Gaia Gensouki

Star Ocean is definitely a SFC game, but definitely worthy of an inclusion. But then one would absolutely also have to include Tales of Phantasia (imho) and Terranigma. Terranigma is so damn good and a worthy swan song for Quintet. Seiken Densetsu III and Final Fantasy V are also amazing. As for Dragon Warrior I would play the SFC versions of DQI-III anyday over their original Famicom/NES versions. There are probably many other great SFC games that could be mentioned, but I don't want to recommend anything that I haven't played yet. As for the other recommended games, Goof Troop is definitely a good and fun game, that can be played with two players. Joe & Mac 2 is pretty good, but nothing I would put on a top 50 list. The same for Mega Man X3. It's quite a big drop in quality. I would rather see Mega Man VII on that list since that game is actually really good. Donkey Kong Country 3 also doesn't quite get the recognition it deserves. I know that it's not so iconic and immediately recognisable, but as far as gameplay, level design and visual presentation goes I would even consider it to be above the other two DKC games.

I guess it really depends on what we're walking about. As for games that I would never sell, that would definitely be the few remaining games from my childhood such as Secret of Mana, Lufia 2, Breath of Fire 2 (CIB), Zelda A Link to the Past and Ocarina of Time or Mario Kart 64. As for gems or special pieces of my collection it would be these two seemingly unimposing games: Bushi Seiryuuden on the left is an RPG by GameFreak, before they were completely overtaken by Pokemon. The artwork is done by Ken Sugiyama, who also did the early Pokemon artwork as well, and you can definitely see the resemblance. It also goes for quite a bit of money online, considering that old JRPGs are usually plenty and cheap. The other game is probably even harder to guess, but that is actually Super Famicom Wars, the predecessor to Advance Wars! It was only released on those Memory Cartridges or the Satellaview, I think. As a game it's mostly unremarkable since the gameplay was polished to the utmost degree with Advance Wars 1 and 2, so that going back to this older game is mostly for curiosity's sake. But it's still a cool collection piece and a game, that I want to eventually complete one day. I also own every other game in the Console Wars series, unless you include Battalion Wars, because I'm still missing the first game on the Gamecube. But from what I've heard those games are completely different, so I wouldn't necessarily count them towards the actual series. Another gem that I would like to own one day is a copy of Fire Emblem Thrakia 776 for the Super Famicom in good condition, but that easily goes for 200 bucks or more online.

I never got into shmups as a child/teenager, because they were way too difficult and I didn't have the patience or the right mindset for them. Only recently did I just randomly try Arrow Flash on the Genesis and actually beat a shmup for the first time in my life. It's relatively easy and not a particularly good game of that genre, but I think it's a good gateway game. Anyway, I'm still not good at this type of game, but I still casually enjoy it every now and then. I personally like: NES: Starship Hector, Silkworm Genesis/Mega Drive: Bio-Hazard Battle, MUSHA, Slap Fight MD, Undeadline (probably more of a love-hate relationship though), Phelios PCEngine: Image Fight I and II Obviously I haven't played that many shmups yet and I'm still missing many of the classics, but the games of this genre tend to get really pricey and the more recent stuff can't be easily emulated.

Valis and Valis III are done. I have a soft spot for this series, even though it may not be the greatest/most polished. But it's still fun.

Any nostalgic memories of the first time you received your gameboy, or any other childhood memories playing the gameboy you'd like to share? My oldest gaming memories actually go back to the Commodore 64 and the Gameboy. We had the C64 first and I remember not really enjoying most of the games since they were either awful or too difficult to get into/set up. But every now and then my uncle would come over and bring his new Gameboy for us to play with, while he was chatting with my parents. So we would take turn and play Super Mario Land, Tetris and some other puzzle game, that I can't remember. These new games were much more enjoable for me since you could just put the cartridge in and play. Also, the games were much simpler to understand and way more polished or just better designed overall. Thus I also got my first introduction to Super Mario via the Gameboy, and not the NES or SNES. Anyway, we eventually got our won Gameboy and had a bunch of fun games that we would play over and over again. My first favorite game was Mega Man: Dr. Wily's Revenge. I liked this even more than SML even though I could never beat it as a child. When my older brother sold it off to get something new, I was really upset and devastated despite this being his game. So my parents bought me Mega Man III for my birthday or Christmas, I'm not quite sure. I still own this game though, including the box, and it's my oldest Gameboy game. A few years later I was at a toy store with my mother and saw that the original Mega Man for the Gameboy was on sale and I was absolutely enamored with it. I probably also whined a little bit or so, because my mother actually bought this game for me. This was the first and only time my parents ever bought a game spontaneously for me and I still have the box with the price sticker on it (the inlay is missing however). Over the years I played many more games of course, and one of my alltime favorites was Final Fantasy Adventure. We regularly took the Gameboy with us to play on long trips or vacations, so it was still being used years after we got it. And that life was extended by the release of Pokemon. It is hard to overstate how big of an impact Pokemon was on me and the kids my age. I remember reading about it in a gaming magazine shortly after it became a hit in Japan. I was so hyped for this game and couldn't wait to play it, but I didn't know that we had to wait for about 3 years until we eventually got it. But it was still worth the wait! I also can't believe how GameFreak went from pushing the boundaries of what was possible on a handheld system to the state it is in now. What are you favorite obscure games for the system? We never had many Gameboy games since we ended up focussing more on the SNES. After all, we would only get about one or two new games a year, so w would naturally tend towards a big SNES game instead of a tiny Gameboy game. What I'm trying to say is that we didn't have or play any weird or obscure game for this system. Only as an adult did I try to dig a bit more into the Gameboy (Color) library. And I'm not sure if all of them can be counted as obscure, but I quite enjoyed Kid Dracula, Magical Taruruuto-kun, Dragon Quest I&II as well as III and Ayakashi no Shiro.

Fatal Labyrinth is done as well. It's a very simple game and quite limited, which is understandable since it was originally designed as a small download title. But it's still fun and I think it would have been cool, if they had revisited this game and maybe developed a sequel and made it into a bigger and better experience, similar to Shining in the Darkness.

I beat Golden Axe II and MUSHA. On my first try with GA II I died right at the final boss, so I tried it again with 5 hit points. But it turns out, that I didn't even need them this time. Somehow I also got a prety high score. Don't know how I did that. And I managed to beat MUSHA with just one continue. I don't think I've ever beaten a shmup with only one continue, so that's a pretty cool milestone for me. I also did one loop of Slap Fight MD on normal mode and normal difficulty. After that it just loops with increased difficulty. I personally really like this game and it's approach to difficulty. You have unlimited continues and can play as long as you want, but it still incentivises players to get good thanks to the point system. But I can't see myself ever 1cc'ing this game since it gets so tough.

And Super Mario Kart is done too. I got gold in all cups in both 100c and 150cc. The latter took quite some time. It's still a fun game, but I personally do not like the rubberbanding, which is quite strong in this game. Whenever I used a shortcut with the help of the feather or got a turbo boost, I could immediately see on the map how the CPU was catching up with insane speed. Also their constant use of items without picking up anything got pretty annoying in some races. I could do really well for the most part of the race, but if I did just one mistake in lap 4 or 5, the race was basically over. Whereas in newer games you can take the lead and build up some distance to the players behind you, so that even a blue shell can not necessarily get you off the first place.

Will JAP/PAL games be tracked as well like in the SNES or Game Boy challenge? Also, what about games that allow you to set lifes, continues, ammunition, auto-fire etc.? is it allowed to change them as long as the difficulty is set to standard/hard?

I beat Star Fox 2. I'm a bit conflicted about this game. On the one hand I am happy to have finally experiened this long lost game. On the other hand it does not feel like a full game. It took me almost 40 minutes to beat on my first try, which may be similar to how long one of the three branching paths in Star Fox 1 takes. But every one of those paths had several levels that were unique to this branch, giving the original some much needed replay value. Here however, there are only about a handful of enemies and then it pretty much repeats all over again until you meet the final boss and question yourself: "That's it? It's already over?". They had so many great ideas, many of which would be reused in later Star Fox games, but none of these ideas have been fully developed here, imho. Everything feels half-baked. Also, the free-roaming dogfighting in space is nice in theory, but doesn't fit too well here. It seems to me like they were way ahead of their time, but at the same time didn't have the time to fully realize all of their ideas.

I did a quick playthrough of Cybernator and Donkey Kong Country 2

I once tried Lemmings. But that game has so many levels, that I gave up after completing the frist mode. Powerball is really difficult and/or I don't get it. The enemies just make mince meat out of you and I never got to score a goal. What would be the victory conditions for these games? Maybe I'll clear a game or two on the weekend, but I'm mostly still busy with SNES games.

I finally beat Donkey Kong Country 3 and even got 103%! I've never played this game before, so I wanted to take my time and collect everything. Overall it was a really great game with amazing visuals and lots of variety. Though at times I felt they overdid it, because every single level seemed to have some kind of gimmick past a certain point.

I haven't seen the credits yet, but according to some digging through longplays on Youtube there seem to be credits for the first time after beating the expert mode with the additional message to try master mode. I might give this a try later today or down this week unless someone else beats it first. Standard was already fairly challenging for me. Edit: It seems like finishing any cup on Expert will show the credits, but also telling you to challenge Master.

I wanted to ask what exactly the clearance condition for F-Zero is. It only says "Complete all Cups". Are there only the three default ones? And what about the difficulty? I have beaten these three both in beginner and standard difficulty so far. Is expert and master necessary as well? I've actually never played F-Zero before, so I'm not quite sure.

I've pre-ordered it pretty much shortly after it was announced. I never had either of these consoles and would love to have such a convenient device that allows me to dig deep into the library. Some of the included games are also extremely rare and/or expensive, so even if I were to buy the actual console, I would probably never be able to afford these titels anyway. I just hope that the emulation quality is decent.

I beat Demon's Crest. But this time I did not beat the bonus boss well, which I think isn't even required. Still had fun with it.

I beat Joe & Mac 2: Lost in the Tropics again. I'm really surprised how quickly I beat it this time considering that I had so much trouble with the ice level and the boss rush the last time I played it.

Just beat Earth Defense Force.

@MeganJoanne Even though Legacy of the Wizard didn't have a sequel with the exact same gamestyle, it was actually part of a long-running series and some even consider Faxanadu to be the follow-up. But it was the fourth installment of the Dragon Slayer franchise, most of which never made it outside of Japan. There was the original Dragon Slayer, Xanadu I and II, Romancia, Sorcerian, Dragon Slayer: The Legend of Heroes I and II (the first one made it to the US on the Turbo Duo), Lord Monarch and The Legend of Xanadu: Kaze no Densetsu Xanadu I and II. Both Lord Monarch and The Legend of Heroes became a subseries of their own with many sequels. The Legend of Heroes still goes on today with Trails of Cold Steel etc. So even if we didn't get an exact sequel, there are many similar games.

@Tanooki Starship Hector and Axelay are another two shmups that change the perspective as well. Also, Gunstar Heroes had a shmup level thrown in there as well. It came out of nowhere and was quite difficult, which is why I gave up there. Rocket Knight Adventure has two shmup levels, iirc, but they're offering a much fairer challenge since the firs one starts out relatively easy and then it gets progressively harder. I think the Goemon/Mystical Ninja games may be worth considering for multigenre games. I have heard that especially some of the later games on the SNES get really crazy.

I don't think I've ever beaten SMB legitimately. The last world usually gets me and I was never keen on trying it over and over again to get good. Back in the day I just had Super Mario Allstars on the SNES and eventually beat SMB 2, 3 and eventually even The Lost Levels, but never the first game in the series!

I have finally beaten Stunt Race FX. The Master Class was a horrible grind and super frustrating. First of all, this game plays af if you were constantly driving through mud with broken controls. I honestly had to doublecheck whether my Joycons were causing problems since they're often prone to drift issues. But no, it's this game! All inputs are somehow delayed and I found myself constantly drifting in one direction or another. Then there's the cheating AI which is not just rubberbanding like crazy, but seemingly also not affected by weather conditions and environmental hazards. They just drive on like normal while I'm losing speed and merely crawling forward. Of course, they then catch up and bump me into a rock or off a cliff or whatever. And I could go on about how weird the "halfpipes" were or how this game forces you to do precision steering, all while controlling horribly and with enemies that always follow right behind you waiting to knock you off the road etc. One major mistake like that and the level is already lost. Some games are not worth the nostalgia trip and should better remain a nice memory of the past.

Maybe not specifially a level, but if RPG bosses are allowed then I would throw in the bonus boss in Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga Avatar Tuner. Being a SMT title this game is already a bit tougher than your average JRPG, but then you have to replay it on hard mode and beat one of the toughest bosses, I've ever encountered. It took me many tries and on my final try the battle lasted about 2 hours. I had pen and paper ready to take notes, because he would cycle through his underlings. You carefully have to balance between killing his underlings at the right time so that they don't fully heal the boss and not killing them too quickly, because then the boss would use a sleep spell on everyone and whoever did not fall asleep would get instantly killed by a death spell. So there is some randomness involved as well. But the one level that immediately comes to mind upon reading this question is definitely the seventh and final level in Undeadline on the Mega Drive, a Japan exclusive top-down shmup. In the final level there are huge amounts of enemies just swarming the screen and filling it with projectiles if you don't dispose of them quickly. After that you'll fight against the hardest boss in the game, the vampire. He summons a bunch of bats that circle around the screen and swoop at you Kamikaze-style while also shooting projectiles at you. These are already hard enough to evade/kill, but of course the vampire itself can attack you as well. Then you'll face off with the final boss who has like two or three forms and can be a major pain to kill. I eventually got a strategy, but it required exact timing and quick reflexes. What makes this level so difficult though is that depending on the weapons/upgrades you choose, you will either have a harder time with the regular enemies or the bosses. Because in the course of the game your character can gain levels and permanently upgrade his speed or the strength of certain weapons. This means that you will msot likely have to focus on one kind of weapon. If you chose the spread shot, or whatever it's called, you'll of course have an easier time with the regular enemies, but the bosses will become extremely difficult. Especially that vampire! However, there is a strategy to easily beat that vampire if you choose a certain bomb-like weapon. If positioned correctly you can kill all of the bats whenever the vampire summons them and quickly kill the vampire too within a matter of seconds. Unfortunately this weapon is really, really bad against the regular enemies, sicne it's quite slow and can only hurt the enemies in front of you. So whatever you do, this level will always be brutally difficult. It doesn't even matter if you got there will all of your continues, since it's near impossible to get back on track once you've lost a life and your weapon power-ups. I would then usually burn through all my remaining lives and continues. It doesn't help either that this game has NO checkpoints whatsoever. Anyway, it took me weeks to beat this game, and when I did, my body was trembling and I was crying out of joy. It's easily the hardest game I ever managed to beat. And if it's somehow still too easy for you, you could just try the hard mode instead. I quickly noped out of that one.

I did a quick run of Castlevania: Dracula X.