Dr. Morbis

On 3/11/2024 at 12:58 AM, Sumez said:

It's definitely one of those games you just can't possibly judge at a glance. You need to get into it and get comfortable with it before it's able to click at all. Each stage is also so massively different, you haven't really gotten a good impression of what the game has to offer until you have played every single one of them.

As far as criticisms go, I think the game's overall structure feels rushed. They wanted to go for a light-RPG experience with the map that allows you to pick areas and acquire equipment to proceed in other areas, but it doesn't really have too much of an effect, and usually feels more like a hassle.

The game is pretty ruthless regarding deaths, as well. You start the game with no continues at all, and as you're learning the ropes you will die a lot. If you game over it's back to the very start, which makes it kinda hard to get any headway initially. But once you make it to those top-down Commando throwback stages, you'll get a continue every time you play them - and they are extremely easy and can be replayed as much as you want, for practically infinite continues, so at this point running out of lives just becomes a non-issue instead. It's a really odd mechanic, and however it was intended to work - that's not how it works.

 

I think that's one point in Rearmed's favor. It definitely does a much better job at easing the player into the game. Anyone who bounced off on the original the NES game, should consider giving the remake a try.

You're analysis is spot on, but everything that is "wrong" with Bionic Commando is what makes it so interesting and unique.  That's what I love about the NES era: that willingness to just throw stuff at the wall and see if any of it would stick.  Sometimes it did, but even when it didn't the end result would often be a game that was not quite like any other.

Is there another game out there that has a continue feature that is identical to Bionic Commando's?  Probably not, but that's totally fine with me...

Excellent work on the maps.  Have you considered having them posted on vgmaps.com and/or gamefaqs so that they'll be out there for the rest of posterity to use?

66 for me and I wasn't even trying to follow any list; but this is making me want to go after all of the ones I've missed...

It's been 24 hours, so now I nominate Castle of Illusion.

I nominate Wings of Wor since I really love that shooter...

17 hours ago, PII said:

You know, I've never really thought that that might be the case.  Coming soon, I've got an old Panasonic with big knobs that's encased in some creamy off-white plastic that I'd like to start using.  I've been thinking of hooking my SNES up to it.  Just gotta figure where to set up, but I'll be sure and snap some pics to post.

I've got a fully working 1958 Philco Predicta and I've been meaning to use it for a score photo during one of the NES weeklies as a gag, but I've never gotten around to it.

Anyway, your responses are the most thought-provoking of any I've yet read here on VGS.  I also went through the whole dementia rigamaroll too, but we gave up and put her in a home before the end.  Definitely a challenging time in one's life, that's for sure...

How all of you guys view the ridiculousness of grading movies is how I've always viewed the grading of video games...

4 hours ago, avatar! said:

If you do find the article, please share, I'd love to read it. And heck, if I'd probably be doing the same if I was part of LRG, more classic collections is the way to go, especially releasing something that has never had a release outside of Japan, such as --

Not only was it unreleased here, but the original cart is ridiculously expensive, so this is a double win for anyone who likes really awesome SNES games...

On 2/13/2024 at 12:34 AM, DarkTone said:

Welcome 

Man, you gotta check the dials on your time machine or something because you're continously missing these newcomer threads by a really wide mark...

Yeah, it goes in waves for me too.  Sometimes I've won a cruise, sometimes my credit card has been compromised, sometimes it's "confirming" my $2000 amazon order, and a bunch of other stuff too... I better call them all back right away to set them straight...

1 hour ago, Californication said:

Now, I was renting a room from a family. I had a seperate entrance and generally just said hello to them. They thought the whole thing was funny at first. I initially thought it was coming from inside the house so when I got fed up, I stopped paying rent. The family moved to one of their other properties for three months, until I was ready to move. They have never asked for any money.

This is the biggest tell right here.  If you were living by yourself in a detached house, then the thought of you actually having a stalker as you described would be maybe 2% believable.  Reading between the lines, it sounds like your story about the family moving out supports your claim: they were legitimately scared of the stalker and/or annoyed by the noise as well, but here's the reality: if there was someone creeping around that family's house, they would have called the police and it would have been dealt with - end of story.  I hate to say it, but the reality is that they moved away because they were scared of you; they didn't ask for the back rent you owed them because they were scared of you.

Please seek professional help before this completely ruins your life...

Strong and likable female protagonist done right.  Disney should be taking notes.  9/10

On 2/12/2024 at 10:55 AM, the_wizard_666 said:

The Taxan games, Kick Master, etc, give the same ending regardless of which loop you're on, but tack on a message stating that there's harder challenge modes available.  It's a small distinction, but IMO an important one.

I still don't understand how you can say that an ending with a different message doesn't count as a different ending.  Are you saying that graphics takes precedence over text?  To me, the fact that they added different text, even before considering the fact that the text tells you there's more to accomplish, means it is literally a different ending - that's the very definition of the word "different."

You and I were talking about Snoopy's Silly Sports Spectacular the other day, and you were of the mindset that Bronze is good enough because the ending is "the same" except for the medal awarded.  I, on the other hand, feel that being awarded a different medal is a different ending, and especially when you throw in the concept of winning and losing in sports, where getting bronze is not a win - it's THIRD PLACE!  So to actually beat Snoopy, you should technically need to win the Gold, but that brings up the next problem: difficulty.

I think in the final analysis the question is: exactly how difficult do we want to make it on ourselves versus how much fun this is supposed to be, and should we be erring on the side of more casual play for the completions thread?  It's kind of like the Stadium Events debate in full set collecting where you have to wonder how many people don't count it moreso because of how expensive it is to obtain rather than for any other reason.  We wouldn't want to require Gold in Snoopy for the completions thread because it is incredibly difficult, even though that's the true win condition of the game, meanwhile getting bronze takes not much more than an hour to gain a general competency with most of the events on tap.

So that's the question really: should we be focusing on the undisputed victory or focusing on just playing through each game to get some sort of ending and doing it more for fun?

Just now, Tulpa said:

I mean universally hated. I figure one championship is acceptable, two is a fluke, three ... you're sacrificing children to the same dark lord that Brady did by his third.

But then Brady had a major long drought before he started winning again, so let's hope the same thing happens to Patty.

I know 49ers defense was tired, but I would want the ball second in OT because you get the fourth downs and you know exactly what you need and what kind of result it will get you.  When the 49ers missed that TD on third down, I knew in my heart it was over...

Fucking Niners, how many damn chances do you need...

The self proclaimed "Greatest game on earth" is done, as I decided to take out Circus Caper this morning.   I didn't even know this game existed growing up, and it's no wonder since it's a bog standard hop 'n bop platformer with nothing really interesting enough to make it stand out from the slew of it's NES kin, although it's kind of weird that a game aimed at younger children would be a one-lifer, but whatever...

Also, check the back and see if there's a debossed 'A' for the code revision.  The first print run had the famous "A Winner is You" line after you win each match, while the revision "fixed" the sentence to just "Winner is You."  Judging from the label, yours should be the pre-revision with the "A winner is You" text in the game.

Honestly, the odds of someone putting a repro label on an original Pro Wrestling cartridge are so slim that I'm confident in saying that yours is a legit OEM label.  Once you've handled enough carts in person, you'll be able to tell in seconds for yourself, but for the time being, remember that there were millions and millions of NES cartridges sold, of which 0.001% have had repro labels applied to them.  And it's usually highly sought after or exceedingly expensive games that you'd need to keep an eye out for to prevent yourself from being swindled, so keep that in mind as well.

TLDR: Your Pro Wrestling cart is almost certainly legit.

7 hours ago, bronzeshield said:

Since Mission 26 has no runway, it can't be completed normally -- but are you saying that if you get to the UFO in Mission 26 with multiple lives, fail to destroy it (on either opportunity) and crash into the sea, you're then sent to Mission 27 but with no ending sequence?

It's been so long since I played Sky Kid that I honestly don't remember the particulars.  I do remember that if you crash after the landing pad on any level, it still takes you to the next level, providing the crash wasn't your last life, in which case it would go back to the title screen.  I just watched a youtube video and saw that there is indeed no landing pad on Level 26, but the guy who was playing crashed into the sea on his last life, so it went to the title screen.  I couldn't find a video of anyone crashing into the ending water with lives left in reserve.  It's also worth noting that there is a standard ground target that one could choose to bomb, so it's not readily apparent (especially in the pre-internet era) that the UFO is the target you want to be using your bomb on, so what happens when you bomb the ground target like you have in so many other levels?  I guess in the final analysis, someone would need to play through Mission 26 and purposely not bomb the UFO to know for sure...

7 minutes ago, bronzeshield said:

I thought that if you don't destroy the UFO in Mission 26, the game just autocrashes your plane in an open area at the end of the level? I haven't done it myself (came so close to beating Sky Kid a year or two ago...) but that's what arnpoly says:

https://takeontheneslibrary.com/finished/99-sky-kid/

There's no autocrash; it's exactly the same as when you don't destroy the UFO on mission 11 (since you can't yet because you don't have bombs).

I think the more information provided in the document/list, the better, so that people will be able to use it for personal use outside of the annual completions thread as well.  For example, in Kung-Fu Heroes, the game immediately goes to 9-1 after the short ending sequence, which is the same as 1-1 but with harder enemies, so the entry for Kung-Fu Heroes should include a line that says something like: "the game continues to loop the same 8 worlds, but always gives the same ending."  Now, if someone were ever bold enough to play long enough to find out if the difficulty stops ramping up at some point or whether it ramps up forever, that would be useful information as well.

Arcade-style games in the annual completion project always require that you complete every level, meaning every physically different level layout, which is fine, but in the arcade world the first girder level of Donkey Kong is a hell of a lot different than the fifth or eighth or tenth girder level in terms of how the levels are actually played, never mind the fact that they are still individually numbered, so stating in an arcade game's entry on what "loop" the difficulty is maxed out would be beneficial for anyone using the document for their own personal use, whenever this is actually known.

Then there's nitty gritty stuff like Sky Kid, where the pastebin says "loops after mission 26" which gives the impression that you must beat mission 26 to call the game beaten, but that is not really accurate; you must successfully destroy the UFO on mission 26 to trigger the ending sequence, as just completing the level without destroying the UFO will not trigger the ending at all.  This should definitely be mentioned, and triggering the ending by destroying the UFO should be required to call the game beaten in all cases.

There are a bunch of other examples in the pastebin file like that, and I'll go through it more thoroughly when I have time, but I think the more info provided, the better for most of these games.  For example, when listing the Koei games, it should be noted that while all scenarios trigger the same ending (for most games) that some are more or less difficult than others.  Playing world conquest mode in Genghis Kahn triggers the same ending, but you're skipping half the game.  Scenario 6 on ROTK II triggers the same ending as all of the other five scenarios but it is much easier since you are gifted a third of the map right off the bat, etc, etc...

1 minute ago, Khromak said:

Right, and the crystal involves extra levels. Maybe that's why the distinction exists, IDK.

The two player part is academic though, because you can play one player for the entire game and then when the final boss is bubbled, pause with start and then press select while paused to give one of your reserve men to player two before unpausing and popping the final boss bubble for the proper ending...

6 minutes ago, Khromak said:

From strategy wiki:

Worst ending: Fail to collect the crystal in Round 99, and defeat the final boss.

Bad ending: Collect the crystal in Round 99, and defeat the final boss in a single player game.

Good ending: Collect the crystal in Round 99, and defeat the final boss in a two player game.

Best ending: Collect the crystal in Round 99, and defeat the final boss in Super Bubble Bobble mode in a two player game. You will also unlock a Sound Test mode.

If you finish the game with only one player alive in any of those situations, I believe you get the bad ending; you must have both players alive to trigger the two good endings above.

EDIT: So, to put it simply, collect the crystal in 99 and beat either mode with two players alive at the end to avoid a bad ending.

2 minutes ago, Khromak said:

Bubble Bobble bad ending is just 1-100, not including the letter levels, right?

I haven't played it in a long time, but I believe you get the bad end if you don't have both players alive when you pop the final boss...

3 minutes ago, the_wizard_666 said:

Bad endings have always been accepted except in instances where they don't involve actually finishing the game.

That's the opposite of what he just explained in his post above: if you play through the entirety of Bubble Bobble and don't miss a single level, but finish without a second player, you will get the bad ending that he does not count.  I think you're confusing bad endings with "less than the best endings," and your examples seem to indicate that.  Metroid doesn't have a bad ending and neither does Castlevania II; they have less than ideal endings but they don't explicitly state that you haven't achieved your goal like a real bad ending does (see: Bubble Bobble, Kid Kool, Rescue: The Embassy Mission).