nerdynebraskan

But at least there are still some easy ones to rebuild my confidence... Win, Lose, or Draw is done.

Bro, how are you going to clear Thunder & Lightning and then be so nonchalant about it as to not even name the game in your follow-up post? That one is harder than hell! I couldn't do it years ago when I was playing it for weeks on end. I started some Tecmo NBA, but I had to turn it off in the 4th Quarter with the Blazers (probably the best team in the league) trailing by 30. Obviously, I need to practice and remember how this is played because I've done it a couple of times before.

Uninvited is done.

Power Blade is done.

Dr. Chaos is done. @Crabmaster2000 What were your last four?

Mario is Missing is done.

Batman Returns is done.

Wrath of the Black Manta is done.

Where's Waldo is done.

Terminator 2 is done.

I'm not aware of any reason why the Famicom version of that game would be disqualified, so you've probably earned your points. I'll always have a soft spot for the original Dragon Warrior, though I grew up with the "Olde English" localization of the North American version. Not just for being the pathfinder of the JRPG genre, but for being a pretty decent game in its own right. But yes, it is objectively a minimal game for its genre that attempts to hide that behind being very, very grindy. Even at max level, I don't think I've ever had a run at the Dragonlord that wasn't a nail-biter. And yeah, you have to run from lots of monsters in the final castle (especially on the latter floors) so as not to waste your limited healing items/mana. I also liked Dragon Warrior II quite a bit, and I've always meant to go deep on III and IV also. Someday... But maybe you do want to do them for this thread and maybe you don't. There's definitely plenty of stuff on this list that's objectively worse. Also, Roundball 2-on-2 Challenge is done.

Regarding [1]: Yeah, it's always been a hard line to draw on the ambiguous endings of certain games. I can appreciate demanding the best ending for a game like Pirates, no matter how hard that is, because you can technically end Pirates at any time for some kind of ending. And on the opposite end of the spectrum, letting games like Skate or Die be cleared with just a playthrough (any playthrough), since it's only for score and there's no built-in high scores on any event. I also try to buff my annual Skate or Die run by winning the Pool Joust event against the most aggressive computer opponent, but I like to feel some effort exerted and I did grow up with the game. But since there's no win/loss record or anything for the Joust, it still feels unnecessary to even win. Top difficulty is usually not required, even though some games taunt you on the ending to try again at a higher level. Warping isn't discouraged, even though you're not really playing the whole game. A few years ago, this challenge tried to live by AdamL's fanatical completion standards (which in several cases required looping arcade-style games many times over until the scoreboard was maxed out or there was some weird glitch or kill screen, etc.)... I'm glad we relaxed on that. As far as Snoopy goes, I found it a challenge (and an anger-inducing one at that) to practice enough just to get any kind of medal finish for that game. I think getting a gold medal may actual require some mastery of that game. And this is where we start to get back into the inherent gray area in the middle of the dozens of really ambiguous titles. Is it really worth it to loop KickMaster three times just for a slightly different bit of text before the game restarts at the third loop of difficulty again? (We said yes the first time we beat it; I'm glad that expectation was lessened.) Should a gold medal be expected of Shooting Range, when you're not guaranteed a medal of any color for simply completing the game (medals require a very high score only possible in-game by earning a large bonus for having very high accuracy with your shots)? This has been a bit of a ramble, but I guess I lean right now toward maintaining the status quo. A lot of thought and research has gone into the current list of conditions for exceptional completions. California Games should be added to the document with the same rules as similar games like World Games or Caveman Games. And I'm open for specific re-examination of a title's rules if there are new findings, but I'm reluctant to get too crazy about that when we already have good reasons for where most of the expectations are on the exceptions list. Regarding [2] : Congrats, Crabby on Conquest #500! Do you only count the licensed NTSC set, or if not, what else is in there? And scary, I'm surprised you're only around 200ish for as long as you've been doing this. I double-checked my personal list, and I just raised it to #338 a few days ago with WWF King of the Ring and Xenophobe. I personally count all 8-bit games I've cleared/conquered on my NES/Famicom: licensed, unlicensed, all regions, Chinese pirates, homebrew, and Mega Man ROM hacks alike. And like scary, I don't always add arcade games just because I can loop them... I don't feel like I can add Donkey Kong to that list just because I've beaten 7-8 stages of it before, but I do occasionally add games like Terra Cresta which were a pain to loop. Also, Qix is done. Just putting this in bold at the end so it doesn't get missed.

WWF WrestleMania is done.

Terra Cresta is done.

Rescue: The Embassy Mission is done.

Harlem Globetrotters is done. Gotta love a sports game with one minute quarters.

The Karate Kid is done.

I did it last year, and it was a pain in the ass. I think it always appears almost immediately at the start of round 99. You only have a few seconds to grab it before it disappears. Good luck! Also, Casino Kid II is done.

Base Wars is done.

Touch Down Fever is done.

I just beat WWF King of the Ring for the first time. It's actually quite an improvement over Steel Cage Challenge. Just seemed like someone always beat me to it here. And in the best WWF tradition, I used the KoR tournament to push an up-and-coming youngster... 1993 Hulk Hogan!

Winter Games is now done. I mostly do this one once a year as an excuse to hear the 8-bit version of "The Internationale", which is used in place of the actual Soviet national anthem for some reason. And I did look at California Games. It does have preset high score/records for all events.

Speaking of which, Ski or Die is done.

Did California Games have preset high scores? I don't know it that well, so I can't say off the top of my head. It is odd that it's not on the exceptions list, but the Olympic mini-game compilations that have preset records should have to be beaten. The Skate or Die/Ski or Die/Winter Games ones default here to "just complete all events" because the leaderboard is blank by default. NES Open is like the spiritual successor to Black-Box Golf, and yeah they seem to have been the ancestors to the Mario Golf games. You do even play as Mario. Black-Box Golf is a single-game with a high-score requirement. NES Open is something of a time sink, but it has a battery backup so you don't have to do it in one sitting.

The difference there is that Winter Games has no preset records, so any completion of the event will set a new record. There is definite precedence in all the arcade/high-score games to take the preset high score as some or all part of claiming completion.