NES Completions thread 2020 - 677/677 (All Clear!)

[Quest4Nes | 376]

posting screenshots definitely makes this thread better when you check in from time to time. Step up your posting game nebraskan

[Gaia Gensouki | 1,066]

Wayne's World is done. I still can't believe that I've been missing out on such a revolutionary and influental masterpiece of a game. This game spearheaded the democratization of video game development. It showed that just about anyone can develop and publish a video game, no matter the skill or talent or the size of their team, as long as they have their dreams. This game predated Steam Greenlight by at least two decades! I've also read in a Gamasutra interview that Daisuke Amaya, the developer of the influential indie title Cave Story, was himself inspired by Wayne's World. Thanks to that, we now have the Indie revolution in the video game scene, which all goes back to Wayne's World.

Then there's the music. Previously I always thought that Rock 'n Roll Racing was the first game to really bring an authentic guitar sound of famous rock songs to the video game scene. But the heavy guitar riffs you hear in Wayne's World are so life-like that you will feel like you're listening to real instruments. Just how could the NES sound chip even produce such marvelous sounds? I guess even the much heralded Follin brothers could have learned a few tricks from this game's composer.

But you'll be wondering, was this really it? Is this all there is to this game? After all, there have been many games since with great gameplay, tight controls and riveting music. Well, here's the genius of Wayne's World: it's more than just a game. It offers a fundamental criticism of capitalism and consumer culture. You see, the main tenet of capitalism is, that you can buy everything and that everyone will achieve the greatest amount of happiness, if you just let the forces of the market roam free. This goes so far that advertisements propose that you can even buy happiness and love with money. But in an ingenious twist this game shows that money can't buy happiness. But it goes even further: it exposes the tendency of the consumer culture to idolize brands and to form blind followings to them. With its post-modern approach Wayne's World deconstructs the idolization and fetishization of brands, thereby teaching thousands of young children and teens an important life lesson. This game is more than the sum of its parts, it's a masterpiece.

[nerdynebraskan | 345]

@NESfiend

That's devastating to be robbed of your triumph on Galaxy 5000 by these technical difficulties. I was plagued years back in a similar way by Bee 52 in years when we  played the unlicensed games. The game is 24 stages long, must be played in one sitting, and while fairly generous on lives must be done on one credit. It's basically Choplifter, except you're a bee collecting pollen and returning it to your hive. But on the second-to-last stage, the game would glitch on me every time I returned some pollen to the hive, preventing me from exiting the hive to continue the stage. At which point, you have to wait until you starve to death, die, and restart the level with one fewer life and all upgrades lost. (And much like Gradius, your bee is entirely too slow and weak to survive the hazards of the late stages without the upgrades.) Because of that awful glitch, I was unable to finish Bee 52 despite putting in ample time and getting pretty good at the game. I wish you more luck with Galaxy 5000 than I had with Bee 52.

@bronzeshield

Nice to see that you're still the tennis master. Will you be playing the other tennis games still on the board as well? And are you still working on Solomon's Key? I know its reputation for difficulty, but you seemed to be making good progress.

@Gaia Gensouki

I know the feeling, as I too inevitably slow down as the list thins down to the hardest, most tedious, and often most obscure games left on the platform. I may have scored approximately 850 points in each of the last two years, but I'm currently struggling just to get back to my current goal of 700 for this year. There are only about a dozen left on the list that I know I can beat, and since some of those are time sinks (All Pro Basketball, Conflict, Roger Clemens MVP Baseball), I've been exploring some other games that I don't know as well. I did get to Room 37 on Gauntlet last night, and I'd like to continue working on that. And I'm still trying to beat Bart vs. the Space Mutants. I've gotten much better at that childhood... "favorite" (a love/hate relationship, to be sure...) but it's such an unforgiving, clunky mess of a game. I've managed to kill the dreaded dinosaur in the museum, but I've yet to survive the game's glitchy bullshit throwing me into the death pit after beating it.

@Quest4Nes

I'm sorry to disappoint, but I won't be taking pictures anytime soon. I don't own a smartphone or tablet. (I realize that makes me a rare kind of technological dinosaur, but what do you expect from someone who only plays 30-year old games?) I can barely snap a picture of password screens with my "dumb" phone, and it's just not practical for me to upload those to this forum. My partner has such devices, but I know she has better things to do with her life than capture visual evidence of my minor gaming achievements. This is also a reason why I've never played in the weekly contests, besides the fact that my overall skill is considerably lower than most of those players.

[nerdynebraskan | 345]

I did it!

Bart vs. the Space Mutants is done! It really was downhill once I got rid of that dinosaur in the museum. I have exorcised a demon from my childhood!

[bronzeshield | 293]

1 hour ago, nerdynebraskan said:

 

@bronzeshield

Nice to see that you're still the tennis master. Will you be playing the other tennis games still on the board as well? And are you still working on Solomon's Key? I know its reputation for difficulty, but you seemed to be making good progress.

Thanks! It's just Jimmy Connors left, isn't it? That one's really quite easy, since it's just a question of playing the same match a dozen times or so. I'll probably leave it for someone else since it's just a dull, repetitive grind; at least Racket Attack has a bit of challenge and complexity to it.

I bailed on Solomon's Key after I left my emulator on pause for a few days and when I went to resume, the audio had crashed. Since sound cues are helpful in the game, I kind of gave up at that point, but in retrospect I should have invalidated the run and used a savestate to practice Levels 44-48, in hopes of maybe warping to Level 45 (on a later, legitimate run) and running straight through.

I'll get back to it at some point, but the requirement to marathon Levels 41-48 to beat the game is a real drag, though at least I ultimately got the hang of Level 43 (allegedly the hardest one in the game).

Edited April 6, 2020 by bronzeshield

[nerdynebraskan | 345]

I guess you're right. I mistakenly thought Top Players Tennis was still on the board, too. But you really do sound awfully close to claiming Solomon's Key. I hope you get your nerve up for another crack at it, soon.

[NESfiend | 1,514]

13 hours ago, Gaia Gensouki said:

 

@NESfiend

Damn, that sucks. I can't imagine how frustrating that must have been after all the effort you've put into this game. Does this also occur on an emulator? Maybe that would be worth a try?

Guessing an emulator would take care of it, but I dont have one. Only computer I have is a work issued laptop. That's a big reason beating these games for the first time takes me a while. No save states, so for this game, to practice level 8, I have to play for an hour just to get there. It's at home paused on 7-2 now. Hopefully my kid or dog doesn't screw with it so I can finish that run, though it wasnt a particularly great one. 

Not too worried about the glitch. Timing just sucked, but I've put hours and hours into this thing with just those two issues. Itll work one of these times through

[Gaia Gensouki | 1,066]

I never thought that this would actually happen, but I beat Defender of the Crown. It took many tries and I honestly still don't know what I made different this time around that I won the game. I didn't even win a single jousting tournament. Instead I just gathered my forces, occupied as many territories as I could to gain money and eventually won. I guess I was lucky too that I managed to capture one enemy castle early on in the game. But overall I have to say that I didn't really like this game. You could call it a multi-genre game, but compared to something like Rocket Ranger I could never really make sense of the different gameplay modes. It was a crapshoot. One game the CPU overran me with 9 knights and a few dozen soldiers just after a few turns, whereas on my last attempt the CPU was constantly fighting among themselves and they barely even attacked me. I don't know what to make of this game. I would rather replay Lords of the Realm 2.

[NESfiend | 1,514]

Another galaxy 5000 glitch out. This one is on the 4th planet, Mars. This game is hard enough when it works!

[Gaia Gensouki | 1,066]

The Addams Family is done. It's an okay platformer with adventure elements, but poor hit detection, lackluster controls (especially during the ice stage) and unfair enemy placements keep this from being a good game. It's so easy to have a huge chunk of your HP drained because of some enemy that attacks you as soon as you enter a room. Or in one of the rooms you have to jump upon a series of jacks-in-the-box while being careful to get the timing right and only jump on them if they show a smiling face. Otherwise you will be thrown on the ground where you can't move and an enemy just kills you slowly, no matter how high your HP were. Or at one point in the game you have to go through a series of rooms to make it to the roof of the mansion. There are a bunch of roof tiles that drop on you and will pretty much bring you back to the beginning of the game so that you have to go all the way back again. Or the annoying swimming level or random instant death traps...

Stuff like this makes the game at times more frustrating and annoying than anything else. If they had made a few adjustments it could have been way better. The way it is however I guess it would only have made for a decent weekend rental back in the day rather than a game that you would spend a lot of hard earned money on. But with so many other (action) platformers on the system this one isn't quite good enough to stand out. That one pain point is also appreciated btw.

[scaryice | 581]

Addams Family is the last 5 pointer. We still have 9 games worth 2-4 points remaining, including the only 2 pointer remaining, Die Hard. It looks like Vectrex28 beat that almost every year, but he hasn't participated in 2019 or 2020.

If people are looking for what to play next, there's still a few decent games left. Cobra Triangle is good (and hard). Gauntlet's a lot of fun, although it's almost impossible to beat blind. I consider James Bond Jr. to be something of a hidden gem. It's not perfect, but it's unique and has some interesting levels and great music. Only problem is, you have to beat it twice Ghosts 'n Goblins style. I haven't played much of Mighty Bomb Jack, but it seems to have a lot of depth for that type of arcade style game. Phantom Fighter is repetitive, but probably the best 1v1 fighter on the NES. Certainly it's better than those terrible karate games. Smash TV is a bad port, but it's still lots of fun since it's based on a great arcade game. Ultima: Quest of the Avatar is an rpg with great exploration, although the combat's boring. Still a pretty good game, though.

That's what I'd recommend out of what's left.

[nerdynebraskan | 345]

Captain America is done.

[Gaia Gensouki | 1,066]

Thanks for the recommendations. I have actually tried a few of them out already. Cobra Triangle was hard to get into and to control, but seemed decent. However, I always got stuck at the level with the maelstroms in the water. And it was only like level 6 or 7 out of over 20. So that seems like a long and really hard playthrough.

Gauntlet is fun, indeed, but I just don't last long. And MBJ is also extremely difficult. I saw part of a playthrough and was amazed at how skillfully that player navigated through the levels and avoided the enemies. Maybe I'll give James Bond Jr. a try.

Currently though I'm still trying to beat The Bard's Tale. It seems quite good and fun as well, but will probably take quite long, too. It's also too bad that I have already reached a point where money is seemingly useless and I can't buy anything useful anymore. That's a shame. Also, I have tried out California Games earlier this year and managed to break every record except for that damn frisbee game. Do we have to beat every record in a single run or can we also try games individually? It would have been nice anyway if they had allowed you to choose the order of the challenges.

Edited April 7, 2020 by Gaia Gensouki

[Crabmaster2000 | 500]

Many hours invested over this last week (thank you quarantine!) and I was finally able to finish off Destiny of an Emperor!! Absolutely loved it. One of the best battle system on the NES, little to no grinding necessary (and it's actually designed to discourage grinding), cool magic system with the Strategist/Tactics systems, solid story (if you're into the romance of the three kingdoms stuff), great music, tons of generals to recruit and experiment with, a few incredibly neat puzzles such as ramming a prison cell to destroy the door or having to learn a code to input during a boss fight in order to negate a powerful spell, and has an awesome progression system in which once you take over a new palace you invite your leader there and this new palace becomes you're furthest base of operations. Very much deserves to be in the conversation of best NES RPGs in my opinion. 

[NESfiend | 1,514]

Galaxy 5000 is finally done. Wow. Used 2 continues on Pluto, so the game mercifully didnt send me to planet x. You can see from the damage screen, one more fall on Pluto 4 and I was toast. Great game, but I could have done without Pluto. Surprised that's only a 7. I'm going to write up more later and compare to rc pro am 2. It's one of my favorite games and this is a variation of it. 

Edited April 7, 2020 by NESfiend

[nerdynebraskan | 345]

Bo Jackson Baseball is done.

@NESfiend@scaryice

Is Planet X required for Galaxy 5000? The current list of rules for exceptional titles says that it is, and we generally require good endings on games that have additional content.

@Crabmaster2000

Congrats on Destiny of an Emperor. I may have to try it more seriously one of these years.

How many games do you have left? And how many of them are still on this list? What's next for you?

[NESfiend | 1,514]

3 hours ago, nerdynebraskan said:

@NESfiend@scaryice

Is Planet X required for Galaxy 5000? The current list of rules for exceptional titles says that it is, and we generally require good endings on games that have additional content.

I assumed it wasn't because scary told me not to go on to Planet X when given the option to get to the credits. The competition also allows the use of continues when given them and you can't get to planet x if you use a continue. Most of the racers with multiple endings don't require best ending. I did race america recently and best ending wasn't required. We are also allowed to play eliminator boat duel on easy. Though that doesn't affect the ending, its more evidence these racers that are crazy hard are shown some mercy in this regard. 

Edit: I read his post wrong and should have checked the rules. Ugh. I'll get back at it, but it will be slow. I need to play some other stuff to keep my sanity. 

Edited April 8, 2020 by NESfiend

[scaryice | 581]

Yeah, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but I tried to warn you.

I think it's pretty clear that Planet X should be required for this game. You get credits and a "The End" message, whereas it says "Game Over" when you just end at Pluto.

[scaryice | 581]

18 hours ago, Crabmaster2000 said:

Many hours invested over this last week (thank you quarantine!) and I was finally able to finish off Destiny of an Emperor!!

I haven't played Destiny of an Emperor, but it looks cool. Did you know there's a Famicom sequel that we never got over here?

[NESfiend | 1,514]

1 hour ago, scaryice said:

Yeah, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but I tried to warn you.

I think it's pretty clear that Planet X should be required for this game. You get credits and a "The End" message, whereas it says "Game Over" when you just end at Pluto.

I originally read your message like you were warning me to not continue on to Planet X for risk of dying and not getting the end screen. I understand it now looking back. 

The above is true, but misleading. Before the game over screen, you get the animation from the green lizard guy wherein he tells you are champion of the universe in a long drawn out speech. I personally consider an NES game beat when it tells me I am either the savior or champion of the universe. That said, I don't make the rules. I will get back to this game and attempt the no death run to the credits. I'll post if I throw in the towel at some point so someone else can get after it. 

[NESfiend | 1,514]

I think galaxy 5000 is finally done. I got to planet x, died the first go, and finished 1st second try. Got the credits. Let me know if I need to do it without the continue on planet x for whatever reason. 

[Crabmaster2000 | 500]

13 hours ago, scaryice said:

I haven't played Destiny of an Emperor, but it looks cool. Did you know there's a Famicom sequel that we never got over here?

I was talking with a local friend about it and he was a huge fan on this game as a kid. He mentioned the Famicom sequel and said he's got it as well so I may mess around with it down the road at some point. 

 

Great job NESfiend!! Well done sticking with it through the glitches and false endings. You rock!

[NESfiend | 1,514]

Thanks @Crabmaster2000 - watching your youtube video was helpful!

I mentioned I would write about this game after going through it. Its very similar to RC Pro Am 2, which is somewhere in my top 5 games of all time, and best racing game on the system. This is an offshoot of that is pretty amazing in its own right. Both are 36 tracks raced against three other cars. The tracks on Galaxy are longer than Pro Am tracks, but the AI is less competitive than it is on Pro AM 2. The car size and controls, general track layout, variance in tracks, etc. are all similar to a Pro Am game. The Beta style controls, which the manual recommends, are the same as Pro Am 2 except up accelerates rather than A, which is used for jumping. The jumping feature is a great addition that makes this a really unique racer. What is strange is the jumping seems to get the most gripes when you read what others say about this game. I don't get that. I didn't think it took long to adjust to that and it really opens up a new element to a traditional top-down racer. The jumping is my favorite aspect of the game and a big part of why I will go back to it. By the end it is a bit much. You pretty much jump through the entire planet of pluto, but that is that aspect in its most extreme example. 

The damage aspect of the game I found really frustrating at first. And by at first, I mean for a a good while. I didn't love that you lose the ship you purchased if you take on too much damage. That said, once I got good at the game, I really embraced all the destruction. But the destruction is where the diffuclty lies here. Winning races isn't that hard if you are staying alive. Its the staying alive part that is hard. Thats different from Pro Am 2, a more precision based racer. Blowing up the other cars in Galaxy 5000 is worth big bucks, and is so awesomely rewarding, but it also slows you down and ends up beating up your vehicle too. I would frequently be shifting strategy to and from focusing more on racing to destroying other cars. Its a tough balance that presents a unique challenge. Blowing up cars in RC Pro Am 2 is awfully rewarding, but you don't actually get paid for it like here. The fact that the ammo has to be purchased or found in Pro AM 2 though intensifies that aspect more though, whereas you can just fire at will in Galaxy 5000. 

Between the jumping and all the cars trying to blow one another up, there is a lot going on and it holds your attention really well. Probably too well if you ask my wife. The races are long though and the AI seems to appear entirely based on when you make mistakes. If your pace is crappy, they will keep a crappy pace too. If you get ahead of them, they will reappear as soon as you make any sort of misstep. When they do appear though, they are pretty poor and destructive drivers. Its not hard to lose them generally. But they do a tremendous job of damaging your ship, slowing your pace, creating mistakes, etc.

The longer races and more destructive AI makes the game drag some. That is the downfall for me. In contrast, Pro AM 2 has AI that drive perfectly at a rate that increases throughout the game. Even upgrading quickly, fully, and strategically, the other cars are so fast, there is very little room for human error. It makes for intense/action filled gameplay as it moves fast and there is so little room for error. Every move matters big. That's the kind of gaming experience my ADD mind is really after and a big part of why I play a lot more racing games than RPGs. Pro AM 2 remains the gold standard on NES racing in my opinion, Galaxy 5000 is definitely in the top handful of racing games on the NES. If you are going by the most unique and heavily factoring in cool points for having a variety of aspects to add to the challenge, its way up there. Glad I got to play through this thing. During normal times, it would have taken weeks and weeks. 

[Gaia Gensouki | 1,066]

I have finished both loops of James Bond Jr. to get the true ending. This game is truly a hidden gem. It's an action platformer where you're dropped into giant mazes and have to accomplish certain goals within a time frame. It reminded me a lot of Air Fortress or Metroid in that regard. You can pick up items, weapons or other stuff that's needed for progression. The controls feel a little floaty, but you can get used to it. I also really liked the music most of the time. Especially the first level track had something beautifully melancholic or mysterious. The fourth and final level theme was somewhat of a banger and even though the individual music tracks looped for up to 45 minutes I somehow never got sick of these. They may not be the best NES tracks if you listen to them isolated, but in the context of the game they are kinda mesmerizing.

What I personally didn't like so much however was the lack of mercy invincibility and how you could lose your HP in a really short amount of time. Or in some instances enemy placements was quite cheap, because they managed to stun lock me right after entering the screen and I basically had to wait until they killed me. I'm also not quite sure why you have to beat the game twice as the second playthrough doesn't add much except for amping up the difficulty a bit. It unfortunately wasn't like in Air Fortress or The Legend of Zelda where the level layouts were changed. This is a big missed opportunity.

While playing the game I also encountered several bugs and I'm not sure whether this was merely an emulation problem or a problem of the game itself. Because every once in a while the game would crash and the emulator showed some kind of message about an error with the CPU? Luckily this game had passwords so I was able to just start the level over again, but in doing so I lost my weapons which sucked. Also, during one of my earliest attempts at the first level I barely managed to beat the level in time. They gave you 45 minutes and I had less than one minute left when I got to the exit. However, they pulled a cheap shot when I suddenly had to fight a boss and the clock was still ticking! Needless to say that I saw the game over screen, but since this game was so much fun I just dived right into it again.

On a different note: I will try to beat The Bard's Tale over the weekend, but I can't promise anything as this game takes quite some time and becomes quite repetitive, too (like most dungeon crawlers, honestly). So I needed a break today.

[Crabmaster2000 | 500]

Very much agree with NESfiend about Galaxy 5000. I've really gotta get onto RC Pro Am II from the sounds of it.

 

I found James Bond Jr soooooo boring though. Never considered that game a hidden gem by any stretch.

 

Also started working on The Black Bass yesterday. Done 2 tournaments so far so hopefully have that one done in a few days.

Edited April 9, 2020 by Crabmaster2000