Strikezone1

Adventures of Rad Gravity is beaten. Solid game. Good challenge. Has more than its share of annoyances and cryptic parts, but all in all it’s a pretty neat game.

Blues Brothers is beaten. This one is quite frustrating at first, but once you get the hang of it it’s kinda fun to run through in around 10 minutes.

Total Recall is beaten. This has to be one of the easiest 10-pointers on the list. Not that the game is easy, but once you figure the game out it’s not bad at all. Plus it’s short.

Dang, after blazing through 80% of the library by end of February, the thread still came up short. Oh well. More proof that it's a matter of clearing those 100-150 highly challenging/frustrating/tedious games that makes the difference. I too do really like the pain points. Hate to see em go. Any little extra motivator to take out the harder games helps..... That said, It's cool to change it up and keep things fresh. I like the new bonus list with a nice mix of variety.

Choujin Sentai Jetman on the NES is worth a mention. It's a famicom-only side-scroller action game that is based on the Japanese version of the Power Rangers show (they’re pretty much identical conceptually). You can play as any of the 5 colored rangers for the stages, and then the boss battles are a 1-on-1 fighting match with your power robot guy. For North American releases you can’t go wrong with either of the beat’em ups on the SNES by Bandai (developed by Natsume). Both are pretty good.

I am curious about the 2 Olympic-style games left on the list - Gold Metal Challenge '92 and Track & Field II. I haven't played either game, but I have to assume that they are highly tedious and challenging since no one has taken them out yet this late in the year. Looks like both take just under an hour for a complete playthrough, according to Youtube. What specifically is the reason(s) no one has picked them off? Is it a lot of tedious button mashing required for some of the events? Are they unforgiving with few/limited continues? Again I have never played either, just genuinely curious.

+1 for this... The most enjoyment I get out of video games is the satisfaction of beating them. I have about 60 NES games that are still on my radar to beat, then about 100 or so SNES games.

Ahh RPGs... They are not my cup of tea. Lol I'd consider LoZ, Zelda II, Gargoyle's Quest II, Rambo, & Cowboy Kid all action-adventure games as opposed to RPGs. RCR is a beat'em up/action-adventure/RPG hybrid game IMO.

I dunno if it's quite the same. In just about most shmups, offense is part of your defense. You can bypass all hazards in Paperboy and it really isn't necessary to throw a paper at them in most instances. ^Good mention. Abadox is certainly an shmup.

You don't sound defensive at all. This is a great topic idea that should generate some good discussion.

Good question regarding Paperboy. Does throwing papers at houses and in mailboxes even count as 'shooting'? Are the hazards in the game (dogs, tires, grim reapers, etc) even considered enemies since they can be bypassed without being shot at? I honestly haven't played Raid on Bungeling Bay.

That is a good question. There is definitely some grey area and overlap when categorizing genres. I suppose I would classify those 3 as just [space] shooters.

Gyruss is more of like a rail/tube shooter I feel. Galaga is a single-screen arcade shooter. And if you give it to Galaga than you have to give it to Milliped too right (exact same gameplay)? I'm with ya on Skyhawk.

I've played a majority of the games under the shmup list and I agree with most of what you have listed. The few that I would question are Xexyz (which I would consider a hybrid I suppose), Little Mermaid, and Kid Icarus. For me personally, the biggest and deciphering factor between considering a game a shmup vs just a shooter is the auto-scrolling feature; the player doesn't get to control the pace of the game. I personally don't consider any of the games listed under "shmup or something else?" as shmups.

Gave it a 9. What prevents it from being a 10 for me is a few of the moons are ridiculously obnoxious to get (e.g. the 2nd jump rope one). Still an excellent game that I had a lot of fun with.

Agree. MM2 is certainly easy to beat by NES difficulty standards, even on difficult setting. Heck, it is one of the few NES games I was actually able to beat back in the day as an 8-9yo kid. It's an awesome game too, just not "indisputably the best MM game" like some people like to claim.

MM6 is awesome. They reprised the classic awesome MM gameplay formula, while adding a couple new features such as the alternate paths in 4 of the robot master levels (for the BEAT letters) as well as the new Rush functionality. Typical great graphics, and some of the soundtracks on it are favorites of mine. I too have owned it since I was a kid when it came out. I agree, there are a lot of great games on the back end of the NES timeframe. MM4 is also my favorite...The later 3 MM games are easily as good as 2 & 3 I think, if not better. The nostalgia bias that a lot of people have for 2 & 3 cannot be erased unfortunately, since those came out at the peak of the NES lifespan.

Congrats Crabmaster! A fine accomplishment!

I play my NES regularly, and have been pretty hardcore for the last 6 or so years. So I voted 'game more than I collect, but I enjoy doing both.' I bought about 60ish NES games in the mid-late 90s from Funcoland... Then took a hiatus from buying games for over a decade, just playing what I already owned on occasion.. I got the nostalgia bug and started getting back into buying games around 2014, and have slowly but gradually adding to my collection since.

95% of movies I watch are of the horror genre. Love Halloween '78. It's a top-5 movie for me. An easy 10. I think the 2 Rob Zombie Halloween's are better than some people give them credit for. I liked both. Halloween '18 (and also Kills) was solid.

1. Mega Man 4 2. TMNT III: Manhattan Project 3. Splatterhouse: Wanpaku Graffiti 4. Super C 5. Mike Tyson's Punch Out!! 6. Life Force 7. Burai Fighter 8. Bucky O'Hare 9. Dragon Fighter 10. Double Dragon III It's tough for me to narrow it to 10, there's so many games I've enjoyed playing. But those are what I'll go with.

I think Zanac is much better than Gun-Nac. Re: difficulty/beating Gun-Nac - It is too easy on the Intermediate (default) difficulty setting, but obnoxiously-unfairly-difficult on Expert. Going by the criteria of seeing the true/ultimate ending (shown by beating it on Expert), Gun-Nac is easily one of the hardest games on the NES.

Nice. I'm surprised Lethal Weapon lasted on the list as long as it did this year. I beat it 2-3 years ago for the thread, and didn't think it was all that difficult.

It’s not as good as any of Capcom’s other platform games. It’s an okay game though. It’s worth checking out IMO.

NES. Xmas of '89 IIRC.