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With nearly all my family out of town this week I really capitalized on my newly obtained free time and played a TON of NES games. So ignore my past whining about being nervous about not having enough time to complete my challenge. Barring some unexpected event I'm feeling pretty confident now. I was able to cross a whopping 12 games off since last blog 
After having sooooooo much fun with Vegas Dream I thought I'd spend some more time gambling my pretend cash away. I played Caesar's Palace to scratch that itch. In order to get the best ending you need to leave with at least $140,000 after beginning with $1000. After some simple math and asking someone who had previously finished it off it seemed the best method for getting rich quick was going to be getting $3500 and then betting it all on the 40:1 odds of the Wheel of Fortune. After several hours of playing I was finally lucky enough to get a 40:1 payout and then promptly sped off in my new Ferrari-ish thing........probably never to return 
[img width=641 height=480]http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk189/Crabmaster2000/CaesarsPalace-Ending_zps019d4e22.jpeg[/img]
Not getting enough of that sweet sweet gambling action I was also plugging away at Casino Kid during the same time. The goal in Casino Kid is to beat 10 Black Jack dealers and 10 Poker Players which will eventually score you $1,000,000 which can be used to buy into a poker game with the final opponent. Things were going pretty good at first and then I hit a big bump when I had to win $50,000 playing Black Jack with the max bet being a measly $1,000. After many many failed attempts, when I was almost ready to give up, I accidently stumbled upon some extra options by pressing select during the match. Apparently after a certain number of hands you can actually force the guy to bid everything all at once. This made things go a lot smoother from that point on. Now that I know that I'm actually looking forward to tracking down a copy of Casino Kid II to try out.
[img width=641 height=480]http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk189/Crabmaster2000/CasinoKid-Ending_zps72b392bf.jpeg[/img]
Sticking with the slow paced games I plugged in Princess Tomato in the Salad Kingdom. I had pretty high hopes for this game as it seemed quirky and I usually like that kind of thing. It turned out to be a bit disappointing though. With the odd setting and characters I was really hoping for a very comedic game. I have no idea why they went with the vegetable theme though as the story of the game was quite serious about kidnapping, an underground resistance and a little bit of pain and suffering. Really not what I was in the mood for with a game called Princess Tomato.
[img width=641 height=480]http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk189/Crabmaster2000/PrincessTomato-Ending_zpsbf8f96a1.jpeg[/img]
Videomation, like Taboo, is not really a game but more like really awful video creation software you can run on your NES. So I made a video of a baby crawling down the middle of a road. Enjoy!!
[img width=641 height=480]http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk189/Crabmaster2000/Videomation-Ending_zps595e19e3.jpeg[/img]
Wasn't really sure what to expect from Bram Stoker's Dracula, but I was hopefully for something enjoyable. It wasn't the worst action game I've played, but it wasn't overly memorable either. Each stage has a short time limit in which you need to make it to the end of. A lot of the bad guys can easily be avoided instead of confronted and there are a TON of secret areas and items scattered throughout the game. I don't have a problem with any of those parts really. The parts I found annoying where the boss fights/mid-boss fights and a few particular areas in which it seemed the only way to progress was to jump into spikes and take the damage. Granted there were a lot of secrets in the game so its possible I just missed a couple secret entrances in order to not have to use the damaging spikes to progress, but it was pretty lame regardless. And literally all the boss fights just suck. But at least if you duck in the correct spot after killing a boss it looks like your character is farting up a storm 
[img width=641 height=480]http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk189/Crabmaster2000/BramStokersDracula-Ending_zpsb518c9f6.jpeg[/img]
Konami has quite a few decent titles on the NES, but I think Bucky O'Hare might be my absolute favorite of the bunch. I used to watch the show as a kid and have a few of the toys, but I was completely unaware that there was a game for the franchise until well over a decade later. Its got 5 different characters that can be recruited and swapped to on the fly. For an action game its actually quite long, but it doesn't get stale as the types of levels are incredibly varied. Really awesome game that you should definitely check out should you have the chance.
[img width=641 height=480]http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk189/Crabmaster2000/BuckyOHare-Ending_zps7f417857.jpeg[/img]
Since I seem to like LJN games a bit better than many others I'm never scared to pop in a new LJN game to try. That was the case with The Incredible Crash Dummies and I didn't regret it. The boss fights were pretty sad, but otherwise I thought it was a decent game. You go back and forth between playing one level at a time as a guy with a unicycle for legs and a guy who can walk normally. Each level is designed specifically with those characters in mind and it works out well. It was fun to navigate through each slightly maze like level with these two different types of characters. The pacing felt pretty good by changing the play style after each area. Not a great game, but a good game.
[img width=641 height=480]http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk189/Crabmaster2000/TheIncredibleCrashDummies-Ending_zpsecdfb417.jpeg[/img]
Joc & Mac is a game that I'd played a few times in the Arcade as a child. Never had the chance to try the NES one until more recently though. The backgrounds were gorgeous, but otherwise the game was pretty forgettable. Its short, its easy. Not much else to say.
[img width=641 height=480]http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk189/Crabmaster2000/JoeampMac-Ending_zpse31dc11e.jpeg[/img]
Totally Rad most likely holds the record as the game I rented the most as a kid. I loved that you could use any of your magic spells right from the start of the game, particularly the transformation spells. I was never able to beat the game as a kid, but I did beat it once as an adult about 5-6 years ago. After playing a lot of other action games recently and recalling some tactics from my last successful at the game it wasn't too hard to finish this time either. Its not prefect, but I'm very nostalgic for this game so I hold it in high regard.
[img width=641 height=480]http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk189/Crabmaster2000/TotallyRad-Ending_zpsde907761.jpeg[/img]
I've heard that Lifeforce is like the beginners version of Gradius. That may be what frustrated me the most about it. I felt it was much harder than Gradius. I really hated a lot of the level design such as the areas that you need to shoot to pass through (and many of them regenerate if you're not moving quickly), or all of stage 3 (those arcs of fire are savage!!!). The final escape wasn't very much fun if you were at the slowest speed either. Definitely not my favorite shooter.
[img width=641 height=480]http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk189/Crabmaster2000/Lifeforce-Ending_zpsfbd6d7fa.jpeg[/img]
After being disappointed with my last Konami game I thought I'd pop in another LJN game, Wolverine. At least if I was disappointed with this game it wouldn't be much of a surprise. Much to my delight I really liked it though. Don't get me wrong though, Wolverine's name shouldn't have been anywhere near this game. Its extremely un-Wolverine, but its still pretty fun. You don't really have to kill to many enemies and mostly just run and explore each maze-like area until you find the correct door to leave. The gameplay mechanics are really smooth so they make running and dodging pretty enjoyable. You get two consecutive boss battles at the very end of the game, but they are both pretty anti-climactic. The rest of the game up to that point was very fun though.
[img width=641 height=480]http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk189/Crabmaster2000/Wolverine-Ending_zpsd133c3bf.jpeg[/img]
And lastly I played an NES "classic" that I had been neglecting, Maniac Mansion. I had a lot of trouble the first few times I played, but once I figured some things out it was a lot more enjoyable. Some of the humor was pretty good, but like a lot of other point and click style games of the era many of the puzzles seemed a bit to obscure for my tastes. Overall I had a good time though even though I had to call the "space police" like 4 times because I couldn't figure out how to get them to bust in and save the day.
[img width=641 height=480]http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk189/Crabmaster2000/ManiacMansion-Ending_zps5de26ff4.jpeg[/img]
If my math is correct I've got 5 more games to beat until I hit that magical 100 game mark and I've got about 20 days left to do so
2013 NES List
Sesame Street Countdown
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Tournament Fighters
Shooting Range
Space Shuttle Project
Double Dare
Win, Lose or Draw
Othello
Whomp Em
Dragon Fighter
Bugs Bunny's Crazy Castle
Family Feud
Tale Spin
Platoon
Gotcha!
Gun Smoke
Kiwi Kraze
10 Yard Fight
Tom & Jerry
Wrecking Crew
Hatris
Time Lord
Orb 3D
Wheel of Fortune Jr
Wheel of Fortune Family Edition
Captain America and the Avengers
Wheel of Fortune
Wheel of Fortune Featuring Vanna White
The Adventures of Rocky & Bullwinkle
Bo Jackson Baseball
Jeopardy! Jr
Jeopardy!
Jeopardy! 25th Anniversary
Cowboy Kid
Crash n The Boys: Street Challenge
Galaga
Color A Dinosaur
Millipede
Popeye
Sesame Street 123
Sesame Street ABC
Sesame Street Hide & Speak
Soccer
Classic Concentration
Fisher Price I Can Remember
Fisher Price Perfect Fit
Mickey's Safari in Letterland
Mickey's Adventure in Numberland
NES Open Golf
Pictionary
Chessmaster
Anticipation
DK Jr Math
Donkey Kong 3
Urban Champion
Balloon Fight
Pinball
Qix
Hollywood Squares
Twin Cobra
Flintstones Rescue of Dino & Hoppy
Tiger-Heli
Winter Games
NES World Cup Soccer
Defender II
M.U.S.C.L.E.
MTV's Remote Control
Spot The Video Game
Spy vs Spy
Taboo The Sixth Sense
Gemfire
Monopoly
Legend of the Ghost Lion
Jackal
Rad Racer
Rad Racer II
Arch Rivals
Deja Vu
Nightshade
Mickey Mousecapade
King's Quest V
Vegas Dreams
Magic Johnson's Fast Break
Touchdown Fever
Caesar's Palace
Casino Kid
Princess Tomato in the Salad Kingdom
Videomation
Bram Stoker's Dracula
Bucky O'Hare
The Incredible Crash Dummies
Joe & Mac
Totally Rad
Lifeforce
Wolverine
Maniac Mansion
Future Plans - I've been working away on Track & Field II again. I'm currently stalled out on the final 3 events. Hopefully I'll be able to finish it off very soon. Also been working on POW, but I'm having some trouble on like the 4th stage. Hopefully I'll be able to break through the barrier on each of those games before too much longer.
With all the gloom and doom I was spouting last time about not making my goal, I've actually done a decent job of finding games to keep beating. The list is running short, but I should be able to keep making some progress. And besides that there is a glimmer of hope now!! My wife and son are going out of town for about a week to visit the in-laws so if I buckle down and attack as many NES games as I can stomach in that time I might be able to get a significant boost towards my goal of 100 games beaten over 100 days!!
On to the games since last update though. Not expecting much I popped in Arch Rivals and found it wasn't nearly as bad as I had anticipated. It almost feels like an early version of NBA Jam, which is a game I really like. Besides having to watch a really stupid and occasionally nonsensical little cut scene whenever you score a basket it was fairly decent. You can punch your opponents down to the ground and take the ball by force! I havn't really found a stand out basketball game on the system, but this is one of the better ones I've played so far.
[img width=643 height=479]http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk189/Crabmaster2000/ArchRivals-Ending_zpsc9202b55.jpeg[/img]
Starting my point and click style adventures I went with Deja Vu. Same vein as Shadowgate, but with a 1950's private detective setting to it. You wake up with a little amnesia in a building with a dead body. After a little snooping around you'll discover that you are being setup for murder!! But by who??!?!! So your goal is to both solve the case and clear your own name. For the most part its a pretty cool game, but there are some things that are just crazy obscure and I'm not sure how you're supposed to figure them out on your own. Not a bad game, but I liked Shadowgate a bit better even if torches drive me nuts.
[img width=640 height=480]http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk189/Crabmaster2000/DejaVu-Ending_zpsa720e254.jpeg[/img]
Nightshade is one of the most surprising games I've played in a while. Not only was it a point and click style game, but it broke up the monotony associated with that style of game with both action oriented fighting sequences and a great sense of humor. You start the game with your main character tied to a chair speaking with the games villain. Both characters are purposely over the top and stereotyped which set the mood for the rest of the game right off the bat. After a few puzzles in the sewer that act as sort of a linear tutorial you'll enter the main city. The city seems overwhelming at first, but after a bit of exploration I found it to be the ideal size for this type of game. It had just the right amount of space to explore. Most different areas of the city hold some sort of secret of information you'll need in order to defeat Sutekh, with the occasional dead end.
Another really cool thing about Nightshade was the game over screen. There are 5 game over screens in total, that play out in a specific order. When you die in the main game you'll find your character in an elaborate death trap concocted by Sutekh. The cool part is that you can actually figure out how to escape 4 of the 5 traps which will let you keep playing the game instead of dying. These range from the classic tied to a conveyor belt or room closing in on you to more interesting setups that take a few different steps to overcome. Very neat game overall and something I'd urge you to check out if you're looking for something unique to play on your NES.
[img width=643 height=479]http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk189/Crabmaster2000/Nightshade-Ending_zpsd4b6da6c.jpeg[/img]
I have always assumed that Mickey Mousecapade was a 2 player game. I was actually looking forward to trying it out with my son as a helper. After getting over that disappointment I set my sights on getting it crossed off my list asap. Minnie tags along for the entire game (granted she isn't captured by a ghost), which is mostly helpful. If you get her star weapon it adds a bit of extra firepower to your game and she is also invulnerable to enemies with the exception of the ghost I mentioned. The annoying part is in the platforming. She lags behind trying to mimic your moves. If she falls into a pit you both lose a life. But the part I found more frustrating than losing her to a pit was navigating her in the final stage when there were lots of platforms and walls for her to get stuck on. The game would be a bit better without Minnie, but even then its far from some of the other great Capcom/Disney titles on the system.
[img width=643 height=479]http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk189/Crabmaster2000/MickeyMousecapade-Ending_zps71d210ea.jpeg[/img]
There are only really 2 PC game series that have ever held a special place in my gaming history. King's Quest is one of those and I was a little nervous to give King's Quest V a try after playing another bad PC port on the system (Ultima Warriors of Destiny). Much to my surprise King's Quest V felt very much like it should. Yeah it was a bit uglier and you had text boxes instead of voices, but it still felt very much like the King's Quest V I remember playing as a kid on my friend's PC. It was like they stuck the 5th game into the same engine that the first or second game in the series played on. It had a lot of great humor and puzzles (and a few frustrating ones of course). I had beaten this game with a friend many years ago, but I missed out on a decent sized chunk in the middle because his brother had come home from college and helped him through a part we were stuck on at the time. It was extremely satisfying to finally be able to finish this game off completely. It made me wish that there were console ports of some of the other games in the series as it was a lot of fun overall. Definitely another one to check out if you like classic adventure games.
[img width=643 height=479]http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk189/Crabmaster2000/KingsQuestV-Ending_zps6a28bd61.jpeg[/img]
Vegas Dreams on the other hand isn't to exciting. After figuring out early on that you get a password to save your progress is became pretty easy to exploit the game. Simply choose your favorite gambling method (I used Black Jack), bet it all, and win!! What you didn't win? Just punch in your previous password and try again until you do then. After winning a little start up cash on the slots and experiencing a few of the random encounters that you'll get during the game I just started doubling my money on the Black Jack table until I hit the final goal of $10,000,000. The measle $700 I entered with was now a fortune. And apparently that means my character has to act like a total ass during the ending
[img width=643 height=479]http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk189/Crabmaster2000/VegasDream-Ending_zps7cc1c132.jpeg[/img]
With a little downtime at home I decided to try and knock out some simple sports titles this morning. Tried out Magic Johnson's Fast Break. Even put it on the hardest difficulty (Professional) and mopped the floor with the computer by about 30 points when it was over. No sort of league or tournament mode so it was just the one game. Arch Rivals was much more fun.
[img width=643 height=479]http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk189/Crabmaster2000/MagicJohnsonsFastBreak-Ending_zps03a472ef.jpeg[/img]
Lastly for this update was Touchdown Fever by SNK. The cover looks awful if you ask me. I was just expecting 10 Yard Fight part 2. Luckily SNK makes better games than they make covers It was actually kind of fun. Very arcade style visuals/gameplay and great music made the tournament mode go by pretty quick. The computer opponents turned out to be pretty easy to figure out after the first couple games and I was able to shut out my final opponent after having a bit of trouble in the first rounds. Gonna have to try this one with a second player and see if its as good as it seems to be.
[img width=643 height=479]http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk189/Crabmaster2000/TouchdownFever-Ending_zps5cf0bd1b.jpeg[/img]
2013 NES List
83 Games Beaten Over 70 days
17 Games more to reach goal of 100 with 30 days left to do it
Sesame Street Countdown
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Tournament Fighters
Shooting Range
Space Shuttle Project
Double Dare
Win, Lose or Draw
Othello
Whomp Em
Dragon Fighter
Bugs Bunny's Crazy Castle
Family Feud
Tale Spin
Platoon
Gotcha!
Gun Smoke
Kiwi Kraze
10 Yard Fight
Tom & Jerry
Wrecking Crew
Hatris
Time Lord
Orb 3D
Wheel of Fortune Jr
Wheel of Fortune Family Edition
Captain America and the Avengers
Wheel of Fortune
Wheel of Fortune Featuring Vanna White
The Adventures of Rocky & Bullwinkle
Bo Jackson Baseball
Jeopardy! Jr
Jeopardy!
Jeopardy! 25th Anniversary
Cowboy Kid
Crash n The Boys: Street Challenge
Galaga
Color A Dinosaur
Millipede
Popeye
Sesame Street 123
Sesame Street ABC
Sesame Street Hide & Speak
Soccer
Classic Concentration
Fisher Price I Can Remember
Fisher Price Perfect Fit
Mickey's Safari in Letterland
Mickey's Adventure in Numberland
NES Open Golf
Pictionary
Chessmaster
Anticipation
DK Jr Math
Donkey Kong 3
Urban Champion
Balloon Fight
Pinball
Qix
Hollywood Squares
Twin Cobra
Flintstones Rescue of Dino & Hoppy
Tiger-Heli
Winter Games
NES World Cup Soccer
Defender II
M.U.S.C.L.E.
MTV's Remote Control
Spot The Video Game
Spy vs Spy
Taboo The Sixth Sense
Gemfire
Monopoly
Legend of the Ghost Lion
Jackal
Rad Racer
Rad Racer II
Arch Rivals
Deja Vu
Nightshade
Mickey Mousecapade
King's Quest V
Vegas Dreams
Magic Johnson's Fast Break
Touchdown Fever
Future Plans - My slower games are going to consist of things like Casino Kid, Caesar's Palace and Maniac Mansion. When my family leaves I'm going to try and hammer out some action games like Life Force, Bucky O'Hare, P.O.W., Rush 'n Attack, Joe & Mac, etc. Wish me luck!!
This last week was quite slow for me because unfortunately I lost access to the setup that I do 90% of my playing on. This means that I have to revert back to my original setup of playing straight into my Laptop. Now by doing my recordings this way I have a little amount of lag to deal with, which means that any game that requires quick reactions is gonna be MUCH harder. Its unlikely to change anytime in the immediate future so I'll just have to make due with what I've got to work with. This means the selection of games I had prepared might not be ideal at the moment. I'm going to be focussing on games that don't require much in terms of reflexes. Things like RPGs, Strategy Games or some types of Puzzle games. Unfortunately those genres tend to be pretty time consuming in comparison to what I had in mind so its gonna be a struggle to get to my goal of 100 games in my time frame. Luckily I was able to get a little ahead before this happened and still have several pretty easy games left to cross of the list. So while last week I was basically positive I was gonna reach my goal, now I'm not so sure. But I'll try to get as close as I can given my current limitations.
If anyone can recommend any slow moving games that are relatively quick victories I'd really appreciate it though!
Now onto what I have been able to do in the last little while.
Some of you may remember that I really liked World Games. So I was hopeful that Winter Games would be enjoyable too. Unfortunately it wasn't nearly as good. It had fewer events and none of them stood out to me as very good. Pretty big let down after World Games.
[img width=643 height=479]http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk189/Crabmaster2000/WinterGames-Ending_zps924ac634.png[/img]
Decided it was time to sink a little effort into the only Soccer game I ever played as a child, NES World Cup Soccer. Like most Technos games its pretty fun, but can get a little repetitive since you have to play through 12 games to win. The first 6-8 games are pretty much a joke too. It really doesn't pose much of a challenge until you get to the games in the finals. Even then I only lost one game the entire time. Definitely more fun with some friends.
[img width=642 height=480]http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk189/Crabmaster2000/NESWorldCupSoccer-Ending_zps6bcdd2f0.png[/img]
Here is another early arcade port, Defender II. Unfortunately there is no high score to beat, ending or areas to loop. So it was basically just beat a level I guess :/. Nothing to write home about.
[img width=642 height=480]http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk189/Crabmaster2000/Defender-Ending_zpsf294d3c5.png[/img]
Next up is everybody's favorite wrestling game M.U.S.C.L.E.!! The game starts looping after the 4th stage and the preset high score was beaten after the 5th stage so since there is no ending I'm calling that good enough. Kind of a lame game though. Gets old and repetitive VERY fast and the random power up things that get launched across the ring each round kind of break the game.
[img width=642 height=480]http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk189/Crabmaster2000/MUSCLE-Ending_zpsdf93dfa0.png[/img]
You thought I was done with all the game shows by now? Fear not I found another one! MTV's Remote Control. TV trivia wasn't to hard, but to make things even easier they don't punish you for getting wrong answers! So I could just buzz in first every single time wether I knew the answer or not and take a 1 out of 3 chance of getting it correct. Its like they wanted me to win!
[img width=642 height=480]http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk189/Crabmaster2000/MTVRemoteControl-Ending_zpse971a181.png[/img]
Lastly this time around was Spot The Video Game. Hopeful that it might be the long awaited game to surpass the almighty Othello I was sadly disappointed  The game moves far to quickly and has some flashy animations and annoying sounds, so it'll never be in the same league as Othello. The default computer was a bit smarter than me, but after 5-6 attempts I was able to finish it up.
[img width=642 height=480]http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk189/Crabmaster2000/Spot-Ending_zpsd283b743.png[/img]
2013 NES List
67 Games Beaten In 56 Days
Sesame Street Countdown
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Tournament Fighters
Shooting Range
Space Shuttle Project
Double Dare
Win, Lose or Draw
Othello
Whomp Em
Dragon Fighter
Bugs Bunny's Crazy Castle
Family Feud
Tale Spin
Platoon
Gotcha!
Gun Smoke
Kiwi Kraze
10 Yard Fight
Tom & Jerry
Wrecking Crew
Hatris
Time Lord
Orb 3D
Wheel of Fortune Jr
Wheel of Fortune Family Edition
Captain America and the Avengers
Wheel of Fortune
Wheel of Fortune Featuring Vanna White
The Adventures of Rocky & Bullwinkle
Bo Jackson Baseball
Jeopardy! Jr
Jeopardy!
Jeopardy! 25th Anniversary
Cowboy Kid
Crash n The Boys: Street Challenge
Galaga
Color A Dinosaur
Millipede
Popeye
Sesame Street 123
Sesame Street ABC
Sesame Street Hide & Speak
Soccer
Classic Concentration
Fisher Price I Can Remember
Fisher Price Perfect Fit
Mickey's Safari in Letterland
Mickey's Adventure in Numberland
NES Open Golf
Pictionary
Chessmaster
Anticipation
DK Jr Math
Donkey Kong 3
Urban Champion
Balloon Fight
Pinball
Qix
Hollywood Squares
Twin Cobra
Flintstones Rescue of Dino & Hoppy
Tiger-Heli
Winter Games
NES World Cup Soccer
Defender II
M.U.S.C.L.E.
MTV's Remote Control
Spot The Video Game
Future Plans - Already put a decent amount of time into Gemfire so I plan to continue that one. Also plan to keep trying on Track & Field II after heal from an injury on a previous attempt Gonna be looking into more strategy and RPG type games. Perhaps Nobunaga's Ambition or Legend of the Ghost Lion.
The title of this blog is particularly fitting as I recently registered myself for Kindergarten. Apparently the spot for my child's name wasn't clearly labelled enough for me and I mistakenly entered my own. Oh well, at least I'll be prepared after these last few batches of games!!
What better to follow up Sesame Street games than with some Fisher Price!! I don't like to brag or anything, but my matching and remembering skills were a bit too much for poor Electro to handle. I played Perfect Fit a few years ago with my son and I think it helped him get comfortable with the D-Pad.
[img width=640 height=477]http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk189/Crabmaster2000/FisherPriceICanRemember-Ending_zpsf3e3c631.jpg[/img]
[img width=640 height=477]http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk189/Crabmaster2000/FisherPricePerfectFit-Ending_zpsf2178873.jpg[/img]
Padding my list further I popped in both of the Mickey Mouse educational games, Numberland and Letterland. The both actually surprised me a bit in that they were actually games Letterland in particular had some platforming and exploring elements to it. They were probably the least effective in terms of actually teaching anything to the player, but they were the most fun to play of the educational games I've come across so far.
[img width=640 height=477]http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk189/Crabmaster2000/MickeysAdventureinNumberland-Ending_zpsd78c0fb3.jpg[/img]
[img width=640 height=477]http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk189/Crabmaster2000/MickeysSafariinNumberland-Ending_zps25506ea4.jpg[/img]
While I've been knocking off a few easy titles a night for a quite a while I've also been sinking a LOT of time into NES Open Tournament Golf over the last week or two. The goal is to get your prize winnings to at least $1,000,000. The unfortunate part is that that amounts of money you win for most things are pretty low so it takes quite a while. You can increase your rank, but while doing that you gain $0. Regardless I spent the first couple nights increasing my rank to pro so that it would increase my tournament prize money. Then it was just a matter of getting decent enough to place high in the tournaments. I started to be able to win a tournament every time or two until I reached $500,000. At that point the competition started going from -3 to -6 under par for a round to -9 to -11. I started placing around 15th and worse from my consistant top 3 victories. The easiest source of income at this point seemed to be by playing 1 hole at a time bets. First hole was worth $2500 then $3500 then $5000. I basically just started practicing those first three holes and got decent enough at them to walk away with some prize money in most situations. Eventually my persistence paid off and I got my $1,000,000.
[img width=642 height=480]http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk189/Crabmaster2000/NESOpenGolf-Ending_zpsf2ea6420.jpg[/img]
After a few nights of golf and a couple more of Super Mario Bros 3 for a high score competition at nintendoage I just wanted some more quick easy games. So I dug into my game show vault and pulled out Pictionary and Anticipation. Both follow the same premise of guessing pictures. In Pictionary you have to play a little mini-game which depending on how you do will unlock a certain percentage of the picture you need to guess. Some of the mini-games are decent while others are pretty boring. Its a pretty short game with just 1 player as it was obviously meant for more. Ancitipation requires you to guess the picture as its being drawn before your opponents do. If you guess a correct picture in each of the 4 categories you are raised to the next level. After solving 12 different categories and moving past the 3rd level of the game you are declared the winner.
[img width=643 height=481]http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk189/Crabmaster2000/Anticipation-Ending_zps9cd56018.jpg[/img]
I was hoping that Chessmaster might be a great follow up to my ever popular Othello video, but unfortunately you get the option to rush the computer opponent if you choose so it doesn't quite have the same appeal . By forcing the computer to make moves in a timely fashion its not nearly as challenging either.
[img width=641 height=480]http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk189/Crabmaster2000/Chessmaster-Ending_zpsd0ffe798.jpg[/img]
Lastly I busted out some more learning and tried my hand at DK Jr Math. Much like Pictionary this game is meant to be played with a friend. So it was pretty easy to stomp my inactive opponent and prove my superior mathematic skills!!
[img width=643 height=480]http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk189/Crabmaster2000/DKJrMath-Ending_zpsc495e611.jpg[/img]
2013 NES List
Sesame Street Countdown
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Tournament Fighters
Shooting Range
Space Shuttle Project
Double Dare
Win, Lose or Draw
Othello
Whomp Em
Dragon Fighter
Bugs Bunny's Crazy Castle
Family Feud
Tale Spin
Platoon
Gotcha!
Gun Smoke
Kiwi Kraze
10 Yard Fight
Tom & Jerry
Wrecking Crew
Hatris
Time Lord
Orb 3D
Wheel of Fortune Jr
Wheel of Fortune Family Edition
Captain America and the Avengers
Wheel of Fortune
Wheel of Fortune Featuring Vanna White
The Adventures of Rocky & Bullwinkle
Bo Jackson Baseball
Jeopardy! Jr
Jeopardy!
Jeopardy! 25th Anniversary
Cowboy Kid
Crash n The Boys: Street Challenge
Galaga
Color A Dinosaur
Millipede
Popeye
Sesame Street 123
Sesame Street ABC
Sesame Street Hide & Speak
Soccer
Classic Concentration
Fisher Price I Can Remember
Fisher Price Perfect Fit
Mickey's Safari in Letterland
Mickey's Adventure in Numberland
NES Open Golf
Pictionary
Chessmaster
Anticipation
DK Jr Math
52 Games Beaten Over 40 Days
Got myself a nice little cushion to fall back on now which is pretty nice especially considering how much time I sunk into NES Open Tournament Golf. Now I'll be a bit more comfortable playing a few of the more interesting titles on my list. Plus I'm running out of Edutainment options 
Future Plans - It would be nice to give myself an even further boost ahead of my goal if possible so I think I might do a little Black Box spree tomorrow and check out stuff like Balloon Fight, Donkey Kong 3, Urban Champion and Pinball.
Over this last week I had a few unexpected set backs one of which was work related (where I play most of my games). My boss occasionally goes off the deep end, and, oh boy, did she go off the deep end this week. Seems like things have settled back to normal now and I'm back to it. To make up for some lost time I tackled several more of the game show type games for a few relatively easy victories.
Last time I gave you guys a healthy dose of Wheel of Fortune. This week I'm back with an equal serving of the Wheel joined by several pieces of Jeopdary! for dessert. The plain old Wheel of Fortune plays nearly identical to the two that I played through during last weeks update. The Featuring Vanna White version plays a lot different though. It has a much stronger focus on graphics and being bright and colorful in comparison. Much like Super Jeopardy is when compared to all 3 other versions. Other than the graphical differences and a slightly modified wheel to spin its your basic Wheel of Fortune. Here are the end screens for both of them (where I won myself a brand new kitchen!!):
[img width=642 height=481]http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk189/Crabmaster2000/WheelofFortune-Ending.jpg[/img]
[img width=642 height=481]http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk189/Crabmaster2000/WheelofFortuneFeaturingVannaWhite-Ending.jpg[/img]
Instead of jumping right into Jeopardy I thought I'd take a quick break and explore a couple other games. The first of which was The Adventures of Rocky & Bullwinkle. I'm not a huge Rocky & Bullwinkle fan, but I did grow up watching old reruns of the show and had pretty fond memories of the series. This game doesn't do ANY justice to the source material. I fee like I'm fairly generous when playing most of these games. After 250+ there is only an extremely small handful of games that I'd genuinely say I thought were absolutely terrible. Rocky & Bullwinkle is unfortunately one of those games. From the controls, to level design, to visuals, to enemies to the music it was just bad all around. The only thing that I can say positive about it is that it was quite short. I'm thankful for that!
[img width=642 height=481]http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk189/Crabmaster2000/AdventuresofRockyBullwinkle.jpg[/img]
If you followed me at all last year you'll know I played through several long baseball seasons that only Wildbil52 was brave enough to watch Well I started my baseball season early this year, but fortunately it was only about 2 hours long instead of 10+ times that. Gave Bo Jackson Baseball a go. I'd like to play some of the other ones again for comparison, but it seems like one of the best I've come across yet. Everything is pretty basic, but it all works very well. Its got the tightest controls and that alone is a good enough reason to rank it high on the baseball list.
[img width=642 height=480]http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk189/Crabmaster2000/BoJacksonBaseball-Ending.jpg[/img]
The next 3 were the rest of the Jeopardy games on the system. I'm going to lump them all together since they were so similar. The regular and 25th Anniversary games were basically identical. Different titles screen and I'm sure different categories, but otherwise you were playing the same game. Jr had questions that were obviously for a younger audience at least which helps distinguish it from the others. Not much else to say. Its Jeopardy so if you like that sort of thing (I do) then you'll probably get some enjoyment out of them.
[img width=640 height=479]http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk189/Crabmaster2000/Jeopardy-Ending.jpg[/img]
[img width=640 height=479]http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk189/Crabmaster2000/Jeopardy25thAnniversary-Ending.jpg[/img]
[img width=640 height=479]http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk189/Crabmaster2000/JeopardyJr-Ending.jpg[/img]
One of the newest games in my collection is Cowboy Kid, which I picked up earlier in the month. All I knew about it going in was that it was supposedly a fairly unique game. At first it seemed like the gameplay was going to be quite similar to Time Lord. After a bit of exploring it (thankfully) turned out to be quite a bit more enjoyable. There are 6 different outlaws for you to capture in the order of your choosing. Each outlaw is in a different town or settlement. Your job is to explore each area, collecting money and finding items and equipment as you go, and apprehend each of them. Most of the levels involve a bit of exploring and sometimes even puzzle solving. One of the stages it even a scrolling shmup type level. When I played the first mission it seemed like the game was gonna be pretty tough with just a little knife at my disposal. After playing a few more I was able to equip a hand gun and rifle which made the game a lot more enjoyable though. After capturing the first 6 outlaws you are presented with a final outlaw to capture being getting the ending. Pretty neat game overall.
[img width=640 height=479]http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk189/Crabmaster2000/CowboyKid-Ending.jpg[/img]
Last up for this update is probably also my favorite, Crash n the Boys: Street Challenge. Its one of those Olympic types games in which you compete in several events trying to get first place overall. There are only 5 events, but all of them control really well and are pretty enjoyable for the most part. In between matches you can also use the medals you've earned during your events to purchase stat boosts or special items ala River City Ransom. Pulling someone under water and beating them until they've drowned is surprisingly awesome! Pretty cool game and one that I've had the pleasure of playing multiplayer in the past. Its a whole lot of fun with a few friends.
[img width=640 height=479]http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk189/Crabmaster2000/CrashnTheBoys-Ending.jpg[/img]
2013 NES List
34 Games Beaten over 30 Days
Sesame Street Countdown
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Tournament Fighters
Shooting Range
Space Shuttle Project
Double Dare
Win, Lose or Draw
Othello
Whomp Em
Dragon Fighter
Bugs Bunny's Crazy Castle
Family Feud
Tale Spin
Platoon
Gotcha!
Gun Smoke
Kiwi Kraze
10 Yard Fight
Tom & Jerry
Wrecking Crew
Hatris
Time Lord
Orb 3D
Wheel of Fortune Jr
Wheel of Fortune Family Edition
Captain America and the Avengers
Wheel of Fortune
Wheel of Fortune Featuring Vanna White
The Adventures of Rocky & Bullwinkle
Bo Jackson Baseball
Jeopardy! Jr
Jeopardy!]/URL]
[URL=http://youtu.be/YfR-hBRN6pQ]Jeopardy! 25th Anniversary
Cowboy Kid
Crash n The Boys: Street Challenge
Future Plans - Been putting some time into NES Open Golf and The Black Bass. I'm stalled out on Black Bass at the moment. I've gotten to the final lake/tournament and I don't much too much trouble catching the fish. I just can't seem to get the damn things to appear most of the time. NES Open Golf is just gonna be a matter of time since I have to figure out how to rank up and rank in some decent $$$ to get to $1,000,000.
After playing through something tough like Time Lord I often like to unwind with something on the lighter side. Since I have had fun in the past with some of the gameshow type games on the NES I thought I'd try my hand at some Wheel of Fortune. Well it turns out I probably sunk more time into the Family Edition than I did playing Time Lord Its an incredibly short game, and not hard to beat both computer opponents, but I had a hell of a time trying to solve the final puzzle and win my Emerald Necklace. I typically wasn't even familiar with the phrase or person in the answer (except when I couldnt get Donald Trump for some reason). Eventually I was able to get a puzzle that I could answer. I have to say though that there seemed to be a large variety of puzzles since I never saw one repeat in all the time I spent playing.
[img width=641 height=479]http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk189/Crabmaster2000/WheelofFortuneFamilyEdition-Ending.jpg[/img]
Luckily in the Jr edition of Wheel of Fortune I had a much easier time. Being Canadian and them throwing Toboggan at me in the final puzzle was pretty nice Got to make off with my new TV and VCR with much less trouble.
[img width=641 height=479]http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk189/Crabmaster2000/WheelofFortuneJr-Ending.jpg[/img]
Felt like it was time to try something with a bit more meat on it again so I popped in Orb 3D to check it out. It was very confusing at first, but once you figure out how to control it and what your objective is, its actually a pretty fun game. You basically play Pong with yourself and you have the ability to make the ball change from the foreground to the background mid pass. By doing this you can interact with the objects in the room. There are 30 rooms in total and each one has a special puzzle for you to solve in order to move along. It starts off pretty simple doing things like knocking down a set of bowling pins or winning a game of tic-tac-toe and eventually moves into more complicated puzzles like winning a mini-game of chess or navigating a ball through a maze. Some of the puzzles are challenging, but you have as many continues at your disposal as you need so its not to bad. Definitely one of the more unique titles I've come across.
[img width=641 height=480]http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk189/Crabmaster2000/Orb3D-Ending.jpg[/img]
I had originally planned to try the other two Wheel of Fortune games I hadn't tried yet, but after adding the last few games to the personal list I keep I realized the next game I beat would be a milestone (which I'll get to in a minute). So I thought it should be something a bit more epic than a game show. What's more epic than saving the world from Super Villians? I couldn't think of anything so I decided to go with Captain America and the Avengers. I've played this game before and it was pretty tough. This time I read the manual and figured out you can actually level up your characters and earn them some new moves. So right from the get go I did about 20 minutes of grinding and maxed out Hawkeye and nearly maxed out Captain America (Iron Man and Vision have been captured by Mandarin and Wasp is more of an information center). With that taken care of the game becomes significantly more playable.
The game has a map of the US that you can navigate with your characters independently or as a team. In order to play them as a team you have to get them to the same area on the map and beat the level with whoever entered the area second. This again makes the game much more fun as you can swap between characters at any time that you can stand still. They both played a bit different which made them both equally useful in different areas and situations. I tended to favor Captain America during most levels, but Hawkeye was awesome on most boss fights. I don't know how the hell I would have beaten Mandarin with Captain America. Once I did beat Mandarin it turns out he wasn't the mastermind though and it was Red Skull really pulling the strings. So I took off into space for a final battle with Red Skull. It was pretty tough and it ended taking me three really good attempts to finally knock him down while I was on my last hit with my both characters.
[img width=640 height=479]http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk189/Crabmaster2000/CaptainAmerica-Ending.jpg[/img]
As I was mentioning above Captain America and the Avengers put me to a milestone. It was the 250th NES game I've beaten and recorded since October 2011!!! I'm quite proud of that number, and even though there are several easy victories in that list there are as many or more challenging ones. I think its a pretty solid list so far. If I can keep up the pace with my 100 in 100 challenge I should be able to surpass 300 games beaten over the next little while. At that point I'll have beaten roughly half of the NES games that I own, which is pretty damn cool if you ask me.
Here is the full list of 250 games beaten. Click on any of them to view the corresponding videos:
Beaten Since Oct.8th
(click on a title to see the video)
Super Mario Bros
Super Mario Bros 2
Super Mario Bros 3
Mega Man
Mega Man 2
Mega Man 3
Mega Man 4
Mega Man 5
Mega Man 6
Castlevania
Adventures in the Magic Kingdom
Duck Tales
Duck Tales 2
Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers
Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers 2
Felix the Cat
Bugs Bunny Birthday Blowout
Ren and Stimpy Show: Buckaroo$
Double Dragon
Contra
Super C
Contra Force
Power Blade
Power Blade 2
Dynowarz: The Destruction of Spondylus
Metal Storm
Journey to Silius
Air Fortress
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Blaster Master
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turltes 2
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 3
Legendary Wings
BreakThru
Commando
Guerrilla War
World Games
Snoopy's Silly Sports Spectacular
Caveman Games
DK Classics
Jaws
Ninja Gaiden
Where's Waldo?
Bonk's Adventure
Panic Restaurant
Bubble Bobble 2
Dr. Mario
Bubble Bobble
MC Kids
Batman
Circus Caper
Roller Games
Widget
Tiny Toon Adventures
Tiny Toon Adventures 2
The Jetsons
The Little Mermaid
Monster in my Pocket
Gremlins 2
Kirby's Adventure
Kickle Cubicle
Kung Fu
Yo! Noid
Xexyz
Puss 'N Boots: Pero's Great Adventure
Wall Street Kid
The Karate Kid
Archon
Golf
Super Dodgeball
Super Spike V'Ball
Jakcie Chan's Action Kung Fu
The Three Stooges
Ice Hockey
Tecmo Bowl
Track & Field
Mario Bros
NARC
North and South
Barbie
Battle Chess
The Simpsons: Bart vs. The World
The Flintstones: Surprise at Dinosaur Peak
Snow Brothers
Little Samson
Sky Shark
Ninja Gaiden II
Mike Tyson's Punch Out
The Simpsons: Bart Meets Radioactive Man
StarTropics
Little Nemo: The Dream Master
River City Ransom
StarTropics 2: Zoda's Revenge
The Jungle Book
Castlevania III Dracula's Curse
Mario is Missing
Blades of Steel
Hogan's Alley
Wild Gunman
Burger Time
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
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
Rocket Ranger
Roger Clemens MVP Baseball
Bill & Ted's Excellent Video Game Adventure
Destination Earthstar
Street Cop
Short Order/Eggsplode
Star Voyageur
Days of Thunder
Laser Invasion
Silent Service
Back to the Future 2 & 3
Overlord
High Speed
Sesame Street Countdown
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Tournament Fighters
Shooting Range
Space Shuttle Project
Double Dare
Win, Lose or Draw
Othello
Whomp Em
Dragon Fighter
Bugs Bunny's Crazy Castle
Family Feud
Tale Spin
Platoon
Gotcha!
Gun Smoke
Kiwi Kraze
10 Yard Fight
Tom & Jerry
Wrecking Crew
Hatris
Time Lord
Orb 3D
Wheel of Fortune Jr
Wheel of Fortune Family Edition
Captain America and the Avengers
BONUS GAMES:
Assimilate
Future Plans - Besides working on Captain America and the Avengers in the last little while I've also been spending some time with Gun Nac. I beat it relatively easy on the default settings, but it turns out you need to beat it on Expert to get the real ending. That is proving a bit more difficult. I've gotten to the final stage, and even the final boss, but ran out of time. I'm trying to perfect my strategy on a couple specific bosses and figure out the best use of my money and mail bombs. With a bit more time I'm confident it'll fall, but in the mean time I'll probably play some more game shows.
Its been a few days since my last update so you might expect to see a lot of games in mentioned in this blog. Unfortunately there are only three to speak off. That wasn't because I was slacking though. They just ended up being much more time consuming that I had initially planned. I knew Wrecking Crew would let you "continue" as many times as you required, but I didn't anticipate how challenging some of the later phases would become. Many of the later phases took me 10-20 minutes to figure out each. And a few even more time than that. I think phase 80 gave me the most trouble and took me nearly 45 minutes to solve. It might sound like I'm complaining, but I loved it. Very fun little puzzle game and one of the best Black Box titles I've played yet. There is no ending screen so here is a shot of my finishing off the final phase.
[img width=638 height=481]http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk189/Crabmaster2000/WreckingCrew-FinalPhase.jpg[/img]
Hatris is another one I thought would be much quicker than it was. Things definitely sped up as I got better at the game, but I thought it would be a very quick victory and I was a wrong. Again its not a bad little puzzler and definitely hit the spot.
[img width=642 height=478]http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk189/Crabmaster2000/Hatris-Ending.jpg[/img]
Lastly, and one I'm quite proud of, is Time Lord. I've tried a few times over the last few years to beat Time Lord and kept getting stuck on the boss of the third level. I put Time Lord on my list for this challenge in order to pressure myself to really have at it. My first few attempts made it seem hopeless. Its a very challenging game. Luckily its fairly short though. After spending much of the last 3 days practising the game I was finally able to pull out a win tonight! Turns out the boss that gave me so much trouble before was the easiest one in the game though. It was kind of funny after the fact that I've spent so much time (probably around 12+ hours in the last couple days) and effort (dozens of failed attempts) on Time Lord and the final video ended up being like 20 minutes long. Its short, but definitely not sweet.
[img width=640 height=480]http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk189/Crabmaster2000/TimeLord-Ending.jpg[/img]
Had a bit of time left so I plugged in Gun Nac and had my mind blown!! Its a lot of fun!! Can't wait until I have more time to put into it!
And for those of you that enjoy Let's Play style videos check out my Dragon Fighter vid. I recruited Duke.Togo to help me commentate over the game play and I think it turned out quite well. Be especially critical of the audio in the comments. I'm learning the ropes and any feedback would be great. If you enjoy it be sure to also check out our commentary video for Legacy of the Wizard.
21 Games Down now and 13 days into the challenge. Even with the slow pace over the last few days I'm ahead of my target. Still hopeful!
2013 NES List
Sesame Street Countdown
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Tournament Fighters
Shooting Range
Space Shuttle Project
Double Dare
Win, Lose or Draw
Othello
Whomp Em
Dragon Fighter
Bugs Bunny's Crazy Castle
Family Feud
Tale Spin
Platoon
Gotcha!
Gun Smoke
Kiwi Kraze
10 Yard Fight
Tom & Jerry
Wrecking Crew
Hatris
Time Lord
Future Plans - MORE GUN-NAC!!!! Also gonna check out some Orb 3D and maybe play some Wheel of Fortune if I feel in need of a break from either of those.
As usual on my days off things slow down a bit game-wise. But I did wake up insanely early and found a bit of time to sink into my NES list. First one I beat was a recommendation from Singlebanana. The game was Gun Smoke. Very odd shmup type game. Wild West isn't exactly what I think of when I think shmup, but somehow they make the theme work well. Each level has you shooting bandits as you hunt for a wanted poster which will unveil the level's boss when you get to a certain area. Helpful townsfolk will sell you new guns, ammo, a horse or even the wanted map if you're willing to spend your hard earned cash. Another reason why its a bit off is because of the angle you fire your guns at. You can fire straight by pushing both A and B at the same time, but that's kind of a pain so most of your shooting will be diagonally. Pretty short game and relatively easy as far a shmups go. Definitely fun and worth checking out though. Thanks Banana!
[img width=640 height=480]http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk189/Crabmaster2000/GunSmoke-Ending_zpsf36570ac.png[/img]
Another thanks is in order to yet another rfgen member for this next one too. Fleach sent me a copy of Kiwi Kraze as part of my secret santa gift this year. Not only did I have fun playing it, but it was the second to last Taito release I needed!! I didn't really know what to expect with this one, but being Taito I figured I'd enjoy it. Its kind of an action platformer, but the further you get the more puzzle heavy it becomes. A lot of the levels become more about figuring out how to navigate a maze or get around certain obstacles and moves away from how it initially starts out. Pretty neat game and very tight controls. Thanks Fleach!!
[img width=640 height=481]http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk189/Crabmaster2000/KiwiKraze-Ending_zpsb8953f39.png[/img]
After playing two solid games I thought I'd chance it with a black box title and give 10 Yard Fight a try. Much of my black box experience has been that I need to find a way to out smart the computer AI and then spam that in order to win. Much to my surprise though the computer was pretty dumb on 10 Yard Fight, even on the hardest (Super Bowl) mode. My team had no problem tackling they guys or intercepting passes and after playing two games (which were literally the first and only time I've played the game) the computer had failed to score a single point against me. If you're looking for an easy victory this is definitely one.
[img width=638 height=477]http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk189/Crabmaster2000/10YardFight-Ending_zps5bfaaa51.png[/img]
Lastly I went back to the Saturday morning cartoon games and played through Tom & Jerry. It was a pretty frustrating game. The controls are a bit sloppy, and very few of the levels are much fun to play. They really designed them to be a chore instead of enjoyable. I spent about 10 minutes in the middle of the game exploiting the fact that I could gain as many lives as I wanted, even though in the end it turned out I didn't need to max them out like I did. Not one of the best I've played this year, or any other year.
[img width=639 height=478]http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk189/Crabmaster2000/TomampJerry-Ending_zps5a97cb9a.png[/img]
With 4 more games crossed off my list since last update that puts me at 18 games beaten over that last 9 days. So I'm well on my way to meeting my goal if I can keep it up, and I have several "cheap" wins sitting in the wings if I should need them so I'm in pretty good shape so far. I spent more time on Tom & Jerry than I would have liked, but I've also managed to keep plugging away at Wrecking Crew as well. I'm around phase 62 out of 100 on that one now.
2013 NES List
Sesame Street Countdown
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Tournament Fighters
Shooting Range
Space Shuttle Project
Double Dare
Win, Lose or Draw
Othello
Whomp Em
Dragon Fighter
Bugs Bunny's Crazy Castle
Family Feud
Tale Spin
Platoon
Gotcha!
Gun Smoke
Kiwi Kraze
10 Yard Fight
Tom & Jerry
Future Plans - Continue working away at Wrecking Crew for sure. Feeling like a puzzle game too so I think I'm going to try my hand at Hatris tomorrow and maybe try and cross off a game I've been meaning to for quite a while now, Time Lord.
I had a pretty slow night yesterday in terms of new completions. I was able to finish of Bugs Bunnys Crazy Castle and get my ass handed to me at both Gun Nac and Family Feud. BB Crazy Castle wasn't too bad though. Other than a handful of frustrating puzzles it was mostly straightforward. It was my first time playing it since I was a child and I was able to beat it with 20 or so extra men, so really not very challenging. I always assumed it was a lot harder for some reason.
[img width=637 height=478]http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk189/Crabmaster2000/BugsBunnysCrazyCastle-Ending_zps02464a6a.png[/img]
After that I was determined to finally finish Family Feud after spending many hours on it over the last few nights. Luckily even though it was a bit challenging to beat, it was a lot of fun. Easily one of my favorite game shows on the system. I ended up being a little cheap, and a little lucky tonight and finished it on my first attempt!! Horaay!
[img width=640 height=479]http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk189/Crabmaster2000/FamilyFeud-Ending_zps52cd77b3.png[/img]
Thought I'd jump into a Capcom game I've been neglecting and game Tale Spin a whirl. This is pretty much the only Capcom/Disney game that I have ZERO connection to. Never watched Tale Spin as a kid, which is probably why I left this one on the shelf for so long. Its pretty annoying at first because you can only have one shot on the screen at a time. Once you earn some cash and boost your rate of fire it gets quite a bit more enjoyable though. Not my favorite Capcom game, but it was a bit better than I expected.
[img width=640 height=479]http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk189/Crabmaster2000/TaleSpin-Ending_zps3e43ada5.png[/img]
All this happy kiddy-family time was getting to me. I had to darken things up with some Platoon next. This one I tried a bit last year and got frustrated in the second area of the game, the underground maze, and called it quits. This time I was determined to get past it. Turns out the maze wasn't too bad so I don't know what I was having trouble with last time. The 4th part was a bit tricky though and took me quite a few tries to overcome. Luckily its a very short game so when I die on the final area it only takes 10-15 to get back to it. Interesting game, but not great.
[img width=640 height=479]http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk189/Crabmaster2000/Platoon-Ending_zps006ed249.png[/img]
This last one is just kind of a freebie, Gotcha! is super easy to "beat". It starts looping after 3 short stages and has a pretty low high score to beat. It does however have a different high score board for each of the 3 difficulties. So my goal was to loop the levels on each of the 3 difficulties as well as beat the default 10,000 point high score (which would be done sometime during the second stage). Easy peasy!
[img width=640 height=479]http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk189/Crabmaster2000/Gotcha-Ending_zps5b6d0458.png[/img]
I had a bit of extra time so I tried out Tom & Jerry and Orb-3D. Tom & Jerry is gonna be a game I think I'll need to dedicate a whole session or two towards, and I really didnt understand what to do in Orb-3D. I'm gonna need to read the manual on that one. With a bit of time left, but not enough to sink deep into anything I just slammed through as many phases as I could on Wrecking Crew. Got up to Phase 39 out of 100 for now. I'll keep plugging away on it when I get little bits of time here and there until I've made it through all 100 levels.
2013 NES List
Sesame Street Countdown
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Tournament Fighters
Shooting Range
Space Shuttle Project
Double Dare
Win, Lose or Draw
Othello
Whomp Em
Dragon Fighter
Bugs Bunny's Crazy Castle
Family Feud
Tale Spin
Platoon
Gotcha!
Future Plans - Figure out Orb-3D and how to golf in a couple different golf games.
As promised I played a few game show type games. I actually don't mind trivia games like these. Double Dare was up first. This is one I've never had the pleasure of actually watching. Seems like I would have liked it though. The questions were VERY easy most of the time, even though several were US centric they were still fairly obvious. Not a hard game to beat, but some of the mini-game parts had poor controls and were a bit annoying.
[img width=639 height=477]http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk189/Crabmaster2000/DoubleDare-Ending_zps113e2a50.png[/img]
Followed Double Dare with one I actually have seen on TV, Win, Lose or Draw. The game is meant for at least 2 people so I just ran through a match all alone. One of the easiest games to beat because of that. Kind of curious to know how it would have been with a partner.
[img width=639 height=477]http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk189/Crabmaster2000/WinLoseorDraw-Ending_zpsca02a43f.png[/img]
Now Othellos is a game that I loathe. Its possibly the only NES game that my wife can beat me at 100% of the time. I'm horrible at Othello. Beating the computer on Hard and then Extra Super Hard turned out to be too much for me. After a few hours of failed attempts I basically found a smarter computer than then NES one to take him on. I punched in the moves the computer was making on a Java Othello game set to expert and then played what the Java app did on the NES game. Even then the NES cart beat the first 2 apps I pitted it against. That made me feel a bit better from all my loses. Finally I found an app that was able to crush the NES version and crossed the game off my list, even if I had to be incredibly cheap in order to do so.
[img width=639 height=477]http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk189/Crabmaster2000/Othello-Ending_zps86f7e3d5.png[/img]
To move into some things you guys might actually find a bit more interesting I played Whomp Em. This is one I've been eager to play for a while. Its got a lot of similarities to the Mega Man series. Solid and fluid controls, freedom to choose level order and new power ups with each boss fight. Definitely not the same calibur as the Blue Bomber, but a decent game. The final boss turned out to be pretty brutal though and took a few tries though. Worth picking up and checking out if you can find it for $5.
[img width=641 height=477]http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk189/Crabmaster2000/WhompEm-Ending_zpse18982b5.png[/img]
The last game beaten for this update is Dragon Fighter. I got this close to the end of the year last year and that was very exciting as both a collector (one of the last "expensive" titles I needed) and as a gamer (heard from a couple guys that it was a good game). Unable to wait any longer I decided to give it a go. My first attempt was met with very early failure and frustration. This seemed brutally hard. Better read the manual...................................................AHA!!!!!!!!!!!! I didn't realize you could turn into a dragon and fly past and breath lasers out at everyone. Now we're talking!! With that in mind it went much smoother. Still took a couple tries, but each attempt was showing a lot of progress at least. The levels are very simple and straight forward, enemies are what keep it interesting with several different types on each stage the behave different than ones on the last stages you've played. The bosses are all very unique and interesting. And the music was pretty great almost straight through. Pretty short game in the end, but a decent one. Not worth the price to buy just to play, but still fun.
[img width=642 height=478]http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk189/Crabmaster2000/DragonFighter-Ending_zpsa0d7e0fc.png[/img]
Also put several hours into Family Feud during the last couple days. Its actually pretty tough to get a win on it. I'm starting to notice some categories repeating now though so its just a matter of playing enough in order to remember the best answers.
2013 NES List
Day 4 and 9 games have been beaten. Ahead of schedule so far, but not as much as I'd like to be.
Sesame Street Countdown
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Tournament Fighters
Shooting Range
Space Shuttle Project
Double Dare
Win, Lose or Draw
Othello
Whomp Em
Dragon Fighter
Future Plans - Keep plugging away at Family Feud. Maybe try Bugs Bunny's Crazy Castle and Gun Nac as a break from it if needed.
PS - Thanks to Duke for pointing out that TMNT TF needed to be beaten on Hard Mode to get the credit roll. I went back and fixed that one now.
And I'm back for 2013 and ready to plow through some more NES goodies!! Thought I'd start the year off with a bang and plugged in Sesame Street Countdown!!!! WoooooooHooooooo! The Count's voice clips actually did amuse me though. He was my favorite Sesame Street character after Super Grover
[img width=642 height=479]http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk189/Crabmaster2000/SesameStreetCountdown-Ending_zps84ae6a28.png[/img]
Thought I'd get a bit more manly and play some TMNT Tournament Fighters after that. It was actually pretty decent. I had low expectations of a 1 on 1 fighting game on the NES, but it was surprisingly playable. You got your special moves, your counters, your throws, yup it had it all! Slammed through it with my buddy Raph and had a good time doing it. I just played through on the standard setting and the ending mentioned playing on Hard Mode though. Anyone know if there is a different ending for playing it on Hard?
[img width=642 height=479]http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk189/Crabmaster2000/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtlesTournamentFighters-Ending_zps721238fc.png[/img]
What could be more manly than mutants fighting in the streets you say? How about shooting zombies and aliens! Put in the Bandai zapper game Shooting Range for my third game of 2013. Really not much to it. Some guys wander around the screen with pin wheels attached to them for some reason and you have to shoot the wheels. There was a disgusting looking pin wheel-eyed boss to fight at the end though which caught me off guard. I didn't master the game, but I did walk away with a nice bronze medal!!
[img width=642 height=479]http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk189/Crabmaster2000/ShootingRange-Ending_zps58fdf2eb.png[/img]
There is nothing more manly than shooting aliens you might think, but you'd be an idiot because you forgot about Astronauts! Finished up my night of new NES games with Space Shuttle Project. This was a pretty unique game. You have to prep your shuttle for launch, gather your crew, launch your ship, get to your destination, perform a mission, and then return home. There are 6 missions in total, each one getting a bit more complicated and more challenging. If you're into repairing space stations or saving stranded Russian Cosmonauts this game will be right up your alley. Its not great, but I liked it.
[img width=640 height=481]http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk189/Crabmaster2000/SpaceShuttleProject-Ending_zps3bc65f1c.png[/img]
2013 NES List:
Sesame Street Countdown
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Tournament Fighters
Shooting Range
Space Shuttle Project
Future Plans - Looking forward to a night of Game Shows soon!
With a new year of gaming almost upon me I decided to take a quick look back at the last year (and a couple months beyond that). Take a look and let me know what you think!
First off I have beaten one more game since last time. That game was Overlord. It's possibly the only RTS game on the NES, I could be mistaken, but I really can't think of another. RTS games don't have the best track record on consoles. I thought Overlord did a fantastic job and keeping the real time pace going though, very fluid. Pretty cool title that I'm sure not many have spent much time on. Definitely try it out if you're looking for something a bit different for your NES.
[img width=642 height=480]http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk189/Crabmaster2000/Overlord-Ending-1.jpg[/img]
Now onto my plea for help
If you were a member here around this time last year you might remember I challenged myself to beating 100 NES games over 100 days. Well I had so much fun doing it that I thought I'd do it all over again! Seeing as I've beaten well over 200 games on the system since October 2011 it would be far to easy to just simply beat 100 games again. So here is the twist, none of the 100 games can be something I've beaten since October 2011. It has to be 100 "new" games.
So here is what I need from you guys. Take a look at the 2 lists below. This first list is the games I've already done and that are not eligible for my new list of 100 games. The list below that is the games I plan to tackle during this challenge so far. I'd like to pad the list a bit more so if you know of any titles that are relatively short or easy that do not appear on either list, please let me know about it. I'm looking for games that: have infinite continues (even if they are challenging), Games that can be completed in less than 2 hours once you know what to do, games that might be a bit on the long side but are fairly simple to finish, games with low highscores or not many levels to loop, or games that use passwords or saves after each level/zone, MUST BE A LICENSED GAME. If you know of a game that fits one or more of those criteria please comment or PM me with the name of it. Hopefully I'll own a copy
Beaten Since Oct.8th /100
(click on a title to see the video)
Super Mario Bros
Super Mario Bros 2
Super Mario Bros 3
Mega Man
Mega Man 2
Mega Man 3
Mega Man 4
Mega Man 5
Mega Man 6
Castlevania
Adventures in the Magic Kingdom
Duck Tales
Duck Tales 2
Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers
Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers 2
Felix the Cat
Bugs Bunny Birthday Blowout
Ren and Stimpy Show: Buckaroo$
Double Dragon
Contra
Super C
Contra Force
Power Blade
Power Blade 2
Dynowarz: The Destruction of Spondylus
Metal Storm
Journey to Silius
Air Fortress
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Blaster Master
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turltes 2
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 3
Legendary Wings
BreakThru
Commando
Guerrilla War
World Games
Snoopy's Silly Sports Spectacular
Caveman Games
DK Classics
Jaws
Ninja Gaiden
Where's Waldo?
Bonk's Adventure
Panic Restaurant
Bubble Bobble 2
Dr. Mario
Bubble Bobble
MC Kids
Batman
Circus Caper
Roller Games
Widget
Tiny Toon Adventures
Tiny Toon Adventures 2
The Jetsons
The Little Mermaid
Monster in my Pocket
Gremlins 2
Kirby's Adventure
Kickle Cubicle
Kung Fu
Yo! Noid
Xexyz
Puss 'N Boots: Pero's Great Adventure
Wall Street Kid
The Karate Kid
Archon
Golf
Super Dodgeball
Super Spike V'Ball
Jakcie Chan's Action Kung Fu
The Three Stooges
Ice Hockey
Tecmo Bowl
Track & Field
Mario Bros
NARC
North and South
Barbie
Battle Chess
The Simpsons: Bart vs. The World
The Flintstones: Surprise at Dinosaur Peak
Snow Brothers
Little Samson
Sky Shark
Ninja Gaiden II
Mike Tyson's Punch Out
The Simpsons: Bart Meets Radioactive Man
StarTropics
Little Nemo: The Dream Master
River City Ransom
StarTropics 2: Zoda's Revenge
The Jungle Book
Castlevania III Dracula's Curse
Mario is Missing
Blades of Steel
Hogan's Alley
Wild Gunman
Burger Time
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
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
Rocket Ranger
Roger Clemens MVP Baseball
Bill & Ted's Excellent Video Game Adventure
Destination Earthstar
Street Cop
Short Order/Eggsplode
Star Voyageur
Days of Thunder
Laser Invasion
Silent Service
Back to the Future 2 & 3
Overlord
2013 100 in 100 List
Color A Dinosaur
Taboo
Amagon
Galaga
Bo Jackson Baseball
10 Yard Fight
Bugs Bunny Castle Craze
Wheel of Fortune
Wheel of Fortune Vanna White
Wheel of Fortune Family
Wheel of Fortune Junior
Trog
Super Off-Road
RBI Baseball
Magmax
Popeye
Chessmaster
Jackyl
Fisher Price I can Remember
Baseball Sim 1.000
Monopoly
Jeopardy 25th Anniversary
Jeopardy
Jeopardy Jr
Fisher Price Perfect Fit
Remote Control
Double Dare
Hollywood Squares
John Elway's Quarterback
Xenophobe
Millipede
Sesame Street 123
Sesame Street ABC
Sesame Street Big Bird's Hide & Speak
Tiger-Heli
Pictionary
Anticipation
Platoon
Classic Concentration
Balloon Fighter
WWF Wrestlemania Challenge
Pinball
Jack Nicklaus's Greatest 18 Holes
Winter Games
Touchdown Fever
Urban Champion
Spy vs. Spy
Life Force
Bucky O'Hare
Gotcha
Wayne Gretzky Hockey
Double Dribble
Orb-3D
Blue Marlin
Tailspin
Astyanax
Tom & Jerry
Silkworm
Arch Rivals
Gun Nac
Castle of Dragon
Gyruss
Mickey Letterland
Mickey Numberland
Major League Baseball
Space Shuttle Project
Crash 'n the Boys
Joe & Mac
Spot
Twin Cobra
Track & Field II
Rocky & Bullwinkle
Win, Lose or Draw
Hoops
Base Wars
Whomp 'em
NES Play Action Football
Heavy Barrel
TMNT Tournament Fighters
MUSCLE
Hatris
Magic Johnson's Fast Break
Family Fued
Defender II
Cyberball
Qix
Karate Champ
Bandai Golf
Dragon Fighter
Othello
Time Lord
Wrecking Crew
NFL Football
Shooting Range
Nintendo World Cup Soccer
Flintstones Dino & Hoppy
Soccer
POW
Rush 'n Attack
Kabuki Quantum Fighter
Captain Planet
Dr.Chaos
Captain America & The Avengers
The Punisher
X-Men
Wolverine
Totally Rad
Incredible Crash Test Dummies
Zen Intergalactic Ninja
The Challenge begins January 1st at 00:00 and end on April 10th at 23:59. Wish me luck!
With the list I'm choosing my games from getting insanely close to completion my choices are getting extremely slim. Because Laser Invasion seemed like the last possible game that might be decent on the list I snatched it up quickly before someone beat me to it. One other nintendoage member had put some time into it and wasn't quite able to beat it, but came incredibly close. Because of that he gave me a few tips one of which was extremely helpful. I'm really bad at the Air Sim stages, but he pointed out that you can simply maneuver around every non-boss enemy. That made things a lot easier, and to make things even more cheap you can choose different secondary weapons before each mission including a RADAR scrambler. Between dodging the enemy missiles and activating one of my 10 RADAR scramblers you're pretty much invincible for the majority of the flying stages.
The shooting stages need some quick reflexes, but overall aren't too hard. The maze stages are actually pretty enjoyable since you get a map of the area uncovered as you explore it. Really once I was able to pass the air combat stages it fell pretty quick. Not a great game, but it was ok. It did have one of my favorite types of endings though. The broken English kind!!
[img width=640 height=478]http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk189/Crabmaster2000/LaserInvasion-Ending.jpg[/img]
Next up this time was everybody's favorite Submarine sim and highly collectable cart...... SILENT SERVICE!!!! I had extremely low expectations going into this game and much to my surprise it wasn't actually that bad There is a lot of different things going on such as navigating your ship, locating enemies, using the periscope, watching your depth, rationing your ammo, keeping an eye on damage, finding enemy shipping lines, etc. etc. So there is a bit of a learning curve when you first start because of how much you are in control of. Even with all that it was surprisingly intuitive in a very short amount of time. Now there is not really an ending to this game as its all broken up into misions. So to call it finished for my list I beat the weapons training, all 6 convoy missions and one of the 5 war scenarios. Why 1 out of 5? Because each scenario is essentially the same. Same objective, same enemies, same starting stats. The differences are just which shipping lines are most likely to be in use and which starting ports are available, neither of which change the difficulty in the least. Since there is no end screen here is a snap of my WGSC rank (Worlds Greatest Submarine Captain) which is the highest rank available according to the manual.
[img width=638 height=475]http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk189/Crabmaster2000/SilentService-Ending.jpg[/img]
And one game that a few people have been dreading, Back to the Future 2 & 3, finally fell. You get unlimited continues so the game itself isn't hard to beat. The problem is how annoying it is. You start on a map of 1985 which consists of about 10 long areas. You have to find doors which contain puzzle rooms. After beating a puzzle room you are rewarded with an item. The item must be returned to an unspecified pipe in the different areas. Now times that by 3 because not only do you have to worry about the maze in 1985, but you have to time travel to similar mazes in 1955 and 2015. To make things extra confusing items obtained in one time are almost always returned to areas in the other times and some areas of the maze are only accessible via time travelling in specific areas of specific time zones. And to make things extra extra confusing there are a couple items that you need to go to earlier times to plant seeds in order for a beanstalk to appear so you can even reach some puzzle rooms. And to make things extra extra extra confusing the keys you need to open the puzzle rooms are rarely available in areas that have puzzle rooms so you have to back track and stock up, hoping not to die since if you lose all your lives and have to continue you keep everything except for your stock of keys.
If you're finally able to achieve your goal of returning all 30 items you win, right? WRONG! At that point you're treated to the second part of the game themed after the Back to the Future 3 movie. Luckily there are only 10 less maze-like areas with only 10 items this time. The levels are MUCH harder to walk through though, but luckily they supply you with a key hidden in an enemy at least once in each area. The difficulty of the puzzle rooms is ramped up pretty significantly this time though so don't think it'll be a cake walk. Anyway return your 10 items to get this screen here:
[img width=640 height=479]http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk189/Crabmaster2000/BacktotheFuture23-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
Rocket Ranger
Roger Clemens MVP Baseball
Bill & Ted's Excellent Video Game Adventure
Destination Earthstar
Street Cop
Short Order/Eggsplode
Star Voyageur
Days of Thunder
Laser Invasion
Silent Service
Back to the Future 2 & 3
BONUS GAME -
Assimilate
Future Plans - The remaining games I own on the list of 14 games has been knock down to 4. Another person is working on Conflict so I'm gonna leave him to it. I've already attempted Might & Magic and was having trouble with the fundamentals, also someone else has expressed interest in it so he can give it his best try. That leaves me with High Speed and Overlord as my last 2 options before the year is over. A couple weeks ago someone said they were going to try High Speed, but I haven't heard any updates in a while so I'm assuming its been scrapped. The same guy that is trying Might & Magic decided to end his run on Overlord in defeat. Both games seem challenging, but in extremely different ways. I'm gonna go with Overlord as my choice and hope I have a better time with it than the other guy did. Wish me luck!!
I'm back from my brief trip out of town and back into my NES groove. Got a few games to talk about that I didn't get to write before I left town and one fresh one on top of that.
Since Duke.Togo was able to help me out and score me a sweet, sweet Power Pad to replace my partially functioning one I was able to dig into the last couple Power Pad games on the system. Started off with some Short Order/Eggsplode. Its basically Simon/Whack-a-Mole. If you've played those games you'll know exactly what to expect from these ones. Eggsplode was quick and relatively painless to finish, Short Order on the other hand....... I played the Challenge 99 hoping it had a different ending from the other modes because of the extreme challenge of it, but it didn't. I could have gotten away with a quick and painless 10 levels of Simon, but instead opted for the 2.5 hour, 99 level Simon marathon!! My feet were quite sore at the end, but at least its done.
[img width=641 height=481]http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk189/Crabmaster2000/ShortOrder-Ending.jpg[/img]
[img width=641 height=481]http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk189/Crabmaster2000/ShortOrderEggsplode-Ending.jpg[/img]
Luckily for me Street Cop was a lot more enjoyable. Using the pad and controller you wander through 6 different areas busting low-level criminals until you can get the location of their boss. Once you've tracked down and arrested each of the 6 crimelords you've beaten the game. It was very enjoyable and easily one of my favorite games for the Power Pad.
[img width=640 height=480]http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk189/Crabmaster2000/StreetCop-Ending.jpg[/img]
It seems that no one else that is tackling the list of NES games with me over at nintendoage is very fond of space sim type games. So with 2 of them on the list I gave the first one a try, Destination Earthstar. Their are two types of play on this game, the first one being a space sim played out on a grid in first person perspective, and the second being a side scrolling shmup (ala Gradius).
The sim part actually isn't too bad. Its fairly enjoyable, balanced and controls well. You're tasked with destroying all enemies on the grid before gaining access to the enemy base (the shmup areas). You can also explore a bit and find extra fuel and weapons. Each level like this is basically the same, the only difference is more enemies and more hidden goodies. Once you get the hang of it its pretty simple.
The shmup areas leave a lot to be desired though. Your ship can shoot from both the front and back and the powerups you collect will boost your guns for either direction. It does some things right like having varied weapons and giving you the ability to scroll through and previous collected ones if you prefer them (I liked the 3rd upgrade better than the 4th or 5th) and if you die you dont have to start the stage again, just continue from the point you died at. The levels don't seem to bad at first, but they get longer each time until they feel never-ending. On top of that your ship controls rather clunky and enemy hit boxes are pretty small. Luckily the game is pretty generous with the 1ups so as long as you can amass 10+ early enough you can just limp your way through the end like I ended up doing.
[img width=640 height=478]http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk189/Crabmaster2000/DestinationEarthstar-Ending.jpg[/img]
While I tackled that space sim no one else stepped up for the other one so I took it too. Star Voyageur was very similar to the sim parts of Destination EarthStar, just a lot crappier in pretty much every way. Firstly it took me a good hour to figure out how to even navigate my damn ship. The warp system is very unintuitive. Secondly you NEED to get two secret and randomly placed items before you can even start attacking enemy ships. So you have to hope to find them early on otherwise the baddies will be too close and you'll lose before you even have a chance to fight. When you finally get all of that down you need to learn to fight pretty decent sized hordes of TIE Fighter clones coupled with Star Destroyer clones. The Star Destroyer type ships are the motherships so you need to take them out otherwise they'll just keep spawning more ships. The combat is pretty fast and frantic which makes it pretty challenging, even with your power ups. Luckily the game is pretty short after you figure out all that stuff though.
[img width=640 height=479]http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk189/Crabmaster2000/StarVoyageur-Ending.jpg[/img]
Lastly this time around was Days of Thunder. If you've ever played 30 seconds of this game, you've pretty much played the whole darn thing. Just a lot of turning left and eventually struggling through pit stops. Fun!!!
[img width=641 height=480]http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk189/Crabmaster2000/DaysofThunder-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
Rocket Ranger
Roger Clemens MVP Baseball
Bill & Ted's Excellent Video Game Adventure
Destination Earthstar
Street Cop
Short Order/Eggsplode
Star Voyageur
Days of Thunder
BONUS GAME -
Assimilate
Future Plans - There isn't much hope left of finding hidden gems to play with us nearing 20 games left on the system, only about 6-7 that I even own. I'll probably be trying Laser Invasion and Silent Service *shutter* soon.
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