Strikezone1

There's nothing poorly programmed at all about the last level (it's actually a very well designed game IMO). As MeganJoanne has pointed out, you have to hijack and use the enemy vehicles in order to traverse through the last level. This was by design. The walkers can high jump.

Nice! Nirvana is one of my favorite bands of all time. I easily recognized the 2 song titles in your user names and made the connection. Curmudgeon is a great song. I've liked it since I first listened to it on the Lithium single I bought in the mid 90s.

Very cool and interesting. I remember the thread of this you had over on NA. I'm glad you decided to post it here too. I collect some 90s action figures myself. Even though I don't have any of the Crash Dummies toys, I do remember them and I think it was a neat & creative toy line.

Any relation to the Nirvana songs on those old user names?

The current state of events is concerning and the thought has crossed my mind to sell some of my games/collectibles. With that said though, I don't have any intentions of doing so at this time.

Gun-Nac - 4,743,230 - Intermediate - 1CC

Wow, down to the last 50 games already! This year has far and away been the fastest pace for this thread out of the few years that I've been following/contributing.

It is a very solid game, and you're right in that it isn't that hard once you know the right stage order and get the feel for the controls (like anything else). One other thing to contend with is the fact that 2 of the 7 levels are maze-like (Egypt & Germany). The mazes aren't too bad, but if ya get hung up you can always just check out a playthrough. The game is very forgiving with the pretty high amount of damage you can take, plus abundant energy refill drops, plus unlimited continues. You shouldn't have much issue beating it @Kid Dracula. If I had to guess I would say it is one of the easiest (and best?) games left on the list. I'd take it out but I am currently working on advanced & expert difficulty settings on Gun-Nac, which are effing hell. Thankfully for this thread that intermediate (default) setting is sufficient for the clear.

I beat Stone Protectors the other day. Forgot to take a pick of the ending screen. Decent beat em up game.

Love me some SMB2. I give it the slight edge over SMB3 as my favorite NES SMB game. Peach is always my go-to, but I also mix it up on at least a few of the levels by choosing someone else. I've never played the Japanese version of SMB2, and TBH from the sounds of it I'm not in any hurry to play it.

Gradius - 688,600 points. Made it to stage 2 of 2nd loop, and 1st loop was 1LC. I figured coming off playing Gradius II that playing the 1st Gradius wouldn’t be too tough. That was dead wrong. I had forgotten how brutal the 1st Gradius is. 1 is significantly harder than 2, IMO. The 2nd loop difficulty spikes up real quick in Gradius. Kudos to these dudes clearing 3 & 4 loops.

I think Top Gun: The Second Mission is significantly tougher than the first TG game. I beat it a couple years ago in 2018. I think it may be the most difficult game out of all the 180 NES games that I've beaten. It requires precise and intricate movement and timing, in addition to a lot of memorization. The insta-death missiles that enemies fire at you from behind is incredibly frustrating. If order to get the feel & memorization required in order to beat it, you gotta practice a lot with with either save states if you're emulating, or the infinite lives code using game genie. The game only gives you 4 lives (3 to start, 1 via points right around the time you clear the first boss), which is ridiculously not nearly enough to get the practice needed for the later 2 missions. I always took the 40 missiles (the middle choice). There are spots in each mission to utilize them, both in dogfights and on normal enemies. I literally made hand written notes for each and every sequence, detailing where & how to move for each, and when to shoot a missile. This includes the dogfights. It is imperative to take out the enemy of each dogfight quickly. If it goes to a long drawn-out battle, there's a much greater chance they'll kill you. Another frustrating thing about this game (as you know I'm sure) is that you cannot pause, and refer to your notes. What I did was I made notes in large writing and put them right next to the tv so I could quickly glance at them. Best of luck! I know that you have the skill to beat it!

When I first beat the game I used #1, but for the 6 loop clear I used #2. I'm gonna try and beat it with all 4 powerup schemes. I totally agree with you - the spread bomb is super-powerful. It combined with the laser gun allows you to wipe out bosses very quickly.

Yeah after the 3rd loop I had to pause and take a couple hour break, and then after the 6th loop I was just done, haha.

For me it would be NES. It’s my favorite system, and I already have a third of the library, which includes a good majority of the heavy hitters. However I can’t justify buying games I have no interest in ever playing (RPGs, most sports titles, and pure crap titles), or buying Stadium Events.

DKR got my vote. Love the adventure mode, boss races, and unlocking T.T. in time trial mode. MK64 is great too though.

IIRC my first CDs were Nirvana “Bleach” and “In Utero”. Bought em at the same time at Kmart.

@Tulpa how ironic that not only do we post 3 minutes apart for the first posts in this thread in 3 months, but it’s the exact same game! Lol

Gradius II - 7,411,280 points - clears 6 loops on 1 credit (first 2, 6th were no-death). Still had 99 lives in stock but got burnt out, so I’m good with this score lol.

Love me some Lone Ranger on the NES. A truly well made game that nailed the multi-genre factor IMO. I agree that the difficulty ramps up quite a bit. I didn't consider it overly brutal, but it's tough for sure. I don't think this game's difficulty hinders it's ranking at all, as it easily cracks the top-100 (maybe top-50?) in the library IMO... "Easy" modes are for sissies. Congrats on beating it.

Donkey Kong Country 2 is my personal fav.. Stellar gameplay, stellar graphics, stellar soundtrack.. Plus I have a ton of nostalgia for it.

It's a great question that I'm sure a lot have thought about. My initial thought was that an increase in free time due to the current quarantine situation, combined with little amount of activities to choose from outside of tv/gaming would result in an increase in demand for games. The more I thought about it though, I think this initial idea is overshadowed by the fear of the unknown regarding peoples jobs and the economy. Recreational spending will probably be tightened for many due to the current situation. So my guess is prices/spending will decrease a bit, if anything.

If by 'best' you really mean frustrating/trollish/brutal then I agree, lol! AI3 is easily the best in the series IMO (although I haven't yet played AI4). It has the a more balanced, less frustrating difficulty. I personally like the dinos, thought they were a refreshing addition to the gameplay.

I beat AI2 for last years thread and I had similar thoughts/complaints about it. It's difficulty is definitely underrated. It starts out pretty easy, but really starts to ramp up around island 5. Once your inventory of hammers & dinos depletes, you're almost better off hitting the reset button and starting over as opposed to continuing. The level you go to next depends on which egg you choose at the end of each level, and it changes based on the order you go/have already gone. It isn't quite as sadistic as AI1 but it's not too far behind either, especially for a warpless run. Congrats on beating it!

Me too. I'm extremely disappointed that there's no NCAA tourney this year. It is far and away my favorite sporting event to watch... Of course this would happen on a year where the Big Ten is historically good, and the ACC is historically bad.