the_wizard_666

When it first came out, it was pretty awesome. I spent the time grinding out every last hidden flag and all the extra crap, but by the end of it I found it to be a bit of a slog. I'd say it's a 7/10. Good game, interesting story, but lacks that special something that would make it truly great.

Thanks man! I actually just added up my repeat completions from the NES Completions thread, and am at 17 repeats. Normally I don't care about repeats at all, but I knew I did a bunch early on and was curious about it. So in January I now have a whopping 49 NES games beaten! I may have to find something to round it to 50. Maybe a Punisher run is in order...

Leopard Headed just destroyed Evil Gao Qiu and presented his head to Emperor Hui Zhong...in other words, Bandit Kings of Ancient China is in the books. Edit to add: so apparently this is not only the second time I've beat it, but the second time I've beat it in January...had I realized that, I might have made a more concerted effort to beat it on the same day

Yeah, I saw that. Kind of a silly reason to quit really. But apparently he quit Atariage when they sold to Atari, so he's got a habit of cutting and running when he disagrees with something.

That's a nice poster! I'm just seeing this for the first time, but man, this shows why we have to keep opening sealed games, even when they're already listed! I personally opened the sealed Shockwave, and it had no inserts at all, as mentioned previously. So this either came out of a copy of Chiller and was stuck into Shockwave later, or some print runs didn't bother with a poster. Either way, that's pretty damn cool to know that exists!

I'm seriously wondering why you want to delete it, but you do you I guess.

My goal of getting a first-time completion of at least one NES game per day in January has now been achieved. Additionally, I used a game from my Backlog Challenge list to do it...Godzilla 2 is now in the bag! I actually started it on the 29th, after beating Roundball, but as I was running out of time on the 30th, I cashed in my one remaining (known) gimmie victory by knocking off Ski or Die (just need to finish each event with a score, just like Skate or Die before it). I then kept working on beating more Godzilla 2 scenarios, just finishing around 20 minutes or so ago. The last few scenarios were dicey for sure, though the final one was almost a relief. The 11th scenario was the worst...a shit map, combined with very limited units, made for a rough ride...especially when I made an early screwup and had to adapt on the fly. Still, I eked out the win, moving on to the final one, where you have to fight every enemy aside from Mothra. It sure wasn't easy, but it was cake compared to the one I'd just knocked off. Overall, I'd say Godzilla 2 is a solid 8/10. It's simple enough to pick up and play, but had far more depth to it than Desert Commander, along with more varied scenarios. Though the RNG would have me getting pissed off occasionally, it was never bad enough where I'd get frustrated. Overall, I'd recommend it as a starting point for anyone interested in strategy games, as it's just complex enough to be fun, but nowhere near as in depth as even the simplest of Koei games. Speaking of strategy games, Godzilla 2 was the final strategy game I hadn't beaten, so I've now completed the entire genre! Anyway, barring me shooting for an extra game or two later on, here's my list for January 2024: *NOTE* The numbers are which entry number each game is on my list. I didn't do any, but I have separate categories on my list for PAL, Famicom, unreleased games, and homebrew games, and have a running total at the bottom showing my overall completions (all categories combined). I'm now at 343 games, so hitting 350 this year is highly likely. But I may take an NES break soon enough...beating 32 games for the first time in a month (plus a bunch of other completions I did for the NES Completions thread that were NOT first time completions, thus not being eligible for this list) has me thinking it's time for a break Also, since all the NES games I've had on my list this year were also on my list from last year, that puts me at 5 completions from last year's list (added to the 3 I did last year, that makes 8/40, or 20% completion). I'm debating continuing to track that or not, since although I made the list in 2022, I didn't actually work on a game until mid November, so it could still be interesting to see what I get done off that list down the line. That said, I think it may take away from me focusing on games from this year's list. Anyway, I suppose now I can focus on knocking off the rest of Oblivion, and maybe getting back to Wizardry V as well, as that's fallen by the wayside while I kept my streak going. To think, I was gonna stop at two weeks

I was actually gonna go for it a few days ago, but it frustrated and annoyed me to the point where I said fuck it. I was on the second boss.

Damn, that was gonna be the first game I went for in February. Though I'm not sure if I would've liked it enough to actually finish it

It could be referring to Xbox Live Arcade, which is what they called the online store. Jetpac Refuelled was an XBLA release. I'll have to fire up Rare Replay again to see the context. But the only arcade games I can recall on the disc are Battletoads and Killer Instinct.

It was only released on the ZX Spectrum, the BBC Micro, and the Commodore VIC-20. While the VIC and Spectrum both existed in North America, they were nowhere near as popular as they were in Europe. And with Ultimate Play the Game (now Rare) being a British developer, it's just a case of "it never made it over here." I do recall playing it in high school, but it could've been a freeware "port," an emulation, or some other thing that was prolific in the '90s. Since I didn't have my own computer at the time, I just had whatever people downloaded on the school computers But yeah, no arcade release whatsoever. Just a few British computer releases, and the Rare Replay release. Oh, and it's also on Jetpac Refuelled from the Xbox Live Arcade (coincidentally, also part of Rare Replay) as bonus content.

Okay, that specific page is pretty bad I could read most of the rest, but that one is just brutal

I probably would've too, but it was never released in the arcade. It's honestly a pretty sweet game, but I'm so damn bad at it. Only reason I got through all 16 stages was because of the in game cheating that Rare Replay allowed. Still, it's such an awesome game...just a pity it never really got any attention here.

It's just the epilepsy warning. I dunno, maybe it's because I have poor eyesight that I can read it? Like I'm so used to everything being blurry as hell that my brain just fills it in?

Oblivion update: In the interest of moving things along quickly, as well as being frustrated at losing an hour to the game not automating for some reason, I decided to rush through a couple more Oblivion gates. I also did the mission to acquire the Great Welkynd Stone. There are two gates remaining, Skingrad and Leyawiin, but I may skip them in favor of just getting on with finishing it. I like the game, but I am about ready to move on to something else. My NES streak also continues after knocking out Roundball: 2-on-2 Challenge. I think as far as basketball games go, it's somewhere in the middle of the pack. It's neither exceptionally good nor absolutely terrible. Just average all around. I did find it pretty easy overall, with the worst part simply that it takes three wins to knock it off. I could see myself playing it again sometime, but likely only for easy points in the NES completions thread

I dunno, I can read it just fine on my phone. No offense intended here, but maybe you need glasses? Like its a little blurry, but far from "barely legible" imo.

Roundball: 2 on 2 Challenge is done. Not bad, but not great either. Just a run of the mill basketball game that doesn't do anything special, but doesn't fuck anything up either.

Must be nice. I've been sniped left and right I've been focused on first time beats, but every time I go to do one someone ninjas in on me

Since my last update, I've only played a small amount of Oblivion (though I may play a bit shortly). All I've done is acquire the next key item, the armor of Tiber Septim (can't remember it's in game name, but that's functionally what it is). I'm not sure if I'm gonna get the next step or knock off a few Oblivion gates first so I can mix it up a bit, but regardless, not much to report there. On the NES front, I've kept my streak alive for the month, with four new additions (one for each day), the final of which is relevant to this thread (in addition to being my 300th US completion). First was Totally Rad, which was a lot easier than I had expected and was actually pretty good overall. The only hard part was the mini boss you fight just before the final boss, but other than that I really enjoyed the game. It's highly recommended to anyone! Second, I did Tennis, albeit on the lowest difficulty. You have to win 2/3 sets against two opponents to win. Not terribly difficult on the low difficulty, but I don't know if I like the game enough to go higher. I also only played the singles mode, as I couldn't be arsed to play Doubles mode for no real enjoyment. Then came Volleyball, which was a bit of an effort, having to win 3 out of 5 sets. There's a bit of a learning curve, but after figuring out a way to cheese points off the serve roughly 60% of the time, I managed to pull off the victory. Finally, the relevant-to-the-thread update - I knocked off Desert Commander. I was simultaneously impressed and disappointed by it. Impressed because there is a surprising amount of depth to it. Disappointed because the AI was absolute trash, and you could cheese it with a few fighters and a crapton of bombers. The last two missions I took a couple AA guns as well, with both being crucial to me getting the extra hits I needed on the enemy HQ. I feel like it would've been better with more competent AI, but it's a solid effort nonetheless. I could see myself playing it for fun, maybe making some challenges for myself to beat levels with different unit combos, etc. But for now, it's back on the shelf. So now I'm looking to finish off January with a completion on my list for each calendar day, and then from there I'll decide how far to continue pushing the streak based on what I feel like firing up. I do want to knock off some longer/tougher games, but I also don't want to just arbitrarily end the streak. We'll see how far the will to continue takes me come February 1

Took a lot less practice than I thought...Volleyball is done. At some point I realized I could relatively consistently get points off the serve when my team was on the left court. It required near pixel perfect timing, but it was doable. Just had to get good enough to get the ball back whenever I missed the timing. I ended up winning in four sets, losing the second set but sweeping the third. The fourth was pretty tight, as it required me to actually get points the "proper" way, but I was occasionally getting points on serves there too, which helped. Most of my points in that set came from blocking their spikes, but that was also a bit of a crapshoot because it required almost perfect timing as well to execute. All told, it's actually a pretty fun game overall, just kinda tough to get the hang of. Also, this was one of the rare instances where I wanted to snap a photo. Unfortunately, I wasn't fast enough to get it out before it transitioned back to the title screen. C'est la vie.

As soon as taxes got mentioned i realized you aren't aware that I'm Canadian. There's no inheritance tax here. It's also not classed as income, so my family isn't going to have that concern at least. But yeah, I should probably look into putting it in writing. My family all knows my wishes, but it never hurts to have a paper trail.

Well I sure as hell ain't putting my thumbs through that again lol

Sounds like I started when you finished, depending on the time zones. I started at about 1 am and finished shortly after 3 am. I had played it a few years back, but only got to level 3. The hardest part for me was execution. I am actually pretty good at pattern recognition, it's just my manual dexterity is the shits. I solved the bats on my third attempt at level 5. As for level 6, there's a conveniently located full health pickup not far off the beaten path, and reasonably close to the end...close enough that I had half health the first time I made it to Sinclair. The second time with low ammo, I ended up figuring out the punching thing that ultimately worked better for me. But yeah, it was pretty simple, just came down to pattern recognition in most of the tough spots. Oh, and I couldn't figure out how to predict the way the mines would explode. That would help immensely in some spots.

Was she ever not?

Well shit, I'm not used to being the one getting in before someone else. Usually other people knock off the games I have in my queue It definitely is an unexpectedly good game. I had no idea it got hate online, but that doesn't really surprise me. One thing I figured out is that I had an easier time punching out Sinclair than shooting at him. I got to him with low ammo, and almost no health. Tried to get some power ups but to no avail. That's when I noticed he charges across the room when you get close. So I would trigger a charge and pinch him as he ran by. For whatever reason, if you hit him, he doesn't damage you when he runs through you. Anyway, is it weird that I beat it in its entirety in about two hours? I'd never previously played past the rooftop level, so I basically had to figure it out from scratch, but it sure didn't feel like a "leave it on overnight" kind of game.