Games Beaten 2015

[PresidentLeever]

Mars-April-today:
Cave Story (PC, 2004) - 7+
Ecco: The Tides of Time (MD, 1994) - 7
Populous: The Beginning (PC, 1998) - 7+
Golden Axe Warrior (SMS, 1991) - 6
Alex Kidd in Miracle World (SMS) - 8
The Legend of Zelda (NES, 1987) - 6+
Metal Sonic Hyperdrive (MD, 2014) - 7+
Pop'n Twinbee (SNES, 1993) - 7
Tiny Toon Adventures: BBL (SNES, 1992) - 5+
Tiny Toon Adventures 2 (GB, 1993) - 7
Star Wars (Namco)(NES, 1987) - 6+
Rush 'n Attack (NES, 1987, 1-player) - 5+
Faxanadu (NES, 1987) - 6+
Bubble Ghost (GB, 1990) - 7
Ganbare Goemon: Sarawareta Ebisumaru!/Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon (GB/GBC, 1990/2000) - 7-
Astyanax (NES, 1989) - 6+
Twinbee 3 (NES, 1989) - 7
Meikyuu Jiin Dababa (FDS, 1987) - 7-
Joe & Mac (MD, 1993, 1-player) - 7
Joe & Mac (SNES, 1991, 1-player) - 6+
Gyruss (NES, 1988) - 6+
Goonies II (NES, 1987) - 6

Gave up on:
Layla (NES): Slippery and repetitive, with at times poor conveyance of level elements.
Twinbee Da! (GBC)(1990 Twinbee 1 conversion): Wasn't really a fan of the power up system in the previous two games and found this version more annoying since it's zoomed in.
Spelunky (PC): Tedious rouge-like elements stain an otherwise enjoyable experience.
Wai Wai World (NES, 1988): Very loose scrolling, sometimes unpolished controls/hit detection, cheap enemy placements, etc. It seems you have to play the levels in a certain order as well, so why let players choose? I hope the sequel fixes some of these things.
Otocky (NES): Sort of a proto-Rez/Bit Trip Runner game. Too simplistic and risk free to really engage me as a musician though.
Arkanoid 2 (NES): I was hoping it would have 2-player co-op. Pretty good game but I'm terrible at it.
Phantom Fighter (NES): Almost good. There are interesting ideas like when your assistant gets kidnapped in the town screen and learning new skills, but the execution is often pretty bad and the game is too drawn out considering its scope.
Zelda II (NES, 1988) - There are things I like here but I mostly just see the flaws when I replay it and it's too distracting. Stopped near the river monster.

Lately I've been focusing on the latter half of the 80s trying to clear anything interesting from the period that I've missed out on, starting with NES games. There's a lot of average and flawed stuff but I really enjoy getting a broader perspective on that era and seeing the birth of certain genres.

[BoneSnapDeez]

66. Ys III: Wanderers from Ys (Turbo CD)The cutscenes are beautiful though. Dat late-80s pixelated anime.

I agree the final cutscene was amazing, this one had a great ending. I actually had more fun beating Ys III on TGCD than I did Oath in Felghana on PC. I think the original is better than the remake. But only the TGCD version. To have played this in 1989 would have been phenomenal, but it still holds up today.

Felghana feels like fan service for those who love the original Ys III. It doesn't quite have the same impact, I agree.

Now play Book I & II!

[Ack]

1. Renegade Ops (PC)(Multidirectional Shooter)
2. Borderlands 2 (PC)(FPS/RPG)
3. Gunpoint (PC)(Puzzle Platformer)
4. Robotrek (SNES)(RPG)
5. The Tick (SNES)(Beat 'Em Up)
6. Alien vs Predator (SNES)(Beat 'Em Up)
7. X-Kaliber 2097 (SNES)(Action Platformer)
8. Metal Slug (MVS)(Run and Gun)
9. Shadowrun (SNES)(RPG)
10. Quake II (PC)(FPS)
11. The Twisted Tales of Spike McFang (SNES)(RPG)
12. Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number (PC)(Action)
13. A Story About My Uncle (PC)(Platformer)
14. Star Wars Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II (PC)(FPS)
15. Star Wars Jedi Knight: Mysteries of the Sith (PC)(FPS)
16. Catacomb (PC)(Top-Down Shooter)
17. Catacomb Abyss (PC)(FPS)
18. Catacomb Armageddon (PC)(FPS)
19. Catacomb Apocalypse (PC)(FPS)
20. The Catacomb (PC)(Top-Down Shooter)
21. Catacomb 3-D (PC)(FPS)
22. EarthBound (SNES)(RPG)
23. Quake II: Ground Zero (PC)(FPS)
24. Quake II: The Reckoning (PC)(FPS)
25. Lionheart: Legacy of the Crusader (PC)(RPG)
26. The 7th Guest (PC)(Puzzle)

The 7th Guest is a puzzle game, it just has horror point-and-click trappings to navigate the mansion which serves as a hub world. Old Stauf the toymaker invited over 6 guests to his creepy old house and hid 21 puzzles throughout, so now you have to navigate them to discover why the 6 were invited and who is the 7th. Solving the puzzles reveals bits and pieces of the story, often out of sequential order, and in a few cases with red herrings tossed in to make you doubt portions, but always showing something.

The game is also nice enough to give you a hint book for your puzzles hidden in the library, and if you return to it three times for any particular puzzle, it will automatically solve it for you, though at the expense of costing you the scene for beating the puzzle on your own. That's ok though, as there are still plenty of other little scenes hidden throughout the house, such as a haunted painting, a doll that asphyxiates a baby, and Chuckles, the clown with a red balloon. I think Chuckles is my favorite part of the game. He would terrify several friends of mine.

Of note is the use of CG to make the house and FMV with live action actors to explain the story, often with some visual effects which range from goofy, such as suddenly getting a long tongue, to creepy, such as phases sometimes turning into skulls but in a sort of haze to make you question whether you really saw it. Of particular note is the magician, who ended up my favorite character. It's a shame he didn't survive, but then no one did, so it can't be helped. The acting is often hit or miss, and the video is low resolution, so it can often be hard to see exactly what is going on. The volume on the dialogue is good, but it can often suddenly fluctuate with an ear-piercing scream, which made me wish for two things: subtitles, and a volume control. Seriously, this game is loud, so for most of it I just hung my headphones around my neck to avoid going deaf. That said, the music is actually quite nice, and a definite high point for me.

But the puzzles are the real meat of the game, so I suppose I should talk about them. All of them are apparently designed on children's puzzles from the 19th century, and they have a lot of variety, though you will see a couple of ideas repeated. Some are quite easy, some are just time consuming, some are ridiculously cryptic, and one in particular is considered nearly impossible at this point because you have to play a AI.

There are two problems I had with the puzzle design: 1. There is often little instruction, and 2. you are often stopped to hear voice clips from either your character or Stauf. These voice clips generally provide the only instruction you will get in solving the puzzle, unless you consult the hint book up to two times. Sometimes these hints are helpful, but not always, and there were a few times I really wish the game had flat out told me that I could not do something. The bishop puzzle in particular annoyed me, mainly because at no point did the game say that the bishops could not be on a diagonal line with each other. If I had known that when I did the puzzle, I could have saved an hour of frustration. A few puzzles can be cheesed as well, such as the skeleton coffins and Stauf's portrait puzzles, since they start out with random arrangements.

As for the nearly impossible puzzle, it is a game similar to Go called Infection played against an AI that is hidden in a microscope. Unfortunately the AI was apparently designed to plan ahead based on your processor speed. This was intended for folks with a 486 processor to make it challenging but not too difficult. Unfortunately processors have gotten just a tad bit faster, so the AI is now able to do all the necessary calculations to plan ahead. Think of it as playing the equivalent of Deep Blue, only you're not Gary Kasparov. You're going to lose. A lot. Thankfully the hint book can skip it. I highly recommend doing that.

So, does 7th Guest hold up? Well...yes and no. The puzzles themselves offer a lot of variety and were based on old designs anyway, so beyond the issue with the microscope, they're pretty much fine and still challenging. You will find some easy and some hard simply based on how you think, so what I found hard, you might find easy, and vice versa. The use of live actors is hokey and something we don't do much anymore, and the game's lack of audio options really serves as my biggest annoyance, but I can see why this was such a huge deal in 1993. It was quite technically impressive for it's time, and it was fun finally playing through such a pivotal artifact of gaming history.

[Key-Glyph]

BTW you can switch Kongs by pressing X on the controller...

Ah, this I knew, but in certain situations the game wouldn't let it happen. On some of the traveling platform levels I couldn't switch while on said moving platform, and I believe you also have to be perfectly still for it to happen, because it wouldn't work for me while I was slipping around on ice. In the end I tended to keep Donkey out to eliminate problems with enemies even though I was slightly better at handling Diddy.

EDIT: Wait, now that I'm thinking about it, I think I was switching with select. I can't remember. I'll find out when I get back to it!

As for the nearly impossible puzzle, it is a game similar to Go called Infection played against an AI that is hidden in a microscope. Unfortunately the AI was apparently designed to plan ahead based on your processor speed. This was intended for folks with a 486 processor to make it challenging but not too difficult. Unfortunately processors have gotten just a tad bit faster, so the AI is now able to do all the necessary calculations to plan ahead. Think of it as playing the equivalent of Deep Blue, only you're not Gary Kasparov. You're going to lose. A lot.

That is fascinating!

[prfsnl_gmr]

1. Cut the Rope (3DS)
2. Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction (PS3)
3. Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth (XBOX)
4. Jewel Link Chronicles: Mountains of Madness (NDS)
5. Super Mario 3D World (WIIU)
6. Mario Kart 7 (3DS)
7. Kirby Triple Deluxe (3DS)
8. Gunman Clive (3DS)
9. Child of Light (WIIU)
10. Gunman Clive 2 (3DS)
11. Mighty Switch Force! Hyper Drive Edition (WIIU)
12. Shifting World (3DS)
13. VVVVVV (3DS)
14. Mega Man 9 (PS3)
15. Mighty Switch Force 2 (WIIU)
16. Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse (PS3)
17. Castle Crashers (PS3)
18. Pushmo (3DS)
19. Steamworld Dig (3DS)
20. The Unfinished Swan (PS3)
21. Blaster Master (NES)

I talked about this game at length in the Summer Gaming Challenge thread. In sum, it is 80% great (great graphics! fantastic music! stupendous open-world platforming!) and 20% terrible (no password system! horrid hit detection!). I softened on it a bit after I learned how to strafe, but I still think the game has some serious issues that, if corrected, would have made it one of the very best on the NES.

[BoneSnapDeez]

Nice work. Hard ass game, from what I recall.

I may play it when I get to 1988 of my Year Challenge. It's a toss-up between that and Kenseiden.

[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)
54. Pinball Challenge (Channel F)
55. Elevator Action (Xbox - Taito Legends)
56. Elevator Action II (PlayStation 2 - Taito Legends 2)
57. Altered Beast (Xbox 360 - Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection)
58. Congo Bongo (Xbox 360 - Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection)
59. International Soccer (Commodore 64)
60. Out of this World! / Helicopter Rescue! (Odyssey²)
61. Alien Invaders - Plus! (Odyssey²)
62. Ice Hockey (Atari 2600)
63. River Raid (Atari 2600)
64. Frankenstein's Monster (Atari 2600)
65. Ys II (Famicom)
66. Ys III: Wanderers from Ys (Turbo CD)
67. Gremlins (Atari 2600)
68. Frogs and Flies (Atari 2600)

1984...

Gremlins

1984 was a tough year for gaming. The Crash had decimated much of the second generation and the NES was still a year away (though the Famicom had been released in Japan). The console games that slowly continued to trickle into the market consisted mainly of re-issues, late arcade ports, and licensed titles such as this.

Now licensed games have something of a bad reputation; some would say it's deserved. But Gremlins isn't all that bad. It consists of two distinct "boards" before looping. The first plays out like Activision's Kaboom! The movie's main character (Billy?) must catch the Mogwai before they descent upon midnight snacks. If a Mogwai is to reach a burger it transforms into a Gremlin cocoon. Strangely enough there doesn't seem to be a way to "lose" in these stages. Though if you miss shooting down a Mogwai you also miss an opportunity to gain points.

Stage two plays out like a fixed shooter. The Gremlins hatch out of their cocoons and make their way to the screen bottom. Here they must be shot before reaching their destination; otherwise a life is lost. When all Gremlins are taken down the game loops. I believe stage 8 is where the difficulty reaches its peak and every stage after is just 8 on repeat.

Screenshots don't do the game justice. Graphics are simplistic, but everything controls quite smoothly. There's some nice animation and a cute little musical ditty too. The game is rare and rather expensive. Is it worth is? Maybe to collectors. For casual gameplay just stick to the more common titles that Gremlins apes - namely Kaboom! and Space Invaders.

As far as the Year Challenge goes, I may now be done with second gen consoles. Let's see if I can get through a NES launch title next...

Frogs and Flies

This isn't part of the Year Challenge, but I decided to give it a go since I already had the Atari hooked up.

I also have a stupid anecdote to go along with this one. There's a lone independent game store in my local city. It's frequently staffed by someone we (by "we" I mean prfsnl_gmr and I) know only as "The Guy." Now, The Guy is a rather gregarious and loquacious fellow. But he's also known for for his crass sense of humor and propensity to rant endlessly.

During one such rant he was semi-coherently relaying his dissatisfaction with modern games. Halo is for fratboys. Nintendo is baby-ish. Xboxes don't even work. PS3 is too expensive. And so on. At the apex of his ramblings he exclaimed "I'd rather just play Frogs and Flies than any of this bullshit!" So, The Guy, I dedicate this playthrough to you.

F&F was developed by Mattel for the Atari 2600 and C64. Later, an "enhanced port" known as Frog Bog was made available on the Intellivision. The game is very similar to the old Sega-Gremlin arcade game known simply as Frogs.

The goal in Frogs and Flies is to eat more flies than your AI or second-player opponent. Player 1 is a green frog, while the AI/player 2 is red. Oddly enough the red frog starts with a bit of a lag; if a second player doesn't touch a joystick within a few seconds then the computer simply takes over.

Two game modes are available. In the standard mode any movement of the joystick will cause your frog to jump cleanly from one lilypad to the other. The controls can also be changed to another setting where up is used to jump and left and right cause your frog to walk/hop around. With this configuration frogs can also fall in the water with mistimed jumps; getting out takes a second or two. I'd really recommend sticking to the default controls as the game is annoyingly difficulty otherwise.

Flies have all sorts of different patterns. Some move in a straight line while others zoom erratically around the screen. The background slowly changes throughout the game from morning to night, concluding with a black sky. Surprisingly, F&F has an ending complete with the text THE END being dragged across the screen by a firefly. Though, this does occur whether you win or lose thus making beating the game and "achieving" a Game Over indistinguishable.

Well, The Guy was sort of correct. Frogs and Flies is a lot of fun. Better than modern games? Eh, probably not. But it's cheap enough and entertaining enough to deserve a place in any Atari collection.

[prfsnl_gmr]

Nice work. Hard ass game, from what I recall.

Once I realized that you can strafe - and that a fully-powered up gun is effective against the bosses - it is not actually that hard. The overwhelming majority of the open-world platforming sections of the game are very easy, and life-restoring power-ups are plentiful. With regard to the bosses, you just power up your gun to the maximum level, and dodge what the bosses throw at you while shooting constantly. (I set the "b" button to rapid-fire, and kept the "a" button set to normal-fire. This allowed me to strafe while firing constantly. Moreover, if you have played a bullet-hell shmup, dodging the bosses attacks is second nature, and unlike bullet-hell shmups, your shots often destroy the bosses' projectiles.)

The game's main problem is the complete lack of a password feature. Accordingly, you should be sure to play it on your Retron-5 so that don't have to beat it in one long 4-6 hour sitting.

So, The Guy, I dedicate this playthrough to you.

The Guy is the best.

[GSZX1337]

1) Cannon Spike - Dreamcast
2) I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream - PC

3) Mighty Gunvolt - 3DS (as Mighty No. 9)

Like everyone else who backed Mighty No. 9, I got this game for free. Even if I had paid the four bucks the game normally costs, I think I'd be happy with it. There's not really much to say about this. It's a short and sweet 2d platformer.

4) Mega Man: Maverick Hunter X - PSP (Vile Mode)

I played this last year after finishing the X campaign and found it to be frustrating. I beat this mode about three weeks ago and... found it to be frustrating. This mode just does not jive with the game. Vile has to stand still to fire most of his weapons, he can't dash despite being able to do so in his X Mode boss fight, and the points system leads to either an unbalanced or middling arsenal. The free play mode, the mode that allows Vile to use any combination of weapons desired without managing points, fixes one of these problems, but that's all it does. Traversing the Mega Man X stages with Vile is an awkward ordeal of slowly avoiding enemy fire, mid-air bomb drops, and standing still waiting for things to die. It was kinda fun to play as one of the series's baddies, but this just doesn't feel right.

[Luke]

I set the "b" button to rapid-fire
.

Boo. Button mash bro!

But beating Blaster Master is more than fun.

I usually power my gun to max and breeze through the game until the Crab Boss. That guy is a jerk.