RFGen 2019 NES Challenge

[Crabmaster2000]

Of the games left, are there any that most people wouldn't want to play? I don't want to leave a bunch of crappy games for the end of the year.

Hehe.  I've included it in one of my future articles for this year (maybe July?) but Ikari Warriors is a serious turd.  I can't imagine someone beating this without using the cheat code (which is off limits since it isn't included in the manual).  Also most of the Koei games, mainly due to length.

Ikari Warriors, Q-Bert, Arkanoid and Mutant Virus I think are maybe the hardest games on the system to beat legitimately. Any of those getting crossed off our list will be a huge celebration in my mind.

[shane]

Here's Break Time. This is a pretty good game considering you don't have a mouse to control the crosshair. Being able to control the english you put on the ball and the relative ease of controlling the amount of power you put behind it means I made more shots than some other pool games I've played in the past.

[img width=700 height=443]https://i.imgur.com/aQFOH7d.png[/img]

[Crabmaster2000]

@bombatomba - Breakthru is solid! I'm glad you enjoyed it. Short and sweet, it's a fun game for quick sessions

@Disposed Hero - I think Guerrilla War may be the easiest game to beat on the system. There is really no punishment for dying. Pretty fun though for sure.

@shane - nicely done! I actually enjoyed my time with Break Time as well which seems odd for some reason.

I finally finished off Michael Andretti's World GP Tonight. There was a ton of game to get through. There was the initial learning curve that took me a while to get used to, then it went smooth for a while until they forced me to race a whole level with an automatic which had me relearn how to control the vehicle. After that it just got really hard and I had to basically get mostly first place in order to have enough points to win. Eventually got the the final race and didn't have enough points to win even if I got first so I had to go back half a dozen races and redo them and win better positions. Got back to the final race with a tied score with Michael Andretti and just had to try the race for a few hours on end until I knew the ins and outs of the track and was able to take a 1st. As far as racers on the NES go it's actually fairly solid. The controls and nuance to the driving (things like cornering, braking, pits, shifting) are all pretty impressive if you invest the time to learn them. Having zero soundtrack sucks though, because that means its all just engine noises and nothing else. Also having 16 different and unique tracks was a lot to learn. Not sure if they are good representations of their real life tracks, but some were pretty crazy compared to others. Even though it took me about as long as other slogs like Bases Loaded 4 it was much more enjoyable and engaging than something like that. Very glad to be done with this one.

[img width=640 height=475]https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/47666692861_37f0c1d55c_z.jpg[/img]

[Disposed Hero]

Puss 'n Boots: Pero's Great Adventure done.

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

A completely random pick. Not a good game, but not as bad as I thought it was going to be. The controls were pretty stiff, and the whole game feels very uninspired. It was pretty easy for the most part, although the final boss was pretty cheap.

[Disposed Hero]

Heavy Barrel done.

[img width=700 height=525]https://i.imgur.com/eCue0s3.jpg[/img]

Awesome game that is in a similar vein to Jackal. I had a lot of fun with this one.

[Crabmaster2000]

We just surpassed the 300 game mark!! We are nearly at the halfway point of the challenge. Great job everybody!

@Disposed Hero - nice to see you back in full NES form after you musical hiatus! Puss n' Boots is another super easy one for sure, not very remarkable. I've actually not played Heavy Barrel yet, but I've always heard positive things about it.

I was also able to pull a double feature tonight and beat Castlequest and Day Dreamin' Davey. Castlequest was pretty neat. Huge maze of a castle to navigate through collecting colored keys which you can use to open the same colored door. This is one of those games that back in the day would have required some pretty crazy mapping to get done. They are very generous with the lives and give you 50 to start with and lots of chances to obtain more. The music is a drag, but otherwise thought it was a decent puzzler. I ended up looking up a route so that the game didn't take me weeks to map out. Probably would have had more patience if I didn't just spend the last 3 weeks on one game.

Day Dreamin' Davey feels like a super early homebrew project. It really doesn't seem like a company funded and developed this game. It looks terrible, it plays terrible, it's got such a silly premise that you're a kid who constantly day dreams during his day at school that he's a Knight, Roman citizen and cowboy. Even though the game was a drag I loved playing it because I wasn't playing Michael Andretti's World GP anymore. I may use that logic to take down a couple more stinkers in the coming days too.

[img width=640 height=479]https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/46761122315_e478f794f8_z.jpg[/img]

[img width=640 height=481]https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/47677125641_f7c2302e17_z.jpg[/img]

[Normatron]

Still working on Zoda's Revenge but I thought I would complete a game so no one else has to go through the crazy game of Deadly Towers. I loved playing this game as a kid Casually but completing it is a whole different beast all together. I still had alot of fun with it except the part where I missed a few Items that was needed like scrolls and potions and the DARN BLUE NECKLACE that I didnt know about. but still a great game for me anyways.

[bombatomba]

I was also able to pull a double feature tonight and beat Castlequest and Day Dreamin' Davey. Castlequest was pretty neat. Huge maze of a castle to navigate through collecting colored keys which you can use to open the same colored door. This is one of those games that back in the day would have required some pretty crazy mapping to get done. They are very generous with the lives and give you 50 to start with and lots of chances to obtain more. The music is a drag, but otherwise thought it was a decent puzzler. I ended up looking up a route so that the game didn't take me weeks to map out. Probably would have had more patience if I didn't just spend the last 3 weeks on one game.

Day Dreamin' Davey feels like a super early homebrew project. It really doesn't seem like a company funded and developed this game. It looks terrible, it plays terrible, it's got such a silly premise that you're a kid who constantly day dreams during his day at school that he's a Knight, Roman citizen and cowboy. Even though the game was a drag I loved playing it because I wasn't playing Michael Andretti's World GP anymore. I may use that logic to take down a couple more stinkers in the coming days too.

I've always been interested in CastleQuest but never played it.  I will have to give it a look pretty soon.  But Day Dreamin Davey I am familiar with.  I though it always felt like a Color Dreams game or something.  Like you said:  Homebrew.  Not terrible, just not very good.  Oh, and congrats on Andretti.  Game really seemed like a slog.

Still working on Zoda's Revenge but I thought I would complete a game so no one else has to go through the crazy game of Deadly Towers. I loved playing this game as a kid Casually but completing it is a whole different beast all together. I still had alot of fun with it except the part where I missed a few Items that was needed like scrolls and potions and the DARN BLUE NECKLACE that I didnt know about. but still a great game for me anyways.

 Respect!  I never could beat Deadly Towers, even though I do pick up and play it about once a year.  For those of us that are fans of "famijank" it is certainly a treat, but man the amount of rooms makes me dizzy.  When I fire it up I always open up a laptop with Excel to map it, but the maze gets me down everytime.  Kudos to you for beating it.

[Crabmaster2000]

Wicked job on Deadly Towers!! I did that one last year and it's no easy task. Definitely not a game I expected to get beaten out of the blue like this.

[Normatron]

Yea, I really was pushing myself to play the game. For some reason I like the game but I was worried that beating the game would change that. I'm glad it did not :😁

[Silent Scythe]

[img width=700 height=933]https://i.imgur.com/gnxwVqG.jpg[/img]

Sorry I beat this one a while ago but I've been super busy Dealing with work stuff.

This game is one of my earliest NES memories and I believe this is only my first or maybe second time beating it. I never would spend the stars when I was young so I made everything a lot harder for myself. Funnily enough I could never beat any games another Capcom franchise, Mega Man, when I was young until I got over myself and started using the boss weapons. It sucked but by the time I was a teenager it was a lot easier to do buster only runs.

[Crabmaster2000]

Nice to have you back Scythe, hopefully work slows down a bit for you. I didn't know anyone who had Adventures in the Magic Kingdom as a kid. Didn't know about/play it until I was collecting as an adult.

I took down Super Cars tonight. I actually had a lot of fun with it. Top down racer in which you earn cash for each racer depending on your place. 1st gets $20,000, 2nd gets $10,000, 3rd gets $5,000. It takes between $7000-$12,000 to keep your car repaired between races so lots of 1sts are necessary. Beyond repairs you can buy upgrades that last just one race like Power Steering, higher Top speed, missiles, etc. You can also upgrade your vehicle which once I was able to afford the to get the one I wanted the game got a lot easier. And shortly after starting the 3rd and final level of difficulty I was able to buy the best car and the dealership also gave me over $100,000 for my previous vehicles so I was able to just buy every upgrade and fully repair my car before every single race which made it pretty smooth sailing. If you get a single last place finish you get an instant game over though so still had to be careful not to crash too many times or really screw up.

[img width=640 height=478]https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/47695901031_be5c5755e2_z.jpg[/img]

Here's one of my favorite music tracks from the game although there were a few good ones:

https://youtu.be/dpjZDETAJW8?t=511

[Schlibby]

Time for me to dive back in and help. I’ll lay a claim to Tom & Jerry

[Disposed Hero]

@Crabby: I think you forgot to add Deadly Towers to the completed list.

I had taken a break from Crystalis while I was working on the NES video, but I've recently come back to it and am probably about 2/3 of the way through it now. I hope to finish it within the next couple of weeks.

[Normatron]

My star tropics 2 game is not on the claims list either. But it shows my name after the game on the main list. Not to worried though.