Gaia Gensouki | 1,075 Posted February 24, 2022 Share Posted February 24, 2022 I needed a break from NES games, but finally tackled another one. I replayed StarTropics, which I actually enjoyed even more than last the last time. However, it still has some bullshit difficulty and "gotcha moments" every now and then. Despite all that, I would definitely rank it among the better NES games out of the ones that I've played so far. If no one's playing it right now, I would like to tackle the sequel as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the_wizard_666 | 1,325 Posted February 24, 2022 Share Posted February 24, 2022 4 hours ago, Gaia Gensouki said: I needed a break from NES games, but finally tackled another one. I replayed StarTropics, which I actually enjoyed even more than last the last time. However, it still has some bullshit difficulty and "gotcha moments" every now and then. Despite all that, I would definitely rank it among the better NES games out of the ones that I've played so far. If no one's playing it right now, I would like to tackle the sequel as well. I was thinking about tackling Zoda, since it's on my "childhood albatross" list, but I wanted to do the first game first, kinda like I did with the Golgo 13 games. As such, now that part 1 is beaten, it's slipped down my list significantly. In other words, go nuts, and good luck to you! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nerdynebraskan | 356 Posted February 24, 2022 Share Posted February 24, 2022 6 hours ago, Gaia Gensouki said: I needed a break from NES games, but finally tackled another one. I replayed StarTropics, which I actually enjoyed even more than last the last time. However, it still has some bullshit difficulty and "gotcha moments" every now and then. Despite all that, I would definitely rank it among the better NES games out of the ones that I've played so far. If no one's playing it right now, I would like to tackle the sequel as well. There's a lot of good things about StarTropics, but I was shocked at how many of those bullshit gotcha moments there were. I clung to walkthroughs and maps and played it extremely conservatively when I got through it for this challenge a few years ago. I was in constant anxiety of having to repeat dungeons, and often did have to do so via game overs. I really wasn't expecting a first-party Nintendo title to be so brutal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gaia Gensouki | 1,075 Posted February 24, 2022 Share Posted February 24, 2022 @the_wizard_666 Sorry, I skimmed through the previous posts to see what people were playing and I didn't see this one being mentioned. Are there maybe other games that you would like to go through? @nerdynebraskan Yes, I can fully understand that. I also had to do a few dungeons over and over again even though it's my second playthrough. The first one was even rougher. But at least I still had fun playing this game and that kept me going. Some games are just difficult, but not particularly fun which makes them hard to play through. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the_wizard_666 | 1,325 Posted February 24, 2022 Share Posted February 24, 2022 2 hours ago, Gaia Gensouki said: @the_wizard_666 Sorry, I skimmed through the previous posts to see what people were playing and I didn't see this one being mentioned. Are there maybe other games that you would like to go through? That's because I never mentioned them I have dozens of games I want to play but I'm not gonna call dibs on something I may not get to for months. I mention when I start a game, but not before that. No hard feelings And yeah, there's others I'm looking at, but again, I may or may not hit them any time soon, so I don't wanna call them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nerdynebraskan | 356 Posted February 25, 2022 Share Posted February 25, 2022 AD&D: Heroes of the Lance is done. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NESfiend | 1,515 Posted February 25, 2022 Share Posted February 25, 2022 (edited) Empire Strikes back is done. This game should be a 10 whether its the first beat or the last. I love the game and regard it as a masterpiece, but it is relentless. Even knowing exactly where to go and what to do, executing is hard. Snow day today helped me get over the hump, but Ive been at it a while despite having beaten it a few times before. Too bad the ROTJ game they teased never came to fruition Edited February 25, 2022 by NESfiend 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the_wizard_666 | 1,325 Posted February 25, 2022 Share Posted February 25, 2022 Progress Report: Krusty's Fun House - Just managed to FINALLY get the second password. @nerdynebraskan wasn't kidding that the game gets hard fast! Krusy is extremely floaty to control, and several stages required fast and precise movements to execute. I haven't had issues with lives yet, but I'm sure that'll come in due course. Still, progress is happening, though it may take longer than I had initially thought...if it's getting this tough already, what's the 5th stage gonna be like? And for my secondary game, to give me a bit of a break, I started up Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. This one's another on my "childhood albatross" list, as I rented it several times, and actually managed to get pretty far in it, but never did beat it. Totally enjoy the game, but it's definitely not gonna be a fast completion. I just beat Little John before calling it for the day, so there's been some good progression so far. Here's hoping I can continue having a great run tomorrow! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crabmaster2000 | 501 Posted February 25, 2022 Share Posted February 25, 2022 Have we ever discussed why the Galaga win condition is clearing Stage 3? Shouldn't it be clearing Stage 31 since that is the last of the 8 different challenge stages and it introduces a new enemy type. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the_wizard_666 | 1,325 Posted February 25, 2022 Share Posted February 25, 2022 And we have another dead albatross. Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves is in the bag. Game's actually much easier than I remember, especially the duels. There's only one or two where you can't stay in a safe position, but if you maintain high health before the duel, you'll have no trouble. The only things that pissed me off were the archer enemies...they could drain your health so goddamn quickly! But aside from that, it's still a great game. Highly recommended! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nerdynebraskan | 356 Posted February 26, 2022 Share Posted February 26, 2022 (edited) Alien 3 is done. EDIT: This puts me over 500 points for my fifth straight year, and sixth time overall. No one has ever scored 500 points in this challenge and finished lower than second place, which is kind of interesting to me given how many points are still on the board. @Gaia Gensoukiand @the_wizard_666could both eclipse me right now with more than 1000 points to spare. My score so far this year is the 10th highest in the history of the points era, and I should pass my 2016 runner-up effort by the end of the weekend. Edited February 26, 2022 by nerdynebraskan 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the_wizard_666 | 1,325 Posted February 26, 2022 Share Posted February 26, 2022 3 hours ago, nerdynebraskan said: Alien 3 is done. EDIT: This puts me over 500 points for my fifth straight year, and sixth time overall. No one has ever scored 500 points in this challenge and finished lower than second place, which is kind of interesting to me given how many points are still on the board. @Gaia Gensoukiand @the_wizard_666could both eclipse me right now with more than 1000 points to spare. My score so far this year is the 10th highest in the history of the points era, and I should pass my 2016 runner-up effort by the end of the weekend. It's already my best year by far as well. Although I've ranked on the all-time completions board, a good chunk of that is because I founded the thread, I've never had anywhere near the output I have this year, and it's only two months in. Funny enough though, is that I'm #18 on the most completions list, despite not having participated in the thread since 2016...ain't nobody stepped up in that time? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the_wizard_666 | 1,325 Posted February 26, 2022 Share Posted February 26, 2022 So I just played (and won) my first game of Bases Loaded, and although the wins are pretty much guaranteed if you use the "pitching trick" outlined in the FAQ (never played the game before and pitched a no-hitter on my first attempt), I highly doubt I'm gonna play through 79 more games to clinch the pennant. Game's okay, but it's such a damn time sink to get through it! Unless someone has a quick method for accumulating wins, I don't think I'm playing this one through to the end. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gaia Gensouki | 1,075 Posted February 26, 2022 Share Posted February 26, 2022 Just finished Zoda's Revenge: Startropics 2. Back when I played Startropics 1 and 2 for the first time I remember slightly preferring the second game over the first since the controls were a bit better and because the time travelling was quite fun. However, this time around I somehow ended up liking the first game a bit more. A big reason for that is that the dungeons in the first game felt more creative to me. There were a lot of memorable parts about the dungeons where you had to find secret pathways or make your way through interestingly designed dungeon rooms. Most rooms felt unique in the first game, whereas in the second game most dungeon rooms were just plain floors with a bunch of enemies to kill. It's like they ran out of ideas or didn't have enough time to think of something, so they just put whatever into the game. Don't get me wrong though. Zoda's Revenge is still a fun game, but the first one is a more memorable adventure, imho. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gaia Gensouki | 1,075 Posted February 26, 2022 Share Posted February 26, 2022 Ghostbusters is done as well! I nailed the stairway and Gozer on my first try this time around! But in order to do this I grinded quite a bit to buy that Sound Generator and the Anti-Ghost Suit which slow down the ghosts and give you extra lives or HP. I also went pretty slowly and maybe also had quite a bit of luck with how the ghosts were moving. Still, the staircase is pretty horrible, especially without turbo buttons. And honestly they're the one part about this game that I really dislike. Because otherwise it wouldn't be that bad. Driving around, busting ghosts, buying equipment and beating Gozer is actually pretty alright. It's just the stairs that drag this game down. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nerdynebraskan | 356 Posted February 26, 2022 Share Posted February 26, 2022 @Gaia Gensouki Does Zoda's Revenge have as many of the obnoxious "Gotcha!" moments as the first StarTropics? It's been on my list to play for a couple of years now, but I've sort of dreaded it ever since actually beating the first StarTropics and being stunned by how frustrating it was. But more importantly... You LEGITIMATELY beat Ghostbusters, and without a turbo controller?! Holy shit! I've even bought the sound generator to slow them down before, but I didn't find it to be that much help. The ghosts on the staircase just move in such an erratic pattern that I can't imagine ever reaching Gozer on the rooftop without being dropped dozens of times. I've beaten the game a few times for this thread, but only by exploiting the 255 lives on the stairs glitch (and even that isn't easy to trigger). Ghostbusters was one of my first five NES games, and I'm so bittersweet-to-disappointed with what we got. I love the movies, and grew up with the spinoff cartoon and a bunch of the toys as well. I have a degree of nostalgia for the game, as I did play quite a bit of it growing up. I do still get a bit of a kick out of the 8-bit rendition of the Ghostbusters theme song. But as an adult I can't help but see a lackluster concept dragged down further by execution that is so-so at best. I think the developers did actually see the movie, and want to produce something that was true to the source material. That's admirable, and actually pretty rare for licensed tie-in games of that era. But the developers for some reason decided to focus in on the working-stiff drudgery of the first act of the movie. It's pretty much Small Businessman: The Game, where you just drive around the city alternating between doing gigs, buying more equipment, and even stopping for gas when you need more fuel. And there is no variety in appearance or behavior to the ghosts you bust on the gig part. The game turns out to be as tedious as having a real job. The infamous staircase stage is the height of this misguided loyalty to the source material. It's funny in the movie to see these four average, middle-aged guys huffing and puffing up 20 flights of stairs while weighed down with all of their equipment. It's tedious and awful in the game to mash buttons in desperation as your players barely move in an enormous area crawling with enemies they can't fight. The developers took liberties with the final showdown with Gozer, turning the climactic confrontation into a dynamic dodge-and-shoot action stage that is far busier than its counterpart scene in the movie (or anything else in the game, for that matter), but it actually makes the final boss better because we're in a video game. I wish they would have done something similar in the stairs: more enemies, easier movement, but you can shoot back with your proton packs. When I want an old-school Ghostbusters fix, I would much rather play either NES version of Ghostbusters II or the Genesis game. Run-and-shoot against a diverse array of paranormal foes while wielding iconic weaponry? Yes, please! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nerdynebraskan | 356 Posted February 26, 2022 Share Posted February 26, 2022 Clash at Demonhead is done. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gaia Gensouki | 1,075 Posted February 27, 2022 Share Posted February 27, 2022 @nerdynebraskan Startropics 2 has definitely less of those unfair moments and it's mostly a bit easier although it ramps up quite a lot near the end. As for Ghostbusters, this is actually the second time that I beat it for this challenge, but the last time was already a while ago. That's why I was so surprised that I amde it through the staircase level so quickly. Previously I died repeatedly and then had to earn money again for that noise machine and the ghost armor. It was super annoying and took many, many tries, but this time around it was thankfully rather painless. But I can understand that this must have been a really disappointing game back in the day. On another note: I beat Adventure Island II. However, I collected the Hudson Bee. It was mentioned in the manual, so I hope that it's okay. The last world took longer than all other seven worlds combined. I easily spent around 6 hours for the final few levels and the final boss. They're really annoying and quite unfair, because you barely get any power-ups and still have to make your way through up to a dozen of very difficult levels. However, I later found a trick as to how I could reduce the number of levels that I have to play. The next level you have to tackle seems to be decided by which egg you're collecting at the end of a level during the bonus game. I found out that you only have to do 4 levels before going to the boss level by collecting certain eggs, i.e. during 8-1, 8-2 and 8-3 you want to collect the third egg that's coming down and during 8-4 collect the second egg. Alternatively you could collect the second egg on level 8-3 and then the third egg on the next level. This alternate route is a bit more difficult, but you can collect another axe power-up. Sorry, if this sounds a bit confusing, but before finding out this trick I usually had to do 6 or 7 levels before even getting to the boss levels which means that I would lose more lives and power-ups before even getting a chance at beating the final boss. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bronzeshield | 293 Posted February 27, 2022 Share Posted February 27, 2022 Just for the record, I think all completions of Ghostbusters are legit, whether or not they trigger the 255 health glitch. A glitch that can be triggered through 100% routine gameplay never delegitimizes any attempt (not that I'm saying @nerdynebraskan is making any such claim). The case of Ghostbusters is especially extreme as you'd need to avoid using a needed gameplay resource in order to be sure of avoiding the glitch -- in other words, you'd have to avoid playing the game as intended. You don't even get an onscreen health bar display to tell you when you're on the edge of it! Not the player's fault the designers screwed up (in about five different ways -- for the most part, the SMS port wipes the floor with the NES version). Meanwhile, progress continues in Dragon Warrior III. I'm at the Cave of Necrogond and have been grinding there, finding my way around while trying not to use a map. Up to Level 32 or so, but those Marauders and Hologhosts are still a nightmare to deal with! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nerdynebraskan | 356 Posted February 27, 2022 Share Posted February 27, 2022 (edited) Jurassic Park is done. With this completion, I edge past my second-place effort in 2016 to claim the ninth-best score in the history of this competition. Am I perhaps a bit too obsessed with the statistics of this thread? You bet Jurass(-ic) I am! Edited February 27, 2022 by nerdynebraskan 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the_wizard_666 | 1,325 Posted February 28, 2022 Share Posted February 28, 2022 Haven't been playing much, so there hasn't been much progress to report. Pretty much in the midst of a move, gotta be out by Tuesday, so yeah, not much happening. I did play through two more games of Bases Loaded, so I'm now at 3-0, but I'm likely not gonna play more than a game or two a day of that. If anyone wants to take it, go nuts...just doing it more because an 80-win grind is gonna take forever, so I may as well chip away for my personal list when I don't feel like much else. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gaia Gensouki | 1,075 Posted February 28, 2022 Share Posted February 28, 2022 Defender of the Crown is done. I did over a dozen tries and I don't really know why this attempt was more successful than the others. It seems like there's quite a bit of randomness involved. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nerdynebraskan | 356 Posted February 28, 2022 Share Posted February 28, 2022 (edited) Muppet Adventure: Chaos at the Carnival is done. I've also started The Lone Ranger again. Should be done in the next few days. Edited March 1, 2022 by nerdynebraskan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nerdynebraskan | 356 Posted March 2, 2022 Share Posted March 2, 2022 (edited) Gyromite is done. And I have finally reached the final five puzzles (the Castle) in Lolo 2. I got through either four or all five puzzles on Floor 9 tonight. I've still only resorted to Internet help on two of the 45 puzzles completed. Edited March 2, 2022 by nerdynebraskan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NESfiend | 1,515 Posted March 2, 2022 Share Posted March 2, 2022 On 2/28/2022 at 3:36 AM, the_wizard_666 said: Haven't been playing much, so there hasn't been much progress to report. Pretty much in the midst of a move, gotta be out by Tuesday, so yeah, not much happening. I did play through two more games of Bases Loaded, so I'm now at 3-0, but I'm likely not gonna play more than a game or two a day of that. If anyone wants to take it, go nuts...just doing it more because an 80-win grind is gonna take forever, so I may as well chip away for my personal list when I don't feel like much else. You are a champ to take on bases loaded. I have done BL2 the last couple years and your strategy is about right imo. The games are very winnable generally. I found playing 2-3 games at night when I was 50% asleep to be just perfect. Too tired to succeed at much of anything else, but still have something to do half asleep to the news or a seinfeld rerun. Enjoyable when you are out of gas. However you do it, I doubt you will have anyone wanting to take it from you. Really nice of you to take that on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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