T-Pac

Twinbee 3 [Nintendo Famicom - 1989] The logical part of my brain wants to cement Twinbee 3 in my top 25 favorite games, but the emotional part of my brain isn't willing to commit just yet... [T-Pac]

I used to collect chewed-up loose carts of platformers... Now I collect chewed-up loose carts of shoot-em-ups. [T-Pac]

This is such a solid list, dude. I'm pretty sure I bought Over Horizon on your recommendation a couple of years ago, and I had a great time with it. And I just finished a playthrough of Gradius II and loved it even more. Axelay was my biggest surprise this year as far as games I didn't expect to love so much. Musha Aleste is hovering near the top of my "to-play" list for Mega Drive shooters. I'm hoping it holds up to the hype (which seems likely, based on the short time I spent play-testing my copy). I absolutely love Image Fight on the NES, but I've never tried the PCE version. (And I obviously love R-Type on the TG-16). [T-Pac]

Shoot-em-ups are my favorite type of game, and this list is subject to change since I've still got so many on my backlog - but this is my current personal ranking. (Definitely not the "best" shoot-em-ups by popular consensus - just my own preferences...) My Favorite Traditional Shoot-Em-Ups: 1 ) Abadox [NES] 2 ) R-Type [GB] 3 ) R-Type II [GB] 4 ) Image Fight [NES] 5) Astro Warrior [SMS] 6 ) Super R-Type [SNES] 7 ) Star Parodier [PCE-CD] 8 ) Blazing Lazers [TG-16] 9 ) Curse [MD] 10 ) Burai Fighter [NES] My Favorite Roaming Shoot-Em-Up: Bosconian [PnP / Arcade] My Favorite Lane Shoot-Em-Up: Turmoil [2600] My Favorite Fixed Shoot-Em-Up: Phoenix [2600] My Favorite Hybrid Shoot-Em-Up: Robocco Wars [FC] [T-Pac]

16/40 - Gradius II [Nintendo Famicom - 1988] Finished: 2024/03/23 Caveats: Used turbo-fire and save-states. [T-Pac]

Gradius II [Nintendo Famicom - 1988] I loved this game on the PC-Engine CD, and I love it on the Famicom, too. It just has so much going for it. [T-Pac]

Congrats! Made one this morning just for you! (And a "PLAY Casio Loopy" charm if you wanna start beating those games, too haha). There are some pending charm updates in the system, so it'll be ready for you once that's taken care of. [T-Pac]

@koifish @Splain - We're actually updating "Contest" and "Beat Every Game" participant charms to remove the yearly designation, so we'll have an "all-in-one" Game Boy charm for you once the system is updated! [T-Pac]

Backlog edit: I finally got a capture setup that lets me record VRC-chip famicom games (I won't bore anyone with the technical details), so I'm swapping two of my backlog games for Gradius II and Twinbee 3. (Sorry Godzilla and TaleSpin - maybe next year haha). Excited to finally play these! [T-Pac]

Nah - I played a version that looked like this (surprisingly uglier haha)... [T-Pac]

We had Windows computers, so it must've been a more modernized port. I guess I never really thought about it as a 'classic' game that's been around since the 80s! [T-Pac]

15/40 - Twinbee [Nintendo Famicom - 1986] Finished: 2024/03/19 Caveats: Used turbo-fire and save-states. [T-Pac]

Haha good 'ol Oregon Trail. Yeah - I remember playing that in the library's computer lab in elementary school. [T-Pac]

Twinbee [Nintendo Famicom - 1986] I was afraid I wouldn't be able to finish this game since my copy started glitching-out in Stage 4. Luckily, I was still able to parse the garbled graphics enough to make it through. And oddly enough, I had the same problem with my copy of Stinger (Twinbee's sequel) when I played that last year. [T-Pac]

Gyruss is on my backlog for later this year, but that's the only one I can think of off the top of my head... [T-Pac]

Oh, neat! I've actually never tried out classic computer games before. The classical music in Alpiner is definitely cool, but I've gotta admit the voice samples seem the best part. [T-Pac]

Whoa @Tdub21! That's quite the haul - do you have a favorite game from the lot so far? [T-Pac]

Ah well ... at least I tried. [T-Pac]

Oh - and another addition for my list: ...some form of Sokoban. (What a great question @CastletonSnob - really makes you think about the medium as a whole.) [T-Pac]

I was speaking in general. I struggle with the same urge to correct people on trivial stuff when I feel like I know better/more than them, but I’m learning that those responses make people cold towards me and I end up feeling way worse than if I had found something complementary to say instead. (And hopefully you can look past the irony of me "correcting" you here haha.) [T-Pac]

I'll caveat that these are my answers for games ANYONE should play before they die, not that just GAMERS should play before they die... Tetris Pac-Man (or Ms. Pac-Man) Space Invaders (or Galaga) Super Breakout Frogger [T-Pac]

@Sumez - focusing on something to complement in a post can make you feel a lot better than focusing on something to refute. [T-Pac]

Oooooh - well that explains it! I wondered if those Moai constellations were a warp-tunnel... Thanks for the info - and I'm glad I didn't miss much from the second volcano level. [T-Pac]

14/40 - Gradius [Nintendo Entertainment System - 1986] Finished: 2024/03/15 Caveats: Used turbo-fire, and save-states at the start and end of each stage. [T-Pac]