scaryice

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.

This week's results:

Question #35 (3/14-3/20) - When it comes to "action game," what comes to mind?

Elevator Action sure is an action game. I didn't even think of that. If this were an NES list, there would be three more games with that word in it: Jackie Chan's Action Kung Fu (just Jackie Chan in Japan), Last Action Hero, and NES Play Action Football. The latter two not receiving a Famicom release.

Quite a large victory for SMB. It's the second biggest margin of victory in these polls, only trailing poll #14. That was when Dragon Quest II won for the password question with 48.8% of the vote, over DQ1's 10.6%. DQ2's percentage there was also the highest in any question so far, with SMB this week being 5th.

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

Maybe Adventure Island IV, since that was the last game released over there?

15 hours ago, mbd39 said:

Good luck to anyone trying to beat Rally Bike. Bump into anything and you're right back at the beginning of the race. I can't even beat the first race. What a piece of shit.

I made a list of when to get gas a few years ago when I beat it. Sometimes, you can skip a stop with a hi-gas power up. Also, it doesn't matter where you finish on the last stage of the second loop, the "ending" is the same regardless.

1-LA

2nd station, after trains

2-SF

1st station, after first blue car
2nd station, right after the first one

3-PHX

1st station, after a while on either side
2nd station, after first set of buildings

4-DEN

1st station, after train tracks

5-NY

1st station, halfway through on right side

1 hour ago, nerdynebraskan said:

I'm also interested in a bit more discussion on this. I don't care for save states, but I think I could live with using them in lieu of leaving a 35 year old console for days at a time with the kind of long games that Khromak is talking about. 

I'm against it. If you allow them for this kind of convenience, then it's a slippery slope to allowing them for other things too. I don't think there's many games which even necessitate you to leave your system on for that long. A better use of your time is probably just doing a run on emulator with save states to practice, and then doing a real run without them.

4 hours ago, Gaia Gensouki said:

I'm currently working on Formula 1: Built to Win. It actually seemed really fun and I even got to the last race in Hawaii. But I looked it up online and apparently the couses that I'm playing right now are only the first half or so of the game. So there's still a LOT more coming up. On top of that, I'm struggling with most of the races right now as they're quite challenging. I hope the second half of the game won't be such a struggle throughout.

Well, about that... Here's an old post I found:
 

Quote

 

I'll give a couple of tips if anybody's thinking about giving it a shot, save 1 million before entering F1 circuit so you can max out your car right from the start, and it is really important that you win as many of those early F1 races as you can while you are overpowered because it's only going to get tougher as you progress to the end.

-Abelardo

 

This week's results:

Question #34 (3/7-3/13) - When it comes to "legend" what game comes to mind?

It did up being Zelda, although DQ3 got a lot of support. Lots of lesser known games making their first appearance in these polls: Aigiina, Galious, W&W, Kaguya, Ginga Eiyuu Densetsu, Toki, KGM3.

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

I'm assuming platformers would be considered an action game, so SMB1/SMB3/Mega Man 2 for the top spots? Plus the likes of Goemon, Doraemon, etc.

26 minutes ago, Gaia Gensouki said:

I've beaten Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, but it seems I didn't get the good ending. I assume you have to catch the guy climbing the ladder in the second part of level 12, because in the playthroughs I've seen on YouTube they got the message "YOU WIN BIG MAN", but I only got "YOU WIN". I hope it still counts. Either way, this game is awful.

It seems like more of an easter egg than a separate ending. Apparently you just have to whip the girl at the end, and it gives you some bonus points and adds "big man" to the ending screen.

12 hours ago, NESfiend said:

Dont recall seeing any other 17 point games. Never played that one, but imagine its quite the bear

Edit: quoted the wrong post. Talking about flight of the intruder 

There's only four 17 point games:

Battle Tank, Destination Earth Star, Dungeon Magic, Flight of the Intruder

So that's all of them done. There's one other game with 7 pain points, Flying Warriors, which is still unbeaten. But it's a 9 pointer, so 16 overall.

1 hour ago, guitarzombie said:

@scaryice It could be nice if was quick to make a list of the 'tough game expert', or a list of people who've mostly beaten the same tough game every year. 

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1mtVLHFkZmpURNTAwnwL0n9i6KaEPuXl8wtsSB3gvdV0/

Check the "by person" tab to see who's beaten what every year.

That's what the pain points are for, right? Making a list of who's beaten tough games depends on what a tough game is. It's hard because sometimes those people cause the game to lose points by beating it early every year.

42 minutes ago, guitarzombie said:

Also someone beat Bump N Jump?  Did the requirements change? I remember that one being really tough?

It is really tough, but mbd has beaten that game for 6 straight years, so he's our resident BNJ master.

Anyway, very productive day today. I would be contributing myself, but I've been playing nothing but Final Fantasy VII Rebirth for the last week. So any NES stuff is on hold for me until I'm done with that. Then I have a brief window until Dragon's Dogma 2 releases.

This week's results:

Question #33 (2/29-3/6) - When it comes to "3 character titles" what game comes to mind?

Seems like there's been a bit of an Ikki revival lately. There was an Ikki level in Blaster Master Zero 2, and there was even a new Ikki online game in the style of Vampire Survivors that came out last year.

Looking at this list, you have to take into account that some of these names are just the American names that I put there. And also, some longer names are represented by Kanji, which makes things more complicated. Basically, you can't make much sense of this topic without looking at all the Japanese titles AND seeing how they're written.

Next week's question: When it comes to "legend" what game comes to mind?

This ought to be more interesting. Obviously Zelda comes to mind first. However, Dragon Quest III's subtitle in Japanese is "And, into the Legend..." We all know how much DQ3 dominates these polls, so I actually expect it to win here. I'll pick Castlevania III (Akumajou Densetsu) for third.

14 hours ago, nerdynebraskan said:

Athletic World was done. This one was the hardest of the running games for sure.

Thanks for taking out all the Power Pad games! Dance Arobics next?

16 hours ago, Gaia Gensouki said:

Sorry if this is a dumb question, but with Greg Norman's Golf Power, do you have to get on par or is it enough to just play a round of 18 holes? My best result so far was +10 at the end.

Yeah, that's all we've required. I'll go ahead and mark you down for it then.

I've played the game a few times, and last time I decided to play against a cpu opponent and beat them. But, you can just give yourself a huge handicap so it isn't any harder. Maybe we should require something like that in the future, still...

This week's results:

Question #32 (2/22-2/28) - When it comes to cats what comes to mind?

I'm kinda shocked by this. I like City Connection, and I know the cats are a memorable part of it, but I had no idea it was that well known. Maybe the Japanese company that named itself after the game (and is basically modern Jaleco) has something to do with it.

I guess Doraemon isn't as high because he's technically a robot cat? I dunno. Lots of obscure FDS games this week. Plus, #4 is the Japanese version of Puss 'n Boots, and #7 is Samurai Pizza Cats. I also feel like there's a certain percentage of fans who will just answer Dragon Quest III to any question, since that game is so popular over there.

Next week's question: When it comes to "3 character titles" what game comes to mind?

Well, we already had a 5 character question, so why not. Most popular Twitter answers seem to be Ikki and then Golf.

Updated the google spreadsheet with all of the 2025 point values that are set in stone (486/662).

2 hours ago, Khromak said:

I've spent about 8 hours working on Gauntlet, probably 6 of which have been on the 79-100 section. During this process I broke one of my NES (probably slamming the reset button too hard). Fuck this game. I'll probably get it eventually, but that last section is such utter bullshit I can't possibly put it into words.

I hope you have all the stat upgrade potions. If not, then it's better to start over.

3 hours ago, arnpoly said:

Solar Jetman is done!  Had a really good time with it.

It's a very good game, just too complicated and difficult and long for most people.

16 hours ago, mbd39 said:

I this the fastest progress ever? Under 100 games left in February.

We were 3rd fastest to 500 & 550 games. We're on pace to be the second fastest to 600. Fastest is 2/24 in 2015, second is 3/13 in 2021 (a year we didn't finish it).

2 hours ago, scaryice said:

Going through Nintendo World Cup again now. It's 90% waiting around - score 1 goal, then knock out the other team's player and just set the controller down until half time/full time.

It's finished. There were a few matches where I actually had to play. Final scores:

1-0 Cameroon
1-0 Japan
1-0 France
1-0 Russia
1-0 Spain
2-1 England
2-1 Mexico
16-14 United States
3-2 Brazil
2-0 Netherlands
9-5 Italy
11-7 West Germany

Going through Nintendo World Cup again now. It's 90% waiting around - score 1 goal, then knock out the other team's player and just set the controller down until half time/full time.

This week's results:

Question #31 (2/15-2/21) - When it comes to "the package was good", what comes to mind?

Lots of unique reasons while certain games are here - Super Xevious was the first of three Namco gold carts. Getsu Fuuma Den had the lenticular cover, while Genpei Touma Den was half board game. Kaijuu Monogatari came with some small figures and a big map, while Athena had a cassette tape, and Life Force with its cool see through shell. Of course, the list is still dominated by popular stuff that wasn't quite as impressive, unless you consider game quality to be part of the "package". I would've liked to have seen Shadow Brain and its vhs tape, but that's a very obscure game even for Famicom fans.

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

This should be fun. Surely Doraemon in first? The only two games that actually have "neko" in the title are Puss 'n Boots and Koneko Monogatari (FDS). I guess we'll see Onyanko Town, Rockin' Cats, and Samurai Pizza Cats as well. I see a lot of people on Twitter saying Mappy, which makes sense as an earlier title. Although I was thinking more of the playable characters being cats...

WCW (World Championship Wrestling) is done, on the Japanese version Superstar Pro Wrestling. Same game except for the different, unlicensed roster. I beat it with Jumbo Tsuruta (or "Tsuruma").

Trojan completed. Not too bad if you know where the power ups are.

EDIT: Also working on WCW.

6 hours ago, TriHart said:

Finished off Mendel Palace. Quite enjoyed actually, although some levels were a pain in the butt. Some bosses were really tricky. Definately could see some early Game Freak inspiration from this game that was implemented into the pokemon games; most notably the sprite work for some of the trainers you battle. Pretty cool. 

I agree that Mendel Palace is good. There's not too many NES games that I can say are still underrated at this point, but that's one of them.

Evert & Lendl Top Players Tennis is completed. Yeah, I suffered through this game once again. It's not even very hard, just so tedious. Well, the one time I had to beat Lendl was hard, but other than that, just spent the time watching some streams while playing on autopilot. The Japanese version is the same except for not having the voices.