Beat every Game Boy game - 2022 - 160/566

[Floating Platforms | 715]

I did some emulator save stating and can confirm that the level count does not loop, but the difficulty does.  Level 21 has the same speed and enemies as level 1.  Level 20 has 8 enemies that you have to defeat within 60 seconds or else the massive spawn of hyper speed enemies will come.  It took tons of save stating to get that done. The enemies definitely seem to be in a fixed path but there are many times where you are guaranteed to die unless you guess correctly.  This is another case (like getting 750,000 in Missile Command or beating 40 stages of Penguin Wars) where I'm not currently convinced that this can be done naturally.  So for my challenge, I will likely do the new mode and then put the old mode into a revisit list.

[Floating Platforms | 715]

Heiankyo Alien is done

Well, new mode is done. It was surprisingly tough for me to wrap my head around the controls of new mode after trying old mode for a few hours. Mechanically they are very different. New mode is overall a much better experience. Far more interesting, far more forgiving and it actually has a discernible ending.  Old mode isn't bad, but it controls are stiffer and has brutally slow speed in the early rounds.  As I said before, I don't think that looping 20 stages is possible naturally, so after beating this tonight, I did one run of old mode for the recording and got to level 5 where I was greeted with unavoidable death (thus proving my point that you need a ton of pure luck to get anywhere).  I've made it to level 8 and will put it on the revisit list to see if anyone suggests I try to hit a specific level or point goal.  For now, I'm calling the game done.

Next up for me is another one that's undocumented as far as I can tell.  Turn & Burn: The F-14 Dogfighting Simulator.  I can't find any records to show how many missions are in the game, or if it is something that is endless and would go to mission 99.  There are no saves or passwords, so likely what will happen is I will spend some time learning how to play the game and then spend a good 6-8 hour session playing missions (and hopefully not dying) to see if there is any sort of ending.

[Floating Platforms | 715]

According to a gamefaqs comment, Turn & Burn for GB has 99 levels and someone claims they used a level select code to test beating level 99 and doing so led them to level 99 again.
I can't find any proof of a level select code to try this out myself but most likely they do eventually repeat goals and that would be the end for me.

Last night, I figured out the landing, but had to stop before finishing my last run. I made it to level 14, which still had unique circumstances.

Mission 9 = 9 targets, 10 missiles, 4 heat seeking
Mission 10 = 10 targets, 10M, 4H
11 = 12, 10, 5
12 = 15, 10, 5
13 = 20, 10, 6
14 = 25, 10, 6

Lives were plentiful but I had to go to bed. Dying/running out of fuel means restarting the level from scratch, so getting 20/25 planes shot down and losing a couple times was a time sink. I have a feeling that 25 targets is the upper limit, but maybe the ammo will change for the better, or maybe worse.

[Floating Platforms | 715]

Level 15 = 25, 12, 8
Level 16 = 25, 12, 10
Level 17 = 25, 12, 10 - the first repeating loadout.

I beat level 16 (took 4.5 hours to get through it all tonight - even though I didn't lose any lives until level 16), so I'm considering this game done as I reached the first repeating conditions.  It may not count for this challenge, and that's okay.  I'm going to take this experience and slowly go through this on emulator using save states to see if there is a legitimate ending.  maybe there's something at 20 or 25. It's such a long playthrough as it is that adding that many more 25 target levels would demand a literal all day effort.  Most likely the levels just do not end, but I'll work on exploring that over time.

The game is actually pretty fun once you get used to how it works. It's also quite easy once you really get the hang of things so after several missions it gets tedious. Half the battle is matching the numbers to get on the same elevation and bearing as your target. It might have been nice to see one more enemy type. The MIG-27 & 29s are basically identical and the transports don't shoot back, they exist solely to waste time & fuel.  Fuel is the biggest concern once you get the hang of landing since the refueling mechanic is very finicky and you have 60 "seconds" total to use it.  The game is all about tiny adjustments. If you see the enemy banking right, do not hold right. Tap it and then tap back to the left to re-center.  Same thing goes for just about everything. back and forth. tap, tap tap. Again, once you get it, you get it and then it's just a matter of going through the motions for as long as you can handle it.

Next up for me (likely Monday) is Mickey's Dangerous Chase.  Yay! A game that isn't completely unknown or has some obnoxious win condition.  Then I get to tackle F-1 Race.

[Floating Platforms | 715]

Mickey's Dangerous Chase is done

It's a pretty fun platformer that I actually beat as a kid (one of the few I owned that I could beat).  I didn't game over until level 5, but thankfully there are unlimited continues. There are a couple of annoying platforming parts, but nothing that's too overwhelming. It's just a nice, relatively easy playthrough where Mickey goes around murdering creatures in order to get back a present instead of just buying another one. You can play as Mickey or Minnie, but I wasn't going to let Minnie be implicated.  It has good sprites, decent level design that let's set up to offer an easier path or a trickier path that offers rewards if you chose. The only boss you face is Pete at the end, so adding some others would have been nice. Still there are worse ways to spend 90 minutes.

Tonight I also started F-1 Race and got through 6 of the 9 courses in Grand Prix.  The 4th one gave me a ton of trouble, but the next two were much more manageable.  We'll see if I can finish that off tomorrow.

[Splain | 2,569]

I'm interested to see what you find out about Turn and Burn, and if the missions level out or otherwise start repeating. I saw that GameFAQs comment, I'm down to adjust the requirement and mark it beaten if 16 is where the missions repeat. The manual doesn't say anything about an ending or overall objective, but it does have a cryptic "Here's thumbs-up in your quest for Top Gun!" at the end. Shrug.

I played Gauntlet II until I saw and killed the dragon. It really didn't feel like I had beaten the game. Not sure what to do about Gauntlet.

And since it's December, even though everything's busy, I've been trying to slam out a few of the titles that I clear every year, like Tetris Blast. Love that game. (recycled photo from last year because I didn't take a new one. But I did use this same SP. )

 

[Floating Platforms | 715]

I think we can still hit 150 this year!

I'll definitely keep you posted on the Turn & Burn thing. I may not get through things before the end of December, but at some point we will hopefully know.  It will take a while to slog through those levels. 25 enemies take a long time to kill.

The other interesting thing is that level select code is likely BS. One of my regulars on stream does deep dives into games finding unused SGB palettes and other quirks. They said there is nothing in the game's code that would accept a sequence of button inputs on the title screen.  You can hit start of course, but it won't recognize or temporarily store anything prior to that, so it seems totally made up (or for a different Turn & Burn game?)

I felt the same way about Gauntlet II.  I killed the dragon a few times but it still felt empty. I have it on my revisit list to get through level 99 someday. But for the sake of the challenge, I still think the dragon goal is good since there is no ending and we don't require 100%

[Floating Platforms | 715]

F-1 Race is done

The race that gave me the most trouble was track 4. That was a good learning experience for some of the different types of turns.  Grand Prix mode has you go through 9 tracks and winning each one to advance. For whatever reason you can't go back and play any of them again through that mode, but thankfully you can keep trying the current track until you win and move on.  I found that to win you cannot crash a single time, so learn the tracks well. Even if you don't crash, boost utilization is key and there's a chance you might not ever catch the first place guy. After each track a Nintendo character surrounded by girls celebrates & waves. Then at the end is the whole parade of them. For such an early game, the graphics are good. The sound effects are a tad annoying, but after 20 seconds a song will come on and play underneath the squealing tires.  It was a fun experience and I'm very glad it wasn't anywhere close to the difficulty of Wave Race.

Next up will be Terminator 2: Judgment Day

[Floating Platforms | 715]

Terminator 2: Judgment Day is done

There's a potential for a good game here, but it's marred by giving the player only one life and no continues to get through the whole experience.  Once you die and learn enough to figure out what to do, the game is only a 15 minute experience. It would have been much better if the levels were maybe a bit tougher but offered power-ups or health replenishment and lives and potential continues. Instead, you have to do the last three levels all in one carried over health bar. You have a level where even the exhaust from the truck hitting your motorcycle causes an instant death. You have to do 3 increasingly difficult Pipe Dream like puzzles in a short amount of time and if you fail twice overall, it's game over.  The graphics are good, the music is good, the controls are solid, but the overall package is kind of bad. I can see the unrealized potential in this game. T2: The Arcade Game was worse, though.

On Monday I'll be starting Cool Spot.  I'm going for best ending, so that means playing on the hardest difficulty and not using any continues while collecting all the letters. I'm already sure it won't be worth it.

[Matt 4120 | 240]

Another 2 down. I think we made it to 150 game beaten this year with these 2.

First is Snoopy's Magic Show:

Screw this game. Kemco made it too hard to be enjoyable, especially in the later levels when they repeat the levels but just add in Snoopy's cousin spike as an enemy. Also the power up you get lasts 10 seconds max, so there are times you won't kill any enemy's because of the stupid time limit. Out of every game I played this year, this one made me the most frustrated, Boxxle is just behind it. It's really a shame because I like the Peanuts, and this could have been so much more. It isn't awful, you can probably have fun with the game up until about the half way mark, but be prepared to get frustrated quite often. It took me 3 days to beat the game.

Also done is Jeopardy! Teen Edition:

Screw this game. Again. It sucks. The music is awful and I had music channels disappear for no reason at times. I will give a pass to the categories, since I would think that it's impossible to make that many topics for a themed game like this, but that sound is a huge no. 

Next I'm going to probably tackle the other 2 Jeopardy versions, and then if I have enough time Balloon Kid and another game I will choose.

Edited December 12, 2022 by Matt 4120

[Splain | 2,569]

Those Jeopardy games are not great lol. I went ahead and knocked out Hatris, which is basically just waiting for a lucky game at higher levels. Love the ending though.

[Floating Platforms | 715]

Congratulations, everybody! It may not be an all-time high but it's not too shabby.

Oh yeah, Snoopy's Magic Show and Teen Tournament were not good. Snoopy relied too much on luck in those late stages and it was incredibly annoying.

I won't reach my goal of beating 50 new ones in 2022 but it will be close (at 41 now).  I did have Qix and Exodus and Wave Race which were over 125 hours combined, so perhaps there's a chance next year.  My moonshot hope is to beat my personal game #200 before the end of the year but without beating anything else, I'd have to get through 64 games. So, I'm still hoping to be good for another couple games this year to whittle that down a bit.

[koifish | 555]

Alas, I disappeared this year, had a lot of other priorities come up. Maybe another year I'll be back and able to crack out some games.

[Matt 4120 | 240]

Another 2 down. 

First is Mickey's Ultimate Quest:

Got stuck on the sliding puzzle for about half an hour. Fun game, I could have seen myself playing this as a kid, just wish it was longer.

Also finished Jeopardy!:

Game is slightly less awful, by having the music actually in tune and 1 less sound channel which makes it sound less shrill. Best one by far for sure, although I still prefer the NES version.

[Floating Platforms | 715]

Okay, so Cool Spot is done in terms of this thread

I beat it on the hardest difficulty and collected all the letters in Uncola but I did use one continue. If the manual is correct (and if it's like what I know of the SNES version), there is a "best" ending if you don't use any continues but collect all the letters.  I think I'll be able to do this the next time I play as the game isn't too incredibly difficult but does require a little bit of learning.  The manual is wrong about other things though (for instance, it says you're collecting letters in the word Virgin instead of Uncola, and it swaps the order of a couple levels).  We'll see.

[goldenpp72 | 1,234]

Surprised I never saw this, I did beat Kirby's Dreamland 2 this year, but that's all I can think of that I didn't use save states on anyways  

[cj_robot | 542]

Beat Torpedo Range. 

 

[Splain | 2,569]

I love Torpedo Range. I'd even call it a Hidden Gem on GB because nobody talks about it. It's admittedly not great for long sessions, but it's great in short bursts, especially with the save battery.

[ScaryD | 237]

I beat Final Fantasy Legend this year (Dec 15th). 

[bronzeshield | 293]

It annoyed me sufficiently to have "beaten" this game a few six (!) years ago, only to discover that it had a definitive ending, that I decided to get it done, end of year or no:

In Your Face is beaten.

The exact win condition is (1) to play 2-on-2 matches to 25 points, which is the only way to trigger tournament mode, and (2) to win 5 of those matches in a row. (Draws are possible in timed games but not in this mode, which is probably why they forced you into it.)

So, the win condition is "Win five consecutive 2-on-2 matches with "Time or Score" set to 25 points", something like that. I don't think losers out vs. winners out matters. And it has a multi-screen ending, not just a single congratulations screen, though I don't remember any credits.

Honestly, once you get into the groove of the game's weird logic, it's fairly playable and not as random as johncarls says in his video description. The shots appear to be timing-based, and I got the timing down -- tap B twice, not too quick, not too slow -- and generally took them at an angle just outside the paint, eventually getting a pretty high percentage. 

The main thing is that the game is all about stealing and passing. The CPU is an absolute beast so you have to take every advantage you can get. It's crucial to keep the ball out of the CPU's possession as much as possible, because it's not subject to realism in terms of percentages, and can drain shots from anywhere on court. Maybe you can too, but the timing is too finicky to risk it. Dunking didn't work well for me.

Instead, my approach: when the CPU has possession at the start of the point, it will consistently try to pass after about a second, and you can steal the ball time and again as long as you track where the other CPU player was at the start of the point.

Meanwhile, when you start with possession, pass immediately to your teammate and the CPU generally won't intercept. Otherwise the CPU player will be all over you and you often won't make it two steps past the center line before you've lost the ball. Then fire off a shot just outside the front corner of the paint (SSE or SSW) and it'll usually go in if your timing is "on".

I was able to thrash the next-to-last opponent using this strategy, 25-13, but the last opponent was discernibly tougher. I barely won, and had to vary up the "immediate pass" strategy when I had possession.

Passing at the slightest sign of trouble was the key, but my players screwed up a lot of passes in that last match and threw the ball out of bounds. The CPU just absolutely saturates you -- it's faster than you and will steal instantly, including when you're mid-layup -- but stealing that first pass gives you a good chance to creep ahead, as I did.

Anyway, In Your Face stinks in a few different ways, but it's more playable than it seems at first, and the fact that it has an ending makes its existence marginally more justified. I only had to sink about 100 minutes into it this time around to beat it.

Edited December 27, 2022 by bronzeshield

[Floating Platforms | 715]

21 hours ago, bronzeshield said:

It annoyed me sufficiently to have "beaten" this game a few six (!) years ago, only to discover that it had a definitive ending, that I decided to get it done, end of year or no:

In Your Face is beaten.

Very nice!  Sorry about that "discovery."  I have a feeling that there are going to be a few more revelations that pop up as we all sift through everything.

I'm actually going to be taking on this game pretty early next year too. It won my sports raffle, so it'll be the 5th one I play.

Oh, and just a quick update on Turn & Burn - progress is slow on the emulation run through so we won't have a definitive answer by year's end. I do hope to keep trying to chisel away at it during lunch breaks

[bronzeshield | 293]

2 minutes ago, Floating Platforms said:

Very nice!  Sorry about that "discovery."  I have a feeling that there are going to be a few more revelations that pop up as we all sift through everything.

Oh, to be very clear, I'm extremely glad (and grateful) that you found that out! If I haven't actually beaten a game, I definitely want to know -- and a game with a definitive ending is so much more satisfying than one without one.

I hope my strategy guide is of use, if you allow yourself to check such things. I honestly didn't find the game too difficult once I tuned into the key tactics, but I think the last match will likely be nasty no matter what.

[Splain | 2,569]

Great job! This is the good stuff, hammering out the exact win conditions for less-popular games.

Speaking of which, I was playing Breakthru! like I do every year, and the win condition is that the game loops after level 6-4. I took that from the SNES thread since the GB version looks to be identical. But I played a bit after the loop and there are definitely some changes to the game, it's not a true loop. There are more colors of tiles on the board, up from the hard ceiling of 4 on whatever mode is the default. Also, clearing a color off the board no longer prevents new tiles of that color from falling in. I made some ok progress in that mode but I didn't beat it. I found an Action Replay code for No Time Limit that I might use just to see if there's an ending, and I sorta bet there is.

Also, obligatory annual question: any changes we should make to the thread for next year?

[Floating Platforms | 715]

17 hours ago, bronzeshield said:

Oh, to be very clear, I'm extremely glad (and grateful) that you found that out! If I haven't actually beaten a game, I definitely want to know -- and a game with a definitive ending is so much more satisfying than one without one.

Cool. I'm the same way. It can be frustrating with an annoying game (like learning Alfred Chicken has a best ending), but as long as it means there's no question I've done everything, it's for the best.

 

10 hours ago, Splain said:

Speaking of which, I was playing Breakthru! like I do every year, and the win condition is that the game loops after level 6-4. I took that from the SNES thread since the GB version looks to be identical. But I played a bit after the loop and there are definitely some changes to the game, it's not a true loop. There are more colors of tiles on the board, up from the hard ceiling of 4 on whatever mode is the default. Also, clearing a color off the board no longer prevents new tiles of that color from falling in. I made some ok progress in that mode but I didn't beat it. I found an Action Replay code for No Time Limit that I might use just to see if there's an ending, and I sorta bet there is.

I know nothing about BreakThru but I searched youtube and saw the "longplay".  In this one, they stopped after that, but it showed a 2 over Berlin on the loop, which does indicate that there could be more.  But the SNES does the same thing and I couldn't find any videos of someone trying a second loop of that or trying to max out score. Do you happen to have the manual for this game to see if that would give a clue? The SNES one is available online and indicates that future loops are higher difficulties of the "world tour," but doesn't specifically say there is an ending.

Gamefaqs also mentions as stage select for the GB version - "From the title screen, choose "Options" then "Credits". Press B, A, A, B, B, A, and at the "Special Thanks To" screen of the credits roll a sound will play, confirming code entry. Start a new game. At any time, hold Start and press A/B go to the previous/next level, respectively. The game will also pause because of the Start Button being used, so be sure to unpause gameplay." If that works, it could be faster than the no time limit - or combine their powers

10 hours ago, Splain said:

Also, obligatory annual question: any changes we should make to the thread for next year?

Honestly I can't really think of anything. I'm hoping we'll get a couple more people back into the fold next year and maybe get closer to 200 complete again

[bronzeshield | 293]

Just on a lark -- and because I've been focusing intermittently on early Game Boy games -- I beat the Japanese exclusive Popeye (DMG-PYA):

This has to be one of the worst-designed Pac-Man descendants I've ever seen. Success in the last few levels (of Course C) is entirely RNG-dependent.

At least they provided unlimited continues; the game would be a crime without them. Well, it already is a crime, but it'd be more of one.

Apropos early Game Boy games, I've been tinkering with Blodia and the fan translation of Ayakashi no Shiro -- both Japanese exclusives -- but they're clearly going to span multiple years at this point. Not sure if I have it in me to deal with the later levels of Blodia; the first 25 are taxing enough, and not entirely in a good way.