cj_robot

12 hours ago, Sumez said:

 

Not my favorite track right there LOL

Overall, though, I think the soundtrack is pretty good.

I just beat Kabuki: Quantum Fighter for the first time in a long time. This is my kind of NES action game. Definitely challenging, but never too cheap or unfair. Also, doesn't hurt that it looks great, sounds great and controls great. 

Alright, @AirVillain this has been fun, but I need a break from this thread. 

All I will say is thank goodness all the progress we've made here has been recorded at this wonderful site, so we can continue on where right we left off. It would have been truly awful if I had to start the conversation over from the beginning every time I logged in.

videogamesage.com gets a 10/10

23 minutes ago, Brickman said:

I can’t believe this debate is still going 

Why is this even a debate? Here’s a newsflash for people:

YOU CAN PLAY THE GAME WITH SAVE FUNCTIONALITY ON THE SNES AND GBA! 
 

23 minutes ago, Gloves said:

And the NES version w/ emulation. *gasp!*

Also the Switch!

Actually, those are excellent points. I take back everything bad I said about the game. @AirVillain should have led with that.

On 4/29/2023 at 8:32 PM, AirVillain said:

Sorry for inconveniencing you with 30s of your time to play 4 masterful levels in order to get the first 2 whistles. 

30 seconds? Nice try, buddy. Look up a SMB3 speedrun and it takes 1:54 to get to the second whistle. Now I'm only about 93% as good as the world's best speedrunners (maybe 92% in my old age), so it's going to take me at least 2 minutes.

(Alright, in all seriousness I actually forgot how soon the second whistle is. I used to always play through the whole first world, but I guess that was just to get that P-Wing after the first airship)

Still, you know what could have taken less than 30 seconds? Selecting "CONTINUE" from the title screen.

And I just can't agree that those first levels are "masterful." To me, they are basic, lacking challenge and are boring. Perfectly fine for a tutorial of sorts, but I don't want to replay them anymore. I mostly feel the same way as the early levels in SMW, to be honest. The difference there is that I'm not forced to replay them every time I turn on the game. SMW gives the player the freedom to explore the world at their own leisure. Once you gone through an area, you can return to it anytime you want. Once you complete the game, the entire world is basically your playground and you can start any level at any time until the end of time (or until your battery dies, whichever comes first). You are forced to disproportionally experience the early levels in SMB3 and I don't like it.

On 4/29/2023 at 8:32 PM, AirVillain said:

It's okay if you've let it go, but the only person losing here is you because as I've stated elsewhere, SMW is not great if you compare it to SMB3. 

How am I losing if I can play the game I want to play and don't have to play the game I don't want to play? And yeah, I read through that thread. I thought it was an excellent troll thread based on how ridiculous your claims were... until I realized you were serious.

On 4/29/2023 at 8:32 PM, AirVillain said:

Yoshi spot = the place where you can go get Power-ups, Yoshi, and unlimited lives if you wanted to...?

Right here behind the ghost house....



Why is the save feature not saving your lives funny??? It's annoying when I've played through 1/2 the game and have 50 lives, but then they all get taken away because the save feature doesn't even actually work? All my hard work and fun exploring down the drain! 

There's 2, maybe 3 things the save feature could save in SMW. Levels passed, lives, and maybe points if you really want. But nope. Only 1/3. That's nothing to brag about. 

OK, yes I'm obviously familiar with that location and, like I said, it's not necessary because:

1. Yoshis (and other power ups)are literally all over the place, and...
2. There's not a single level that requires any power ups to complete them.

And lives are given out like candy in this game. I don't even know what the "Game Over" screen looks like (if there even is one) because I've never run out of lives. Who cares if it doesn't save them?

Anyway, I love Super Mario Bros. 3 and I give it a 9/10!

3 hours ago, AirVillain said:

I mean... if you want to just completely ignore everything I just said and once again claim that you are "stuck playing the same boring, ol' levels in the beginning every... single...time" then I just don't know what to say. 

I got what you said. You keep bringing up the warp whistles. Is it not true that you have to play through the beginning levels to get those whistles? Do you not understand that I'm not interested in doing that anymore? I get that "beating the game" is not the only reason to play, but if I'm just screwing around I can think of a bunch more games I'd rather do that with.

3 hours ago, AirVillain said:

We are talking about Super Mario Bros. 3. SMW is a totally different game. But I understand it's the ONLY THING holding your flimsy argument together. 

I only use Super Mario World as an example of a game that got this right. I mean, what better game would there be to compare with?

3 hours ago, AirVillain said:

Super Mario World benefited from having a save battery. SMB3 is not that game. Let it go. 

I have totally let it go. As I said before, I'm not really interested in playing SMB3 anymore since there are better games to spend my time on.

3 hours ago, AirVillain said:

Re: SMW. How about having to go from Star Road all the way back to the Yoshi spot to grab Yoshi for the Special Levels? So you die and have to go ALL THE WAY back to get Yoshi. Replaying that part is fun. 

I don't even know what you're talking about here. What the hell is "the Yoshi spot"? Yoshis are all over the place in SMW, including right at the beginning of every Star Road level. As far as I can recall, Yoshi is not required to beat any level.

3 hours ago, AirVillain said:

Or your beloved save feature... it's so awesome, it doesn't even remember how many lives you had!  

Lives? Seriously? LOL

OK, this time I didn't ignore anything you said.

2 hours ago, AirVillain said:

Why is there some sort of magical restraint that you MUST BEAT THE GAME EVERY TIME YOU PLAY??? 
 

No, you are totally right there, my dude. That's why I absolutely love Super Mario World. I can play as much as I want, just save my progress, and when I start it up again I'm not stuck playing the same boring, ol' levels in the beginning every...single...time.  I can beat the game whenever I want, or even not at all, if I choose. I can even go back and play through areas I previously skipped and even replay levels I've already beaten, as many times as I want!!!

.......

Totally brilliant design, to be quite honest. Literally changed gaming forever with that move, Nintendo did. 

13 hours ago, AirVillain said:

Your interpretation is a bit off, though....  I read it as "Unfortunately for you babies who can't play the game in one sitting, you can use the Whistles". 

Bruh, anyone can play the game in one sitting. It's not about difficulty, it's about the time commitment. I'm a normal human with a life and there are many other games I'd turn on before locking myself into a few hours of SMB3, especially considering I'd have to replay the first levels yet again, which I've gotten bored with decades ago. Of course, I could warp to save time, but what's the point of even playing if I'm able to skip like 80% of the game? Meh. Honestly, the more I think about it, the more I find I actually dislike the game. Thanks.

6 minutes ago, Sumez said:

I'm assuming that was a intended as a joke, but you can never know on this forum

I mean, yeah I was being a bit facetious. But I honestly cannot think of another game where they intentionally left out a save or password system to instead add some sort of area skip item to be acquired within the game. I really do think it's a strange mechanic and I'm not surprised that future Mario games would use Super Mario World as the model.

2 hours ago, Link said:

I think you are mistaken. 

The manual doesn't say anything like that.

From the Japanese manual:

So they basically acknowledge that Warp whistles were the workaround, but ADMIT that players will find this element UNFORTUNATE.

Personally, I think it's clear why no other Mario game (or any other platform game from any developer anywhere in the universe) has ever been made in this style since and never will be until the end of time. Battery-backed up saves are the only serious option for serious gamers.

2 hours ago, Gloves said:

Finished Red Faction a couple weekends ago. Beat it on Normal (default) difficulty.

This has always been one of my favorite PS2 shooters. Looks pretty good for an early PS2 game, it's got a nice array of weapons to cause destruction with, and it's a good length as well. Of course, there's the very cool environment destruction engine (I forget what they called it... GeoMod or something like that?), which is fun to play around with, but they smartly don't force it on the player too much.

The game is a decent challenge, but not too bad, although it gets downright brutal on the higher difficulties. Enemies have the insane ability to blast you with pinpoint accuracy from ridiculous distances, all while running erratically all over the place making it impossible to aim a shot at them. L1 beings up a crosshair to aim with, kind of like in Goldeneye, but I found it pretty useless and just did my best to aim with the camera and let the auto-aim do it's thing. It does have a dual-stick control scheme, which is nice since at this time that was just barely starting to become the standard for FPS games.

To tell the truth, I couldn't care less if SMB3 had any kind of save feature or not. I've honestly barely played the game in decades. Ever since Sonic the Hedgehog came out the following year, I found that game to be a far more enjoyable experience.

[patiently awaits permaban]

30 minutes ago, Link said:

And Mario 3 was released well before batteries were "standard" in "long platformers".

Ok, but plenty of games had password systems, like Mega Man and Castlevania.

I don't know if anyone's mentioned this yet, but Super Mario Bros. 3 could really benefit from having a save feature.

2 hours ago, AirVillain said:

LIfe lesson. Toughen up, kid! You can't always get what you want!

Except, my daughter did get what she wanted. SMB2 FTW

Perhaps Nintendo will get it right with Super Mario Bros. 4 (probably not)

My daughter is upset that you can't play as Princess Peach like you can in SMB2.

Sad little girl = 0/10

17 hours ago, GPX said:

Just trying to think of the most stressful game as a potential answer - maybe a horror game and you get stuck in a segment of the game? Being in suspense and frustrated would be pretty stressful?!

 

I immediately thought of Resident Evil as my stress-inducing experience. Not necessarily because of the horror theme, but moreso because the opportunities to save were so scarce combined with the fact that around every corner there could be a surprise attack waiting to end your game.

Also,any game with underwater segments where you need to get to the surface to breathe push my anxiety to the max (Sonic, Ecco the Dolphin, Tomb Raider, SM64, etc.)

For stress-relief, I usually go for a beat-em-ups that I can just beat the crap out of for awhile, preferably Streets of Rage 2 or Turtles in Time.

On 4/6/2023 at 11:07 AM, LHCGreg said:

The safe thing to do against many enemies is jump attacks, which is boring. Larger enemies have some weakness you need to exploit, like doing running attacks.

I don't know about this. I've beaten the Genesis game several times and I hardly use the jump attack because I don't find it very useful at all, to be honest.

7/10

I like this game. Sure it's a little clunky, but I find myself enjoying it anyway. Always loved the visual design of the levels, with interesting features like the giant eagle head, and so on. Sega definitely improved with their following beat-em-ups, but this one is still fun, and I play through it every so often.

I actually had this one for DOS before I ever played the Genesis version, but if I remember correctly, the two ports are actually pretty similar.

-3/10 and I think that's being generous

Beat Dragon's Curse.

This is actually my first time playing this one, and I really enjoyed it. Wonder Boy III was one of the few games I was always bummed to have never got my hands on back when I was collecting Master System games, so it's nice to finally experience the game in some form. Over the years,  I've really come to appreciate the Wonder Boy games and how the series evolved. I'm honestly surprised that this franchise never got more mainstream success on either the Turbo or on Sega's consoles. Oh well.

Sadly, this is probably the only Turbo game you're going to get out of me.

For me, it was Virtua Racing in the arcade. The graphics looked amazing at the time (I actually think the flat-shaded polygons still look nice today) and the fact is was on a large screen while I got to sit in an actual driver's seat with pedals and a steering wheel... at the time it was by far the most immersive experience I ever had with a video game.

I had similar feelings not long after with Wolfenstein 3D, Star Wars: X-Wing, and Doom, but of course it was hard for my home PC to compete with a giant arcade cabinet.

51 minutes ago, AirVillain said:

Haha, sorry.... Purple....? Nah.... It doesn't match well with ANY colours in real life. Other than black and grey? 

 

Mother Nature would like a word with you.

John Madden Football

The original, baby. Took San Francisco through the playoffs and capped it off by beating New England in the Whatever Bowl™ to take home the Somebody Trophy™.