Summer Games Challenge 2016

[prfsnl_gmr]

Thankfully the FDS version has a save function - there's no way I could conquer this in one sitting.

Saving helps tremendously. I played through the GBA version most recently, and the saves helped tremendously. (Honestly, I thought that they made the game a bit too easy...) Getting through Castlevania in a single sitting is a beast.

Also, level 6 is going to rock you! It is probably the hardest section in the entire Castlevania franchise

[Sarge]

I actually hate Stage 5 (the hallway before Death) a lot more.

It's a brutal game, though. I wouldn't chalk it up to lack of skills, it's just one of those games.

Y'all are making me want to make a run, between Bone and Xumy.

[Markies]

I actually hate Stage 5 (the hallway before Death) a lot more.

It's a brutal game, though. I wouldn't chalk it up to lack of skills, it's just one of those games.

I would definitely agree. The hallway before Death and the Death fight itself is way more brutal. The only way I was able to beat Death is because of his obvious glitch. I could not beat him regularly.

Stage 6 is hard, but you at least make progress through it. Dracula is hard to, but just learn his patterns and he will go down eventually. It is very hard and a worthwhile challenge. Use the infinite continues as much as possible. Learn the game and eventually it will be conquered.

[BoneSnapDeez]

Thankfully the FDS version has a save function - there's no way I could conquer this in one sitting.

Saving helps tremendously. I played through the GBA version most recently, and the saves helped tremendously.

You mean the port I tried to beat last year and failed miserably at?

I always figured that the GBA version had the save because it was (actually) a direct port of the FDS original. That's actually not true - it's more like they added a lone save file to the NES version. Same deal with the GBA Metroid. FDS Castlevania and Metroid have the three-slot nameable Zelda type of save.

[Ack]

Hey, I'm halfway. Alone in the Dark is done. I knocked it out over the weekend. Upon beating it, I asked my girlfriend what to play next. The exchange went something along the lines of this:

"You've never beaten a Silent Hill?"

"No, I've beaten most of them. I just haven't beaten the original."

"Oh. Well, it sounds like you owe it to yourself."

So yeah, Silent Hill is up next. I'm also pretty sure of what I want to play for the remainder of the summer, so I may pair down the selection pool a bit for the final five.

THE SELECTION POOL

Broken Sword
Castlevania
Crusader: No Remorse
Dragon Warrior
I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream
Magic Carpet
Mortal Kombat 3
NBA Jam
Sanitarium
Silent Hill -- NOW PLAYING
SimCity 2000
SNK vs Capcom: Card Fighter's Clash
SNK vs Capcom: Match of the Millennium
Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts
Super Punch-Out
Super Star Wars
System Shock
Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon
Ultima II
Ultima IV

BEATEN:

Alone in the Dark
Call of Duty 2
Might and Magic III: Isles of Terra
Thief Gold
Turok: Dinosaur Hunter

[Xeogred]

That's somewhat amusing Ack because your horror talk was part of what boosted my interest and motivation to get around to the Silent Hill games I believe. Once you get past the early going of the original, I thought it held up quite well and in many ways feels like the darkest most hellish game of the series.

I had to look up one puzzle. I wonder if you'll be able to figure it out, other players might have a good guess on which one I'm talking about. lmao

[Ack]

Is it the piano one in the school? That puzzle is directly responsible for me never beating the game.

[Ack]

Ha, double post. Cry about it.

I only had about five minutes to play Silent Hill last night, so I started up the game and rushed through the opening "dream sequence" to appear in the diner. I saved immediately and then grabbed the kitchen knife for the first encounter, letting the first enemy kill me to finish my run for the night. The knife always did suck now that I recall.

The first time I played this game was in February 1999, when I was about 14 years old. At that time my experiences with survival horror video games were still fairly limited, and I had only just begun branching out beyond the likes of the Resident Evil series where I had gotten my start. The experience was one of both dread and wonderment as I explored the average American ideal small town turned into nightmarish wonderland. This was my suburban America, only now crawling with the worst that my mind could conceive, and it was amazing to me just how at home I felt with the experience. I didn't get very far, getting stuck in the school due to a puzzle based around a piano(I'm terrible with music), but the experience of playing what was dubbed at the time "the scariest game ever made" had a profound impact. I openly sought horror games regularly after this.

Going back now, even through just the brief introduction, brought back a wave of nostalgia just as I felt the tentacled pangs of dread roiling around in my stomach over a quick and gory jaunt in the dark. It's like coming home almost. The American suburban experience is a somewhat sterile idyll that so often serves as a veneer for harsh truths of the American experience. Pulling back that mask to find the worms wriggling underneath is cathartic, even if it's only done through the preconceived fantasy of a video game. It reminds me of the times in my life where I found the cracks in that idyll fantasy, but it also tells me that it's ok, that the reality could never be as bad as the nightmare that I play, even though the predesigned nightmare will never be as bad as the things I occasionally suspect may lurk around any given corner.

[noiseredux]

you should watch Kindergarten Cop as a companion piece to playing Silent Hill.

[Xeogred]

5 minutes and Ack already gets that deep.