RFGen 2019 NES Challenge

[EZ Racer]

Rampart is done. Another that I enjoyed as a kid, but never came anywhere near completing it. Without giving too much away, the best strategy to winning is a bit counterintuitive.

@bombatomba- Thanks. I was lucky enough to hit a few hole-in-ones and found you get massive bonus money for them, so that helped.

[Crabmaster2000]

Productive night tonight in the second day of my 100 day challenge. Took down 4 games from both my personal list and the RFGen list.

Played maybe the worst Basketball and the worst Football game with Harlem Globetrotters and NFL Football. Thankfully both games only needed one match to be won and even more thankfully you can adjust the timer on Harlem to 1 minute quarters so it was a quick completion. Both games were so slow and sluggish and had a ton of slow down on top of being slow messes. As with most NES football games I couldn't land a pass to save my life so I just ran a touchdown and then spent a lot of time waiting for the timer to run down each quarter. I don't know the first thing about football or the teams. Saw one called Steelers and Judas Priest has a wicked song called Steeler so I picked them and they did the job.

[img width=640 height=478]https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/48126046963_b85493dc7a_z.jpg[/img]

[img width=639 height=477]https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/48126045938_33e02ddb99_z.jpg[/img]

After that I played some Rollerblade Racer which was another super short game, but a little harder. You can only fall down 9 times across 5 main stages and 4 bonus stages before the game forces you to give up and start over. Took several attempts to finally get the ending. I got a second place run which give you the credits so I was ok with that and didn't feel the need to try for 1st.

[img width=640 height=478]https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/48126102962_4b08a7f676_z.jpg[/img]

And lastly I beat Magmax which is a weird little shooter where you can upgrade your ship with 3 separate parts that turn you into a giant robot. Neat idea, but the game is over almost as quick as it begins and they don't really let you do anything very cool once you're a giant robot.

[img width=639 height=477]https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/48126103792_bcc8e66f6d_z.jpg[/img]

[bombatomba]

[img width=700 height=393]http://i67.tinypic.com/25ix6x4.jpg[/img]

Iron Tank is in the bag.  Very hard game, but once you pass the half-way mark I found it more manageable.  Like most old school NES games memorization is the key, not so much for enemy placement but which enemies appear, fire, and disappear, but for the enemies that will follow you around.  The last boss was a great tri-form enemy that was loads of fun, and took more than five tries to get past (continuing from near the beginning of the level).  Fun game.

I accidentally beat Alpha Mission but only managed to get this lame pic (which is the loop onto the first stage):

[img width=700 height=393]http://i68.tinypic.com/qrhglh.jpg[/img]

Please don't mark Alpha Mission cleared for me, as I want to try again for a better pic.

 

[shaggy]

Sign me up for Lolo II. My Mom and I beat this when I was a kid and love these games.  I need to continue this adventure.

[Disposed Hero]

On that note I have been using my SN30 Pro to play on my Switch, but having to get it down on a flat surface is bumming me out (despite the hand cramps, I really love playing like any other handheld).  I have been looking at one of those Hori D-pad Controllers (looks like a left Joycon but with a D-pad).  Have any of you had experience with one of those?  Right now it's twenty bucks that could go to another game, but I thought to ask anyway.

I have one of those Hori pads, and while I don't really use my Switch for playing these types of games, I would say that it is a huge improvement over the standard Joycon. Just be aware that it doesn't have a battery in it like the standard Joycon, so it can only be used when attached directly to the Switch itself.

Man, you guys have really been knocking them out over the last couple of weeks. I'm going to have to get back in on the action soon!

[EZ Racer]

T & C Surf Designs done according to the completion criteria (Finish level 10, pic is of beginning of level 11). It's nothing special, but it is proof LJN was capable of making a solid game. The skateboarding sections are actually a lot of fun, and while the surfing takes time to get used to, with practice it's decent enough.

I'm going to let go of my claim on Galaxy 5000. I took a break in May from the NES, not long after hitting a wall in it, and I just haven't had the inspiration to go back to it and grind through. I might take another stab at it later in the year, but if someone wants it, have at it.

That said, I'm at least going to try The Immortal for my new claim. I at least want to give it a fighting try, but I know it's a very frustrating game.

[MetalFRO]

Sign me up for Lolo II. My Mom and I beat this when I was a kid and love these games.  I need to continue this adventure.

Nice! I'm still working (slowly) on Lolo 3, and I don't have 2 yet, so it's good to see someone jumping in on that one.

I agree with you EZ Racer - T & C Surf Designs is a fun game, and definitely proof that LJN wasn't completely terrible all the time. I played it a ton as a kid at a neighbor's house, and we always had fun with it.

[bombatomba]

T & C Surf Designs done according to the completion criteria (Finish level 10, pic is of beginning of level 11). It's nothing special, but it is proof LJN was capable of making a solid game. The skateboarding sections are actually a lot of fun, and while the surfing takes time to get used to, with practice it's decent enough.

I only played it a handful of times and don't remember any details, though I do remember making fun of it during the 90's.  Seems like I need to fire it up again and have a look see, maybe give it another chance.

[Crabmaster2000]

3 more down for me tonight. Puts my 100 day challenge at 9 games down in 3 days so far. Tonight's games were Cabal, Seicross and Karate Champ. I didn't realize Cabal was a Rare game. Definitely didn't seem like it style-wise as their other games are pretty hyper stylized and Cabal felt a lot more generic in it's appearance. Anyway it wasn't bad, just super short and kind of uninteresting. I've played a bunch of Nam-1975 on my AES and Nam-1975 is a far better version of this style of game. Found out you could hug the corners of the stage in most cases and be relatively safe only having to do the occasional dodge roll to survive. The boss fights were all incredibly easy.

[img width=640 height=480]https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/48131774978_1957fa6655_z.jpg[/img]

Seicross was a lot like Magmax in that it felt like a demo or the first part of an interesting idea for a shooting game. You drive a futuristic bike around shooting other bikers, turrets and eventually dinosaurs. There is a very simple power up system for your guns which is nice because the basic gun is super slow and it only takes 1-2 upgrades to have something more manageable. There are also little blue men scattered across the stages to collect for more points and you are constantly losing energy from your shots and movement so you have to pick up items to restore your energy as well. Not a terrible game, just not quite enough there to make a bigger impression. Game loops after a while so here is a pic of the final area before it loops.

[img width=640 height=479]https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/48131774178_891151489f_z.jpg[/img]

Lastly I've been plugging away at Karate Champ for the last few days thinking it would be another sub-one hour game, but it ended up being a lore more challenging then I anticipated. Final attempt was only about 15 minutes to beat the 10 stages for it to loop, but fights 5, 7 and 10 proved to be sticking points for me. Today I finally got a better handle on the game and was able to cheese out the timer occasionally when I was in the lead for points to get a decision victory as well as found a few combinations of moves that seemed relatively safe on the final 5 fights that had a higher chance of scoring 1 point rather than a half point that you usually get awarded. I had one run get me to the final fight before the loop and had it all tied up to the final strike and lost by decision. That sucked, and it took several more attempts to finally get a good run. The hit boxes in this game are incredibly off so I think that was the biggest learning curve both in how to keep my fighter safe and when to actually strike the opponent. Glad to be done with it not very good.

[img width=639 height=479]https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/48131774718_beb6608de3_z.jpg[/img]


@bombatomba - nicely done on Alpha Mission. I havn't actually beaten that one myself yet, but I did try it years ago and remember it destroying me so I put it down to eventually come back to. Any tips?

@shaggy - you got it! Nice to have you back on board!

@EZ Racer - That's too bad about Galaxy 5000. I really liked that one and was hoping you'd enjoy it also. How was T&C? I beat T&C 2 last year and it was short, but incredibly tough. Took a long time to get used the movement before it started feeling doable.

[Crabmaster2000]

Totally agree with you guys regarding LJN. It's funny to rag on them, but they have a few gems. I think there are far worse publishers on the system than them. It's crazy how much influence Angry Video Game Nerd has had on our hobby as I think he's directly responsible for misinformation like that (he's just being a silly character, but people take his exaggeration as truths for some reason regarding both bad games and the difficulty of games).

[bombatomba]

@bombatomba - nicely done on Alpha Mission. I havn't actually beaten that one myself yet, but I did try it years ago and remember it destroying me so I put it down to eventually come back to. Any tips?

The game is almost pure memorization on the harder stages, but really proper use of the weapons (granted I only used two different ones) and knowing when it is okay to get the "R" icon (which returns you back three stages), but ALWAYS get the W icon (which warps you ahead three stages).  Oh, and always keep firing as fast as possible with your main weapon (unless you are using a ship that saps your energy, like Nuclear), as this will create a lot of slowdown, which helps in later stages when things get tight.  Honestly, I am pretty terrible at shooters (can't get past the first stage of Star Soldier), but for some reason I do alright with Alpha Mission.

I am at level seven again on Alpha Mission and should have it finished by lunch (if I get one).

[bombatomba]

Question for the admins:  For Mighty Bomb Jack, do we need to get the Good ending or is the Bad one enough?

[Crabmaster2000]

Question for the admins:  For Mighty Bomb Jack, do we need to get the Good ending or is the Bad one enough?

Either ending is fine. We aren't going for perfection so as long as you beat each game in some fashion that's totally acceptable.

[bombatomba]

Question for the admins:  For Mighty Bomb Jack, do we need to get the Good ending or is the Bad one enough?

Either ending is fine. We aren't going for perfection so as long as you beat each game in some fashion that's totally acceptable.

Very awesome.  In that case here is the "ending" for Alpha Mission:

[img width=700 height=393]http://i66.tinypic.com/34odnpf.jpg[/img]

The trick here is that there is no Area 13, rather it shows this and a few seconds loops and shows Area 1.  On my own I think I will try and beat the arcade game, but there are no other "beatable" NES games left on the SNK 40th Anniversary (save Ikari Warriors, and I can't get past the second stage in that game without cheating), so since I am having so much fun on my Switch I think it is time for the games in Nintendo Online, which means Might Bomb Jack please.

[Ikariniku]

Working on Lethal Weapon.  It's fun, but the difficulty gets bonkers a few stages in.  Seems to suffer from Licensed Game-itis, where the beginning level is good, but the game falls off a cliff passed where the developer assumes the licensor stopped paying attention.