Beat every Game Boy game - 2022 - 160/566

[Matt 4120 | 240]

I beat one more game today, this time it's Super R.C. Pro-Am.

Despite being on the Gameboy, its actually pretty playable with the occasional slow down here and there. I usually don't do great at the Pro-Am games, and today wasn't an exception, but I had more fun than I expected.

 

[Splain | 2,569]

FINE, I'll update the thread that I voluntarily started and keep saying I'll do better with. I even added bonus points for @MagusSmurf 's Mega Man games and @Matt 4120 's Mario Land games.

I beat Tesserae, as I do every year. I really do like this game. It's a great tile puzzler, with a steep learning curve and a charming victory screen.

[Matt 4120 | 240]

Adventure Island 2: Aliens In Paradise is done. Not much of an ending compared to other games, although the credits were nice.

This game was really challenging. There would be times where I would spend 30 minutes to an hour on certain levels, especially in worlds 5 and 6, it was pretty miserable. After a while it wasn't so bad, and overall I had fun.

[MagusSmurf | 577]

I beat Wario Blast and GBC Pocket Bomberman this weekend. Don’t think the latter game is any different beyond the color?

Also, I beat Mega Man V a few weeks ago. woohoo half a point. @Philosoraptor prepare to meet your match!

[Philosoraptor | 468]

18 minutes ago, MagusSmurf said:

I beat Wario Blast and GBC Pocket Bomberman this weekend. Don’t think the latter game is any different beyond the color?

Also, I beat Mega Man V a few weeks ago. woohoo half a point. @Philosoraptor prepare to meet your match!

I haven't beaten a single Mega Man game in my life. In those regards, you're already ahead! Great clears, @MagusSmurf!

[Floating Platforms | 715]

On 7/31/2022 at 7:04 PM, Matt 4120 said:

Adventure Island 2: Aliens In Paradise is done. Not much of an ending compared to other games, although the credits were nice.

Nice! I'm on tap to tackle Adventure Island 1 pretty soon (I'm currently sidelined until next week).  I have 2 games ahead of it, but even though you had some trouble with it, it has to be better than the first NES game!

[Splain | 2,569]

Finished Power Rangers on hard mode. Each ranger (and also the huge robot they turn into for boss fights) has a special attack, but it uses health to use it, so I just never used it. There's a big vertical section toward the end of the last level, where you can de-spawn enemies if you back up and move them off-screen. I exploited that hard and I don't feel bad about it.

[Floating Platforms | 715]

Was sidelined by Covid for a couple weeks (thankfully super mild, but had to avoid the part of the house with my SNES and streaming set-up), but I'm back on the board with SeaQuest DSV

I'm surprised that this hasn't been completed before.  It's not an incredibly hard game overall, but it does require some practice.  You get unlimited continues, so while there's no saves or passwords, you can at least keep trying until you succeed. Having the manual helps quite a bit, since there's a lot of variety in the levels and the in-game controls, seen by hitting pause, do not tell you everything. Even with the manual, a few levels through curveballs at you at the very end and that's where most of the time is spent. It becomes a bit tedious to spend a few minutes to get through the entire level just to get to the end "boss" and then die within a couple seconds, causing you to start from the very beginning and meticulously collect everything again.  It's a fun game overall, but it would be great if the levels could be tackled in any order, or if the characters moved a tad faster at times, or if the torpedo shots were more responsive when turning. Still, I enjoyed virtually all of the different gameplay mechanics it offered.

Next up for me will be Pinball Dreams, which I hope to start Monday.

[bronzeshield | 293]

It's already been beaten, but checking in to note that I just beat Dr. Mario on Hi speed (with a starting virus level of 20). It's brutal! I don't think I blinked for 20 minutes, I was so terrified of choking away my winning run.

[Floating Platforms | 715]

2 hours ago, bronzeshield said:

It's already been beaten, but checking in to note that I just beat Dr. Mario on Hi speed (with a starting virus level of 20). It's brutal! I don't think I blinked for 20 minutes, I was so terrified of choking away my winning run.

Congratulations! Is there any different end screen for beating it on Hi, or was this for a personal challenge?

[Splain | 2,569]

3 hours ago, bronzeshield said:

It's already been beaten, but checking in to note that I just beat Dr. Mario on Hi speed (with a starting virus level of 20). It's brutal! I don't think I blinked for 20 minutes, I was so terrified of choking away my winning run.

I've done that! It took a lot of deaths before I got a good starting layout. I got soft from playing a lot of multiplayer Dr. Mario 64, where the highest level still leaves room for 4 segments at the top. That's not the case on GB or NES. Congrats!

I've been playing Track Meet, which is goofy and simple but for some reason I like it. I haven't beaten the last guy yet, but maybe if I talk about it here, I won't give up on trying.

I also fired up Tesserae again to see if there was a different ending if you beat it on the hardest difficulty. I'm proud of myself for actually doing it, but the ending is the same.

[bronzeshield | 293]

59 minutes ago, Floating Platforms said:

Congratulations! Is there any different end screen for beating it on Hi, or was this for a personal challenge?

Thanks! When you clear Level 20, you get a different cutscene on each difficulty level (I did Lo and Med earlier this week). Hi doesn't give you credits or anything, but the animated sequence is more elaborate.

Technically you get a cutscene after every 5 levels anyway, but the one at Level 20 definitely has an air of finality despite the fact that you can keep playing afterward. (I think the game crashes at Level 27.)

And yeah, it's for a personal challenge. I prefer to beat my games on Hard difficulty or the equivalent before I call them 100% done.

(That's one place where I'm at odds with a lot of people -- many folks use 1cc on defaults as the standard, but I don't aim for 1cc as a goal. That said I've done it plenty, e.g. Eliminate Down on Genesis last year, beaten 1cc on Hard mode with minimum starting lives, which I did partly because I don't like the game very much and wanted to obviate any "git gud" replies.  )

7 minutes ago, Splain said:

I've done that! It took a lot of deaths before I got a good starting layout. I got soft from playing a lot of multiplayer Dr. Mario 64, where the highest level still leaves room for 4 segments at the top. That's not the case on GB or NES. Congrats!

Thanks! And yes, that's the one big fault -- you're so dependent on good RNG to get anywhere, that many games are practically a reset from the start. At least it only takes a couple seconds to start a fresh game.

BTW I beat the NES version too, a couple years ago, but it was less harrowing somehow or maybe I've just forgotten. Still intense, but tonight was just exhausting even though I only played for about 40 minutes.

Edited August 12, 2022 by bronzeshield

[Floating Platforms | 715]

11 hours ago, bronzeshield said:

Thanks! When you clear Level 20, you get a different cutscene on each difficulty level (I did Lo and Med earlier this week). Hi doesn't give you credits or anything, but the animated sequence is more elaborate.

Technically you get a cutscene after every 5 levels anyway, but the one at Level 20 definitely has an air of finality despite the fact that you can keep playing afterward. (I think the game crashes at Level 27.)

And yeah, it's for a personal challenge. I prefer to beat my games on Hard difficulty or the equivalent before I call them 100% done.

(That's one place where I'm at odds with a lot of people -- many folks use 1cc on defaults as the standard, but I don't aim for 1cc as a goal. That said I've done it plenty, e.g. Eliminate Down on Genesis last year, beaten 1cc on Hard mode with minimum starting lives, which I did partly because I don't like the game very much and wanted to obviate any "git gud" replies.  )

Good to know that they're all different. This game is still 250 games away for me (locked in at game #375), but maybe I'll go through to level 20 on all difficulties to see the different stuff.

I have a lot of respect for people like you who can dedicate that level of effort to do the 1cc or hardest difficulty. I know that my skill level will never be at that point, but I'll still keep trying for best endings whenever possible at the very least.

[Splain | 2,569]

Finished Toy Story. Not a great game. It's so slow. It takes a full 90 seconds to do a jump. (feels like.) Platform detection is awful. I have to kinda give some credit though, because it follows the plot of the movie better than most movie-based games, and the mission-based structure of some of the levels is at least more interesting than samey level after level. But yeah, easily bottom 100, maybe bottom 50.

[Floating Platforms | 715]

18 hours ago, Splain said:

But yeah, easily bottom 100, maybe bottom 50.

Interesting. I gave it a solid 5/10.  It sits at #82 out of the 120 I've played, so technically right now I'm with you, but when all is said and done it should be straight middle of the road.  The controls are funky, but I enjoyed the variety in levels (something that seems to be across a lot of the later Disney movie games) and the midi Randy Newman. The only Disney movie game I've ranked lower is Pinocchio because it was simply too short and too easy to be worthwhile.

[Floating Platforms | 715]

Knocked out two quick ones tonight

Pinball Dreams

I didn't have to spend much time with any of the three boards, but Ignition was my favorite as it seemed like it might have had the most going on. Steel Wheel was terrible as it was incredibly easy to lose your balls down the sides and there was a lot of wasted empty space in the upper left.  I had to play this one the most and lucked out with a random jackpot. Graveyard looked like it might have been okay, but it only took two solid tries, so I have no clue. It was extremely easy to rack up points in that since I got 2.4 million my first time even though I don't recall playing all that long or seeing any special messages.  As far as a pinball game goes, the physics are all kinds of awful, but if I had this one as a kid, I wouldn't be mad. There are some fun goals to shoot for, but little incentive to try for very long.

Adventure Island

I don't have any experience with any Adventure Island game other than the original NES, so I have no clue if this game (which is based on the NES part 2) is close to the same or a very simplified version.  I found this to be very easy, generally speaking. I was able to find a lot of "secret" eggs and warp through three of the 8 worlds. The dinosaurs were a nice addition and fun to play around with.  The last couple worlds had very few eggs, so I had to go through most of it with no weapon. Still, it wasn't too difficult to manage that overall. The unlimited continues added to what already felt like a very forgiving game.  It was refreshing to come across an Adventure Island game that could be conquered in less than 2 hours going in blind.

Next up for me is Who Framed Roger Rabbit? which I hear is also pretty short on Game Boy. After that I'm tackling a Wisdom Tree title that's not on this challenge list but is on mine (Exodus: Journey to the Promised Land) and that may take me quite a while

[Floating Platforms | 715]

Who Framed Roger Rabbit? is done

It's not a terrible game, but it's terribly sparse. I understand that this is much different from the NES version, and while I have little to no experience with that, it's easy to see how incredibly pared down this is.  Pausing the game will show you your inventory screen with 10-12 slots, but you only "use" 5 max. The intention is to go around to talk to people and get clues, but really you mostly have to go talk to Valiant after doing certain things. I got "stuck" early on because the game told me how to do the puzzle and I was trying to do it and the game wouldn't let me. I had to go back to talk to Eddie so that he could tell me what I already knew and help me do it.  That was a strange mix of hand-holding and obtuse game design.  I wanted something that was a little more intricate. Give me more tasks and reasons to explore the map, since it is extremely empty. Give Benny more of a reason to be in the game.  It was fun for the short time it lasted, but it was severely lacking in content.

Next I'm playing the Wisdom Tree game Exodus: Journey to the Promised Land and that is estimated between 30-40 hours, so I probably can't contribute anything to this thread for a couple weeks.

[Red | 437]

I played through Rolan's Curse not too long ago.  I had this one back in the day and wasn't too crazy about it.  Still not.  It's a Zelda clone, but very watered down.  There's a lack of enemy variety, too easy bosses, and repeating areas.  Just unremarkable in every way.  I'd like try Rolan's Curse 2 someday though, as it looks a bit better.

[MagusSmurf | 577]

Great Greed - 5/10

The mechanics are really simple (turn-based 1-on-1 battles with normal equipment and level-ups) and the developers knew it and accordingly did some streamlining, which is better than nothing, but a super-streamlined JRPG with little in the way of other pros would struggle to even be a decent game. Fortunately the "story" and world is the high point here. It's not worth getting too excited over but there was some creativity and pretty weird stuff. Sadly though, I think it used up its best ideas early on and its decent ideas midway through, leaving a pretty whatever lategame.

CLEARLY his finest work, no doubt!

 

Edited August 28, 2022 by MagusSmurf

[bronzeshield | 293]

Played through the painfully slow Jeopardy! Sports Edition, and got this picture of the ending a fraction of a second before it faded:

Lots of guesswork, a bit of luck, and a full category of repeated questions helped. I guess there's no Daily Double in the first round? Final Jeopardy was Tennis, which was irritating since I wagered only $100, but I had a runaway by that point anyway.

[Floating Platforms | 715]

So, I'm currently 20 hours into Exodus and I've completed 50 of 100 levels. The back half is remixed versions of the same stages with harder requirements. Hopefully I'll be close to done in another 20.

The good news is that the next 5 games that have been picked for me are estimated to be pretty dang quick, so there's a chance I'll get some new games on the board in September.

[MagusSmurf | 577]

Beat Another Bible. 2/10

Ridiculously easy Strategy RPG with very little depth and no worthwhile plot or...much else, really. It was really boring. They sell permanent stat boosters for around the price of a basic healing item at several points, in a game that practically floods you with money and where each stat maxes at 30. That's baffling, but the combat would be dull and easy regardless. The main character has to get to the end of most maps like in Fire Emblem - but unit turns come up individually based on Speed, so there's no way to end turn for everyone else after you move your main - thereby wasting a lot of time. There's baffling stuff like how enemies with no ranged attack can counterattack the bow-user when the latter attacks from range. Enemies can critical hit out of nowhere too with seemingly no real way to counter this - besides abusing the buyable stat boosters to send Defense into the stratosphere and trivializing the entire game. When the final boss critkilled me during my first try, I hadn't had anyone get K.O.ed since 15 maps ago. On the bright side, this took me less than 15 hours to beat (more precisely, 31 episodes of Sailor Moon: Sailor Stars).

At least it was better than Majin Tensei.

 

[bronzeshield | 293]

13 hours ago, MagusSmurf said:

Wow, that ending screen is butchered! Is the whole fan translation that way, or just at the end? I assume you're using the Gideon Zhi translation from 2002, 1.01 version?

[MagusSmurf | 577]

Yeah, that's the one.

The rest of the text was fine, only the extended ending was like that. Apparently you only get it if you recruit all of the non-generic characters and maybe they also need to not die or something? I only ever had the main two get killed which is a Game Over so I had no choice but to reload when that happened.

[Splain | 2,569]