HG101 2023 Game FAIL Challenge

[Apollo Chungus]

Welcome to the 2023 HG101 Game FAIL Challenge!

This is a companion piece to the HG101 Game Finish Challenge thread, in which people attempt to finish video games and post about whatever they've beaten. However, this thread will be dedicated to the games that people weren't able to beat on the terms established in that thread. Maybe you gave the game up, or had to beat it using cheats and save states, or you only played one of the scenarios before deciding that was all you really needed. Whatever the reason, this thread will be the place you can go to talk about those games.

There will be far fewer rules because of the nature of this thread (and also because it's still fairly new), but feel free to ask if you have any questions. Rules about certain game types or genres can be read on the corresponding Game Finish Challenge thread, in order to see what counts to complete a game or not.

Basic Guidelines

- A game can be discussed in this thread if:

- You abandoned the game before reaching the end.

- You beat the game using cheats, save states in emulators, or exploiting major glitches.

- Nothing is permanent. You can decide to revisit the game and beat it on its own terms at a later point, so don't worry about this meaning you have to give it up forever just because it's on this thread.

Post Formatting

- The name of the game must be in bold and optionally in red if you failed to beat the game, or orange if you beat the game with cheats, glitches and the like. The platform must also be included.
- Please use the game’s English name even if it is not officially available in English.
- If the game is for a computer platform, use the operating system name e.g. DOS, if the platform can generally be considered a PC. Older systems such as the C64 or Apple II may simply use that instead.
- If the game is part of an official emulated release, please include both the original platform and the platform of play.
- Include whether this was a first time completion or a replay.
- If including multiple games, please put them in alphabetical order. If you are also including some thoughts, this text may break up the listing.

General Rules

- A game must be able to be completed, for it to not be beaten. It must either have a win state such as an ending or a set of challenges such as scenarios. In most cases, getting to the credits is an obvious indication, but this is not always the case.
- A game may only be counted once per person. Multiple people may claim the same game.
- Any difficulty is acceptable.
- Posting a screenshot is encouraged but not required.

Ports/Remakes/Remasters

- Simple ports, remakes and remastered versions i.e. graphical updates do not count separately.
- Games with substantial changes over the original do count separately.

DLC and Expansions

- In order to count separately from the base game, DLC and expansions must be accessible either from the main menu or completely separately and not exclusively in-game.
- New content in rereleases, remakes and remasters may be counted separately if it fulfills the general requirements for DLC and expansions.

Hacks/Mods

- Bug fix and gameplay adding modifications are allowed, but please list any that are used.
- Simple mods do not count separately from the base game.
- Large scale modifications that function as a new game do count separately from the base game.


Looping Games



- Infinitely looping games that consist of a single screen with a fixed level layout e.g the original Pac-Man or a fixed enemy formation e.g. Space Invaders do not count.

- Infinitely looping games with a level progression regardless of length count.

- Fixed or infinitely looping games only require a single loop if difficulty and not content is the only differentiator.

---

This is merely a commiseration thread, to talk about games that we weren't able to beat on its own terms (whether that means giving it up or using cheats). It's called the Game Fail Challenge, but that doesn't mean you have failed. Sometimes these things don't work out as you want them to, and that's okay.

[spanky]

Thanks for continuing this. I'm looking forward to some big fails this year. We're talking losing my last life at the final boss of an NES action game, we're talking me getting bored and dropping an RPG at the save point outside the final dungeon, we're talking me savescumming my way through a game I've beaten two dozen times because I'm feeling lazy.

[Apollo Chungus]

Super Mario Bros. Deluxe (GBC; First Time; beat using save states)

After beating Super Mario Land just a few weeks ago, I started to realize that maybe I could actually get into the Mario games; I got a better grasp of how they played and realized I'm actually competent at them, and their bite-sized levels make them perfect for when I wanna pass the time but only have a few minutes. So I grabbed Mario Land 2 along with the GBC/GBA ports of SMB 1/3 and World, and I managed to have a pretty good time with half of them. I recall playing the original SMB on one of those TV plug-in NES consoles with 50 games back in 2004 or thereabouts and liking it a fair bit, but I'd never played much beyond the first couple of stages since.

Now that I've played through the game, I can see that this is a fairly solid platformer with plenty of variety in its level designs and theming. I'm really surprised at how each level manages to feel unique despite only having a few tilesets and obstacles, remixing them in numerous ways to keep things interesting. I didn't encounter much secrets apart from the underground warp pipes, but there's many of them and I like how it adds a sense of spontaneity to replays.

Regarding the GBC port, there is a little screen crunch you have to deal with, but you're also allowed to go backwards a small bit which is a really good concession that makes the game more approachable to me (that, and having unlimited continues plus being able to save at any point is pretty marvellous on that front). However, I ended up having to use save states at World 8-3 because of those infernal Hammer Bros. Maybe it's boring to say this, but they're absolutely awful enemies that add a frustratingly inconsistent sense of randomness to the game. That, combined with the lack of checkpoints and the only health items being featured in sections WITH Hammer Bros meant I had to beat the whole level in one go every time.

I did try, about 20 times or thereabouts, and decided to just use save states since I was so near the end. (Which was just as well, since World 8-4 is a bit too annoying and also has no checkpoints.) Good game, but man did this make me want to find Kazuaki Morita (a programmer who came up with the Hammer Bros) and put cold custard into all of his socks.

Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins (GB; Replay; beat using save states)

This was the first 2D Mario I beat in some fashion or another back when I got this on the 3DS in 2012, though I used save states back then as well. On this attempt, I did make it all the way to the final stage before it became a bit too tricky for me and decided to use them, but this did allow me to appreciate the rest of the game a lot more than I used to. It's a slow and easy game, allowing for plenty of exploration - especially with the wicked cool option to check out the main six worlds in any order along with optional levels. I like how much variety there is in both the artstyles and level layouts, with some stages featuring ideas that only appear once like the Japanese graveyard in Pumpkin Zone or the whale's stomach in Turtle Zone.

It keeps a lot of that idiosyncratic strangeness from Mario Land 1 though with plenty more usual Mario elements so it's more casually eccentric this time around. It also contains probably my favourite overall 2D Mario soundtrack by Kazumi Totaka, who takes a short motif and weaves it in all kinds of interesting ways - using pauses between bars, rearrangements, certain instrument types and the like to really go for this playful, mischievous score that nevertheless sounds like Mario. Just a good platformer all round, with no caveats to be made really.

[windfisch]

Jan 12, 2023 8:59:01 GMT -5 Apollo Chungus said:

Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins (GB; Replay; beat using save states)

This was the first 2D Mario I beat in some fashion or another back when I got this on the 3DS in 2012, though I used save states back then as well. On this attempt, I did make it all the way to the final stage before it became a bit too tricky for me and decided to use them, but this did allow me to appreciate the rest of the game a lot more than I used to. It's a slow and easy game, allowing for plenty of exploration - especially with the wicked cool option to check out the main six worlds in any order along with optional levels. I like how much variety there is in both the artstyles and level layouts, with some stages featuring ideas that only appear once like the Japanese graveyard in Pumpkin Zone or the whale's stomach in Turtle Zone.

It keeps a lot of that idiosyncratic strangeness from Mario Land 1 though with plenty more usual Mario elements so it's more casually eccentric this time around. It also contains probably my favourite overall 2D Mario soundtrack by Kazumi Totaka, who takes a short motif and weaves it in all kinds of interesting ways - using pauses between bars, rearrangements, certain instrument types and the like to really go for this playful, mischievous score that nevertheless sounds like Mario. Just a good platformer all round, with no caveats to be made really.

Not only does Mario Land 2 feature unique stage designs, in the first Pumpkin Zone stage you can also encounter a single unique enemy who might be Kid Dracula's cousin or something. He's not a boss, just a regular foe that can be killed with a single hit and is easily missed if you're just rushing to the exit. That one always stood out to me. With the exception of a couple of Sunsoft games (Looney Tunes, Trip World) such extravagance was basically unheard of at the time.

To me it's funny when the Mario Land games are referred to as "strange". I always thought of them as just more Mario games. How strange must Super Mario Bros and its mushroom power ups have felt to those coming from regular Mario Bros? Or how about Super Mario Bros 2, a radically different game? Even Super Mario Bros 3 introduced some pretty outlandish concepts to the series: Using a tanooki tail to fly is no less wild to me than using bunny ears. At least I know what a bunny is. Shooting stages aside, the first Super Mario Land actually seems pretty standard to me by comparison. 

edit: And just in case it hasn't made the rounds here, there is a fantastic "DX" colourisation hack for SML 2: link.

[Apollo Chungus]

I think it's more that the Mario Land games tend to feature characters and settings not really featured in the other Marios, which is admittedly something that only really got codified as a standard "house" style from the mid-00s onwards with the likes of New Super Mario Bros and 3D Land/World serving as the most well known examples of this. (It was only with NSMB Wii that a Mario game so strongly resembled a previous one; every game had its own unique vibes, artstyle, locales and characters up until then.)

So when people go back to the Land games, where their idiosyncratic elements never got folded back into the main series apart from characters such as Daisy and Wario, they can seem especially strange with their hopping jiangshi, levels where you ascend a giant tree fighting big bugs, fighting a final boss through a shmup, and so on. It's perceived as strange in relation to the rest of the Mario series, is what I meant.

[dsparil]

The GB games were made by R&D1, the main development division run by Gunpei Yokoi, versus R&D4 (basically created for Miyamoto) for the console games. Nintendo restructured in the early 00s and merged R&D 1 and 4 which put all the main games under Miyamoto. I don't think it's a coincidence that there does start to be more uniformity after that point.

[spanky]

Even the gameplay of Super Mario Land goes out of it's way to mess with your expectations. The Koopa Troopas are actually bombs, and instead of bouncing forward, the fireball ricochets around. There's two SHMUP levels!

[windfisch]

Sure, on a theoretical level I get it, guys. And you bring up good points why, in hindsight, the Land games feel less like mainstream Mario. Upon release Yoshi's Island might've been much more of an outlier than the GB games in terms of looks and gameplay, but because its concepts have been revisited multiple times since, it's not perceived as such anymore. However, back then I never questioned why Mario suddenly hopped into his submarine to blast octopi into pieces. Why wouldn't he? All the cool platformers did that sort of thing. Though I think SML might've popularised that trend.

[dsparil]

Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony (Switch, First Time, crashes)

Going to have to give up on this one since it keeps crashing at the same point during the Chapter 3 class trial, and I don't feel like going through a third time. As a series, it does feel mostly like a downward slide from the first game which I wasn't particularly enamored with. 2 and V3 have longer HLTB times by about 1/3 and 1/2 over the first game, and it certainly isn't because the plots get more involved or from substantially greater character development. It really comes down to pure filler that serves no purpose e.g. reactions that aren't needed, that just bog everything down.

There actually is a timer, but it's broken.

Rating: I suspect I'd still end up at a 6 but below the other two since these are all uniform enough

[Snake]

Simcity, SNES

Don't know if there is any kind of credits or end game scene after the last scenario.   But my recent attempt of building up to a Megalopolis was 90,000 people short, for over 10  hours worth of play.  Back to the drawing board.

[dsparil]

Borderlands (Switch, Second attempt (first on Switch), bad saving system)

Dropping games left and right. I had originally tried Borderlands back in 2011 on my old unibody MacBook (late '08, basically a dry run for the MBP design used until last year). Graphically, it wasn't too bad in when it was new, but the GeForce 9400M was showing it's age by that point. I could run it, but I had to drop it down to the lowest resolution, something like 640x400, to get it to run smoothly. That was actually quite visually interesting when everything was that chunky. I got up to the Dahl Headlands, the second area, when I was having control related issues finishing a mission where you have to blast a bunch of bandits in vehicles by blasting them in a rocket launcher buggy. I couldn't seem to fire the rocket launcher when in the driver's seat which made me think that the game was hopelessly designed for co-op and not actually completable solo.

For the Switch version, firing and driving wasn't an issue which makes me think I was missing something before. Either that or the controls got fixed, but I'm leaning towards the first. However, I also didn't get that far this time around. What annoyed me is that despite having checkpoints, you always start at the beginning of a dungeon area when you reload a save. I didn't realize this, and had to quit right before Sledge, the second main boss. Upon finding that I had to do the whole thing over again really drained my enthusiasm especially with FE Engage right around the corner.

It's sort of a fun game in concept, but there's also way too much repetition. In the first area of the game, which might be a sizable chunk of the game, there's only a handful of different enemy types. Some of the wildlife does have specific strategies because of their weakpoints e.g. Alpha Skags basically have to be shot in the mouth when roaring, but humans are just headshots every time. I might come back to this some time when I'm less annoyed, and I'll probably still try out the others since 2 is only available bundled with the first game, and Pre-sequel is something like an extra 10¢ for the complete set.

Rating: I'm guessing I might end up on a 7 if the game gets more interesting, but a 6 for what I played.

[Woody Alien]

I should have posted this at the end of last year, but I forgot.

The Plumber Thing (PC, stopped caring)

An indie puzzle game by the author of BABA IS YOU that is a weird parody of Super Mario and Super Metroid at the same time, bought at around 2$ on his site. "Mario" touches some liquid and turns into a grotesque fleshy thing that can change his shape. This ability will be needed to navigate the game world and collect other power ups that help him get past obstacles, you know the drill.

I have never actually played BABA IS YOU but after trying this command-based puzzle I'm sure that I'm not going to like it. Maybe I have become dumb or I'm approaching it as a platformer and not as a puzzler, but I can't get past the puzzles past the very simple first ones. I really can't get into it, so I'm just going to leave and forget about it. The bizarre premise and parody nature piqued my interest, but it was just not enough.

[spanky]

I've got a couple of irons in the fire but let's get these fails out of the way.

Mario's Super Picross (Super Famicom via NSO, Never Beaten)

This is the first picross game I've ever played. I've always thought this style of puzzle sort of intimidating, but once I got going I started to enjoy myself. I did use the complementary hint for each puzzle. By the time I got to the 20x20 puzzles though, the difficulty was a little too high for my skill level. I gave up towards the end of the Mario puzzles. I started to get frustrated and found myself using rewind.

Phelios (Genesis via an Analogue Mega SG and Everdrive, Never Beaten)

One of the many early Genesis shooters. This one with a Greek mythology theme. It has a charge mechanic, which the game really wants you to use as your standard shots cause very little damage. You can collect speed boosts (you are REALLY slow when you don't have any), options and timed power up weapons. It's mostly standard but well done shooter stuff, though there are a few cool parts like the level where you are being chased and have to lure your foes into the walls. It's also kinda titillating and exploitative for a game of this era, with your girlfriend getting chained up and gradually undressed between cutscenes and all. The music is pretty good and there's also a surprising amount of voice, albeit low quality.

It's pretty tough as you can imagine, I was afraid I wasn't going to beat the game, but I started racking up extra lives like crazy. I was feeling good about my chances...but then the stupid game soft locked towards the end of level 6! Maybe another day.

Pit-Fighter (Genesis via an Analogue Mega SG and Everdrive, Never Beaten)

Still wanting to burn some time, I went to the next game on my list of ROMs which was...this. It's a pretty dreadful port of a pretty dreadful game but I have a soft spot for the cheap digitized graphics and the overall goofiness of it all. Lost all my lives at a little over the halfway point - I probably could have gotten further if I just sat around and spammed Ty's special kick attack.

[alexmate]

Medal Of Honor: Infiltrator (GBA, 1st time, save states, Timer: 2hr 16)

Game was just too hard without. Ther eis almost a great game in here, just soul destroying difficulty.

Rating: 7

[Woody Alien]

Spooky Station (PC/Steam, technically can't be completed)

I bought during the sales this title thinking it was a series of mini-games, but actually is a collection of random games by different devs whose only connection is that they're all Brazilian and a vague horror theming. It's a really uneven collection and some of these are little more than jokes, there's a mobile-style endless score chase, there's also a text adventure, a graphic adventure, some Flash-esque mini games... so technically you can't "finish" the whole collection and just a few scant of these games even have achievements (and some are even bugged).

The only interesting one of the lot is "Spookids", a run-n-gun/shooter that answers the questions "what if Kiki Kaikai/Pocky & Rocky, but with Western-style ghosts and monsters?", were it a longer stand-alone game I could even have bought it on its own. But as it is I'm glad that I didn't have to spend much on it.

I also liked to find the prequel (?) to "Dreaming Sarah", a Yume Nikki-esque game I played many years ago and that is apparently going to get a sequel.