scaryice

14 hours ago, Gloves said:

What an odd game to enjoy lol.

Amagon is just a game that I had as a kid, and I never could get anywhere with it back then. As an adult, I went back and beat it and started to appreciate it more. It's not the greatest game, but it's not just nostalgia neither, because I didn't suddenly like Rampage or Xenophobe more. I do unironically enjoy Amagon quite a bit now. I actually had the record speedrun for years, and I've also beaten it without even transforming into Megagon. Maybe one day, I'll try to beat it just using the gun as a club (which would be nuts). Anyway, it's now a tradition for me to beat it at the start of every year. It's also the only game that has beaten by the same person in every year of this competition.

And I just beat Amagon for 2024!

I'll probably take on Amagon tonight as usual. Maybe Phantom Fighter as well? I've started to enjoy playing that game every year for whatever reason.

1 minute ago, Gloves said:

On Magmax I looped through the black/grey level back to what I understood to be the first level again; I definitely fought the boss twice as described in the requirements.

As for Millipede, I must have misread 16 as 10 in my sleepy haze. Paired with watching speedruns for all the games, I mixed it up. I'll do it again!

As for Tetris, again I misread/misunderstood. I'll not bother with that one, I hate Tetris lol. Just thought it'd be funny to do.

Ok, thanks. Just looked like the score was a bit low for Magmax, so I wasn't sure.

7 hours ago, Gloves said:

Yo it's 5:20 am who let me stay up this late? Goin' to bed, yo.

Looks like you had a productive night! I don't think I can count a few of the games, though. Millipede is listed as beating round 16 and you only made it to 11. I know speedrun.com lists 10 rounds, but we've always had 16 as our requirement. Also, I'm not sure if you beat the requirements for Magmax (loop the game) and Tetris (9-5 B-type + high score on A-type). Let me know.

It's now midnight in the eastern time zone, so the 2024 competition has officially started!

History

Standings for previous years:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1mtVLHFkZmpURNTAwnwL0n9i6KaEPuXl8wtsSB3gvdV0/edit#gid=1249105543

For 2012-13, champions were decided by total games beaten.

Total Progress (percentage of licensed games beaten)

(others listed on the right column)

All Time Point Leaders (2014-23)

All Time Completion Leaders (2012-23)

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post3 reserved

Here's a list of the top players in this year's competition. Any ties will be broken by 1) most games beaten & 2) most 10s beaten, followed by most 9s, most 8s, etc. 

Current Standings

Pain Points Standings
(awarded for beating games that were unbeaten in previous years, one point per year unbeaten)

...

17 minutes ago, scaryice said:

 

That's what I'm planning to do. I guess I'll bring back the pain points too, since hopefully that will inspire people to beat some of the harder games.

Looks like we'll end the year with 600 licensed games beaten. Not too close to finishing the library, but it's much better than last year's 564.

Here's the list of games which will change by 2+ points for 2024:

+3

+2

-2

-3

On 12/22/2023 at 10:24 PM, Daniel_Doyce said:

Seems like the contest should just focus on the core NTSC library next year since it hasn't been beaten in several years now.

That's what I'm planning to do. I guess I'll bring back the pain points too, since hopefully that will inspire people to beat some of the harder games.

Looks like we'll end the year with 600 licensed games beaten. Not too close to finishing the library, but it's much better than last year's 564.

This week's result:

Question #24 (12/21-12/27) - When it comes to co-op, what game comes to mind?

Very close finish between Twinbee and Mario Bros. for the top slot. It's always interesting to think about how the Japanese fans had two years with the Famicom before Super Mario Bros. came out, so the orginal arcade Mario Bros. gets way more recognition over there.

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

Gee, I wonder what games will finish at the top? Though, they do specifically include the kanji as well as the katakana spelling - 龍/竜/ドラゴン, so expect to see stuff like Ninja Gaiden as well.

On 12/24/2023 at 2:18 PM, Dr. Morbis said:

Why does #3 say "Mega Man" - is that a typo?

I've just been using the western names for games released over here.

This week's result:

Question #23 (12/14-12/20) - When it comes to blue carts, what game comes to mind?

Close contest, but Baseball came out on top. All of the old black box titles placed highly, since they're so well known. I was expecting Golf to be higher, but I guess it's more green than blue. That didn't stop Life Force (Salamander) from a top ten finish, though.

Next week's question: When it comes to co-op, what game comes to mind?

Contra would probably be the answer for many NES fans, but I noticed a lot of Japanese fans saying Twinbee, so maybe that'll be on top.

This week's result:

Question #22 (12/7-12/13) - When it comes to tricks/cheats, what comes to mind?

Not surprised by the Gradius win, but I am surprised that there's no Contra in the top 20. I know it's not nearly as popular in Japan, but to not make the list at all... Mega Man 3 is there as Link suggested, though. Nice call!

Funny to see Erika to Satoru no Yume Bouken, since it's known solely these days for the secret message hidden in there.

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

We're getting all the color questions eventually, so this week it's time for blue. Baseball, Devil World, Golf, Rockman, Saint Seiya, Star Force... Let's see... Since Golf is kind of greenish, Baseball might have a path to victory. It's very very common, so it might beat out Rockman even though not many people actually care about the game itself these days.

Forgot to post last week, so now we have two results to talk about:

Question #20 (11/23-11/29) - When it comes to "puzzle games", what comes to mind?

Top two as expected. The Famicom BPS Tetris is really bad, so we definitely got the better release overseas. I thought Lode Runner would be a bit higher. Wrecking Crew is a great game, but it doesn't seem to get much respect in Japan either. That's a shame...

Question #21 (11/30-12/6) - When it comes to "a good instruction manual", what comes to mind?

This was interesting, since I have very little experience with Japanese manuals. Kaijuu Montogari being third was a surprise. The manual doesn't look too special, but maybe the voters are counting the whole package. I know Namco went all out for the packaging for that game and Juvei Quest (both rpgs).

I think Zelda 1 might win the NES equivalent of this poll, as well.

Next week's question: When it comes to tricks/cheats, what comes to mind?

Surely Contra would win the NES version of this poll? I think Gradius is a more likely first place choice over there, though.

Latest results:

Question #19 (11/16-11/22) - When it comes to "tag", what game comes to mind??

As expected, the top two wrestling games dominated the poll, with many of the others featuring two characters working together or simultaneous two player action. The presence of the two duck games seems to be because the katakana are similar for tag and duck (タッグ vs ダック).

I was gonna predict Hana no Star Kaidou last week, but I wasn't sure it was well known enough to be on there. It's a platformer with really bad controls, where you control two guys at once. Just imagine Mickey Mousecapade with a lot more pits and precision.

Next week's question:

When it comes to "puzzle games", what comes to mind??

Surely Tetris and Dr. Mario at the top. I guess Lode Runner is a puzzle game, so that will probably be high too.

5 hours ago, DefaultGen said:

Yo, you guys are collecting cool data about a really important console and your questions are "What 5 character titles come to mind"

I know, I wish they had more gameplay related questions.

Latest results:

Question #18 (11/9-11/15) - When it comes to "5 character titles" what game comes to mind?

Metroid ended up winning easily. Funny that Life Force and Ghosts 'n Goblins are not 5 character titles but made it anyway. You always see a few weird results near the bottom. I guess if you spell them out and don't use the normal kanji titles, they would qualify then.

Next week's question:

When it comes to "tag", what game comes to mind?

The obvious choices are Tag Team Pro Wrestling and MUSCLE (full Japanese title: Kinnikuman: MUSCLE Tag Match). It'll be interesting to see what other stuff makes it - maybe games where you two characters working together, like Binary Land.

Here's the latest poll result:

Question #17 (11/2-11/8) - When it comes to "I learned a lot," what game comes to mind?

This is the closest result yet, with the Popeye English game beating out Nintendo's other educational release. Although, if the Momotarou Dentetsu vote wasn't split, either of those could've ended up first. The Switch version is super popular in Japan, BTW - it's sold 4 million copies.

You can also see the third Nobunaga game, plus one of Namco's Romance of the Three Kingdoms games - both of which we didn't get. No Family BASIC - I don't think it's part of Nintendo's database on their web site, actually. Maybe they classify it more as an accessory or something.

Next week's question:

When it comes to "5 character titles" what game comes to mind?

That would be characters as in letters or kanji, not game characters. So that's not the most interesting question, plus you can't really speculate unless you look at the Japanese spellings of everything. People on Twitter were saying Doraemon, Mega Man, and Metroid.

Here's the latest poll result:

Question #16 (10/26-11/1) - When it comes to ghosts (obake), what game comes to mind?

As mentioned above, the Japanese name for Chubby Cherub has obake in the title (Obake no Q-Tarou), so it was a predictable result. The first time I remember seeing the word obake in English was playing Final Fantasy Legend 2 (aka Saga 2) on the Gameboy. Of course, I had no idea what it meant back then, and I pronounced it wrong as well (same story for words like Gaiden and Kage).

Japan loves Spelunker, so I should've guessed that would do well with the ghost that relentlessly pursues you throughout the mine. A strong second place showing.

Next week's question:

When it comes to "I learned a lot," what game comes to mind?

This is an interesting because there's not an obvious answer. Some people on Twitter were saying educational games or Family BASIC, but those weren't exactly popular.

Here's the latest poll result:

Question #15 (10/19-10/25) - When it comes to Kanji-only titles, what game comes to mind?

A bit surprised GNG wasn't first, but I mentioned five out of the top six so it was quite predictable in the end.

Next week's question:

When it comes to ghosts (obake), what game comes to mind?

Clearly this poll is rigged for Obake no Q-Tarou (Chubby Cherub). The only other game with Obake in the title is Chiisana Obake: Acchi Socchi Kocchi, which is very obscure and nobody played. I'm guessing stuff like Gegege no Kitarou (Ninja Kid) will do well.

dfs

...

New Result:

Question #14 (10/12-10/18) - When it comes to passwords, what game comes to mind?

I guess DQ2 was a longer game with a longer password, so that's why it's first instead of the original.

Next week's question: When it comes to Kanji-only titles, what game comes to mind? Let's see... Makaimura (GNG) and Getsu Fuuma Den, maybe? Contra and Salamander (Life Force) are spelled with only Kanji as well. Maybe just plain old Mahjong too.

New result:

Question #13 (10/5-10/11) - When it comes to a good protagonist, what game comes to mind?

Interesting to see Metroid so high in a Japanese poll. Spelunker's hero is kind of famous for being so weak. I'm guessing Shadowgate is there for a similar reason, as I wouldn't have guessed that making it. I wouldn't have predicted Valkyrie either, but I guess the arcade sequel was quite popular. If this was a western poll, I think the Legend of Zelda would've won just because of Link's popularity (he always won the Gamefaqs character battles).

This week's question is, When it comes to passwords, what game comes to mind? Spoiler: it'll probably be Dragon Quest. I'm sure Metroid would win an similar poll for the NES.