Floating Platforms

I have a question about Brain Drain for anyone who's gotten pretty far or beaten it. Last night, I beat Rookie mode. Then I went to Student and it started me on level 20. I got to level 110 and was ready to stop for the night since this game is BS. However, I decided to try Genius to see how obnoxious it would be and it started me on level 50. I'm pretty sure that level 50 through 70 (the first password) were the same as Student. So, do I really need to play Student at all? Does the game really have you backtracking for no good reason? Also, does anyone know how many levels in Student? I thought it would stop at 100. My guess now is 150, but that would mean Genius forces you to play 100 levels again if you're doing them all.

Adventure Island II: Aliens in Paradise is done! This felt like more of the same in many ways. There's no new power ups (except for the invincibility crystals, which I tried once and didn't work against a boulder so I forgot about them), the level designs are very similar with the same graphics. The levels are short and the dinosaurs you can find are the same (I think - maybe there's one more new one?). Still, I enjoyed this a bit more than the first. I really liked that certain levels had secrets that let you go a shorter, alternate path. I used that most of the time, but in a couple instances, I found those levels to be harder and I decided to take the long way around. Regardless, after you beat the boss, all of the unplayed levels from the other path get unlocked. Great idea. It's also good that you can backtrack to other worlds at anytime. It's sad that it's basically necessary as many of the later worlds give you no eggs or weapons at all, so you have to go back and farm powerups and weapon drops from secret rooms over and over to build up the ammo. A couple of the bosses took me several tries to learn, but none were overwhelmingly difficult. I'm not sure if I'm going to try World Bowling a bit more or jump into Brain Drain.

As long as it's not another 50+ hour game, I'll be happy! Right now I'm worried that World Bowling will end in the 100 hr range

World Bowling has bested me another week. I'm going to try to get some emulation practice in and test theories. I feel like I'm getting better, but I can still barely break 200 on level 5 France if I'm lucky (need 240 to move on). I have no idea what's going on in that level that's so different. I feel like the strike zone is totally randomized, or there's a different pattern I haven't encountered or???? I need to save state and try things in order to properly learn. Anyway, Monday I'll jump on Adventure Island 2 then start Brain Drain. Next two to add to my soft dibs - Ninja Boy & Madden 95

I have the day off from work and decided to finally knock out the story mode of Yakuza Zero, so that first step is done. Currently I'm at 96 hours and my completion list is a beefy 84.49%. I spent a large chunk of time going around and taking care of a lot of things so most of what's left is the gambling and Mahjong lists. I also need to win money on various other mini games and do about 40 more coliseum battles. Oh and get all the weapons and gear. And beat up a bunch more people with Majima. And the final substory battles. And maybe a cash grind to buy the remaining abilities. And..... Right now I'm feeling like there's a good chance I can get this platinum by the end of April if I don't get too stuck on anything specific.

Finished up Frogger as it was a viewer vote backlog, then thought I'd try Super Off Road and was surprised to finish that off quickly. There's the 99 nitro Here's the top of the points standings after that race. It was a close call. I actually was on my last continue when I eked it out. This is an absolutely terrible port of a great game. The frame rate chugs like hardly anything I've seen. The turning is rough and unresponsive, which is a problem when that's the core mechanic of the game. There's a lot of collision physics with you and the cars which made using turbo less than ideal as I usually ended up pushing them forward with me. The tracks had really strange reaction spots too. Some points would pull me upwards, others off to the side. Other parts acted like a brick wall and I didn't know why. I never fully felt comfortable playing it, but at least it was easy enough to beat on my first try despite all its flaws. Most likely I'll be going back to World Bowling on Monday and won't have a chance to start Adventure Island II until my next break from that.

The sad thing about sports games is that the bad ones are usually really, really bad. Worst on the system bad. Many of the good ones get lost in the shuffle and/or can't compete against wholly unique games in other genres. The ones that are remembered fondly tend to be games that have a gimmick like NBA Jam or NFL Blitz or Baseball Simulator 1.000. That's why it was strange to me that we never got games for more of those ESPN 2 competitions. I would have loved to try a lumberjack competition game or a strongman game (where you have to roll tires and pull a bus. Anyone remember Magnus Ver Magnusson?). I know they would be incredibly similar to any other track & field or Olympics game but if you make it a little more arcade-y, the unusual subject matter might have peaked some curiosity.

I'm on a break from World Bowling and beat TMNT 2 for my personal list and also trying to get through Frogger. After that, I can contribute new stuff again. Here's a quick update on my soft dibs of what's coming up: Super Off Road Adventure Island II: Aliens in Paradise Brain Drain Hunchback of Notre Dame, The I think I will probably get through Super Off Road this week. If I'm really lucky, I might also get Adventure Island 2 done as well but that might have to wait for my next bowling break

My experience with it was interesting. I noticed some things that I'll keep in spoiler tag in case you don't want hints just yet, but they might help the process go faster?

Good luck with Championship Pool. I save stated my way through a couple tournaments a few years back and it was...interesting. Still not sure how to fully tackle that one and definitely don't want to try it the same year I'm slogging through Bowling. Speaking of, last night was wild. Most of the time, I couldn't get past the second round. I probably made it to Canada (round 4 of 6) twice? in the 3.5 hrs I played. But on the flipside, I got a new score PB of 278 from 11 strikes - nearly perfect. I had another near perfect game later for a score of 277 and tied my previous high of 268. So, why can't I beat this? Well, because there seems to be a lot of chance involved and I cannot figure out how to manipulate things. When I'm doing well, it's from trying to hit the same strike zone range. However, that doesn't always work. Sometimes, the range is very forgiving and other times it feels super specific. Sometimes, I think it's constantly shifting or moving along the power meter. So it's not like I can hit the first level and perform really well each time because the strike zone is different every time, and likely has one of multiple different attributes tied to it. Then, multiply that by 6 with growing point requirements and different reactions for the different countries (Canada is absolutely brutal and one mistake is a run killer). That's where the luck comes in. It sucks, because anything beyond the first ball has no randomization at all. I know how to pick up 7-10 splits easily and it will never fail if I hit my spot, but if you bowl the initial ball in the exact same spot twice in a row, there's a high chance it does something different. After 40+ hours in trying I have not found one specific location that will always work for a strike on any of the levels. My current theory is that with each attempt, the strike zone difficulties and locations are randomized along the 6 courses. I'm thinking that if I get a more difficult loadout and can barely squeak by on the first two levels, that will hopefully mean that the remaining four stages will be more forgiving which is necessary for those high point requirements. The game's not frustrating to play because of the controls, but I'm frustrated at myself that I cannot seem to learn anything new that will give me a better chance at winning. There's not enough feedback visually or auditory to help with adjustments (or maybe I'm not picking up on it). Rant over...I'm trying one more night and then taking a break with the next games on my list (which are already done here): TMNT 2 & Frogger. I have Super Off-Road after that. Maybe I'll be able to squeeze that in next week too.

Mario Kart 7 is done I got gold cups on all levels, but I have no interest in trying to get 3 stars on everything. I've become less and less interested in this series as time went on. Loved playing multiplayer on the SNES, 100%'d the N64 one, then did the same with the DS version a decade+ ago. This one is fine, but it's bland and boring. I've played a tiny bit of 8 on Wii U (I'm one of the dozen switch owners that doesn't have it for that system) and finished a couple races and was ready to be done. It doesn't hook me. Picking this up for 2 races at a time during breaks was the best way to slog through it.

That was me. I am still working on World Bowling, but no new progress this week. Will give it a few more days before another break

I really appreciate all the spoiler tags being applied to the Tunic and Obra Dinn talk. I'm planning to dive into those next after I can knock out at least one of the three behemoths I'm currently tackling. Sadly it will still be quite a while. Current progress AC: Valhalla - Power level 200, maybe about 30% done with the map objectives & 60% done with the story. No DLC done Yakuza 0 - Ch. 7. Trying to focus more on side stories and alt modes. Finished all the RC car racing, 1/5th done with the real estate and just started the Cabaret mission. So much to do. Danganronpa 3 - haven't worked on it lately. Still have the post-game grind to go through Mario Kart 7 - I'll hopefully be done by end of month. One more gold cup in 150cc to acquire in order to unlock mirror mode.

And the GB version of Chase HQ only has the one loop, which also makes it a lot more manageable. I'll second the vote for Bubble Bobble and throw Star Trek: 25th Anniversary out for contention. I know that it's a slightly different game on NES but the GB one has a nice variety in the shooter stages (that don't exist in NES) and enjoyable action puzzle planet levels with your crew in between.

Pac-in-Time is done We can update the completion requirement on this one to say "Beat all 70 Levels". I was hoping it was only going to be 50, but there are 7 worlds with 10 stages each. A mostly fun puzzle platformers that continues to throw new ideas or mechanics at you. There were a few levels that gave me trouble. Most of the time when I got stuck, it was from the puzzle solving perspective of figuring out how to pass an obstacle. On one level, 5-5, I spent about 90 minutes trying to navigate a gauntlet of RNG instadeath at the beginning and navigating two rapid firing enemies. I probably overcomplicated things too much but the gameplay is not meant for the level of precision that this stage seemed to want. Generally speaking, the gameplay is good and I say this is a better Spider-Man game than the two I've played on GB. Pac-Man can have access to up to 4 abilities, one is a string thing that allows you to swing across. It's incredibly intuitive and smooth most of the time. Otherwise, there is an underwater swim, a "hammer" that is used when you need to chomp through certain things, and a fireball/hadouken. What's missing in this Pac-Man game are power pellets and the ability to eat enemies and, largely, ghosts. There are a couple later stages where ghosts appear and are treated like any other enemy, but it's clear that this was a repurposed property where they wedged in a known character. Still, aside from that one rage-inducing stage, it was a good time, even if it was overly long. My week long break from World Bowling is over so I'll try more of that on Monday. I was hoping to sneak in one or two more games, but I almost didn't get this one finished after three nights.