CMR

Battle of Olympus is a Zelda II clone as far as the side scrolling mechanics go. IMO it's as close as Krion Conquest is to MegaMan 2. I almost wonder if they didn't swipe some of Nintendo's code.

I have a cheap jewelry cleaner I use for smaller stuff. It heats up well and came with a plastic basket. No drain, you just pick it up and dump it. I guess it holds a little more than 2 liters. I just use purple power degreaser, diluted about 10 to 1. It doesn't hurt plastic or silk screen and works great on rosin flux. This one is just like mine, but you can get it cheaper if you shop around. https://www.amazon.com/VEVOR-Ultrasonic-Cleaner-Jewelry-Stainless/dp/B08V8M4DB7?ref_=ast_sto_dp

I was just thinking of this recently. I wondered why Sega didn't tap Traveler's Tales for more games after Sonic R. They had a great handle on the saturn in a very short while even if Sonic R was a flop. Nintendo was willing to throw money at Akklaim to keep Turok an exclusive on the N64, and in contrast Sega was letting some of the most talented devs in the industry slip through their fingers. But yea, Sega made lots of bad decisions all throughout the 90's.

I love FF for SNES. Obviously, it isn't perfect. It was a very early SNES title, but it plays really well. In some ways I think it controls better than the original arcade game. I've heard sega fanboys harp on it over the years because of it's missing content while trying to compare it to SOR2 or the SegaCD version. I don't think that's a fair comparison, but no one wants to talk about Thunder Fox or Growl .

Apparently, I've also completely misunderstood the Souls games.

I've been playing the translated famicom RPG "The Magic Candle". It's similar to the Dragon Warrior games, but has enough small differences to keep it from being called a clone. It's pretty fun. If you like DW, I would suggest giving it a try. It isn't as grindy as DW, but can still be challenging at times. https://www.romhacking.net/translations/2399/

Probably Battle Kid is the hardest I've beaten. The one that took me the longest, though, was Thunderforce V on hard mode for the PS1. I pretty much had to memorize that whole game. By the time I stopped playing it, I could 1CC it and could almost one life it.

Mario Party destroyed more n64 controllers than anything else.

I thought the flying stages were awesome in KIU, but the ground level stages gave me hand cramps. That was a game that should have come out for the wii or wii-u.

My favorites are my favorites because I keep going back and playing them, or I've already played them to death. I can go for years without playing Zelda alttp, but I'll still remember where all the heart pieces are. I'm not talking about games I just do quick casual plays of either. Some games I won't beat, but will just play with the idea of meeting some arbitrary challenge or goal in mind. In Double Dragon for example, I don't knock Abobo off the conveyor anymore but will fight him instead, or in the cave I'll jump down into the first pit just to fight the Ropers with the boulder. The best part is the wall. These days I just think it's hilarious when it soaks up all my lives ending my game.

Is the crying really that annoying, or is the game stressing people in just the right way to drive them up the wall?

I've always liked "Pinball" on the NES. It may be a little on the primitive side, but as an early black box game it still holds up really well to later pinball games. It also does things that can only be done as a video game, something I think is essential for a video game pinball to do in order to get out from under the shadow of the real machines.

I thought Zelda Phantom Hourglass was fantastic. I had a really good time with it, but Spirit Tracks just felt like a chore.

PowerPak is still a great flash cart. I wish RetroUSB would make an updated version.

I picked vertical, but I could almost just as easily picked horizontal. It's only one or two games that tipped my decision.

I think it might have been a marketing decision to call it SMW2 than anything else.

I actually didn't know about this. I'm going to have to look these up. @OptOut How did you manage to get your copy signed?

I actually like Xenophobe. IMO, Sunsoft at their best on the NES were as good as Konami ever was.

I'll see if I can get it going on the MiSTer when I have time.

This is awesome. Thanks for the update. I'm really looking forward to playing this.

It was a tragedy that Blaster Master 2 was outsource to software creations and released on the Genesis.

I love this game. When it came out, I was just shifting into angsty teenager mode and almost passed on it. I'm glad I didn't now. I eventually 100%ed it. I got all the stuff, all the secret levels and bonus levels, and even beat the second quest.

GAH! edited! I meant 17:15.