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prfsnl_gmr
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Re: Racketboy Summer Games Challenge 2021- Lets play games!

by prfsnl_gmr Sat Jun 05, 2021 10:11 am

Yeah…I’m not convinced on any of those. Tron Bonne, maybe? She is in the MvC games…

What super expensive games do you think meet the “classic” criteria? A few that come to mind for me are:

Earthbound
Monster World IV
Shantae

Others?
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alienjesus
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Re: Racketboy Summer Games Challenge 2021- Lets play games!

by alienjesus Sat Jun 05, 2021 2:29 pm

prfsnl_gmr wrote:Yeah…I’m not convinced on any of those. Tron Bonne, maybe? She is in the MvC games…

What super expensive games do you think meet the “classic” criteria? A few that come to mind for me are:

Earthbound
Monster World IV
Shantae

Others?


Panzer dragoon saga
Paper Mario
Conkers bad fur day
Castlevania: rondo of blood
Radiant silvergun
Shining force 3
Snatcher

Some pricy stuff that could fit, off the top of my head. Some are more expensive than others.
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alienjesus
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Re: Racketboy Summer Games Challenge 2021- Lets play games!

by alienjesus Sat Jun 05, 2021 7:09 pm

1. Probotector (NES)
2. Tetris Attack (SNES)
3. Mario Party 2 (N64)
4. Mario Golf (GBC)
5. Mother 3 (GBA)
6. Ape Escape (PS1)
7. Command & Conquer: Red Alert (PS1)
8. Gate of Thunder (PCE)
9. Shinobi (SMS)
10. Herzog Zwei (MD)
11. Shining Force III (Saturn)

Been making progress on my games!

Today I finished up Red Alert. The difficulty certainly ramped up in the last few levels - I even had to restart the final level because I ran out of money in a bad position and didn't see myself recovering whilst under constant Allied attacks. The second time round I located my base a little further east and focused my development of my base different - more sub pens and war factories early on, as well as Ore Silos, with Tesla coils to follow. More tanks and subs was the trick because I did much better second time round. The ending of the game was... interesting. I'm glad I've played the original Command & Conquer before so I could understand it!

I've also started 2 other games on my list. First up, I've got stuck into Mario Party 2. I'm fairly certain to finish this one I just need to play each board in the game, so I've convinced my wife to work through them all with me. We started up with 'Pirate Land'. I love the costumes and theatre asethetic of this game. Instead of just winning the board, I ended up finding the treasure by swordfighting Cap'n Bowser. Thats much more fun. The mini games we played were fun enough, similar to the first game but more refined, and the rewards for playing them are fortunately much more consistent too. Fun so far!

After finishing up Command & Conquer, I also decided to carry on with the other PS1 game on my list - Ape Escape. I've only played a few levels so far - I did all the stages in the first world (the dinosaur one) and the first stage of world 2 aswell. The controls certainly take some getting used to - I'm fighting against 20 years of experience using the right stick for camera, plus another 4 years of the c-buttons on N64, so it's hard getting used to the camera here with such limited controls - especially as this is a very exploratory, open platformer so you need to rotate the camera a lot. The only way to do so is by pressing L to center it behind you though unfortunately.

That's not the only wonky controls though. The game decides to map a variety of tools to the face buttons - pressing X, Circle, Square or Triangle equips the item, and then the right analogue stick uses them. Nothing about this feels right or couldn't be done better another way - it's an excuse to justify the right analogue stick that doesn't hit the mark for me. Neither does the swimming controls - clicking the left stick down to dive just feels wrong. I actually didn't realise the PS1 dual analogue had clicky sticks though, so I guess thats cool?

Despite the control hurdles, and they are big hurdles, I am having fun with the game. The levels so far have been very simple, but the game has a lot of quirky charm. The voice acting is hilarious too and sounds like it's from a show for toddlers. I believe the localisation here in the UK is quite different to the US too - some character names are different (Buzz instead of Jake, Katie instead of Natalie) so I imagine the voices are different too. They sounded quite familiar to me, I'll have to look them up.

Feeling good about my progress so far!
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Sload Soap
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Re: Racketboy Summer Games Challenge 2021- Lets play games!

by Sload Soap Sun Jun 06, 2021 12:12 pm

Full agreement with the controls in Ape Escape. Started up the PS2 version and it just seems deliberately obtuse to have the buttons mapped as they do. Could just have the tools mapped to the shoulder buttons and a traditional X for jump with square being attack.
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alienjesus
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Re: Racketboy Summer Games Challenge 2021- Lets play games!

by alienjesus Sun Jun 06, 2021 1:52 pm

Sload Soap wrote:Full agreement with the controls in Ape Escape. Started up the PS2 version and it just seems deliberately obtuse to have the buttons mapped as they do. Could just have the tools mapped to the shoulder buttons and a traditional X for jump with square being attack.


Yep, or a banjo kazooie/ dk64 system where you hold r1 and press a face button to switch tool. Would have freed up x for jump and you could have had triangle for first person view - which would have saved L2 and R2 for camera controls even if the game did insist on using the right stick for something else
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alienjesus
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Re: Racketboy Summer Games Challenge 2021- Lets play games!

by alienjesus Wed Jun 09, 2021 8:28 am

Me again - is anyone else still working through a summer list?

I've been making progress on Ape Escape - it took a while but I've finally started to become more accustomed to the controls and they do the job although it'd still be better with a more conventional control scheme.

I'm working through a set of levels set in 'recent history' which are all themed around east Asia - the first was a Japanese style temple and the second was on the Great Wall of China. I think I'm getting quite far through now as I've got 6 of the 8 tools available. The early tools of the game are a bit dull - a stick to bash things with, a radar to locate monkeys, and a slingshot to shoot stuff, but I've enjoyed the most recent additions - a hula hoop that lets you dash after charging up - which you of course do by spinning the right stick to hula first - and a propellor which you can use to jump higher and fall slower - also by spinning the stick to twirl it around.

I'm having a lot of fun with the game so far. I've bounced off of a lot of other PS1 platformers. Spyro didn't do much for me, and Crash Bandicoot I thought was OK - but I'm keen to play more games in the Ape Escape series after this first title.
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Re: Racketboy Summer Games Challenge 2021- Lets play games!

by SamuraiMegas Wed Jun 09, 2021 10:17 pm

Well, I just completed Symphony of the Night. I know I posted a list here before, but I think I'm gonna end up ditching it and just playing random classics I've always heard of but never gotten around to. I saw Snatcher mentioned in here, I've always meant to play it, so I think I'll give that a go next.

As for Symphony of the Night- I haven't really played that many Metroidvania games before, at least to the end. I'd always get bored and put them down when I was younger, but I really like them now, I think. The gameplay does leave a bit to be desired in my opinion- namely the combat being kind of boring after a bit, and the fact that it's easier to just fly over enemies in the 2nd castle than to fight them. The best thing about the game are the graphics, hands down some of the best spritework I have ever seen. Loads of different enemies and it's all beautifully animated.

I'd give it an 8.5/10.

Now to go track down an .iso for snatcher.
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alienjesus
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Re: Racketboy Summer Games Challenge 2021- Lets play games!

by alienjesus Thu Jun 10, 2021 7:13 pm

Nice - Symphony of the Night is one I played for the summer challenge a few years back too. I agree with a lot of what you said - I really enjoyed it but the latter half of the game is certainly pretty weak and the difficulty balance is off - many late game bosses died very easily.

I've been working on Ape Escape some more, and this evening I worked through the very long final level and beat the game, getting credits along the way. There's still a lot to do though - I've caught 141 of the 204 monkeys in the game thus far, and found 45 of the 60 special coins you can find. I enjoyed the game enough and I think the task should be quick enough that I'll probably go for completion here and round up the rest of those ape antagonists.

That leaves my list as follows:

1. Probotector (NES)
2. Tetris Attack (SNES)
3. Mario Party 2 (N64)
4. Mario Golf (GBC)
5. Mother 3 (GBA)
6. Ape Escape (PS1)
7. Command & Conquer: Red Alert (PS1)
8. Gate of Thunder (PCE)
9. Shinobi (SMS)
10. Herzog Zwei (MD)
11. Shining Force III (Saturn)

Mario Party 2 is still in progress, and I'm finishing up the portable game I'm playing before tackling any portable entries on the list, so of what's left I think I'm going to tackle a few of the shorter but tougher games - perhaps I'll go for Shinobi next? It was on a summer list way back in 2016 for me, but I never even beat stage 2! I didn't put much time in though, so time to get some practice in I think.
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Re: Racketboy Summer Games Challenge 2021- Lets play games!

by alienjesus Thu Jun 17, 2021 6:35 pm

I've been playing more Ape Escape over the past week or so - I finally caught every monkey today, and beat the true final boss. I really enjoyed the game, and I'll definitely be giving the sequels a go at some point.

I'm still aiming for 4 or 5 games beaten on my challenge by the end of the month, so next up I'll be making a concerted effort to beat Shinobi on Master System. Wish me luck, this is going to be a tough one I think!
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Re: Racketboy Summer Games Challenge 2021- Lets play games!

by PartridgeSenpai Thu Jun 17, 2021 6:40 pm

Congrats on Ape Escape, AJ :D
On the mention of its control scheme, I wanna say it's Million Monkeys on the PS2 that actually DOES just have the weapons just mapped to the face buttons because it needs the right stick for more accurate camera controls (because it's an EDF-kinda game, sorta). Granted it *is* a different sorta game, it controls just fine regardless XP
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