October 2018 Playthrough - Monster Party

[singlebanana]

Waka waka waka!

[img width=500 height=675]https://i.imgur.com/CWMiOP3.jpg[/img]

[singlebanana]

Alright, it's October. It's time to Monster Party.  I'm your excellent host, singlebanana. And with me as always is GrayGhost81. Monster Party on GrayGhost81!

(**Monster Party on singlebanana!**)

I hope everyone had a great September and that you are ready for some NES goodness with Monster Party. Since the game is pretty short, there will be no checkpoints. However, I think that we should still refrain from talking about the ending storyline until the month is over.  I hope everyone has fun with this game and let's be sure to talk strategies for bosses and other such instances. 

Here's a few tips to get everyone started (I'll also copy into the initial post):

(1) Take your time. There is no time limit, so there is no need to rush through the game. Health is really important for many of the mobile bosses, so taking your time and saving your health is very important.

(2) Not all doors have bosses, but it's good to check them all if this is your first time through. Slaying all level bosses is what generates the key to exit the level and you don't want to have to backtrack.

(3) If attacking some bosses doesn't seem to be working, perhaps try a different approach. Maybe take notice of their dialogue.

(4) Most enemies have a certain range of movement. It helps to be patient and sit right on the edge of their movement limit and hit them. This is key to saving your health for bosses.

[MaterialHandlerMike]

Going to try and join in

[Crabmaster2000]

Was able to finish this one last night, took me only 1 hour and 13 minutes total time. Died a few times during the first Round while I was figuring how the game worked and what I needed to do. After finishing Round 1 I was able to make it all the way to Round 8 before having my next death, though I barely squeezed through Round 7 with a single hit point left at the end. There was a good variety of boss fights and challenges to get the keys to each stage that kept the game interesting. Not all of them were winners, but some were fairly clever. Mark was useful against a small handful of bosses, but usually I'd prefer to play as Bert as he seemed to output a lot more damage. It seemed like in the last few Rounds Bert was doing a huge amount of damage and Mark was still doing the exact same amount as he did at the start of the game.

I didn't really care for the transformation mechanic. Finding an enemy to drop you a Dr Mario pill was kind of a silly way to change between characters. At least it gave you a fairly lengthy time during your transformation though. Most of the games music was pretty stinky. I did really like the track that played during Round 3 though, and the credit roll had a decent song. It was cool to have a bit of variety in the types of levels too. Some were very straightforward left to right scrollers, but a few played with that a bit. Round 6 was super confusing and probably my least favorite. And even though 7 was one of the harder ones I liked the vertical climb with separate screens instead of scrolling screens. Round 5 seemed like I was playing a completely different game. Each other Round had very strong horror elements, but 5 seemed like I was playing Adventure Island or something, just super bright and cheerful.

Since I hadn't beaten this one yet I recorded my gameplay and I'm gonna upload it to my youtube soon. If you guys need some ideas how to get past certain bosses or Rounds hopefully it'll help. Also happy to give some tips of you get stuck at any particular areas.

[GrayGhost81]

I've been trying to get into this game for about a week now, but I was having real trouble with it. Even tried playing on PSP at work but the game was really pissing me off.

Today I said f*ck it and ran through it with the Game Genie.

All the empty rooms were annoying. The other thing that I found really annoying was I never seemed to be Bert around a boss. I wanted to be powered up for a good boss but it never seemed to happen.

The fried foods boss sucked. Most of the rest of the bosses were okay. I loved the water level with the sea monsters and "fake" sharks.

The best moment in the game for me, by a huge margin, was:

Spoiler (hover to show)

Watch us dance.

I'm kind of bummed I didn't enjoy this game too much at all. I plan to give it a couple more runs through before the month ends and I would love to beat a few levels without the cheats but I have no interest in trying to beat the game entirely without cheats. There's the password screen so I don't necessarily feel like it was meant to played that way anyway. So maybe I'll replay it one level at a time and take my time.

Level 6 can burn in hell. 

[douglie007]

Well I ended up playing the JP translation.  I enjoyed the game overall, but I agree stage 6 was the worst.  The use of all kinds of movie monsters was a nice touch.

[singlebanana]

Well I ended up playing the JP translation.  I enjoyed the game overall, but I agree stage 6 was the worst.  The use of all kinds of movie monsters was a nice touch.

Yeah, I started playing the JP game and man, not sure what it is, but it is much harder than the US version.  I really struggled to get past the first level, which is odd, since I was able to clear up to level 6 pretty easily when I picked the US version up a couple months back.

Yeah, I love Monster Party and hate to hear that you're not enjoying it that much Shawn. I played it a ton as a kid and I remember a friend and I passing the controller back and forth until we beat it.  The bosses can be frustrating at times, but at least to me, the levels are pretty easy considering the limited patterns that the enemies have. You can literally stand at the edge of their paths and hit them. It's not the type of game you can really run through and unlike other games, it takes some patience.

I don't really mind the empty rooms. They give the game some charm and in some instances (the sewer comes to mind), they force you to remember where they are so that you take more direct paths. If they were randomized, then I can see that being annoying, but they are just a natural part of the game for me and it's funny how I often remember which rooms are empty. Speaking of empty, I love rooms like the spider (and the one Shawn has in spoiler tags above) where you don't even have to battle. Maybe some feel it's unnecessary, but again, it's kind of comical and part of the charm for me; it's different and I applaud the developers for making the player think a little outside of the box.

I agree that I would like to see a little more of Bert, but the boss battles are often set up so that Mark has a fighting chance. Not a big fan of the more mobile bosses though...

One thing that is pretty cool about the game is the ability to backtrack the current level if you miss something.  It seems that most side-scrollers of the time only allowed you to go from left to right and for most, there was no reason to go back to another point in the level. Off-hand, I really can't think of any other NES games that allow you to do this. Castlevania II comes to mind, but that's not a constant side-scroller, but more of a room-to-room type game.

[douglie007]

The JP one, the bosses are harder, but it seems to give you Bert more often then the US.  But I only played the US version for the first 3 levels.

[Crabmaster2000]

I don't know if this has ever happened in the history of the playcast before, but I'm leaning way more on the Shawn side this time around. I think you're nostalgia for this game may be influencing your thoughts on Monster Party Rich. I think this game is incredibly forgettable in the NES library. The game doesn't really excel at anything it does.

Horror Theme: I'd rather play Castlevania, Nightmare on Elm Street, Maniac Mansion, Uninvited, Werewolf, Ghosts n Goblins and even Chiller
Transformation Mechanic: It pales to even B and C list games like Dragon Fighter and Totally Rad
Kid on an Adventure style game: Not as good as A Boy and His Blob, StarTropics, MC Kids, Goonies II, Zelda, Little Nemo, etc
Linear/But not Strictly Linear style game: Castlevania II, Power Blade, Bart vs The Space Mutants, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Little Nemo, etc
Music: Everything except for 1942

The hit detection when playing as Mark is super tight, which is the case for a lot of NES games, but I get why people would find it frustrating with his lack of range. I agree with Shawn that the empty rooms are more frustrating than fun. If there was a random element that changed with each play and cause you to explore a bit more I think would have been slightly better or at least the chance of picking up a power up. As is as soon as I found the 3 bosses on each stage I was able to skip any remaining doors. Like I said in my earlier post I beat the game from start to finish with no prior experience/knowledge of the game in just over an hour. There is not a lot of meat to it and nothing really memorable (except for something hilarious that happened during the final cutscene) really stuck out to me. I don't know if this is something I'd ever revisit to be honest.

@Shawn - The fried food isn't actually too bad. You can use the same technique that will help you clobber Protoman in Mega Man 3. Just let them jump over you and then follow them closely from behind with your bat drawn out jumping when they jump. It lets you hit them many times in quick succession and since you move the exact same speed as them you just have to hold the one direction and just make sure to stop before they hit a wall and turn around. I'll try and get my video up in the next couple days to I can show you exactly what I mean.

[MaterialHandlerMike]

I still haven’t tried again since my last days off. My skill and patience for retro games, has definitely suffered from my youth. I had to jump on this playthrough, for much of the nostalgia, that Rich has. I fondly remember renting this title more than once as a kid.  I made it to the second level boss last week, got annoyed trying to beat it, and shut the game off. I still think this game is charming, but I do agree with many of the same points, that Crabby made.

[MetalFRO]

Finally catching up and playing this game, as my NES wasn't working for me, and I had to boil the 72-pin connector and do some serious rubbing alcohol on the connection point on the mobo. That said, I sat down to play this for a couple hours yesterday, and already made my way to Stage 7, so it's not an overly difficult game. I was surprised, actually, that I progressed so quickly, and only had to continue a couple times to get that far. Stage 7 ramps up the difficulty somewhat, however, so that might take me a couple more tries to get through. So far, I'm having fun with the game. It's kinda generic, and agree with most of the points so far. The music is totally uninspired and forgettable, Stage 6 is evil and I had to use a walkthrough to know which door to go through. Some of the hits seem unavoidable, which is annoying, but unless you're trying to barrel through the game without much thought to what you're doing, it shouldn't be that difficult to reach the end of a level without using up all your life. Oh, and Shawn, your point about the best moment in the game so far is well taken - totally agree, that was a nice touch.

One helpful hint I found is, in the very first stage, there's a door you can go in that's empty, but when you come out, the enemy that spawns right next to it can be taken out for a heart. I was able to milk this several times, and more than double my life bar. Mark starts out with so little health that it's a good way to get a leg up (pun intended) early in the game.

Last thought: playing as Bert is pretty rad.

[MetalFRO]

[img width=700 height=525]https://i.imgur.com/rrDs4GE.jpg[/img]

Finished this yesterday, but didn't get around to posting. My issue with Round 7 apparently wasn't a one-off. It seems there's a bug in the game, where you can lose the key part-way through the stage, and have to start the round over with the password, or die and continue, to get through it. It seemed to happen to me when collecting the key as Bert, rather than as Mark. If you kill the boss who gives you the key when you're in Bert form, you can lose the key later when you turn back into Mark. It might not happen right away, but it happened to me at least twice, and that was what I correlated it to. I then went back, fought the boss as Bert but waited until turning back to Mark to strike the final blow, and got the key, then found that I was able to make it to the end of Round 7 with the key still in hand. It's an odd bug, and obvious enough that you would have thought it would have been caught during beta testing.

Also, in the spirit of Halloween and October, Round 8 can go straight to hell. I had so much trouble with it, though I think it was mostly because I was going too fast, and not thinking ahead. The "hidden" boss in that stage is annoying, and you can't avoid taking damage from that snake, so if you start the level from a continue, or from a password, you already have very little health, so you have to farm it from the flying dynamite ahead of time, and by the time you get to this point in the game, milking enemies for HP is no longer fun. Also, those enemies are far easier to deal with as Mark, with his bat, than Bert with his wavy fire blasts, because it lacks accuracy. So despite the ability to transform into Bert at least twice during the stage, I found that, for the sake of saving HP, it's actually better to stay as Mark until the end, EXCEPT for the encounter with the final boss. That's definitely easier, assuming you have enough HP, to beat with Bert. It's kind of a weird red herring for the dev team to throw in there.

Anyway, I had fun with the game, for the most part, but I'm glad I beat it so I can put it back on the shelf to admire from afar. I don't see myself going back to this one, unless I'm absolutely bored during a Halloween season, and want something more campy to play that won't require much of an investment.

[singlebanana]

Finished the game last night. Picked up the sticks and was done in just under an hour.  I think that a little of my love for this game is nostalgia driven, but I still think that it's a great game. The deflection mechanic is one that you don't see often in games and I think that it was used to some level of success here. Of course there are moving bosses that are troublesome, but overall, it adds to the variety of the boss encounters and I don't mind it so much. I'm not claiming that this is one of the best games in the NES library, but I'd put it in the top 10%-15% based on what was released.

In terms of using Bert, I would say that I used him in at least 80% or more of my battles during the playthrough. I think a big part of this reason is knowing which rooms to go in and getting to them quickly after transforming.  I agree that the pill is kind of a silly item, but come on, the transformation is pretty great; it's no Altered Beast, but what is?

I agree that the horror theme isn't as strong as it could be, but it's still a heavy presence and pretty good.  I will stay that it's a bit disappointing seeing the box/label of the game and expecting to find some of the Universal monsters to battle within.

I also partially agree with you guys about the music. While the music for each Round is dull and very repetitive for the most part, the main title, prologue, game over, and ending music that bookends the game are pretty good.  I know that's not the "meat" of the game, but I don't feel that the music should be dismissed totally. I also find the Boss theme to be pretty intense and fun; not very elaborate, but for a short fight, I think it's affective. 

Again, as I alluded to in the helpful hints earlier in this thread, this is a game that just requires some patience. This isn't a game that you can just wild out and fly through, since maintaining your HP is key. Finding and standing at the end of enemies paths to take them out easily and grinding for hearts when you get low are key to making it through this game. Once you embrace and learn these techniques, that game is rather simple.

[Duke.Togo]

Started and quickly finished the game tonight. The only part that I found frustrating was the maze level, and I eventually broke down and looked at a map to complete it.

As to Mark or Bert, I would use Bert as much as possible. It was just much easier to dish out damage with him, and flying over a lot of the enemies makes it pretty easy to get to the next door. I especially found this useful in stage 7 where you could just fly up to latter at the top pretty easily and bypass most of the enemies. It took me a minute to figure out the last stage as I got to the end without the key, but after a few tries I figured out to go the other way first.

The bosses on this game are mostly lousy, and I found the best strategy was just to eat the damage and go right at them. I tried to do as many with Bert as I could, and that usually wasn't hard as there would either be a pill or ? dropping enemy close by. Not really much strategy for me - brute forcing was much easier.

I don't know what others did for health, but since the enemies that spawned hearts would eventually stop, I farmed the ones that dropped the ?, since when it did give health it was significant. There was a snake on the Egyptian stage that was very easy to farm, so I maxed out my health with it and that lasted me most of the rest of the game.

It's amazing that this content made it by Nintendo censors in 89. Between straight religions imagery and the massive gore, this one really shouldn't have made it. I'm glad it did though, and while it's never going to end up at the top of my NES list, I enjoyed playing it. The graphics were really well done, and the music was decent. The story bits did a good job of filling things in, and the twist ending was great. Good pick this month!

[Duke.Togo]

Finished reading other thoughts: the empty rooms aren't a total waste. Sometimes I found ? items inside. There was one early on where a ? appeared after going to the far right. I'm not sure if getting them to appear is random, or if there is a trigger. The ? items were the best to farm as they could give points, Bert, or a chunk of health. They also seemed to spawn endlessly from the enemies that dropped them, which made it easier to max your health if you have the patience.