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prfsnl_gmr
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Re: Racketboy Summer Games Challenge 2022!

by prfsnl_gmr Fri Apr 29, 2022 2:04 pm

sevin0seven wrote:I just checked out Miles & Kilo gameplay and I quickly bought it for the Switch ($1.99 sale). Will be on my backlog. Thanks for the recommendation.


Nice. It’s a steal at that price (which is also what I paid for it). I reviewed it earlier this year in the “games beaten” thread, and if I recall correctly, I said it’s “like Adventure Island, but fun.” :lol: Definitely way, way better than Wonderboy Returns Remix.

In any event, I’m looking forward to reading your impressions on the Adventure Island games. (I’m interested in your thoughts on all of the games listed for your challenge, but I am keenly interested in the Adventure Island games.) If, once you’re through those, you’re interested in exploring the series further, I can tell you what games to seek out (and which to avoid!).
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Re: Racketboy Summer Games Challenge 2022!

by Key-Glyph Sun May 01, 2022 1:48 am

It's still a little early for us west-coasters, but in the interest of making sure I don't forget to publish this post before bedtime... happy opening day, everybody!

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Re: Racketboy Summer Games Challenge 2022!

by alienjesus Sun May 01, 2022 4:36 am

I'm glad to see a little bit of new life in the old challenge, thanks for running it this year Key!

The last few years became essentially just me doing the challenge on my own and it lost some of the appeal for me because of that. I'm also struggling a lot more to come up with lists of classic games to play these days that aren't just RPGs - I've been doing the challenge for over a decade now so I've taken out so many of the big obvious choices.

I wish you all the best with the challenge this year!
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Re: Racketboy Summer Games Challenge 2022!

by Syndicate Sun May 01, 2022 9:36 am

...this sounds like a great time, I think I'll shoot for the veteran mode. There's plenty of candidates in my retro backlog, I'm a big fan of the 16-bit era so I think I'll focus most of my list there. Now I just need to pick some fun and doable games I think that I can get through...

  1. Super Mario World (Wii U)
  2. Super Metroid (Wii U)
  3. Super Mario Galaxy 2 (Wii U)
  4. Phantasy Star II (Gen)
  5. Rocket Knight Adventures (Gen)
  6. Thunder Force III or Steel Empire (Gen)
  7. Castlevania Symphony of the Night (XB)
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Re: Racketboy Summer Games Challenge 2022!

by SpaceBooger Sun May 01, 2022 2:16 pm

I cheated and played a bit of Soul Blazer yesterday and today. In about 3 sittings I have beat the first two worlds.
I'm loving this game. It's not the best-looking SNES game but the average graphics are not noticeable with the music and stellar gameplay.
When researching this game I saw it associated with the Zelda games, but... I think this is more Metroid-like. I know it is a top-down perspective like Zelda and you have to unlock parts of the dungeon, but it's more Metroid-like. Each world is one dungeon that you have to keep unlocking stuff in. The unlocking creates backtracking and a challenge of how long you stay in the dungeon before seeing what you unlocked. I say it's Metroid-like because the unlock can be used right away and even though you backtrack it still seems pretty linear.
For those unfamiliar with this game, you have to traverse dungeon worlds and defeat waves of enemies that come from a "base" (similar to Gauntlet) and once all of the enemies are destroyed it unlocks something in the hub world. Sometimes these unlocks are just clues and sometimes they are needed items to delve deeper into the dungeon. My favorite part is debating how many things to unlock in the hub before returning - sometimes it is just one and sometimes I wait until I am stuck and need a specific item.

The gameplay and level design is keeping me interested and I am really enjoying this game so far.
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Re: Racketboy Summer Games Challenge 2022!

by Key-Glyph Sun May 01, 2022 5:40 pm

@sevin0seven:
Wow, I really like the approach you're taking! Playing back-to-backs of the same series is going to be fascinating. I love doing archeology with old games -- as in, seeing what original concepts stuck around in a series, what quality of life improvements were introduced later on, etcetera -- so your breakdowns are going to be really cool historical takes. Can't wait to learn something!

@Nemoide:
That's really funny that summer saps your energy to play games. This is when I get really amped about it, specifically classic ones, due to happy associations with the season being rekindled by the challenge. That, and summertime still has a magical "it's not the school year anymore!" feeling to it, despite the fact that the last time that summer = vacation funtimes for me was like, 2006. :lol:

@Syndicate:
Yo, happy to have you! I enjoy that your list has a good handful of Genesis on it, because the Genesis is the console I have associated with that summery feeling more than any other. I wonder if it's the same for you, or if that's just coincidence (I mean, your avatar seems to suggest you would be playing a bunch of Sega stuff anyway :mrgreen:). I also know nothing about the WiiU -- I don't think I've ever even seen one outside of demo stations at stores or conventions -- so this will be interesting too. Were these classics downloadables through the WiiShop?

@SpaceBooger:
If that's cheating, I'm a criminal. :lol: I 'm glad you dove in already! Also, I had Soul Blazer completely confused with some other game that is a shmup, apparently. When you leave a dungeon area, can you not go back? Or is there some kind of penalty for returning to a place? I'm trying to figure out what the benefit is for staying as opposed to leaving... oh, unless the waves begin at 1 again each time you go back, and you need to try to last as long as possible for unlockables? That would make sense, because then returning would just burn resources and so on.

As for my progress...

Earthbound: Beginnings: It begins!

First of all, I started playing the game about three or four days ago. I was really amped for the challenge, I had some free time at night, and we were having a heat wave. So I blended up some smoothies and hopped right in. GUILTY AS CHARGED. :lol:

I have a really personal connection to this game despite never having played it. I fell in love with the music sometime circa 2014, particularly the title theme and Eight Melodies, and wanted to arrange the latter for a punchcard music box. I'd made arrangements like that before and uploaded the recordings to YouTube, but for each one I included some kind of item or setting that referenced the game. Not knowing anything about MOTHER, I had to look up the story to find an angle for the video... and then I fell into an irresistible spiral of research and wound up adoring -- and feeling my heart break -- for a particular character in the plot.

Ever since then I've wanted to experience the game myself to understand it, and I'm so thrilled that this was included in the Switch NES library so that I finally can.

And now, the spoilers!
I actually think I'm most of the way through by now. I'm a young boy named Key who sets out on a quest to find out why strange paranormal events are suddenly happening in his house, neighborhood, and neighboring towns. I think this game is supposed to be set in the United States, which could explain my baseball cap and Charlie Brown aesthetic, the ubiquitous hamburgers and french fries, the runaway eighteen-wheeler trucks that give me asthma, and the free-roaming hippies and farmers that I fend off with a plastic baseball bat.

I have nascent telepathic powers, which seem related to research my great-great grandfather was doing back in the day. He and his wife disappeared many years ago, and although he reappeared one day and threw himself into strange experiments regarding ESP, his wife never returned. I have his diary, which is filled with riddles, but which is also the key for traveling into a magical side-dimension filled with compassionate, helpful beings and strange enemies.

I befriended a fellow elementary school student named Bogus who is a target for bullying, but who also steals explosives from the science lab like all innocent children do at that age. I soon after met a girl named Nicole who saw my arrival in a dream and can absolutely flay enemies with her mindpowers if the party can keep her alive long enough to do it. Her mother has disappeared, along with all the other parents in her hometown, so we're currently on a quest to locate the grown-ups. Along the way we danced at a nightclub and befriended a teenage gangster boss who wanted revenge for the disappearance of his own parents, too.

All the while we're collecting little pieces of a song, measure by measure, for some unknown purpose...

I'm really enjoying it so far, partly because of what I already know about it, and partly because it does what I think of as an old-school RPG convention of delivering unexpectedly emotional moments through minimal text and small scenarios. There are little hands-off sequences that feature only music and moving graphics (e.g., a train traveling through the overworld for a minute or so) that are really lovely moments carved out of the action for relaxing, thinking, or enjoying. I wasn't expecting to be as moved as I was by the clearly overgrown town of missing parents, populated only by child NPCs roaming around crying to be held or pretending to be brave. I also was torn to bits over a particular character who volunteered themselves into my party but whom I could not heal, protect, or dismiss; now I just have to find a way to live with the aftermath. I like how MOTHER was already turning some RPG tropes on their heads like that. Another example would be an enemy that appears, says hello, runs away, but "for some reason you still get XP for it." The influence this game/series had on Undertale is palpable.

The reports that the encounter rate is really high were not exaggerated, although it only really annoys me when I'm trying to get my bearings in the oversized overworld and keep getting interrupted. The environments are really large, which is neat, but I'm the sort who needs to explore the whole area to feel comfortable. The game having its own map is crucial for guidance and keeping my sanity, but still, I am compelled to check every nook to make sure I'm not missing something. Which sometimes means cuing a new battle on three squares in a row. I've just accepted that I don't always make great life choices in games. :lol:

I suppose the other issue with the encounter rate is that it's really hard to keep some party members alive when they first join up. Nicole's brain is filled with destructomagic, but for her first dozen levels or so I had her guarding in every battle so that she would survive long enough to gain XP, meaning she had no further purpose beyond carrying extra inventory items. That's okay and all I suppose, but her glass-like defense is frustrating in a game that requires you to travel back to town and pay medical bills for revival (if there's an item that revives, I'm not aware of it) -- especially when you have to go to a specific building with an ATM, USE your Cash Card, and withdraw money to do it. I appreciate the realism the game is going for in things like this, because again, it's upending the standard tropes of "enemies carry gold for some reason and you have infinite pockets for carrying it" and whatnot. It's just grating when your new party members keep getting wiped out and you have to do this five or six step process each time to recover.

At least now I know a spell to revive, hooray! But only Nicole has it, so we still have to watch out. :lol:

This was already too long, so I'm stopping here. But I'm excited to experience the heart of the mystery, which is close...
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Re: Racketboy Summer Games Challenge 2022!

by o.pwuaioc Sun May 01, 2022 6:55 pm

sevin0seven wrote:
Key-Glyph wrote:@sevin0seven:
Pend away! Can't wait to see what you're thinking of tackling.

Alright, here's my list:

Konami:
Castlevania Bloodlines (Genesis)
Castlevania Dracula X (SNES)

Hudson soft:
Hudson's Adventure Island (NES)
Super Adventure Island (SNES)

Kemco:
Drakkhen (SNES)
Dragon View (SNES)

I'm doing back to back series per game. Should be a fun summer.


Are you going to play Adventure Island for score or just to beat it? I may throw down on that one, too. I don't own Super Adventure Island, though.
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Re: Racketboy Summer Games Challenge 2022!

by SpaceBooger Sun May 01, 2022 8:09 pm

Key-Glyph wrote:@SpaceBooger:
If that's cheating, I'm a criminal. :lol: I 'm glad you dove in already! Also, I had Soul Blazer completely confused with some other game that is a shmup, apparently. When you leave a dungeon area, can you not go back? Or is there some kind of penalty for returning to a place? I'm trying to figure out what the benefit is for staying as opposed to leaving... oh, unless the waves begin at 1 again each time you go back, and you need to try to last as long as possible for unlockables? That would make sense, because then returning would just burn resources and so on.

There is no penalty. There are benefits. You can only carry one healing item that refills your health, if you use it in a dungeon you can get fully healed and a replacement healing item. Some enemies respawn, but the main ones that unlock stuff don't.
All of this sounds like reason to go back to the hub often... But I don't. To get back you have to backtrack a lot or your can move forward to unlock another, for lack of other terms, warp point. Also when in the flow one action directly affects others, so if you leave you may forget where to go or what to do.
I find myself staying in the dungeon moving forward hoping to find a way back without going backwards or if I get stuck and have to unlock something.
Here is a good rundown of the game by SNESDrunk https://youtu.be/iwCiSe1MbW4
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Re: Racketboy Summer Games Challenge 2022!

by Key-Glyph Mon May 02, 2022 3:42 am

Oh no, game, no! Don't make me do this!

Spoilers below...
So, that character who forced his way into my party and I couldn't protect: he's part of a family, all of whom believe it's their destiny to serve me. I thought their existence was a way to help low-level party members explore the realm, which then doubled as an emotional gut punch reversal of standard video game logic when their involvement is treated with lethal seriousness.

After this first hero died serving me -- which, again, I could not prevent once I'd spoken to him -- I went back to his home to ask about him in the hopes that he'd just been teleported back there and healed. Of course there was one less person in the house, and the next sibling joined up with me immediately, saying, "We heard our brother died honorably at your side. I will take his place." (Please note that I was talking out loud at the TV during this in dismay when I realized what I'd done.) After this second sibling died I swore off talking to any more of the family, and noticed the sad little gravestones I'd previously overlooked.

But now the game is pretty strongly suggesting that I can't move on unless this entire family dies in my service. Auugghhh, my heeaaarrttt...

It's a beautifully terrible story beat, and a moment that truly uses the interactivity of video games to generate emotion. I'm going to have to choose to lead these characters one by one to their drawn-out deaths -- deaths they accept and feel are honorable, but which I hate, and which I wish they weren't so willing to suffer on my behalf -- in order to save the world. I have to do this myself. The game isn't just gonna do it for me in some cutscene or whatever so I can keep my conscience clean.

Really interesting, really wonderful stuff. But oh man how I hate that I have to do it.

If I do this and find out it's not required, I'm going to have a hard time forgiving myself. :cry:

I'm like, this close to looking it up, actually, just to be sure.

UPDATE: I looked it up because I couldn't help it. Apparently my first interpretation was right -- they are party buffers with a tragic twist -- and they do not need to die! Thank freaking goodness. I know it seems odd, but this is the kind of thing that would really bother me to do, despite being able to load a previous save or whatever. And luckily nothing was spoiled for me in looking that up.

Phew, what a rollercoaster. :lol:
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Re: Racketboy Summer Games Challenge 2022!

by sevin0seven Mon May 02, 2022 2:49 pm

o.pwuaioc wrote:Are you going to play Adventure Island for score or just to beat it? I may throw down on that one, too. I don't own Super Adventure Island, though.

Just playing to beat it my friend, but if you want to play for score I'm down. I'll record my score once I'm finished with the game. I was also made aware that this game is awfully hard the further you go...should be fun.

Key-Glyph wrote:@sevin0seven:
Wow, I really like the approach you're taking! Playing back-to-backs of the same series is going to be fascinating. I love doing archeology with old games -- as in, seeing what original concepts stuck around in a series, what quality of life improvements were introduced later on, etcetera -- so your breakdowns are going to be really cool historical takes. Can't wait to learn something!

Thanks, I thought it would be fun this way.

prfsnl_gmr wrote:In any event, I’m looking forward to reading your impressions on the Adventure Island games. (I’m interested in your thoughts on all of the games listed for your challenge, but I am keenly interested in the Adventure Island games.) If, once you’re through those, you’re interested in exploring the series further, I can tell you what games to seek out (and which to avoid!).

Will do, and please do tell other games regarding the series or something that relates to it.
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