RFGen 2019 NES Challenge

[Disposed Hero]

Power Blade 2 done. Yeah, not anywhere near as good as the first.

[img width=700 height=525]https://i.imgur.com/K7ZgsdY.jpg[/img]

[Wempster]

Blue ring aquired, sword fully powered up and back on course.  5 dungeons down and this time I made sure it saved!!

[Crabmaster2000]

Looks like both Zelda games are gonna be done pretty close to each other! Should have some Dragon Warriors done in close proximity soon too! Good job tackling some long titles gang.

I went for a childhood game that I have never been able to beat tonight and finished off Indiana Jones & the Temple of Doom. I don't think we ever got past the 4th or 5th wave as kids and never really understood what I was supposed to do. This one felt good to finally cross off my list because of that. This game is a great example of interesting gameplay ideas implemented extremely poorly. There are 12 "waves" to get through to finish. During the first 6 waves you simply "touch" kids which reveal items such as gun ammo, extra lives, hints to secret areas, pieces of map, and one kid will have the key to the next wave. These levels all alternate between platforming/combat areas and minecart/conveyor belt areas with the two styles sometimes overlapping and you can traverse back and forth between the two styles while you are hunting for kids to "touch"......Like a lot of games at the time it's pretty cryptic and doesn't tell you what the map pieces do or that to uncover bombs you need to use your knife to cut open areas and then to open secret passages you need to throw bombs. Once you get to wave 7 and 8 they introduce secret items that really help you out in waves 9 and 10. I wasn't able to find the skeleton key, but I did get the Magical Idol which I think is basically necessary to beat this game. Wave 9 is where the game gets simultaneously horrendous and interesting.

In this wave you have to shoot floating stone heads in the lava to make them stop so that you can cross the lava and get to 3 orbs that you'll need to unlock doors in the next few waves. If at any time you die in the next waves you have to hunt around for those 3 orbs that have been separated and scattered around the level. Now in wave 10 you have 24 possible exits to wave 11. If you have been collecting the map pieces and missed a few you'll have a partially constructed map of one of the 6 areas with 4 possible exits to try (keep in mind you also have to have the 3 orbs so if you die once this wave is a nightmare). It's a really cool idea to have to collect map fragments earlier in the game to help you navigate this stage, unfortunately it's just designed to be a deathtrap and keeping hold of your 3 orbs while trying to find secret exits is brutal. If you have the Magical Idol it'll narrow down your search to just one door, but you still have to navigate to it through a brutally long and challenging stage. Wave 11 has you climbing and swinging (the swinging mechanic feels really good too!) your way up a cliff (again while keeping your 3 orbs on you). And finally you get short wave where you confront the villain and save the lovely lady and presumable "touch" one last kid.

Even though the stages are bland as heck, I though the mechanics and the goal of waves 1-8 were quite fun. 9-12 kind of ruin any joy this game should have brought me though. It's probably a good thing we never got very far as kids.

Touch kid to see prize....
[img width=640 height=476]https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4881/46113715184_47636930e8_z.jpg[/img]

I'm a Big Man I win!
[img width=640 height=477]https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4914/32963380308_9f70777b28_z.jpg[/img]

EDIT: All Claims and Completions up to date

[Fokakis79]

@crabbie,  You must feel like a big man after touching kids for a prize.

BTW Started up Ultima Exodus yesterday haven't got too far yet. Trying to level up so I can get the Pirates to show up.

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[EZ Racer]

@crabmaster- Haven't taken pictures of progress, but I should be through DW4 in the next few days. Just reached reached "last refuge" and took down the 4 guardians.

[Disposed Hero]

Jackie Chan's Action Kung Fu done.

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

I've always been a big fan of Jackie Chan's movies, so this game has always intrigued me. It's a pretty good game. Not among the best on the system, but a short and fun one.

[Crabmaster2000]

If we can beat 30 more games in the next 8 days that'll put us at 150% of January's monthly goal! Keep gaming everyone!

Was able to clean up my Sqoon cart that wasnt working a few days ago and get it to loop tonight. Pretty unique shooter and a lot better than I initially thought it would be. Also for it's length it gave me a lot more trouble than it should have. Found out how to get some extra 1ups and learned to hold back my power up drops until my energy was low and did a lot better. Also didn't realize until fairly late that if you can destroy the entire factory you get to keep your energy level at whatever it was when you destroyed the factory for an extended amount of time, that helped take a lot of the timer pressure off on the later stages.

No ending screen and the game immediately loops back to phase 1 so here is a pic of the final factory being destroyed:
[img width=640 height=477]https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7805/46849747961_752aa9a9ff_z.jpg[/img]

Was still in an arcade kind of mood so I plugged in Mappy Land after Sqoon was done. It starts off pretty charming and fun and pretty quickly just gets annoying. The levels with the vines and floating trampolines are atrocious and then there are a couple levels in the game where you are in a cave and all of the platforms and ladders are invisible so you just have to trial and error your way through them. Just stupid design and not fun to play. Was neat that the cut scenes in the game kind of told a primitive story of you meeting your mate, getting married, having Christmas and then having a son together though.

No ending screen for this one either so here is a pic of the final cut scene:
[img width=640 height=477]https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7897/46124656094_fd75137fd0_z.jpg[/img]

@Fokakis79 - I always feel like a Big Man!

@EZ Racer - That's a big game and you're making awesome progress. Keep at it!

@Disposed Hero - That's a perfectly accurate description of my feelings towards Jackie Chan's Action Kung Fu also

EDIT:All Claims and Completions up to date!

[Fokakis79]

Worked some more on Ultima. I got a ship and I am grinding for gold so I can get better weapons. Probably got a few more days in this game but maybe longer. Don't have a good gauge on how long this game is.

I think after this rpg. I am going to claim something a little simpler. Maybe a platformer or shmup.

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[Crabmaster2000]

Really proud of my victory tonight. "Beat" (pass the 8th stage) Ninja Kid just now! I've tried to beat this one in the past and it has always decimated me around stage 3-4. After dozens of failed attempts I started to get some sort of weird Stockholm Syndrome and was enjoying the game quite a bit more and was understanding it a lot better (when to use power ups, what some items did, best use of invincibility frames, etc). Just had an amazing run and even though I wasn't getting lucky with my scroll and dungeon placements I was in the zone and made it all the way to the 12th stage in spite of that! I don't hate this game like I used to, it's got some kind of janky charm to it.

No ending screen so here is my game over on the 12th stage:
[img width=640 height=477]https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4878/32985544248_2eedb6bd9b_z.jpg[/img]

@Fokakis79 - I think Ultima Exodus was about a 20 hour play for me when I did it a few years back. That's a good idea to switch it up. I don't want you guys burning out, it's a challenge for sure, but it's also supposed to be fun. I didn't want to jump right from Wizardry to Wizardry Knight of Diamonds to Bard's Tale so I've been buffering with other smaller games and it's been working like a charm to keep me motivated.

EDIT: All claims and completions up to date.

[singlebanana]

After finishing the monthly playthrough, I decided to jump back into the challenge and take out an old favorite. I'm a big fan of puzzle games and Kickle Cubicle is among my top 10 favorite games on the NES. IMO, it's a must own.

[img width=700 height=525]http://i.imgur.com/sWgEGAu.jpg[/img]

[Crabmaster2000]

What's everyone up to? It's been unusually quiet these last few days.......

On Sunday I'm going to be starting Bard's Tale so I wanted one more quick game before then so I decided to go flight sim since that's a genre I don't know if any of us are too eager to dive into. Booted up F15 Strike Eagle and took it down. As long as you're not playing on the Ace difficulty it's an incredibly easy game. I played through the whole thing on Pilot difficulty to be safe, which just meant I had to grind a couple missions multiple times to get my score high enough to be promoted and open up the later missions. By the time I got to the final mission I was pretty bored with this so I didn't bother going for the final medal and was just happy to beat each mission and call it a day.

[img width=640 height=478]https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4899/45956794915_4064bd2f5c_z.jpg[/img]

@singlebanana - I really like that style of game too and love Kickle Cubicle, but I've always preferred the Lolo games to it personally. Have you ever played Tricky Kick for TG16? It's quite similar, you'd probably enjoy it a lot too.

[MaterialHandlerMike]

What's everyone up to? It's been unusually quiet these last few days.......

Night Three of Eight, for work. No gaming until next week, and that will probably be reserved for RE2.

[bombatomba]

What's everyone up to? It's been unusually quiet these last few days.......

I bought some games (Ocarina 3D and Link Between Worlds), does that count?  Nah, I played some Dragon Power a bit and man is it hard to progress.  I seem to remember something about secrets (punching walls?), so I will try to kill it this weekend.  Haven't been doing much else except play FFIX.

[singlebanana]

@crabmaster2000 Yes, I love the Lolo games, but I think Kickle Cubicle is much better. It has more action, where as Lolo is mostly (not always) stagnant in terms of having to avoid many enemies; it's mostly just figuring out the puzzles and moving on. KC also has amazing graphics, especially when you get to the end of a Land and make your way to the boss battles.  Boss battles are easy, but hey, at least it has them and they are a very nice touch.  Really nice and well-programmed ending for this game too, and even some bonus levels. I know that you don't really collect Famicom games, but puzzle titles are where that system really shines as compared what we got for the NES.

Alright everyone, January is almost over. Let's push this weekend to break that 150 game mark!

[Fokakis79]

Will definitely have some time to grind out a few games this weekend. I have been unusually busy with work this week. I usually take a day off in the middle of the week so I can do stuff around the house and have time for video games. This week I wasn't able to get that day, but this weekend and next week I will get it back. I will probably be able to get through Ultima next week. But, I will probably try out and see if I can beat any quicker games over the weekend.

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