Strikezone1

Sorry for the delay in reply. To me it’s just one of those games that’s a bit frustrating at first, but once you get the feel for the controls and the enemies & stage layouts memorized, it is fun & satisfying to run through. It’s definitely a good type of game to try and speed run. I’m not much of a speedrunner myself but I did just pull off a no-death run of it.

Swamp Thing is beaten. By no means a great game, but better than its reputation at least. It’s not a total atrocity. Alright I’m on the list for at least one clear for this year’s thread.

I beat NARC recently. I agree, the final boss is annoying because the pattern to defeat him and his hit box are totally wack.

James Bond Jr is beaten. All in all a decent game, certainly not without a few flaws/frustrations. Graphics and sound are good, and I thought the stage layouts were nice. It’s pretty forgiving with unlimited continues, plenty of lives & health, and a password system. The fact that it requires you to beat 2 loops is kind of annoying, especially considering 1 loop is already and 1+ hour playthrough. Enemies are absolute bullet sponges too.

I just played that game recently too. Lol yeah the whole game’s colors & graphics looks like something out of MS paint!

Ikari Warriors II: Victory Road is beaten. It wasn’t quite as brutal as I anticipated considering it’s still on the board this late in the year. Once I figured out the ins & outs of the game it really just came down to the final boss battle, which was kind of a pain. The hit detection is generous, especially with the boomerang weapon. Boss battles were pretty easy too once you have them figured out, with the exception of the final boss. Overall a pretty meh game I thought. Better than the first game at least.

Well, I persevered through the bs and actually pulled it off. Prince of Persia is beaten. Holy Mother of Mary, to say this game is a chore to get through is a severe understatement. Stiff as a board controls, wonky hit detection in the sword fights, completely obnoxious platform jumping (especially at the end levels). Thank god for the password system otherwise this game would be literally impossible. Oh and the cherry on top is the fact that it’s hard to distinguish between the 6s & 8s for the password system. Smh Out of all the NES games I’ve beaten, I confidently put this one in the top 5 most frustrating. Woof.

I’ve been working on Prince of Persia. I’ve gotten about 4-5 hours in. Only made it to level 3. Christ is this game frustrating beyond belief! The game is a neat concept, but the control scheme is very poor. The hit detection is highly suspect in the sword fights. Full disclosure- there’s a slim chance that I have the patience to stick with and beat it before giving up. Bless the heart of anyone who has actually beaten this game legitimately!

For sure. I mean being a Konami shoot’em up game makes you want to like it and get excited to play it, but it just falls a bit short of expectations gameplay-wise. The aforementioned random ‘roulette’ with the powerups is super annoying… the hitbox of the shield is a lot bigger than in other games, making it not last long and hinders it’s effectiveness… and some of the boss battles are quite underwhelming - especially the ones that don’t take damage where you just have to wait it out until they pass.

I just beat Parodius (repro cart) on normal difficulty. This game is okay. But certainly isn’t as good as Life Force, Gradius II, or Crisis Force. I find the random ‘roulette’ feature to be super annoying. So I choose automatic for the powerup system which apparently negates it.

Great game for sure. MUCH better than the Activision GB2 version that we got in NA regions!

No shame. Everyone should play what/how they want in order to have fun!

Sure, any challenging boss can become easy once you have the strategy memorized! I used the same strat.. Heck I think it is the only strat in order to beat KARR.

I used a similar strategy as you, prioritizing gas & shield upgrades first and utilizing the boost jump when running out of time in order to inch either to the boss in time, or a timer refill power up. I put in a good amount of effort trying to pull off a deathless run in games before moving on, so I feel I had gotten a pretty good feel for the game. I couldn't pull it off in this one though. My best was 2 deaths. Nothing worse than being 45 minutes in and having your run end on what I consider to be some cheap RNG in the last 2 missions. I agree Mission 12 (Houston) is tough - those barriers appear with very little reaction time. I think I used the jumping boost every time I beat that mission in order to avoid running out of time. The final boss battle sequence is no joke either.

Thanks! I figure save all the easy games for novice gamers and/or nerdynebraskan! (I am just kidding) Jokes aside, I am working through the NES library (mostly only action games) and I like contribute to this thread on games as they coincide with my journey. At this point, most of what I have left on my list tends to be 7+... I am mostly past the good/easy games, haha.

I beat Knight Rider for last year's thread. I found it to be incredibly frustrating. I feel like it could be a good game if they would've tweaked a few things to make it less difficult, like a bit less trial & error, and randomness. At it's core it's a decent game conceptually, and covers the license material well.

(Screen shot of Jungle Book)

The Jungle Book is beaten. First time clear for me. Was hoping it was a 9 due to obscurity more so than difficulty/annoyance. Nope. It’s way, way more difficult/annoying than it needs to be. Fortunately extra lives and continues are plentiful. Graphics and sound are really nice. They cover the source material very well. This game is just a slog play control-wise. Detection for grabbing certain vines is highly suspect. A lot of blind leaps of faith.

There are codes for infinite energy in Battletoads on the gamehacking.org site: https://gamehacking.org/game/29070

I'm with this. Both are integral parts of a good action game. But there's usually a lot more action within the stages than there is in the boss battles.

Appreciate the info. I’ll have to revisit it at some point. It is definitely a game that I want to like….I just got too frustrated with it between having to contend with odd turning angles, trying to keep the ship from constantly falling off the track, and the many stage hazards/enemy fire. All of it combined felt like a bit much for a racing game. Mars was the furthest I got, but I did put in the code in order to try the later planets. My god were Neptune & Pluto downright brutal! Think I maybe cleared race 1 of each once or twice each, out of 40+ attempts. I’ll give it another go at some point down the road. I’m sure the game just requires a lot more time & practice than the 4-6 hours I put in. I can say this with confidence — this games difficulty is criminally underrated!!

Nice one. This game is brutal. I was working on it a couple months ago and had to shelf it. Thought it was way too frustrating and the control scheme felt totally wack. Any tips or strategies? Did you use the alpha or beta controls? I was using the beta. Could not get the hang of the alpha. Also did you clear Planet X too?

Adventures of Gillian’s Island is beaten. First time clearing this one. It’s… a lot of walking around.. and not a lot of action.

You would think this would be true, but it isn't. I played the game multiple times on each setting. On expert, you start against Surfer Bob (the 4th opponent) and upon winning the first race against him you'll see that the game has already given you multiple upgrades (an engine, steering, and multiple hull upgrades), additionally you also have $250K for additional upgrades to buy... All of this more than equates to the upgrade status you'd be at with the money acquired from beating the prior 3 opponents on easy setting.

Eliminator Boat Duel is beaten. Pretty cool boat racing game. It’s weird that the ‘easy’ setting is actually the full game, and the hardest since the game only allows 1 loss before game over.