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Key-Glyph
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Re: Games Beaten 2016

by Key-Glyph Mon Mar 07, 2016 2:49 am

01. MagMax (NES)
02. World of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse (GEN) [2-player]
03. Sonic Spinball (GEN)*
04. Sonic Spinball (GEN)* [complete]
05. Comix Zone (GEN)*
06. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (NES)
07. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Manhattan Project (NES)
08. WCW World Championship Wrestling (NES)

09. Super Mario Bros. 3 (NES)

I don't know exactly what's going on here, but I've just been super inspired to continue tying up these NES games.
Mario 3 is another title I'd had a heartbreaking experience with. Long story short, I'd gotten all the way to the final castle during one particularly warm summer when my side of town had a brownout. The system reset, and with it went all the loot I'd gotten and all the time I'd invested in my non-whistle run. Just like TMNT, I was so discouraged by this that I hadn't had the heart to pick up the cartridge since. That was probably more than fifteen years ago now. Egad!

Flash forward to today, and after finishing recording a few podcast episodes, my co-host and I decided to just keep our Google Hangout going while I broke out the game and he graded his students' papers. This is going to remain a really fond memory for me: just sitting around with Josh as if we were in the same dorm room or something, trading gaming tips and singing, singing, singing along with the VGM.

I will say this though. I always hit a critical point where Mario 3 stops being fun. I don't know if it's that I don't have the stamina for it and should learn to pause and walk away for a while, but by the time I get to World 8, I want to be done. I don't want to be saddled with cheap secret door puzzles in labyrinth castles when the end is clearly in sight. I like final levels that are challenging to my skills (which, to be fair, all those battle tank and boat stages in World 8 definitely are), not ones that are difficult because they are purposely abstruse.

But I'm also known for being grumpy about Mario in general, so there's that too. :lol:

* = replay
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BogusMeatFactory wrote:If I could powder my copies of shenmue and snort them I would
dsheinem
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Re: Games Beaten 2016

by dsheinem Mon Mar 07, 2016 8:33 am

ElkinFencer10 wrote:
What do you consider the point where a system/game stops being retro and starts being modern?


Basically, if they are still releasing games on a weekly or regular basis for the system at retail, I consider it modern. If you click on my year links at the bottom of my updates, you'd see stats that indicate the platform designation and distribution. PC games' cutoff is typically been about 2005 or so. Here was last year's list::

Modern: 46 (PS4: 21, PC: 10, Vita: 5, PS3: 3, 3DS: 3, Wii U: 1, X1: 1, 360: 1, IOS: 1)
Retro: 34 (PC: 8, 2600: 5, PS1: 3, PS2: 3, NES: 2, Arcade: 3, C64: 2, GB: 2, PSP: 1, TI99: 1, GEN: 1, IV: 1, NDS: 1, Wii: 1)
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alienjesus
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Re: Games Beaten 2016

by alienjesus Mon Mar 07, 2016 10:50 am

More for the list:

1. Ys Book II: Ancient Ys Vanished - The Final Chapter PSN Vita
2. 3D Streets of Rage 2 3DS eShop
3. 3D Gunstar Heroes 3DS eShop
4. 3D Sonic the Hedgehog 2 3DS eShop
5. 3D OutRun 3DS eShop
6. Mugen Senshi Valis II: The Fantasm Soldier PCE CD
7. Mugen Senshi Valis III: The Fantasm Soldier PCE CD
8. Bomberman PCE CD
9. Rocket Knight Adventures Mega Drive
10. Trax Game Boy
11. Panic Bomber Virtual Boy
12. Arcana Heart 3: Love MAX!!!!! Vita
13. Super Monkey Ball Gamecube
14. Lost Kingdoms Gamecube
15. Sonic Adventure 2 Battle Gamecube
16. 1080° Avalanche Gamecube
17. Bubble Ghost Game Boy
18. Catrap Game Boy
19. 3D Thunder Blade 3DS eShop
20. 3D AfterBurner II 3DS eShop
21. 3D Fantasy Zone II W: The Tears of Opa-Opa 3DS eShop
22. Ikaruga Gamecube *NEW*
23. Dungeon Travelers 2: The Royal Library & The Monster Seal Vita *NEW*

Ikaruga
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Ok, first things first, because I know people will ask - No, I didn't get a 1CC. Not even close. Here were the conditions I was aiming for to count this as beaten - 1. Beat the game with limited continues. 2. Beat the game on Normal mode. If any of your are familiar with the Gamecube port of the game, you might know that for each hour you play this game, you earn an extra credit per run, until you play the game for 7 hours, when you will earn unlimited credits. My goal was to beat the game before unlocking unlimited credits. Which I did....on my first run at 7 credits. :lol:

And that's because Ikaruga is hard. There's a lot of pattern recognition in it, and due to it being so scripted I imagine that there is a 'best' way to tackle particular levels, expecially if your chaining for extra score, which is done by killing same coloured enemies in groups of 3 at a time. I didn't really bother much, as after stage 2 it becomes all about survival for me.

So, Ikaruga. You have a ship, it can fire lasers straight ahead. It can also swap colour from black to white and back again. Enemies also come in black and white varieties. White bullets will kill you whilst you're black and vice versa, but you can absorb bullets of the same colour to charge up your super powerful homing laser attack. The skill in Ikaruga is in switching constantly to manage the absolute torrential barrage of attacks enemies fire your way. On the flip side, if you hit enemies with the opposite colour, they take more damage, so there's a balance between being vulnerable and powerful or safe but weaker. On normal difficulty, killing enemies of the same colour as your weapon will make them shower you with suicide bullets, which will be the bane of your existence on later levels where you need to switch near constantly.

And there is a steep difficulty curve in Ikaruga. I can get to the midboss of act 3 (literally 50% through the game) without losing a single life, but I've never finished Act 3 without using at least 1 credit - the 2 bosses cause me issues. Act 4 robs me blind - I normally lose an easy 4 credits here, especially on the boss of the act which I can't get the hang of at all. The image above is from stage 4.

The run in which I beat the game was my first time seeing act 5. The opening sections and first boss were easy enough, the second boss gave me some trouble, and the 'final' boss was easy enough. I finished the last boss having just started on my last credit, and celebrated as I saw the level completion stats screen. Hooray! Ikaruga beaten!

Except it wasn't. The game had one final surprise for me after the level was over - the boss came back, and I couldn't shoot - it's a final, one minute gauntlet of dodging and switching polarity whilst the boss sends everything he has at you. I lost a couple of lives and I thought I was done for, when it finally ended. On my very last life, I'd managed to finish the game. Double hooray!

Now I'm sure there are some here who will denounce my victory because I used so many continues. I don't really care - I've spent weeks trying to get to this point, and I was delighted with my triumph. Ikaruga is the game that got me into shmups, and it's been a long time coming for me to see it all the way through. I'd happily sit down and play it again anytime - it's a masterpiece.

Dungeon Travelers 2: The Royal Library & The Monster Seal
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Dungeon Travelers 2 is a japanese dungeon crawling RPG for the Playstation Vita. It features you building an all-female team of warriors and venturing into a dungeon to take on all-female enemies to save the day from a demon. No points for guessing which gender the demon is either.

Dungeon Travelers, from what I can gather, is a spin-off title of a fairly popular dating sim/eroge series known as To Heart. The first dungeon travelers game was a dungeon crawler featuring the characters of To Heart 2, and this game is a sequel to that game using an all new cast. This game doesn't try to hide it's slightly seedy origins much either - there is a lot of suggestive enemy designs and CG stills in this game, with both party members and enemy 'monsters'. Actually, I'd even say it's rather front-loaded in this regard - lots of the later stuff is far less suggestive of exposing than the things they throw at you early in the game.

But, whether or not the fan servicey presentation and sexually suggestive content does much for you, this is actually a very, very well made dungeon crawler. Dungeon designs are interesting, and there is a tone of customisation available for party members to build a party how you want. There are 5 base classes - Fighter, Magic User, Scout (read: Thief), Spieler (a class with luck based and odd skills) and Maid (a class focused on buffing, debuffing and restoring MP for free) and each can upgrade into 2 or 3 new classes at level 15, with another branch available at level 30 totalling 3 final classes for each base class - 32 classes in total. In addition, each class has lots of skills which you can choose to invest in, so 2 characters in the same class can still play quite differently.

The story of the game isn't very in-depth, although it does actually try to take itself seriously, and the plot isn't focused on the fan-service at all. In fact, the game constantly feels like it's trying to outgrow the fan-service aspect, and the main character tends to ignore all the attractive women in compromising situations he constantly finds himself surrounded by. Maybe this is something to do with the fact that this was localised by Atlus -perhaps they made it more tasteful, or maybe it was just like that to begin with.

Dungeon Travelers is actually a very fun title, but it has some flaws - the game is very slow paced. Your customisation options are very limited until level 15, but it takes about 20 hours to reach that point at least. Even then, you'll be desperate for the power of the level 30 classes before too long - the game is also pretty difficult. The game is about 50-70 hours for the main story, and levelling up is very tedious if you need to do it - it can take a good hour to get 1 level up for a team. The abilities in dungeon travelers also tend to work less well together than, say, the skills in Etrian Odyssey 4 - whereas skills often aid teammates or combine for better effects in EO4 (such as arcanists cauing status effects on the enemy and the nightseeker doing extra damage to statused enemies) the classes of DT2 tend to be very independent. That said, at level 30 some classes get abilities that at least help the party overall, such as the Valkyrie shielding the back row from some damage.

Dungeon Travelers isn't a game for everyone. Aside from the blatant and regular fanservice (well, fairly regular - it can take a few hours between each CG event) which will be offputting to many, the actual slow paced, grindy and difficult gameplay is not exactly friendly and welcoming either. That said though, Dungeon Travelers is incredibly well put together, and building your team is compelling. I could have done with the pace being quicker and the game being about 15 hours shorter, but I enjoyed my time with it overall.
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Exhuminator
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Re: Games Beaten 2016

by Exhuminator Mon Mar 07, 2016 10:53 am

alienjesus wrote:23. Dungeon Travelers 2: The Royal Library & The Monster Seal

My respect for you has gone up a notch. :)
PLAY KING'S FIELD.
dsheinem
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Re: Games Beaten 2016

by dsheinem Mon Mar 07, 2016 11:06 am

alienjesus wrote:Now I'm sure there are some here who will denounce my victory because I used so many continues. I don't really care - I've spent weeks trying to get to this point, and I was delighted with my triumph. Ikaruga is the game that got me into shmups, and it's been a long time coming for me to see it all the way through. I'd happily sit down and play it again anytime - it's a masterpiece.


No disrespect here - I think that if a dev publishes a shmup where you can earn your way to completion without necessarily getting the 1cc, that is a very reasonable criteria for counting it as beaten. That's how I approached that particular game way back in 2010 for this thread, and I heartily applaud your run!
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alienjesus
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Re: Games Beaten 2016

by alienjesus Mon Mar 07, 2016 11:20 am

dsheinem wrote:
alienjesus wrote:Now I'm sure there are some here who will denounce my victory because I used so many continues. I don't really care - I've spent weeks trying to get to this point, and I was delighted with my triumph. Ikaruga is the game that got me into shmups, and it's been a long time coming for me to see it all the way through. I'd happily sit down and play it again anytime - it's a masterpiece.


No disrespect here - I think that if a dev publishes a shmup where you can earn your way to completion without necessarily getting the 1cc, that is a very reasonable criteria for counting it as beaten. That's how I approached that particular game way back in 2010 for this thread, and I heartily applaud your run!


Thanks!

Id love to get good enough to beat level 3 without continues, because that will allow me to play level 4 on practice mode. That mini boss in the tunnel section of stage 3 does a number on me pretty bad though! My successful run was the first time he didn't take a credit from me, but unfortunately I lost my last life on the final boss of the stage, which despite being pretty easy seeming always seems to get me a few times :lol:
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Re: Games Beaten 2016

by BoneSnapDeez Mon Mar 07, 2016 12:48 pm

Interesting stuff on this page. I sympathize with your Mario 3 woes, Key. No power outage here, but as a kid I wasn't allowed to play video games often (or for very long durations) so I could only beat Mario 3 with the warp whistles. I owned the game for a couple of years before I was able to sneak in three hours and play the game proper. Still one of my favorites.

@aj
Ikaruga is really well done and it's one I want to love but I'm terrible at it. I actually find the controls really awkward, despite their inherent simplicity. Nice job finishing it.

Dungeon Travelers 2 is one I've been looking to start soon. Looks like a good "couch game." A shame to hear it's so damn long!
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Sarge
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Re: Games Beaten 2016

by Sarge Mon Mar 07, 2016 1:06 pm

Well done beating SMB3, Key! I have a love-hate relationship with that game. I've probably mentioned it before, but when I was watching my neighbor's kids when I was younger, they would always want me to beat the game. I had it down to an art. I probably beat it over 30 times in a very short time period. I hated it. I also hated it because all my friends ignored other great games because MARIO 3!1!1!.

Now? It may be my favorite Mario game*. I know it's my favorite in terms of physics. World is too twitchy, the first game is too weird, and NSMB feels like there's too much momentum. I think Goldilocks would approve of SMB3. ;)

* caveat here for SMB2, which I love, but it's not a "traditional" Mario game.
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Key-Glyph
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Re: Games Beaten 2016

by Key-Glyph Mon Mar 07, 2016 1:37 pm

alienjesus wrote:Ikaruga
I saw this in your beaten list and literally exclaimed "IKARUGA?!!" in amazement.
alienjesus wrote:the boss came back, and I couldn't shoot - it's a final, one minute gauntlet of dodging and switching polarity whilst the boss sends everything he has at you.
:shock: :shock: :shock:

Damn AJ, you're hardcore. What would have happened if you'd lost your final life there? Would you have been sent back to the beginning, albeit with infinite continues?

Sarge wrote:I've probably mentioned it before, but when I was watching my neighbor's kids when I was younger, they would always want me to beat the game. I had it down to an art. I probably beat it over 30 times in a very short time period. I hated it. I also hated it because all my friends ignored other great games because MARIO 3!1!1!.
I love this story. :mrgreen:
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alienjesus
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Re: Games Beaten 2016

by alienjesus Mon Mar 07, 2016 2:42 pm

Key-Glyph wrote:
alienjesus wrote:the boss came back, and I couldn't shoot - it's a final, one minute gauntlet of dodging and switching polarity whilst the boss sends everything he has at you.
:shock: :shock: :shock:

Damn AJ, you're hardcore. What would have happened if you'd lost your final life there? Would you have been sent back to the beginning, albeit with infinite continues?


I dunno about that :lol:

If I'd died there, it would have been game over. Back to the start and try again! I haven't actually unlocked infinite continues - I was playing with a maximum of 7 at the time. I need to play 3 more hours of Ikaruga before I get infinite continues.
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