John198X

How does infinite continues negate all difficulty? I can see that for games where it makes for no death penalty (respawn immediately, lose no progress), obviously. But for most games with a lives / continue system, it's not like using continues suddenly means that if you keep tapping buttons, you'll eventually get to the end - like infinite monkeys with infinite typewriters will eventually write the works of Shakespeare, or whatever. If I could theoretically just tap random buttons and eventually I'd clear level 4 only, then it follows that I could tap random buttons for a longer period of time and eventually clear levels 1-4 in one go. Of course 1CC is more challenging, but the idea that infinitely trying from level 4, as opposed to infinitely trying from level 1, negates all difficulty doesn't make sense to me. --- This line of conversation started with someone pointing out that most of the "consensus best" SNES games aren't that difficult. I'd agree, and go as far as to say that's definitely an aspect of why some of those are so popular. You don't have to use continues in Turtles in Time or Super Castlevania, but you don't have to use the save function in DK Country, Super Metroid, or Chrono Trigger either. But I think it's fair to judge a game by the options it makes available to you. Taking that into account, I'd say a playthrough of any of those is a fairly mild challenge relative to the majority of games from the first half of the 90s.

Three first-time completions for me over the weekend. After multiple abortive attempts over the decades, I finally forced my way through to the end of Yoshi's Island. I think it's well made, with a lot of creative and interesting ideas and mechanics... that add up to a game that I don't find particularly fun to play. There are lots of what would be considered B-tier SNES games that I get a lot more enjoyment out of. Then there was Mega Man X3, which is fine. There's nothing else interesting to say about it because it is lacking in interesting things. Finally, Star Wars: Rebel Assault. I had rented the Sega CD version of this when it was new, but I was playing the 3DO port here. I mean, I wouldn't recommend it to anybody, and a couple of the levels are bullshit, but I often find early 'multimedia experience' games very charming. That's right. I had more fun with Star Wars: Rebel Assault than Yoshi's Island, and there's nothing anybody can do about it.

Oops. Wrong thread. I guess I could add: The difficulty of reaching the ending of a game with infinite continues vs the difficulty of a self-imposed challenge of 1CC aren't really the same thing, yeah? Anyway.

I've only made one real attempt at this game... I was so upset when I reached the second half of the last stage and got completely murdered, losing everything I had built up over the course of the game, and then proceeded to try for around 3 hours starting fresh from that last level... as it slowly sunk it that there was no way I was going to do this without resetting and playing from the very beginning. I haven't gone back to it yet...

I'm very appreciative of everything Frank Cifaldi has done and continues to do, but his comments on this controversy on the most recent Insert Credit podcast were extremely disappointing. What I got from it: People who are mad about Heritage/WATA are either laughably naïve, because sketchy business is endemic to capitalism, or they are gatekeeper types only concerned about who should be allowed to buy old games. Calling out shitty business practices, regardless of how common, is somehow comparable to gamergate nonsense? What the fuck is that?

Checked out a video of someone finishing the final mission of the advanced campaign (same maps but changing the number and placement of units to increase the difficulty), and the ending sequence looks identical to the one for the normal campaign. Kinda lame.

I just banged my head against it during a long, uneventful shift at work, figuring out and memorizing a path across many, many attempts to make it to the end of the stage before getting worn down by the ridiculous amount of gun turrets. It doesn't help that I'd be doing really well only to miss a simple jump and fall to my death... like alot. Batman's jump is weird, like it's almost always shorter or longer than you expect.

I finished like 10 GB games in July. Fridays at work have been really slow, okay? Nothing too difficult. Here's the ones that have yet to be accounted for: 7/5 Nettou Garou Densetsu 2 (Japan only) - Based on Fatal Fury 2, not to be confused with the one Tanooki beat based on Real Bout Special. I've you've played any other SNK fighting conversions for Game Boy, you know what to expect. 7/16 Batman: The Video Game - I like tiny, gun-toting Batman, but the last stage sure is a pain... 7/23 Ghostbusters II - It's amazing that a game where the primary difficulty is corralling your tag-along partner can still be so fun. It's also impressive that they managed to capture Bill Murray's hairline in such a small sprite. 7/28 Avenging Spirit - I know people are supposed to like this one. The body hopping gimmick is cool, but I didn't appreciate the cheap hits. Got the good ending. 7/28 The Smurfs - I don't love this game... but having already learned it on NES and Master System made it fairly painless to complete.

I don't exactly know why I like Splatterhouse so much. Yeah, it's pretty simplistic, plays kinda stiff, and the fire guys in the last stage have no animation and look weird. But the aesthetics and presentation are just perfect, and the difficulty is relatively mild - just enough to keep you fully engaged. Once you learn it, it's an easy 20ish minute playthrough, but it's on a very short list of games that I can always revisit and enjoy every single moment.

The defense has degenerated from “Heritage / WATA did nothing wrong” into “well you don’t have to use them.”

Some people really just need to stop squabbling over minutiae and just admit that they think being a successful swindler makes you smart and admirable and have the biggest brain.

With outside confirmation of attempted contact (that was in no way owed in the first place), are there any further defenses other than “the people that created this ‘market’ through unethical means brazenly and publicly totally didn’t do other unethical things that a YouTube video supposes they may possibly have also done.”

What went down makes it especially disheartening to see sycophants and advocates for this cabal of scumbags.

Finally getting a chance to watch Jobst's video. I've casually followed there Heritage / WATA saga. The market manipulation and some degree of collusion was obvious from the beginning. I mean, it was completely shameless. I pretty much wrote it all off as an artificial bubble to make rich people richer, which is still correct, but the details are even scummier than I imagined. NA shutting down was a bummer for me. I didn't find this forum until a bit after it had started and haven't lurked too often. Even when I do, it's The Gauntlet and other play areas I keep to, just as I did on NA. I'm reading some older threads here on this topic, and it's quite a trip... A whole lot of info in Jobst's video that's been around here for years for those willing to look. This one is fun... I'm just finding out today about the direct connection between GoCollect and WATA, among other things. That's really depressing.

Yoshi's Island! I didn't get into it when I played a friend's copy when it was contemporary. I've bounced off of it maybe a couple more times over the decades. I always seem to play it for about an hour then never return. Like, I think it's fine? It's just never hooked me at all, unlike the SMW and the NES Mario games. But, I've finished lots of stuff that is a far worse than fine, so I'm going to finish this one this week. Maybe I'll turn around on it. Persona 3! Finished it when it was a new release. Replaying for the first time since then - a little over halfway through. It's a good time, and it's helping me clarify my thoughts on what I didn't like about Persona 5 in comparison.