RFGen 2019 NES Challenge

[Crabmaster2000]

Wow, that another huge update today you guys! The month is officially half over and we are only 7 games away from the community goal!! Don't let up though keep completing as many as you can past 100!

@Fokakis79 - I've always heard good things about Faxanadu, but have yet to try it out myself. And I totally agree on Jeckyll & Hyde. It's one of those games that Angry Video Game Nerd did and people don't seem to realize that he's over exaggerating everything. Yeah it's not great, but there are far worse games on the system. It has some neat ideas, but they are executed poorly. You're absolutely right that it's just kind of boring in the end.

@shaggy - thanks for fighting all of those phantoms for us!!

@Disposed Hero - We've had pretty similar taste in games so far, but this is where we depart it seems......Rollergames is awesome!! What's not to love about a beat em up on roller blades? And the semi racing on the streets kind of levels were really great I thought. I don't remember the difficulty being too much either.

@Normatron - Sweet pick! I love Gyruss, such a neat shooter.

@shane - so you gonna take some time off the drive your new Porchse to the beach so that you can listen to your pumping new stereo while you develop a tan line from wearing your diamond necklace on your speedboat?

After far too many hours invested I finally finished Athena tonight. It is easily among the worst games I've played on any system in my life. Super bad hit detection, lots of areas that you can get trapped in waiting for a time out, special equipment required to finish certain areas that are not accessible in that area (so if you die once and lose it you have to restart), tons of areas that require you to break blocks and just as many ways that you can lose your block breaking item and be stuck until a time out, several occasional deaths for no apparent reason, sometimes items don't spawn for no apparent reason, music is just awful, fell through or jumped above the level on several occasions causing death, many enemies and bosses give no indication you are iterating with them when you hit them, spent an equal amount of time playing the game as I did waiting for items I didn't want to pick up to disappear so I could continue progressing. And to top it all off I wasn't even sure the ending was the ending. It just shows you standing outside of a castle with the same music running you've heard already and you can pause it, but can't walk. I feared my game had glitched or something so I kept it running while I looked it up to make sure. I can usually find some value in any game regardless of how bad, but that's a pretty tough thing to do with Athena. You do feel pretty badass when you have all the gold armor and flaming giant sword and can fly though.

I though it was gonna be a quick finish, but it ended up eating several days of game time from me. Gonna do a for real quick completion or two to cleanse my palate and then start working on Wizardry Knight of Diamonds which should take a bit of time as well.

[img width=640 height=474]https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4914/39786576093_2c712093c6_z.jpg[/img]

EDIT: All claims and completions updated

[Disposed Hero]

@Disposed Hero - We've had pretty similar taste in games so far, but this is where we depart it seems......Rollergames is awesome!! What's not to love about a beat em up on roller blades? And the semi racing on the streets kind of levels were really great I thought. I don't remember the difficulty being too much either.

It wasn't the street levels that really bothered me, it was all the platforming in the other levels, beginning with the sewer stage (3-2). The movement is already a little awkward since you're on rollerblades, and doing a ton of precision platforming where small mistakes can instantly kill you, sending you back to the beginning of the stage since there are no checkpoints, got really old really fast. It's probably the most frustrated I've been with a game in a long time, and I recently finished freaking Ninja Gaiden! I also found the beat 'em up mechanics to be underwhelming compared to games like Double Dragon and TMNT II.

Maybe it was a little harsh to say it sucks (I had literally just finished the game and was still fuming), but it's easily my least favorite game I've played for this challenge yet by a large margin. As I said in my last post, I was actually enjoying it for the first couple of levels, but then the trial-and-error platforming killed it for me.

[shane]

@shane - so you gonna take some time off the drive your new Porchse to the beach so that you can listen to your pumping new stereo while you develop a tan line from wearing your diamond necklace on your speedboat?

[img width=420 height=315]https://media.giphy.com/media/dOJt6XZlQw8qQ/giphy.gif[/img]

I think I'm going to play White Lion, I mean Ghost Lion next. I haven't played through a traditional RPG on the NES before, and I used to own a copy of this when I got paid for a web dev job in video games.

[EZ Racer]

Finished chapter 4 of Dragon Warrior IV last night and have made good progress into chapter 5. I'll comment much more after completion, but I gotta say the hype is legit, it's a fantastic RPG, especially considering it's age.

[Disposed Hero]

Vice: Project Doom done.

[img width=700 height=525]https://i.imgur.com/ejXYabT.jpg[/img]

I'm not gonna lie, I was glad when Ikariniku relinquished this game since it gave me an excuse to finally play it. It's another great underappreciated gem.

[Ikariniku]

Well done, Disposed.  I relinquished it because I remembered you said you wanted to play it, and I wasn't getting anywhere with it.  This is about playing games, not being greedy and stubborn.

[Fokakis79]

If anyone wants to try and take on Days of Thunder be my guest. I don't have it claimed but I have mentioned I was playing it. I don't understand how this game works at all. Crabbie did warn me but I had no idea this is what it would be like.

Meanwhile I have been messing around with Black Bass. Didn't realize how long this game was. Its pretty fun and was published by the same company that did Blue Marlin. I kinda wish it was developed by the same company just because how the fish fights in Blue Marlin were more cinematic and exciting. Reeling in fish on Black Bass is a little less exciting to look at. Still pretty fun, and I learn something new and get a lot better the more I play. It has a learning curve to it but you actually feel yourself getting better instead of just feeling like you are endlessly struggling. Reading the manual on this one is very important.

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[Crabmaster2000]

Ikariniku has been avenged!!! Good job team!

I was in an arcade-y mode today so I brought Dig Dug II and Pac Man to play. Couldn't quite seal the deal on Pac Man, but did make it to the final stage needed to beat it 3 separate times so I'm close. Dig Dug II is a terrible sequel to a decent game. Bad controls, bad level design and annoying enemy AI and placement. Also there are a few levels with so many characters that they can't all appear on screen at once so you start the round with literal invisible enemies which is ridiculous.

Here's a snap from the cinematic you get after the final stage before it loops:

[img width=640 height=468]https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7921/46039177254_b90927bda6_z.jpg[/img]

And where were the Nintendo censors on this stage!!

[img width=640 height=477]https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4847/46711372422_8991161bb2_z.jpg[/img]

[Crabmaster2000]

Had enough time for 2 more attempts at Pac Man and was able to sneak out a win on my last attempt! Here's a pic of my death after beating the blue key stage

[img width=640 height=476]https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7801/45849453105_9d13f3a3a4_z.jpg[/img]

[Duke.Togo]

And where were the Nintendo censors on this stage!!

[img width=640 height=477]https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4847/46711372422_8991161bb2_z.jpg[/img]

A manji is not a swastika.
[img width=615 height=469]https://cdn.hobbyconsolas.com/sites/navi.axelspringer.es/public/media/image/2014/03/289558-club-chistendo-te-orinas-conspiracion.png[/img]

[Fokakis79]

Adventures of Tom Sawyer is in the bag. Pretty short mostly enjoyable game. The music is incredibly repetitive and gets grating after awhile. Not a difficult game really. Stage 5 is probably the one I had the most trouble on.[img width=700 height=525]https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20190117/c19c4a1d8f5072baaa2dc7cb3f8a2ca9.jpg[/img]

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[shane]

Legend of the Ghost Lion done. It was a reminder of why I don't like RPGs. The white lion fight is constantly re-summoning characters to act as damage sponges, all the while hoping you can get one hit in every three or four rounds.

[img width=700 height=444]https://i.imgur.com/biNVPIR.png[/img]

[Crabmaster2000]

We have officially completed the community goal for January of 100 games beaten with 14 days to spare!! Everyone deserves a big crisp high five. It's been so great to see so many of you guys digging into the NES library with me and sharing your experiences. Don't start slacking now though we still have A LOT of games left to play!

@Fokakis79 - Interesting. I've have yet to play Tom Sawyer. Sounds like it's a least worth a try. How long did it take you to complete?

@shane - please don't let Ghost Lion be your barometer for good RPGs :p

I had a busy night too! Knock 4 games of the list today! Danny Sullivan's Indy Heat, Wacky Races, Bigfoot and Raid on Bungeling Bay. If you like top down racers Indy Heat wasn't too bad. The single player is quite easy, but I imagine the multiplayer to actually be a lot of fun.

Wacky Races surprised me as it had no actual racing AND you play as the bad guys. It's a very mediocre and forgettable platformer, but it did use a power up system similar to Gradius which was kind of a neat idea. It's was a very easy win.

Bigfoot was the most interesting game I played tonight. Monster Truck races and events like Car Crushes, Hill Climbs, Mud Races and Tractor Pulls. Took me a while to get a hang of the side scrolling parts since you accelerate by alternating between left and right on the d-pad. Once you get that down you also have to pay attention to your shifting and boosting. Was more complicated than I've seen in any other racer on the NES so far. In addition to all that stuff you're constantly destroying and paying to repair your vehicle parts. It seems really hard at first, but you can kind of cheese the AI so that they run out of money and can't afford to repair their vehicle. Once you've done that you can dominate in most events since your truck has max stats and they are just struggling to afford to stay in the game and can't upgrade their vehicle at all. It wasn't an amazing game, and it had terrible music, but it had some really cool ideas in it.

And last was Raid on Bungeling Bay which was a super boring helicopter shooter. You start on an aircraft carrier which you have to defend during your bombing runs in which you destroy enemy factories. Not my jam, luckily there isn't a campaign or anything and you just have to beat a mission on each mode.

Indy Heat:
[img width=640 height=471]https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7832/39810557703_2b1cac7e9f_z.jpg[/img]

Wacky Races:
[img width=640 height=474]https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4865/46723130812_a96b2a6681_z.jpg[/img]

Bigfoot:
[img width=640 height=476]https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4873/32900187328_3cb3408bdc_z.jpg[/img]

Raid on Bungeling Bay:
[img width=640 height=475]https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4883/32900186558_ac32ab6776_z.jpg[/img]

EDIT:All claims and completions updated

[Crabmaster2000]

Also had time to sneak out a Ms. Pac Man win! Been playing a lot of Pac Man Championship II lately so I was craving a bit more.

[img width=640 height=476]https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7869/46776761541_7f92165443_z.jpg[/img]

[Fokakis79]

Way to go everyone on the great achievement this month! Glad so many people could put in the time and participate!

@Crabby,  Not that long really, I think a little  under a couple hours but probably can be finished in much much less time than that. You have infinite continues so it really is easy to make it through the game. All of the bosses are pretty easy and didn't die on a single one. Also Bigfoot sounds awesome. It makes me think of the Monster Truck commercials that used to come on TV.

@Shane, The box art alone makes me want to play Ghost Lion. I am curious what makes it a bad rpg.

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