Board 8 > B8 NSO Crew Plays Every NSO Game - Part 6

(+) Yeah! (+)

I have beaten the first level of ESWAT and got lost in the second

MZero posted...

Fantastic game. Easily my favorite title in the NES

Yeah, brilliant game. I think it's one of the best on the NES.

ctesjbuvf posted...

Ctes has beaten Super Thunder Blade

Congratulations! I don't think I've ever made it through the first stage... I haven't played it that often, but since I love Space Harrier, I try it every few years since it's the same general behind-the-back perspective shmup.

I've made it to Stage 7 on E-SWAT after a few runs, on normal and with as many lives as possible at least. Game seems pretty doable. Losing whatever weapon you had equipped on dying feels bad. There are points where I find it better to switch to the generic weapon and kill myself to respawn instead of pushing on because losing a good weapon is too punishing.

Like, I can see the appeal of the risk/reward strategy of deciding on if you want to gamble on trying to finish the level while wounded or respawn safely instead, and most games of this era are far more punishing, but...

Pretty decent game though. Probably better than any actual RoboCop game from the era, as far as I can recall anyway.

I started to struggle more once I got the suit lol, the first two levels were piss easy. About getting used to the controls probably. The charged shot suits me the bebst most of the time.

Yeah, clearing Stage 3 is one of the hardest parts I've seen thus far. You suddenly have to learn how to use all your special weapons & how to control the jetpack with no real training. It's a little rough... I probably spent more time on it than stages 4, 5, and 6 combined.

Fluttershy has finished ESWAT: City Under Siege (Genesis)! ...On Normal.

I took a bit of an interest in the game back in 2005 when I had a brief obsession with RoboCop & wanted to finish every RoboCop game possible--ESWAT isn't technically RoboCop, but Is so blatantly RoboCop inspired that it got onto my radar. I didn't play it very long, but I sort-of added it to my backlog.

Revisited it on the PS3 Genesis collection, IIRC. Still didn't make it past the third stage.

Having other people playing the game motivated to me to FINALLY take the time to learn how to play the game and finish a Normal mode playthrough. Hard mode eludes me, but as the ending is the same regardless, I'm content with saying that I've finally finished this. ...Game wasn't bad. Not great, but not bad.

I'm not sure why we spend two stages as a generic cop before getting the suit? I can see doing one stage to show how much stronger the suit makes you, but spending 1/4th the stages in the game on what amounts of a completely non-helpful tutorial feels kinda wasteful. Those two stages are incredibly easy & don't really teach you anything, since the suit changes the gameplay so drastically that it might as well be a new game entirely.

I'm also, as mentioned, not a fan of losing your equipped special weapon on death. On Normal, it's an inconvenience that incentivizes you to switch to your normal shot & allow yourself to die when your health gets low so that you can respawn with your full arsenal intact. On Hard, your health is so drastically reduced that you can't really rely on respawning as a viable tactic... at some point, you're going to die and lose an important weapon. Depending on the stage, this can necessitate burning all your lives so you can continue & start from the beginning of the stage -or- possibly force you to just restart the game entirely if the weapon you need doesn't drop on the stage you're in. Losing my Super Shot on Stage 4 demoralized me enough to just abandon my Hard mode run--if I couldn't do the stage with my rapid-fire high damage machine gun, I'm certainly not finishing it without the Super & I didn't feel like replaying the first three stages again just to get another chance at it.

Still, there's the makings of a great game here. Running around with a mech suit that has a variety of weapons & and a jetpack is awesome! Doing RoboCop better than the majority of RoboCop games of the era is great! Most stages have a unique gimmick to them--not great gimmicks, but still, each of the eight stages certainly feels different. But the lopsided difficulty (hardest part in the entire game is learning how to play it in Stage 3, as they just throw you into the deep end without any prep), uninteresting bosses, and aggravating death penalties on Hard mode hold it back a bit. I think, had their been a sequel, Sega might have been able to turn it into one of the Genesis' best franchises... as is, we're left with "decent RoboCop expy"; relatively fun, but decidedly mid-tier at best.

Well, it was a short trip, but thank you for inspiring me to finally end this game after 20 years!

-

Punch-Out!! (t4p471)
Crystalis (t4p471)
Super Punch-Out!! (t4p480)
Donkey Kong Land (t5p284)
Kirby's Dream Land (t4p426)
Doomsday Warrior (t4p421)
The Immortal (t4p372)
Vice: Project Doom (t4p426)
ESWAT: City Under Siege (t6p207)
Ghosts 'n Goblins (t5p61)
Donkey Kong Jr. Math (t4p428)
Super Mario Land (t4p409)
Ghouls 'n Ghosts (t5p212)
Virtua Fighter 2 (t5p180)
Sugoi Hebereke (t4p417)
Alleyway (t4p428)
Super Soccer (t6p102)

I really enjoyed your writeup, Fluttershy. Nice mix of thoughts on the game and putting it in a personal context. Congrats on beating it after 20 years!

Hey ctes BoF2 after ESWAT?

I'm in the mood lol

Absolutely!

For those that have finished it already, what is considered beating Tetris Dx?

I have not beaten the Dx version. But in the GB version we saw the rocket and beat B on the hardest difficulty I think?

Yeah Dx has different modes though it looks like from a quick glance? I havent started playing yet so maybe is the same but with color.

Still Playing: Mega Man V
-So I beat the next three levels pretty easily as well. I think they mightve all taken two attempts, but Im not positive. Regardless, not that bad so far.
-I do luck out and play them in the right order mostly so I have weapons that are SUPER EFFECTIVE against each of the bosses. I forgot how easy Mega Man bosses are when you have the right weapon. These poor guys are starting their first attack animation and I just blast them in the face for like half their health.
-Like the big Viking guy. He looks really cool and seems to have a fun pattern but it doesnt matter because the dash attack takes out like a quarter of his health in one go.
-I do get slowed down a bit because I didnt realize there were special gems I needed to collect until the last level so I have to go back and replay them levels quickly to get them. I get all four gems and unlock a special item which reduces my special weapon usage by half. Pretty neat.
-Ok, now I go fight Terra. This time for real? Maybe.
-Youve meddled with my plans for the last time, Mega Man! Have I meddled with your plans before? I feel like this is the first time Ive done meddling. Ive mostly just died before now.
-We couldve created a new world for all robots! How can I face my master now? Is your master Dr. Wily? I bet your master is Dr. Wily. If it is hes used to losing so it is fine. People are going to forget his failure anyway in a month so no judgment.
-Bro straight up starts the battle by doing an Elon Musk salute. Oof.
-Im awkward as hell as this battle and definitely dont figure out the attack patterns. But I have the block pick up and throw ability and there are blocks below me, so I try it out and it absolutely demolishes him. Poor guy.
-Mega Man: I have defeated all the Stardroids. ALL the Stardroids? Yeah, thats called genocide Mega Man, you monster.
-Oh look it is Wily. SHOCK
-Mega Man: Wily. Is he behind this? Mega Man you dumb dumb of course he is.
-NO NOT AN AUTOSCROLLER WHY WHY WHYYYYYY
-It isnt too bad but it is like two minutes long, and since I has one life going into it and lost to the fortress boss I get to do it a second time. Weeeeeee.
-Theres a lot of combat here but very little platforming type challenges on the back end. And in the game in general, really. Theres a couple mean instant death traps out of nowhere of course but other than that it isnt too bad.
-Holy shit this whole thing is a marathon. The continue option is generous and for example I died at Wily Phase 2 and it just brought me to Wily Phase 1 instead of also making me fight the hands again. But I have no idea if this actually saves as I havent gotten any passwords in forever.
-I think you need to beat the following: Terra, stage with four random bosses from older games, eight boss rush, hand boss, Wily boss all in one go. And hands boss and Wily boss both have two phases. That's a lot with no actual save points. It doesn't matter on Switch but if you're playing this on Game Boy you better strap in for like an hour.
-WAIT THERES MORE???
-Wily is defeated and he flies off to be like here is my super weapon I awoke haha! and then the super weapon kills him because of course it does.
-I actually dont know if Wily dies he just goes ouch hey you jerk whyd you attack me and then floats off screen.
-This guys name is Sunstar the Doomsday Weapon. Why did someone create a doomsday weapon? No clue.
-Sunstar: I must destroy all inferior life forms. Hey man Florida is the other direction leave me out of it.
-I beat him like my second try. Some doomsday weapon.
-Mega Man: Hey are you ok? Man, hes a doomsday weapon! Stop talking to him and run away!
-Mega Man is like hey come with me to Dr. Lights lab Im sure he can fix you. WHY IS HE FIXING A DOOMSDAY WEAPON?
-Sunstar: Mega Man, why? Why are you helping me? Same question, bro.
-Mega Man: Because we are both robots. But he is a murder robot that was planning to murder everyone five seconds ago. Thats like WARNING GODWINS LAW APPROACHING ABORT TRAIN OF THOUGHT ABORT ABORT
-Mega Man: I believe humans and robots can live in peace! Buddy, Im not so sure humans and humans can live in peace so youre more optimistic than me.
-Sunstar is like that is a cool story and all but my fusion reactor is going to explode so run.
-Mega Man takes dog space ship out of there to safety while the huge skull fortress explodes in the background Death Star style.
-Wily shows up in the credits again to be annoying. You know, I actually have no idea what his plan was this time? Get the evil robots to destroy Earth sowhat is step 2 here?
-Whatever his spaceship explodes and he runs away like a coward. Typical Wily.
-And thats it! Mega Man GB quest finished! Ill post my final thoughts shortly but I thought this was certainly ok. Once again, nothing special and I feel like the Game Boy Mega Man games dont ever quite capture what makes the series fun. But it mostly works and I didnt hate it, so theres that.

Ctes has beaten ESWAT: City Under Seige

Well we played it for the soundtrack. It was a decent game aside from that though. I didn't enjoy flying around too much I think it was hard to handle shooting at the same time. And while that may have been me not being used to the controls of the time I feel like plenty games of the era work this out just fine. Last level was much harder than the rest. I think Fluttershy covered it pretty well otherwise. It was fun to share with you, but I don't think it's gonna stand out too well in my memory otherwise.

But there's more!

Ctes has also beaten Nightshade

It finally happened! This game is all over the place. Initially I was hyped getting into a point and click which is fun and quite different from the million shooters and run and gun platformers on this service. Definitely stands out. It's not the best point and click game and NES is not the optimal platform for that genre in the first place, but it's fun nonetheless. It's a little bit hard navigating the map because very different looking screens are right next to each other often, it's not easy to remember what is what. My main issue with this game which is unfortunately a huge deal is the combat. The combat is just not fun and it's there a lot. I wish I could say I had just often been stuck with what to do with this game, unfortunately it was much more often running into an encounter I didn't enjoy. Game is probably quite short if you know what to do and if you're good at it.

C Tier (Decent)
Donkey Kong Land
Mercs
Coloums
Eliminator Boat Duel
Alleyway
Ninja Gaiden
Super E.D.F. Earth Defense Force
Rival Turf!
Golf
Ice Hockey
BurgerTime Deluxe
ESWAT: City Under Seige
Flicky
Ice Climber
TwinBee
Yoshi
Nightshade
Mach Rider
Mystery Tower
Downtown Nekketsu March: Super-Awesome Field Day!

NES - 76/79
GEN - 21/50
GB - 16/35
SNES - 24/74
N64 - 3/38
GBA - 1/24

Total - 141/300

Good progress. Ready to roll with BoF2 whenever you're ready MZero. In the meantime, I have 150cc of Super Mario Kart still left to do, but this update cleaned up some of the times I was in the middle of. If something else I might just knock out the first Streets of Rage to complete that most recent Genesis update next.

Game Beat! Mega Man V (Game Boy)
Game Boy - 14/35
GBA - 1/24
SNES - 1/74
Total - 16/297

It is nice to play a game again after I was stuck for so between a mountain of picross and the garbage mountain of old game and watch games. I dont even think this was all that great of a game but it was 1) a game 2) not picross and 3) didnt make me sad which are all three pretty great things. I actually think I started doing this project right around when all the Mega Man games got dropped and they were one of the things that sort of motivated me to get into this little club of ours in the first place so it is a bit bittersweet to have cross the final one off my list. It is probably a bit more bitter-er sweet that I didnt wind up enjoying these as much as I thought I would.

Mega Man V sort of fits right in with my opinion of the Mega Man Game Boy games as a whole, which is a resounding eh it was fine. This was not a bad game. I didnt dislike this or anything and it is definitely better than the rougher entrants in the series (Mega Man II and III, Im looking at you). But at the same time though, if all Mega Man games were like the Game Boy versions I dont think this series wouldve spawned into the behemoth that it became because for the most part they are pretty mediocre.

I feel like this is actually a step back from Mega Man IV, and I think the primary reason for that is the general design of the game. The gameplay itself is just as good, if not better, and I once again had fun playing around with all the weapons. They feel different and do different things and even though there are a handful of throwaways I did have fun playing around and seeing what did what each time I picked up a new upgrade. The levels themselves though are a bit of a letdown, and the bosses more so. Most of these I was beating my first time and I dont think I suddenly became a Mega Man savant. They were just pretty underwhelming and mostly expected and I dont think there was really a single part here I was particularly wowed by. I can still pick out a couple of areas in Mega Man IV (and even Megan Man I) where I thought the design was pretty cool or a boss was pretty memorable, but there really isnt that same level of impressiveness here. Im not even sure what my favorite part was. I guess the low gravity/high gravity areas were kind of a fun idea so maybe Id pick that but I have a feeling if I look back at this write up in a couple of months Id go oh yeah I forgot about those!

Overall it is a perfectly inoffensive game. You sit down with it, you play it, its fine, and then you forget about it. I leave my Mega Man Game Boy adventure kind of getting why people love the Mega Man games but also kind of not because I dont think any of these were particularly good representations of the franchise. Mega Man V does probably represent the most complete vision of the Mega Man Game Boy games with the upgrades and the bigger layout and all the more interesting mechanics and weapons. I feel like there are bits and pieces of all the Mega Man Game Boy games that, if you combined them, youd actually have a really good game. None of them get there by themselves though, and while I didnt mind most of these I also think you could probably skip them and not really miss out on all that much (Mega Man V included).

Grade: C+

Aw yeah new tier. This is the still not quite a good game but almost kind of there and I still sort of liked it tier.Just a bit short of a B. Im moving Super Mario Land 2 up to this tier as well. This winds up being my second favorite of the Game Boy Mega Man games. I liked a lot of the stuff here and weapons are mostly fun, but the design just isnt as good as Mega Man IV. It is a lot easier and pretty mindless. The drop in the level design is the biggest thing for me, and I can remember almost zero levels and bosses other than the final little bit.

THE RANKINGS:
F Tier:
16) Game & Watch Gallery 3 (Game Boy) (t6p191)
15) Baseball (Game Boy) (t5p32)
D Tier:
14) Super Soccer (SNES) (t6p149)
D+ Tier:
13) Mega Man III (Game Boy (t5p369)
12) Super Mario Land (Game Boy) (t5p79)
11) Mega Man II (Game Boy) (t5p71)
C- Tier:
10) BurgerTime Deluxe (t5p396)
9) Mario's Picross (t6174)
C Tier:
8) Tetris (Game Boy) (t5p67)
7) Dr. Mario (Game Boy) (t4p478)
6) Donkey Kong Land (Game Boy) (t5p256)
5) Mega Man: Dr. Wily's Revenge (Game Boy) (t5p55)
C+ Tier:
4) Mega Man V (Game Boy) (t6p216)
3) Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins (Game Boy) (t4p476)
B- Tier:
2) Mega Man IV (Game Boy) (t5p413)
1) Densetsu no Stafy (Game Boy Advance) (t5p287)

Great job Suprak. Always enjoy your write ups

I think it's time for Shadow Man

It has come to my attention that that English version of ESWAT has continues so I will be jumping ship (the Japanese version doesn't)

MZero posted...

It has come to my attention that that English version of ESWAT has continues so I will be jumping ship (the Japanese version doesn't)

Huh. I'm used to the Japanese versions being easier since they didn't have to deal with people renting games. I know there are exceptions (Mario 3 comes to mind), but I wouldn't have expected it here--especially to such a high degree.

ctesjbuvf posted...

Last level was much harder than the rest.

Really? I only died twice, once on the elevator and once to the final boss's trick. The rockets travel straight down, so most of the elevator is just dropping rockets on people's heads & you can fairly safely hover above them with the jetpack during the few points there are a lot of enemies. I imagine it'd be virtually impossible without the rockets though.

Final boss's final attack got me once, but I didn't even get hit on our second fight so I had a lot of health to tank the final attack. Definitely had way more trouble with 3 until I learned how to play correctly & would put stages 5 & 7 above it in difficulty. ...And frankly don't even want to think about Stage 4 on Hard mode. (The part where you have to dodge slime while the platform slowly rises feels too unfair, as I don't see any way to dodge them without memorizing the entire sequence & you no longer have the health to just tank the hits)..

And congratulations on Nightshade! I've always been intrigued by the game, but I've never made it particularly far. It's definitely a unique experience.

Fluttershy_Pony posted...

Huh. I'm used to the Japanese versions being easier since they didn't have to deal with people renting games. I know there are exceptions (Mario 3 comes to mind), but I wouldn't have expected it here--especially to such a high degree.

iirc the same thing happened with Ghosts and Goblins, but there's a hidden code to continue. Couldn't find anything online for ESWAT though

MZero posted...

iirc the same thing happened with Ghosts and Goblins, but there's a hidden code to continue.

Oh yeah, I do remember you mentioning that now. That one is really crazy, the generosity of infinite continues is about all that game had going for it... I don't even want to imagine trying to play it without that leniency. I still haven't gotten around to whatever SNES version of that series is available since that one only has limited continues.

wallmasterz posted...

Great job Suprak. Always enjoy your write ups

Thank you!

For Tetris Dx, it looks like no one else has checked it off yet so I'll need to kind of figure out what I consider "beat". There are four different modes:

1) Standard Tetris. This mode is Tetris.
2) Timed Tetris. You have three minutes to get as many points as possible (9 speeds)
3) 40 line Tetris. You need to clear 40 lines as fast as you can. There are 9 speeds, each of which has 5 difficulty levels (how much of the level is blocked off at the bottom).
4) Vs Tetris. Can play against human or computer. Computer has 3 difficulty levels and you play in a best of 5 matchup. I'm actually not positive if you can play against a human or not but I'm assuming you can.

I'll probably just play for a while, making sure I "complete" the hardest on each mode at least once. Unless anyone else is familiar with it/has other suggestions!

MZero has beaten ESWAT: City Under Seige

Oh my lord. This is one of those games that makes me question why I every started this project. What a disgrace to game design. First of all, why do you get no invincibility after getting hit? To make things worse you take damage just from touching an enemy, so if you happen to run into one you're taking like 3 bars of health before you can get out of there because it just constantly damages you. And what's with all the attacks from off-screen? There's that elevator in the weird alien goop level where these little fish looking things just jump up from below you and you can't tell where they're coming from and it's almost impossible to dodge them. And speaking of weird alien goop why can't you shoot those little ones before they get bigger? They just ignore all your bullets. Then there's the final stage elevator where all these guys can shoot your feet before you're able to shoot them because ESWAT guy never learned to point his gun down apparently. If you lose your rockets then it's a nightmare to get through.

I guess flying around with the suit is kind of cool... for like 3 seconds and then you're out of energy. Also you can't turn around which kind of sucks. There's a spinning fire attack that seems pretty cool, but takes forever to recover from. I tried using it against one of those duo bosses, which seemed like what it was meant for, and took like 4 bars of damage before I could move again.

Anyway, this game sucks eggs but at least the boss theme rocks. That's the only good thing I can say about it.

Breath of Fire 2 I'm counting on you to restore my faith in this project

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/9/9bb3730d.jpg

NES - 35/79
GEN - 4/50
GB - 11/35
SNES - 9/74*
N64 - 4/38
GBA - 1/24

Total - 66/300*

I forget why you have an asterisk for SNES titles?

wallmasterz posted...

I forget why you have an asterisk for SNES titles?

Super Soccer got delisted, so there are technically only 73 (and 299 total) games available at the moment

Im gonna get back into this.

this topic needs more wallz I agree

I'm sure Breath of Fire 2 can restore faith.

Fluttershy_Pony posted...

Oh yeah, I do remember you mentioning that now. That one is really crazy, the generosity of infinite continues is about all that game had going for it... I don't even want to imagine trying to play it without that leniency. I still haven't gotten around to whatever SNES version of that series is available since that one only has limited continues.

You can actually earn more continues in Super Ghouls n Ghosts by grabbing the large gold bags. You should be able to earn back about as many credits as you use unless you play very badly or maybe if you're on a higher difficulty level (since I think you need more bags for a continue on a higher difficulty level)

I was never able to beat the second loop of Super without save states/cheating because of the low time limit on stage 7 and being forced to use the bracelet (so you have to jump up to hit the boss), despite finishing the arcade versions of both the original and Ghouls without too much trouble. ha ha.

Did we get a consensus on NES Tetris beat conditions?

Good enough score to see the rocket going off and level 9 with height 5 in B mode, which is really hard but gets the best ending.

I've been a bit busy so just playing a few stages of Picross here and there. I think I can start BoF2 tomorrow though

I beat the first Streets of Rage. Thoughts coming at some point.

New GBA addition

https://youtu.be/9LmocGJOdZk

Game Beat! Tetris Dx (Game Boy)
Game Boy - 15/35
GBA - 1/24
SNES - 1/74
Total - 17/300

Hey man I know you played Tetris, but what if we made Tetris more Tetris-y? Thats essentially the sales pitch for Tetris Dx. I do have to preface this by once again saying I am one of the few gamers that just does not get the appeal of Tetris. Like, its fine. Tetris is Tetris. Its an institution and I get it. But you always have people breathlessly list it as one of the best games of all time and I just never got it. Most important, maybe, or most influential, possibly, or most likely to put you to sleep if you play it too long, sure. But best? Best? This is one of the best? It is a falling block puzzle game that is fine as a time waster but it just isnt something I want to sit around and play for long periods of time. I know some people do, and those people are called weirdos.

I dont have much to say about it beyond that. You already know how much you like Tetris and this isnt going to change your opinion on it. You have the normal mode, then a get as many points as you can in three minutes mode, then a clear 40 lines as fast as you can mode, and then a versus mode. But theyre all Tetris. They can create as many modes as they want but you just have Tetris on Tetris on Tetris here. The extra modes are a nice touch and versus could be fun if you have a friend to play against, but honestly it feels like a waste to both have Tetris and Tetris Dx on NSO. You dont need Tetris anymore. This is literally the same game as that but a little bit better. Take however much you liked Tetris, add roughly 5% and you know how much you like this one.

I wasnt quite sure how to beat this, but I played every mode and beat everything on the hardest difficult and did most difficulty levels three times so my scores would all get posted on the individual leaderboards. That was more than enough. Im not changing my mind on how much I like Tetris and I dont really care what they add to the end of the name. Tetris Dx is just Tetris, again, so even if you havent played this one you should already know where youre going to rank it.

Grade: C

I mean, it is entirely playable. This is a game you can sit down and play and your life will not change at all. Not for the better, not for the worse. This feels like the kind of game a grandpa can play from the comfort of their walking chair in lieu of a crossword puzzle. Whats grandpa doing today? Oh not much just sitting down in his rocker playing a game of Tetris and muttering about how soup was better in his day. Thats what this game is. Retirement game for gamers that like gaming but dont want to be confused by your scary new mechanics and ideas.

THE RANKINGS:
F Tier:
17) Game & Watch Gallery 3 (Game Boy) (t6p191)
16) Baseball (Game Boy) (t5p32)
D Tier:
15) Super Soccer (SNES) (t6p149)
D+ Tier:
14) Mega Man III (Game Boy (t5p369)
13) Super Mario Land (Game Boy) (t5p79)
12) Mega Man II (Game Boy) (t5p71)
C- Tier:
11) BurgerTime Deluxe (t5p396)
10) Mario's Picross (t6174)
C Tier:
9) Tetris (Game Boy) (t5p67)
8) Tetris Dx (Game Boy) (t6p236)
7) Dr. Mario (Game Boy) (t4p478)
6) Donkey Kong Land (Game Boy) (t5p256)
5) Mega Man: Dr. Wily's Revenge (Game Boy) (t5p55)
C+ Tier:
4) Mega Man V (Game Boy) (t6p216)
3) Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins (Game Boy) (t4p476)
B- Tier:
2) Mega Man IV (Game Boy) (t5p413)
1) Densetsu no Stafy (Game Boy Advance) (t5p287)

Gosh darn it Nintendo

So actually I've been playing Sacred Stones on Wii U VC and I'm basically at the end, so of course now they decide to add it! If you guys don't mind I'm just gonna count it as beaten when I finish it on Wii U lol

Still the portability would have been nice this whole time!

As mentioned, I beat Streets of Rage

This era is when 8-bit beat em ups were better than 16-bit imo. Looking better but controls worse. Perception of depth is a bit off, which is quite annoying at times. The vast majority of the time jump kicks is the way to go and just don't go to far ahead before having knocked out enemies so they don't become too many. Time is never really an issue. The second game should be the good one anyway.

C- Tier (Fine but with drawbacks)
Solomon's Key
Star Soldier
Super Mario Land
Wrecking Crew
Ghouls n Ghosts
Super Ghouls n Ghosts
Double Dragon
Congos Caper
Devil World
Space Harrier II
Pilotwings
Xevious
Clu Clu Land
Brawl Brothers
Super R-Type
Super Tennis
Strider
Shadow of the Ninja
Streets of Rage

NES - 76/79
GEN - 22/50
GB - 16/35
SNES - 24/74
N64 - 3/38
GBA - 1/24

Total - 142/300

Did you start BoF2? This weekend is quite busy for me but I will have lots of time starting Monday.

Nope

I was going to but then Clair Obscur came in off the top rope lol

I finished the mushroom level Picross stages though! Just need to do the stars now! Also probably going to wrap up Sacred Stones pretty soon

I'm down to start next week, but I might be a little slow until I finish Clair Obscur

Ctes has beaten Super Mario Kart

That was a bit tough at the end. I actually don't think I ever knew about the terrain differences.

The game is super fun, but also has some issues that later Mario Karts don't. At this point CPUs are quite different than you. They are locked in position to some degree although if you can hit your opponents late into the race, that can come to your advantage. They also don't use items like you. They have one signature each that they auto use every time you're close to them, which is a bit of BS mechanic, moreso than Blue She'll honestly, which the other games has.

The game gets the advantage that I know I love it for its multiplayer which bumps it up a tier.

B+ Tier (Very Good)
Crystalis
Metroid: Zero Mission
Pokmon Puzzle League
Tetris (NES)
Tetris (GB)
The Legend of Zelda
Punch-Out!!
Earthbound Beginnings
Super Mario Kart
Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins
Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels
River City Ransom

NES - 76/79
GEN - 22/50
GB - 16/35
SNES - 25/74
N64 - 3/38
GBA - 1/25

Total - 143/301

MZero posted...

Nope

I was going to but then Clair Obscur came in off the top rope lol

I finished the mushroom level Picross stages though! Just need to do the stars now! Also probably going to wrap up Sacred Stones pretty soon

I'm down to start next week, but I might be a little slow until I finish Clair Obscur

All your call! I might start Shining Force if we don't play it soon though, which would be completely fine.

I have opened Shining Force but I actually also completed a quick one before that.

Ctes has beaten Psycho Dream

This is a little bit mixed. When you don't have the full power up, it controls a bit badly and can be quite difficult as a result. When you have it the game is super easy. I am unsure if it's the emulator that makes it run terribly at times, either way it was frustrating. But retaining the full power up for most part, it wasn't too bad and also not very long.

C- Tier (Fine but with drawbacks)
Solomon's Key
Star Soldier
Super Mario Land
Wrecking Crew
Ghouls n Ghosts
Super Ghouls n Ghosts
Double Dragon
Psycho Dream
Congos Caper
Devil World
Space Harrier II
Pilotwings
Xevious
Clu Clu Land
Brawl Brothers
Super R-Type
Super Tennis
Strider
Shadow of the Ninja
Streets of Rage

NES - 76/79
GEN - 22/50
GB - 16/35
SNES - 26/74
N64 - 3/38
GBA - 1/25

Total - 144/301

Probably prioritizing some Genesis classics for now except for a potential Breath of Fire 2 playthough. I feel like I have been in reach of the halway point for a bit but new additions have kept me away, so while tackling some of the longer games such as Shining Force and Landstalker I'll try to knock something faster out whenever they add something. I should have time this month to enjoy some longer games and keep up. If anyone wants to join me for some of these different Genesis RPGs, be my guest!

Shining Force is really good.

I'm only two chapters in, but it feels like it has been a while already. I'm not used to tactical RPGs. I'm not sure how difficult this one is compared to so much else but it's definitely not very punishing. You don't lose party members permantly for one. Though the main character dying loses the battle. I should play more of these (my experience is limited to Fire Emblem Awakening I think). Good thing there is another seemingly better Shining Force on the service!

It could use some QoL changes for sure. Mostly in item handling. Also seeing HP of all units in battle easily (please tell me I'm dumb and that exists).

It was hard to use mages initially, but darn they're improving. Opposite of archer I want to say though I just got a better weapon for him. Wonder how much the roster grows when you don't lose party members.

If I get a day where I can play all day I might start something else for a change of pace. Otherwise I'm really enjoying it, it's just longer than mostly everything I have played on here so far.

"Speak to my son, he will give you details of the journey to the north"

"Just go north you can't miss it"

Lol. Mandatory dialogue.

ctesjbuvf posted...

It was hard to use mages initially, but darn they're improving. Opposite of archer I want to say though I just got a better weapon for him. Wonder how much the roster grows when you don't lose party members.

One of my favorite optional characters is a unique mage who becomes a powerhouse for the end of the game.

I love the Shining Force games. I might like the second one slightly more but they're both great.

Tao is becoming my favorite because Blaze 2 is so good currently. Could change. Some of the best early characters are the ones I have benched for the most recent three I got.

And yeah this is very good. Without being through it's easily a top 10 game of my current NSO ranking and maybe even top 5.

What would your advice be in regards to promoting characters? It seems it isn't as trivial to do either ASAP or late.

Game Beat! Donkey Kong Land 2 (Game Boy)
Game Boy - 16/35
GBA - 1/24
SNES - 1/74
Total - 18/300

Guys I might hate the Game Boy. Like, as a concept. Im 16 games in on my Game Boy adventure and I feel like Im spiraling into madness. Do I even like video games? Im not even sure anymore. I keep playing games and thinking well at least I got that out of the way but then I play the next game and I find out there is no treasure waiting for me, just more things in the way. Even games I was looking forward to, like the Donkey Kong Land series, seem to somehow be making things worse. This isnt the worst game Ive played for the Game Boy, but that says more about the Game Boy than it does this game.

There is something almost deeply unsettling about this. I fucking love Donkey Kong Country. It is one of my favorite platformers of all time. Having fond memories of Donkey Kong Country and then playing this is like having fond memories of grandma and then going to her house one day and some homeless man has skinned her and is wearing her skin and is like COME GIVE GRANDMA A HUG but you know that shit aint fucking grandma. Thats the best description I can give of Donkey Kong Land 2. It takes something you love and wears its skin but it is absolutely not that thing. It is an uncanny valley approximation meant to ruin your cherished memories of a thing you used to love. I started taking notes of this game and just straight up stopped five levels in because I was reading them and I was like I sound miserable this wont be fun or interesting to read. It was like reading one of those notes in a Resident Evil game where someone is slowly turning into a zombie. It starts off normal but the end is just gibberish and you hope they at least found some sort of peace at the end.

I dont even want to waste my time rambling on this one like I have with some of the others, because this is just a very very very bad game. It isnt even funny bad. It is just a normal sort of poorly made game that isnt fun to play. It feels more like shovelware than an entry in a beloved Nintendo series. Level design is bad and this game has a bad habit of encouraging exploration to find secret stuff but then killing you the second you try and explore. Instant death is every where, which is fine, but then it is a lot less fun to dig for secrets because every pit is basically just an invitation for death. I got every coin and every secret barrel in this game and Im disappointed in myself. How did I not quit halfway through? Why did I think this would get better. I was like I bet this gets fun at the end! and past Suprak was a moron because it very much did NOT get fun at the end.

The game messes up in a lot of very obvious design ways and I cant tell if it is an issue with the Game Boy or the developers or both a lot of the time. Heres one: the spider is annoying as hell to control because of the way they have the buttons mapped. They want you to make web platforms, but to do so you use one of the two buttons to shoot the web and then have to move your hand in a weird way to get to the select button so you can lock it in place. Why not any one of the easier to get to buttons? Probably because the Game Boy had two buttons and they wanted to make sure they recreated that authentic ew this isnt fun to control feeling. I think it is particularly awkward on the switch because I wanted to use the button and not the stick, but it still had to be weird on the Game Boy. It also isnt a fun mechanic. Its just like oops we forgot to put in the platforms so then you place them and thats it. It is both boring and annoying, which is a very bad combination.

I honestly dont want to ramble about this because it isnt worth it, so heres a lightning round of issues. There screen feels too small and the area you can see is very limited to the point a lot of times youre doing borderline blind jumps into danger. There are all these timed underwater segments where the game wants you to explore for hidden goodies but you also have ten seconds to do it and if you start exploring youre just going to die. The visuals make it so it cant convey what is danger and what is not, and the hey this is fun swimming water and oh no instant death pool! are essentially identical. Dixies hover jumps make her broken during the platforming section and Diddy is basically only here if Dixie dies. Rope climbing segments are awkward and the game seems intent on putting them in every level. The difficulty curve is a roller coaster where there are levels in the second world much more difficult than most of the final area. The platforming is boring. The secrets are uninteresting. The controls are imperfect. Everything. Everything. EVERYTHING.

There are a ton of little examples of stuff like this. Im not going to go into them all but the end result is the game is just off. Slightly off in every way so by the end it is just completely off the rails and so far from fun they would need to take two shuttle buses to even get in the same neighborhood. I dont know quite why I disliked this so much more than the first Donkey Kong Land, but I remember leaving that game with an emphatic feeling of MEH and this one with a much more emphatic feeling of I never want to play that again. This was another game that took me five times longer to beat than it needed to because I was forcing myself to play it. Maybe I just hate older games but I was actually playing Castlevania NES at the same time as this and I beat that like four times just because I wanted to and I beat this once because I felt wrong ranking it without seeing it through until the end. BUT at the same time I had to see this through until the end because I hated this and I wanted that to be documented. Some day I will die and my kids will be digging through my old collections of writings Ive done and they will find I hated Donkey Kong Land 2. If they know one thing about their dad, it is important to me that it is that.

Grade: D-

A new tier! This is essentially the I hated this but at least it wasnt Baseball or Game & Watch Gallery tier. I dont think there was a single level or mechanic I enjoyed in this. This is essentially an awful version of Donkey Kong Country. Hell, this is essentially a bad version of Donkey Kong Land 1 and I didnt even like Donkey Kong Land 1. I am dreading DKL3 now, but I should probably get that out of the way at some point.

F Tier:
18) Game & Watch Gallery 3 (Game Boy) (t6p191)
17) Baseball (Game Boy) (t5p32)
D- Tier:
16) Donkey Kong Land 2 (t6p250)
D Tier:
15) Super Soccer (SNES) (t6p149)
D+ Tier:
14) Mega Man III (Game Boy (t5p369)
13) Super Mario Land (Game Boy) (t5p79)
12) Mega Man II (Game Boy) (t5p71)
C- Tier:
11) BurgerTime Deluxe (t5p396)
10) Mario's Picross (t6174)
C Tier:
9) Tetris (Game Boy) (t5p67)
8) Donkey Kong Land (Game Boy) (t5p256)
7) Tetris Dx (Game Boy) (t6p236)
6) Dr. Mario (Game Boy) (t4p478)
5) Mega Man: Dr. Wily's Revenge (Game Boy) (t5p55)
C+ Tier:
4) Mega Man V (Game Boy) (t6p216)
3) Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins (Game Boy) (t4p476)
B- Tier:
2) Mega Man IV (Game Boy) (t5p413)
1) Densetsu no Stafy (Game Boy Advance) (t5p287)

Suprak_the_Stud posted...

Having fond memories of Donkey Kong Country and then playing this is like having fond memories of grandma and then going to her house one day and some homeless man has skinned her and is wearing her skin and is like COME GIVE GRANDMA A HUG but you know that shit aint fucking grandma.

I'm dying over here lmao