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prfsnl_gmr
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Re: Racketboy Summer Games Challenge 2022!

by prfsnl_gmr Mon May 02, 2022 4:54 pm

sevin0seven wrote:[
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.


My pleasure!

The second two Adventure Island games, Adventure Island II and Adventure Island III, both look fantastic, and they have drastically different gameplay mechanics. They’re still action platformers, but there is less of an emphasis on running through levels quickly, picking up fruit to survive. Rather, you explore a bit more; you can ride dinosaurs; there are more varied boss fights, etc. The problem is that both games are way, way to po long to beat in a single sitting, and neither of them has a password or save system. (There are also a lot of cheap deaths, meaning you have to memorize some parts to ensure you don’t eat through your limited supply of lives and continues.)

The Gameboy ports, however, are just fantastic. Clearly, they don’t look as good as the NES games (which have some of the best, most colorful graphics on the NES), but they have just as much content. Better yet, though, the difficulty is turned down a bit, and both games have a password system. This makes a huge difference, and I enjoyed the Gameboy games much more than the NES games.

A lot of the later games followed the Adventure Island template. These games include Adventure Island: The Beginning, New Adventure Island, and Super Adventure Island. (Again, the music in Super Adventure Island is fantastic.) All are linear platformers that don’t iterate much on the original game’s design. (Of these Super Adventure Island is my favorite, but New Adventure Island us pretty solid too.)

Some of the other games go in different directions, however. Adventure Island IV is a Famicom-exclusive metroidvania game, and it’s actually really good. The cart is insanely expensive, though. Super Adventure Island II is non-linear, side-scrolling ARPG. Master Higgins wears armor, and it plays a lot like later games in the Wonder Boy series. Finally, Bug Honey is a truly bizarre Famicom exclusive based on a short-lived Takahashi Meijin TV show. It has both platforming and brick-breaking gameplay, neither of which are very good.
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Re: Racketboy Summer Games Challenge 2022!

by MrPopo Mon May 02, 2022 10:02 pm

So based on your reactions to Mother so far, I think you're going to enjoy Earthbound even more Key. And you're correct that both games have a setting which is best described as "a Japanese person's concept of America in the 80s".
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Re: Racketboy Summer Games Challenge 2022!

by Key-Glyph Tue May 03, 2022 4:12 am

So I just stayed up way too late finishing Earthbound Origins -- but isn't that what summertime gaming is all about?! :lol:

What a lovely experience. I was emotionally moved several times, the final battle and ending were extremely satisfying, and I just feel... thoughtful. I need to mull over the story and really contemplate all the moving pieces.

I did needlessly backtrack over the final area a few times due to a kinda-sorta red herring, and I also discovered that I could have had access to a stash of great items very early on in the game if I'd thought something through... but those are just standard misadventures for Key in gaming. I unintentionally play on self-inflicted Hard Mode all the time.

Speaking of, this means I've officially completed Peaceful Mode for the challenge! I'm really riding these good feelings, so I'm going to try to push for Veteran and finish four more games before the summer's out. I'd really love to jump into the Journeyman Project, but I'm thinking that settling in with something light and fluffy as a breather is a good idea. I might fire up Panic on Funkotron soon (or at very least read the manual) and see if that feels like a chill cooldown situation. If not that, then Scribblenauts.

But for now, bedtime. :mrgreen:
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Re: Racketboy Summer Games Challenge 2022!

by Syndicate Tue May 03, 2022 8:20 pm

Key-Glyph wrote:@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?


...oh no doubt, I'm a big Sega fan and the Genesis is one of the main reasons. I also have a ton of summer memories associated with the console, from chilling at home early in the morning with a large bowl of Triples and playing Final Zone, getting Sonic the summer it dropped, or just picking out something new to check out from Blockbuster. The funny thing is, playing so much stuff from Blockbuster and not owning many Genesis games is what got me into retro collecting. Now on to the Wii U, I feel it was a console a lot of people passed on but has a solid collection of great games. It has direct backwards compatibility with the Wii (how I'm able to play Galaxy 2) and it was also the last implementation of Nintendo's Virtual Console, which was phenomenal on the original Wii. The Wii U's Virtual Console doesn't have the same awesome selection of games but it's a solid spot to grab SNES and TG16 (Console of the Month) games imo. With it being shut down next year, now is the time download those classics that you may have missed.
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Re: Racketboy Summer Games Challenge 2022!

by Key-Glyph Thu May 05, 2022 10:08 pm

I keep wanting to write a synopsis of the MOTHER story as I see it, as well as a really cool interpretation my partner had, but I think I'll hold onto it for now. If anyone else plays Earthbound Beginnings, let me know so we can chat about it later!

Last night I decided to fire up Toejam & Earl: Panic on Funkotron. Full disclaimer that I love the original. It was an absolutely essential piece of best-friend bonding at multiple stages of my life, so these characters hold a very special place in my heart.

That said, I don't care that the sequel isn't in the same style as the original. I'm just not convinced it's a good game for what it's trying to do here as a side-scroller. The controls feel very floaty and unintuitive to me; it's one of those games where you find yourself pushing down on the D-pad with excessive force to try to move your character because your brain has trouble accepting that they were intended to be this laggy. It's already a bit frustrating just to walk and jump around, which is a bad way to start things. It helps a little if I pretend this is all actually the fault of Funkotron's gravity being different from Earth's.

(Please note that I've heard the "they move too slow!" criticism for the original too, so, there's that. :lol:)

It's got its sense of humor still, which makes me smile from time to time. But there's this weird disconnect with how exploration and discovery work. There are hidden items on certain levels that will give you the best ending if collected, but instead of being able to find those items through sheer exploration and observation, locating them hinges on talking to certain NPCs (who are not usually hidden away or hard to reach) and having them verbally instruct you on what to do. They'll give you a wall of text like, "Know that button at the bottom of the cliff you passed? Press it, fall down the cliff again, but you'll land on a bubble, and then you can jump through the fake wall to find the hidden doorway."

This is just so odd to me. I feel like it would be very difficult to find the special items without these long-winded instructions, so it's kind of like using a walkthrough for the game, but the walkthrough is in the game? I just have no sense of wonder or curiosity because of how this is executed. This is very different than something like Metroid, which sets a precedent for finding hidden paths and items in a satisfying way with the tools at your disposal.

I also find the platforming very bland. There's a heavy reliance on platforms that only appear when you jump near them, without any hint that they'll be there. This is an adaptation of a mechanic from the first game that was actually really exciting, because in the original it was always either a fun surprise or you could deduce where it might happen. But here it just feels random, because you have to get lucky. It winds up feeling poorly planned.

The sense I get is that this game had a million different ideas going on and they wanted to cram all of them into one title when they would have been better served being choosy. It's bursting with creativity, but almost none of that creativity has to do with the game's mechanics, controls, or player experience. It's all in the environments and characters and general concepts, like a book with fun protagonists and nice worldbuilding that is unfortunately poorly written.

That said, I'm not exactly frustrated, and although I get really impatient with the controls, I'm still looking forward to playing it after I finish this post. I just don't expect I'll ever revisit it after I finish it this summer.
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Re: Racketboy Summer Games Challenge 2022!

by prfsnl_gmr Mon May 09, 2022 12:38 pm

prfsnl_gmr wrote:Bionic Commando (Arcade)
Contra (Famicom)

King’s Field a/k/a King’s Field II (PS1)
Metal Gear (NES)
Mysterious Murasame Castle (Famicom)
Shinobi (Arcade)
Summer Carnival ‘92 Recca (Famicom)
Super Baseball 2020 (Neo Geo)
Super Meat Boy (XBLA)
Vampire Killer (MSX)


I’m off to a pretty OK start having now beaten two games on my list.

The first is Contra for the Famicom. I’ve beaten the NES version of the games dozens of times, and the Famicom version is mostly the same. It features the same excellent genre-defining run-n-gun gameplay. Moreover, the level design is identical. So…it’s basically the same game. It does, however, feature a few flourishes not found in the NES version. The first is an opening cutscene. The second is a map, like the one featured in Ghosts ‘n Goblins, showing how far you’ve advanced in the game. There are also character animations between levels, and the music and graphics are upgraded slightly (e.g., additional drum effects, additional background animations, etc.). As a result, the Famicom version is probably the best version of Contra. It’s not a huge upgrade over the NES version; so, you shouldn’t think you’re missing anything if you’ve only played the NES version. If, like me, you have the Contra Collection, however, it’s worth checking out just to experience the (very slight) differences.

The second game is Summer Carnival ‘92 Recca (or as it’s called in the credits Super Hard Shooting Game Recca). It’s a shmup for the Famicom that is incredibly impressive. It moves insanely fast with only very occasional slowdown. It also looks great, sounds great, and has some truly amazing 8-bit graphical effects. The problem, at least for me, is that it’s insanely hard. Your game will end quickly, and the whole experience is more frustrating than fun. (Playing on my 3DS didn’t help either. You really need a bigger screen for this game.) After a few runs, making it to Stage 3 legitimately, I ultimately abused save states hard to see the ending. It was worth it, since the game saves some really cool bosses for the end. So… in short Recca is a game I respect more than I enjoy. I’m glad it exists for the hardcore shmup fans seeking the ultimate challenge, but it really isn’t for me.

EDIT: One more down! I knocked out the arcade version of Bionic Commando over lunch. It’s…not very good, but it’s (mercifully) very, very short. In ti, you play as the titular Bionic Commando, with a gun and a (presumably bionic) grappling hook arm. You can’t jump, but you can use your bionic arm to swing to and from various platforms. Unlike the outstanding NES game, however, you can only use your bionic arm when you’re standing still. You can’t use it while running, and more importantly, you can’t use it while falling. This makes navigating the game’s levels considerably harder, and it makes it much more likely you’ll fall to your death. Speaking of dying, you’ll do that a lot, since the game throws enemies at you relentlessly. It also has really sluggish controls. The hit detection is also a bit wonky, and the levels, while occasionally sprawling, are pretty linear. Also, there are only four levels, and there are no bosses. At least it has the soft color palette of early Capcom arcade games, and it demonstrates some ideas that Capcom would implement much, much better in the (again, outstanding) NES port/remake.
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Re: Racketboy Summer Games Challenge 2022!

by Key-Glyph Tue May 10, 2022 8:38 pm

@prfsnl_gmr:

That is so cool about the Famicom version of Contra. I had no idea. Is there extra music, too? Maybe map music, or a short cutscene jingle? I also wonder why we didn't get this fuller version. Do you think it was due to something like coming too close to replicating the likeness of known actors/movie characters? Or is like, Bill Rizer smoking a cigarette butt somewhere? :lol:

As for my progress:

1. EarthBound Beginnings (Switch)
2. Toejam & Earl: Panic on Funkotron (GEN)
3. Scribblenauts (DS)
4. Journeyman Project: Turbo! (PC)
5. Prince of Persia (ApplII)
6. Out of This World (GEN)*


I finished up Panic on Funkotron, and I still think it's a clunky, not-very-fun game, but I've actually been wondering if it's a blast with two players. The first Toejam & Earl is definitely supposed to be experienced shoulder-to-shoulder with a good buddy, laughing at the ridiculous shenanigans you instigate and encounter. I'm not sure I've ever heard of anyone enjoying the original who came to it later in life, and it occurred to me that they were all experiencing it solo. I'm willing to bet Panic on Funkotron is similar. It might even be balanced for co-op to begin with.

I moved on to Scribblenauts, which is a game I picked up circa 2010 but never finished because I got stuck on a puzzle that killed my enthusiasm for continuing. Over the years I've thought about the game a lot and really wanted to see if I could press on, so I was excited to fire it up this summer.

First of all, here's a fun little bit of personal video game archeology. When I looked into my old save file, Maxwell (the main character) was dressed in a wedding gown. Choosing a "bride" avatar is not really my style, especially when there are robot and alien options available, so I was trying to figure out why I would have picked this -- and then I realized it's because I started playing the game just shortly after I'd gotten married and was clearly so excited about it that I wanted Maxwell to run around in a dress and veil. It was really fun to be snapped back in time like that so viscerally, to really remember how young I was and where I was living and working the last time I'd touched this game, all due to the outfit I'd put on my character. Old save files are almost like diaries sometimes.

Not only did I finally solve that one puzzle that's haunted me for thirteen years, but I blew through the rest of Puzzle Mode in the same day. There's a second mode I'd completely forgotten about (Action Mode), so I've decided I'm not finished until I complete that one too.

And now I would like to share with you my favorite solution to date, for an Action Mode level that was driving me up a wall. Pictures under the spoiler. :lol:
All right, check it out. This is Action Level 3-2. This extremely 90s supervillain setup required delicate handling.

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The issue here is that you've got the Starite MacGuffin encased in ice and dangling over a pit of lava from a rope that gets cut when you pass the tripwire. Without something on the far side of the lava pit to help brace an object (e.g., a bridge), mixed with very little maneuvering room for airborne objects (e.g., a helicopter), lava that destroys anything you try to put in it, and no way to avoid the tripwire, I needed to figure out something to keep the Starite from plunging into the lava after it was cut loose. Something brilliant, and sensible.

The weird thing was, this block of ice apparently weighed over 20 tons, because attaching it by chain to a bus just pulled the bus backwards into the lava when it dropped.

But party balloons? That'll do it!

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It was officially go time.

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I wanted to reach as far out over the lava as I could to ensure I'd catch the Starite when I blasted the ice off of it, so that's how I found myself climbing into a cherrypicker packing a pistol.

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With the tripwire tripped, the rope cut, and the most powerful objects on Earth (three helium balloons) keeping the ice block suspended just overhead, it was time to set the plan in motion.

Ready... aim...

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:shock:

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After all that planning, I realized that the Starite was still just beyond my fingertips as it fell. So, I drove the cherrypicker off the cliff to catch it. :lol:

Brilliant, and sensible. I win!
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Re: Racketboy Summer Games Challenge 2022!

by MrPopo Wed May 11, 2022 12:32 am

Key-Glyph wrote:First of all, here's a fun little bit of personal video game archeology. When I looked into my old save file, Maxwell (the main character) was dressed in a wedding gown. Choosing a "bride" avatar is not really my style, especially when there are robot and alien options available, so I was trying to figure out why I would have picked this -- and then I realized it's because I started playing the game just shortly after I'd gotten married and was clearly so excited about it that I wanted Maxwell to run around in a dress and veil.

This story is far too wholesome for me to handle.
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Re: Racketboy Summer Games Challenge 2022!

by prfsnl_gmr Sat May 21, 2022 12:50 pm

Key-Glyph wrote:@prfsnl_gmr:

That is so cool about the Famicom version of Contra. I had no idea. Is there extra music, too? Maybe map music, or a short cutscene jingle? I also wonder why we didn't get this fuller version. Do you think it was due to something like coming too close to replicating the likeness of known actors/movie characters? Or is like, Bill Rizer smoking a cigarette butt somewhere? :lol:


I don’t think that there are extra tracks, even between stages, but much of the music is enhanced with additional effects. The reason for the differences, I think, is that Japanese developers had more leeway with regard to cartridge chip sets. Nintendo tightly controlled cartridge production in NA, but to get Japanese developers on board with their new system, they let them take chip production into their own hands. The limitations of NA chip sets means that a few NA games, such as Castlevania III and Contra, have slightly downgraded graphics and music.

prfsnl_gmr wrote:Bionic Commando (Arcade)
Contra (Famicom)

King’s Field a/k/a King’s Field II (PS1)
Metal Gear (NES)
Mysterious Murasame Castle (Famicom)
Shinobi (Arcade)
Summer Carnival ‘92 Recca (Famicom)

Super Baseball 2020 (Neo Geo)
Super Meat Boy (XBLA)
Vampire Killer (MSX)


Two more down, putting me halfway through my challenge!

Shinobi is a classic Sega arcade game, and the first game in the long-running Shinobi series. In it, you play as Joe Musashi, who must rescue his little ninja trainees from an evil criminal organization. He accomplishes this by throwing stars at various thugs and, later, ninjas and, even later still, magical creatures. If they get too close, Joe Musashi might slice them with his sword or kick them. He can also clear the screen with his ninja magic. Finally, Joe can jump between different planes or levels in the playing field, a gameplay mechanic very similar to the one found in Namco’s Rolling Thunder series. Each level ends with a distinct boss fight, and there’s a really cool, much-beloved throwing star gallery between stages,

Despite its status as a stone-cold classic, though, Shinobi hasn’t aged particularly well. The difficulty is very, very uneven, and you have to memorize some levels through trial and error to get through them. Some of the bosses can really only be defeated through trial and error too, and their hit boxes are sometimes insanely small (and not readily apparent for many of the later bosses). This makes the game feel very unfair, and as many credits as I fed into it, I can’t imagine anyone actually beating this game when it was in the arcade. Joe is also an incredibly slow, fragile ninja. He lumbers through each stage, and just brushing a bullet or a sword is enough to topple him. (This is particularly galling since many of the later, common ninja enemies can block you shurikens and take at least two hits to defeat.) In light of these flaws, Shinobi is an interesting historical artifact and undoubtedly influential game. It’s hard to recommend it today, however.

I also beat Super Meat Boy, an incredibly influential game just old enough now to be considered a classic. Super Meat Boy was one of the games that kickstarted the indie gaming revolution, and it is also one of the first examples of the die-and-retry platforming genre, a genre that eventually influenced even esteemed platforming series like Super Mario and Donkey Kong Country. (Anyone who’s played the bonus levels in the most recent iterations of those series knows what I’m talking about…) Super Meat Boy, along with Dark Souls, is also one of the games that made it OK for video games to be hard again. While many other games were opting for a softer touch and trying to make videogames more like movies, Super Meat Boy was unapologetically hard and unapologetically a video game. The game is full of bottomless pits, spinning blades, lasers, lava, and countless other traps that will kill you instantly. (It is also replete with coy references to other difficult platformers, like Castlevania, Ghosts ‘n Goblins, and Ninja Gaiden.) Nonetheless, and like later games in the die-and-retry platforming genre, Super Meat Boy controls wonderfully, and it is rarely frustrating. There’s no loading screen to sit through after you die, and each level can be completed in just a few seconds. Moreover, the game has a staggering amount of content. There are light and dark versions of each level, par times, hidden collectibles, unlockable characters, warp zones that take you to old levels inspired by classic video games, and an insanely challenging bonus level that unlocks after the main campaign. (I beat every level in the main campaign with an A+ rating, and a few dark world levels, to roll the credits, but I suspect I’ve seen only about half of what the game has to offer.). Although the game was released over ten years ago, it still impresses, and it’s easy to recommend to anyone looking for a challenge.

…..

I have a few longer games up next; so, I suspect my place will slow a bit. Still, I think I’m on track to meet my goal for the summer!
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Re: Racketboy Summer Games Challenge 2022!

by dsheinem Sun May 22, 2022 10:10 pm

Somewhere between filming a documentary, writing articles, doing home renovations, and enjoying the new pool, I will try my hardest to play through these ten bona-fide classics, none of which I've ever beaten.

Kirby's Dream Land 3 - SNES*
Akalabeth: World of Doom - PC
Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II - PC
Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast - PC
Marble Madness - NES
Wario Land II - GBC
Ratchet and Clank: Up Your Arsenal - PS2*
Doom 64 - PC*
Jungle Strike - Genesis
Virtua Cop 2 - Saturn

*= already started :D

Edit: HARDCORE MODE, of course :lol:
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