nerdynebraskan | 356 Posted March 6, 2021 Share Posted March 6, 2021 Super Spike V'Ball is unquestionably done now, as I just beat the World Cup mode. It dawned on me as I continued to struggle with the advanced controls that this is reminiscent of a fighting game (especially having been programmed by Technos). I've honestly never been good at tournament fighters. I just don't have the coordination for the complex button combinations needed to hit the special moves. There might only be about 30 minutes of gameplay, but it took me several hours to do this. I replayed almost every game of the tournament several times until I got lucky against each opponent. You literally can't score against the later computer opponents unless you can do a charged, directional spike. And half the time I went to use it, it didn't work for whatever reason. The controls are either iffy or I'm just not nuanced enough with my controller to replicate what the game expects of me to execute. And the computer, outside of a handful of random errors, plays like a cheating mofo. If they can get in front of one of my charged spikes (KABBOOOOOM), the ball will float forwards 95% of the time and their partner will make the save. When the computer uses a charged spike against me and I can get in front of it, the ball flies out of the back of my court for an automatic CPU point like 80% of the time. It doesn't even seem to matter where either of us is on our half of the court when hit by the KABOOOOOM. Every time the computer gets a defender completely under one of my balls, they hit it perfectly. When my partner gets under one of theirs easily, he has a decent possibility (maybe 15%) of standing there and watching it hit the sand at his feet. And if I get under a floater, I have to worry about doing a sliding dig away from the play, since that move is executed with the same button as the bump. I can't remember if I had this game growing up. If I did, it was one that sat in the closet and didn't get played more than a handful of times. Without having dozens of hours to immerse myself in the bizarre controls, the World Cup mode's difficulty in particular makes this game a very frustrating experience. I don't see any reason to require the American Circuit and the World Cup in future years. I think either should suffice, as they both have very nice endings with a trophy screen, credits, music, and a final screen saying THE END. I do think the World Cup is essentially just the high-difficulty tournament mode, and should be considered optional as it is for most higher difficulty modes or loops on NES games in this challenge. But if @scaryiceand others still feel the World Cup is necessary, the American Circuit would be superfluous. The five teams there and the first five of the World Cup are more or less generic; they just get progressively harder to beat. The Navy boys and the Russians look a little different (and the USSR stage does admittedly look really cool), but aside from slightly different character sprites and unique arenas they're just harder versions of the same cheating computer bastards from the other ten matches. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Strikezone1 | 157 Posted March 7, 2021 Share Posted March 7, 2021 Knight Rider is beaten. What a frustrating, irritating, rage-inducing, headache this game is to beat. Christ almighty. I’m glad to have it crossed off my list. I’m pretty sure I’ll never play it again. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WashYourFace | 80 Posted March 7, 2021 Share Posted March 7, 2021 20 minutes ago, Strikezone1 said: Knight Rider is beaten. What a frustrating, irritating, rage-inducing, headache this game is to beat. Christ almighty. I’m glad to have it crossed off my list. I’m pretty sure I’ll never play it again. Well you made it farther than I ever have. It doesn't seem like it should be that hard, but for some reason it is. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crabmaster2000 | 532 Posted March 7, 2021 Share Posted March 7, 2021 I don't remember Knight Rider being very challenging. I actually have to replay it soon because I mysteriously lost my footage for it. Finally finished off Uncharted Waters tonight. Loved the first 10 hours exploring and buying/selling goods. Very much dislike it after that. The ship battles are dumb, random storms/seaweed/boats vanishing was awful. Got extremely repetitive and monotonous doing the same missions over and over. Possibly my least favorite KOEI game because of the back end. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daniel_Doyce | 491 Posted March 7, 2021 Share Posted March 7, 2021 (edited) Wizardry: Proving Grounds is done. I'm running out of games I haven't beaten before and I have any real chance of beating. I don't think anyone is playing Prince of Persia, so I'll go for it. Edited March 7, 2021 by Daniel_Doyce changed my mind on the next game 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Strikezone1 | 157 Posted March 7, 2021 Share Posted March 7, 2021 10 hours ago, Crabmaster2000 said: I don't remember Knight Rider being very challenging. I actually have to replay it soon because I mysteriously lost my footage for it. Perhaps your memory isn’t serving you correctly, because Knight Rider is extremely difficult, largely due to its cheap & annoying design. You’ll quickly remember when you get around to replaying it I’m sure! Of the 214 NES games I’ve beaten to this point I’d easily put KR in the top 5. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Strikezone1 | 157 Posted March 7, 2021 Share Posted March 7, 2021 11 hours ago, WashYourFace said: It doesn't seem like it should be that hard, but for some reason it is. Exactly. It’d be a better, more like-able game if they could’ve tweaked a few things to make it less cheap and more player friendly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daniel_Doyce | 491 Posted March 8, 2021 Share Posted March 8, 2021 21 hours ago, Crabmaster2000 said: I don't remember Knight Rider being very challenging. I actually have to replay it soon because I mysteriously lost my footage for it. Finally finished off Uncharted Waters tonight. Loved the first 10 hours exploring and buying/selling goods. Very much dislike it after that. The ship battles are dumb, random storms/seaweed/boats vanishing was awful. Got extremely repetitive and monotonous doing the same missions over and over. Possibly my least favorite KOEI game because of the back end. Did you get the figureheads and an amulet? Getting the best figureheads drastically reduce the storm and missing ship problem. Carrying around lumber for quick onshore repairs can get you out of a jam too. Getting the heavy galleons and good cannons make the pirate fights fun. That said, I do agree the latter half of the game really starts to drag. I've beaten it 3 or 4 times now, and that's enough times for me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crabmaster2000 | 532 Posted March 8, 2021 Share Posted March 8, 2021 14 hours ago, Daniel_Doyce said: Did you get the figureheads and an amulet? Getting the best figureheads drastically reduce the storm and missing ship problem. Carrying around lumber for quick onshore repairs can get you out of a jam too. Getting the heavy galleons and good cannons make the pirate fights fun. That said, I do agree the latter half of the game really starts to drag. I've beaten it 3 or 4 times now, and that's enough times for me. Yup got the best figureheads and amulets. It was really just the Atlantic ocean that kept having a storm ever second screen. Made it so I had to take the incredibly long route over Europe instead if trying to get to the middle East (which was a lot of late game missions). And just cruising along and seeing a text box pop up that said "Gunship 5 mysteriously disappeared" out of no where happened about half a dozen times. I had cannon loaded Heavy Galleons, I disagree that the combat was fun. Lining ships up was either way too easy or a super pain and nothing in between. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nerdynebraskan | 356 Posted March 8, 2021 Share Posted March 8, 2021 (edited) I've been playing a bit of Ninja Kid the last couple of days. It's mediocre, but I'm still finding it kind of interesting. I think I'll keep going with it for a little bit, but I'm not sure if I'll be able to beat it or not. I'm also now 6-0 in Clemens Baseball. Edited March 9, 2021 by nerdynebraskan Update on second game Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Strikezone1 | 157 Posted March 10, 2021 Share Posted March 10, 2021 I just picked up a copy of Predator and am working on it next since it's still on the board. Based on this game's reputation, rating, and the fact that it's one of the 80 still remaining for this thread, my expectations of it are quite low. Played it a lil bit last night and again this afternoon (before the damn game froze up on me). I've been able to get to stage 12, which I believe is maybe a third of the way through. It's pretty obnoxious, as I anticipated. I'm sure I'm in for a grind... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Strikezone1 | 157 Posted March 11, 2021 Share Posted March 11, 2021 Predator is beaten. Games like this make games like Ninja Gaiden feel like Fisher-Price by difficulty comparison (credit @mbd39 for that funny analogy ). The level of cheapness knows no bounds in this game...it’s pretty ridiculous. Fortunately the unlimited continues allow you to brute force your way through it. Despite all its shortcomings, the game isn’t a total atrocity. It is pretty bad though. 3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scaryice | 620 Posted March 11, 2021 Author Share Posted March 11, 2021 11 hours ago, Strikezone1 said: Predator is beaten. That's the last 5 point game, and we're almost at 600! At this point, it looks like I can post the full list of games which will be worth -2 points in 2022, thanks to some early clears this year (they're also affected by the 2016 value dropping off). There's one game that's worth -3 points: Milon's Secret Castle. That one was beaten over 600 spots higher this year compared to the 2016 spot that will drop off. 2022 2021 Overlord 1 3 Little Nemo: The Dream Master 3 5 Bad Street Brawler 4 6 Xexyz 4 6 Karate Champ 5 7 Nobunaga's Ambition 5 7 Othello 5 7 Untouchables 5 7 Cool World 6 8 Pinball Quest 6 8 Simpsons: Bartman Meets Radioactive Man 6 8 Stanley and the Search for Dr. Livingston 6 8 Milon's Secret Castle 6 9 Dirty Harry: The War Against Drugs 7 9 Heavy Shreddin' 7 9 Nigel Mansell's World Championship Racing 7 9 Snake's Revenge: Metal Gear II 7 9 Deadly Towers 8 10 Empire Strikes Back 8 10 Lee Trevino's Fighting Golf 8 10 Marvel's X-Men 8 10 Q*Bert 8 10 Race America 8 10 Ring King 8 10 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daniel_Doyce | 491 Posted March 13, 2021 Share Posted March 13, 2021 Oh, wow, am I getting the honor of beating game 600? Prince of Persia is done. I'm going to try it again at some point with no restarts since it was such a fun game. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daniel_Doyce | 491 Posted March 13, 2021 Share Posted March 13, 2021 I'll try Hook next Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr. Morbis | 2,120 Posted March 14, 2021 Share Posted March 14, 2021 8 hours ago, Daniel_Doyce said: Oh, wow, am I getting the honor of beating game 600? Prince of Persia is done. I'm going to try it again at some point with no restarts since it was such a fun game. I'm a sure-fire NES guy for life, but I gotta say: if you haven't tried the SNES version of Prince of Persia yet, I'm here to tell you that it is SPEC-FRICKIN-TACULAR!!! Best version of POP in existence... period. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BeaIank | 1,682 Events Team · Posted March 14, 2021 Share Posted March 14, 2021 1 hour ago, Dr. Morbis said: I'm a sure-fire NES guy for life, but I gotta say: if you haven't tried the SNES version of Prince of Persia yet, I'm here to tell you that it is SPEC-FRICKIN-TACULAR!!! Best version of POP in existence... period. This man speaks nothing but truth in this post. The SNES version is THE BEST Prince of Persia experience you can have. The game is EXQUISITE and improves so damn much over the original game. The new stages, challenges and boss fights are so fresh and don't break the game feel. It is THE definite and perfect Prince of Persia version. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daniel_Doyce | 491 Posted March 14, 2021 Share Posted March 14, 2021 29 minutes ago, BeaIank said: This man speaks nothing but truth in this post. The SNES version is THE BEST Prince of Persia experience you can have. The game is EXQUISITE and improves so damn much over the original game. The new stages, challenges and boss fights are so fresh and don't break the game feel. It is THE definite and perfect Prince of Persia version. One definite weird thing in the NES version is that you see your Shadow a couple of times, but then the big climactic "fight" / merge is completely missing from the end of the game (unless I skipped it somehow). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BeaIank | 1,682 Events Team · Posted March 14, 2021 Share Posted March 14, 2021 20 minutes ago, Daniel_Doyce said: One definite weird thing in the NES version is that you see your Shadow a couple of times, but then the big climactic "fight" / merge is completely missing from the end of the game (unless I skipped it somehow). You never really get to fight your shadow. You reunite with it through a mirror during the game. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daniel_Doyce | 491 Posted March 14, 2021 Share Posted March 14, 2021 1 hour ago, BeaIank said: You never really get to fight your shadow. You reunite with it through a mirror during the game. That's why I put "fight" in quotes. The original Apple II game definitely has a different sequence near the end, where you merge with your Shadow before you go off to fight Jaffar. On the NES, it's an asshole Skeleton fight instead Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daniel_Doyce | 491 Posted March 15, 2021 Share Posted March 15, 2021 Ugh, Hook looks like it uses the same engine as Bible Adventures. Gonna have to power through this one Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nerdynebraskan | 356 Posted March 15, 2021 Share Posted March 15, 2021 (edited) Tetris 2 is done. This was a tedious, all-day affair. Not much of a learning curve, as Level 80 wasn't really any harder than Level 30. Just try after try after try in a game where one mistake can bring up the Game Over screen. Good thing it gives you unlimited continues! Pro tip: Select Music Off when you start the game and find something else to listen to on YouTube. I like the game's music, but I don't want to listen to the same track for 10 hours straight. Also, by my math I am now exactly 50 points away from reaching 5000 in my lifetime on this competition. Neat. EDIT: Fixed a small error in the first paragraph. The game definitely has infinite continues, but I wasn't thinking clearly at 12:30 in the morning. Edited March 15, 2021 by nerdynebraskan 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Khromak | 837 Posted March 17, 2021 Share Posted March 17, 2021 It's been a while since I posted about BL2, mostly because I got sucked up into playing a few Switch games and haven't been playing much NES. Just went back and took another crack at it...not gonna happen. After a few attempts I was able to win my first game (2-0) and I think I more-or-less have the pitching and fielding down. That said, I just cannot understand how to bat. I swing at all kinds of crappy pitches, can't figure out the batting high, low, or center, etc. It just seems like way too many things to figure out in too short of a window. There are pitches which seem, to me, to be between the middle and high swings, and even when I do manage to hit the ball, there's a very very real chance that it will be a pop fly and they'll catch it no problem, or it will have no momentum and be fielded easily by the pitcher, shortstop, etc. I think I could win a game here or there, but I'm not enjoying it at all and not going to put myself through 81 more games of that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crabmaster2000 | 532 Posted March 18, 2021 Share Posted March 18, 2021 @Khromaknone of the BL games are fun even when you figure them out. Just a slog. Don't blame you, but thanks for the effort trying it out. My laptop seems unable to capture play for more than an hour at a time now so it seems I'm stalled out until I can purchase a new machine. Hoping to do that very soon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nerdynebraskan | 356 Posted March 18, 2021 Share Posted March 18, 2021 @Khromak I don't blame ya. I've played a lot of NES baseball, but I've never enjoyed the Bases Loaded series. Will you be picking up anything else anytime soon? And speaking of baseball, I'm making good progress on Roger Clemens MVP Baseball. I think I have 12 games left in the regular season, so I'm within 4-5 hours of the playoffs there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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