Floating Platforms | 713 Posted August 21, 2022 Share Posted August 21, 2022 I've never been able to contribute to this thread before since most of my retro time is spent playing Game Boy games, but it looks like I finished one that hasn't been tackled yet! Battle of Olympus is done! I put my thoughts into the Backlog Challenge thread so I won't repeat them here, but I'm happy I was able to finally sit myself down and conquer it. 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scaryice | 583 Posted August 21, 2022 Author Share Posted August 21, 2022 2 hours ago, Floating Platforms said: Battle of Olympus is done! I put my thoughts into the Backlog Challenge thread so I won't repeat them here, but I'm happy I was able to finally sit myself down and conquer it. Definitely one of the most overrated NES games at this point! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the_wizard_666 | 1,325 Posted August 21, 2022 Share Posted August 21, 2022 12 hours ago, scaryice said: Definitely one of the most overrated NES games at this point! What? I thoroughly enjoyed my playthrough, although that was ages ago. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Floating Platforms | 713 Posted August 21, 2022 Share Posted August 21, 2022 12 hours ago, scaryice said: Definitely one of the most overrated NES games at this point! I can understand where you're coming from. I would still call my playthrough positive overall, but it could use some tweaks to those hit boxes and get rid of the trolling parts of an already nasty last level Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Khromak | 768 Posted August 23, 2022 Share Posted August 23, 2022 X-Men is done, a first completion for me and I must say, I have got some opinions about this one... The idea that this game is a compete dud or bomb is overblown in my opinion. It can be unfair, the AI is totally useless, and the hit detection has some wonkiness. The mazes aren't bad, there aren't many dead ends and you can quickly find the correct path. If you read the manual you'll be fine That said, it's actually a decent little action game, or you could even consider it a shooter. And for what it's worth, I beat many levels with the melee characters, so they're not as bad as many people make them out to be. It's still not a good game, but not nearly as bad as most people say. I'd give it maybe a 6/10. With a friend, it's probably pretty easy to beat with a little practice. Losing a character each level to the NPC dying is brutal. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bronzeshield | 293 Posted August 24, 2022 Share Posted August 24, 2022 22 hours ago, Khromak said: X-Men is done, a first completion for me and I must say, I have got some opinions about this one... The idea that this game is a compete dud or bomb is overblown in my opinion. It can be unfair, the AI is totally useless, and the hit detection has some wonkiness. The mazes aren't bad, there aren't many dead ends and you can quickly find the correct path. If you read the manual you'll be fine That said, it's actually a decent little action game, or you could even consider it a shooter. And for what it's worth, I beat many levels with the melee characters, so they're not as bad as many people make them out to be. It's still not a good game, but not nearly as bad as most people say. I'd give it maybe a 6/10. With a friend, it's probably pretty easy to beat with a little practice. Losing a character each level to the NPC dying is brutal. Totally agreed. There are some real mistakes in the level design -- there's one spot in Magneto's level where it's possible to fall victim to a near-instant kill -- and there are other obvious flaws like the forced AI companion (why?!), the wonky hit detection (though I'm used to it), the fact that you have to spend so much time farming for invincibility items, and the fact that you can just walk away from boss battles. That said, there is an actual, playable game here -- one that I've beaten a bunch of times without too much difficulty, and almost beat BITD with no help. It's frustrating, I'd probably give it 4/10, but there are a ton of NES games I'd be much more hesitant to revisit than this one. If it didn't have the X-Men license attached it wouldn't get half the criticism it does. And the complaints about the "label puzzle" are overblown -- it's very easy to solve if you pay attention to the red text (you don't even need all of it), and I figured it out for myself back in the 1990s. The problem is that the conditions for triggering the red text are pretty obscure, though if this had been a Japanese-exclusive game with anime characters (which it probably was going to be until it got repurposed into an X-Men game), those conditions would be part of the game's well-established lore. As it stands, we didn't know the trigger until a few years ago. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bronzeshield | 293 Posted August 24, 2022 Share Posted August 24, 2022 BTW I'm working on Ultimate Stuntman, though very sporadically. It's on my list of "games I need to beat again", so I mean to see it through, and it has infinite continues so it should be doable with persistence. Unfortunately it doesn't play nicely with my EverDrive so I have to emulate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Khromak | 768 Posted August 24, 2022 Share Posted August 24, 2022 4 hours ago, bronzeshield said: And the complaints about the "label puzzle" are overblown -- it's very easy to solve if you pay attention to the red text (you don't even need all of it) I noticed that I had some red text saying "To reach the final level" or something...but never managed to trigger it more than once in a single run. What are the conditions exactly? Are they known? How much of a hint does it give? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Khromak | 768 Posted August 24, 2022 Share Posted August 24, 2022 Found the answer myself, very interesting. And yeah, the answer is actually there, albeit very difficult to find. Basically, you would need to share notes with your friends on the bus to find this, most likely. https://tcrf.net/X-Men_(NES) 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bronzeshield | 293 Posted August 24, 2022 Share Posted August 24, 2022 (edited) 33 minutes ago, Khromak said: Found the answer myself, very interesting. And yeah, the answer is actually there, albeit very difficult to find. Basically, you would need to share notes with your friends on the bus to find this, most likely. https://tcrf.net/X-Men_(NES) I figured it out all by my lonesome! Honestly, all you really need is this: Once you get that clue, which you'll eventually do if you play that level enough times and kill enough of the "special" enemies, you take a look at the label and see this: The "plus" at the beginning gives it away: there's a missing button, and based on the ordering, chances are it's either Select + B + Up, or A + B + Up. BTW it's interesting that breaking the fourth wall seems to be a "thing" with X-Men games. The Genesis game also requires you to press an unexpected button to reach the final part of the game! Edited August 24, 2022 by bronzeshield 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nerdynebraskan | 345 Posted August 25, 2022 Share Posted August 25, 2022 Portopia Renzoku Satsujin Jiken AKA The Portopia Serial Murder Case is done. It was kind of an interesting story, and the twist ending was cool, but it was still bogged down in a cryptic point-and-click interface. The maze at the end was huge and complicated. Still, I figured one of these games with a walkthrough was a mellow way to spend my evening. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nerdynebraskan | 345 Posted August 25, 2022 Share Posted August 25, 2022 I may start Carmen Sandiego in the next few days, unless someone is already on it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scaryice | 583 Posted August 26, 2022 Author Share Posted August 26, 2022 On 8/24/2022 at 7:36 PM, nerdynebraskan said: Portopia Renzoku Satsujin Jiken AKA The Portopia Serial Murder Case is done. Still gotta finish this one. I got stuck at some point and I didn't want to use a guide, so I'll get back to it eventually. Also, am I stupid, or can we no longer center text on this site? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mbd39 | 2,017 Posted August 26, 2022 Share Posted August 26, 2022 I almost beat Bump n Jump. I reached the last level with three lives, but I forgot how to do the platforms before the final boss and game over'd. I'll probably have this wrapped up soon. 5 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nerdynebraskan | 345 Posted August 27, 2022 Share Posted August 27, 2022 Carmen Sandiego is really frustrating. I've made no mistakes and still run out of time on more cases than I've successfully been able to solve. And in the cases where you make any mistakes, you're totally fucked. Am I missing something playing this? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Red | 435 Posted August 27, 2022 Share Posted August 27, 2022 I played through Fantasy Zone. A pretty bad port. I'll add this to the list of NES games that I think the SMS version is better. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the_wizard_666 | 1,325 Posted August 27, 2022 Share Posted August 27, 2022 A bit late, but I also really don't mind X-Men. It's not great, but I remember renting it a few times when I had friends sleeping over back in the day. Never got very far back then, but we all still enjoyed it. It's ass solo though...but yeah, with a friend it's not the worst game to spend a weekend with. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tulpa | 3,488 Posted August 27, 2022 Share Posted August 27, 2022 13 minutes ago, the_wizard_666 said: A bit late, but I also really don't mind X-Men. It's not great, but I remember renting it a few times when I had friends sleeping over back in the day. Never got very far back then, but we all still enjoyed it. It's ass solo though...but yeah, with a friend it's not the worst game to spend a weekend with. I think a lot of "bad" games are better when you have a buddy to slog through them with. You can have some janky fun with that game, though there's still a LOT of bullshit elements to it. But it's also got some unique things to it. Wolverine NES is objectively better, but other than the Marvel characters, it's about as generic a platformer as you can get, and somehow more boring than X-Men IMO. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the_wizard_666 | 1,325 Posted August 27, 2022 Share Posted August 27, 2022 48 minutes ago, Tulpa said: I think a lot of "bad" games are better when you have a buddy to slog through them with. You can have some janky fun with that game, though there's still a LOT of bullshit elements to it. But it's also got some unique things to it. Wolverine NES is objectively better, but other than the Marvel characters, it's about as generic a platformer as you can get, and somehow more boring than X-Men IMO. Yeah, I wasn't very impressed with Wolverine either. I did enjoy Spider-Man though, if you haven't given it a go. It's flawed, but I thought it did a good job with the license, all things considered. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tulpa | 3,488 Posted August 27, 2022 Share Posted August 27, 2022 (edited) 25 minutes ago, the_wizard_666 said: Yeah, I wasn't very impressed with Wolverine either. I did enjoy Spider-Man though, if you haven't given it a go. It's flawed, but I thought it did a good job with the license, all things considered. Only issues I have with Spider-Man is the controls are a little wonky (though not impossible) and it's a little short compared to other games of its genre. Otherwise it's not terrible, and the music is dark and moody (could use some variety, though.) Yeah, for a Spider-Man game, it's probably the best you were going to see on NES. Edited August 27, 2022 by Tulpa 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tulpa | 3,488 Posted August 27, 2022 Share Posted August 27, 2022 On 8/11/2022 at 8:23 PM, Khromak said: M.C. Kids is done. A lot of people say it's like smb2/3 and while they share some mechanics, the control is way too sloppy to compare them. I do like the secrets and the game design in general though, always a fun one Yeah, I agree that there's some passing resemblance to the Mario games, but I think people conflated that with "It's just like SMB 2! (or 3!)" No, it isn't. But it does have some neat aspects, and I kind of wish the more games played around with the gravity reversal like this one and Metal Storm did. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the_wizard_666 | 1,325 Posted August 28, 2022 Share Posted August 28, 2022 22 hours ago, Tulpa said: Only issues I have with Spider-Man is the controls are a little wonky (though not impossible) and it's a little short compared to other games of its genre. Otherwise it's not terrible, and the music is dark and moody (could use some variety, though.) Yeah, for a Spider-Man game, it's probably the best you were going to see on NES. Agreed. Obviously I would've liked something better, but that likely wasn't achievable on the NES...I mean, maybe it could've been polished a bit more, but what we got was pretty alright overall. I enjoyed it when I rented it, and again when I played it for my completion list. And yeah, it's short, but it still took a bit of work to master it...I died at Doc Ock and had to restart more times than I'd care to admit...and at those times, I'm glad for the short run time. Compared with Captain America, which objectively is a much better game, it's far less frustrating to get thrown back to the start of Spidey due to it being pretty quick and relatively painless to get back. Even The Punisher, a personal favourite of mine, takes an hour to run through, so a game over on Kingpin is pretty deflating IMO. Anything under a half hour though, I'm okay with it being a bit more difficult...even if most of the difficulty is the wonky controls Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mbd39 | 2,017 Posted August 28, 2022 Share Posted August 28, 2022 Bump n Jump done for another year. 6 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Khromak | 768 Posted September 2, 2022 Share Posted September 2, 2022 Solstice is done. I've beaten it before for this contest but maybe only one or twice. It's a really fun game and very challenging, definitely recommend it. Some of the end parts can be very tricky and/or require potions, which seems a bit cheesy, but if you're conservative about using them or follow a guide to make sure you don't overuse, it's OK. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tablew/chairs | 242 Posted September 4, 2022 Share Posted September 4, 2022 Temple of doom finished, I feel like I’m the only one that likes this game Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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