I've had a busy day playing games, and I've made a lot of summer challenge progress. I took down 3 games from my list today!:
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)
First up, I spent a while playing through Shinobi on Master System. I've played this one a bit before, so my first attempt got me quite far, close enough to the ending that I decided to give it another go. I failed at a stage just before the final boss where annoying blue ninjas jump out of nowhere and they're almost impossible to react to. Luckily, second time around I got there with enough lives to learn the stage a bit and managed to scrape through. The final boss seemed tough at first, but once I figured out how to handle his 4th stage (he changes attack strategy 4 times, and the first 3 are fairly simple), he went down like a chump. The game is decent enough, but the series really came into it's own on the Mega Drive and Game Gear. This one is just OK.
I followed up that success with some Probotector. I gave this one a few goes too. My first run was pretty terrible, I used 2 continues on the waterfall stage (stage 3) and game overed on the second fortress (stage 4). Second time around faired a little better though, and I got to stage 7 before I wiped out. The game is actually pretty generous with extra lives, but again I lost a lot of lives in the second fortress. I think I get overconfident when I get a spread gun, because I always die shortly after. I spent most of my run using the machine gun.
Third time's a charm though, because I got through the fortress with only 1 life lost this time, and I only lost another 1 or 2 before that. From stage 4, the game actually feels easier to me - stage 5 is challenging but not as bad as 4, and stage 6 is really easy if you take your time, as is stage 7. Stage 8 was no problem either, with only the mini-boss (the giant alien head) killing me because I got a bit gung-ho. The final boss here is way easier than the version of it in Contra 3.
In fact, my overall assessment of the game is that it was easier than I expected. Contra 3 is a game that wrecks me every time, I struggle to make it past the stage 3 boss. This one is pretty manageable though - no contra code required!
As it was getting quite late and I wasn't in the mood for replaying another game with game overs, I decided to skip my plan to play Gate of Thunder next, and instead moved onto Tetris Attack. I played the 1p Stage Clear mode (theres 3 single player campaigns, but this seems like the most 'classic' puzzle gameplay. There are 30 stages plus a final boss to play through, and the game keeps a timer counting as you play. It took me about 43 minutes to play through the first 29 stages, which were relaxing for the most part, although challenging towards the end. I didn't die until world 5-4 (stage 24) and I only died 3 times until world 6-4. 6-4 ramps stuff up though and took about 10 attempts. 6-5 though (stage 30) is where things get brutal. 43 minutes to get to this stage - and about another 40 minutes to beat it!
After finally getting through, it was time for the final boss. The boss has a HP bar, which is deleted by doing combos, so the game expects you to play a little differently. It doesnt ease you in though, because the speed of new blocks coming in is crazy. It took me about an hour and 20 minutes to beat bowser, and probably over 100 tries. Once I beat it I felt more relief than satisfaction. It's a shame the difficulty spikes so sharply at the end though - because I otherwise had a fun time with this game. I plan to give the other 2 play modes a try before moving on from this game for the challenge. One mode is a Vs mode (with a story) which has garbage blocks and other puzzle game staples. The other is a puzzle mode, where you must clear all blocks in limited moves. Should be fun to try.
Next up, I probably will finally get to Gate of Thunder, which I expect will take a while because I am not good at shmups, even if this is considered an 'easier' one. I'm also going to continue working through Mario Party 2 maps with my wife.