Strikezone1

Nice one! This game has a reputation of being tough. It’s on my list to beat eventually. Just how difficult is it would you say?

Agree, very odd...I don’t remember ever watching reruns or even hearing about the show (or the NES game) back in the day. I checked out about 5-10 minutes of an episode of it on YouTube recently. It was corny, but yet might’ve been a cool novelty show in its time back in the 60s.

Thunderbirds is beaten. I just got this game in the mail today, and since it was still on the board for this thread figured I’d move it to the top of my list to tackle. I gotta say, I’m a bit surprised this game is still on the board for this years thread, because it isn’t all that tough. Plus being a 7 pointer and 1 pain point? Easiest pain point I’ve ever gotten (must’ve been a slow year when it went unbeaten). Anyways, I think it’s a decent shmup game. Kinda bizarre, but yet not bad. There’s no point counter for high score; that’s unheard of for NES shmups.

Nice one. I beat this game last year. IIRC I think I cleared it for this thread... Agree it is a mediocre game that isn’t without its frustrations. Most of the boss battles seem to require a very specific pattern you gotta follow in order to beat em. The 2nd boss on the motorcycle is nearly impossible to beat unless you have the projectile mop, and very easy to beat if you have it.

I hope not! It would be nice if someone updated it and more people posted in it. Thanks I appreciate it! I’m going to keep playing it for at least a few more runs and see if I can do even better. I didn’t know about the secret message, so I just looked it up on GFAQs and I will have to try it next time.

FWIW, and not that anyone cares, but I’ve gotten better at Zanac and have it down pat now. I’ve cleared it 3 more times. I was pretty harsh on the game in my previous posts (my frustration was genuine at the time, lol) but I appreciate it a lot more now. I still don’t think I’m ready to put Zanac in my top-5 NES shmups but the game is a lot better than I gave it credit for, no question. So I figured out that once you lose fully powered up #7 the best strategy is to stick with #0 or #3 the rest of the way. It’s really tough to get #7 maxed out back to full power, and regular #7 is less effective than regular #0 or #3. The last 2 runs I’ve lost fully powered #7 early (like area 4-6) and managed to go the distance no problem. Zanac is a solid game... TAFN, but good.

I know this thread is dead, but had a decent run at Zanac. Zanac - NES 11,481,930

I noticed that too. Probably one of the best, and easiest, games left on the list. Surprised it’s still on there.

Nice one! 8 Eyes is a favorite of mine. Unique, underrated game IMO.

Of course I would beat Zanac right after I gripe about it! I mean, that’s always how it goes, right?! Lol My opinion of the game doesn’t change, which is despite all its great qualities, the frustration outweighs the fun, but I’m glad to check this one off my personal list. I got #7 fully powered up by the beginning of area 2, didn’t die til the end of area 8, had about 30 lives built up at that point, and was able to grind it out to the end with a combo of #0, #3, and #5 (none fully powered up of course). Killed the final boss with 2 lives left.

No need to be sorry for me as I am just venting my frustrations, but nevertheless I do appreciate your sentiments. I of course share a different opinion of Zanac lol (see post above).

Congrats on beating it! It is a great accomplishment. Don’t worry about taking the points from me, I don’t consider this thread a competition in the slightest, and Zanac is one my personal list to beat regardless. Your opinion on it being one of the best on the system is a popular one. And I get it, the game excels in graphics/frame rate especially for being an ‘86/‘87 developed game... and the “A.I.” aspect of it is novel for shmups at the time. I of course strongly disagree with popular opinion on this one. Overall gameplay experience is what I base my opinion on, and to me Zanac’s good qualities are entirely overshadowed by the design of its difficulty. I could name at least 10 NES shmups that I consider better than Zanac. I think these Compile games Gun-Nac & Zanac are some of the most overrated games in the NES library. Not bad, just overrated.

I had the same experience. Level 7, and hell even the final boss, paled in comparison to Level 6. Just curious, your avatar pic The Rocketeer, is it a favorite game of yours? I’ve been looking to pick up a copy of it. It looks like a decent game.

It’s seems to be a struggle for me to get back to a fully powered up #7 at any point in the game after I lose it. I’ve maybe done it once or twice up to this point. I can usually grab 1-2 #7s but always die before I am able to get the fourth one. It feels like in order to beat the game you have to get thru at least most of it on 1 life. If you can get to, say, late in level 10 before dying you should have at least 30 lives built up to have a chance to get to the end w/o fully powered #7. Surprisingly TMR was able to brute force his way to victory for his NES Mania by continuing a lot at level 10. He mostly got thru levels 11 & 12 with #0.

Nice one. I agree FotNS is mediocre-at-best, but yet far from the worst of the library. The fun part is figuring out the weaknesses of each of the bosses to take them out quicker. IIRC level 6 was the biggest pain in the game. For some reason it seemed excessively longer than any other level in the game.

I’ve been playing this shitty game for almost a week now. Got over 12 hours in on it I’d say. The frustration factor outweighs the fun/quality of Zanac, and by a landslide. Interesting that you guys mention other weapon #s as been equal to #7. I’m just not seeing that. Sure, a fully powered up #3 or #6 are effective, but yet not at all comparable to a fully powered up #7 IMO. Bullets can still penetrate through fully powered #3. Every quality play through of Zanac I’ve seen utilizes #7. I haven’t seen any others. Even @peg uses #7 is his NDR of it that he uploaded a few months ago on YT. I’ll probably make a few more attempts at Zanac before I say F it and move on. Kudos to anyone who has actually beaten this POS!

Frankenstein: The Monster Returns is beaten. Figured I’d contribute at least 1 more game before this thing ends next week, lol. I was playing it a couple months ago so it was still pretty fresh in my memory. Decent game. Hit detection is a lil wonky, and not being able to skip thru the constant text is a bit annoying, but outside of that it’s relatively fun.

Congrats on beating Star Force. One of these days I'm gonna put in the time and work to clear it myself... It's good to know about the weird difficulty curve so thank you for that.

Gauntlet II sounds like it might be worse of a slog than Rampage lol. I've actually owned this game since back in the day... don't think I've ever played it for more than 10 minutes at a time, and haven't played it in forever.

Agree. I recall 4-1 being a pain with those dogs throwing shit at you out of the windows while trying to jump across small platforms. And Max's castle was tough too. The game isn't too brutal, but definitely harder than you would expect it to be based on it's target audience, as scary elated to.

If you can beat Blaster Master, than you can beat Festers Quest. I found FQ to be slightly less challenging than BM.

See I thought 2 was quite a bit harder than 3. I actually consider AI2's difficulty reputation to be a bit underrated. Island 8 is a bear; most the stages are pretty tough I thought, especially the last stage. The diamonds in AI3 lighten it's difficulty quite a bit.

I think 3 is easier and much better than 2.

Cool video. Thanks for sharing. Nice trip down memory lane. Great to see how things used to be. TRU was awesome! 1991: NES games.. TMNT figures... WWF Hasbro figures.. WWF Wrestling Buddies... what a great time to be a kid!

One of the few GC games I've actually played. Love it.