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

[Dr. Morbis | 2,092]

4 hours ago, nerdynebraskan said:

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.

I agree with all of this; I enjoy the game of cat and mouse you play with the bad guys and no two games are alike.  I was surprised that it was as fun as it was to survive the full length of time.  My only complaints are on the animations of the people's movements and how some of the stuff is drawn; if they could have improved the game cosmetically, I would have nothing at all to complain about.  Home Alone 2 sucks hard, but the first game is fun and unique for the console...

[nerdynebraskan | 356]

1 hour ago, Dr. Morbis said:

I agree with all of this; I enjoy the game of cat and mouse you play with the bad guys and no two games are alike.  I was surprised that it was as fun as it was to survive the full length of time.  My only complaints are on the animations of the people's movements and how some of the stuff is drawn; if they could have improved the game cosmetically, I would have nothing at all to complain about.  Home Alone 2 sucks hard, but the first game is fun and unique for the console...

Whoa! The game does have another fan.

And yeah, the graphics are on the dull and drab side. They're limited, but also very practical. I've played so many true stinkers on the NES to know that this is still a C to C+ visual effort on Home Alone. You know exactly where you can walk and where you can't. The hiding places are somewhat hidden in the background layer, but those are secrets that you're supposed to hunt for. The traps are plainly drawn differently than everything else in the background, and since they have different lengths of effectiveness they do actually make every class of trap look different. (I can't tell you how annoying it is to play shooters in particular when power-up sprites are drawn so poorly that I have trouble telling some or all of them apart.)

And yes, I think I've played all of the other games based on Home Alone or its sequel on NES, SNES, and Genesis. They're all trash, except for this game.

[the_wizard_666 | 1,325]

Progress report: Bard's Tale is coming along.  Got a few more levels, and am almost fully equipped with the best gear available at the start.  I've also made a couple excursions into the sewer.  I forgot how slow the menu speed is though...and there's seemingly no way to speed it up.  It makes an otherwise awesome game a bit of a drag.  But I'll manage.  So far so good.  And since I've been keeping with a theme of working on two games at a time (so as to take a mental break from the level grinding), I went through the list to see what else there was...and since I am feeling a bit of a pool kick after Championship Pool, I decided to try out Break Time.  It's...okay.  I mean, it's visually better than CP, but it plays slower.  Although you have a bit more ball control (you can use English on the cue ball, and even do jump shots), the overall physics feel weird.  On the plus side, there's a lot less games to play through, as each opponent is a best of three and there's only five opponents in total, and there's passwords in between opponents to make it a bit less of a slog if you lose a round.  So it's an interesting game, but it looks better than it plays.

[PII | 1,899]

Mighty Bomb Jack

 

Edited August 10, 2023 by PII

[Bearcat-Doug | 5,105]

Metroid is done.

[guitarzombie | 927]

12 hours ago, Dr. Morbis said:

I agree with all of this; I enjoy the game of cat and mouse you play with the bad guys and no two games are alike.  I was surprised that it was as fun as it was to survive the full length of time.  My only complaints are on the animations of the people's movements and how some of the stuff is drawn; if they could have improved the game cosmetically, I would have nothing at all to complain about.  Home Alone 2 sucks hard, but the first game is fun and unique for the console...

Ok, you're on my list too!

I died on my last life to the final boss of Swamp Thing last night.  So frustrating!  Plus I must be having controller issues or something. There were TWO instances where I jumped over a pit and the screen didn't scroll and I fell straight down, like I hit an invisible wall.  No idea what caused it but that NEVER happened before.  I think this is why I'm having such difficulty in other games.  Anyway I'll finish Swamp Thing later.

[guitarzombie | 927]

Ok now I finished Swamp Thing.  I had to remember how to navigate the last level cleaner, and also get the hang of the jumping off the falling hooks, which to me is the games BIGGEST problem.

[Gaia Gensouki | 1,079]

Swords and Serpents is done.

[the_wizard_666 | 1,325]

I am now apparently America's No. 1 Hustler.  Break Time is now in the bag.  Kinda weird how the ending tells you that the world championship still awaits, but isn't in the game (to my knowledge anyway).  All told, it's a decent pool game, but given the choice, Championship Pool is still the way to go IMO. 

[nerdynebraskan | 356]

Cabal is done.

[NESfiend | 1,517]

Finally knocked off new ghostbusters 2! Second to last boss gave me fits. Finally found a reliable strat. Then the last boss was much easier. Never touched me. First time clear - FUN game

Edited January 26, 2022 by NESfiend

[guitarzombie | 927]

Finished up Return of the Joker.  A tip that if you die at 6-2, you can't get any weapon power ups, and with your default weapon it takes like 200+ hits on Joker to defeat him, while you can only take like 15 hits.  Its easier just to go and replay 6-1 with the password.  This is one of those games where they spent so much time on the music and graphics, in order to actually make the game challenging, they throw so much stupid cheap stuff at the player.  Like having to dodge a projectile or enemy instantly, by forcing you to shoot before you see the enemy.  Or platforms that move so fast, or you falling off of them so fast that you cant react.  Plus if you get hit, you fall backwards VERY far.  So silly.

[nerdynebraskan | 356]

RBI Baseball is done.

[the_wizard_666 | 1,325]

Today's progress: Obviously I finished my "mental break" game, so I started up the next one - Dragon Power.  I'm on Chapter 3, although I know the game gets a LOT harder the further in you go.  As for Bard's Tale, I've completed the sewers, and made it up to level 8, and have done a couple dives into the Catacombs.  I haven't got much in the way of new gear though...aside from finding a Mithril Shield and a Thieves' Dagger (which I can't use due to not having a rogue in my party), I haven't really got much.  I did get a bunch of Gold Rings though, so I was able to level up a bit by doing the 27-zombie fights in the Catacombs and getting double XP from the fights. 

Fun side note, it turns out this month has been my most prolific single month for first time completions, currently at 17.  My previous record was 13 and was set all the way back in January of 2013...oddly enough, that spurt happened in the first 11 days of the month, after which there was a two month gap until my next new completion.  That month also happened to have my best single day, which happened to be New Year's Day, when I got a whopping five new completions.  I doubt I'll be able to replicate that anytime soon, as none of the games were crazy difficult aside from Mighty Final Fight, which I had been working on for a couple weeks up until that point and was already on the cusp of beating it when I fired it up that day.  I'm also on pace to obliterate my best year ever, which was 2012 with 50 new additions.  This thread has literally reinvigorated me with regard to new completions!

[the_wizard_666 | 1,325]

Dragon Power is completed.  Surprisingly not as tough as I remembered it being, but it IS pretty damn frustrating nonetheless due to the wonky ass hit detection.  Another childhood albatross is in the bag.

[Gaia Gensouki | 1,079]

I got a silver medal in Snoopy's Silly Sports Spectacular.

[Gaia Gensouki | 1,079]

I got over a million points on Rollerball, but I didn't see the credits pop up. Is there anything else you have to do or is this enough?

[nerdynebraskan | 356]

11 hours ago, the_wizard_666 said:

 I doubt I'll be able to replicate that anytime soon, as none of the games were crazy difficult aside from Mighty Final Fight, which I had been working on for a couple weeks up until that point and was already on the cusp of beating it when I fired it up that day. 

Umm? I didn't expect to read "crazy difficult" in the same sentence with Mighty Final Fight. I'm guessing my overall skill level is in the bottom half of the hardcore ranks of this subforum, and beat 'em ups aren't my specialty. But I still seem to remember brute-forcing my way through MFF in only a handful of serious attempts. 

[the_wizard_666 | 1,325]

3 hours ago, nerdynebraskan said:

Umm? I didn't expect to read "crazy difficult" in the same sentence with Mighty Final Fight. I'm guessing my overall skill level is in the bottom half of the hardcore ranks of this subforum, and beat 'em ups aren't my specialty. But I still seem to remember brute-forcing my way through MFF in only a handful of serious attempts. 

I don't mean "crazy difficult" as in insanely hard.  I mean it like I didn't beat the game the first time I ever played it.  The other four were Urban Champion, Maxi 15 (the only unique game is "Stakk'M, which is what I counted), Robodemons and Silent Assault.  Urban Champion I had played back in the day, but the rest were completely blind when I fired them up.

[the_wizard_666 | 1,325]

Also, @scaryice seems to have updated the thread while I was posting my last clear, as it's above the line for when he updated the thread but is not represented in the update.  Just mentioning it so it doesn't get overlooked entirely.

[the_wizard_666 | 1,325]

5 hours ago, Gaia Gensouki said:

I got over a million points on Rollerball, but I didn't see the credits pop up. Is there anything else you have to do or is this enough?

Per AdamL's endings guide:

However, if you managed to score over 1,000,000
points in your previous game, instead of going back to the title screen again
it will show game credits in the score boxes! It shows the following: DIRECTOR,
EXEC PRODUCER, PRODUCER, GAME DESIGNERS, GRAPHICS, MUSIC COMPOSERS, PROGRAM-
MERS, TOOLS (not sure if I'd want this credit), DEBUGGERS and a few SPECIAL
THANKS credits. It will then say THANK YOU in the top score box and finally
return to the title screen. I guess it's cool that they put this in there for
scoring over a million points, but wouldn't you rather see this at the end of
your high point scoring game instead of hidden in the opening screens of the
game?

Basically, to see the credits you have to wait until after the high score screen on the title page.  So you got the requirement but didn't notice/know about the way to view the credits.

[bronzeshield | 293]

Still trying on Sky Kid. I've gotten to Level 26 once and Level 25 a few times, including today.

[Strikezone1 | 155]

20 hours ago, NESfiend said:

Finally knocked off new ghostbusters 2! Second to last boss gave me fits. Finally found a reliable strat. Then the last boss was much easier. Never touched me. First time clear - FUN game

Great game for sure. MUCH better than the Activision GB2 version that we got in NA regions!

[Jono1874 | 144]

I completed Mach Rider by the definition of the Pastebin link.

Though, there are actually more tracks after the 10th one and I died on the 11th.

Count it however you think it should be counted.

[Gaia Gensouki | 1,079]

Just beat Thunderbirds. Played it for the first time today and it wasn't bad overall, especially for an 8 point game. However, it had a bunch of flaws that kept it from being an actually good shoot 'em up. For example, the backgrounds are basically just in one or two colors each. In one level everything is made up of puke-green with single dots of black here and there. Or everything is just two or three shades of blue or red. It looks really bland compared to what other games pulled off. And to make matters even worse, most of the enemies or environmental hazards were barely distinguishable from the background! So I had plenty of occasions were I got hit by something, but couldn't figure out what it was, because I couldn't even see it! Something like this had to catch somebody's eye during testing. Or maybe they were in a rush and couldn't fix such issues?

Another frustrating issue of this game was that I often had trouble identifying what was an obstacle that would hurt and what isn't. For example, in some levels you could fly over buildings, hills etc. Meanwhile, in other levels you would get hurt and lose one of your three hit points. Then there was one of the lava levels where I would get hit by driving into a mountain or driving over small lava holes where fire or lava gushes forth every now and then. Because the paths were so narrow I thought that I had to wait until no lava comes out and then move over that. But I would get hit regardless. Or some incoming enemy would hit me (of course they can fly through walls/mountains that I can't pass), drive me into a mountain ridge where I'm unable to escape and lose all of my health in a few seconds!

So it's a fairly messy game with a few issues, but overall it was still sort of okay. This was in part due to the health points and plenty of lives which mitigated some of the rough parts.