Gaia Gensouki

No, I don't think I ever got that one and I had to repeat Level 3 quite a lot. Would be interesting to replicate that however.

Dragon Power is done. I started over from the beginning to get that power-up from Shen Long, so that I can have 250 max health. However, due to the randomness of the health items even that didn't help too much, because I just would barely get any health power-ups until I eventually died. Ultimately, I had a really lucky run just now where I got two cakes in the last level, i.e. restoring 100 points of my health each. So it was more dumb luck combined with a bit of skill, that made me win the game. The luck factor is definitely what ruins this game for me. It would have been an okay game otherwise, but this kills any interest for me in replaying Dragon Power anytime soon. Also, notice the shameless plug at the end.

I'm currently sitting at 99 games beaten: 80 NES games and 19 Game Boy games, although the GB games were mostly just short and easy palate cleansers after making my way through some tough as nails NES games. Unfortunately, almost none of them were on my backlog. I'm hoping for the NES challenge to be done a bit earlier this year, so that I can focus more on the backlog. We're currently at 601/677. That being said, I at least beat Destiny of an Emperor and actually wanted to do a write-up on it, but somehow kept delaying it more and more until I kinda forgot what I wanted to write. I would probably give it maybe a 7 out of 10. I had some good fun with this game most of the time, but it eventually became really repetitive and at times a bit unfair. I might return to this game at some point in the future, but it's no Final Fantasy or Dragon Quest, which I can play over and over again.

Mad Max is done. What a tough game. Especially the final boss is still a run-killer for me. Even after having beaten this game two or three times already I'm still always on the edge when fighting him. And if you die during the fight you have to go back two levels and replay roughly 20 minutes or so until you get another chance against him.

Snow Bros. Nick & Tom

Congratulations! This is an incredible achievement! Lots of really tough games in the library, even though it's comparatively small. What were the toughest or most fun games for you? As for the next console, just choose whatever you like. But if you need some inspiration, there are lots of other completion threads out there. Or maybe the Turbografx CD games?

Thanks! And it definitely is very difficult. I can't imagine how a child was supposed to beat this.

M.U.S.H.A.

I've tried Mad Max and made it to the final boss twice, but unfortunately always died. Getting back there is quite time consuming, so I'll try finishing it some other time.

Air Fortress is done! This was a tough one. The second loop was indeed a bit more difficult at times, but at this point you have the game hopefully figured out, so that it's a bit smoother than the first half. During level 8 of the second loop I cleared the escape route again and I somehow got lucky, because none of the humanoid enemies respawned. It all worked out really well by the end.

I'm currently working on Air Fortress and managed to finish the first loop. I remembered this game being pretty good, albeit very difficult. However, I forgot just how difficult this is! Certain levels in the latter half of the game are just BS. The time limit for escaping is extremely tight in some levels and enemies are so numerous that they really gang up on you. On some screens I can't even make it out of the elevator, because the barrage of projectiles knock me back into the elevator. Then there are these humanoid enemies that absolutely devastate your HP within seconds if you're not careful. I'm using the maps on gamefaqs for orientation and I've started to write down the appearances of these enemies so that I can prepare myself and deal with them without losing too much HP. Still, it's so tough. For Level 8 on the first loop it seems to be necessary to clear the escape route (the green line on the gamefaq's map) so that you don't have to fight against too many enemies. Even if they slow you down for a mere few seconds, this can already be enough to not be able to escape. And considering how long and difficult these later levels are, it absolutely blows if you run out of time seconds or milliseconds before arriving at the space ship. A trick to move faster is by using the knockback that your laser weapon causes. So you don't fly in the direction that you want to move at, but instead you face the opposite direction and just shoot away like crazy. Also, don't forget to keep afloat, because when you're walking on the ground you're slower. This technique works especially well when you're navigating tight corridors. For one of the levels I've also used a different route than what they're recommending in the maps. In Level 6 (1st quest/loop) after beating the boss you have to take the pipe 8A that leads you to 8B. They then recommend going along the single path to the left and up. But I've found this to be too slow and dangerous. So instead I went back again into the pipe (3A) which sent me back to the start of the level (3B). This route is not only faster, but also safer since you've probably already killed all enemies there. Anyway, I'm just writing this down in case anybody in the future could use some of this as help. I'll grind through the rest of the game later. If memry serves me right the second loop shouldn't be much more difficult. I hope that my memory is correct.

Since games from other regions are allowed as well, I'm nominating Tougi-Ou: King Colossus. It's a Japan exclusive Action-RPG by Sega and really fun. You can find a complete English translation for this online.

Whenever you crash into the cat, the game starts playing the flea waltz, which is known as neko funjatta in Japan and translates to: "(Oops,) I stepped on the cat." So it's not just the cat, but also the very popular song. The Japanese version of Puss N' Boots is Nagagutsu o Haita Neko. Koneko Monogatari, however, is a totally different property, i.e. an 80s movie called The Adventures of Milo and Otis. I've seen this game pop up occasionally on ebay stores from Japanese sellers and always wondered what it was until I researched it. This is what the cover looks like:

The Black Bass is FINished. I got first rank once and did a whole season, but the final message was so short, I didn't even have the time to take a picture.

How is there still no submission for Thunder Force IV?

That's correct.

No right guesses so far. Roughly 24 hours have passed, so I think it's time to post a bigger picture now.

Good guesses, but not right so far.

Let's continue with the next round.

Super Mario Bros. 2. This is from the final boss battle. The tubes gave it away.

Dragon Warrior IV is done. The game is obviously great, but maybe a little bit too long. I'm still not a fan of the companions being AI controlled though. You can't rely on them as healers during combat and they never ever use buffs or debuffs, which would have been nice during certain boss encounters. I got killed by the final boss and had to grind a few levels. When I reached levels 40-43 I attempted him again and barely made it. My group consisted of Alena, Mara and Nara. Alena is pretty much the GOAT later on in the game since she constantly deals critical hits and can even attack twice with the right weapon. So she was my most reliable damage dealer. Mara was a decent mage, but rather useless during the final phase of the boss as he reflected magic. Maybe Ragnar would have been better. Nara was my healer, but she turned out to be pretty awful. I should have chosen Cristo, but I used him the last time and wanted to try out something else this time.

My first gut reaction was Final Fantasy. Even just the mainline series is really massive with a nice variety in how the games play and feel. Theoretically you could even spend hundreds of hours into XI and XIV as well, if internet/servers were available for this. But just the single player games would already be pretty great in my book. If spin-offs were included as well, then you'd probably be looking at Final Fantasy Adventure/Legend 1-3 and all of the Tactics games! Alternatively strategy games might be a good choice as well, like the Heroes of Might and Magic series, although I would just need 2 and 3 and maybe 4 or 5 to have a change of pace. But just 2 and 3 would provide me with countless hours of entertainment. If spin-offs were included, then Might and Magic would be a good choice, because then I'd get the mainline RPGs and the strategy games. Now that I'm thinking about this, there are also many more spin-offs that are straight up action games as well, so I'd have a nice variety.

Holy shit. That's insane. You have my sympathy. That goal of 1 billion points sounds absolutely unreasonable. Is that really necessary? I can't even find anything even remotely close to that goal on Youtube.

Almost done with Dragon Warrior IV. Only the final dungeon is left. I bought 10 wizard's rings from the casino to restore my MP. So I'll probably have it beat tomorrow or so.

I hope that NES isn't fully broken and that you can still repair it or get it repaired. I've been trying the past few hours to beat Dragon Power. It didn't seem too bad at first. Maybe very janky and not all that great, but still doable thanks to unlimited continues. However, once you've reached the last four levels, you don't start over at the level where you've died, but you always have to repeat these four levels. This gets pretty difficult since you lose HP over time and the power ups, including the HP refills, are randomized. So you're always at the mercy of the RNG. I'm considering if I should maybe reset and try again from the start. After all, you can wish for something after level 6, which you can use to get a one-time upgrade of your max health. This could be just the boost that I need to finish the game. But always having to start from the very beginning with every try seems excessive. Does maybe anyone, who's beaten this game previously, have any advice?