Floating Platforms

Okay, the New Owner banner is a thing (the TAS moves so fast you have to go frame by frame in this video to see it, but it is there) From the description - The ending shown in the previous run was found to not be actual best ending, the actual best ending (which is ownership of the Caesars Palace casino) requiring at least $5,963,776 to achieve. The authors do this by getting two absurdly lucrative jackpots in a row at the Slots with some careful RNG manipulation. So, apparently there is a slot machine that will pay out $5million, but you still need another $1 Million to reach the owner status, so they found the right frame to hit jackpot twice.

ah that's right. bad memory about the limo thing. I think I saw some weird TAS thing showing the casino owner ending on some system but it was a while ago. I'll see if I can dig it up. I could very well be mistaken and I truly hope it's not real since I'm personally trying for best endings. In World Bowling progress news - I made it to stage 4 of 6 (Canada) several times tonight, but it definitely plays differently from the first 3 countries and I haven't quite figured out the sweet spots. My overall high score for a game is 257 followed by 249. So, even though this may still take a long time, I think it might be feasible with luck.

What's crazy is that the limo may not be the best ending. Someone left a comment on my playthrough video (that somehow auto-erased, or they deleted after?) stating there's an ending at $5 million+ to become the Owner of the casino. How would that ever be possible if there's no workable pattern in roulette or the other wheel? But yeah, maybe the win condition should be simply leave in a better vehicle than you get for the default cash.

Maybe my problem is that I've only played King of the Ring, WCW and War Zone so far - all quite different. KotR was super quick, WCW was fine, War Zone is one of only 3 games (of 180) that I've ranked 1/10. The controls really don't work and I had to find a cheese tactic to make it through.

Nice work knocking all of these out. I think the count is probably over 60 now? Those wrestling games can be frustrating at times since it seems like every one has different, unintuitive controls.

This is on my personal revisit list to see if there is anything significantly different for getting stage 99-10 on high speed. I would certainly say you can consider this done since there is an ending and credits. I see YouTube videos for people getting 99-10 on NES, but not GB. If it's anything like the NES ending, then it appears to be near identical (but without the cutscene). 10-10 shows mario, yoshi, bowser and peach and 99-10 shows only mario and yoshi with items bouncing around them. It does look like you can stage select with that code the normal ending gives, so it may not take too much time to explore.

Panel Action Bingo is done I went the numbers route. Still pretty easy until the last few levels of each section. Not sure what my next keyboard game will be. Maybe a golf or racing game.

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is done I absolutely hated this one. While it's safe to say that it controls better than the first Spider-Man game, it's still a jumbled mess when it comes to anything web related. Plus, while you don't have the awkward high jump, there is an awkward double jump that you must perform in order to wall grab. None of this works as expected. The web mechanics honestly feel broken and largely useless except for a couple key areas where you must latch on to something to progress (thankfully very minimal overall). Don't bother attacking with web. By the time you get to the enemy, they've broken out and if you get to close to anyone, they hurt you anyway. It took me about an hour to figure out how to get through the first level, and that only happened because of an inadvertent hint in my chat. Before that sticking point, I was encouraged by the exploration aspect of the game. Get an item, use that item to open a new area and do more stuff. Some of the stages are connected and you can get in over your head if you're not careful. That's all interesting in theory, but the terrible mechanics and awful enemies that annoyingly knock you back ruin that. Also, you can soft-lock. If you need web and there are no more power-ups left (as they don't respawn after death), you're just screwed. Every level is like a mini-puzzle that should be fun to figure out but they are all frustrating in their own ways thanks to terrible controls and inconsistent behaviors in the programming. I haven't been legitimately angry at a game in a while, but this got me there. After that lovely experience, I also started learning World Bowling. After about 1hr 45min, I got to the second stage twice. If I can manage to find a spot where I can get 2-3 strikes in a row semi-regularly, then I'll be in good shape.

Even easier if you happen to know or remember where the secret bonus games are, but still a fun time. You'll probably get to it well before me, since I have World Bowling to fight, but I have TMNT II on deck soon. I've only played the first TMNT on Game Boy so I'm interested to see how they compare.

The Simpsons: Itchy & Scratchy in Miniature Golf Madness is done Here's another game from my childhood that I could never beat. I don't know if I made it past level 5 back then, but in my first 2 tries I made it to level 8 and then the third try was the charm using one continue. Generally, it's not a terrible game, but boy is it frustrating at times. There are a bunch of Itchys with various weapon types and some of them move incredibly fast and/or shoot projectiles before you know they are there. You can try to combat something as soon as it appears on screen, but all the weapons you're given have a slow wind-up time and it's pretty common to still get hit and die unless you know where that Itchy spawns or you guess right and throw ammo in advance. The hit boxes are pretty unfair and your swings can go through him, but if you touch a single pixel and you're dead. The music is an obnoxious loop that lasts 10 seconds and doesn't change no matter the level. The graphics are the high point with well-done sprites and a huge variety in level designs and final obstacles for the holes. It's a bit disappointing that the mini-golf aspect isn't better utilized. It's not really a golf game, but rather an escort mission. Getting under par will earn you an extra life, but that's it. Overall, it's fun but not great - like most of the Simpson's games on Game Boy. Next I'm going to swing through Amazing Spider-Man 2

I agree. I don't know if I would have fully bothered if it wasn't included in the PS+ monthly games. I found House Flipper to be more polished and more engaging. But this still worked well as a mind-off relaxing game to end my days.

Oh nice! I think I saw that they were aware of it, but didn't look too far. It's good that they're still working on things, because I will say that the game doesn't always run too well overall - which is odd for a game with a single mechanic and usually no moving objects aside from yourself.

I'm considering Powerwash Simulator done. Normally I go for the platinum trophy if it's within my skill level, but that will have to wait. I beat the main story and apparently that specific trophy is glitched. If it gets patched, I'll revisit and do the challenges to finish it out. Anyway, the game is a nice, mindless relaxing experience that was a perfect way to wind down before bed. Really nothing challenging about it and that's okay. The levels had a nice variety of settings. Probably too many vehicles, but otherwise, they kept it interesting. There was a story throughout that went to sort of unexpected places but was far too sparse to be considered a selling point. The goal is to zone out, put on a stream or YouTube video on the background and spray the night away. I've been playing another sleepy-time game in Danganronpa (sleepy in that reading that much on the TV makes me fall asleep accidentally), so I'll probably spend my PS5 time going back to Assassin's Creed Valhalla and/or Yakuza 0 when I want to stay awake.

Paperboy is done Paperboy is not a bad game, and this plays well enough, but the zoomed in screen of the Game Boy makes this one of the worst versions you could try. Half the fun playing this as a kid is tossing papers into windows or other things to see the destruction effects, but that takes a backseat to surviving when trying to beat it. Save those papers to toss at enemies so they stop in their path. This took a while to learn. After some time, I found a sweet spot where most sidewalk things wouldn't touch me. Then it was a matter of managing speed. I thought slow was better, but it hurt me more than I knew until I tried speeding up. Still, there are possibly always unavoidable deaths depending on the RNG load-out as you could be hit with 3 or 4 obstacles in the same little section. I barely made it through by the skin of my teeth with a deathless run on Sunday with no lives remaining thanks to a brutal Saturday that took everything from me. I got some good practice on Itchy & Scratchy: Mini Golf Madness last night too, making it to level 8 of 9. I hope to beat that tonight. Next on the list are: 180 Platforming/Action Simpsons: Itchy & Scratchy in Miniature Golf Madness, The 181 Platforming/Action Amazing Spider-Man 2, The 182 Sports World Bowling 183 Platforming/Action Pac-In-Time 184 Platforming/Action TBD 185 Arcade Frogger Since World Bowling is potentially impossible, I will probably swap other games in between attempts.

Decided to do another pinball game on the couch. Revenge of the Gator is done after a lot of resets. I didn't accept a first ball score under 100,000. The ball physics in this are not great and there are tons of cheap losses.

Sorry, nevermind... I have an old spreadsheet that I work off of sometimes to compare times with other GB runners. There the goal is listed as beat the high score of 11,000. I see that it does say get through the week here. I also have a note about paperboy 2 where I put "get through 3 weeks?" but haven't looked into that at all and don't recall where I would have come across that

Maui Mallard in Cold Shadow is done Sadly, it's not good. The game has good ideas and intentions and a bit of variety in the levels and in the bosses but the controls and hit detection make this duck sink instead of swim. First we have some of the floatiest jumps I've encountered - on par with Toy Story and Pagemaster, and the movement is slippery as well. Everything must be made of ice. It's unclear what you can actually land on sometimes and it's unclear where your exits are. Some doors work, most don't. I found this manhole looking thing that took me to the next part of a level but it felt like a glitch. The powerup icons can be tough to read against the background and there are bug enemies and bug ammo, so be careful to avoid the moving ones. The ninja mechanic is slightly broken. You use your staff to swing on certain points and the hit detection to actually latch on is extremely finicky and inconsistent. You also need to swing at the bottom of the animation for some reason. There's supposed to be a thing where you use your staff to wedge between walls and climb, but that didn't work ever. Ropes were near impossible to grab as well. Of course there are blind jumps and limited continues. Thankfully I found a cheese spot for the final boss at least. Maybe the 16-bit versions are better but I had to fight against the character too much here. Also, Popeye 2 is done This would have been a lot more fun if my cartridge wasn't freezing so much. One time I got to the final boss, lost, and then had a freeze on my way back. Thankfully I was able to get it clean enough and thankfully the game is short enough when you know what to do, that I was able to power through. It's a fun, mostly easy, platformer that reminded me a bit of Super Mario Land, Batman, and a touch of Castlevania Adventure. Solid level layouts with only the very last one including a really devious part in the beginning. The boss fights ranged from mindless to I'm not totally sure what to do so I'll try ways to brute force it. The sprite work was solid and the music had it's moments. I wish you could use the people you rescue as one-time power-ups or for some function but at least I learned how to use the inventory as that was key to helping me win. I'm now working on Paperboy. Any reason why the goal isn't to get through Sunday on here? If it's just the high score, I got that on my second run, but I'm going to keep trying until I can do the full week.

I was hoping to get it done last weekend, but 48 levels took a few nights. Anyway, Battleship is done. I also knocked out a quick one with Pinball Dreams That second board is dumb with so much empty space and plenty of rebounds that lead straight to the gutter. But jackpots are super easy overall so this didn't take tons of time.

Yes, definitely. I was hoping (but not expecting) that beating both would do something else, but oh well. I did not test the theory of just getting under par and not reaching #1, though. So, if someone later comes through and does get congratulations on a #2 score, we should probably adjust it again.

Golf is done The game has its charms, but hiding below the surface of the cute character sprite and the simplistic gameplay is a surprisingly difficult, demanding golf game. There are 2 courses: Japan (easier) and US (harder). Both offer hole layouts that are anything but straightforward most of the time. There is little to no opportunity to hit a par 4 green in one shot or a par 5 in two. They show little pockets of fairway in "alternate" routes, but those rely on perfect conditions and the random wind to be going the right direction (which it never does), so really they are fake outs. There are also several longer holes where your 1W is going to end up in the water or sand, so you have to scale back and set up a shot to get over the hazards. The ball physics are not good. If you are in deep rough, virtually every club is garbage. If the ball hits the green, it will almost always bounce or roll until it's in the rough (where your putter is garbage even though you're right on the edge). Basically friction doesn't exist on the green unless you're already on it and trying to put. The putting is also quite specific and demanding. Anyway, the "saving" grace of the game is that it saves your progress after every shot settles. The manual tells you that and tells you how to reset, so if you hit a bad shot, you can reset before it's done rolling and try again. That's pretty much the only way to get the 6 or 7 under par needed for the victory screen in Japan (12 or 13 under for the harder US course). Since I abused that feature, I went ahead and got both courses done but the endings are the same and there's nothing extra for doing both. I also started Maui Mallard last night. It's pretty bad but unless the last couple of levels are brutally hard, I think I'll get it done Monday.

well, I learned that trying to play even simple platformers like Yogi Bear is tough for me when just using keyboard as my controller. So I'm nearly half done with Battleship

And NFL Football is done This game is still trash. Took a few times and some quick resets when the CPU got touchdowns. Picking random teams. Anyway, don't pass the ball and hope you can intercept enough to get the win. I actually managed to run into the endzone for the first time and added more field goals that I expected. I'm not sure what's next. I'm thinking a simple platformer like Yogi Bear or maybe Battleship

Bugs Bunny Crazy Castle is done. Congraturations to me. I think I'll try to get NFL Football done next

Nice! You're playing Boxxle so I don't have to!

Ended the night with a PB of +2 on the Japan course without resets (not even trying the US course), also shot +6 a separate time. Slowly improving.