with keyboard inputs) so I wonder if it's gonna even do much for dexterity.  I can get through the sun/dragons part pretty well with a decent arsenal.  Buuut the real reason is I'm terrible at shmups especially this classic type.  I really want to get this.  I have a serious chance of missing my first participation point of the season here.

[ihavethatpma | 10]

1 hour ago, Krunch said:

Nice to see you around again.  I'll try more speed but I won't lie I'm working with a handicap (playing on a laptop with keyboard inputs) so I wonder if it's gonna even do much for dexterity.  I can get through the sun/dragons part pretty well with a decent arsenal.  Buuut the real reason is I'm terrible at shmups especially this classic type.  I really want to get this.  I have a serious chance of missing my first participation point of the season here.

Thanks! Nice to see you too, I'm happy to see a lot of familiar faces around the forum. Totally understandable not being able to get too far with keyboard inputs, this one is still tough with an original controller.

[Bearcat-Doug | 5,104]

On 8/28/2021 at 2:54 PM, docile tapeworm said:

i never show my best score before sunday  

So you'll be posting your winning score soon? It doesn't look like @bertsampson is playing this week either.

[Bearcat-Doug | 5,104]

7 hours ago, docile tapeworm said:

i think if your regularly posting scores and have podiumed a time or two you deserve a shot at the crown, even if you dont have a high reg season point total.

Doing that would probably get you high enough in the standings. I started too late and I'm 80 points out of 8th place, but if I had been playing all year, I'd probably be in the top 5.

[docile tapeworm | 4,194]

8 minutes ago, Bearcat-Doug said:

So you'll be posting your winning score soon? It doesn't look like @bertsampson is playing this week either.

maybe. i gave it a few runs today and havent been able to catch sumez. thats a pretty good score. i think i can get a few more runs in but looks like im just getting beat this week.

[Bearcat-Doug | 5,104]

2 minutes ago, docile tapeworm said:

maybe. i gave it a few runs today and havent been able to catch sumez. thats a pretty good score. i think i can get a few more runs in but looks like im just getting beat this week.

You did beat the game with 1.2 million points, so that's still really good.

[docile tapeworm | 4,194]

Just now, Bearcat-Doug said:

You did beat the game with 1.2 million points, so that's still really good.

thanks brother! i feel good about the no death

[Bearcat-Doug | 5,104]

Just now, docile tapeworm said:

thanks brother! i feel good about the no death

Yeah, that's really impressive! This is a tough game!

[docile tapeworm | 4,194]

Just now, Bearcat-Doug said:

Yeah, that's really impressive! This is a tough game!

if we play it again    

[mbd39 | 2,017]

I actually tried pretty hard this week and there's no way I can even beat the second stage. So you guys at the top are insane.

 

[docile tapeworm | 4,194]

23 minutes ago, mbd39 said:

I actually tried pretty hard this week and there's no way I can even beat the second stage. So you guys at the top are insane.

 

its such a fun game

@Sumez i had never played this before but it is awesome. as soon as i got that 4th option i was like "ooooooohhhh shit baby!"

[mbd39 | 2,017]

13 minutes ago, docile tapeworm said:

its such a fun game

@Sumez i had never played this before but it is awesome. as soon as i got that 4th option i was like "ooooooohhhh shit baby!"

It's just too easy to die. And you often have to get through really tight areas where being slightly in the wrong position is instant death.

It is an impressive game just really hard.

 

 

Edited August 30, 2021 by mbd39

[docile tapeworm | 4,194]

5 minutes ago, mbd39 said:

It's just too easy to die. And you often have to get through really tight areas where being slightly in the wrong position is instant death.

It is an impressive game just really hard.

i have to admit hitting borders and platforms is the toughest part of the game. i remeber the same about life force. i only collect "speed up" twice because the control gets too touchy for me after that and i start running into everything. i get a third "speed up" later in the game because there is a section that is easier to get through that way. 

[Sumez | 2,929]

Yeah I only get two speedups in this game, I'm not sure there's any segments where you really need a third? If you're thinking of the speed section on the final stage, you really just gotta go high all the time until the final part, I think you can do it with only one speedup. 

IMO the first stage of this port is by far the hardest in the game. It has the highest concentration of bullshit (the fire waves) and of course on a 1 life clear its the only place where you'll be underpowered. I'm guessing that's why so many people think this game is harder than it is. The arcade version of course is really hard, but this is probably the easiest Gradius port I've played outside of Life Force. 

The boss rush is a minor difficulty spike, but once you know the bosses they become a non-issue, especially with the shield activated which is insanely OP on this version! 

@docile tapeworm what were your primary locations for scoring? There's not really much I've found that could bump up score, but the moai boss lets you just set in place and get points infinitely, so I could get a few millions there before I got bored. I didn't do this for my 1.4 mil score though. 

The second place I used is the spider walker, I ended up figuring out the secret myself. When you kill it, it awards you 15000 points, but you can actually keep killing it every frame for as long as its death animation is playing if you're positioned right and keep holding the button. The built in autofire in the port is relentless hehe. You can get well over a million points from that boss alone. 

Edited August 30, 2021 by Sumez

[Dr. Morbis | 2,088]

14 hours ago, docile tapeworm said:

i think if your regularly posting scores and have podiumed a time or two you deserve a shot at the crown, even if you dont have a high reg season point total.

The point is to try and encourage weekly participation, not discourage it!!!!  Nice to see you're looking out for number one, though!  How meaningful is a crown if it just came down to getting really lucky game selection on stuff that's right in your wheelhouse?  Like if Bert Sampson got 300 points on the year and you got 30 points but won two weeks and got invited in and then it happened to be a final game that Bert sucks at...  So then you're the "champ" because of that?  Gimme a break, total BS

I tell you what, if you can get more points than me in the regular season next year, I'll PayPal you $100 USD, the day after the end of the season (Bookmark this page so you don't forget it!).  That's about the only way I'd ever think that you're a better NES gamer than me, Muchacho!!!  Perform at a high standard week in and week out; don't just pop your head in for the four games a year that you're actually good at...

Edited August 30, 2021 by Dr. Morbis

[docile tapeworm | 4,194]

@Sumez i agree you dont need the 3rd "speed up" i get it to get through that lil "trap" in the last stage, it looks like teeth or something? it comes from the top and bottom and closes together. its right after those lil red and orange globs with the web stuff.

i noticed some of my runs during the maia head boss, the bottom head would explode before the rest. so i started positioning the vic viper in a spot where it destroyed all three quickly in order not to rack points. i didnt catch the spider boss trick but noticed sometimes i would have 600k and other times 800k coming out of there. 

i was trying the life force glitch on everything. where you can get double the points for any particular enemy killed by placing one or more of you options inside the enemey and fire the bombs exactly as the enemy is destroyed, but it didnt seem to work.

[docile tapeworm | 4,194]

1 hour ago, Dr. Morbis said:

The point is to try and encourage weekly participation, not discourage it!!!!  Nice to see you're looking out for number one, though!  How meaningful is a crown if it just came down to getting really lucky game selection on stuff that's right in your wheelhouse?  Like if Bert Sampson got 300 points on the year and you got 30 points but won two weeks and got invited in and then it happened to be a final game that Bert sucks at...  So then you're the "champ" because of that?  Gimme a break, total BS

I tell you what, if you can get more points than me in the regular season next year, I'll PayPal you $100 USD, the day after the end of the season (Bookmark this page so you don't forget it!).  That's about the only way I'd ever think that you're a better NES gamer than me, Muchacho!!!  Perform at a high standard week in and week out; don't just pop your head in for the four games a year that you're actually good at...

ok 1st. im not trying to look out for me here. ive been in plenty of tournaments to know i would have to get a perfect trio of games tailored to fit my strengths in order to even have a chance at winning the crown.

what i was saying was thats how it seems the cut off for the tournament is decided. if your around the top 15 at the end and have semi regularly played and have podiumed a couple times you get in. which admittedly i have no issaue with because i do think thats a strong enough showing. 

but at the same time if, for example, i win two weeks in the reg season and bert doesnt. hell ya i should have a shot at upsetting him in the tourney. regardless if i only total, what i believe should be a min of 50 reg season points with a win. i actually won a reg season contest bert didnt. so imo, in that senerio, bert is the one getting into the tourney weaker. guy didnt even win and got in.

i dont know if you read what i said to richardhead but it is basicly the same as what you said. it doesnt promote the best players winning. someone who gets lucky with a game in there wheelhouse can absolutely upset a better player. its an advantage for underdogs.

and that $100 offer is silly. i would be relentless if i had time for it. you do have the time and still dont have the marbles to grind. and if you tried you would be burnt halfway through and give up because its too hard. ive only recently, within the last two seasons gotten good enough and seasoned enough, as far as not playing every single game for the first time (besides the 10-15 i had as a kid) to be able to casually play and finish near the top in any single week. after the first week you knew that. i broke you week one. since then you said "its not worth the effort during the reg season to try and out grind you". well lil buddy im a dewalt your a hart.

 

[mbd39 | 2,017]

7 hours ago, Sumez said:

IMO the first stage of this port is by far the hardest in the game. It has the highest concentration of bullshit (the fire waves) and of course on a 1 life clear its the only place where you'll be underpowered. I'm guessing that's why so many people think this game is harder than it is. The arcade version of course is really hard, but this is probably the easiest Gradius port I've played outside of Life Force.

Stage 7 looks tough with that fast moving green section. Maybe it's easier than it looks.