Floating Platforms

Came so close to beating In Your Face (assuming it's only 5 matches), but the Utah CPU came from behind and beat me 25-23. I have some moderately successful strategies now so I think I can get it done tonight and then move on to Prophecy: The Viking Child if there's enough time. If not, I'll boot that up Monday.

Haha. The downsides of multitasking. Looking back on it, I stand by my cliffhanger

Beavis & Butt-Head is done I never lost all my lives, so I don't know if this screen also shows up if that happens, but it does follow the final story cut-scene and comes before credits. Well, this was basically my second game in a row that played a little like an action point & click. This one had less clicking than Alien 3 and also was much more linear, even if the paths were winding. I did get lost at one section because I assumed the way up to the next area was a wall. I wish the inventory system would have been better and allowed me to drop things I didn't need anymore. The game is incredibly easy and virtually none of the enemies posed much of a threat. The birds sucked. Oh, and the side-view sewer level can go to hell. That was pure garbage with the floatiest jumps and inconsistent ladder grabbing and stupid spiders that sucked health. Terrible and out of place. The rest of the game was fun. The cutscenes matched the show's humor pretty well. Nothing overstayed its welcome and honestly I wouldn't have minded something a bit longer. Tomorrow I'll start my attempts of In Your Face. Now that we know about the tournament stuff, it should be

Alien3 is done The only reason there were no prisoners left alive is because it took about 15 tries to get the queen to do what she was supposed to do and everyone walked right into her path while I was waiting for the RNG to go my way. On Monday, I got the Queen killed in my second try, but then I ran into a glitch or softlock where the item I needed was no longer where I left it near the ship. This time I kept that item, but the queen just would not cooperate using the same method (maybe there was a different way, but I had no intention of experimenting too much) and it took forever. It didn't help that my stream was losing connection constantly. What should have been 40 minutes took another 2 hours. Anyway, the game is fun to learn. I love unique experiences on the Game Boy and this is sort of like a fetch quest adventure game, sort of top-down Metroid like thing and I wasn't expecting that. There are unfortunately too many areas of the map that are useless and empty and a couple items are totally hidden and not represented by dots like all others. So, there's a good amount of puzzle solving and figuring out paths and sequences of events. I'm sure I didn't go for the most efficient method, but it worked for me. The fans in the ventilation shaft puzzle areas ended up posing a bigger threat than the aliens. I had to constantly refer to my notes telling me which directions would be safe and which would pull me into instant death. Inventory management is a real problem as you have 3 key cards in 5 slots, plus a map, plus possibly another key item. Dying will send you back to the opening spot, so you can't leave the key cards otherwise you will soft lock. A couple of the weapons are useless if you know what you are doing. Some of the items are one use (or no use found at all. It's a strange game. But it was interesting and enjoyable for having decent gameplay and mechanics, not being overly difficult, and being something totally different than what most games are on Game Boy. On Monday, I'll plan to start Beavis and Butt-Head.

Oh yeah, I second @PekoponTAS's take. stage 4 is like something made in super mario maker by an aspiring kaizo level creator. Fortress of Fear is fun, though

Wave Race was a blast as well, except for that 4th level, like you were talking about. Yeah, adjust the boat 2 clicks back and forth and you can slide through, but I could never get to that part of the stage alone and the other boats always knocked me off course and ruined everything. I had to assume the 1 point on that track always and try to make it up in other spots. Overall it took me twice as long to beat Wave Race as it did to beat Quarth, though. I would say that there is no reason to try Hyper Lode Runner, honestly. If you really like that type of action puzzler, then maybe. But it was not a satisfying experience at all.

Oh interesting. I guess I'll likely be beating James Bond a couple times then. Once totally blind and then again to get that best ending. Yeah, these next four are quite the variety, which is what I like and try to shoot for. I don't even have the manual for Viking Child to get a small sense of what it will be like. The only info I have is that it appears to be 3-4 hours to beat, but I'm sure I'll find a way to mess that up. Fingers crossed I can get to it next week. I don't remember if anyone beat it last year, but I did beat it early on in 2021. I had to map out one of the levels from my video replay to see where power-up possibilities were. Beast of a game, but still addictively fun. I think it's certainly currently in my top 5 hardest so far. Wave Race takes my #1 spot and Hyper Lode Runner is probably #2

Meh is the worst review I've heard of it so far (but I also haven't really gone searching too much). I think I have a higher tolerance for mediocre stuff, though. So, if the game is kinda blah, but has good concepts or other qualities that I find redeeming but maybe the execution is a bit off, I'll still be pretty happy. We'll see in a few games at least.

Oh yeah, I kind of forgot about the soft dibs thing. Here are the upcoming games that have been selected so far Beavis and Butt-head In Your Face Prophecy: The Viking Child James Bond 007 I'm really looking forward to James Bond as I hear it's pretty dang good and I've never touched it.

Well it's an honor to be nominated. Hyper Lode Runner was a beast. I'm not in-tune enough with the drama to nominate anyone/thing for #1 and #3 but I would also second the nomination for @Philosoraptor on category 2 for that monster game destroying year.

I should have beaten Alien 3 tonight, but I ran into a glitch after defeating the queen. The item I needed de-spawned and I couldn't roll credits. I have the general idea of how to do everything figured out though. I'm not playing tomorrow, but Wednesday night I should be able to finish this up pretty quick and then I'll start on my next game: Beavis and Butt-Head

Last night I finished my first 2022 holdover: Bioshock This is the type of game I don't know if I would have ever actually played if it weren't for the backlog thread. I'm not a big fan of games in the first perspective (as I actually feel that they're less immersive since I can't see my character) and I'm terrible at shooters (which this game is, but its not typically a super fast moving experience). I'm also not wild about creepy, scary games (this isn't as bad in that department as I was expecting. I think the PS3 graphics helped temper it a bit, and also being able to hear the splicers before you saw them helped avoid most jump scare moments). It was going to be one of those classic games that I never tried myself despite owning a copy for a decade. The backlog thread made me decide to dive in and I'm glad I did. I played on survivor difficulty with the vita chambers off to earn the platinum on my first playthrough, which immediately felt like a mistake. Even the first couple enemies were brutally hard for me. 2 or 3 at the same time felt impossible and I considered quitting very early on. But I read that getting past the first level was the hardest part and after the second, things would get easier and that is absolutely true. Sure, I still saved after every encounter or hack or key moment, but the game starts to open up with more resources and abilities that make the character stronger and versatile. I loved the variety in combat in abilities. There are so many different ways you could approach this game and the various enemies. It was a ton of fun to play around with different weapon/plasmid combos to see what worked best for certain types or situations, and then also learning to pivot when ammo got lower than expected in your favorite weapon. I appreciated that the story was well acted and also worked as a face-value experience, but also added plenty of additional context and lore through the optional audio logs you can find. The levels were hit and miss in their designs, with some of it feeling a little same-y or plain forgettable. Of course Fort Frolic was a highlight. The final boss battle was easier than expected in that I beat it on my first try, but I was on my last first aid kit. It was nice to have something that was different than what you had encountered so far at least. Overall, I can easily see why this game has earned its prestige and accolades. I'm looking forward to diving into the sequel later this year sometime to see where things go from here.

So, it's a little weird on Game Boy. The game loops twice basically. Beat it once and at the end of the credits you get the password to keep going and the game is a little harder/different (bosses take more hits, slightly different enemies, etc). The story cutscene ending itself is the exact same for both loops, but the credits will be different. I don't think we require the second loop for this thread though

Nice, are you doing letters or numbers? I feel like letters would have tripped me up too much in those faster rounds.

First backlog game of the year is down and it's one that's been on the backlog for the shortest amount of time. I wasn't originally planning to get a PS5 this early, but I caved when I saw them in stock on the PS direct store and it became an impulse buy present to myself (as much as something with this price point can be an "impulse"). Anyway, Astro's Playroom is the pre-loaded "pack-in" game with the system and I knew I wanted that to be my first platinum on the system. I played the main story with my brother over the holidays and spent last night cleaning up the random trophies that were left. What an incredibly charming, well-executed experience this was. Not only does it work to showcase the new capabilities of the PS5 and its controller, but it's also a tight, well-rounded 3D platformer. The difficulty isn't present, but that's a good thing in this specific case. If this were ever to be expanded to be a much longer full game, I would complain if it were all still this easy. For this short playthrough that's meant to let all people see everything, it works. And there's plenty to see with tons of easter eggs and references played out by the little robots. It's a great celebration of Playstation's history and a great game. I've also realized that to meet all my goals, I'd basically have to average a game each week, so...oops. Good thing there are some short ones on there to help out. I'm very nearly done with Bioshock and Phoenix Wright vs Professor Layton and I'm about halfway done with Piczle Cross Adventure. I might also try to knock out one of the shorter PS4 games on my list to keep momentum up.

Last year, I couldn't contribute anything until January 30th because Wave Race took so dang long to knock out. I'm happy to report that I already have two under my belt for January. Cool Spot is done again Sadly, I can report that beating the game on hard while collecting all letters of "Uncola" but not using any continues will NOT produce a different ending than simply beating the game on hard in any other way. The game is pretty fun overall but the Game Boy version does suffer from having the smaller screen. That creates more blind jumps than should be present. Also, enemies only take damage if they are on screen, so there will be a lot of cheap hits (especially from the mice that can throw from off-screen before you know they're there, but you can't hit them back). The toy level with the water is garbage BS. If you're shooting to get 100% on the levels, just know that there's one level where it is literally impossible to get every spot/dot (someone messed up the programming or hit detection and left something on the wrong side of barriers). Also search and jump everywhere because a lot are hiding inside or behind the backgrounds, completely invisible. I also don't think it's possible to 100% the bonus stages at all, but I got close on the first one. I'm glad to be done with it, but it's probably one of the better corporate tie-in games. I also had time to beat Dig Dug tonight New Mode Old Mode (if it's like other versions, the last unique item is on level 18 with the pineapple - at least that's what I was told this was supposed to be). I really enjoyed most of my time with this game. Old mode was incredibly easy after playing new mode. New mode was a nice, natural feeling extension of the Dig Dug formula and each grouping of 10 levels ramped up before easing back down. There were 4 boss battles, but they all consisted of the exact same thing - pump the bomb X times without getting hit. Only the last one posed a challenge and that was more because the controls are a little wonky and force movements in the wrong direction if you're midway between two tiles of the invisible grid. I also experienced some issues with being pushed in a certain direction when trying to disconnect the pump, even if I was holding a different one on the d-pad (like going up when I'm holding left). The last 3 or 4 levels of new mode were obnoxious and full of situations that felt like unavoidable deaths, but most of the game was a great time. Next up for me is Alien 3, which I hope to start tomorrow.

Woo Hoo! Since my goal was to simply be in the top 5, that is pretty cool! That was a great run at the end of the year. Hopefully that momentum can carry over to 2023 as well. I do really hope I can get closer to 50 games done this year, but so much is dependent on polls and several voters like to pick the obnoxiously hard ones, so I half expect to tackle Championship Pool, Dragon's Lair and World Bowling. Thanks for putting this all together like always, @Splain!

Cool. I'm the same way. It can be frustrating with an annoying game (like learning Alfred Chicken has a best ending), but as long as it means there's no question I've done everything, it's for the best. I know nothing about BreakThru but I searched youtube and saw the "longplay". In this one, they stopped after that, but it showed a 2 over Berlin on the loop, which does indicate that there could be more. But the SNES does the same thing and I couldn't find any videos of someone trying a second loop of that or trying to max out score. Do you happen to have the manual for this game to see if that would give a clue? The SNES one is available online and indicates that future loops are higher difficulties of the "world tour," but doesn't specifically say there is an ending. Gamefaqs also mentions as stage select for the GB version - "From the title screen, choose "Options" then "Credits". Press B, A, A, B, B, A, and at the "Special Thanks To" screen of the credits roll a sound will play, confirming code entry. Start a new game. At any time, hold Start and press A/B go to the previous/next level, respectively. The game will also pause because of the Start Button being used, so be sure to unpause gameplay." If that works, it could be faster than the no time limit - or combine their powers Honestly I can't really think of anything. I'm hoping we'll get a couple more people back into the fold next year and maybe get closer to 200 complete again

Very nice! Sorry about that "discovery." I have a feeling that there are going to be a few more revelations that pop up as we all sift through everything. I'm actually going to be taking on this game pretty early next year too. It won my sports raffle, so it'll be the 5th one I play. Oh, and just a quick update on Turn & Burn - progress is slow on the emulation run through so we won't have a definitive answer by year's end. I do hope to keep trying to chisel away at it during lunch breaks

The big lesson I learned from the 2022 backlog challenge was that near the end I hated the lack of choices. While I want to beat those specific games at some point, I still had no desire to actually start or continue some of them, especially if I knew I couldn't finish before the end of the year. That's when it became a chore. For 2023, I'm expanding my console short lists, but the goal will be to beat a certain number from each of them. I'm hoping this will give me a good variety genres and game lengths that will keep me more invested. One caveat is that the holdovers from last year need to be part of the console's goal. I'm also not going to put a specific Game Boy goal on here. I will always strive to beat 50+ games in a year, but the randomness of the selections means it's all out of my control. Anyway, here's my "short" list Overall Goal Across Consoles - Beat 50 Games (42 done) 2022 Holdovers to Beat - 3 Left NES (beat 3 -- 2 Remaining) Metroid - Holdover (2022 status: Have not beaten any bosses) Crystalis Jackie Chan's Action Kung Fu Little Nemo Dream Master StarTropics 2: Zoda's Revenge River City Ransom Kid Niki Jaws DONE 4/27/2023 SNES (beat 5 -- CONSOLE FINISHED) Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past - Holdover (2022 status: Have 5 crystals) DONE 4/24/2023 Super Mario RPG - Holdover (2022 status: Did not start) DONE 9/6/2023 Tiny Toon Adventures: Buster Busts Loose - Holdover (2022 status: Did not start) DONE 3/29/2023 Donkey Kong Country Super Metroid Yoshi's Island: Super Mario World 2 Star Fox Joe & Mac 2: Lost in the Tropics DONE 9/10/2023 Demon's Crest DONE 7/21/2023 N64 (beat 2) Perfect Dark - Holdover (2022 status: Did not start) Banjo-Kazooie Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Wii (beat 3 -- 2 Remaining) No More Heroes - Holdover (2022 status: Did not start) Super Mario Galaxy 2 (Green Stars) - Holdover (2022 status: Did not play) DONE 12/22/2023 de Blob Trauma Center: Second Opinion (story is done - want to finish 100%) Trauma Center: New Blood Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam (nearly all done - want to 100% challenges) Zack & Wiki Wii U (beat 2 -- CONSOLE FINISHED) Lego City Undercover (started) DONE 4/10/2023 Gargoyle's Quest 2 DONE 7/15/2023 Super Mario Advance 4 New Super Mario Bros U & Super Luigi U Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze Switch (beat 5 -- CONSOLE FINISHED) Luigi's Mansion 3 Axiom Verge Picross S2 DONE 10/25/2023 Piczle Cross Adventure (started) DONE 1/29/2023 Wilmot's Warehouse (started) DONE 9/25/2023 Earthworms DONE 10/30/2023 Figment Metroid Dread Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom DONE 7/12/2023 DS/3DS (beat 4 -- CONSOLE FINISHED) Professor Layton vs Phoenix Wright - Holdover (2022 status: On the last trial) DONE 1/23/2023 Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin DONE 4/6/2023 Legend of Zelda - Phantom Hourglass The World Ends with You DONE 9/20/2023 New Super Mario Bros 2 DONE 2/27/2023 Metroid: Samus Returns Yoshi's New Island Sega Genesis/CD (beat 4 -- 1 Remaining) Amazing Spider-Man Vs. Kingpin - Holdover (2022 status: Did not start) DONE 5/3/2023 Rise of the Dragon - Holdover (2022 status: Did not start) DONE 6/12/2023 Quackshot Rocket Knight Adventures Where in Time is Carmen Sandiego? Mickey Mania Monkey Island Sonic CD Mansion of Hidden Souls DONE 5/23/2023 Crusader of Centy PS3 (beat 5 -- CONSOLE FINISHED) Bioshock - Holdover (2022 status: Starting Olympus Heights) DONE 1/8/2023 Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection (get the platinum, not necessarily beat every game - started) DONE 2/17/2023 Infamous Lollipop Chainsaw Mirror's Edge Jet Set Radio Beyond Good & Evil DONE 9/22/2023 Limbo Journey Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time DONE 10/27/2023 Syberia DONE 2/26/2023 Ghostbusters: The Video Game PS4 (beat 6 -- CONSOLE FINISHED) Double Switch Danganronpa 3 Abzu 2064: Read Only Memories Bioshock 2 God of War Guardians of the Galaxy DONE 11/15/2023 Watch Dogs Legion Immortals Fenyx Rising Yakuza Kiwami DONE 9/6/2023 Superliminal Untitled Goose Game DONE 8/20/2023 Unfinished Swan DONE 3/26/2023 TMNT: Shredder's Revenge DONE 1/27/2023 The Witness (started) Zero Escape: Zero Time Dilemma DONE 11/23/2023 PS5 (beat 5 -- CONSOLE FINISHED) Astro's Playroom (beat story, need to get platinum) DONE 1/6/2023 Miles Morales DONE 3/3/2023 Returnal (started) Bugsnax Toem (started) DONE 8/26/2023 Maquette (started) DONE 9/8/2023 Maneater (started) DONE 9/30/2023 Assassin's Creed Valhalla (started) Steam (beat 6 -- 1 Remaining) Tex Murphy: Martian Memorandum - Holdover (2022 status: Did not start) DONE 12/11/2023 Tex Murphy - The Pandora Directive Nancy Drew: Secrets Can Kill DONE 3/8/2023 Nancy Drew - Message in a Haunted Mansion DONE 3/11/2023 Nancy Drew - Treasure in the Royal Tower DONE 12/14/2023 Night in the Woods Gabriel Knight Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis Phantasmagoria Starship Titanic Toonstruck West of Loathing Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders DONE 12/17/2023

Okay, so Cool Spot is done in terms of this thread I beat it on the hardest difficulty and collected all the letters in Uncola but I did use one continue. If the manual is correct (and if it's like what I know of the SNES version), there is a "best" ending if you don't use any continues but collect all the letters. I think I'll be able to do this the next time I play as the game isn't too incredibly difficult but does require a little bit of learning. The manual is wrong about other things though (for instance, it says you're collecting letters in the word Virgin instead of Uncola, and it swaps the order of a couple levels). We'll see.

Congratulations, everybody! It may not be an all-time high but it's not too shabby. Oh yeah, Snoopy's Magic Show and Teen Tournament were not good. Snoopy relied too much on luck in those late stages and it was incredibly annoying. I won't reach my goal of beating 50 new ones in 2022 but it will be close (at 41 now). I did have Qix and Exodus and Wave Race which were over 125 hours combined, so perhaps there's a chance next year. My moonshot hope is to beat my personal game #200 before the end of the year but without beating anything else, I'd have to get through 64 games. So, I'm still hoping to be good for another couple games this year to whittle that down a bit.

Terminator 2: Judgment Day is done There's a potential for a good game here, but it's marred by giving the player only one life and no continues to get through the whole experience. Once you die and learn enough to figure out what to do, the game is only a 15 minute experience. It would have been much better if the levels were maybe a bit tougher but offered power-ups or health replenishment and lives and potential continues. Instead, you have to do the last three levels all in one carried over health bar. You have a level where even the exhaust from the truck hitting your motorcycle causes an instant death. You have to do 3 increasingly difficult Pipe Dream like puzzles in a short amount of time and if you fail twice overall, it's game over. The graphics are good, the music is good, the controls are solid, but the overall package is kind of bad. I can see the unrealized potential in this game. T2: The Arcade Game was worse, though. On Monday I'll be starting Cool Spot. I'm going for best ending, so that means playing on the hardest difficulty and not using any continues while collecting all the letters. I'm already sure it won't be worth it.

I forgot to post on here that Voxelgram is done. Normal picross/nonogram games are all over the place, but I was surprised to see someone take on 3D picross. I'd like to see more of it as it's a good change of pace. The control scheme in this was rock solid, but I wish I could have temporarily marked some spaces (like you can in the 3DS Picross games) to help me visualize certain things in the cross-section. That's a minor gripe, and there are tons of puzzles to chisel away at, so I'm satisfied. Hopefully they do another one sometime.

F-1 Race is done The race that gave me the most trouble was track 4. That was a good learning experience for some of the different types of turns. Grand Prix mode has you go through 9 tracks and winning each one to advance. For whatever reason you can't go back and play any of them again through that mode, but thankfully you can keep trying the current track until you win and move on. I found that to win you cannot crash a single time, so learn the tracks well. Even if you don't crash, boost utilization is key and there's a chance you might not ever catch the first place guy. After each track a Nintendo character surrounded by girls celebrates & waves. Then at the end is the whole parade of them. For such an early game, the graphics are good. The sound effects are a tad annoying, but after 20 seconds a song will come on and play underneath the squealing tires. It was a fun experience and I'm very glad it wasn't anywhere close to the difficulty of Wave Race. Next up will be Terminator 2: Judgment Day