NES Challenge: NES-FEST 2012 - Heavy Thunder Warriors

The genres are all over the place this week!

If you've followed my blog for the last couple months you may have noticed me mention the game Thunder & Lightning a couple times in my future plans. If you're not familiar with the game its an Arkanoid clone. A pretty good one though. I played it several times before my surgery and got the either the last level or second last level 5 times and then failed. One such run was particularly frustrating as I got to the last level with 5 extra men, which should have been more than enough to finish it off. All I needed was pretty much any item except the missile. Literally any other item would have been helpful (some more so than others, obviously) except that one. Well with my 5 lives I was able to obtain 5 missiles before dying. Its very rare that I get the same item twice in a row, so 5 was devastating.

When I was recovering from surgery at home I gave the game a try on our 42" Flatscreen and was finding it much more difficult to play for some reason. So it got shelved until I returned to work this past week. With all of the above in my mind I was determined to finally beat it even if it meant playing it safe (or being cheap some might say :p). There are 3 levels that have new blocks spawning and if you can clear out enough of the blocks and keep them at a manageable level you could play the same level for as long as you want. By doing this I spent probably about 1-1.5 hours farming 1UPs between these 3 levels in order to ensure my victory. Doesn't make for the most exciting video, but I'm still happy to be able to cross it off my list! And after all that I was treated to the best ending screen to date......

[img width=641 height=482]http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk189/Crabmaster2000/ThunderLightning-Ending.jpg[/img]

Since we had a pretty good snowfall up here already what better game to celebrate with than Heavy Shreddin'. Much like George Foreman's KO Boxing this game seemed brutally hard at first. After getting used to the controls and realizing that you NEVER have to use one of the two styles of control available it became quite a bit easier. The game seems quite long at first two, but all of the 18 different runs are short so in the end my final run was just barely over 20 minutes. The Backwoods levels which you have to finish at the end of each run are really a lot of fun too. This game really surprised me.

[img width=639 height=480]http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk189/Crabmaster2000/HeavyShreddin-Ending.jpg[/img]

Last up for this update is Flying Warriors. You might remember me talking up how much I enjoyed playing Flying Dragon this year. I was very much looking forward to Flying Warriors as its somewhat of a sequel. While it did have some of the parts I enjoyed from Flying Dragon it also added a lot of new things to the game. Most of which I didn't like. One of the things I liked to much about Flying Dragon was the simplicity of it. The game had you doing fetch quests, farming enemies for money, changing to multiple characters for slightly different spells, and a couple poorly thought out turn based boss battles. I really want to like this game, and had they fleshed out some of the new ideas a little better I think I would have, but given the choice I'm gonna pick Flying Dragon over it.

[img width=641 height=479]http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk189/Crabmaster2000/FlyingWarriors-Ending.jpg[/img]

NES Games Finished In 2012

(click on a title to view the video)

Silver Surfer
Ninja Gaiden III: The Ancient Ship of Doom
Double Dragon II: The Revenge
Double Dragon III: The Sacred Stones
Ghosts n Goblins
Tetris
Pro Wrestling
Gradius
Zanac
Adventure Island
Karnov
Trojan
Excitebike
Baseball
Spy Hunter
Adventure Island II
Tennis
Battletoads
Shadowgate
Battletoads/Double Dragon
Pinball Quest
Section Z
Godzilla
Hydlide
Marble Madness
Back to the Future
Darkman
Terminator 2
Robocop
Total Recall
Predator
Robocop 2
Robocop 3
Hudson Hawk
Home Alone
Home Alone 2
Batman Returns
Ghostbusters II
Ghostbusters
Die Hard
A Nightmare on Elm Street
The Krion Conquest
Adventures of Dino Riki
Ultima: Exodus
Legacy of the Wizard
Air Fortress
Ultima: Quest of the Avatar
Darkwing Duck
Ultima: Warriors of Destiny
Legends of the Diamond
Pro Sports Hockey
Dusty Diamond's All-Star Softball
Yoshi's Cookie
Kick Master
Zombie Nation
Stadium Events
Super Jeopardy!
Joust
Yoshi
Dance Aerobics
Adventures of Bayou Billy
Pipe Dreams
Ski or Die
Werewolf: The Last Warrior
Simpsons: Bart vs The Space Mutants
City Connection
American Gladiators
Roundball 2-on-2 Challenge
720
Athletic World
Super Team Games
Romance of the Three Kingdoms
Gumshoe
Bases Loaded
The Addams Family Pugsley's Scavenger Hunt
Kings of the Beach
The Blues Brothers
Volley Ball
Lode Runner
3D World Runner
Twin Eagle
Dragon's Lair
The Adventures of Rad Gravity
Break Time: The National Pool Tour
Bases Loaded II
Rainbow Islands
Conquest of the Crystal Palace
Peter Pan And The Pirates
Kid Kool and the Quest for the Seven Wonder Herbs
Advanced Dungeons & Dragons: Dragon Strike
Slalom
Wrath of the Black Manta
Race America
Treasure Master
Krusty's Fun House
King's Knight
Mighty Bomb Jack
Bases Loaded 3
Castelian
Flying Dragon: The Secret Scroll
Dirty Harry
Conan
Cobra Triangle
Spider Man Return of the Sinister Six
Tag Team Wrestling
Eliminator Boat Duel
Galaxy 5000
George Foreman's KO Boxing
Ferrari Grand Prix Challenge
Thunder & Lightning
Heavy Shreddin'
Flying Warriors

BONUS GAME -

Assimilate

Future Plans - With the nintendoage list I'm using to choose my games dwindling, and the number of games I even own on that list rapidly shrinking, I'm getting relatively low on options these days. I got my doctor's OK to finally dig into those two last power pad titles I've been salivating over though. After that though you can probably expect to see some gems like Back to the Future II & III, Bill & Ted's Excellent Video Game Adventure, Mad Max, Roger Clemens MVP Baseball, and maybe if your lucky some Pinball games!