Games Beaten 2015

[Sarge]

I finished Robin Hood not too long ago, actually. It's a pretty decent game, overall. Not perfect, but better than you'd expect. There's a prototype floating around that had more RPG elements, then they tied in to the movie.

Good observations all around, though. That mostly matched with my experience. I was always afraid to use the bows back in the day because they used consumables, but as you say, they're so plentiful it's not an issue. I abused them this time, and had a much easier time of it overall.

[MrPopo]

Pretty much the only thing that will destroy your ammo is if you start using the Locksley Bow. It fires four arrows at a time when only the wild pigs and the lake dragons take more than one shot to kill. The pigs take two and are trivial, while the dragons go invincible after a hit and submerge, so the net result is you piss away tons of ammo with that weapon. Now the crossbow, that thing's amazing.

[Sarge]

Exactly. I tried the Locksley Bow, and I'm thinking, holy cow, that's crazy! Then you see that each shot drains tons of ammo, and it's just not worth it. Single shots are where it's at.

[ExedExes]

Pretty much the only thing that will destroy your ammo is if you start using the Locksley Bow. It fires four arrows at a time when only the wild pigs and the lake dragons take more than one shot to kill. The pigs take two and are trivial, while the dragons go invincible after a hit and submerge, so the net result is you piss away tons of ammo with that weapon. Now the crossbow, that thing's amazing.

I didn't think anyone liked, let alone beat Robin Hood. It's a speed-run favorite of mine.

I stick with the regular bow, Locksley sword and Locksley armor (stops enemy arrows!). Party members are used to store food and other items. Red potions increase your speed temporarily but also can be used for healing. There are safe spots for nearly every one-on-one sword battle (usually involving you on the ground while your opponent stays on a table). The skeleton battle sucks because you have to use that tiny dagger. Best item to get lots of is the yellow potions, and if you find an extra rope there's the well where the missing camp member is and the well by the weapon trainer so you can pick up a few more of those. Also on the healing water mission, use the flasks to heal your entire party then save some for yourself (you only lose one on return)

My fastest clear is roughly 75 minutes. Need a little time to grind, but I usually get to Level 3.

[MrPopo]

Interestingly enough, on the healing water mission I filled up both flasks but ended up not losing either. And something nice about them is they also seem to give you a speed boost.

[BoneSnapDeez]

First 50:

1. Grandia (PlayStation)
2. Jungle Hunt (Xbox - Taito Legends)
3. Jungle Hunt (Atari 2600)
4. Jungle Hunt (Plug & Play - ColecoVision Flashback)
5. Donkey Kong (Atari 2600)
6. Donkey Kong (Intellivision)
7. Donkey Kong (ColecoVision)
8. Bubble Bobble (NES)
9. Side Arms: Hyper Dyne (PSP - Capcom Classics Collection Remixed)
10. 1941: Counter Attack (PSP - Capcom Classics Collection Remixed)
11. Ys: The Ark of Napishtim (PSP)
12. The Ninja Kids (Xbox - Taito Legends)
13. Neutopia (TurboGrafx-16)
14. Golden Axe Warrior (Xbox 360 - Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection)
15. Phantasy Star Online Ver. 2 (Dreamcast)
16. Growl (PlayStation 2 - Taito Legends 2)
17. Arabian Magic (PlayStation 2 - Taito Legends 2)
18. Dungeon Magic (PlayStation 2 - Taito Legends 2)
19. Gekirindan (PlayStation 2 - Taito Legends 2)
20. Ys II (Saturn - Falcom Classics II)
21. Darius Gaiden (PlayStation 2 - Taito Legends 2)
22. G Darius (PlayStation 2 - Taito Legends 2)
23. Giana Sisters DS (DS)
24. RayStorm (PlayStation 2 - Taito Legends 2)
25. Mr. Do! (ColecoVision)
26. Beauty & the Beast (Intellivision)
27. Boxing (PlayStation 2 - Activision Anthology)
28. Crystalis (NES)
29. Dragon Warrior (NES)
30. Faxanadu (NES)
31. Tombs & Treasure (NES)
32. Kirby's Dream Land (Game Boy)
33. Kirby's Adventure (NES)
34. Kirby Super Star (SNES)
35. Hoshi no Kirby 64 (Nintendo 64)
36. Kirby: Triple Deluxe (3DS)
37. Dig Dug (Wii - Namco Museum Megamix)
38. Phoenix (Xbox - Taito Legends)
39. Phoenix (Atari 2600)
40. Pleiads (Xbox - Tecmo Classic Arcade)
41. Kangaroo (Atari 2600)
42. Final Fantasy Adventure (Game Boy)
43. Gorf (Atari 2600)
44. Richard Scarry's Huckle and Lowly's Busiest Day Ever (Pico)
45. Mickey's Blast Into the Past (Pico)
46. Secret of Mana (SNES)
47. Psycho Soldier (PSP - SNK Arcade Classics 0)
48. Genshi-Tou 1930's (PSP - SNK Arcade Classics 0)
49. Datsugoku: Prisoners of War (PSP - SNK Arcade Classics 0)
50. SAR: Search and Rescue (PSP - SNK Arcade Classics 0)

51. The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (SNES)
52. Tic-Tac-Toe / Shooting Gallery / Doodle / Quadra-Doodle (Channel F)
53. Robot War / Torpedo Alley (Channel F)

1977...

Robot War / Torpedo Alley

1977 was the launch year for the seminal Atari 2600. But since I don't own any Atari 2600 launch titles I'll be sticking with my new friend, the Fairchild Channel F.

This is "Videocart-13" and we've come a long way from #1. Two mini-games this time around.

Robot War is pretty fun. You're a guy(?) who is being chased by robots. No weapons are available so the robots must be led into magnetic fields that cause the 'bots to disappear. There are four robots and four fields per board. If the guy is caught one magnetic field disappears, if all four vanish the robots gain a point. Get all four robots to disappear and the player gains a point.

There are four speed settings available. These can ostensibly bump up the difficulty by increasing the speed of the robots, but the speed of the player is also increased in turn. So, setting 1 is for the slowest game overall while 4 is for the fastest.

I should mention that these Channel F games don't feature more than one stage each. The only "looping" that occurs is literally just a game reset with your score still intact.

Torpedo Alley is something of a fixed shooter. The player's ship can move left to right at the bottom of the screen. The cannon weapon can be adjusted independently from ship movement, which is a nice touch. The goal is to rack up points by shooting at enemy ships. They don't shoot back so this is really just a competition against your previous best score or a second player (there doesn't appear to be an AI opponent). Not bad, but a bit slow overall. I prefer the robots.

[SpaceBooger]

03/14/15 Wind Waker HD - WiiU
04/12/15 Sonic 3 & Knuckles (Sonic 3 Complete Hack)

I talked about this game in the Together Retro thread, but here is my final thought of this game that I wasn't digging as much as I hoped I would: I am happy I played through this, it makes me appreciate the dual nature, speed or explore, of the other 16bit Sonic games.

[ExedExes]

Interestingly enough, on the healing water mission I filled up both flasks but ended up not losing either. And something nice about them is they also seem to give you a speed boost.

Yes that's right. They give you all the benefits of a red and a yellow potion.

[Key-Glyph]

29. Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves - NES

I really enjoyed that whole review, Popo. I particularly liked hearing about the skill/knowledge difference between child-you and adult-you. It reminded me of how I used to avoid random encounters in my very first turn-based RPGs because I was afraid of losing battles.

Yup. Logic fail!

[MrPopo]

29. Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves - NES

I really enjoyed that whole review, Popo. I particularly liked hearing about the skill/knowledge difference between child-you and adult-you. It reminded me of how I used to avoid random encounters in my very first turn-based RPGs because I was afraid of losing battles.

Yup. Logic fail!

Clearly young you was just getting ready for Final Fantasy VIII, where a low level is a help and a high level is a hindrance.