NES-a-day challenge

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? :smiley:

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! :stuck_out_tongue:

Ninja Gaiden, or is that just evil?

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…

Fair enough!

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 :frowning:

Regarding Bayou Billy

I know exactly what that’s like… :smiley:

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?

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

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

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.

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.

Your link is misdirected. Is it this one?

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

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?!

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.

It’s reasonable if you know where everything is.

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

Regarding the Bayou Billy Wikipedia entry:

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.

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!

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.

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

Me too :slight_smile:

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 :stuck_out_tongue: Shame Nintendo’s pads gradually came down in durability (not tried a Wii yet to see)

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

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