Racketboy forums’ Summer Games Challenge 2019

[pook99]

@alienjesus: I've played through actraiser about 1000 times in my life and I never experienced the bosses moving faster at the end, thats really weird. Actraiser is definitely in my top 10 snes games, possibly even my top 5.

[alienjesus]

@alienjesus: I've played through actraiser about 1000 times in my life and I never experienced the bosses moving faster at the end, thats really weird. Actraiser is definitely in my top 10 snes games, possibly even my top 5.

That is weird, they were definitely faster for me - although they were all quicker, it was really noticeable with the Minotaur, who didn't hit me in our initial match but killed me 3 times without me dodging successfully once on the rematch, and the flame wheel, who was almost unavoidably fast when rolling along the floor.

Anyhow, another game is beaten:

Bold = in progress, Strikethrough = complete

1. ActRaiser (SNES)
2. Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War (SFC)
3. GoldenEye 007 (N64)
4. Mario Party (N64)
5. Mario Tennis (N64)
6. Castlevania: Circle of the Moon (GBA)
7. Mother 3 (GBA)
8. The New Zealand Story (SMS)
9. Shenmue 2 (DC)
10. Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots (PS3)


I played through the last 4 levels of Goldeneye today. There were a few moments I found to be a little rough - protecting Natalya in the cradle, and the battle with Xenia in the jungle were big ones, but overall nothing was too bad and I finished up the game in a couple of hours of play.

So I already said, but I really don't get the idea that GoldenEye holds up poorly today that seems so prevalent now. It's fast paced, fun and plays pretty smoothly too. I think most of the frustration stems from people struggling with the default controls, but honestly - try control scheme 2, it makes so much more sense when you're used to modern controls, despite move and aim being on the wrong hand.

I had a great time with GoldenEye, and I actually think it holds up better than Perfect Dark from what I remember of that. I need to sit down and beat Mickey's Speedway USA sometime soon - now I'm done with Goldeneye, Mickeys Speedway is the only game on the system by Rare I've not beaten.

Next up on the marathon, I think I'll get stuck into MGS4. Fire Emblem I'll get back to, but I'd rather have the space to take it slow with that one now, and Mother 3 is my commuting portable game, so MGS4 makes sense to go to next for my home console title.

[prfsnl_gmr]

I agree, AJ. GoldenEye is still a fun game. I’m glad you enjoyed it.

[Markies]

I need to sit down and beat Mickey's Speedway USA sometime soon - now I'm done with Goldeneye, Mickeys Speedway is the only game on the system by Rare I've not beaten.

Honestly, I was quite surprised with how good Mickey's Speedway really is.

All Rare did was reskin Diddy Kong Racing into another racing game and it surprisingly works. It's not exactly rocket science, but if you want a fun little kart racing game with a little bit of challenge near the end, it is worth it.

[Ack]

Well, Far Cry 2 has definitely overstayed its welcome at this point. Since it only tracks the percentage of the main story completed, I have no way of truly knowing how far I have made it collecting diamonds, unlocking safe houses, purchasing upgrades, and scouting enemy checkpoints. As a result, I've decided that I'm now just going to focus on rushing through the remaining main missions to wrap things up.

I've also realized that the game's moral conundrum is apparently too ethically dark to discuss with my fiancee, who refused to listen to more after I explained I had just taken a job to destroy a mobile radio station generator which instead soon entailed assassinating a government censor and forcing a DJ to read a message about a WHO representative actually being a spy, causing a mob to rise up and kill him. I murdered the DJ afterward and blew up the generator, then had to book it to where the mob was killing the WHO agent because his driver was a fellow merc who hired me to get that guy killed. Why? It hurts international support for one side, knocking them back down and providing further opportunities for the mercs to make more money.

Far Cry 2 is ultimately about a civil war with these outside actors orchestrating assassinations, providing arms, undercutting each other, and preventing either side from gaining an advantage to prolong the war while making as much money and sowing chaos for the fun of it. My "best buddy" might even have raped a girl, based on something he said earlier. I look forward to putting a bullet in him. Let's see if things stay this way.

[pook99]

Here is a list of 20 games I have been meaning to play, I'm the kind of person who needs options so I won't try and narrow it down to 10, but I will try and play 10 of them by the end of the summer, I am also likely to add games to the list as I think of them

1. ducktales 2 (nes)
2. guardian legend (nes)
3. Super Mario RPG (snes)
4. Pulseman (genesis)
5. thunderforce 3 or 4 (genesis)
6. golvellisu (master system)
7. popful mail (sega cd)
8. Castlevania: harmony of dissonance (gba)
9. Metroid fusion (gba)
10. avenging spirit (game boy)
11. umjammer lammy (ps1)
12. Nightshade (ps2)
13. Mega Man X8 (ps2)
14. Viewitful Joe 2 (ps2 or gamecube)
15. Luigis Mansion (gamecube)
16. Billy Hatcher and the giant egg (gamecube)
17. Ill Bleed (dreamcast)
18. Resident evil code veronica (ps2 or dreamcast)
19. Zelda: twilight Princess (gamecube)
20. Space Ace (PC)

A month left and I have made no progress

1) I beat mario RPG and loved it
2) I played guardian legend and liked it at first, realized I missed upgrades and then was too weak to proceed so I completely lost interest
3) I was playing luigis mansion and really liking it, then I stopped, I don't know why but I need to get back into it.

I was definitely planning on playing castlevania harmony of dissonance until I discovered CV rom hacks and fan games and have been playing a ton of those, I may jump on that game as soon as I finish the fan game I am playing now.

There are a bunch of short games here so I think I will try and beat at least 5 before the end of the summer.

[Key-Glyph]

A month left and I have made no progress

Thunder Force 3! It will take you a few days on normal difficulty, tops. Also, it's totally rad! You only lose your equipped weapon when you die on normal mode, not all of them! The soundtrack! The Engrish ending!! Explosions!!!

Well, Far Cry 2 has definitely overstayed its welcome at this point.

I'm sorry to hear this, but that honest opener did also make me laugh, so. I appreciated it.

Also, dang, AJ is on fire this summer!

I have finally moved on to Lemmings on the Genesis. This game has been on my Challenge list for so many summers, and even before Racketboy, its unfinished status haunted me.

This is a game I adored as a child. Before we had a Windows computer, I asked my mom to take my Lemmings codes to work and type them up all fancy-like in her word processor. I still have those printouts, and I picked up right where I left off with them all those years ago. That said, there is a tumultuous side to my relationship with Lemmings. I mean, it's just so cute, and yet... so horrible, when you don't do things right. I distinctly remember the moment I realized the Lemmings were exploding when I nuked a level (it just wasn't something I'd really thought about before then), and it still hurts me to watch their last flailing moments as they drown, and incinerate, and so on. This is honestly a huge part of why I've put off the game for so long. I love the puzzle element, and yet there's this uneasiness I'm trying to keep at bay the whole time. I enjoy it when I'm doing well, but when I'm not, I just can't wait to be finished with it.

For all my avoidance, though, I actually can't believe how much progress I've made. The last level my younger self attempted was the very first Taxing stage, and yesterday I built, dug, and bashed my way through the next 26 challenges. I seriously thought the game was nearly impossible where I'd dropped off, but I wonder if I just didn't possess the right thinking (or patience and/or emotional stamina) at that age. It was clear almost immediately as a grown-up that many scenarios required more than one of what I'll call Hero Lemmings -- the Lemmings that march off to prepare the stage for their cohorts' passage -- at one time. Some of these levels are nail-biting exercises in jumping back and forth from two opposite ends of a stage, supervising two, even three Hero Lemmings that need to coordinate multiple steps to meet in the middle. I don't think I'd considered that possibility as a child.

The triumphant moments make you feel wonderful, but often you fail for reasons that have nothing to do with your logic or controller skills -- and not being able to easily tell whether it's you or the game kinda sours things sometimes. I keep thinking about how much more amazing a modern Lemmings game could be, because we can compensate for so many of the programming pitfalls that drive me up a wall: not being able to single out a specific individual lemming in a group before assigning jobs (to make sure you pick one that's headed in the right direction), unclear environment hitboxes (so your Hero doesn't bop their head unexpectedly on a weird edge and abandon their task), and good heavens, a rewind feature (so you can roll back and adjust your miscalculations right then and there)! Imagine not having to redo levels that take 15 minutes of constant vigilance each time you trip up at the finish line because your bridge was just ever so slightly misplaced.

Maybe such a game already exists?

So yes. I will be thrilled to be done, and I'm in the groove to do so -- but I will definitely be looking up hints if I get stuck. Like I said, sometimes it's super hard to tell if a level is giving you grief because you haven't found the solution, or if your strategy is sound but off by just a pixel here or there. I am definitely not letting this game languish for another summer just because I can't see nearly imperceptible gaps or whatever!

[prfsnl_gmr]

Maybe such a game already exists?

Yes!!!...basically. It’s called Mario vs. Donkey Kong 2: March of the Minis for the Nintendo DS:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mario_v ... _the_Minis

Its predecessors and sequels play very differently, but it is pretty much exactly what you’re looking for.

[marurun]

Key, go read my review of Mini-Land Mayhem, one of the Mario Vs Dinkey Kong sequels. Unlike the title pfnsl describes, in this one you ‘draw’ the environment that the Minis (Lemmings) march through. The entire series may just be up your alley. They are very carefully designed.

[pierrot]

Well, it's official. I'm now not sure whether I hate Skyward Sword, or Zelda II more. I was forced to look up where the last stupid town was, because at no point does it even suggest that the hammer has another function, and why would anyone even think it would? (Key, I just started watching through your recordings, so I'm sure I'll get to it eventually, but how in the world did you figure that out? Is it in the manual? Curse you, manuel!) I also had to figure out what one magic container I missed, because I wasn't allowed to get the last one without it, which I needed to even be taught the spell that's required to get the friggin' master key, in order to even get past the first door in the sixth palace, which I found the entrance to without any problems, even before actually finding that last damn town, because--this game has stupid fucking priorities, and thinks it's more fun to bog a player down in contrivances than actually having interesting puzzles to solve.

After all that crap, I steamrolled the sixth palace, because if this game isn't being a complete dick, it's just lying over and dying. I mean, WTF was that boss. I didn't even have to move. It never even stood a chance.

So then, obviously, the game doubles down on its dickitude with one of the stupidest gauntlets I've ever seen. After a few attempts, and finding out that the "Spell" incantation can be used to make things easier, I just made a mad dash for the palace, because it's not worth actually staying and fighting most things in this game (just take the hit, and run past). As I'm doing this, and still barely about to make it to the palace, I'm thinking, 'There's just no way,' but after a couple of screens in the seventh palace, I found out that the game, finally, at the very end, is actually throwing the player a bone, and not starting back at Hyrule after a game over.

The seventh palace is a stupid, asshole, nightmare. I don't care what you think of the game up to that point, this last palace is atrocious. Fireballs everywhere, and jumping shit shooting sword beams like Link dreams about. Dead ends. Oh my god, the dead ends. So as I'm standing around, half falling asleep because of how boring this game is, just jumping on horse heads repeatedly to replenish magic, so I can lightning the piss out of the blue swords-birds, I have ample time to think about why this game sucks so much. I mean, by all rights, it shouldn't. Both the NES Zelda games are highly derivative of the early Dragon Slayer games (Metroid kind of was, also). The early Dragon Slayer games rock (except Romancia--no one likes Romancia). Ergo, Zelda II is awesome. Except it isn't, and really that seems to come down to what Nintendo failed to steal emulate from Falcom, and Kiya: Good game design. In particular, good mazes. It struck me when I thought about the last chapter of Kaze no Densetsu Xanadu, which was like this beautiful tribute to the first two Dragon Slayer games. A 31 floor dungeon of pure bliss. Routes that wind up and down floors. Hidden doors, springboard tiles through multiple floors. A constant need for the next linchpin to progress just a little further. Puzzles. Oh my god, puzzles everywhere. All the while, this burning desire to collect the ultimate equipment, buried deep in the floors, behind sealed passages, and only accessible through meticulous exploration. It was the perfect distillation of the impeccable mazes of Dragon Slayer, and the delicately woven pastiche that is the route through the floors of the tower in Xanadu.

Zelda II is none of that. It just dicks you over with, 'Here's your palace. There's nothing worth your time here. Have some sucktastic enemies, and get fucked. Oh yeah, and false floors. Have fun--or don't. We don't really care.' Despite the murderous rage I felt after being sucked in by the gravitational pull of lava (?), when I was in fairy form, I eventually got to the boss of the palace. I lightninged his face into existence, and died shortly after. I was pretty well not interested in continuing, so I decided to see if it would still start me at the beginning of the palace, if I saved. Of course it didn't. Fuck you, game.