Board 8 > Wallz Plays Every NSO Game

(+) Yeah! (+)

I think this issue only becomes more and more frequent.

The sequel has a loadout with the Tail Gun which shoots backwards, and it remains a choice for the rest of the series. Personally I never use it though.

Oh yeah, and also the check points are almost always detrimental because you spawn in the middle of a tough section with no powerups, so you're pretty much better off starting over from the beginning of the level every time

It can definitely be tough to recover. But also the rank goes way down after a death to give you a chance

(if youre unfamiliar with arcade game lingo, rank refers to the adaptive difficulty many games utilize which typically makes the game harder the longer you play/the more you play well, as well as reducing the difficulty after a death or when a continue is used. Shooting games are where it is most evident, but other genres like beat em ups also utilize it. Clearing a game on one credit or doing speedruns sometimes requires careful management of rank, even necessitating intentional deaths at times. For example TMNT speedruns intentionally die right before the fight against Bebop and Rocksteady at the same time because it lowers both of their health significantly, saving a lot of time there. Technically you can keep the rank a little bit lower in Gradius by not using all your powerups, but its not really worth it to do so.)

WazzupGenius00 posted...

It can definitely be tough to recover. But also the rank goes way down after a death to give you a chance

(if youre unfamiliar with arcade game lingo, rank refers to the adaptive difficulty many games utilize which typically makes the game harder the longer you play/the more you play well, as well as reducing the difficulty after a death or when a continue is used. Shooting games are where it is most evident, but other genres like beat em ups also utilize it. Clearing a game on one credit or doing speedruns sometimes requires careful management of rank, even necessitating intentional deaths at times. For example TMNT speedruns intentionally die right before the fight against Bebop and Rocksteady at the same time because it lowers both of their health significantly, saving a lot of time there. Technically you can keep the rank a little bit lower in Gradius by not using all your powerups, but its not really worth it to do so.)

Huh, never knew about that. Thanks for the detailed explanation! I hadn't noticed a difference, but maybe I was too focused on being disappointed I lost all my powerups lol

I have beaten Level 5 of Gradius

The slowdown when you're fighting those weird brain things is unbearable, yikes

Game #16 - Gradius (Konami, 1986)

Final time: 4:27

It started off pretty decent, but the last couple levels were kind of annoying. Why are those amoebas in Level 6 so tanky? And why are there so many? It's also dumb that they and enemy fire can pass through the webs like they aren't there but you have to shoot through them or you explode.

Then there's the stage 7. I got all the way to the end and died because I didn't predict a closing door and was too far away to get through. That was pretty irritating, to say the least.

Anyway it's kind of decent for what it is, I guess? I'm not a big fan of these kind of games, but I've played much worse. I'm actually ranking it behind Zelda, which should give you some idea of my expectations for each game.

NES games beaten: 13/65
Total games beaten: 16/217
JP exclusive games beaten: 1/23
Total play time: 75 hours 27 minutes

MZero Game Ranking

Super Mario World
Super Mario Bros.
Pokemon Trading Card Game
Adventures of Lolo
Balloon Fight
Ice Hockey
The Legend of Zelda
Gradius
Excitebike
Ice Climber
Mario Bros.
Baseball
Donkey Kong
Tecmo Bowl
Tennis
Soccer

I am up to 224/226 cards in TCG.

I am working on Lost Levels as well to move on with all the Mario stuff awaiting.

Ctes has beaten Pokemon Trading Card Game

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/6/6412cb7c.jpg

I managed to collect them all! It was fun. Very fun actually and the first time this project has truly gotten me to play a game I'm very happy I got to experience. I don't know why I never have actually given the thousands of hours I've put into Pokemon basically my whole live but there are spin offs I haven't gotten around to.

It took a little bit to get going for me. Despite owning loads of cards back from the first three generations of Pokemon, I never knew how to play at all. It was a collectable and nothing more. Once you had an idea though the game was a blast. I really enjoyed playing around with it. My favorite lines to use include Nidoran Male, Abra, Dratini, Magikarp, Seel, Diglett and Weedle. I beat the whole league without switching decks using a poison focused deck. It's somewhat simple, but I had a lot of fun. Second one seems to really improve on the formula and add some more story, shame it never got an official English release for sure. Guess it released to late into GBC life time.

Criticism is minimal but goes to how extremely luck based it is. Some matches are decided at first draw and way too many things use coin flips. I miss something like pouring energy into maybe going from 50% to 75% or whatever. It seems like it can be improved easily, maybe it has. I am certain steel has been added as a type from what I can remember from my old cards. Resistances you have to learn my memory. It pisses me off that Gyarados is weak to grass lol, Magikarp is even weak to lightning.

It doesn't beat Super Mario Bros and I didn't consider it either but after thinking about it, I'm placing it second for how addictive it is. High replay value for sure.

New ranking:
Super Mario Bros
Pokemon Trading Card Game
The Legend of Zelda
Baloon Fight
Metroid
Ice Hockey
Gradius
Mario Bros
Donkey Kong
Ice Climber
Soccer
Tennis
Excitebike
Tecmo Bowl
Baseball

They added Steel, Dark, Dragon, and Fairy, but then removed Fairy a few years ago (those are grouped into Psychic now)

I do recall a dark symbol as well now that you mention it, I don't recall dragon. Then again I haven't looked much at my cards since somewhere before gen IV came. Fairy didn't exist obviously, maybe dragon was added later as well.

I died in world 7 on my first Lost Levels attempt which frustrates me a lot lol.

I haven't played this one nearly as much as other Mario's. The difficulty in part comes with having to know the levels, they're not necessarily harder than the hard kevels in later Mario games, except that the screen can't move backwards, which can easily screw you over if you don't know what's coming. That's easily the biggest hurdle for me.

I have beaten Lost Levels through World 9.

Now this os technically a complete, but if I complete the game 7 more times I unlock the secret worlds.

I recommend just using warps and spamming rewind if you need it to get the secret worlds unlocked. Youre beaten every world legit once

This has to be one of the worst requirements to unlock actual new levels

Did lost levels world 9 give you a lot of trouble ctes? =P

Other than having 1 life only, it's significantly easier than 7 and 8 lol.

Game #17 - Ristar (Sega, 1995)

Final time: 3:45

Sometimes you make a plan and stick to it, and sometimes you just do something else entirely because you feel like it.

As a big Sonic fan, I've been meaning to play this one for awhile. It didn't really hit for me though. I like the aesthetic a lot and there was definitely potential here, but I think playing it right after Super Mario Wonder really made it's flaws stick out, most of which can be attributed to age. The controls can be a bit uncooperative as the diagonals don't register right all the time, or you get a diagonal grab when you're trying for straight up, forward, or backward. Enemy hit boxes can be janky and sometimes attacks come from off screen that are nearly impossible to react to. I feel like some of the boss fights are poorly designed as well. Mostly it comes down to just not being as polished mechanically as you would like.

This game probably slapped in 1995 but doesn't quite hold up as well as something like Sonic 2. It's better than most of the NES games though, so that's something!

Genesis games beaten: 1/44
Total games beaten: 17/220
Total play time: 79 hours 12 minutes

MZero Game Ranking

Super Mario World
Super Mario Bros.
Pokemon Trading Card Game
Adventures of Lolo
Ristar
Balloon Fight
Ice Hockey
The Legend of Zelda
Gradius
Excitebike
Ice Climber
Mario Bros.
Baseball
Donkey Kong
Tecmo Bowl
Tennis
Soccer

I beat Adventures of Lolo again. The US version. It was recent enough that I memorized some of the tricky levels somewhat well and thus it didn't take nearly as long as the first time (which was in like June).

Super Mario Bros
Pokemon Trading Card Game
The Legend of Zelda
Adventures of Lolo
Baloon Fight
Metroid
Ice Hockey
Gradius
Mario Bros
Donkey Kong
Ice Climber
Soccer
Tennis
Excitebike
Tecmo Bowl
Baseball

I have beaten Lost Levels 8 times. It's time for the extra levels.

Enjoy... if that's something you will enjoy. My least favorite of that bunch is probably C-3.

Do you have a favorite lol

Alright, it has been done. I'll try to not to consider the idea of having to beat a game 8 times to unlock levels ranking it, I know they fix this in All-Stars too. I beat another Mario game because MZero did but I wanted to knock them out somewhat in order instead.

It's a good game. Mechancis all the same as the game currently ranked on top. It's significantly harder. The limitations of the time means that this drags it down a bit. A lot of the difficulty comes from screen locking yourself, leaps of faith or figuring out what way to navigate through sections (most castles) on time blindly. That's not really fun. As soon as the franchise makes you go back a screen long jumps and tight sections are more fun. For now, we're stuck with this. Other that that, the game works the same as what was the best game ever when it came out so it obviously ranks pretty high.

Super Mario Bros.
Pokemon Trading Card Game
The Legend of Zelda
Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels
Adventures of Lolo
Baloon Fight
Metroid
Ice Hockey
Gradius
Mario Bros
Donkey Kong
Ice Climber
Soccer
Tennis
Excitebike
Tecmo Bowl
Baseball

I can tell you right now I will not be beating TLL 8 times lol

Beat it once then beat the extra levels in All Stars lol

I guess I can try Ristar next

I started out taking damage from jumping on the first enemy, let's go.

MZero posted...

I can tell you right now I will not be beating TLL 8 times lol

You could also use rewind + save states + warps for runs 2-8. Having done this myself its actually fun running through the stages carelessly/like a maniac

wallmasterz posted...

You could also use rewind + save states + warps for runs 2-8. Having done this myself its actually fun running through the stages carelessly/like a maniac

The stages are too similar in design for it to be that fun imo. But I did have a single run where I didn't die which was nice.

Ctes has beaten Ristar

I'm a bit unsure how I would rank this. It has promising aspects and fun parts but I also feel like the controls and gameplay isnt that tight. It ranks in the middle. Where there's like a small handful of games I feel like are pretty close and could swap depending on day. Maybe at some point these will be tiers instead of a clear ranking. We'll, we cracked open the Genesis games.

Super Mario Bros.
Pokemon Trading Card Game
The Legend of Zelda
Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels
Adventures of Lolo
Baloon Fight
Metroid
Ice Hockey
Ristar
Gradius
Mario Bros
Donkey Kong
Ice Climber
Soccer
Tennis
Excitebike
Tecmo Bowl
Baseball

I think for the next thing could be knocking some more expected trash out of the way. I had Pro Wrestling and Donkey Kong Jr. suggested earlier.

Could also always do more Mario, of which the next would be US SMB2. Also open to something random if one of you feel like that.

I guess we could do some more gameboy, since Wallz finds it easier to play handheld and insists on playing home console games docked lol. Mabe start next topic with Tetris as that's probably something where some others want to challenge for the high score.

I tried out Pro Wrestling. I feared the worst and it actually works so that's a positive surprise. Not that fun but seemingly not long either. I haven't had struggles at all a few matches in.

I have realized how lucky I was in TCG as my previous roomie I got to play it has spent over 3 times the hours I did on full game completion without getting all cards.

I looked up how to compete Pro Wrestling some days ago and it has killed my motivation lol.

I have sat on my phone doing nothing a few times with my Switch next to me.

ctesjbuvf posted...

I looked up how to compete Pro Wrestling some days ago and it has killed my motivation lol.

I have sat on my phone doing nothing a few times with my Switch next to me.

yeah I posted about this back in August haha

Pro Wrestling - Win 5 matches to challenge the champion, then defend your belt 10 times to face Great Puma*

* It is worth noting that some Nintendo aficionados consider the Great Puma to be one of the most difficult boss characters to ever appear on the NES. - via Wikipedia. Nice!

I've been having a hard time lately getting the motivation to play games I probably won't like that much over my massive backlog of games I actually really want to play!

So you did, hah. I had no trouble getting to be champ but it sounds like difficulty increases immensely from there.

Yeah I get that. That how you feel about Metroid too?

ctesjbuvf posted...

Yeah I get that. That how you feel about Metroid too?

Yeah, I think Metroid got the worst of it because I have like 100 Metroidvanias in my Steam library that all sound more appealing to play

...and I ended up starting one of them, whoops

I have a couple 10+ hour flights coming up so I'll probably be playing a lot of Switch then. Might try to see how many games I can finish before landing

Yeah that's fair lol. Metroid is alright. Super Metroid is a lot better I think. That's actually the only two 2D Metroid I've played with this project being a good chance to get Samus Returns and Fusion done.

If you have like a group of games you consider playing, you're more than welcome to drop it here. Pro Wrestling motivation is close to 0 with the above 0 coming from the thought of being over with it.

UltimaterializerX posted...

Is it possible to change controller layouts? I'm trying to play Fusion but not being able to change buttons around is killing me quite literally.

I think you have to do that in the system menu. It does let you save multiple presets for easy switching.

I found some motivation somewhere and defended against 3 opponents. 7 to go.

A risky effective strategy is trying to keep the opponent out of the ring and then get in last second.

That has worked a bit after having some matches run out of time.

Go here at 500:

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/8-gamefaqs-contests/80636139

Do you have to win 10 in a row, or can you lose without starting over from scratch?

As I see it, you can draw but not lose

But I don't know if that counts for the final boss or it just means you don't have to become champion again

To be honest this is shaping up to be the most frustrating experience yet lol.

My biggest problem has actually been the timer, I feel like it forces you to be agressive instead of playing it safe.

Once again; by far the best strategy seems to be cheesing them out of the ring and jumping in last second.

Also, I was gonna post current rankings in the new topic as well but I don't think Wallz has ranked the last games he has played lol.

Great Kuma wrecked me. It dodges everything.