scaryice

This week's results:

Question #43 (5/9-5/15) - When it comes to moms, what game comes to mind?

Mother's 46.2% is the second highest percentage yet, only trailing DQ2's 48.8% for the password poll. I saw some people on Twitter mentioning Touhou Kenbun Roku, and sure enough, it finished third. It's a visual novel, but I don't know anything about it to understand what it has to do with moms.

Lots of animal moms represented - Pooyan, Onyanko Town, Bird Week. And of course, Metroid for Mother Brain. Dr. Mario and Tetris though... I guess they're just games that were popular with moms?

Next week's question: When it comes to racing games, what comes to mind?

I'm assuming the dad question will come later on Fathers Day week. If this were an English poll, Rad Racer would be near the top. But that game was much bigger in the US than in Japan (they didn't even release the sequel over there), so it'll probably be Excitebike first and then F1 Race second.

Oh BTW, I just now realized that the -chan/-kun poll coincided with the Childrens Day holiday in Japan. Makes sense.

Rally Bike is finished! The first loop is not too hard, but the second one is tough. The 9th race is particular, I got to several times before the winning run. It's not enough to just survive, you have to really speed through it to finish high enough to advance. Even though I beat the game before in 2021, it's still a huge pain. Amusingly, the 10th and final race is the only one to not require any particular placement because the game ends after it regardless.

You can read about the various SFC prototype consoles here:

https://famicoms-net.translate.goog/blog-entry-4238.html?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en-US

This week's results:

Question #42 (5/2-5/8) - When it comes to -chan/-kun, what game comes to mind?

Lots of games appearing for the first time in these polls. Kunio-kun was able to consolidate the vote around his first game to get first place. Oh yeah, I guess Jackie Chan's last name is spelled "chen" in Japanese, so that's why that game wasn't there.

Next week's question: When it comes to moms, what game comes to mind?

It's gotta be Mother. Other than that, I know DQ3 (again) starts with your mom walking you up. Betting it all on those being the top two... Should be fun to be see what else fills up the top 20.

This week's results:

Question #41 (4/26-5/1) - When it comes to good special moves, what game comes to mind?

4 Kunios, 3 Dragon Balls (4 if you count Famicom Jump), and lots of fighting and wrestling. However, the MUSCLE/Kinnikuman nostalgia ends up on top. It's actually the second poll that game has won (#19 - tag). They love their MUSCLE over there... I like it better than Tag Team Wrestling, at least.

Next week's question: When it comes to -chan/-kun, what game comes to mind?

That would refer to the honorifics used in Japanese used mostly for younger boys/girls. "kun" is sometimes translated as kid, like Dracula-kun = Kid Dracula. Kunio-kun is the most obvious answer here, although like this poll it might be divided among multiple games. Maybe the Ninja-kun/Jajamaru-kun games too. Also expecting some joke votes for Jackie Chan.

Nice to see two long baseball games finished this week. Only one to go!

I guess I'll try to do Kung Fu Heroes again. It's short but frustrating.

This week's results:

Question #40 (4/19-4/25) - When it comes to a good story, what game comes to mind?

DQ3 wins, of course. The end game stuff is memorable, but I'd say DQ4 might have a better story overall. Although, I still think 3 is the better game. I'd go with StarTropics in an NES poll.

Next week's question: When it comes to good special moves, what game comes to mind?

Tough one. I don't know if any fighting games like Joy Mech Fight are popular enough to finish first. Maybe just something basic like Mario 3?

Finished Time Lord. The best tip is just to frequently use the jump kick, since you're basically invincible during it.

This week's results:

Question #39 (4/12-4/18) - When it comes to simulation games, what comes to mind?

Very close finish for first place. Those are the two games I think of when I imagine "Famicom strategy rpg". The presence of the sequel likely led to Fire Emblem finishing second. There's four Gachapon Senshi games, three Nobunaga games (including the third one, which was released on the SNES in the US as "Lord of Darkness"), and three Romance games (including Namco's Sangokushi). Also, Best Play Baseball, which was a different take on the sport.

We're now 75% of the way through the year of polls!

Next week's question: When it comes to a good story, what game comes to mind?

I'm expecting the usual rpgs like Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy. Also interested to see how good the adventure/visual novel games do. A number of people are mentioning Famicom Detective Club on Twitter, but that game is in two parts, so it's unlikely to finish first. I doubt Portopia is interesting enough story-wise to finish super high.

I was playing Time Lord a bit yesterday, I guess I'll work on that next.

It looks like Gaia has clinched the most Pain Points for 2024! Previously when we had them, he also had the most in 2021 and tablew/chairs had the most in 2020. Gaia is also getting closer to clinching the overall championship, up by 199 points over nerdy with only 279 still out there.

5 hours ago, TheGameDisplay said:

Sky Kid and Slalom are done! Took me a good while to get the hang of Slalom, but after beating one hill I was able to come back the next day and beat the other two fairly easily. It's actually a really fun game!

Nice, Sky Kid is such a tough game. I was trying a few years ago and I only got to stage 21. Happy to see that one off the list!

7 hours ago, Daniel_Doyce said:

Right on!

Did you beat it with a normal controller? Maybe I'll screw around with it next year.

Yeah, normal controller. Got about 35 lives and ended up with around 10. Just went back and forth between two screens on the first area until I had enough to move on. Overall, it only took about 90 minutes, but I've beaten it twice before.

I think this game is similar to Arkanoid, in that the glove would allow you to move faster than the controller, but it's still totally beatable without it.

Super Glove Ball done. Just grind for a bunch of lives so you can survive the many inevitable deaths

This week's results:

Question #38 (4/5-4/11) - When it comes to "4 character titles", what game comes to mind?

Xevious walks away with first place, doubling the second place Tetris. As before, these type of questions will be hard to comprehend unless you're looking at the Japanese spellings. Hopefully, this is the last of them, since they're not too interesting. It's mostly just a list of well-known games. Hebereke/Ufouria is on the list, which is probably because of the recent release of its sequel on modern platforms.

Next week's question: When it comes to simulation games, what comes to mind?

Koei stuff?. It all depends on what people consider simulation to be. I saw some people mentioning strategy rpgs like Famicom Wars and Fire Emblem, and some people mentioning sports games.

We were one day short of the fastest time to 650 games cleared (4/9 vs 4/8 in 2015). We could still beat the fastest time to clear the whole thing though, which is June 12th. 2 months to beat the last 26 games?

I've beaten Gauntlet again. Yeah, it takes a lot of restarts on the last password. The easiest way is to start on level 79, go to the treasure room on 83, and then purposely die on 84. This way, you can max out your bombs and get to 1600 treasures for more max health (the game only updates your password after beating a treasure room). Once you have all that, then you can make serious attempts at beating it.

10 hours ago, Tanooki said:

I guess so, the date would support it as much.  But there it is, the only other as far as I can recall legit/licensed fighter for the system, or in a way the ONLY since FC got it, and NES got the TMNT fighters.

Keru Naguuru is on the hidden gem list also, and it's a fighter.

7 hours ago, wongojack said:

Cool thread, I'm catching up on reading the history.  Has Punch Out appeared as an answer anywhere?  I haven't seen it.

Only for the "mic" question as a joke answer.

4 hours ago, koifish said:

Good list, many of these were late releases and so people likely didn't play them as much. Time Twist was FDS-only, and I don't think it was ever re-released (probably because of the imagery), so that makes sense. Never heard of Minelvaton Saga, but I may have to check it out. Star Luster surprises me a bit, because it's an earlier Namco game, but maybe not many bought it. Those who played it should seriously play Star Raiders though; It's superior to its copycat.

Star Luster is a common cart, I think it sold well. But the interest in games like that has fallen off so much, that maybe now it seems like a hidden gem to its fans.

This week's results:

Question #37 (3/28-4/4) - When it comes to "hidden gems", what game comes to mind?

Fascinating results! A very divided poll, with the winning entry only getting 2.5%, easily the lowest of any poll so far. Lots of rpgs up and down the top 20. I haven't played Minelvaton Saga, but it's an action rpg similar to Ys. I can testify that Metal Max is fun one, though (unlike Radia Senki, that game is trash). The quality of the games here is pretty good, with stuff like Gimmick and Crystalis among the best on the system for me.

Next week's question: When it comes to "4 character titles" what game comes to mind?

Poll #18 was 5 character titles, poll #33 was 3 character titles, so I guess this was gonna happen at some point. Xevious, Mappy, and Seicross were among the answers on Twitter.

On 4/1/2024 at 8:22 AM, Khromak said:

7 days to get 7 games if we want to break the record for fastest to 650. Who's working on something that could be done in that time? Do we think we have any chance?

My list is looking pretty slim, I'm open to hearing about any game on the list that's not too tough or crazy long but I think that pretty much eliminates everything still left haha.

I'm considering trying Athena (long and difficult) or Gauntlet (difficult as hell) again, or possibly seeing if I can get the pitching trick to work in Bases Loaded, though I could also barely score a hit in the batting of that game, so I'm not likely to be winning any games there any time soon.

Wouldn't count on much in the way of completions from me, but I'll give those a shot throughout this week and see what I can come up with. I'll be out of town this upcoming weekend to see the solar eclipse, but will probably bring some kind of NES with me to attempt some games in my down time.

I'm still playing Dragon's Dogma 2 and FF7 Rebirth (which has an incredibly long platinum trophy grind). I could beat Gauntlet again without too much trouble, I think. Super Glove Ball is another one I might do again, it should only take maybe 2 hours having done it before twice. I could also try Kung Fu Heroes again, since you really just need one good run (which is 10-15 minutes).

This week's results:

Question #36 (3/21-3/27) - When it comes to "farewell/separation", what game comes to mind?

Final Fantasy II is a good choice because of all the characters joining/leaving that 4th party slot throughout your adventure. This is also the first poll that any Final Fantasy game has won, compared to 6 for DQ so far.

Binary Land is an interesting answer, since you're controlling two characters at once and trying to reunite them. GNG is there because of the memorable (and unskippable) opening scene.

Next week's question: When it comes to "hidden gems", what game comes to mind?

I'm very curious to see the results of this one. Something like Gimmick comes to mind. Or maybe something like Battletoads or Kage (Shadow of the Ninja). I wonder what would win an NES hidden gems poll these days, because I feel like most of the answers from 20+ years ago are more well known now, like Metal Storm or River City Ransom.

On 3/26/2024 at 2:57 PM, koifish said:

Every single game with a "see you" message on the ending. If it were a game boy poll then surely Makai Toushi SaGa would be up there for its well-known "See you again!" ending.

@scaryice what word exactly did they use for "farewell"?

13 hours ago, Reed Rothchild said:

@scaryice Is this a record pace for all the years you've run this thing?

We started off just okay, but we've really been crushing it since 300. Not quite a record yet, but it could be depending on how we finish:

The record for 650 is April 8th, and the record for all 677 is June 12th.