NES Completions thread 2022 - 564/677 (bonus games - 83/100)

[the_wizard_666 | 1,325]

2 hours ago, Gaia Gensouki said:

I've been playing Sword & Serpents and made it to the 10th floor out of 15. I might finish it in a day or two. Currently playing with a Warrior, a Thief and two Mages.

16 floors.  The 10th floor is the last one with a temple though.  That's a solid party.  You absolutely need at least one mage to beat the game (the 16th floor requires the Passwall spell multiple times).  I'd also suggest if possible to leave your NES on instead of using the password system.  Obviously take down the password from time to time, but with five passwords and having to keep the character's names with them, there's a LOT of room for errors.  I had many games end because I jotted down the password incorrectly and couldn't figure out where the error was.  When I finally did beat it, it was because I left the system on for a couple days while I played so I wouldn't have to fart around with the passwords.

Also, you can't rely on the levels to chart your progress.  At one point you need to backtrack to floor 1 to get an item (I believe that point is on floor 12, but I could be mistaken).  And your automap disappears once you've progressed two floors away, so make sure you're either making maps or have them handy online.

Best of luck to you man...honestly, the game itself is pretty cliche, but getting through it was one of my most rewarding completions - not because of the story, or even the difficulty, but because I never have to fuck around with the damn passwords again

[nerdynebraskan | 356]

Bubble Bobble Part 2 is done. I beat the final boss with one life left on my last continue, so that felt pretty good.

[nerdynebraskan | 356]

Roundball 2-on-2 Challenge is done.

[the_wizard_666 | 1,325]

Okay, so I wasn't planning to end my game just yet, so I figured I'd see how I was progressing.  After only two expeditions on Journeyman, I have made the top rank, 100/100 and King's Advisor.  Pirates is now officially D-O-N-E DONE!  Funny thing is, although I have the best bride, I don't think she was really necessary.  I also only rescued two family members, so that isn't really an issue either.  I think the real difference maker is ranking up in multiple nations.  I finished as an English Duke, a French Count, and a Dutch Captain.  The first scenario makes this easy to do as the nations more or less are always at war with Spain, making it easy to rank up with all of them at once.  This would also make it more difficult later on, but still somewhat possible.  It's funny though, on my first run I saved all my family members but only made it to the rank of Sugar Planter.  I exceeded that on my first voyage of the second run just by ranking up, so yeah, that's the key.

[guitarzombie | 927]

Finished Super Turrican.  Its harder than I actually remember, but I think thats because the C64, SNES/Genesis versions are easier.  For NES they're much more stingier with health.

[the_wizard_666 | 1,325]

So another game I've gone far in and never finished is next in my queue.  After fencing in Pirates gave my thumbs hell, I decided to work on another RPG.  This time around, I'm gonna knock off The Bard's Tale.  Logged a wee bit of time so far, levelling up to level three and trying to grind out some gold reserves to properly equip my party...or at the very least the front line.  It's actually pretty forgiving as far as this style of game goes, at least so far, as levelling up automatically refills your health and magic.  In the early phases of the game, that's a HUGE boon.  I'm guessing later on it don't matter much anymore, but for now it's a big deal.  Especially since you can get attacked at any point while walking around town.  Even the three steps between the place you level up at and the Adventurer's Guild (where you go to save the game).  I'm gonna have to read the manual a bit though...been a while since I last played it, and I've forgotten where to go to heal up and recover magic points, and I'm sure that's gonna come up at some point

[the_wizard_666 | 1,325]

On a side note, I did my best @scaryice impression and crunched some numbers, just for the shits and giggles of it.  If anyone's curious, I calculated the points per game average for everyone with five or more completions.  Here's the results (rounded to the nearest hundredth):

Strikezone1 - 8.5
NESfiend - 6.86
the_wizard_666 - 6.19
Gaia Gensouki - 5.34
PII - 4.89
guitarzombie - 4.65
Khromak - 4.40
Red - 4.32
mbd39 - 4.00
Bearcat-Doug - 3.59
Philosoraptor - 3.47
scaryice - 3.23
nerdynebraskan - 2.29
Foochie776 - 1.67
DefaultGen - 1.60
Jaden - 1.60

Gotta say, Strikezone1 impressed, despite only having 6 completions...an 8.5 average is goddamn impressive!

 

 

[guitarzombie | 927]

8 hours ago, the_wizard_666 said:

On a side note, I did my best @scaryice impression and crunched some numbers, just for the shits and giggles of it.  If anyone's curious, I calculated the points per game average for everyone with five or more completions.  Here's the results (rounded to the nearest hundredth):

Strikezone1 - 8.5
NESfiend - 6.86
the_wizard_666 - 6.19
Gaia Gensouki - 5.34
PII - 4.89
guitarzombie - 4.65
Khromak - 4.40
Red - 4.32
mbd39 - 4.00
Bearcat-Doug - 3.59
Philosoraptor - 3.47
scaryice - 3.23
nerdynebraskan - 2.29
Foochie776 - 1.67
DefaultGen - 1.60
Jaden - 1.60

Gotta say, Strikezone1 impressed, despite only having 6 completions...an 8.5 average is goddamn impressive!

 

 

My little badge of honor was the year I won, I wanted to win with the highest point per game AVERAGE.  I think I only beat like 70 games and my average score was 6 or 7.

 

@scaryice id look for the info myself but that was on the old NA site.  You remember what it was?

Edited January 24, 2022 by guitarzombie

[the_wizard_666 | 1,325]

39 minutes ago, guitarzombie said:

My little badge of honor was the year I won, I wanted to win with the highest point per game AVERAGE.  I think I only beat like 70 games and my average score was 6 or 7.

Yeah, that's kinda been my goal as well.  I wasn't even gonna play a game under 5 points aside from the bonus list, but Championship Bowling had me intrigued as to why it was one of the last single point games left.  I'm still wondering too, since I thought it was pretty damn fun.

[scaryice | 597]

1 hour ago, guitarzombie said:

My little badge of honor was the year I won, I wanted to win with the highest point per game AVERAGE.  I think I only beat like 70 games and my average score was 6 or 7.

@scaryice id look for the info myself but that was on the old NA site.  You remember what it was?

Looking at the past champions, you had the second highest PPG:

	Champion	PPG		Points	Games
2014	nerdynebraskan	5.38		487	90.5
2015	DoctorNick	7.41		697	94
2016	Bea Iank	5.75		657	114.35
2017	guitarzombie	6.88		475	69
2018	nerdynebraskan	4.27		802	188
2019	nerdynebraskan	3.51		772	220
2020	nerdynebraskan	3.82		695	182
2021	nerdynebraskan	3.82		641	168

 

Two things to note here. First, I removed bonus points from the past 4 years, since that wouldn't be a fair comparison. Second, the first champions weren't included since of course, the points system didn't exist then.

You did have the highest average of anyone the year that you won, if that's what you meant (counting only people with 10+ games). That leads to another interesting question, who had the highest average in each year? This includes unlicensed/pal/famicom games in years those were included.

Highest PPG

(minimum 10 games completed)

		PPG		Points	Games
2014	DoctorNick	6.94		368	53
2015	DoctorNick	7.41		697	94
2016	TheMexicanRunner	8.85		292	33
2017	guitarzombie	6.88		475	69
2018	Crabmaster2000	8.60		258	30
2019	arnpoly	8.18		90	11
2020	tablew/chairs	8.65		294	34
2021	tablew/chairs	9.09		100	11

 

 

[guitarzombie | 927]

@scaryice nice!  Yeah that's what I meant.  Also the table could be weighted a little different as earlier years might have higher values for games than they should or do now.  For example I remember Knight Rider was a 10, and now its a 7.  So beating it now isn't as impressive as a few years ago, although its point value should be less.  Regardless that year, I just wanted to beat games that were at least a 6, aside from any other quick simple ones.  A lot of those games I don't ever really want to revisit again, like Beetlejuice, Ultimate Air Combat or Conan etc.

[Strikezone1 | 155]

On 1/22/2022 at 8:24 PM, guitarzombie said:

Finished off Knight Rider.  Yeesh my NES is just cursed today.  EVERY game has been a struggle or harder than its ever been before.  I think I'll try a couple of more.

Hey @scaryice has there been anyone who's beat one game more over the years than I have with Knight Rider?  Haha

I beat Knight Rider for last year's thread. I found it to be incredibly frustrating. I feel like it could be a good game if they would've tweaked a few things to make it less difficult, like a bit less trial & error, and randomness. At it's core it's a decent game conceptually, and covers the license material well.

[guitarzombie | 927]

Just now, Strikezone1 said:

I beat Knight Rider for last year's thread. I found it to be incredibly frustrating. I feel like it could be a good game if they would've tweaked a few things to make it less difficult, like a bit less trial & error, and randomness. At it's core it's a decent game conceptually, and covers the license material well.

What I do is basically just load up with gas and shield.  Once you get to denver, maybe missiles for the plane boss but it can be done with regular gun.  So then I max everything out except then max out missiles.  Once the blue cars start turning into lanes, you just drive 'into' them, as they will ALWAYS move to the next lane, but if that lane is occupied, move back.  The only really cheap part of the game is the 3rd to last level where they put all the barrels in the middle of the road.  That ones pretty unfair.  Otherwise I really love this game.  Also as a kid, figured out if you run out of time, the level doesn't end until you stop completely.  So you can still move and accelerate if you super jump.  I think in ever time i've beaten the game, i've had to do that at least once.

[Strikezone1 | 155]

11 hours ago, the_wizard_666 said:

On a side note, I did my best @scaryice impression and crunched some numbers, just for the shits and giggles of it.  If anyone's curious, I calculated the points per game average for everyone with five or more completions.  Here's the results (rounded to the nearest hundredth):

Strikezone1 - 8.5
NESfiend - 6.86
the_wizard_666 - 6.19
Gaia Gensouki - 5.34
PII - 4.89
guitarzombie - 4.65
Khromak - 4.40
Red - 4.32
mbd39 - 4.00
Bearcat-Doug - 3.59
Philosoraptor - 3.47
scaryice - 3.23
nerdynebraskan - 2.29
Foochie776 - 1.67
DefaultGen - 1.60
Jaden - 1.60

Gotta say, Strikezone1 impressed, despite only having 6 completions...an 8.5 average is goddamn impressive!

Thanks! I figure save all the easy games for novice gamers and/or nerdynebraskan!   (I am just kidding)

Jokes aside, I am working through the NES library (mostly only action games) and I like contribute to this thread on games as they coincide with my journey. At this point, most of what I have left on my list tends to be 7+... I am mostly past the good/easy games, haha.

[Strikezone1 | 155]

5 minutes ago, guitarzombie said:

What I do is basically just load up with gas and shield.  Once you get to denver, maybe missiles for the plane boss but it can be done with regular gun.  So then I max everything out except then max out missiles.  Once the blue cars start turning into lanes, you just drive 'into' them, as they will ALWAYS move to the next lane, but if that lane is occupied, move back.  The only really cheap part of the game is the 3rd to last level where they put all the barrels in the middle of the road.  That ones pretty unfair.  Otherwise I really love this game.  Also as a kid, figured out if you run out of time, the level doesn't end until you stop completely.  So you can still move and accelerate if you super jump.  I think in ever time i've beaten the game, i've had to do that at least once.

I used a similar strategy as you, prioritizing gas & shield upgrades first and utilizing the boost jump when running out of time in order to inch either to the boss in time, or a timer refill power up.

I put in a good amount of effort trying to pull off a deathless run in games before moving on, so I feel I had gotten a pretty good feel for the game. I couldn't pull it off in this one though. My best was 2 deaths. Nothing worse than being 45 minutes in and having your run end on what I consider to be some cheap RNG in the last 2 missions.

I agree Mission 12 (Houston) is tough - those barriers appear with very little reaction time. I think I used the jumping boost every time I beat that mission in order to avoid running out of time. 

The final boss battle sequence is no joke either.

[guitarzombie | 927]

12 minutes ago, Strikezone1 said:

I used a similar strategy as you, prioritizing gas & shield upgrades first and utilizing the boost jump when running out of time in order to inch either to the boss in time, or a timer refill power up.

I put in a good amount of effort trying to pull off a deathless run in games before moving on, so I feel I had gotten a pretty good feel for the game. I couldn't pull it off in this one though. My best was 2 deaths. Nothing worse than being 45 minutes in and having your run end on what I consider to be some cheap RNG in the last 2 missions.

I agree Mission 12 (Houston) is tough - those barriers appear with very little reaction time. I think I used the jumping boost every time I beat that mission in order to avoid running out of time. 

The final boss battle sequence is no joke either.

Ah the final bosses are easy haha.  Ive been using the same strategy as a kid of using the gun, hanging by the right side of the road and 'following' the boss shooting till I drive off the grass since they cant.  I very rarely do poorly on the bosses, and when I do its probably the plane boss with the atomic weapon thing.  In my entire time of playing that game, I think I no-deathed it once.

[nerdynebraskan | 356]

16 minutes ago, Strikezone1 said:

Thanks! I figure save all the easy games for novice gamers and/or nerdynebraskan!   (I am just kidding)

Hey, there's no use shaming my gaming. I definitely enjoy my share of cupcakes.

My skill is definitely not on the level of the heavyweights in the weekly competitions, so I don't wander over there. This is something much better suited towards my attitudes towards gaming. I finish a game, and move on to another.

And though it maybe isn't showing, I'm trying not to go quite so hard this year as I have over the past several years. I'm really trying to just have fun this year and not trying to play as many of the games that can really piss me off.

2 hours ago, guitarzombie said:

Also the table could be weighted a little different as earlier years might have higher values for games than they should or do now.  For example I remember Knight Rider was a 10, and now its a 7.  So beating it now isn't as impressive as a few years ago, although its point value should be less.

I've definitely eroded the point values of many games here by playing them early year after year. I think WWF WrestleMania Challenge was a 6 or 7 the first time I played it for this thread, but I grew up with it and it takes 10 minutes. I usually play it on January 1st. Now it's a 1. Home Alone was at least a 6 when I started playing it, but it's a childhood favorite so it's another one I play on January 1st or 2nd. This year, it was a 2. Even Skate or Die 2 was a 10 pointer in 2014 (my first full year) that went unbeaten in 2013. Now it's a 5 or 6, because I grew up with that one too, and I've tackled it about halfway through the list each of the last 8 years.

[guitarzombie | 927]

Just now, nerdynebraskan said:

Home Alone was at least a 6 when I started playing it, but it's a childhood favorite so it's another one I play on January 1st or 2nd.

I must apologize because now I hate you.  I hate this game with such a passion for being the worst, laziest and dumbest game on the NES.  No offense .

[Strikezone1 | 155]

17 minutes ago, guitarzombie said:

Ah the final bosses are easy haha.  Ive been using the same strategy as a kid of using the gun, hanging by the right side of the road and 'following' the boss shooting till I drive off the grass since they cant.  I very rarely do poorly on the bosses, and when I do its probably the plane boss with the atomic weapon thing.  In my entire time of playing that game, I think I no-deathed it once.

Sure, any challenging boss can become easy once you have the strategy memorized!

I used the same strat.. Heck I think it is the only strat in order to beat KARR.

[Strikezone1 | 155]

13 minutes ago, nerdynebraskan said:

Hey, there's no use shaming my gaming. I definitely enjoy my share of cupcakes.

My skill is definitely not on the level of the heavyweights in the weekly competitions, so I don't wander over there. This is something much better suited towards my attitudes towards gaming. I finish a game, and move on to another.

And though it maybe isn't showing, I'm trying not to go quite so hard this year as I have over the past several years. I'm really trying to just have fun this year and not trying to play as many of the games that can really piss me off.

No shame. Everyone should play what/how they want in order to have fun!

[nerdynebraskan | 356]

3 minutes ago, guitarzombie said:

I must apologize because now I hate you.  I hate this game with such a passion for being the worst, laziest and dumbest game on the NES.  No offense .

Worst, laziest, and dumbest game on the NES? Surely you're talking about Where's Waldo. Home Alone is by far the best game published by THQ, which is admittedly like being named the tallest kid in preschool. I seem to be the only one who loves the game, but I think there are objectively 100 worse games.

It's one of the few NES games with a licensed tie-in that actually honors its source material. The plot and gameplay are actually like being in an interactive version of the climax of the movie. The game's length is just right. The music is catchy. The graphics are clear and obvious. The tension is real whenever Harry or Marv have you in their sights and close in on you. Every playthrough is unique, which boosts the replay value.

[guitarzombie | 927]

28 minutes ago, nerdynebraskan said:

 I seem to be the only one who loves the game,

This is all I needed haha.  Wheres Waldo does suck, but at least has SOME variety.  Honestly its just the graphics are awful.  The Great Waldo Search is amazing looking.  Just like the books and show (which I DID watch as a kid), its just stupidly easy cuz its made for... kids.  Home Alone, THE ONLY good thing I can say about it, is the good GRAPHIC (as in the one picture) of Kevin when you lose.  The entire game is one screen, terrible music, 20 min cap time limit, terrible graphics, lady game idea, stupid stupid stupid stupid STUPID!  The Gameboy version is SO much better!   

[Khromak | 770]

Just finished Nazo No Murasame-Jou. God damn, this game is tough, but it really makes you feel like you're an actual ninja by the end. Very fun, but quite frustrating at certain points. The last level and final (2) bosses are actually not as hard as the second to last one. Bit of advice on the last stage though, you absolutely have to have the blue (water walking) boots or you're far past fucked. 

[nerdynebraskan | 356]

Terminator 2 is done.

[the_wizard_666 | 1,325]

Well, it took me all bloody day, but I won the 9-ball tournament in Championship Pool.  Maybe I'll do the 8-ball tournament at some point in the future...surprisingly it's a very well done game.  Wasn't expecting much from Mindscape, but here we are   It definitely could've used a password system or something though...losing at any point causes a restart (although the game has a way to skip the qualifiers that it tells you about once you get through that half of the tournament).  Still, I thoroughly enjoyed it!