Austin

Always great to see new Wii U owners enjoying the system. It's a nice system with a lot of solid games.

8 minutes ago, mbd39 said:

Hey Austin, lately I've been playing Double Dragon 3 and I'm stuck at the final boss.

I think DD3 has the most blah enemies and level designs in the series. It's mostly fighting the same generic baddies over and over. They didn't even bring back Abobo. It's still fun for DD fans but a step down from the first two.

 

Yeah, it can be enjoyable but I agree completely, it pales in gameplay compared to the first two. Parts of the last stage aside, it's basically one long corridor after another and enemies just appear and funnel towards wherever you are, rather than being placed in the levels deliberately. It ends up being very lackluster overall in the "level design" department. Oh, and screw the final boss.

On 12/29/2020 at 10:50 AM, mbd39 said:

I didn't know about the transformation ability. Apparently that would have made it a lot easier.

All right, so I fired it up last night and finished it. Yes and no, to that statement. The transformations are kind of useless for the chain whip and throwing star, at least on the later levels. If you can get to the last level with the sword, then yeah, I can see that being the case, since it lets you turn into the dragon which is OP. I did not.

Game is alright. Not great, but not bad. Second form of the last boss has an odd pattern that took me a while to figure out.

On 12/24/2020 at 2:12 PM, mbd39 said:

I played this on emulator, reached the last stage, and gave up. I remember the game getting hard near the end. This is another one I should give another chance on real hardware someday.

 

You giving up on a NES game makes the prospect of me trying it much more intriguing. I'll have to fire it up soon..

Looking at it strictly from the perspective of an inexperienced player who's only into modern gaming, I do think they would appreciate the N64 more than the NES. The N64's 3D graphics have a lot more in common with the average game today than the 2D sprites of the NES, and I bet they would also be less likely to put up with the insane amount of slowdown and flicker NES games tend to exhibit.

That said, I personally go back to the NES way more often than Nintendo 64, for its more simplistic (but still satisfying), challenging experiences.

I still stand by the game itself being trash, and I did play it.

Though to be fair about it, I never had the desire to go back and play it on the normal difficulty setting. My one experience was on the hardest.

King of Dragons for me, then Final Fight. Haven't put enough time into Knights of the Round to say one way or the other. Seems a bit on the "cheap" side but then again I don't really know how to play it well. Still need to sink time into Ninja Warriors as well as it looks like an awesome game, but it's more an apples-to-oranges comparison without that Z-axis. I generally lump it in with other similar games like Altered Beast, Kung Fu Master or Vigilante.

8 hours ago, mbd39 said:

Everybody was noticing the pacing when we watched the Mexican Runner play through it on Twitch. The beat em up stages in particular seemed to drag on and on while also being really flat and static. The original kept mixing it up between platforming, beat em up, etc.  within the same stage so it didn't get  monotonous. Not sure why they didn't make the new Battletoads more like that. It's funny that the 8-bit game is actually more entertaining to watch just because of the better stage designs.

The new turbo tunnel looked like it got crazy when played on hard. So at least there's that

Yeah, totally. The pacing is awful. Things drag on and on and on.

The first turbo tunnel wasn't bad on the hardest difficulty, but the last one at the end, that was pretty rough. Mainly because there are zero checkpoints and it goes on for what feels like ten minutes.

Disclaimer: I played the game on the hardest difficulty. At this moment I do not know what the lower difficulties are like. Enjoyment for this game might increase on the lower levels.

I too was enjoying myself in the early beat 'em up sections. I enjoyed the early gameplay mix-ups as well, like the third-person Turbo Tunnel style section and the side view sled mode. Good throwbacks to the old games. But then the beat 'em up sections disappeared completely until the second to last level. A shoot 'em up section appeared. Then the game turned into a puzzle-platformer where I wasn't even playing as a Battletoad. And then it switched back for another shooter level. Then back to puzzle-platformer. Then back to another shooter level, again. The shooter levels aren't even fun. Everything takes a ridiculous amount of time to kill and the checkpoints aren't particularly good, causing major tedium. 

The biggest issue with this game is that it just doesn't know when to stop. Levels are stretched out to ridiculous levels. Remember how the original Battletoads (and Battlemaniacs for that matter) took around an hour to beat? One single level in the new 'Toads will take a third of that. And there are 25 of them. A couple to be fair are simple QTE games that don't last very long, but they are the minority in terms of stage length. It took me seven-and-a-half hours to beat the new 'Toads on my first go around. Streets of Rage 4 felt too long as it was, and that was only two hours. Battletoads 2020 waaaaay overstays its welcome. There is one QTE level that should have lasted 2 minutes, but goes on for 15. What. The. F*$%.

I feel like the developers had no idea what made Battletoads games what they were. Yes, I get they were trying to appeal to a younger/newer audience, but that doesn't excuse the pathetic flow of the game, all the unnecessary gameplay modes (QTE levels, puzzle platformers, among other things). Don't even get me started on the control issues. Forced analog controls for 98% of the playthrough. Shmup mode? Analog stick. Beat 'em up mode? Analog stick. Rat Race inspired level? Analog stick. Then, ironically, out of nowhere for one stage, you're forced to use the d-pad. The developers that made this game are dicks with no sense of consistency. There are other minor polish issues as well, like on the shooter levels where the border covers up bullets, causing you to not be able to see them coming at you.

Sadly the cutscenes are the best part of the game. They are genuinely funny and of high quality. They are moments of joy, before you're plunged back into the cesspit that is the game itself.

I do wonder if things take less time to kill on easier difficulties. If so, some parts of the game will be considerably more enjoyable.

Scratch creating an official Team page on Twitch. Apparently only Partnered (not Affiliate) accounts can create one. Unless someone here is a Twitch partner? 

https://help.twitch.tv/s/article/twitch-teams?language=en_US

I like the idea of live feed functionality on this site. For instance, if there's a bar somewhere showing who's currently live (for those users that have, say, a Twitch account linked to their profile).

As far as a stream team, how would you go about handling it?  Some channels have multiple members that stream to that same channel. Maybe on a schedule. The stream key is shared between members. You would want to make sure the key is only shared with members you trust.

Or, you can start an actual Team page on Twitch, link streamers to that page, and when they stream they will appear on that page. You can just permanently link to that Team page somewhere on this site. Example: https://www.twitch.tv/team/twitcharcade

Something else regarding sharing streams, is maybe starting a stream thread here where people can share when they go live (instead of having a thousand different threads spamming the forum). This seems standard for a few forums I am on.

FPGA consoles are great. I only use my original hardware now when I get the random urge to play on a CRT... and with my current setup, that's not very often. AVS, Super NT, Mega SG, they all look and play great, and are more convenient. I'll get a MiSTer sometime in the near future as well.

Needs an option for "Both". Some games sound more natural to me with PSG and I prefer that. Others have improved soundtracks via FM and I prefer them there. It varies from title to title.

Yep, and the other way around, you can use the NES and SNES Classic controllers with the Wii and Wii U. The SNES ones are excellent when paired with GBA games on the Wii U Virtual Console.

Congrats! This is still a really fun game.

Pretty sure I always had at least a little bit of help with this one, even back in the day.

This is super cool! Shame the game was never released. I remember it being hyped up quite a bit at the time.

On 2/8/2020 at 10:30 PM, Tanooki said:

Mega Man 64, due to the updates it had.  Yes the audio wasn't as good, no argument there.

I've played both, it sucks the audio (voices mainly) are very tinny/muffled like a Genesis cart, but the rest I like more.   Anything frmo just the no load times from a CD, fast save/load times,, rumble support, to the analog controls on one end of it. The graphics seem nicer, detail and all that, though there is more fog I prefer that over the pop in on PS1.  I like the softer anti-aliasing, it's not overkill like in some games, and things in places are just more colorful including the last boss.  I remember the old reviews in the time pointed out how they redid the camera so it worked a little better, and they'd change/expand the walkable spaces in areas leaving you less confined with Capcom claiming twice the environments to explore.

Finally, a post with actual details. I was wondering what the actual differences are between the two, thanks. Haven't played either but I'd like to one day.

Batman Returns is one of my favorites on the system, though I think the platforming parts fall in "acquired taste" territory. The driving scenes are pretty well done though and really take advantage of the hardware.

Prince of Persia is a solid port. Definitely recommend that.

Eternal Champions CD is excellent. Tons of characters, good combat system, lots of hidden stuff and secrets. Vastly improved over the Genesis original.

Flashback is the only version with constant music in-game, and the soundtrack is great. My favorite version to play.

Finding your Korok seeds and completing all the shrines is certainly a glorified egg hunt. But most games of this nature (open world) are like this, filled with frivolous things unnecessary to the main campaign. Some people like this, others see them for what they are (a time sink with little reward).

Personally, I enjoyed seeking out the shrines. Many were cleverly hidden. The shrines themselves were fun too.

Simply exploring the land was the most enjoyable thing to me about the game. The climbing was amazing and I'd often find myself looking up, saying, "Hm, that's going to be close.. I don't know if I can make it, but I think I just might..", start climbing, then just barely make it. Very satisfying test of my judgement.

I enjoy the combat a lot as well. Defeating enemies never really got boring for me with all the different ways I could go about it.

For anyone that doesn't want to give this game a try because of all the little side things you can do, just focus on the main quest line then. It's fun.. and I guarantee you will still get sidetracked. A lot of the extra stuff is fluff, but it's addictive fluff.

Low-G-Man with its freezing mechanic.

Yeah.. the 32X version of BC Racers is trash. One of the choppiest games on the system. Speaking of bad ports, Pitfall the Mayan Adventure was another. Should have been the best console version, ended up being the worst.

The 32X could have had a chance for at least limited success, but my guess is market saturation (3DO and Jaguar were already out, Saturn and PS1 were just around the corner) and a lack of heavy-hitting software didn't do it any favors. It launched strong with Doom, Virtua Racing, Star Wars arcade, etc., there was some solid buzz right at the beginning (which allowed it to move something like 700,000 units almost immediately), but it fizzled out extremely quick.

Games like Cosmic Carnage, Metal Head and Motocross Championship, regardless of how much some of us might enjoy them now, weren't particularly impressive and didn't do it any favors. Genesis ports with limited improvements didn't help either. It needed more games that showed the potential of the hardware.

A lot of the 32X's "best" (or at least most popular) games are still acquired tastes. For instance, Star Wars arcade is pretty limited in scope and honestly loses its excitement pretty quickly. Knuckles Chaotix lacks creative level design and gets extremely repetitious, with it forcing you to play through each of its level themes five times each (not to mention the tethering mechanic trips some people up).

That said, if you're the kind of gamer that likes a good variety of stuff, the 32X definitely has it. I think it's a worthwhile add-on despite it lacking a lot of "AAA" (by early '90s standards) games. It's got a lot of C+ and B+ grade titles though and those can be fun. If anything, many games look significantly better than what you could get on base Genesis hardware, or it shows off nice effects that are unique to it. It's nice for that.

It hasn't been mentioned but I enjoy Cosmic Carnage. Decent looking game and the combat is fun when you learn the moves. Interesting use of scaling effects as well, good, beefy soundtrack. It's hardly MK2, but I think it gets bashed more than it deserves. The port of Primal Rage comparatively is sort of trash--it's barely improved over the Genesis version. Not worth it.

Virtua Fighter, Virtua Racing and Shadow Squadron are the highest quality 3D titles on the system. They run smooth, play well and sound decent.

DOOM is one of my favorite games on the system despite its cutbacks. It doesn't take all day to go through it and it plays very well. It's still DOOM.

Re: SMS support. You cannot play SMS games on a 32X, either via a Powerbase Converter or a flash cart.

I was there for a good portion of it and it was an impressive feat. When I started learning the game about five years ago, it probably took me a week or two. And it took me even longer to really refine my run of the game.

On 1/20/2020 at 1:31 AM, Tanooki said:

Solid game I tried it.  Unless I missed the feature, it's a bit rough though given it seems to lack a map.  Pen and paper with a handheld game seems a bit clunky so you don't get lost.

Jaguar and PC versions have a map. I'd be curious to know if it's some kind of obtuse feature not exactly easy to figure out, or if it just wasn't implemented in the GBC version.

Yay. I am here. My name did not change.. even though I guess I should only post here if it did. Oh well.