NES-a-day challenge

[fusoya]

I grew up playing the Nintendo Entertainment System. You could easily say I was obsessed with it between 1987 and 1992. I was a Nintendo Power subscriber from day 1, I even watched all the crummy 80s Nintendo TV shows (a couple episodes of the Video Power gameshow have recently been uploaded to youtube), and even my username comes from a SNES game (well, close enough...). I never really grew out of this age of gaming, but there are still A LOT of games I never completed for the NES. Two things about this system - there were A LOT of games, and many of them can be completed in under an hour. The majority of games on the NES were designed (and pretty much demanded, due to lack of storage batteries on most games, and about half of them lacking passwords too) to be completed in one sitting, even though usually not on the first try. This is why I came up with a challenge for myself - once a day, pick out a NES game which I never beat, and BEAT it.

Now, obviously, this is not going to happen with every single game. Some of them ARE actually pretty long (Dragon Warrior 4, for example, requires at least 20 hours of gameplay) and require too much exploring for somebody new to the game to fly right through it. This is why I am starting out easy - my first two selections were auto-scrolling shooters, which aside from the boss battles and having to backtrack from deaths, are beaten in the exact same amount of time every time. As far as rules I set out for myself - since I am going to be playing these through emulation, I will allow the use of realtime save states (my goal is to beat a bunch of games FAST, not to train on every individual game by playing stages over and over until I perfect them), but I will NOT use any secret passwords or codes (both built into the game and with game genie) to help me (so when it's Contra's day, I'm gonna beat it with 3 lives, not 30). I am also going to use FAQs and manuals as a last resort - I will go look up information only when I am too frustrated to continue on without help. I'm also not going to beat myself up to stay on a daily schedule. Often times I am too busy to find the time to play through an entire game every day, or I might do multiple games a day on a slow day, but the main goal is to finish a new game the same day I started it, and try to keep to a 1 game/day pace.

I could have gone ahead and kept a log at GameFAQs, but as many of you are aware, that's a message board with the average maturity level of a squirrel, and I know there are plenty of other dopers here who have the same level of NES nostalgia as I do, who may want to either participate in the challenge along side me, or at least follow along with it.

Once I finish a game, I will post a recap here, and will take suggestions for the next game to play. I'm not sure whether or not I should spoil box the recaps, since I don't want to ruin the games for those joining in the challenge, but it's going to involve a lot of highlighting.


5/23/07
Silkworm, developed by Tecmo, released 1988. Completion time: ~45 minutes

This was a port of an arcade game which I also have never played. Like most shooters, there's very little actual story to it. A bunch of military machines/robots have gone haywire and are rebeling against the US Military, and you need to stop them. The unique thing about this game is that you can choose between using a helicopter, which can move all over the screen but can only fire to the right (or 45° down if you press A to tilt it forward), or a jeep, which is limited to the ground but has an gun which is aimable in any direction. If playing two player, each player gets to use one of the vehicles, which I'm sure makes a very fun two player cooperative experience. I used the helicopter. The graphics are nothing special, and it's the same song for the first 6 stages (but still a catchy tune). At first, the challenge level is pretty low, but by about the halfway point, it gets HARD. I actually was amazed how many moveable objects, all of which were trying to kill me, were on the screen at once, without the typical NES slowdown! When you die, you pick up right where you leave off, so getting hit isn't a big deal as long as you don't run out of lives. The game ran longer than I expected it to, and started to get pretty repetitive (it's one of these games where bosses return, but with a different color, which means twice as many hits to destroy them), but there was still a nice challenge which kept me from getting bored. Someday, I would really like to try two player mode in this game...maybe down the road I will try beating it with the jeep too. The ending was actually pretty nice for an NES game, with full screen graphics of the characters (who you've yet to see until this point) celebrating.

5/24/07
Abadox, developed by Natsume, released 1990. Completion time: 30 minutes
First up, I HAVE played this game before. One of my friends had it back when I was around 10 years old, and I never got very far. I did watch him beat the game, but he was using codes up the wazoo, so I've yet to see a "clean" completion of it. This game reminds me of the game Life Force (the sequel to Gradius), both in the gameplay style, and the setting. Again, it's short on actual story, but you're this guy in a flying spacesuit, who adventures through an alien's body destroying smaller aliens within it. Like Life Force, the graphics of the stage are representative of being inside an alien's body, and like Life Force/Gradius, it auto scrolls (one very unique thing is that some stages are overhead and scroll down, which I've never seen in an NES game before - even though other games have stages that scroll up) and you can upgrade your weapon and shields by defeating certain enemies. Yet another similarity to Gradius is that once you're all powered up with great weapons and shields, and manage to die, you start your next life with the same puny cap gun as the beginning of the game, which makes it extremely hard to get your arsenal built back up, and if you die fighting a boss, you have to take it on without ANY power ups. This is one of the reasons why I am allowing myself to use save states. There are a couple different tunes in this game, none of which are very memorable, but neither were they annoying to listen to. Once you defeat the final boss, there is an escape stage which has no enemies, but it rapidly increases in speed and you need to maneuver around walls to avoid crashing and dying (yes, another similarity to the Gradius games). The ending consists only of a full credits role, along with a screenshot of a space station, whose link to the game confused me.


Alright. What game is up next, and who is with me?

[percussion]

Originally Posted by fusoya

I grew up playing the Nintendo Entertainment System. You could easily say I was obsessed with it between 1987 and 1992. I was a Nintendo Power subscriber from day 1, I even watched all the crummy 80s Nintendo TV shows (a couple episodes of the Video Power gameshow have recently been uploaded to youtube), and even my username comes from a SNES game (well, close enough...). I never really grew out of this age of gaming, but there are still A LOT of games I never completed for the NES. Two things about this system - there were A LOT of games, and many of them can be completed in under an hour. The majority of games on the NES were designed (and pretty much demanded, due to lack of storage batteries on most games, and about half of them lacking passwords too) to be completed in one sitting, even though usually not on the first try. This is why I came up with a challenge for myself - once a day, pick out a NES game which I never beat, and BEAT it.

Now, obviously, this is not going to happen with every single game. Some of them ARE actually pretty long (Dragon Warrior 4, for example, requires at least 20 hours of gameplay) and require too much exploring for somebody new to the game to fly right through it. This is why I am starting out easy - my first two selections were auto-scrolling shooters, which aside from the boss battles and having to backtrack from deaths, are beaten in the exact same amount of time every time. As far as rules I set out for myself - since I am going to be playing these through emulation, I will allow the use of realtime save states (my goal is to beat a bunch of games FAST, not to train on every individual game by playing stages over and over until I perfect them), but I will NOT use any secret passwords or codes (both built into the game and with game genie) to help me (so when it's Contra's day, I'm gonna beat it with 3 lives, not 30). I am also going to use FAQs and manuals as a last resort - I will go look up information only when I am too frustrated to continue on without help. I'm also not going to beat myself up to stay on a daily schedule. Often times I am too busy to find the time to play through an entire game every day, or I might do multiple games a day on a slow day, but the main goal is to finish a new game the same day I started it, and try to keep to a 1 game/day pace.

I could have gone ahead and kept a log at GameFAQs, but as many of you are aware, that's a message board with the average maturity level of a squirrel, and I know there are plenty of other dopers here who have the same level of NES nostalgia as I do, who may want to either participate in the challenge along side me, or at least follow along with it.

Once I finish a game, I will post a recap here, and will take suggestions for the next game to play. I'm not sure whether or not I should spoil box the recaps, since I don't want to ruin the games for those joining in the challenge, but it's going to involve a lot of highlighting.


5/23/07
Silkworm, developed by Tecmo, released 1988. Completion time: ~45 minutes

This was a port of an arcade game which I also have never played. Like most shooters, there's very little actual story to it. A bunch of military machines/robots have gone haywire and are rebeling against the US Military, and you need to stop them. The unique thing about this game is that you can choose between using a helicopter, which can move all over the screen but can only fire to the right (or 45° down if you press A to tilt it forward), or a jeep, which is limited to the ground but has an gun which is aimable in any direction. If playing two player, each player gets to use one of the vehicles, which I'm sure makes a very fun two player cooperative experience. I used the helicopter. The graphics are nothing special, and it's the same song for the first 6 stages (but still a catchy tune). At first, the challenge level is pretty low, but by about the halfway point, it gets HARD. I actually was amazed how many moveable objects, all of which were trying to kill me, were on the screen at once, without the typical NES slowdown! When you die, you pick up right where you leave off, so getting hit isn't a big deal as long as you don't run out of lives. The game ran longer than I expected it to, and started to get pretty repetitive (it's one of these games where bosses return, but with a different color, which means twice as many hits to destroy them), but there was still a nice challenge which kept me from getting bored. Someday, I would really like to try two player mode in this game...maybe down the road I will try beating it with the jeep too. The ending was actually pretty nice for an NES game, with full screen graphics of the characters (who you've yet to see until this point) celebrating.

5/24/07
Abadox, developed by Natsume, released 1990. Completion time: 30 minutes
First up, I HAVE played this game before. One of my friends had it back when I was around 10 years old, and I never got very far. I did watch him beat the game, but he was using codes up the wazoo, so I've yet to see a "clean" completion of it. This game reminds me of the game Life Force (the sequel to Gradius), both in the gameplay style, and the setting. Again, it's short on actual story, but you're this guy in a flying spacesuit, who adventures through an alien's body destroying smaller aliens within it. Like Life Force, the graphics of the stage are representative of being inside an alien's body, and like Life Force/Gradius, it auto scrolls (one very unique thing is that some stages are overhead and scroll down, which I've never seen in an NES game before - even though other games have stages that scroll up) and you can upgrade your weapon and shields by defeating certain enemies. Yet another similarity to Gradius is that once you're all powered up with great weapons and shields, and manage to die, you start your next life with the same puny cap gun as the beginning of the game, which makes it extremely hard to get your arsenal built back up, and if you die fighting a boss, you have to take it on without ANY power ups. This is one of the reasons why I am allowing myself to use save states. There are a couple different tunes in this game, none of which are very memorable, but neither were they annoying to listen to. Once you defeat the final boss, there is an escape stage which has no enemies, but it rapidly increases in speed and you need to maneuver around walls to avoid crashing and dying (yes, another similarity to the Gradius games). The ending consists only of a full credits role, along with a screenshot of a space station, whose link to the game confused me.


Alright. What game is up next, and who is with me?

ok..im in...theres no way ill be able to keep up but i will give it my best! let me know whats next

[bouv]

Blaster Master

Good. Fucking. Luck.

[fusoya]

ok, I'm game :P

I actually HAVE beaten Blaster Master before (I owned the actual cartridge since Christmas of 1989) but it's been a while, so the game deserves another play-through. Note to anybody joining this challenge that although Blaster Master is one of those games that has to be beaten in one sitting, it is a very long game, and is not completely linear. And the lobster boss is a bitch.

[Least Original User Name Ever]

That lobster boss is a motherfucker. Use grenades liberally.

I've got three of them for you. Code Name: Viper, Kabuki Quantum Fighter, and one of the best games to ever grace the NES, River City Ransom

[LilShieste]

Originally Posted by Least Original User Name Ever

That lobster boss is a motherfucker. Use grenades liberally.

I beat that game back in the day (only once), and would you believe that that is the only boss that sticks out in my head? What a PITA!


LilShieste

[fiddlesticks]

Guardian Legend was my Moby Dick. You have to spend lots of time walking around collecting power ups in that game, I'd be very curious to see if it could be done in 20 hours. At least you won't have to keep track of the ultra-annoying 32 character passwords...

[Gundam_Cricket]

My buddy owns a LAN center and I've been trying to convince him to scratch-build an arcade cabinet and load it up with old school NES games; he's not convinced the effort will be rewarded with people wanting to play past its initial novelty.

Some nominees from my childhood:
3-D Worldrunner
Bionic Commando
Wrecking Crew (incredibly fun puzzle game, try it if you never have before!)
Dragon Spirit
Mickey Mousecapades
CastleQuest

Man... makes me want to start a general NES nostalgia thread!

[storyteller0910]

Originally Posted by Gundam_Cricket

Some nominees from my childhood:
3-D Worldrunner

True story. My dad bought me this game for my birthday when I was 11 or 12 or so. I opened it and put it in. He and I played, alternating stages, for about an hour. My stepmother hung out and watched. Suddenly, in the middle of a stage, all three of us developed massive motion sickness and threw up, more or less in rapid succession.

That game is evil.

[recessiveMeme]

If you ever get the best of The Adventures of Bayou Billy or Karnov, please, return and say as much. I just want to bask in your reflected glory.

[Doctor Who]

That's hilarious, storyteller. As for me, I'll throw in Dusty Diamond All-Star Softball. Not a tough game for me, but I've logged somewhere around 4200 hours and I know all the players' relative strengths and weaknesses. I'm guessing it will be tough to beat in a day going in fresh.

[ultrafilter]

I never made it past that damn lobster boss until I got an emulator.

I'd been toying around with an idea for a thread for a while, and was finally motivated to post it after seeing this thread. Check it out.

[Push You Down]

Originally Posted by recessiveMeme

If you ever get the best of The Adventures of Bayou Billy or Karnov, please, return and say as much. I just want to bask in your reflected glory.

Bask in my half-Glory. Karnov was one of my favorite games as a kid. Once I beat it the first time. Each successive time was a breeze.

[recessiveMeme]

Originally Posted by Push You Down

Bask in my half-Glory. Karnov was one of my favorite games as a kid. Once I beat it the first time. Each successive time was a breeze.

:: reverence ::

[Least Original User Name Ever]

I've beaten Bayou Billy, as well. Can I get a shot of reverence in this place or what?

[FlyingCowOfDoom]

How about A Boy and his Blob?



--FCOD

[Hal Briston]

Just in case anyone wants to join fusoya in his attempt.

[recessiveMeme]

Originally Posted by Least Original User Name Ever

I've beaten Bayou Billy, as well. Can I get a shot of reverence in this place or what?

Actually all the revering I directed at Push You Down has left me a bit tuckered. Would you settle for a vague expression of approval?

:: nods amiably ::

[Blaster Master]

Originally Posted by bouv

Blaster Master

Good. Fucking. Luck.

Hey, why do I need good luck?

[fusoya]

5/25/07
Blaster Master, developed by Sunsoft, released November 1988, Completion time: 2 hours, 54 minutes

I'll say it again. If you are not familiar with this game, best to skip this one in the NES-a-day challenge for now. It's long, and it's evil. Why they didn't add a password option to this game is beyond me. Those who do, I highly suggest you use save states, even as just a backup, because there are a number of places in the game where you can get your tank stuck, and your only option if you aren't able to die is to reset....It IS one of the greatest NES games ever though. A kid named Jason follows his pet frog down a hole in his backyard (which for some reason just so happens to have nuclear waste laying around in it), sees it mutate into a giant, and then hop away. But there's also this tank, named Sophia, as well as a suit of futuristic armor, which Jason dons and drives away in. Yes, there was actually a novelization to this game, which I read back in the late 80s. Anyway, two modes to the game - driving around in the tank and shooting stuff (in a side scrolling mode in all 4 directions), and then getting out of the tank and going into buildings and shooting stuff, in a top down mode, a la Zelda and Startropics. Each time you defeat a boss, you get an upgrade to your tank, which just so happens to be just what you need to reach the next area. And somewhat similar to Metroid, you don't just move on to the next area, you have to FIND it (I lost about 20 minutes trying to remember where area 3 was...thank god I remembered where area 4 is)

SPOILER:

you have to go back to the exact place where you start the game, and then use the hover ability to go up.

While I have the spoiler box open, let me also comment that the final boss (the guy with the whip) is one of the easiest bosses in this game - stand on the very lower right of the screen and shoot grenades up, and he'll be unable to hurt you at all! And also, the ending rips off Castlevania's completely. For all you Engrish fans, the final screen says "very thanks!"

Since none of the stages are linear, there is a lot of exploring and random killing you can do, which keeps the game from getting boring. There are also sub-weapons which you can find. This game has pretty bright graphics, and each area is a completely differently themed zone (castle, futuristic, ice, etc). It also has one of the best soundtracks ever to come out of an 8-Bit system. Aside from a couple of bosses (believe it or not, I actually had more trouble with the first frog boss than the lobster!), the game never gets TOO difficult, but you have to keep your eyes open to avoid getting trapped and stomped to death. My biggest complaint is that once you get some of the tank upgrades, the play control gets very difficult, because it'll want to use the upgrades when all I want to do is jump.

Blaster Master is a game that's been in my collection for nearly 20 years, and it should be in every casual or die-hard 8 Bit fan's too. Just make sure you set aside at least 3 hours if you want to beat it!

Okay, Code Name Viper up for Saturday, Kabuki Quantum Fighter for Sunday, and River City Ransom for Monday. I've never really played the first two, and RCR is definitely beatable in one sitting, despite having extremely long passwords and a role-playing-based experience system.

[fusoya]

okay, to respond to everyone at once and keep this plan going...


The Guardian Legend I always see on Top XX NES Game lists, and I've never played it beyond the first stage. I do want to get to it, but it doesn't sound like it fits the criteria of this challenge (often if a game has a password, they don't expect you to beat it in one sitting...then again, Mega Man 2 had passwords and I can beat it in a half hour). One thing I remember reading in Nintendo Power is that there's a special password TGL (the initials for the game).

3-D Worldrunner, Dragon Spirit, Mickey Mousecapades, CastleQuest will go on the list. Worldrunner was one of the first games made by a little company called Squaresoft, who went on to do the Final Fantasy series.

Can Wrecking Crew actually be beaten?

I've heard scary, scary things about Bayou Billy. That was the game that even Captain N couldn't beat...I've personally never gotten past the first level. Maybe that can be next Friday's challenge. Karnov one the first Third Party game I got for the NES, and I've beaten it multiple times. One of the least satisfying endings ever. Definitely beatable in one sitting, as long as you know your way around.

A Boy & His Blob is a GREAT game for screwing around in, but can actually be beaten in about 5 minutes, due to a glitch that kills all of the enemies on the Blob's planet at once. I'll explain further when its turn is up.

Bionic Commando I actually beat about a month ago, so I'm not gonna do that one again (like Blaster Master, the game is way too long for casual gamers to beat in one sitting, but that's what you have to do!)...and yes, everything you've heard about that game is true, down to Hitler being the final boss.


so.....anyone else beat Silkworm yet?

[Gundam_Cricket]

Originally Posted by fusoya

Can Wrecking Crew actually be beaten?

I think so... in a manner of speaking. I think that once you get through all 99 levels you restart at level 1. If that's the case I'd consider beating the 99th level akin to beating the game. To be fair, I have no idea how long that would take, though.

What about Ducktales? I loooooved both the game and that show as a kid.

Blathering blatherskite!

[Snarky_Kong]

Ninja Gaiden, or is that just evil?

[fusoya]

Yeah, games where the object of winning is getting a maximum score, or getting the levels to reset back to the beginning without a real accomplishment (Tiger-Heli is an example, except the game never TELLS you that it's back to the beginning, so until you start recognizing patterns in the enemies, you wouldn't even know you "Beat" it), are exempt from this challenge. There's no fun in beating a game that doesn't even have an ending!

also, I'd say that most NES sports games are exempt for this challenge. They either fall into the category of being unbeatable, as far as a clear cut ending is concerned, or requiring you to play a whole season or at least a playoff series, which would get old really fast. Games like Super Dodge Ball, which is really on the line between action and sports, which actually have a quest mode meant to be beaten in one sitting, are still in.

Ducktales is a great game, even if it can be beaten in under 15 minutes. Great show too. As mentioned in another thread on here last week, they just don't have shows like Ducktales anymore...

[Gundam_Cricket]

Originally Posted by fusoya

Yeah, games where the object of winning is getting a maximum score, or getting the levels to reset back to the beginning without a real accomplishment (Tiger-Heli is an example, except the game never TELLS you that it's back to the beginning, so until you start recognizing patterns in the enemies, you wouldn't even know you "Beat" it), are exempt from this challenge. There's no fun in beating a game that doesn't even have an ending!

Fair enough!

also, I'd say that most NES sports games are exempt for this challenge. They either fall into the category of being unbeatable, as far as a clear cut ending is concerned, or requiring you to play a whole season or at least a playoff series, which would get old really fast. Games like Super Dodge Ball, which is really on the line between action and sports, which actually have a quest mode meant to be beaten in one sitting, are still in.

man, I love Super Dodge Ball, but as a kid I could never find people to play my NES with me. I wanted nothing more than to play Bean Ball with a friend

[recessiveMeme]

Regarding Bayou Billy...

Originally Posted by fuyosa

I've personally never gotten past the first level.

I know exactly what that's like...

Originally Posted by Snarky Kong

Ninja Gaiden, or is that just evil?

It isn't so bad really-- all a matter of memorizing the the precise location from which something will fly at you from off-screen at any given moment and noting the blindspots in the patterns of any number of obnoxious boss monsters. Plus, Irene is hot in a weird 80s kind of way.

This topic is kind of funny really in that a friend of mine has recently been battling the demons of his youth via the Wii's Virtual Console. He just did Ninja Gaiden last week and the original Castlevania the week before that. Too bad, too. I've enjoyed ribbing him about his defeat at the three obnoxiously** placed fireballs of Dracula for a while now.

**You have to jump at just the right time, dontchaknow?

[Shagnasty]

Tecmo Bowl is one of the finest games ever to grace us by its presence. I nominate it.

[iamthewalrus(:3=]

Originally Posted by FlyingCowOfDoom

How about A Boy and his Blob?

This SomethingAwful article is fantastic, if for no other reason that this section, which so perfectly captures the absurdity of the game.

At some points you will have to turn your blob into a ladder. To do this, you first feed him every type of jellybean you have until you find the one that made him turn into a ladder.

I remember renting this game when I was 10 or so, and being completely mystified. I managed to get exactly as far as the guy writing the review did: namely, I made a whole in the floor and fell to my death.

I have beaten Blaster Master exactly once, in college, and it was the cause of much celebration. I did it the old fashioned way. No screenshot saves for me.

[Chronos]

(believe it or not, I actually had more trouble with the first frog boss than the lobster!)

I completely believe it... I had way more trouble with the two frog bosses than with the two lobster bosses. The dirty little secret of the lobster bosses is that even though they're vulnerable to the grenade-pause trick, you have to get up close to do that, and it's really, really hard to get the timing right. It's far easier, even for the second one that throws rocks at you, to stay way back at the bottom of the screen, and just use your gun and be patient. By contrast, the only way I've ever beaten the second frog boss is via grenade-pause (it's still just as hard as with the lobsters, but the conventional way is even harder).

And I absolutely do not believe a three-hour speed run for Blaster Master. The only times I've ever beaten it have been on an emulator, and even discarding all of the dead-end saves, it's still taken more like 20.

[Doctor Who]

Originally Posted by iamthewalrus(:3=

This SomethingAwful article is fantastic, if for no other reason that this section, which so perfectly captures the absurdity of the game.

Your link is misdirected. Is it this one?

[Jeep's Phoenix]

I think I really missed something about A Boy and His Blob.

SPOILER:

The game made such a big deal about finding treasure so you could buy vitamins to beat the bad guy on Blob's planet...yet all you had to do was feed Blob the correct jellybean, and he would turn into a jack, knocking over a shelf full of vitamins in the bad guy's lair. WTF! Why was the bad guy keeping vitamins if they're bad for him?!

[ultrafilter]

Originally Posted by Chronos

I completely believe it... I had way more trouble with the two frog bosses than with the two lobster bosses. The dirty little secret of the lobster bosses is that even though they're vulnerable to the grenade-pause trick, you have to get up close to do that, and it's really, really hard to get the timing right. It's far easier, even for the second one that throws rocks at you, to stay way back at the bottom of the screen, and just use your gun and be patient. By contrast, the only way I've ever beaten the second frog boss is via grenade-pause (it's still just as hard as with the lobsters, but the conventional way is even harder).

No, no, no, you're thinking of the crab bosses. The lobster boss is the guy at the end of the underwater area who lobs bubble after bubble after fucking bubble at you.

And I absolutely do not believe a three-hour speed run for Blaster Master. The only times I've ever beaten it have been on an emulator, and even discarding all of the dead-end saves, it's still taken more like 20.

It's reasonable if you know where everything is.

[brendon_small]

Originally Posted by fusoya

Ducktales is a great game, even if it can be beaten in under 15 minutes. Great show too. As mentioned in another thread on here last week, they just don't have shows like Ducktales anymore...

I came in to suggest this game. I got an FC Twin from ebay. It's the new system that runs the 8 and 16 bit Nintendo games. I love it. For my birthday last night, after cooking out and such, a few friends of mine came over to play Nintendo. We played Ducktales for hours...

Also, Bubble Bobble was wonderful - but damn it gets old after 10 minutes now. My suggestions for the challenge, Jurassic Park. I played this once as a kid and never rented it again. Now that I'm older, I play it for hours and hours and still haven't beat it (basically lack of trying)...

Brendon Small

[Happy Scrappy Hero Pup]

Regarding the Bayou Billy Wikipedia entry:

Archie Comics published a comic book series called "The Adventures of Bayou Billy". It used some characters from the game and added some new characters. Billy was made a widower, and his girlfriend's name was changed from Annabelle Lane to Annabel Lee. The series does not fit into the game's continuity or backstory and is considered an alternate universe. It ran for 5 issues.

What the FUCK?

You find me ONE person who has ever debated or needed clarification on the continuity of BAYOU fucking BILLY and I will buy you a double lobster-boss dinner in honor of Blaster Master.


Oh, and i would like to nominate Chubby Cherub. Fantastic side-scroller that was much better while drunk.

Or, in the classic "Congratulation!" vein, I'd offer 1942.

[fusoya]

okay, about Blaster Master. First of all, the lobster is the boss of world 5 (the underwater world). There is only ONE lobster boss, and the grenade trick doesn't work on him (if it did, I would have beaten Blaster Master about 8 years sooner). I'm not sure exactly WHAT that thing is....it looks like a venus fly trap with two long arms....certainly doesn't look like a lobster....but the boss of worlds 2 and 6 is the one the grenade trick works on.

Chronos - do you mean 20 hours or minutes? The record for beating Blaster Master is 33 minutes, 17 seconds (and yes, like all videos on that site, it was accomplished by playing through the game one frame at a time, and rewinding if it doesn't go exactly as planned). I don't know why you'd think 3 hours would be unreasonable...I probably would have cracked 3 hours if I remembered my way through the game and didn't have so much trouble with the frog bosses....finding your way through the game doesn't take THAT much time. It's non-linear, but the dead ends are pretty short.

Shagnasty - how exactly am I supposed to beat Tecmo Bowl? I love the game too, but if it just involves football game after football game, I'm gonna pass.

alright, I'm heading out for the weekend (coincidentally, I'm going to a lobster feast tomorrow night, and I will eat in honor of Jason and Sophia), so I'm gonna load up my GBA's flashcart with all of the games mentioned, and be back with recaps on Monday night. Good luck to everyone else taking the challenge - we'd love to hear your thoughts, especially on new games you've played through!

[Chronos]

OK, I assumed that people meant the things with the long arms with the claws when they said "lobster". They were a fair challenge, but beatable (including by the grenade trick, if you pulled it off). The thing at the end of the water world, by contrast (which looked a lot more like a crab than a lobster, to me) was the easiest monster in the game, if you had the top gun when you got to him. Stand at the bottom middle of his area, face upward, and hold down the gun button (I think it was B). Close your eyes. Wait for the explosion sound effects. Done. Everything he shot at you came straight down at you, or very close to it, and all of his projectiles could be shot down. So if you just kept firing the super gun at him, nothing would hit you, and you would hit him whenever he was vulnerable.

[Least Original User Name Ever]

By the way, for Blaster Master, did you use the pause trick?

[Pushkin]

Originally Posted by Gundam_Cricket

Man... makes me want to start a general NES nostalgia thread!

Me too

To the OP and others taking up the challenge, how's about renaming it the "thumb a day" challenge. Maybe I took to the games a little too furiously, but those old NES pads gave my fingers a beating, when I finally stopped playing there were little outlines of the d-pad on my thumbs Shame Nintendo's pads gradually came down in durability (not tried a Wii yet to see)

[mobo85]

Originally Posted by Happy Scrappy Hero Pup

Or, in the classic "Congratulation!" vein, I'd offer 1942.

Did they only have one congraturation left at the video game...make place?

[Just Some Guy]

Originally Posted by Jeep's Phoenix

I think I really missed something about A Boy and His Blob.

SPOILER:

The game made such a big deal about finding treasure so you could buy vitamins to beat the bad guy on Blob's planet...yet all you had to do was feed Blob the correct jellybean, and he would turn into a jack, knocking over a shelf full of vitamins in the bad guy's lair. WTF! Why was the bad guy keeping vitamins if they're bad for him?!

For the exact same reason all video game bosses provide the tools of their destruction in their lair (or its immediate surroundings).

[Jeep's Phoenix]

Originally Posted by Just Some Guy

For the exact same reason all video game bosses provide the tools of their destruction in their lair (or its immediate surroundings).

Kinda like quick-disconnect bridges, I guess...

[fusoya]

hope everyone had a good holiday. Mine consisted of lots of swimming, outdoor sporting, eating that damn boss from Blaster Master's level 5, spending time with family, and I managed to fit in some NESing between the activities.

1942 & 1943, developed by Capcom, released 1985/1988, completion time: about an hour and a half (plus about 30-40 minutes on 1942)
As was suggested earlier on this thread, I decided to give 1942 a try. Alphabetically, this game comes first on the list of NES games. I KNEW when I was getting into this game that I probably wasn't going to finish, because I suspected that this was one of those games that didn't have an ending, and after playing about 10 stages, it started repeating itself. 1942 & 1943 are vertical auto-scrolling shooter games made by Capcom and originally released in arcades. You fly a Lockheed P-38 and take on the entire Japanese air force single handedly. By shooting a series of pink planes, you can get weapon upgrades, and three times per stage, you can do a flip which will make you temporarily invinsible - great for when you are surrounded. Note that these are two games that absolutely require turbo controllers (and are perfect for auto-fire, since you almost NEVER want to stop shooting) if you still want to have feeling in your thumb when you finish it. 1942 has a number of flaws. As mentioned, it was a direct port of the arcade version - a game that's fun for about 5-10 minutes, but once you run out of lives, you probably aren't going to put another quarter in unless you're trying to get on the top 10 list for points. This is exactly that type of game - shoot shoot shoot until you get the high score, and they'll keep providing you with more enemy planes. There is no variety to the stages either. You're mostly flying over water, and occasionally you'll see an island, but there's no maneuvering like most air shooters have. Another huge complaint with 1942 that I absolutely have to mention here is that game has some of the most awful "music" I've ever heard on the NES. It isn't even music, it's just morse code beeping, with a drum track under it!! Anyway, once I realized that continuing to play 1942 was going to be a waste of time, I moved on to a more familiar game - 1943. This game was what 1942's NES port SHOULD have been. Capcom improved on everything wrong with that game. It kept the same platform, but now every stage has a boss (and some of them are HUGE, multipart bosses), there is some damn fine music which Capcom would later on get a reputation for, and there's an experience-building system - you can raise your offensive power, defensive shields, energy level (in 1943, unlike 42, you have an energy meter which counts done 1 point per second, as well as additional points for every time you are hit. You only die if you get hit when the meter is at 0), special weapon upgrades, and special weapon time, one at a time, every time you find a special hidden item...there's usually one per level. This game has 30 levels, each level taking 5 minutes at the most to complete - it DOES have a password system too. There are some pretty intense moments, but the whole game is pretty managable once you get the hang of it. Now, I know I never finished 1942, and am probably not going to (and I don't think there even IS an ending), but I would recommend everybody thinking of doing it to just go ahead and play 1943....it's more of a remake than a sequel, and 1942 has nothing to offer that 43 doesn't.

The Adventures of Bayou Billy, developed by Konami, released March 1989, competition time: about 2 hours (even though there's only maybe 20 minutes of actual gameplay from start to finish)

Jesus fuck. I know this game has a reputation for being hard, so much that there was a Captain N: The Game Master where Motherbrain discovers that the only game Kevin can't beat is THIS ONE, but this was just insane. I mean it when I said I never got by the first level before, and it took me probably an hour of dying and restoring just to make it through the first level this time around. The big thing that makes this game so hard is #1 every enemy has the same hit points as Billy and #2 they have a much easier time hitting you than you do hitting them back, and #3 for whatever stupid reason, you are forced to stop and fight a bunch of enemies, including alligators who are isolated to the water and have NOTHING to do with your quest, rather than having the option of avoiding them and running ahead. I suppose most beat-em-up games are like this though. I honestly don't know how ANYBODY who bought this game back in 1989 managed to beat it. Infact, I'd like to know just many times this game was returned, either out of frustration, or because the cartridge got smashed when it was thrown out the window, set on fire, and then smashed with a steel toed boot. Honestly though, after level 1 (and level 3 which is basically a mirror image of level 1), the game does calm down. The two shooting levels are a piece of cake (note that if you are playing this on a emulator, and I hope you are, cuz otherwise you are never going to SEE the second stage, choose GAME B or else it'll expect you to play with a zapper) and the two driving stages are manageable (btw, since when could Jeep Wrangler drive 180mph?). The key to getting through the rest of the game is getting the whip. Once you have the whip, you have the distance you need to attack without worrying about missing and getting hit back. Okay, for those of you who are wondering the deal with this game, besides its cruel level of difficulty, Bayou Billy, who is a severe ripoff of Crocodile Dundee, has this girl named Annabelle....Anabelle....Annabelly (see, there ARE continuity problems in this game!) who gets kidnapped by Big Daddy - the same big daddy from the Chief Wiggam PI episode of the Simpsons (infact, I think that whole episode was ripped off from this game) and you gotta go through the swamps and New Orleans to rescue her....it's a beat-em-up similar in style to Double Dragon, but there are also two shooting stages (like Duck Hunt) and two driving stages (like Rad Racer, but with guns). If you ever DO manage to beat the game (and I applaud anybody who even seriously tries to), you do get one of the longer endings for an NES game...and the big surprise is that Bayou Billy is played by none other than Billy West...the voice dialouge is so intelligible (just like Konami's Double Dribble and Blades of Steel) that I didn't think ANYBODY did his voice. This is one game that I absolutely never want to touch again. Beware.

A Boy and His Blob, developed by David Crane, released March 1990, completion time: 3 minutes (yes, MINUTES)

After Bayou Billy, I needed some reassurance by playing a game I KNOW I can beat blindfolded. A Boy & His Blob is a really obscure game that I bet nobody would have even played if it weren't for the 4 page review in Nintendo Power. My brother wanted it for his 8th birthday just because of that review....in the beginning, it actually took us a long time to finish. This is one of the first "sandbox" games, where it's actually more fun and rewarding to just screw around, rather than try to beat the game. The story is that this blob comes to planet earth, and meets this kid, and they become friends, and the blob wants him to save his planet, which was taken over by some marshmallow king who looks like Jabba the Hut. The catch is that when you feed the blob jelly beams, he turns into stuff. Feed him punch jellybean, and he turns into a hole....feed him cola and he turns into a bubble.....feed him apple and he turns into a jack. All of them are either puns, rhymes, or just plain confusing (strawberry bridge?)...and then there's the ketchup jellybean, which makes him CATCH UP to you, if he gets stuck somewhere. Having all of these tools at your disposal, plus a pretty non-linear world, (although it's a side scroller, so if you want to move vertically, you better make sure you don't fall to your death) there's a lot of random stuff you can do. However, if you know what you're doing, and actually want to finish the game ASAP, you can do it in about 5 minutes

SPOILER:

]and if you want to do it in 3, immediately use a root beer rocket, fly to the blob's planet, and when you land, go to the very left of the screen. Prepare to throw a jelly bean, but rapidly press left and right while he is winding up for the throw, but stop when he releases, and it'll scroll the screen to the left for a split second - to the screen with the king - and when it returns, ALL of the enemies on the planet are gone. All you need to do is run all the way to the right, until you reach the door that you need the lime key for. Go one screen to the left, and use the punch hole directly underneath the hole in the ceiling, whistle for the blob, and let him make another hole. Run to the right (while still in the second hole), and you'll be running through the ground, and will fall off the right edge of the screen and end up in the king's room. You know what to do here. Enjoy the lame graphics for the ending.

Ducktales, developed by Capcom, released September 1988, completion time: 18 minutes

Ducktales is another quickie. Fun game though. It was totally made to cash in on the success of the cartoon series, but being a Capcom game that WASN'T a direct port from the arcade, you know you were getting a quality game. The story is that Scrooge Mcduck is a greedy, rich bastard, who is trying to find some rare treasures around the world so that he can get even richer. He drags his family and friends along and half of them get captured, and the other half find some out of the way place to sit around and help you, should you pass them by. One of the funnest aspects is that you use a walking cane for a weapon. You can pogo with it, attacking enemies from above, or use it as a golf club, smacking enemies with rocks. I used to own the Gameboy version, which was SLIGHTLY different, so I got lost a couple times in the NES one. Similar to Mega Man, you can choose to play the stages in any order, although aside from one level which has an item you need to finish another level, it doesn't really matter the order. I always thought it was strange how the game keeps making you go back to Transylvania, considering that was the only level in the game that WASN'T actually on the cartoon show.

How is everyone else's challenges going?

[Least Original User Name Ever]

Yeah, Bayou Billy was a motherfucker. I remember that my bane in that game were the driving parts. They had bad enough handling to just be borderline impossible if you couldn't get the knack for that fucking driving.

I think the dent is still here...ah yes, here it is. The dent in my basement wall from my head. Frustration!

[fusoya]

I'm gonna have a pretty busy week ahead, so I'll give everyone a couple days to catch up. I'll be back on Friday with Code Name Viper, and possibly Kabuki Quantum Fighter & River City Ransom too.

So far, since beginning this challenge, I've completed 7 games:
1943
Abadox
Adventures of Bayou Billy -- way fucking hardest so far
A Boy & His Blob -- shortest so far
Blaster Master -- longest so far
Duck Tales -- easiest so far
Silkworm

and banished 1942 to the unwinnable pit of doom

[I'm No Saint]

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

I'm so very sorry.

[Potato Pancakes]

Battletoads!

[c_goat]

Originally Posted by Potato Pancakes

Battletoads!

Speaking of Masochism... I had a game called Section Z that was pretty bad. At the end of each level, you would choose one of two exits, sometimes an exit would take you way back like 30 levels. Also, some exits you couldn't access until you found a boss somewhere on a different level (meaning you'd have to go back and try a different path to find it).

I did manage to beat it (thanks to a FAQ that gave the right paths).

[Chronos]

Having now re-tried Blaster Master, knowing where everything is, I take back my incredulity. Apparently, the 20-hour figure I was using included a lot of blind exploring and a lot of needless (though useful) power-upping.

For further nominations: I know that puzzle games like Tetris are generally "survive as long as you can", but there are exceptions. On the Nintendo version of Tetris, you could play type B, which started you off with some amount of junk already on the screen, and you had to complete some pre-set number of lines to win (whereupon you would get a congratulations screen). And in Dr Mario, each individual level was beatable (when you killed all the vira), and the level counter only went up to 24 (which was actually no different from 20). After you beat 24, it would loop to 24 again indefinitely, so it never completely ended, but I think it's fair to say that once you've beaten level 24, you've beaten the game. So I would recommend adding one or both of those to the list.

A question, by the way: Some games have multiple difficulty levels (some of the Mega Man games), or a "Second Quest" once you beat the first one (Zelda, most famously). For purposes of this challenge, is a game only "beaten" when the hardest difficulty is beaten, or is just the first/easiest allowed?

[Least Original User Name Ever]

I'd say that the purpose is to not only beat them, but to beat them quickly. It's up to the white mage's discretion, although I'd like to see how long it took to beat the regular mission, and then how long it took to beat the extended campaign, and then a total.



How about Genghis Khan next, or are historical simulations out?

[fluiddruid]

Originally Posted by Gundam_Cricket

What about Ducktales? I loooooved both the game and that show as a kid.

Blathering blatherskite!

DuckTales was incredibly easy to beat. I beat the game the first day I owned it as a kid, and that was when I was substantially less skilled at video games than I am today; it only took me a few hours. All you need to do is master bouncing on that cane all the time.