NES Completions thread 2024 - 666/677

[Crabmaster2000 | 529]

On 6/13/2024 at 2:46 PM, Khromak said:

For Arkanoid since the code in the manual (start plus a) lets you skip the first 16 stages, does that mean to claim victory you "just" need to do 17-35?

I would expect the levels to get more difficult as the game goes on so this isn't quite the advantage it might seem, but that's still a lot of levels to "clear" without having to worry about losing a life on them.

Those who have beaten it in the past: is it a situation where you want to play 1-35 anyway, to build up extra lives, or is it safer to just do the back half and ignore the entire first half of the game?

I found I needed to have a bit of a lives buffer from the early stages to get through. I didn't think I could make it from 17 onward without that.

[McBryce | 375]

On 6/15/2024 at 10:30 AM, Crabmaster2000 said:

I found I needed to have a bit of a lives buffer from the early stages to get through. I didn't think I could make it from 17 onward without that.

Did you do every level at the beginning or pick and choose? I end up doing around 10 of the first 16 but some (level 3) just seem like a guaranteed life loss.

[Crabmaster2000 | 529]

22 hours ago, McBryce said:

Did you do every level at the beginning or pick and choose? I end up doing around 10 of the first 16 but some (level 3) just seem like a guaranteed life loss.

I checked my video and was quite wrong about what I said before. Seems like you keep you extra lives when you use the warps. So the safest way is to play the levels you find easiest to farm for lives and then warp past the tough ones up to level 17. Even just doing stage one and 2 for a couple extra lives and then starting from 17 would be much better than just warping right to 17.

[Khromak | 837]

Update from me, not necessarily on this list, but kinda?

I've been using this list as my motivation to complete games I own but otherwise haven't/wouldn't play. Ultimately I think I'd like to try to clear all the games I own (basically the US licensed library) more-or-less following the VGS rules for "completion." I know it's going to be a long road, but I'm taking it bit by bit, mostly just beating whatever is left on this list every year.

Since what's left on the list now are brutally difficult and I wasn't excited about playing 12 of the hardest games in the library in a row, I came up with (read: stole) a new system to get me motivated and get some completions: I'm now playing the games in release order! I'm going to try to avoid skipping a game, no matter how difficult/un-fun it is, to avoid having all the hard/crappy stuff left at the end.

As it relates to this list, it looks like the first one I'll encounter from here would be Ikari Warriors, though that is (by my count) 37 games away, so it will be a while before I even attempt it and then I'm sure it will take weeks/months for me to actually beat it, since I'll be attempting the "No ABBA" strats.

That's the update from me anyway! I'm only just getting started with this method, but having fun so far, despite the games being...quite primative

[Crabmaster2000 | 529]

20 hours ago, Khromak said:

Update from me, not necessarily on this list, but kinda?

I've been using this list as my motivation to complete games I own but otherwise haven't/wouldn't play. Ultimately I think I'd like to try to clear all the games I own (basically the US licensed library) more-or-less following the VGS rules for "completion." I know it's going to be a long road, but I'm taking it bit by bit, mostly just beating whatever is left on this list every year.

Since what's left on the list now are brutally difficult and I wasn't excited about playing 12 of the hardest games in the library in a row, I came up with (read: stole) a new system to get me motivated and get some completions: I'm now playing the games in release order! I'm going to try to avoid skipping a game, no matter how difficult/un-fun it is, to avoid having all the hard/crappy stuff left at the end.

As it relates to this list, it looks like the first one I'll encounter from here would be Ikari Warriors, though that is (by my count) 37 games away, so it will be a while before I even attempt it and then I'm sure it will take weeks/months for me to actually beat it, since I'll be attempting the "No ABBA" strats.

That's the update from me anyway! I'm only just getting started with this method, but having fun so far, despite the games being...quite primative

That sounds like a fun way to go about it!

[BriGuy82 | 808]

Started on Top Gun 2. 

[Khromak | 837]

I'm on Mach Rider now (for my personal completions, not for this thread since it has already been beaten). Wondering why level 10 was selected for Fighting Course and why Solo and Endurance are not required. Is it because they loop (infinitely?) and can't be counted? The wiki and TMR's NESmania both say that levels 11-20 in the Fighting Course are different to levels 1-10, then after 20 they loop.

Curious if anyone has insight as to why these decisions were made in the first place, opinions about this, or any additional insight. I'm not bringing this up in any attempt to change this list, moreso interested in trying to come up with my own criteria and make it as consistent and realistic as possible.

Side note: Definitely not looking forward to this one, I think it's going to be a very significant grind for me and I don't particularly like racing games to begin with

[Daniel_Doyce | 491]

I'll check in one last time with @Gaia Gensouki on Genghis Khan.

[Crabmaster2000 | 529]

23 hours ago, Khromak said:

I'm on Mach Rider now (for my personal completions, not for this thread since it has already been beaten). Wondering why level 10 was selected for Fighting Course and why Solo and Endurance are not required. Is it because they loop (infinitely?) and can't be counted? The wiki and TMR's NESmania both say that levels 11-20 in the Fighting Course are different to levels 1-10, then after 20 they loop.

Curious if anyone has insight as to why these decisions were made in the first place, opinions about this, or any additional insight. I'm not bringing this up in any attempt to change this list, moreso interested in trying to come up with my own criteria and make it as consistent and realistic as possible.

Side note: Definitely not looking forward to this one, I think it's going to be a very significant grind for me and I don't particularly like racing games to begin with

That's a game I didn't agree with the win condition on here when I played through it. All 3 modes are quite different so I feel like they should all be required. 

Fighting Course doesn't loop until after 20, like you said. Endurance Mode Courses go up to 92 km, which is the 11th stage and then starts looping stages afterwards and Solo Mode Courses go up to 95 km before looping, which is also the 11th stage. 

I don't feel like 10 makes sense for any of them so I'm not sure why that is the condition here. 

It also took me weeks to beat. It is an extremely challenging game. The power up system is very obtuse and complicated, but it's worth learning how it works because able to have immunity from most of the obstacles on some of those stages is key to keeping your speed up enough to actually finish the later stages. 

Edited July 16 by Crabmaster2000

[Khromak | 837]

22 minutes ago, Crabmaster2000 said:

The power up system is very obtuse and complicated, but it's worth learning how it works because able to have immunity from most of the obstacles on some of those stages is key to keeping your speed up enough to actually finish the later stages. 

Thanks for all the input on the win conditions and on the tips.

Where can I read/learn more about the powerup system? Does the manual have info? Guide online somewhere? Figure it out on my own?

I'll be tackling this one soon and would love to digest as much relevant info as I can before I start beating my head into it.

I'll probably go for what TMR did (stage 11 for solo and endurance, stage 20 for fighting) since it seems to make sense in terms of "completing" the game. A lot of the black box games are similar with multiple modes and, except in cases where a different mode was just a difficulty setting, I've cleared all modes thus far.

[NESfiend | 1,556]

On 7/10/2024 at 7:45 PM, BriGuy82 said:

Started on Top Gun 2. 

I want to hear about this one when it's over. I got somewhat obsessed with top gun 1 a year or two back. Didn't beat it, but made enough progress I felt like I really got to experience the game after many years. Top gun 2 has been on my to do list to check out

[Crabmaster2000 | 529]

17 hours ago, Khromak said:

Thanks for all the input on the win conditions and on the tips.

Where can I read/learn more about the powerup system? Does the manual have info? Guide online somewhere? Figure it out on my own?

I'll be tackling this one soon and would love to digest as much relevant info as I can before I start beating my head into it.

I'll probably go for what TMR did (stage 11 for solo and endurance, stage 20 for fighting) since it seems to make sense in terms of "completing" the game. A lot of the black box games are similar with multiple modes and, except in cases where a different mode was just a difficulty setting, I've cleared all modes thus far.

https://strategywiki.org/wiki/Mach_Rider/Power_Ups

 

That's a great rundown or how to earn them and how they work. It is quite hard to pull them off consistently, but if you can get all 3 stacked at once you're pretty set other than the orbs that fly towards you which are a major threat no matter what.

 

And here's my video earning and using them for my winning runs if that helps too

 

https://youtu.be/2MZbdMZgowg?si=mDfNvZllyBFlRovv

Edited July 17 by Crabmaster2000

[Daniel_Doyce | 491]

On 7/17/2024 at 11:11 AM, Crabmaster2000 said:

https://strategywiki.org/wiki/Mach_Rider/Power_Ups

 

That's a great rundown or how to earn them and how they work. It is quite hard to pull them off consistently, but if you can get all 3 stacked at once you're pretty set other than the orbs that fly towards you which are a major threat no matter what.

 

And here's my video earning and using them for my winning runs if that helps too

 

https://youtu.be/2MZbdMZgowg?si=mDfNvZllyBFlRovv

Ugh, I watched a few minutes from the middle of your video and it made me nauseous. I can't imagine playing that for multiple hours.

[Crabmaster2000 | 529]

11 hours ago, Daniel_Doyce said:

Ugh, I watched a few minutes from the middle of your video and it made me nauseous. I can't imagine playing that for multiple hours.

That is the appropriate reaction 

[Crabmaster2000 | 529]

@Khromak how's the Mach Riding going?

[Khromak | 837]

1 minute ago, Crabmaster2000 said:

@Khromak how's the Mach Riding going?

Not at all, lol. I had a trip out of town and then I've been playing the Switch NWC game, plus other random nonsense. Even when I was playing NES stuff, I was trying to focus on Gumshoe because it seemed more beatable. These two are definitely sapping my motivation though as they seem quite challenging. I should probably try Mach Rider again because if I can get powered up I might be able to make it work, those powerups seem pretty overpowered...

[nerdynebraskan | 356]

@Khromak

Gumshoe has a continue code in the manual. It can be brute-forced in a couple of hours with some patience. 

[scaryice | 620]

After doing the Elden Ring DLC and some other games I wanted to play, I finally got back to Kung Fu Heroes, and it's complete:

 

This is the best shot I could get before it disappeared, after rushing to get my camera. Even knowing exactly what to do and what items to pick up, still took 3 hours to beat it. Really, it's just the lives capping out at 9 that makes the game hard. Without that, it would be simple.

[Crabmaster2000 | 529]

On 8/6/2024 at 7:10 AM, Khromak said:

Not at all, lol. I had a trip out of town and then I've been playing the Switch NWC game, plus other random nonsense. Even when I was playing NES stuff, I was trying to focus on Gumshoe because it seemed more beatable. These two are definitely sapping my motivation though as they seem quite challenging. I should probably try Mach Rider again because if I can get powered up I might be able to make it work, those powerups seem pretty overpowered...

I wanna get that NWC game as well. Looks like a ton of fun.

[Khromak | 837]

39 minutes ago, Crabmaster2000 said:

I wanna get that NWC game as well. Looks like a ton of fun.

It's definitely a mixed bag. Many of the challenges are really short/boring, but if you're really into optimization then it can be fun.

I'd check out a review or some gameplay footage; it's not for everyone but I've been enjoying it for the most part. I've almost finished all the challenges with the max possible rank (S), just need to do Kirby's Adventure & Excitebike. Might skip Excitebike since it's trash and I suck at it.

[Gaia Gensouki | 1,086]

On 7/16/2024 at 4:13 PM, Daniel_Doyce said:

I'll check in one last time with @Gaia Gensouki on Genghis Khan.

I'm sorry for going awol for so long. I've been chipping away at Genghis Khan very slowly, but am currently at 17 out of 27 countries. I need a bit more time, but I should get it done soon. It just gets so tedious later on having to train all the time so that you can get stuff done at all. Not to mention all the idle or waiting time when I can't do anything and have to pass on about a dozen countries or so.

[Gaia Gensouki | 1,086]

22 countries down, 5 more left to go.