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Post by dsparil on Jan 10, 2021 5:08:45 GMT -5
dsparil I wanted to ask about using save states with a specific game: Startropics on the NES. I'm aware that save states should only be used for saving your progress and resuming it at a later date, but I want to know if there are specific in-game circumstances that can allow for a bit of wiggle room on using states.
For whatever reason, Startropics gives you a limited amount of lives when you attempt a dungeon. Losing all your lives means you have to do it again, which feels rather odd when the only points you'll respawn at are either the beginning or the mid-point of the dungeon. What exacerbates this is that when you die, you only get three hearts when you come back to life - considering you quickly get more hearts and there are very few ways to replenish your health, this means dying actively makes you weaker and puts you at a greater risk of dying again and getting a game over.
In this specific context, I would like to use save states in Startropics at the beginning and mid-point of dungeons so that they essentially serve the same function as the checkpoints, but without what I feel is a pointless and time-wasting punishment. If you feel it still shouldn't count, that's fine. I'll carry on playing the game regardless and simply not bring it up here. No one has ever asked about save state flexibility, but I'd prefer to keep that more rigid since it's unambiguous.
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Post by ZenithianHero on Jan 10, 2021 12:21:16 GMT -5
Is Pokemon Quest eligible? The game is free to play but I got credits after defeating Mewtwo. There's a bonus world "Happenstance Island" unlocked after the credits.
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Post by dsparil on Jan 10, 2021 15:50:28 GMT -5
Is Pokemon Quest eligible? The game is free to play but I got credits after defeating Mewtwo. There's a bonus world "Happenstance Island" unlocked after the credits. Pokémon Quest is fine. It's the constantly expanding F2P games that wouldn't be eligible. PQ just has what it was released with more or less.
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Post by Apollo Chungus on Jan 10, 2021 17:03:05 GMT -5
No one has ever asked about save state flexibility, but I'd prefer to keep that more rigid since it's unambiguous. That's fair enough. Like I said last night, it just means I'll keep playing the game as is and not discuss it on here even if I do manage to beat it. I like Startropics well enough, but I'm fairly okay not counting it if I have to finagle the save states so that I reduce the bits that irritate me. In the meantime, I actually did beat a couple of short games since asking about this, so I'll talk about them briefly! Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers: The Movie (Mega Drive; Replay; 45 minutes)
This is the first time I've played this one since my year-long Power Rangers/Super Sentai obsession back in 2011-12, and it's perhaps saying something as to how much I forgot about this side-scrolling beat-em-up. It's kinda cool how some of the stages adapt memorable episodes from the second season (letting you play as both the OG Red, Black and Yellow Rangers and their replacements), and how the majority of the music is based on Ron Wasserman's various songs for the show. However, having played it in the middle of a handful of other side-scrolling brawlers like Revenge of Death Adder, Batman Forever, Nekketsu Oyako and Streets of Rage 2 (GG), it became really apparent to me how lacking this one is by comparison.
The combat itself is largely fine if basic and everything works as it should, but the enemy variety is incredibly low with only two types of enemies besides the bosses, and levels mostly consist of long stretches where you punch people. The one thing I can argue for is that it's a very easy game, even on the Normal difficulty setting, thanks to your genuinely enormous health bar and how simple combat is. It's the kind of game that's very good for spacing out to while you're doing other things, thinking to yourself or calming down from being overwhelmed. (Guess which one fits me the most...)
Sonic the Hedgehog: Pocket Adventure (Neo Geo Pocket Color; First Time; 55 minutes)
This is a fairly notable handheld spin-off, both for how much it cribs from the Mega Drive classics in its aesthetics and music, and for serving as a precursor of sorts to the Sonic Advance series (some of Pocket Adventure's dev team went on to work at Dimps on those games). I've often heard this one described as a hidden gem, and now that I've played more than a couple of stages, I can say that I don't feel the same. There are plenty of things to like about: the remixed music sounds quite good, the hidden puzzle pieces offer a great incentive to replay stages and explore, the levels approximate some of the originals' design philosophies pretty well, and the new bosses are frequently as good as the classics'.
But what keeps me from loving it is the controls. It's a closer approximation of what the Mega Drive games were doing than the previous 8-bit games, but they feel heavy in all the wrong places - not in terms of being "different" from the old physics, but actively being clunky at times. Certain jumps, rolls and other spots don't feel satisfying to do, and this backfired a bit when the level designs got super nasty around the Egg Fortress analogue. If you're able to roll along with how it controls, then you'll likely get a kick out of Pocket Adventure. But if I ever plan on revisiting an 8-bit Sonic in the future, it's gonna be the Game Gear version of the Sonic 1 for the millionth time.
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Post by ZenithianHero on Jan 10, 2021 18:53:04 GMT -5
Is Pokemon Quest eligible? The game is free to play but I got credits after defeating Mewtwo. There's a bonus world "Happenstance Island" unlocked after the credits. Pokémon Quest is fine. It's the constantly expanding F2P games that wouldn't be eligible. PQ just has what it was released with more or less. Alright. Pokemon Quest (Switch, First Time, about 35 hours)A free to play Pokemon game that has a clear end with credits. Not sure why it wasn't frequently updated (for example, Cafe Mix that I also play has constant updates) the game is stuck with Gen 1 and there is a bonus world after defeating Mewtwo. Oh would I liked to seen Gen 2 Pokemon in this style. I like the voxel look of them all. The game is a simple action game where you manage a team of Pokemon wandering around the island levels. Your control is limited to picking the moves for them but you can tell them to retreat. As you fight mobs of enemy Pokemon, you can pick up on some sense of strategy from enemy move animations. I don't recommend putting the combat on auto for this reason, the timing and positioning does matter. You befriend new Pokemon by cooking ingredients. The recipe you use will attract certain Pokemon. The luck of the draw can be time consuming as you would imagine it. Cooking requires playing levels to pass the time, thankfully you can fail the mission and it counts. The game's upgrade system is strange. When you obtain a new Pokemon they have 1 or 2 moves to use at a time but to replace moves you have to sacrifice Pokemon on your team and you get a random move in its place. Because you cannot control what move you get, it can lead to some nasty grinding or befriend another of the species and hope it is better. You cannot catch Pokemon in their evolved forms. So naturally learning the moves only evolved forms can mean some trial and error. Powering through a F2P sounds dumb, but Quest (and Cafe Mix) do a good job of offering everybody enough perks and rewards without spending real money. The game balances tedium with an addicting gameplay loop. I wouldn't consider it an interesting spinoff from a game perspective. If you do like collecting Pokemon, it is decent time waster. 6/10
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Post by alexmate on Jan 11, 2021 6:29:46 GMT -5
No one has ever asked about save state flexibility, but I'd prefer to keep that more rigid since it's unambiguous. That's fair enough. Like I said last night, it just means I'll keep playing the game as is and not discuss it on here even if I do manage to beat it. I like Startropics well enough, but I'm fairly okay not counting it if I have to finagle the save states so that I reduce the bits that irritate me. In the meantime, I actually did beat a couple of short games since asking about this, so I'll talk about them briefly! Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers: The Movie (Mega Drive; Replay; 45 minutes)
This is the first time I've played this one since my year-long Power Rangers/Super Sentai obsession back in 2011-12, and it's perhaps saying something as to how much I forgot about this side-scrolling beat-em-up. It's kinda cool how some of the stages adapt memorable episodes from the second season (letting you play as both the OG Red, Black and Yellow Rangers and their replacements), and how the majority of the music is based on Ron Wasserman's various songs for the show. However, having played it in the middle of a handful of other side-scrolling brawlers like Revenge of Death Adder, Batman Forever, Nekketsu Oyako and Streets of Rage 2 (GG), it became really apparent to me how lacking this one is by comparison.
The combat itself is largely fine if basic and everything works as it should, but the enemy variety is incredibly low with only two types of enemies besides the bosses, and levels mostly consist of long stretches where you punch people. The one thing I can argue for is that it's a very easy game, even on the Normal difficulty setting, thanks to your genuinely enormous health bar and how simple combat is. It's the kind of game that's very good for spacing out to while you're doing other things, thinking to yourself or calming down from being overwhelmed. (Guess which one fits me the most...)
Sonic the Hedgehog: Pocket Adventure (Neo Geo Pocket Color; First Time; 55 minutes)
This is a fairly notable handheld spin-off, both for how much it cribs from the Mega Drive classics in its aesthetics and music, and for serving as a precursor of sorts to the Sonic Advance series (some of Pocket Adventure's dev team went on to work at Dimps on those games). I've often heard this one described as a hidden gem, and now that I've played more than a couple of stages, I can say that I don't feel the same. There are plenty of things to like about: the remixed music sounds quite good, the hidden puzzle pieces offer a great incentive to replay stages and explore, the levels approximate some of the originals' design philosophies pretty well, and the new bosses are frequently as good as the classics'.
But what keeps me from loving it is the controls. It's a closer approximation of what the Mega Drive games were doing than the previous 8-bit games, but they feel heavy in all the wrong places - not in terms of being "different" from the old physics, but actively being clunky at times. Certain jumps, rolls and other spots don't feel satisfying to do, and this backfired a bit when the level designs got super nasty around the Egg Fortress analogue. If you're able to roll along with how it controls, then you'll likely get a kick out of Pocket Adventure. But if I ever plan on revisiting an 8-bit Sonic in the future, it's gonna be the Game Gear version of the Sonic 1 for the millionth time.
I'm a fan of Sonic Pocket Adventure, I think it's so highly regarded as it was a return to form after endless spin-offs and a few duff games like Sonic Blast and 3D Blast. Plus it was on the ultimate underdog handheld which makes people feels nostalgic and affectionate. I agree with you 100% that's it's clunky and the bosses aren't that well designed compared to the earlier games. For me I think Sonic Advance was the perfect balance of old and new in a 2D Sonic game, that wasn't on a Sega console. I don't like the redesigned Sonic (from Sonic Adventure) in both games though.
Power Rangers is one which has been on my radar for a while. Got a few Genesis games I want to get through, so going add it to the list.
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Post by 🧀Son of Suzy Creamcheese🧀 on Jan 11, 2021 6:47:38 GMT -5
dsparil I wanted to ask about using save states with a specific game: Startropics on the NES. I'm aware that save states should only be used for saving your progress and resuming it at a later date, but I want to know if there are specific in-game circumstances that can allow for a bit of wiggle room on using states.
For whatever reason, Startropics gives you a limited amount of lives when you attempt a dungeon. Losing all your lives means you have to do it again, which feels rather odd when the only points you'll respawn at are either the beginning or the mid-point of the dungeon. What exacerbates this is that when you die, you only get three hearts when you come back to life - considering you quickly get more hearts and there are very few ways to replenish your health, this means dying actively makes you weaker and puts you at a greater risk of dying again and getting a game over.
In this specific context, I would like to use save states in Startropics at the beginning and mid-point of dungeons so that they essentially serve the same function as the checkpoints, but without what I feel is a pointless and time-wasting punishment. If you feel it still shouldn't count, that's fine. I'll carry on playing the game regardless and simply not bring it up here. Maybe I'm misunderstanding (haven't played Startropics), but can't you just off yourself to run out of lives and restart with all your previous hearts intact?
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Post by dsparil on Jan 11, 2021 7:19:12 GMT -5
That's fair enough. Like I said last night, it just means I'll keep playing the game as is and not discuss it on here even if I do manage to beat it. I like Startropics well enough, but I'm fairly okay not counting it if I have to finagle the save states so that I reduce the bits that irritate me. In the meantime, I actually did beat a couple of short games since asking about this, so I'll talk about them briefly! Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers: The Movie (Mega Drive; Replay; 45 minutes)
This is the first time I've played this one since my year-long Power Rangers/Super Sentai obsession back in 2011-12, and it's perhaps saying something as to how much I forgot about this side-scrolling beat-em-up. It's kinda cool how some of the stages adapt memorable episodes from the second season (letting you play as both the OG Red, Black and Yellow Rangers and their replacements), and how the majority of the music is based on Ron Wasserman's various songs for the show. However, having played it in the middle of a handful of other side-scrolling brawlers like Revenge of Death Adder, Batman Forever, Nekketsu Oyako and Streets of Rage 2 (GG), it became really apparent to me how lacking this one is by comparison.
The combat itself is largely fine if basic and everything works as it should, but the enemy variety is incredibly low with only two types of enemies besides the bosses, and levels mostly consist of long stretches where you punch people. The one thing I can argue for is that it's a very easy game, even on the Normal difficulty setting, thanks to your genuinely enormous health bar and how simple combat is. It's the kind of game that's very good for spacing out to while you're doing other things, thinking to yourself or calming down from being overwhelmed. (Guess which one fits me the most...)
Sonic the Hedgehog: Pocket Adventure (Neo Geo Pocket Color; First Time; 55 minutes)
This is a fairly notable handheld spin-off, both for how much it cribs from the Mega Drive classics in its aesthetics and music, and for serving as a precursor of sorts to the Sonic Advance series (some of Pocket Adventure's dev team went on to work at Dimps on those games). I've often heard this one described as a hidden gem, and now that I've played more than a couple of stages, I can say that I don't feel the same. There are plenty of things to like about: the remixed music sounds quite good, the hidden puzzle pieces offer a great incentive to replay stages and explore, the levels approximate some of the originals' design philosophies pretty well, and the new bosses are frequently as good as the classics'.
But what keeps me from loving it is the controls. It's a closer approximation of what the Mega Drive games were doing than the previous 8-bit games, but they feel heavy in all the wrong places - not in terms of being "different" from the old physics, but actively being clunky at times. Certain jumps, rolls and other spots don't feel satisfying to do, and this backfired a bit when the level designs got super nasty around the Egg Fortress analogue. If you're able to roll along with how it controls, then you'll likely get a kick out of Pocket Adventure. But if I ever plan on revisiting an 8-bit Sonic in the future, it's gonna be the Game Gear version of the Sonic 1 for the millionth time.
Plus it was on the ultimate underdog handheld which makes people feels nostalgic and affectionate. I think that's right on the mark. Pocket Adventure was what made me want a NGPC.
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Post by Apollo Chungus on Jan 11, 2021 8:29:17 GMT -5
For whatever reason, Startropics gives you a limited amount of lives when you attempt a dungeon. Losing all your lives means you have to do it again, which feels rather odd when the only points you'll respawn at are either the beginning or the mid-point of the dungeon. What exacerbates this is that when you die, you only get three hearts when you come back to life - considering you quickly get more hearts and there are very few ways to replenish your health, this means dying actively makes you weaker and puts you at a greater risk of dying again and getting a game over. Maybe I'm misunderstanding (haven't played Startropics), but can't you just off yourself to run out of lives and restart with all your previous hearts intact? You can do that, but I feel having to do that so you can have another shot at the dungeon with full health is exactly the kind of time wasting nonsense I wish wasn't there. I'd prefer to just have all my hearts intact instead of starting off from a weakened position. Giving me a limited amount of tries before I have to do the whole dungeon again comes off as mean-spirited when you mix the two.
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Post by dsparil on Jan 11, 2021 10:35:36 GMT -5
Strikers 1945 (Switch, Replay) Strikers 1945 II Strikers 1945 III / Strikers 1999 Strikers 1945 Plus
Thought I'd give the four Strikers games a quick play through which was the case for the first two but definitely not the case for the second two. 1945 and II are both a reasonable challenge on their lower difficulties which range from 1 to 7; the default is 5. They also only make you do one loop instead of two on the lower difficulty levels. II is the easier one, and it isn't terribly difficult to 1CC on the lowest difficulty with a little practice. II suffers from being blander as it moved from pixel art to pre-rendered graphics and drops much of the strangeness that crops up in the final stages of the original.
III or 1999 as it was sometimes branded (and my local one was) obviously moves things forward to what was the then present day of '99. It also drops the bottom three difficulties so it's a significant jump in difficulty if you're playing on the lower end. I'm not sure exactly when bullet hell shooters became a thing, but it is definitely one with elaborate patterns that are very fast. You also have to do the second loop on all difficulties which is staggeringly difficult. I forget exactly how many credits I used, but it always feels like a small miracle to make it through a boss salvo intact. I don't know how I ever made it through both loops as a kid, but I suspect that I might have spent a great deal of the money I did have into my local cabinet instead of saving up for a NGPC!
1999 is also notable for including the super experimental and mostly forgotten X-36 as a barely hidden extra fighter; the site's article oddly does not mention it. Apart from being the fighter with auto-tracking lasers à la the Bf-109 and V-173 of the earlier games, it also turns into a mecha for the bomb and charge attacks! It's seriously one of the most futuristic looking jets ever made although it never went past a very successful test program using a scaled down drone. That prototype somehow manages to even be a bit cute due to the size. It's legacy is so tied to the game that when I tried to look up videos about the actual plane, runs of the game with it are a sizable portion of the results.
Plus is the last main game in the series and a new version of II for the Neo Geo. It is also the ugliest of the four. How much of that is due to Psikyo's lack of familiarity with the hardware versus its sheer age by late 1999 isn't clear to me although it's obvious that prerendered sprites don't mix well with the platform. The presentation is also squatter since it has to use the NG's horizontal 4:3 aspect ratio instead of the other games' vertical tate set up. Despite being a remake with some familiar elements, the gameplay has moved to being a traditional bullet hell shooter with bullets color coded by speed and a wider variety of shapes. This change in gameplay does compensate somewhat for the differing play area since it's more of a reinterpretation of II rather than a port or even an update as the Plus would imply.
Rating: 8,7,9,7
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Post by Apollo Chungus on Jan 11, 2021 10:43:02 GMT -5
dsparil I've got another question about games to play: can fan hacks or mods count if they substantially change the level layouts or add new playable characters with unique movesets, and are fully complete?
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Post by dsparil on Jan 11, 2021 11:02:22 GMT -5
dsparil I've got another question about games to play: can fan hacks or mods count if they substantially change the level layouts or add new playable characters with unique movesets, and are fully complete? Those are fine. Just an extra character isn't enough to count separately from the base game but a full game sized mod would. I thought there used to something listed about that, but I guess that never quite made it into the rules. I'll add them now.
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Post by halftheisland on Jan 11, 2021 12:37:42 GMT -5
Another very short one from me: Picross (PC/Windows 10*, 1st time, 16 minutes)This is Pictopix creator Tomlab Games' first foray into the world of Picross. Initially developed as a Flash game in 2009, this was repackaged and released along with a Windows launcher to celebrate the fourth anniversary of Pictopix (you can download it here if you're interested). There is very little to it, just 15 puzzles (five 5x5s and ten 10x10s), and none of them are particularly challenging or groundbreaking in terms of puzzle design. To be honest, this is more a brief curiosity than anything else - there's nothing particularly interesting about the game in itself, but it can be nice to see a developer's early work and how they have built on that over the years. * I've noted this as PC/Windows because of the launcher and how I played it, but presumably any platform which has Flash support could play this.
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Post by spanky on Jan 11, 2021 20:27:49 GMT -5
Beat Kyatto Ninden Teyandee (Famicom, replay). I played the fan translation which renames the game Samurai Pizza Cats
Did anyone watch this when it aired on TV? I remember seeing it on a local station around 1996 or so. Anime wasn't super common on TV at the time and with it's bizarre gag dub it felt like nothing else on the air. It's a hoot, highly recommended.
Anyway a few years later when I found out this show had a video game I had to play it. Unfortunately it was in Japanese so the game lost a bit as there's a lot of text. None needed to actually beat the game - but there's lots of funny cutscenes I couldn't understand. So I was pretty happy to discover recently that there was a fan translation that tries to keep in line with the wacky dub. The dialogue is pretty funny and true to the show. They even changed the title screen song to the dub theme song!
The game itself is a pretty standard platformer but it plays rock solid. Good music too. It's definitely a bit easy but then again it was meant for kids. I think this is low key one of the best licensed games on the NES - up there with a lot of the Capcom Disney stuff.
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Post by windfisch on Jan 12, 2021 9:11:15 GMT -5
Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers: The Movie (Mega Drive; Replay; 45 minutes)
This is the first time I've played this one since my year-long Power Rangers/Super Sentai obsession back in 2011-12, and it's perhaps saying something as to how much I forgot about this side-scrolling beat-em-up. It's kinda cool how some of the stages adapt memorable episodes from the second season (letting you play as both the OG Red, Black and Yellow Rangers and their replacements), and how the majority of the music is based on Ron Wasserman's various songs for the show. However, having played it in the middle of a handful of other side-scrolling brawlers like Revenge of Death Adder, Batman Forever, Nekketsu Oyako and Streets of Rage 2 (GG), it became really apparent to me how lacking this one is by comparison.
The combat itself is largely fine if basic and everything works as it should, but the enemy variety is incredibly low with only two types of enemies besides the bosses, and levels mostly consist of long stretches where you punch people. The one thing I can argue for is that it's a very easy game, even on the Normal difficulty setting, thanks to your genuinely enormous health bar and how simple combat is. It's the kind of game that's very good for spacing out to while you're doing other things, thinking to yourself or calming down from being overwhelmed. (Guess which one fits me the most...)
edit: I had typed a long answer, basically agreeing with you. But something went terribly wrong. When I find the time I'll try again.
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