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Post by spanky on Feb 16, 2023 19:17:08 GMT -5
Midnight Resistance (Genesis, never beaten)
Lost all my continues at the last boss. It's the sort of last boss that would be pretty easy with a full complement of weapons and items, but if you have to continue in the final area, you're just stuck with the pea shooter.
Very cool Contra-esque game. It has a unique control scheme (it was meant for a rotary joystick) that takes some getting used to, but it does allow you to run in one direction while firing behind you which can be very useful. Powerups can only obtained between levels and you have to unlock them by spending keys that certain defeated enemies drop. Great music too - one of those early Genesis games that sounds way better than a lot of stuff that came later.
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Post by Apollo Chungus on Feb 17, 2023 9:23:03 GMT -5
I keep forgetting to post on here, to the point where I'm starting to forget the games I gave up so I'll just rattle off a quick list.
Half-Life: Timeline II - The Iced Earth (Windows; First Time; Gave up at the Station Living Area)
Hydro Thunder Hurricane (Xbox 360; First Time; Gave up at the Expert courses)
The Lord of the Rings: The Third Age (Xbox; First Time; Gave up at Osgiliath)
Metroid Prime (GameCube; First Time; Gave up at the Phazon Mines)
Toki Tori 2 (Switch; First Time; Gave up around the entrance to the central town)
Viewtiful Joe (PlayStation 2; First Time; Gave up at the the opening puzzle of Episode 4)
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Post by dsparil on Feb 18, 2023 11:40:46 GMT -5
Metroid Prime (GameCube; First Time; Gave up at the Phazon Mines) I really recommend pushing through. The Phazon Mines is last new area before the final one so it's relatively close to the end.
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Post by Apollo Chungus on Feb 19, 2023 5:14:27 GMT -5
All the games I noted in the above post I ended giving up because they presented walls I couldn't overcome, whether it be technical issues (Timeline II), frustrating puzzles (Viewtiful Joe/Toki Tori 2), or just becoming too hard (Hydro Thunder/The Third Age) - and the latter is basically what happened with Prime. The Phazon Mines are way too much for me, and the fact that there isn't a save station for ages means it became a goddamn slog going through more and more rooms, solving puzzles and fighting mini-bosses which I'd have to do from the top if I died at any point. It's such a jarring difficulty spike with no leeway that I could find, which sucks cuz I quite enjoyed Prime up until that point.
I had the game for nine years and it's only now that I'd gotten some decent amount into the game, I was getting to explore new areas and appreciate how everything worked together, but then this comes in and buggers up the lot. Maybe the Wii or Switch port are less intense considering they introduced easier difficulty modes, which would at least soften the blow of attacks and stuff. Except then I'd have to not only replay the entire thing, but have to contend with doing the artefact hunt afterwards (it's kinda mad to me how that didn't get altered in some way for the Switch version considering it's the one thing that always gets criticized as padding in a game that didn't really need it).
I'd rather just play some other game that I feel reasonably confident I can actually beat.
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Post by dsparil on Mar 4, 2023 14:23:11 GMT -5
3000th Duel (Switch, kinda boring)
After liking HunterX last year (a Dark Souls cloning Metroidvania), I figured I'd give it's predecessor a shot. It's okay as a first attempt by its team, but HunterX is just better designed. That isn't to say that this is bad, but it's a little too by the numbers and plays a lot slower.
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Post by spanky on Mar 11, 2023 10:28:47 GMT -5
Sky Shark (NES, Never Beaten)
The kids has some friends over today and I'm going full dad mode here by hiding in my office. Decided to play a game. Sky Shark is a game I owned as a kid. I think it was a yard sale find. I remember playing it a lot but not making much progress. Things don't change much because I lost all my credits at the beginning of the 4th level.
This is a fairly standard World War II (I think?) themed overhead shooter. Similar to Capcom's 194X games but with more missions over land. This is a Taito game but the port was handled by (ugh) Software Creations. It's technically competent at least, lots of stuff moving around on the screen without any slowdown but there's nothing that really wows you either. You do get some pretty rad Tim Folin music out of it. The game is really tough and a good deal of that lies in that the enemy bullets all fly at different speeds and many blend into the background, especially in the desert level. There's some spotty hit detection too - I can't tell you how many times my shots seemed to fly through my targets. They try to balance this out by having a generous checkpoint system and frequent extra lives, but it just wasn't enough for my plebian skills.
It's a bit below average of a shooter, especially considering it came out after Life Force.
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Post by spanky on Apr 1, 2023 17:15:18 GMT -5
Super Bomberman 3 (Super Famicom, Used a cheat)
Felt bad about this one. Made it through the whole game without much trouble but the final boss gave me fits, and if you have to continue, you have to start at the beginning of the world, which means you'll have to go through SEVEN rooms before you can fight the boss again. I found a password online that let's you start right at the final boss fully powered up but I think it's a bit of a non-standard password, so I am going to count that as cheating!
I'm not the biggest fan of the Bomberman fan, but if I sit down and give the game some time, I can just sort of cruise with it. I don't have a ton to say about the game....It's Bomberman. I think the game is very enjoyable when you're fully powered up, and maybe a bit too tough when you have to start over after a continue with no items. It was kind of fun clawing my way back from nothing though. It adds the Kangaroos from the Turbo games which give you an ability as well letting you take an extra hit and the main goal in each room is to destroy a number of targets to unlock a door or release a chip that you need to collect. My only real complaint is that in a lot of the later levels, a bad roll with the enemy or block placement means you're pretty much guaranteed to get killed. Oh and the music is great too - I forgot how good the music in Bomberman games are.
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Post by spanky on May 12, 2023 7:03:56 GMT -5
Kid Chameleon (Genesis via NSO, Never Beaten)
This is one of those quintessential western developed, Sega published Genesis games. KC is a platformer where you play as a kid sucked into a video game. It plays very much like Super Mario Bros, right down to the levels being littered with P blocks that you have to smash with your head to collect powerups. Some of these powerups are kind of cool though. You transform into samurais, Jason Voorhees, a skeleton driving a tank that fires skulls. Everything in this game is laser focused on what an 8 year old might think was cool in 1992. I never owned a Sega as a kid but I knew people who did and I have a sort of nostalgia for the style and overall aesthetic of these games.
KC's has tons of levels - over 100 and "1800 screens" which was a selling point in the marketing and uses a somewhat complex map. Many levels have multiple exits and it is possible to skip large sections of the game. Control is very slippery - KC slides around a lot and it is very easy to overshoot your jumps which isn't good when several levels feature tricky platforming from single block to single block. Progress is also irritatingly slow through many of the levels as they are filled with the P blocks, and unlike SMB, the coin equivalent in these blocks has to fall out of the box and collected manually rather than being added to your total automatically. The levels are filled with these things too.
The game is fairly generous with lives and continues but some levels are very challenging and will whittle down your total very quickly. I lost my last life when I was probably 75 percent of the way through the game and decided to just call it there. There's a pretty decent game here but there's a lot of sloppiness that needs to be ironed out. I tend not to rate games I don't finish but this is slightly below average 4/10.
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Post by Apollo Chungus on May 28, 2023 18:39:29 GMT -5
jeez, I should prob add a bunch of these else they'll fall out of my head.
Dead Zone (Famicom Disk System; First Time; had to use save states and slow-mo during the arcade sequence)
I'm covering this for a HG101 article (which is already written up). It's pretty decent, but there's an unskippable arcade sequence that I couldn't manage so I had to resort to the evil save states.
Samurai Sword (FDS; First Time; used save states instead of reloading from the start of the act whenever death occurred)
Another game I'm doing for an article (one I'm struggling to focus on writing anything much of atm). I could have retraced my steps instead of using save states, but I'm taking a more casual approach to these things and I couldn't be bothered repeating bits.
Severance: Blade of Darkness (Nintendo Switch; First Time; gave up at Nalfgar and Zoe's opening stages)
I was in the mood for a third-person action game from the late 90s and thought I'd give this a go seeing as it was on sale. It seems like it could be cool if you're into it, but I was very much not. I got absolutely destroyed by a troll in one character's opening stage, and reading the HG101 article made me realize that I should pick someone who isn't the masochist character. But that didn't work either, as the gameplay rhythms are clunky and dull to me in ways that aren't compelling and I threw the towel in. I'm only logging it on here cuz I played this for a couple hours, not even managing to get beyond their opening levels lol.
Star Wars Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast (Nintendo Switch; First Time; gave up at the second Nar Shaddaa level)
I never played any other Jedi Knight game besides Academy and was really looking forward to giving this a go. It's fairly good, but navigating levels is such a weird pain in the butt. The way forward is always hidden out of sight or placed so obtusely that I feel like I should be playing this on a computer with a walkthrough easily at hand so I know where to go once stuck. So I'll go and do that at a later stage, though I might start from the beginning with Dark Forces and work from there.
Vampire Rain (Xbox 360; First Time; gave up at Stage 6)
I'm very annoyed this didn't work out because I quite enjoyed my time with this. There's something very cool about slowly navigating streets, climbing up rooftops, and quietly stealthing your way about in order to avoid getting spotted by vampires that'll catch and kill you in seconds. But the level and encounter design for Stage 6 was too restrictive and difficult, and any attempts I made to circumvent them resulted in me bumping into invisible walls and placing myself in mortal danger. Combined with the sparse checkpoints that take you back ten or so minutes, I wasn't in the mood for things to get more difficult from here. Bollocks.
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Post by Apollo Chungus on May 30, 2023 8:11:57 GMT -5
BIT.TRIP BEAT (Nintendo Switch; First Time; Gave up at the final boss)
BIT.TRIP FATE (Nintendo Switch; First Time; Gave up at the boss in level 4)
BIT.TRIP RUNNER (Nintendo Switch; First Time; Gave up at level 1-10)
BIT.TRIP VOID (Nintendo Switch; First Time; Gave up at the boss for level 3)
Decided on a whim to grab the BIT.TRIP saga off the eShop since it was only a couple of euros for all six games. I remember hearing a fair bit about these (mainly RUNNER) back when they were coming out on the Wiiware service every few months, and I do like that each game plays around with different mechanical takes on its rhythm action gameplay while also providing a background narrative that ties them all together. However, and they all make it clear from the off-set that they are quite hard.
I'm surprised I got as far into BEAT as I did considering how difficult it was, especially with the fiddlyness of the paddle you steer up and down the screen in a manner akin to Pong. Maybe if I was playing the 3DS version where I could more accurately move it with the touchscreen, I'd be more able to face up to the challenges and not barely survive by the skin of my teeth. But the health meter and how it refills if you manage to hit stuff is shockingly forgiving, providing plenty of situations where you can recover just enough to make it through and maybe even gain more health in later sections.
My only real criticism of the game is that there's too many visual effects which make it hard to notice the small pixels you have to hit; ironically, the super minimalist mode that displays when you're on super low health is much easier to parse, and I wish there were options to adjust the visuals. The final boss is pretty cute as it returns to the roots of the Pong concept, but it's annoying that there isn't a checkpoint here since your progress for the previous ten minutes is pretty irrelevant to what you must do here specifically. I didn't feel like doing the whole lot again, but it's a pretty cool rhythm action game.
I also quite enjoyed FATE as well, which is surprising since I suck pretty hard at shmups. I think the fact that it's paced more like a rail shooter, with you having a limited degree of movement along an undulating line, made it easier to focus on dodging attacks more easily and getting shots in. Especially once I figured out that you only get hurt if you're hit in the exact middle, which is indicated by a small red plus sign that occasionally ebbs in and out of sight. It's a pretty good time, with plenty of variety in the types of enemies shooting at you and a good deal of excitement from the way your arsenal builds as you gain more and more power by shooting enemies and dodging attacks. That's a solid way of encouraging good play by consistently making you more skilled, yet it also retains the "regenerating health when you're very low by simply shooting at anything" aspect from BEAT.
But then it gets a bit too overwhelming, and levels being 10+ minutes long means it's a big ask to do the entire thing over. I'm playing on the easy difficulty, but dang do I wish there were at least options for maybe a mid-stage checkpoint or to slow down the gameplay to some extent. Really, that could apply to all of these BIT.TRIP games I played, since it would allow for newcomers or folks who aren't able for the games' usual pace to succeed on their own terms.
I was hoping that maybe RUNNER would be most my speed, since it's a platformer and arguably the most enduring of all six games since it got two sequels (and even a Bubsy spin-off in the same style by the same developer called Paws of Fire, which now means these two series are inextricably linked until the end of time). But it gets very fast very quickly and the lack of checkpoints makes things even more tricky. This is admittedly a me thing since I really dislike having to redo entire stages just to overcome the one bit that's giving me trouble. Maybe I'd enjoy the sequels more since I recall Runner2 had checkpoints from the demo I played of it a decade ago, and from skimming footage of the Bubsy one I know that's definitely got checkpoints.
As an aside, I also briefly attempted BIT.TRIP CORE but I'm not even counting that because it very quickly got too much for me and I bailed after three minutes lmao (didn't even bother with FLUX once I realized it played exactly like BEAT but was gonna be even more complex)
EDIT: Later this afternoon, I ended up playing VOID for most of its stages, and it's pretty good. It's kinda bullet hell, but you only have to focus on grabbing black squares and avoiding the white ones. You expand the more black things you collect which makes it easier to grab them but harder to dodge the white ones, and a good bit of the challenge is derived from knowing when to shrink yourself back to your original size. That said, the visibility issue I mentioned for BEAT is particularly heinous here as it's very hard to distinguish the objects against mostly dark moving backgrounds that obscure the black squares. Deffo want to throw some custard pies at the devs for not offering options to turn that shit off.
At the very least, there are checkpoints this time though you're only allowed a limited number of lives before you have to do the whole stage over. So there's that much consideration provided if nothing else, though I quickly got too overwhelmed at the third stages boss and decided this just wasn't for me. Well, none of the games are, really. But it was nice to give them all a shot over the span of a few hours and see that at points, I can handle these gameplay styles a lot better than I would've expected.
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Post by Apollo Chungus on Jun 2, 2023 9:59:47 GMT -5
Crash Bandicoot (PlayStation; First Time; used save states from "The Road To Nowhere" onward)Sometime last week, I took a break from playing various games that were quite long in search for something that I could beat in three or four goes at the very most. Inspired by suggestions from some friends on a discord, I went with the original Crash Bandicoot. We used to have this game back when I was a kid in the early 00s, but I was never very good at it and often messed around in the early stages, only venturing further into the game via the Super Password that gave you everything. At some point around or after 2005, we lost the game disc and I've no idea where it went. Actually, that happened with quite a few games we used to have, which is why I spent the first two years of my retro gaming fandom in the early 10s popping into the local retro game shop and paying €20-25 per game since the more popular games tended to be that price. However, I never found Crash 1 and aside from brief attempts via the not-very-good N. Sane Trilogy remakes, I haven't properly played the thing since 2005. I'd gotten reacquianted with the game via a very good video by ShayMay going through each stage, and I took his advice of only doing what I wanted to do. So I didn't bother to smash all the crates, which took the sting off death and got me in the mood to find the nature of dying, the specific animations that can play and even the timing of dying really quite funny. That said, most stages look like they'd be quite doable once you learn how they operate, and I particularly enjoy how Crash's stage clear animations reflect the two most likely outcomes: a celebratory jump and fist pump for folks who got to the end without dying (and prob smashed all the crates thus granting them a gem) and a relieved but exhausted wiping of the brow for folks who died a good few times and just about managed to reach the end. Crash's animations in general are a delight to watch; they're a bit unrefined compared to those in 2/3, but that lack of experience means there's no restraint and the lad expresses himself so much that it is equally awkward and hilarious. I've actually grown deeply fond of the whole game. The level pacing's really tight and each stage offers some new trick or combination of ideas, it's satisfying to smash crates, spin into enemies and do tight jumps, I was always pushing to try another stage and see what it'd bring to the table. I managed to get roughly halfway through without using save states and it was really awesome to clear lightly tricky platforming challenges, in one or two cases even managing to break all the crates without realizing it. But then I got to The Road To Nowhere, which became a bit too tricky near the end with all the insta-break and icey planks placed so precariously; never mind that fecking pig which keeps running up and down certain parts - I must've died about 15 times on that bit before I decided to forego any chance of this going on the Game Finish thread. Just as well, since plenty of stages from here on out get increasingly tougher with longer and longer stretches between checkpoints, such as Sunset Vista and Stormy Ascent. If I hadn't resorted to save states at Road To Nowhere, it would've happened soon enough anyway. Folks who can manage to get all the gems without save states are legendary as far as I'm concerned. Maybe I'll revisit some of the earlier stages to grab some gems, see if I can try to unlock those two secret levels or simply find areas I'd never seen or even heard of (there was one shown in the aforementioned ShayMay video which was a complete mystery to me, and I was so excited and surprised to see it). Really good game, and unless a possible attempt at Crash 2 ends in disaster, definitely my favourite of the original Crash trilogy. Legend of Kay (PlayStation 2; Replay; used save states in the dragon race section)Gonna very quickly add this in since I beat the game in the time that passed between originally doing the post and now. I'm covering this for the website and although I managed the rest of the game just fine, the dragon race section was surprisingly difficult and long. You have to fly through 40 rings on a very strict time limit while avoiding explosive mines, doing super tight cornering in a section that generally requires really good reflexes that I didn't have. It's mandatory so I decided to use save states so that I could actually see and play the rest of the thing.
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Post by spanky on Jun 18, 2023 6:43:43 GMT -5
Jackal (NES, Beaten Before)
Really disappointed in myself with this one. I've beaten this multiple times before and the fact I couldn't this time makes me think I'm Losing My Touch. Part of this was my fault though. For some reason I thought you had infinite continues and when I lost a life early in the final level, I let them all run out so I could continue with a fresh set. Turns out you can only continue 4 times. Awesome game though.
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Post by excelsior on Jun 28, 2023 6:57:08 GMT -5
Gradius II (PC Engine via Steam Deck, Beat using Save States) Did a play of Gradius II. Really nice version of the game. It was hot and I was tired so I didn't play up to my usual standard but save states saw me through. The end game spider walker always has me struggling.
Salamander (PC Engine via Steam Deck, Beat using Save States) Another nice shooter from Konami for the Engine. I don't like this as much as the Gradius games, though. It really relies on highly accurate memorisation for stages. Bosses aren't so tough.
Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask (N64 via Steam Deck, Gave up) I did the first temple and got all the fairies from it to unlock the spin attack. Didn't delve much into the town quests. Basically I started a number of weeks ago and we had a fairly long heatwave by UK standards, which left me without the ability to concentrate or any real drive to play, so it wasn't the right time for this more complex Zelda game.
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Post by Apollo Chungus on Jun 30, 2023 9:18:04 GMT -5
Sabre Wulf (GBA; First Time; Gave up at the final stage of the seventh area)
Apart from the cracking Jetpac, I haven't really touched much of Rare's home computer games back when they were Ultimate Play The Game, least of all the Sabreman games. However, I got curious about checking out the fairly obscure revival made for the GBA after reading about its development in an issue of Retro Gamer I picked up from a charity shop last month (issue 215 to be exact). It's a surprisingly good platformer, where you have to make your way past tricky traps and creatures to grab a treasure from the deadly Sabre Wulf, before running back to the start of the stage with the Wulf chasing you down. Levels only take a minute or two to complete, so it's very good as a handheld game since you can easily clear a couple of levels within short bursts.
I also enjoyed how fair the game tended to be, even if it did introduce trickier enemy types over time. See, the way you get around is to use animals you find hidden away in stages to act as platforms, destroy enemies or simply move them around. If you're having trouble with a particular stage, you can always replay previous stages and either do some exploration to find more animals or beat stages more quickly, which'll give you more precious treasures to sell in the shop and use the cash to buy more animals. The shop supplies are limited and they're not cheap, so you can't spend your way to victory. But it does a lot to give you enough control in letting you make the game as challenging as you want it to be. (A nice touch is that if you reach the treasure, that acts as a checkpoint so you don't have to do the entire stage over just to fumble at the Wulf chase)
One element I wasn't expecting was the isometric overworld, where you can talk to characters, find treasure chests which give you more coins, and engage in little fetch quests that made everything feel more connected. I really dug being able to take a break from the main game and do some light exploration, listening to the relaxed ambience of each area, and revisiting older locales to give characters items I'd found elsewhere (such as returning a stolen sled to some kids, or going on an extended quest to give a freezing nude man a furcoat).
It's just a shame that I couldn't reach the end, due to how the final stage of each area works. You have to quickly make your way up a laboratory with a timer breathing down your neck, pressing switches to reset the timer and trying to avoid obstacles. As the game progresses, the time pressure from the regular Wulf chases and these lab levels becomes increasingly tight, and I simply can't make it through the final stage of the seventh area. The timer's too quick, there are too many obstacles to circumvent, and nothing pauses when you bring up the menu to pick an animal to help you. It's all too much, and it's particularly annoying when I've only got one world left to go. Ah well, at least I enjoyed the heck out of what I played. Cool lil game that's deffo worth a look.
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Post by spanky on Jul 13, 2023 20:03:13 GMT -5
Double Dragon (Sega Master System, Never Beaten)
The Sega version of Double Dragon is notable for being more of a straight port of the arcade game as opposed to the NES game which tries to make it more of a console experience. It's immeditatley obvious that the NES version is the basis for the character graphics, but the game uses some really ugly bizarre color choices. If you think pink-haired Williams looks guilty, wait until you find the ones with green skin. The backgrounds are very flat compared to the NES game which actually has some very nice ones. It is pretty nice that you can get multiple enemy types on screen, as well as 3 enemies and 2 player characters, though it gets pretty flickery when everyone is on the same line. Music isn't bad but I prefer the NES version by quite a bit.
The game play is...all right. No experience system here but the enemies are aggressive and are able to interrupt your attacks. You pretty much have to use hit and run tactics as trying to combo punches or kicks will just cause you to lose a ton of health. You don't really have any sort of safe and overpowered attacks that you can rely on - even the mighty elbow has seen a pretty serious nerf here. So the entire game feels very tense are you're always a split second away from losing a bunch of health. I lost all my lives at the final stage. If I played a bit more carefully and patient I might have been able to beat it.
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