Racketboy Summer Games Challenge 2020 - begin when ready!

[BoneSnapDeez]

PSO's third boss has been defeated but it seems that i forgot one of the three keys needed to open the last area, some backtrack is due to the weekend XD.

Go to Forest 2. Activate the pillar (it will glow when you do this). Warp out. Go to Caves 2 and do the same. Then go to Mines 2, activate the pillar, and then fight the boss again. This time to doorway to the Ruins should be open. (Make sure you talk to the principal too before quitting just in case that counts as an additional trigger).

[lordb0rb4]

I have never even played a SRPG, almost did this year with Valkyria Chronicles on Steam.

If you want to dip your toes in SRPGs but just really aren't sure about them, Shining Force II is the game to do it. It's challenging but not cruel, it has lots of personality, and it's just a great production overall.

Thanks , will keep it in mind.

[lordb0rb4]

PSO's third boss has been defeated but it seems that i forgot one of the three keys needed to open the last area, some backtrack is due to the weekend XD.

Go to Forest 2. Activate the pillar (it will glow when you do this). Warp out. Go to Caves 2 and do the same. Then go to Mines 2, activate the pillar, and then fight the boss again. This time to doorway to the Ruins should be open. (Make sure you talk to the principal too before quitting just in case that counts as an additional trigger).

As long i dont have to beat that tunnel worm thing again i'm game
Thank you for the tips, i'm lvled up enough so it will be a breeze

[pook99]

1. Shining Force 2
2. Castlevania: harmony of dissonance
3. Perfect Dark

Wii:

1. Epic Mickey -----------------done
2. Muramasa the demon Blade ----------------started
3. Super Smash Bros Brawl
4. One of the Zeldas (I'll decide when its time)
5. House of the Dead 3 ---------------------------done
6. Last Story
7. Tatsunoko vs. Capcom
8. Metroid Prime 3
9. Super Mario 3d world ---------------------playing
10. wii sports resort
11. Prince of Persia: forgotten sands


Beat Epic Mickey and House of the Dead 3 today

Hotd 3 has been a game I have wanted to play forever but had no means to do so until recently. Hotd 2 is my favorite light gun game of all time so the third entry had some pretty big shoes to fill, and while it is a very good game, it definitely is not going to dethrone hotd 2 for me, but in fairness I don't think any game really can. For those of you who have played hotd 2 you know that it has hands down the worst voice acting and comically bad phrases in any video game ever made. This gives the game a certain charm that video games rarely have, and while the voice acting and plot in hotd 3 are pretty bad, it never reaches the comically bad heights that its predecessor does.

Outside of that it is a solid game, the action is frantic, the bosses are huge and well designed, and the level design is a lot of fun. My favorite level in the game has the boss chasing you for the entire duration of the stage, you drain his health slowly in set pieces and then run away from him shooting all other baddies that come in your path. It is a very cool stage and really gives an almost horror vibe as you run from this behemoth for the entirety of the level. Also, in keeping with the tradition of the series, the last boss is virtually impossible, and I beat it with 1 life and no continues left.

The game is pretty tough but it does help you along, you start off with 3 lives and 4 credits(technically 5 but you use one credit to start) each time you game over by running out of lives you can set your max lives up by one, after your max life is at 5 you start earning more continues, this does produce a bit of an unncessary grind, but I did like knowing that I was getting better and learning the game while also giving me hope that I would eventually beat it, the game is only about 30 minutes long but I played for a little over 2 hours before I was able to beat it.

For light gun shooter fans this game is a no brainer, it may not be as intentionally campy as its predecessor but it is still a frantic game with lots of zombies to shoot.

Epic Mickey

This is an interesting game, it is a 3d platformer, with some 2d segments, but it is not your typical collectathon platformer you would expect, especially with a protagonist like Mickey Mouse.

The main gimmick of the game is your paint brush, you are in a world made out of paint and you can shoot either paint or thinner out of your brush to either color in the worldor to destroy it. You will need to use both to solve various puzzles and overcome different obstacles, but the main draw of the game is the options it gives you. The vast majority of the bosses, enemies, and situations you find yourself in can be solved with either paint or thinner and your choices affect how characters interact with you and ultimately, the ending that you get.

The story here is surprisingly dark for a disney game, especially one featuring Mickey, but the summary is Mickey gets into some mischief and inadverdently destroys the world where rejecting cartoon characters live, I don't want to get too into the story but it is well done.

Outside of that it is a pretty well designed 3d platformer, the platforming is tight, the worlds are fun to explore, and there are lots of side quests. The camera can be wonky at times, you can auto center it with a button press and move it around with the d-pad but it rarely is where you want it to be on its own, I have seen worse and it is manageable but not as good as I would want it to be.

I wouldnt call Epic Mickey a revolutionary game, but it is interesting, it does enough different to set itself apart from your typical mascot platformer, while still getting most of the fundamentals right.

[prfsnl_gmr]

Here’s my list:

Donkey Kong Country*
Donkey Kong Country 2
Donkey Kong Country 3
King’s Field
Metal Gear (NES)
Silent Hill
Streets of Rage*
Streets of Rage 2*
Streets of Rage 3
Super Baseball 2020

One down. Replayed DKC. It’s a pretty basic hip-n-bop platformer. Fun, but definitely not the best the system has to offer. Moving on to DKC2!

[lordb0rb4]

1. Shining Force 2
2. Castlevania: harmony of dissonance
3. Perfect Dark

Wii:

1. Epic Mickey -----------------done
2. Muramasa the demon Blade ----------------started
3. Super Smash Bros Brawl
4. One of the Zeldas (I'll decide when its time)
5. House of the Dead 3 ---------------------------done
6. Last Story
7. Tatsunoko vs. Capcom
8. Metroid Prime 3
9. Super Mario 3d world ---------------------playing
10. wii sports resort
11. Prince of Persia: forgotten sands


Beat Epic Mickey and House of the Dead 3 today

Hotd 3 has been a game I have wanted to play forever but had no means to do so until recently. Hotd 2 is my favorite light gun game of all time so the third entry had some pretty big shoes to fill, and while it is a very good game, it definitely is not going to dethrone hotd 2 for me, but in fairness I don't think any game really can. For those of you who have played hotd 2 you know that it has hands down the worst voice acting and comically bad phrases in any video game ever made. This gives the game a certain charm that video games rarely have, and while the voice acting and plot in hotd 3 are pretty bad, it never reaches the comically bad heights that its predecessor does.

Outside of that it is a solid game, the action is frantic, the bosses are huge and well designed, and the level design is a lot of fun. My favorite level in the game has the boss chasing you for the entire duration of the stage, you drain his health slowly in set pieces and then run away from him shooting all other baddies that come in your path. It is a very cool stage and really gives an almost horror vibe as you run from this behemoth for the entirety of the level. Also, in keeping with the tradition of the series, the last boss is virtually impossible, and I beat it with 1 life and no continues left.

The game is pretty tough but it does help you along, you start off with 3 lives and 4 credits(technically 5 but you use one credit to start) each time you game over by running out of lives you can set your max lives up by one, after your max life is at 5 you start earning more continues, this does produce a bit of an unncessary grind, but I did like knowing that I was getting better and learning the game while also giving me hope that I would eventually beat it, the game is only about 30 minutes long but I played for a little over 2 hours before I was able to beat it.

For light gun shooter fans this game is a no brainer, it may not be as intentionally campy as its predecessor but it is still a frantic game with lots of zombies to shoot.

Epic Mickey

This is an interesting game, it is a 3d platformer, with some 2d segments, but it is not your typical collectathon platformer you would expect, especially with a protagonist like Mickey Mouse.

The main gimmick of the game is your paint brush, you are in a world made out of paint and you can shoot either paint or thinner out of your brush to either color in the worldor to destroy it. You will need to use both to solve various puzzles and overcome different obstacles, but the main draw of the game is the options it gives you. The vast majority of the bosses, enemies, and situations you find yourself in can be solved with either paint or thinner and your choices affect how characters interact with you and ultimately, the ending that you get.

The story here is surprisingly dark for a disney game, especially one featuring Mickey, but the summary is Mickey gets into some mischief and inadverdently destroys the world where rejecting cartoon characters live, I don't want to get too into the story but it is well done.

Outside of that it is a pretty well designed 3d platformer, the platforming is tight, the worlds are fun to explore, and there are lots of side quests. The camera can be wonky at times, you can auto center it with a button press and move it around with the d-pad but it rarely is where you want it to be on its own, I have seen worse and it is manageable but not as good as I would want it to be.

I wouldnt call Epic Mickey a revolutionary game, but it is interesting, it does enough different to set itself apart from your typical mascot platformer, while still getting most of the fundamentals right.

I'm curious to know what version of HOTD3 you played, i'm a die hard fan of the entire series and played over the years and they're always great, truly classics.
I'm only asking this because there's a particular version of the game that has became my favorite, the PS3 port is an outstanding conversion that you can use 2 of the shoulder buttons to shoot at an alarming rate and i think it applies to this version alone, it's almost cheating but by the end of the game your hand is DESTROYED.

[opa]

1- Fantasy Zone - SMS
2- Castlevania: Circle of the Moon - GBA
3- Dragon Warrior 2 - GBC
4- Persona 3 FES - PS2
5- Ys: The Vanished Omens - MSDOS
6- Fire Emblem - GBA
7- Hello Kitty World - Famicom
8- Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde - NES
9- Jackal - NES
10- Rush'n Attack - NES

Hello Kitty World - Japan never got the original Balloon Kid game for Game Boy but what they did receive is a Hello Kitty reskin of the title for the Famicom. HKW plays just like the other Balloon series of games. The screen scrolls as you maneuver around enemies and obstacles. Collect enough balloons and you get rewarded with extra lives and a power up similar to the star in the Mario games. The first few levels are fairly easy but once you get into the later stages you will soon learn that the slippery controls are not on your side. A lot of the times you have to be pixel-precise with flying through obstacles. Hello Kitty World also has the Joust-flap problem (wherein it takes hitting the flap button seven hundred times to move quickly). Additionally, it's not readily apparent what will happen if you touch an enemy or sharp object. Sometimes a spike on the ceiling will pop one of your two balloons; other times it takes them both. Some obstacles kill you instantly. Not gonna lie, I abused save states because I'm not playing the first few stages again. Eventually I did make it to the end and got the most satisfying ending. Thank you so much, translators:

As a bonus pic here's what happened during a Jekyll and Hyde run when my rom corrupted for a bit.

J E K Y L L W A V E

[alienjesus]

Still plugging away at Fire Emblem 4. Yesterday I played for about 3 hours, which was just enough time to finish challenging the arena in chapter 4. The goal for the weekend is to try and clear chapters 4 and 5 and finally move onto the second half of the game. It's a long weekend as it's a bank holiday on Monday, so I should have a bit more time to put into it.

I might also try and start up another game alongside it though, for those days I don't feel like spending 3-5 hour sessions on an SRPG I'm thinking I might look to make a start on Turok as my other title.

AJ, what's your final list looking like?
I have never even played a SRPG, almost did this year with Valkyria Chronicles on Steam.

My final list is:

1. Castlevania III (NES)
2. Probotector (NES)
3. Gate of Thunder (TGCD)
4. Final Fantasy VI (SNES)
5. Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War (SFC)
6. Pilotwings (SNES)
7. Super Tennis (SNES)
8. Command & Conquer: Red Alert (PS1)
9. Turok: Dinosaur Hunter (N64)
10. Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots (PS3)

So far, I've beaten Super Tennis, Castlevania 3 and Pilotwings. I'm about 2/5ths through Fire Emblem and I've not started the rest.

[CFFJR]

Well, little Persona 3 update.

I'm just over 40 hours in, and my character is at level 47. Just beat the boss on the 135th floor of the tower. Spent a lot of time in this particular section getting the rest of the party caught up in both levels and equipment, which took a little bit of grinding. Generally this is not a game where you can afford to keep everyone equipped with top of the line stuff unless you carve out extra time for it. But everyone's beefed and so is my big collection of Personas.

The story has been kicking in a little bit more, in particular by introducing a group of opposing Persona users who don't like what my group is up to. The main story hasn't advanced a whole lot beyond that and some extra details that came with new party members (though I'm simplifying a lot). The characters are pushing things along, but I imagine once I finish the Mcguffin section of the story something bigger will happen.

I did run into a bizarre bug though. Turns out that there's an issue that only shows up if you're playing the game on a PS3, as I am. On September 5th, which is the date for a major story event, you can potentially experience some freezes during cutscenes and gameplay. If it happens to you there's no preventing it (resetting is useless, it'll happen again at the same moments), but you can actually just wait it out and eventually the game will resume. I was lucky and only had a freeze in one cutscene that lasted about 30 seconds, but when I was looking this up I found that many people had multiple freezes over the course of the event, some of them lasting as long as 5-10 minutes.

It's really odd, because the game otherwise runs perfectly on the PS3.

So Opa, if you're playing this on a PS3, don't panic on 9/5!

Hard to say how much time is left in the game. I know that the final gameplay moments happen in January, so I have just over 4 months in game, but who knows how that's going to shake out in hours.

[pook99]

Started Muramasa the demon blade for the wii today, very good so far. Its funny, earlier in the year I played a game called bladesd fury on steam and all the reviews were comparing it to Muramasa, at the time I hadnt played Muramasa but really enjoyed bladed fury, I definitely see the similarities now, even the map system is identical, its weird playing a clone before playing the game that inspired it.

@lordborb: I am playing the wii version on the house of the dead 2 and 3 collection. I could definitely see how rapid fire would come in super handy, especially on the plant boss when he sticks his head out and you have to drain his life before he spits on you, I got hit just about every time on that attack.

The "cheat" the wii version has is if you just tap the sensor on the wiimote you will trick the game into thinking you pointed off screen and it will reload, I didnt use it because it was too cumbersome based on the way I hold the wiimote when I play light gun shooters.