Strikezone1

On 1/24/2023 at 12:07 AM, PII said:

I love this game.  Probably the cart I most want to acquire at the moment.  Would like to spend some serious time speed running it.  What did you like / dislike the most?

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.

6 hours ago, mbd39 said:

NARC is done. The final boss is a pain because of the shitty controls.

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.

41 minutes ago, Gaia Gensouki said:

My least favorite ending has to be from the Adventures of Rocky & Bullwinkle and Friends. It was such a slog of a game and then you'd get something that looks like straight out of MS Paint.

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!

5 hours ago, scaryice said:

Yeah, I didn't think it was too great either when I gave it a shot earlier this year. Very laggy, even compared to something like Life Force. I have to imagine that the other ports might be better.

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.

20 hours ago, NESfiend said:

Finally knocked off new ghostbusters 2! Second to last boss gave me fits. Finally found a reliable strat. Then the last boss was much easier. Never touched me. First time clear - FUN game

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

13 minutes ago, nerdynebraskan said:

Hey, there's no use shaming my gaming. I definitely enjoy my share of cupcakes.

My skill is definitely not on the level of the heavyweights in the weekly competitions, so I don't wander over there. This is something much better suited towards my attitudes towards gaming. I finish a game, and move on to another.

And though it maybe isn't showing, I'm trying not to go quite so hard this year as I have over the past several years. I'm really trying to just have fun this year and not trying to play as many of the games that can really piss me off.

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

17 minutes ago, guitarzombie said:

Ah the final bosses are easy haha.  Ive been using the same strategy as a kid of using the gun, hanging by the right side of the road and 'following' the boss shooting till I drive off the grass since they cant.  I very rarely do poorly on the bosses, and when I do its probably the plane boss with the atomic weapon thing.  In my entire time of playing that game, I think I no-deathed it once.

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.

5 minutes ago, guitarzombie said:

What I do is basically just load up with gas and shield.  Once you get to denver, maybe missiles for the plane boss but it can be done with regular gun.  So then I max everything out except then max out missiles.  Once the blue cars start turning into lanes, you just drive 'into' them, as they will ALWAYS move to the next lane, but if that lane is occupied, move back.  The only really cheap part of the game is the 3rd to last level where they put all the barrels in the middle of the road.  That ones pretty unfair.  Otherwise I really love this game.  Also as a kid, figured out if you run out of time, the level doesn't end until you stop completely.  So you can still move and accelerate if you super jump.  I think in ever time i've beaten the game, i've had to do that at least once.

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.

11 hours ago, the_wizard_666 said:

On a side note, I did my best @scaryice impression and crunched some numbers, just for the shits and giggles of it.  If anyone's curious, I calculated the points per game average for everyone with five or more completions.  Here's the results (rounded to the nearest hundredth):

Strikezone1 - 8.5
NESfiend - 6.86
the_wizard_666 - 6.19
Gaia Gensouki - 5.34
PII - 4.89
guitarzombie - 4.65
Khromak - 4.40
Red - 4.32
mbd39 - 4.00
Bearcat-Doug - 3.59
Philosoraptor - 3.47
scaryice - 3.23
nerdynebraskan - 2.29
Foochie776 - 1.67
DefaultGen - 1.60
Jaden - 1.60

Gotta say, Strikezone1 impressed, despite only having 6 completions...an 8.5 average is goddamn impressive!

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.

On 1/22/2022 at 8:24 PM, guitarzombie said:

Finished off Knight Rider.  Yeesh my NES is just cursed today.  EVERY game has been a struggle or harder than its ever been before.  I think I'll try a couple of more.

Hey @scaryice has there been anyone who's beat one game more over the years than I have with Knight Rider?  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. 
 

On 1/6/2022 at 8:18 AM, TheGameCollector said:

Battletoads for NES could really use an Infinite Health code. Infinite Lives helps a little but it won't save you from getting beat up by very aggressive enemies on the late levels of the game, especially the last one and then it's back to the last checkpoint which could be back quite a ways.

There are codes for infinite energy in Battletoads on the gamehacking.org site:

https://gamehacking.org/game/29070

On 1/1/2022 at 6:13 PM, DefaultGen said:

Stages 100%. I like running and platforming. Boss fights are usually stuck on a single screen.

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.

23 minutes ago, PII said:

Yep, cleared Planet X.  Hadn't played it in a while so it took me 2 tries.  I actually ran out of time on Jupiter 3 last night after falling off the track a single time - really surprised me.  Had a couple of close calls with it tonight including having to rebuy the final ship.  It's definitely the kind of game that requires one to put in the time to get to know it well as far as what you're going to encounter on each track and getting real comfortable with the controls.  Expect to hit a wall when you first make it as far as Jupiter.  Saturn and Uranus are actually easier and then Neptune / Pluto will really put you to the test.

You're def. on the right track with beta controls.  If I ever feel that I've gotten too good at this game to enjoy it anymore, I'll switch over to Alpha Controls.  If you don't have the 3rd ship by the time you arrive at Jupiter 2 you may as well hit reset because you won't be able to make the turns properly and you'll always run out of time.  It mostly  comes down to comfort / familiarity with maneuvering all the difficult parts.  + pickups, blasting and eliminations for $$ so that you can keep upgrading your ship.  Do it w/o continuing and Planet X is a single race counter clock-wise with some choice opportunities to misalign your jumping for a drop into space.  Takes some repeat effort but well worth it in my opinion.  One of the very best underrated NES games. 

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!!

1 hour ago, PII said:

GALAXY 5000

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. 
 

4 hours ago, NESfiend said:

As for Eliminator Boat Duel, I respectfully think you are incorrect about the difficulty settings. Love the game and revisit it somewhat frequently. You are right thay easy is the longest mode, but I think it is easiest.

The opponents difficulty levels are the same level to level, I think. But by giving you a few extra cupcake races to win in easy mode, it allows you to upgrade your boat and get ahead of your opponents in that respect. Starting with tougher opponents and no upgrades in hard mode, you are racing against the same quality opponents with a much weaker and slower boat. 

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.