Join in on our classic gaming club!
User avatar
Nemoide
Next-Gen
 
Posts: 2395
Joined: Sat Aug 27, 2011 6:37 pm
Location: New York state

Re: Together Retro August 2020 - Birds are Jerks

by Nemoide Fri Aug 21, 2020 8:53 pm

I think I need to tap out of The Smurfs for Game Gear, I'm just not in the headspace for a frustrating platformer these days. I'm sure I'll go back to it and beat it someday, but I'm not feeling it.

It's interesting that when I was a kid, platformers where *the* video game genre. It felt like EVERYTHING was a platformer, or else it was something strange and different. It was the default.
Nowadays, even though I still love the same consoles from my youth, that's the genre I'm the least interested in revisiting. I guess part of it is how many of the games (including Smurfs) are just kind of floaty and awkward to play and back in the 90s that could be chocked up to "difficulty" and I'd assume that it was made that way on purpose and if I'm having trouble, it must be my fault. That paired with having less free time as an adult than I did as a kid, so I'm less eager to spend an entire day failing to make progress in a video game. I also feel like I've experienced most of what the genre has to offer, so a platformer has to be extremely creative (eg Dynamite Headdy) to impress me as an adult.

Whatever my next platformer is, I want it to be something on the easy end of things. Maybe The Legendary Starfy or something.
Image
pook99
128-bit
 
Posts: 788
Joined: Thu Aug 10, 2017 11:27 pm

Re: Together Retro August 2020 - Birds are Jerks

by pook99 Fri Aug 21, 2020 10:39 pm

Omerta wrote:I did some Ninja Gaiden again and it caught the attention of my three boys right when I started playing. They wanted to take turns so we did and I let them go in blind.

I got to hear things like, “Why are all of your old games so hard?” and “I really hate those birds... no, I think I hate the dogs more.” Apparently dads are jerks, too.

My 11 year old couldn’t believe he’d been playing this crappy old stuff for over an hour. To his credit, he did make it to Act IV after the others had given up.


Great story!

It is always fun watching kids today play old games. I remember one summer when I was teaching summer school I brought my laptop in everyday and had a group of kids who would come to my room during lunch and take turns playing contra 3 in pairs, the furthest they made it was the speedbike level, playing about 45 minutes a day every day for a month. I gotta give them credit for their resiliency but they definitely lack the skills that we had to have when we were their age.
User avatar
Markies
Next-Gen
 
Posts: 1415
Joined: Fri Mar 27, 2015 4:29 pm
Location: St. Louis, Missouri

Re: Together Retro August 2020 - Birds are Jerks

by Markies Thu Aug 27, 2020 9:01 pm

I played through Disney's Aladdin for this month.

http://www.racketboy.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=1161007#p1161007

There were birds in the game and I did die on them a few times.

Damn birds were jerks!
Image
User avatar
Ziggy587
Moderator
 
Posts: 14537
Joined: Mon Jun 09, 2008 5:12 pm
Location: NY

Re: Together Retro August 2020 - Birds are Jerks

by Ziggy587 Fri Aug 28, 2020 8:05 am

Markies wrote:I played through Disney's Aladdin for this month.

http://www.racketboy.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=1161007#p1161007

There were birds in the game and I did die on them a few times.

Damn birds were jerks!


Nice! I also played through SNES Aladdin this month. It may not be the best, but I think it's a must-play 16-bit platformer. How did you like the music? It has some original tracks that always get stuck in my head after playing. Like the music during the Cave of Wonders stage, or the Pyramid stage.
I'm parting with some duplicate Blu-Ray and DVD movies. Check out this thread if interested.
User avatar
Markies
Next-Gen
 
Posts: 1415
Joined: Fri Mar 27, 2015 4:29 pm
Location: St. Louis, Missouri

Re: Together Retro August 2020 - Birds are Jerks

by Markies Fri Aug 28, 2020 11:06 am

I thought the music wasn't bad.

The first stage's music was a little annoying after a while.

But, after that one, it got really good. Those were good tracks and I also enjoyed the Genie level music as well.

It's Capcom, so you expect good music. It's not like Top Tier Capcom level music, but it was really good.
Image
User avatar
Note
Next-Gen
 
Posts: 1265
Joined: Thu Feb 05, 2009 4:39 pm
Location: NYC

Re: Together Retro August 2020 - Birds are Jerks

by Note Sat Aug 29, 2020 5:30 pm

I've played a bit of Mega Man X the past two days, and am still working on the maverick levels. So far, I've finished the Chill Penguin, Storm Eagle, Armed Armadillo, Flame Mammoth, and Spark Mandrill. I think I've picked up all the upgrades, heart tanks, and sub tanks in each of these levels, but I'll have to check again. This is my first playthrough of the game and really enjoying it so far. The first play session was a bit rough, but after referencing a guide to help figure out what weapons certain bosses were weak to, and how to get a few upgrades, that helped a lot and made the game much more manageable. I had Mega Man X2 upon release but never owned the first title until recently, so it's been fun to finally play it.

A few weeks ago I also started playing Donkey Kong Country again. This is one of my favorite platformers on the SNES, the graphic style and music are great, and gameplay is just a lotta fun. My sister and I used to play this together growing up and always had a blast. I'm up to the Kremkroc Industries area, and was a few levels in but didn't make it to the save point before I got a game over screen, so I'll have to redo that area. I was playing casually and missed a lot of the hidden areas and items to collect, so I'll have to go back later on. Enjoying this one again as well!

Also, it's good to see some feedback about Aladdin on the SNES. I played this game a bit when I was a kid, but never owned it. I'll have to pick it up some time and give it a go.
User avatar
Ziggy587
Moderator
 
Posts: 14537
Joined: Mon Jun 09, 2008 5:12 pm
Location: NY

Re: Together Retro August 2020 - Birds are Jerks

by Ziggy587 Sat Aug 29, 2020 5:46 pm

Note wrote:I've played a bit of Mega Man X the past two days, and am still working on the maverick levels. So far, I've finished the Chill Penguin, Storm Eagle, Armed Armadillo, Flame Mammoth, and Spark Mandrill. I think I've picked up all the upgrades, heart tanks, and sub tanks in each of these levels, but I'll have to check again. This is my first playthrough of the game and really enjoying it so far. The first play session was a bit rough, but after referencing a guide to help figure out what weapons certain bosses were weak to, and how to get a few upgrades, that helped a lot and made the game much more manageable. I had Mega Man X2 upon release but never owned the first title until recently, so it's been fun to finally play it.


I think the first Mega Man X is the best of the SNES X trilogy. It's an awesome action platformer with a lot of charm and polish. A must play, really.

Note wrote:A few weeks ago I also started playing Donkey Kong Country again. This is one of my favorite platformers on the SNES, the graphic style and music are great, and gameplay is just a lotta fun. My sister and I used to play this together growing up and always had a blast. I'm up to the Kremkroc Industries area, and was a few levels in but didn't make it to the save point before I got a game over screen, so I'll have to redo that area. I was playing casually and missed a lot of the hidden areas and items to collect, so I'll have to go back later on. Enjoying this one again as well!


Ah. there's so many jerk birds in this game! Even a couple in boss form. Such a classic platformer. You can say it's overrated, or that it's outshined by the sequels, but it's still an excellent 16-bit platformer worth playing. It's still beautiful to look at, and the music is still as great as ever.

I actually just replayed DKC1 as well, using the "restored" MSU-1 music hack. Long story short... Jammin' Sam Miller is hunting down the original samples, then reconstructing the tunes so that we can hear what they sound like before they were compressed for the SNES. The result is very interesting. Since it's the same samples used, it sounds just like the game (and not a cover or something) but it's loads more clear. The MSU-1 is an enhancement chip created by Byuu for the SNES (you can use it on the emulator bsnes or with the Sd2snes flash cart) that can stream audio and video. So basically, these are recreations of the original tunes using the authentic samples but at CD quality audio, then with the MSU-1 hack you can play the game with these CD quality tunes. AFAIK, he's still working on some of the tunes for DKC2 and DKC3, so I haven't tried those yet. But I played through DKC1 with this hack and had a blast with it.
I'm parting with some duplicate Blu-Ray and DVD movies. Check out this thread if interested.
User avatar
o.pwuaioc
Next-Gen
 
Posts: 8374
Joined: Tue Mar 29, 2011 7:59 pm
Location: I miss NYC already.

Re: Together Retro August 2020 - Birds are Jerks

by o.pwuaioc Sat Aug 29, 2020 5:58 pm

Many of the enemies in Balloon Kids are birds, though sadly the manual doesn't list them all. But you got scrolling birds, birds that fly up and down, scrolling bees, bees that go in circles, birds with balloons, bats, dragonflies, penguins in the air and on the ground, skeleton fish in the air - lots of bird/aerial enemies. I always thought the "Burner Boys" looked like ducks or geese on fire. I think it's the resemblance of an upturned tail. Besides, all the other moving enemies are animals, though the hopping "Burner Boys" in the last level don't really look bird-like.

Also, surprised we got through a few pages without mentioning IASIP.
User avatar
PartridgeSenpai
Next-Gen
 
Posts: 2991
Joined: Mon Dec 14, 2015 9:27 am
Location: Northern Japan

Re: Together Retro August 2020 - Birds are Jerks

by PartridgeSenpai Sun Aug 30, 2020 7:03 am

I finished the normal playthrough of Castlevania: Rondo of Blood on my PCE Mini today, thrashing Dracula as Maria, who is SO super good, she's more like an easy mode than anything. And it's a pretty cool concept for an easy mode, granted she's an unlock, but a cool thing to see in an action game from '93. I also got through some of the side levels as Richter after I finished the game as Maria, and I might keep playing but I might not. In a bit of a weird in-between gaming time, and I'm not sure I need more jerk-face birds to deal with right now XP

Rondo is a really fantastic game though. A really cool sort of linking chain between the action-based prior Castlevania games and the Metroid-like games that would follow. Really glad I played the original after playing the PSP port so many years ago. This game has SUCH good music, it's amazing. That's one of my favorite parts of the game, tbh X3
I identify everyone via avatar, so if you change your avatar, I genuinely might completely forget who you are. -- Me
User avatar
Sload Soap
Next-Gen
 
Posts: 2105
Joined: Mon Aug 12, 2013 4:43 pm
Location: United Kingdom

Re: Together Retro August 2020 - Birds are Jerks

by Sload Soap Sun Aug 30, 2020 7:08 pm

I did another run of Fantasy. The third section has a stream of jerk birds who fly haphazardly around the screen while apes chuck coconuts at you from below. It's not too bad once you get their patterns down but they still fly in weird patterns and you're flying about in a hot air balloon which has a massive hitbox so they're tricky to avoid.

Later, not technically birds but flying enemies, helicopters become your main foe and their patterns are even whackier. The final boss requires you to lead at least three of them to their doom via friendly fire from a very unfriendly cannon. Gets a bit tight.
Return to Together Retro

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 2 guests