RFGen 2019 NES Challenge

[Normatron]

Think I maybe able to claim Zoda's Revenge: Star Tropics 2?

[MetalFRO]

I'm going to relinquish my claim to G.I. Joe: The Atlantis Factor. I haven't gone back to it, and I'm just tying it up needlessly. If anyone else wants it, have at it. I'll have to look through my collection and figure out what I want to play next, but I think it's either going to be an old favorite I haven't beat yet, or something I haven't played at all that's still available.

[Duke0619]

Phew, this one was even tougher than Rush N Attack! I love and hate this game at the same time: I love it for its ambition, style and uniqueness, but I hate it for its unrealistic and sometimes unfair difficulty. With multiple types of gameplay including side scrolling action, first person shooting, underwater levels and horizontal shooting, not to mention the story driven cut scenes, this game has it all. With a sleek and sexy style including steamy love scenes and bloody head shots, this game is a gem in the NES library in a time when such things we’re usually sensored. The difficulty however was, at times, borderline impossible, most notably the act 7 mazes. Even with careful mapping, the three levels of mazes to conquer were so confusing and tedious I almost threw in the towel. But alas, I persevered! 

[Duke0619]

I’ll go ahead and pick The Mafat Conspiracy next. I’ve never played it before so now’s a good time to check it out.

[Crabmaster2000]

We are gonna have to bust our asses if we are going to get to our community goal of 300 games completed by March 31st. We are currently sitting at 266. Not impossible, but it's gonna take several of us pushing hard to get there. Check out the front page for a list of the games still available and if you see a game you know pretty well or an easy win that hasn't been picked up yet knock that sucker out!

@Normatron - I've always heard such great things about Guardian Legend, it's just one of those titles I've yet to put aside some time to really dive into though.

@Duke0619 - I totally forgot about the credit cap of 52 until you mentioned it. That's rough after working on it for so long! Good job not letting that loss get to you and coming back and dominating it so quickly! I agree it's a gem and quite a unique game. Does your username have anything to do with Duke Togo?

I got to put another buttload of time into Pool or Radiance tonight. Did so many commissions, both easy and hard this time. Did everything form liberated the lizard people to purchase a slave to return to his father to escape a camp of guards out to assassinate me to taking back the city gates of Phlan! It was very productive. The further I get into this game the more impressive it really is. There's been several times now that I could tackle a commission in a variety of ways. You can always just straight up combat your way through anything, but sometimes you can negotiate or trick the person/creature into getting you what you want. It's super impressive for a late 80s game. This game specifically along with Ultima Quest of the Avatar really show the roots of where modern western RPGs are. There are so many moments in those two games that you can draw direct lines to things like Skyrim and Mass Effect. This is part of why I love digging into these games I'm not as familiar with. Holy hell the combat can drag though when you have 20 freakin Kobolds attacking you!

All claims and completions up to date!

[Crabmaster2000]

*ATTENTION RFGEN MEMBERS*

The vile Tyranthraxus has fallen and the order of Bane has been dealt a crushing blow! Phlan and surrounding lands no longer need need fear for their safety or wonder which corrupt officials or clergy are lurking in plain sight.

I beat Advanced Dungeons & Dragons: Pool of Radiance tonight! This was a big one for me in a couple different ways. Firstly it was quite an impressive and comprehensive RPG. I'd likely rank it quite high among NES RPGs in fact. It deserves to be mentioned among the greats. Does so many impressive things and does a far better job of telling stories than many others in the genre.

But secondly this marks the 400th licensed NES game I have been able to complete now! That's a huge milestone for me and after taking a few years off of playing to run my store I wasn't sure I was ever going to get this far. I'm still having such a blast and still finding amazing games that have gone under my radar that I can't wait to keep playing more NES games!! Thanks to all you guys for listening to me talk about Nintendo and playing NES beside me all this time. The year is still quite young so I'm gonna push hard and see if I can't get to 500 by the end of 2019 even.

[img width=640 height=482]https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7829/46748164764_556162c758_z.jpg[/img]

Since Bomba is such a big fan of Pool of Radiance I thought he might get a kick out of this pic too. I used a bunch of your names as characters. I made a few of you women though so I hope you don't mind. BOMBATOM ending up being my powerhouse fighter with significantly more HP than myself (the other straight fighter on my team) so naturally I gave you all the best equipment and you were a total monster by the end of the game with a D10+11 for damage. In fact you actually dealt the killing blow to Tyranthraxus at the end of the game.

[img width=640 height=480]https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7900/46556141065_24f5d3c971_z.jpg[/img]

[Fokakis79]

@crabby, will definitely give it a shot when this challenge is all over. I love most things DnD related.


Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

[bombatomba]

*ATTENTION RFGEN MEMBERS*

The vile Tyranthraxus has fallen and the order of Bane has been dealt a crushing blow! Phlan and surrounding lands no longer need need fear for their safety or wonder which corrupt officials or clergy are lurking in plain sight.

I beat Advanced Dungeons & Dragons: Pool of Radiance tonight! This was a big one for me in a couple different ways. Firstly it was quite an impressive and comprehensive RPG. I'd likely rank it quite high among NES RPGs in fact. It deserves to be mentioned among the greats. Does so many impressive things and does a far better job of telling stories than many others in the genre.

But secondly this marks the 400th licensed NES game I have been able to complete now! That's a huge milestone for me and after taking a few years off of playing to run my store I wasn't sure I was ever going to get this far. I'm still having such a blast and still finding amazing games that have gone under my radar that I can't wait to keep playing more NES games!! Thanks to all you guys for listening to me talk about Nintendo and playing NES beside me all this time. The year is still quite young so I'm gonna push hard and see if I can't get to 500 by the end of 2019 even.

Since Bomba is such a big fan of Pool of Radiance I thought he might get a kick out of this pic too. I used a bunch of your names as characters. I made a few of you women though so I hope you don't mind. BOMBATOM ending up being my powerhouse fighter with significantly more HP than myself (the other straight fighter on my team) so naturally I gave you all the best equipment and you were a total monster by the end of the game with a D10+11 for damage. In fact you actually dealt the killing blow to Tyranthraxus at the end of the game.

Very nice, and I am very flattered.  On the micros and DOS there were many RPG standards set, but the GoldBox games really hold a place in my heart, especially since I didn't really get into them until very late (around 2000, as I didn't own a PC until then).  They aren't the easiest games to get into if you don't like tactical combat, but if one enjoys that sort of gameplay one may find them unique.  True, they are kind of an evolutionary dead-end, but interesting nonetheless.  It's really too bad that more of them didn't get ported to the consoles.

I had my own victory about then minutes ago, that being Dirty Harry.  Man alive, that game is brutal, especially that last level (and if you start to explore you end up warping back earlier in the level!), but it is in the bag.  The ending screen is super boring, and looks like the "death" screen you see after losing all your lives, so instead I provided the pic you see immediately after the final boss:

[img width=700 height=537]http://i68.tinypic.com/2ro3l80.jpg[/img]

What you cannot hear is the digitized speech (the whole "Do you feel lucky punk?" bit).  That is the best part of this game by far, and outside of Battletoads and King's Knight this was the biggest beatdown I've ever faced in an NES game.  I am glad it is over.

For sake of formality I would like to claim Kung Fu Heroes, but in all seriousness I will beat the game in the next two hours (before I go to bed), always assuming that I don't need an extended warmup period (always possible).  The secret to this game is to warp a couple times, making sure you get all the treasures so you can beat the enemies on the last few levels.  The best way to finish is to not warp at all, so that you can stock up on lives in the beginning stages (when juggling deadly enemies is easy).

 

[bombatomba]

Boom.  Fell asleep before I could submit, but decided to take the semi-long road for Kung Fu Heroes:

[img width=669 height=550]http://i68.tinypic.com/312bqlz.jpg[/img]

Wolverine next, I think.

[Crabmaster2000]

@bombatomba - I don't know if I'd call games like Pool of Radiance an "evolutionary dead-end". I see a lot of ideas from games like this in modern times with stuff like Mass Effect, Skyrim, Far Cry, etc. Might have been stagnant for a while, but at least last gen onward it seems like the ideas from some of these 80s games are back in fashion in a big way.
Wicked job on Dirty Harry! It's not a well known game, but its a beast of a game to take down. Thanks so much for pushing yourself to take down a title like that for the challenge. These are the kinds of games that are going to make or break our ability to cross the finish line. I've played a little Kung Fu Heroes before, but never finished it. It seemed quite challenging from what I remember so when I'm ready to tackle it myself I'll have to get some pointers from you.

I was able to do a double header tonight as well and knocked two more games off of our licensed games list. Beat Adventures of Gilligan's Island and Fist of the North Star tonight.

Why was Gilligan's Island even made? Did it still have a following in the 80s? The concept of goofy castaways doesn't exactly scream "make me into a video game". I realize that these weren't universally established, and significantly reviled video game tropes quite yet, but the entire game is an escort mission wrapped in a giant fetch quest. Your playable character of the Skipper can't do any actions without Gilligan in close proximity and you even lose tons of time if you leave him a screen behind. Animals, pitfalls and headhunters will all try and take him away from you during the game. Besides keeping Gilligan close each episode requires you to talk to people repeatedly. The final episode being the worst in which you talk to Mary Ann > Mrs. Howell > Mr. Howell > Mary Ann > Mr. Howell > Mary Ann >Mr. Howell > Mary Ann > Fight a Skeleton. This wouldn't be so bad if Mary Ann and Mr. Howell were near each other, but you have to navigate river shortcuts and cave systems while conserving as much life as possible. It was not great, but thankfully short.

And speaking of short my final playthrough of Fist of the North Star was about 15 minutes to beat. That was after a couple hours of practice and learning the game though. Not much memorable here. Really clunky power up system, special moves that don't really do much, bad hit detection and weird level design. The character sprite for Kenshiro looked a lot more like Ace Frehley from KISS than he should have which is awesome though.

I'm gonna throw my next claims at Robin Hood and Young Indiana Jones


[img width=640 height=479]https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7854/46755132634_4dc7130a2b_z.jpg[/img]
[img width=640 height=479]https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7924/33601860238_6af4ac3011_z.jpg[/img]

[Disposed Hero]

And speaking of short my final playthrough of Fist of the North Star was about 15 minutes to beat. That was after a couple hours of practice and learning the game though. Not much memorable here. Really clunky power up system, special moves that don't really do much, bad hit detection and weird level design. The character sprite for Kenshiro looked a lot more like Ace Frehley from KISS than he should have which is awesome though.

I actually spent some time with Fist of the North star early in the year, and I had a similar opinion of the game. It was one that I was hoping to come back to and knock out myself at some point, but you beat me to it!

Anyway, I've been super busy lately and haven't been very active here over the past month or so. I hope to get back into it soon!

[Crabmaster2000]

And speaking of short my final playthrough of Fist of the North Star was about 15 minutes to beat. That was after a couple hours of practice and learning the game though. Not much memorable here. Really clunky power up system, special moves that don't really do much, bad hit detection and weird level design. The character sprite for Kenshiro looked a lot more like Ace Frehley from KISS than he should have which is awesome though.

I actually spent some time with Fist of the North star early in the year, and I had a similar opinion of the game. It was one that I was hoping to come back to and knock out myself at some point, but you beat me to it!

Anyway, I've been super busy lately and haven't been very active here over the past month or so. I hope to get back into it soon!

We are falling behind this month. Could definitely use you back in the fold to help us out when you're able to do so again.

[bombatomba]

Wolverine is actually much harder than I thought, but only because of the annoying way you take damage and the one continue you are allowed.  After two hours I can reliably get to level eight, but hitting a wall because of the spiked floors and the very precise jumping (and stupid electric floors).  This is a game for the console, as even the slight lag with my emulator makes some of the jumps tough.

[Crabmaster2000]

Finished off Young Indiana Jones Chronicles tonight. Wasn't a bad little action game. Didn't really have a special hook to make it stand out though. Fairly short also. Kinda crazy that one of the best weapons in the game was a rock. Like better than Indy's whip or several of the guns in the game.

Also put a bunch of time into Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. Very weird game all around. Several different styles of game and when you swap between them sometimes they decided your action buttons should be swapped from A to B or vice versa. I think I made it fairly close to the end, but apparently you only get 2 continues. I wasted both of mine super early in the game and then made most of my progress after that so I'm pretty confident if I can get a better start in the game tomorrow I should be able to finish this one off then.

Robin Hood does have some badass battle music though!!



[img width=640 height=481]https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7861/47432484912_161938d858_z.jpg[/img]

[shane]

Wolverine is actually much harder than I thought, but only because of the annoying way you take damage and the one continue you are allowed.  After two hours I can reliably get to level eight, but hitting a wall because of the spiked floors and the very precise jumping (and stupid electric floors).  This is a game for the console, as even the slight lag with my emulator makes some of the jumps tough.

I got to the end battle with Sabretooth and couldn't complete it. So frustrating. You have to perfectly time punches to juggle him across multiple screens until he goes over the cliff edge.