VideoGame_Discussion

Everything except GTA - 5
GTA - 0

GTA - 5

I for sure don't have 30+ hours to dedicate to GTA...

You can earn badges after the GOTM is over, but it'd probably spread out the discussion a bit more than a game you can finish in a month.

Renaissance2K wrote:

Yeah I know, I prefer to attempt to beat it in the selected month though, if possible.

Kind of a shame the unfinished Game.com version of Symphony of the Night was not released earlier. I would've liked to play that. XD

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBoNuqaSuzk

Foxhack wrote:

I was going to bid on a mint copy for the and was right there at work, and just kinda forgot. (I did buy 4 other games from him and they were super mint). It went for $132 which is like, not bad. But then I found out the Castlevania Chronicles for is much cheaper and has rondo remake + SOTN anyway. So I'm probably gonna go with that.

Castlevania has disintegrated into the twilight, not to be seen again for another century. Here are all the badges we earned this month:

BleedingViolet {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/iKZyry3.png 79 75{imgt}{imgt}https://i.imgur.com/JSRtjCD.png 79 75{imgt} BloodPuppetX {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/7gywoM2.png 79 75{imgt}{imgt}https://i.imgur.com/xPNy1ed.png 79 75{imgt} {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/zU6EeKH.png 56 72{imgt} Foxhack {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/iKZyry3.png 79 75{imgt}{imgt}https://i.imgur.com/TP1ixYP.png 79 75{imgt}{imgt}https://i.imgur.com/W6rldfv.png 79 75{imgt} razeak {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/JSRtjCD.png 79 75{imgt} Renaissance2K {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/W6rldfv.png 79 75{imgt}{imgt}https://i.imgur.com/q4nf0PI.png 79 75{imgt}{imgt}https://i.imgur.com/YjPr39N.png 79 75{imgt}{imgt}https://i.imgur.com/WPvL9Rq.png 79 75{imgt}{imgt}https://i.imgur.com/XK9V5HR.png 79 75{imgt}{imgt}https://i.imgur.com/tXv5KGy.png 79 75{imgt}{imgt}https://i.imgur.com/iKZyry3.png 79 75{imgt}{imgt}https://i.imgur.com/TP1ixYP.png 79 75{imgt}{imgt}https://i.imgur.com/JSRtjCD.png 79 75{imgt}{imgt}https://i.imgur.com/X1s3ul8.png 79 75{imgt} Scott {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/xPNy1ed.png 79 75{imgt} Slickriven {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/xPNy1ed.png 79 75{imgt} {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/Xr6ckht.png 91 43{imgt} Snappy {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/tXv5KGy.png 79 75{imgt} SupremeSarna {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/K1GPyNA.png 79 75{imgt}{imgt}https://i.imgur.com/xPNy1ed.png 79 75{imgt}{imgt}https://i.imgur.com/XK9V5HR.png 79 75{imgt} {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/7gywoM2.png 79 75{imgt} {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/zU6EeKH.png 56 72{imgt} {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/Xr6ckht.png 91 43{imgt} {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/niqVzCH.gif 128 75{imgt}

We had an awesome month with a total of thirty badges earned across thirteen different games. Many thanks to everyone who made this month so much fun. If anyone happens to cross paths with Dracula again in the future, feel free to announce it in this thread to continue to earn badges.

This month's vote was so close, I had to do a recount. Here are the results for November's Games of the Month... of which there happen to be two:

1. Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins - 19 votes
1. Robo Aleste - 19 votes
3. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas - 18 votes
4. SOS - 17 votes
5. Battletoads - 14 votes
6. Pokemon X/Y - 12 votes

Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins is the follow up to the original Super Mario Land for the , throwing Mario in a new world even more twisted than the first. Backed by some beautiful sprite work and with one of the franchise's earwormiest main themes, Mario Land 2 forever impacted Mario canon by introducing the universe to Wario, the portly, greedy antagonist to grace multiple Mario games in the future and spawn a spin-off franchise of his own. The game has never been remade or ported to other platforms, but it made an appearance as one of the first Game Boy games on the 3DS Virtual Console.

Beat Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins to earn the Mario badge. Coming soon...

Robo Aleste is the lesser known Sega CD follow-up to MUSHA for the Genesis and the sixth game in the Aleste franchise. The game builds upon its predecessor by offering up more powerful versions of its classic subweapons. The game is looked back on as an underappreciated cult classic, though its recent inclusion on the Sega Genesis Mini 2 hopes to bring it to a new audience.

Beat Robo Aleste to earn the Robo Aleste badge. Coming soon...

Whether you're flying with rabbit ears or mechanized warships, don't hesitate to post a #BeatIt screenshot to celebrate your victory.

I don't know anything about Robo Aleste, but Super Mario Land 2 is probably my favorite Game Boy game. I've played it quite a few times over the years and am looking forward to playing through it again. Those of us with access to an emulator or flash cartridge may want to check out the Super Mario Land 2 DX patch to play the game in color.

I'm impressed Mario Land 2 topped the vote (with Robo Aleste, of course). I figured GTA was a shoe-in. Will definitely whip out my GBA SP this month!

I #BeatIt

[imgt]https://i.imgur.com/rkN28al_d.webp?maxwidth=640&sh...[/imgt]
I bought this for $5 in 2013, and I can’t tell you how many times I’ve beaten it. It’s got such unique world themes, like a stage inside a whale, a stage where you swim through tree sap, a world inside a giant house, and a world inside a giant Mario robot! (The “ball” stage is inside his stomach, not his crotch. Get it right, YouTubers.) The Rabbit Ears are great for hovering through stages, and Wario’s stage is a tricky gauntlet. This is my favorite 2D Mario game by far.

I love the unique world/level themes, but I don't care for the level design. I would love to see a new 2D Mario game that brings Mario out of the Mushroom Kingdom and uses more unique world themes like Super Mario Land 1 & 2. I've said it a hundred times but I'll say it again: a 2D Mario Odyssey could be amazing.

I’m on stage 3 of Robo Aleste. Tough game, even with save states on “Easy” difficulty.

BloodPuppetX wrote:

It might just be me picking on the Genesis, but I feel like the limited color depth is making it really hard to parse what's happening on screen. Power-ups, enemies, bullets, and those weird point capsules that look like bombs all look dangerous.

I made it to Stage 3 on the MiSTer, largely due to that yellow power-up that seems to home in on targets. I got stuck on the final boss and couldn't figure out how to do a decent amount of damage. I ended up starting over on the Genesis Mini 2 so I could use save states, and it's still royally kicking my ass.

Finished Super Mario Land 2.

image

I just played through this two years ago, so I targeted a 100% run this time around, getting all the game's secret exits and finishing the levels that they lead to. Either I'd completely forgotten about all these levels back in the original Game Boy days, or this is actually my first time taking the time to unlock them.

that's such a nice screen. I wanna get my hands on one at least once, but I'm not going on a waiting list.

image

That was hard as balls.

Renaissance2K wrote:

Pixels! I love me my yummy pixels. Part of the reason I'm really going after PS2 games lately after getting that retrolink. Love it! Having a small screen, CRT, or CRT filter really helps these old games just shine.

The Pocket gets a special pat-on-the-back for simulating the actual sub-pixels on a GBC screen. The effect is pretty cool.

Renaissance2K wrote:

I’m at stage 7. I’ll make sure you’re not the only one to clear Robo Aleste this month.

I do'd it

https://photos.app.goo.gl/2H4ArtTprAcCfJbMA

I beat Castlevania (NES). Next up on my Castlevania to-play list was Chronicles, but since it's a remake I decided I'd replay the original first. I only played the original once, around 2006. I remembered it being much harder, but I breezed through most of it this time. The long hallway leading up to the Death fight was a section that stood out in my memory as being particularly difficult, but I really didn't have much trouble with it this time. I only had to go through it 3 times before beating Death, and by the 2nd and 3rd attempt I was able to make it through without taking any damage. I also remembered the Dracula fight being much more difficult, but I think I was approaching it differently last time.

I was going to start up Castlevania Adventure since I can play it on my Switch at work on my lunch break. But, I just learned that there's a 2nd quest in Castlevania, so now I'm going after that. It's hard, but should be pretty do-able. The biggest change is that every hit now does 4 damage, meaning 4 hits kills you. This can be rough, but, the final level is like this so if you just beat the game, you should be used to it. There's also supposed to be a larger number of enemies, but I don't know the game well enough to have noticed a difference so far.

Edit: Ok, I'm on the second level (stages 4-6) and I'm really seeing the difference now. They added Medusa Heads pretty much throughout the entire stages. Apparently they had added bats to stages 1-3 as well, I couldn't remember for sure if they had been there in the first quest or not so I had to look it up. 1-3 weren't too bad, but I'm really seeing the difficulty spike in 4-6. This is gonna be a real challenge.

The 2nd loop on the original Castlevania doesn't end up being much harder than a regular playthrough; the first half definitely feels a bit harder, but the second half barely feels different.

If you want a truly brutal experience, try the 2nd loop of Castlevania 3 with Trevor only, and take the lower path...

Otaku100 wrote:

How about with Alucard only?

That might be interesting. You do start a 2nd loop with whatever side character you finished the 1st loop with, if I remember correctly.

Otaku100 wrote:

Apparently, they only added enemies to the first 3 levels. Bats, medusa heads, then bats again. Level 6 already had the increased damage on the first loop, so nothing different there. 4 and 5 will just have the increased damage, which shouldn't be too bad.


Castlevania 3 is on my list to replay after I finish the rest of the 2D Castlevania games I've never played. I only played it once, and just did 1 path. I'm excited to re-visit it and check out more of what it has to offer. Although, I'm a bit overwhelmed by all of the paths and characters, I'm not sure what would be the best way to experience everything.

If you have access to the Japanese version of 3, you may want to play that version, as it has better music. It may be easiest to look up passwords to return to splits, after you finish a path.

Otaku100 wrote:

Thanks for the suggestion, I'll be sure to do that


Good idea!

Otaku100 wrote:

I agree with this. The soundtrack is pretty advanced for NES/Famicom hardware because of extra chips that Konami included.

Looks like I can play the Japanese version on the Anniversary Collection

Just beat Castlevania (NES) second quest. There were definitely some challenging parts, but it wasn't too bad overall with unlimited continues. I'm really looking forward to replaying Castlevania III now. I was going to replay it after finishing up the rest of the Castlevania games I still need to beat, but after replaying the original, I kinda want to just jump straight into III...

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! Here's a look at all the badges we've earned in November:

benstylus image Renaissance2K image image Scott {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/iKZyry3.png 79 75{imgt} SupremeSarna image

When you're done digesting turkey or tofurky, there's still about a week left to finish off Super Mario Land 2 or Robo Aleste while it's still en vogue.

Let's start taking nominations for the December Game of the Month. Post the name of a retro game you want to play as a group during the month of December.

Let's party like it's 2023 and drop the nomination limit. Nominate as many games as you want, and we'll vote on them all. Because of the long holiday weekend, we'll start voting on November 29 and call the winner on December 2.

Wait each person can nominate more than one game or just as many people as possible can nominate one game each?

Either way I like it, but I’m still just going to nominate one game for now.
I gotta see if one of my OG Xboxes works too 😉

The Nightmare Before Christmas: Oogie’s Revenge

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Nightmare_Before...

Hope everyone is having a great Thanksgiving.

I voted for this, so I needed to play it, just beat SML2: 6 Golden Coins
I think I actually own this cart, well my wife did as a kid and I messed with it years ago on her, or my, GB. Never beat I don't believe, but I just pushed through it tonight in ~2 hours. Only 2 things tripped me up, the 3-pigs boss from Mario's area and the final castle from the door to the boss, who was relatively easy. I was also stumped on the 1 coin and had to look up what area I was missing.
I used save states but almost 100% before levels started and at the checkpoints and I surely created more saves vs. loading from them as the game wasn't difficult.
Proof: https://photos.app.goo.gl/eVsCB1p1P9tkSGAc7

BleedingViolet wrote:

Everyone can nominate as many games as they want.

I nominate Mega Man 7 .

I’ll nominate Bonk’s Adventure. Going to try to beat Robo Aleste today.

I just rolled the credits on Robo Aleste, @Renaissance2K. I got the final boss’s patterns down, so I might load up my last save again tonight to get a screenshot.

OP should be up-to-date now with this month's badges. As for December...

image

What is that, a ninja turtle?

Anyways okay fine I’ll nominate a couple more.

Diddy Kong Racing (N64 and Nintendo DS)

And

Mortal Kombat 2

That’s at least 5 but maybe some people will nominate some more.