Let's Play Together! Game of the Month Every month, RTT gets together and brainstorms choices to vote as the Let's Play Together! Game of the Month. Upon completion of the GotM, you will be rewarded with an Achievement Icon! Let's play some awesome games together!
Final Fantasy VI - released as Final Fantasy III in North America - was originally released for the Super Famicom and Super Nintendo. The game's legacy as the last old-guard Final Fantasy game is massive, and it's still celebrated for its memorable characters, unique antagonist, and robust soundtrack.
Play it on Super Nintendo PlayStation (Final Fantasy Anthology) Game Boy Advance (Final Fantasy VI Advance) Wii Virtual Console SNES Classic Mini Android iOS PC
Play the Pixel Remaster on Android iOS PC
Beat Final Fantasy VI or any of its re-releases to earn the Kefka badge.
You open the chest and find nothing. Perhaps you should have waited until the World of Ruin.
2023 Annual Franchise Challenge
Shining
Shining is a Sega role-playing game franchise that originated back in 1991 on the Sega Genesis & Mega Drive. Over the years, the games have adopted different modalities and mechanics - including turn-based RPG, strategy, and dungeon crawler - though many games share common character threads and a fantasy aesthetic. Most Shining games take an average of about 20 hours to complete, with later generation titles being longer and portable titles being shorter.
Suggested Games Shining in the Darkness Shining Force Shining Force II Shining Force CD Shining Force III Shining Wisdom Shining the Holy Ark Shining Force Gaiden Shining Force: The Sword of Hajya Shining Force Gaiden: Final Conflict Shining Force: Resurrection of the Dark Dragon Shining Soul Shining Soul II Shining Force Neo Shining Force Exa Shining Tears Shining Wind
Beat any game in the Shining franchise in 2023 to earn the {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/lh1uA37.gif 15 18{imgt} Max icon which will appear to your username everywhere in the Retro Talkshop Thread.
Doom 64 was released as a brand new Doom campaign for the Nintendo 64, set after the events of Final Doom. While not extremely successful or lauded upon its release, the game has become somewhat of a cult classic over the years for its difficulty and atmosphere, in part due to a spooky ambient soundtrack from Aubrey Hodges. The game's sleeper status peaked in recent years when Bethesda dropped a remaster of the game in 2020 for modern platforms at a bargain price.
January Another World / Out of this World February Banjo-Kazooie March NBA Jam April Kirby Super Star May Alien Soldier June Valis: The Fantasm Soldier July Ninja Gaiden II: The Dark Sword of Chaos August Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts September Dynamite Cop October Castlevania franchise November Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins & Robo Aleste December Mega Man 7 Annual Franchise Challenge Lunar
January Jackal February Super Turrican March Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time April Metal Slug X May Strider June Darkstalkers 3 July Shantae August Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 September Super Mario Kart October Splatterhouse & Silent Hill November Yoshi's Story December The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
Icons
December 2021 Edition - The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
Beat the 100GP or 150GP Special Cup in the original Super Mario Kart to roll the credits before October 1 to earn the Mario Kart badge. {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/VvcNsiC.gif 75 75{imgt}
Beat the 100GP or 150GP Extra Special Cup in Mario Kart: Super Circuit to earn the Yoshi Kart badge. {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/heRUkFA.gif 79 75{imgt}
August 2021 Edition - Tony Hawk Pro Skater 2
Play through Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2's career with any of its releases, ports, or remasters to earn a badge for the character you used.
Play through the original Shantae on any platform to earn the 8-Bit Shantae badge. {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/oVoq8e9.gif 71 75{imgt}
Play through Shantae: Risky's Revenge - or its Director's Cut - on any platform to earn the More Than 8-Bit Shantae badge. {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/gYBgeET.gif 86 75{imgt}
June 2021 Edition - Darkstalkers 3
Play through Darkstalkers 3 on any platform to earn a badge for the character you used. The game has 18 playable characters, plus two secret characters in some ports. Gotta catch 'em all!
Play through Strider on any platform to earn the Strider, standing still and looking cool badge. {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/dA7ovCx.gif 43 75{imgt} Play it on two platforms to earn the Strider, vertical slash badge. {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/9HjCWfh.gif 137 75{imgt} Play it on three platforms to earn the Strider, legion badge. {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/1ybr4F5.gif 196 75{imgt}
March 2021 Edition - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IV: Turtles in Time
Play through Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IV on one platform - the arcade original, the famed Super Nintendo port, one of the maligned 3D remakes, or another version I've missed - to earn the Leonardo badge. {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/84g4Ulp.gif 75 75{imgt} Play through the game on an additional platform before the deadline to earn the Donatello badge. {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/APLsn13.gif 75 75{imgt}
Play through Jackal on one platform to earn the Jackal Squad badge. {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/A65l9z4.png 96 96{imgt} If you decide to play through a second time on a different platform, you'll also earn the Medium Tank badge. {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/pIuY45m.png 96 96{imgt} For each platform you play through beyond the second (third, fourth, etc.), you'll earn a Heavy Tank badge. {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/29iQUzM.png 96 96{imgt}
January Sunset Riders February Strikers 1945 March Super Mario Bros. April Super Dodge Ball May Metal Slug June Castlevania: Rondo of Blood July Renegade August Metroid Fusion September Super Metroid October Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island November Sonic CD December The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks
January The Adventures of Lolo February Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers March The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening April Blaster Master May Beyond Oasis June Castlevania: Bloodlines July Onimusha: Warlords August Ico September Ninja Gaiden October Super Mario 64 November Final Fight December Altered Beast
January Streets of Rage February Neutopia March Galactic Attack April Astyanax May Maniac Mansion June Arrow Flash July Sonic the Hedgehog 3 August Popful Mail September Crash Bandicoot October Resident Evil 2 November Mega Man 3 December Outrun
@BleedingViolet I don't think it even took 45 mins per Mission. The first one took me longer to get the hang of things, but it felt like I breezed through as the 2 guys with a little more comfort vs. my first run. I did skip the 1 cut scene by accident, but they're equally campy and hilarious - and also only like 6-10 seconds long.
Lol only whatever you feel like doing, I figure for a game like this it’s nice to have more since more people will be inclined to play through if they can find a way to play it.
I still gotta work on Super Ghouls and Ghosts some more. I haven’t touched it this month.
Well maybe not... I tried 2 more times just now and was going good for the first few areas, taking little damage but 2 sections (the sea-life boss being 1) ate up my health and I failed to even reach the final boss on the first run. Then I tried as the black guy and did a little better and made it to the final boss but with zero continues and barely got anywhere in the fight. It's crummy that the first 2 Missions are apparently a LOT easier or they give you more credits? Or did I somehow earn more credits in the regular playthrough of M1/2? I dunno, but I was enjoying the game until failing now 3 times on M3...
Mission 1 has infinite credits. Mission 2 has ~7. Mission 3 has ~3. I think there is a difficulty ramp as well, independent of credit count. I did fairly well against the Kraken in Mission 1 once I figured out how to deal damage, but the same strategy turned me turned me into ground beef in Mission 3.
Mission 4, 5, and 6 spikes the difficulty again, and I believe you only have a single credit for each of them. No thanks.
Ah that makes sense. I know I got a little better as I learned, but the credit limit in Mission 3 stunk. I for sure push to attack most of the time and that can be foolish, might try M3 again and see if I can use some save states to limit effective damage taken. As well as seek to be a bit more cautious.
I GIVE UP... tried yet again on M3. Took zero damage through the first couple of fights and was doing pretty good overall until the stupid chef. I knew about the apples and tried to get them only to take more damage from his grenades vs. the little health they provided. Then the lifeboat fight against the 2 sword F*k's ate another continue. Giant squid also sucked, then I foolishly forgot to strive to stay away from the next to last fight guy after knocking him down and went into the final boss with near full health but none of my 4 credits left. Not shockingly his BS cheap spinning teleport-to-shoot your butt attack was employed a good 4 times to end my run. I 'get' the ramp up in difficulty, but it sort of ruins an otherwise largely enjoyable game... oh well.
I'm vacationing right now and don't have access to my usual monthly post templates, but this is right around the time that I'd be soliciting game nominations for October.
Since I don't have the appetite for managing a spreadsheet from my phone and since October is usually our spooky games month, I'm slamming down the executive hammer and saying October's Game of the Month is any game from the Castlevania franchise.
We haven't played a Castlevania game as a thread since 2020, and I'm sure we can all find one or two we want to pick up. Each game will have its own badge. Play one, play many... or play none at all. I'm a nerd, not a cop.
In the meantime, seven more days to finish Dynamite Cop while it's still cool.
I've been meaning to replay LoS as it was great and I finally got the DLC like gosh 2 years ago now and tried it but it had been SO long since I played the game I felt like replaying. Plus I have 2 and figured I could follow on with it, even though I know 2 is mediocre. So I might do LoS as well, either that or one of the GBA ones I haven't made time for yet, or Rondo or X, heh I wanted to play a number of them in '20 after getting back into the franchise, so I'm not short on options.
> He did say any game from the franchise would count. And the game is already 12 years
> old.
My interpretation of the meme was "Yes," the game is too new, "but actually no," go ahead and play it. I think the retro cutoff is when consoles got digital output (2005) but I'd rather have people playing games that are past that threshold than skipping a month.
In any case, I'm back from vacation, so time to properly highlight the Bruce Willis' (Willi?) in training that finished Dynamite Cop so far:
You can earn a badge at any time, but earning it during the first month gets you a special GameTZ NFT badge. You can't see it or add it to a wallet, but trust me, it's as real as all the other NFTs out there...
As I announced in the last post, start thinking about what Castlevania games you want to play in October. If you need some inspiration, check out this Wikipedia page or this YouTube video to check out some options.
Unironically not even that bad. I need to give the follow-up a better shot at some point, but most of the jazzy exclamation points are done in the first game.
I already beat Dynamite Cop once, on the first mission.
I just haven’t played it since that night yet.
Also we can literally play through ANY Castlevania game so hopefully there will be multiple icons or whatever. I’m happy either way, but does this mean we aren’t allowed to nominate anymore Castlevania games after this? It’s literally one of my favorite series.
> Also we can literally play through ANY Castlevania game so hopefully
> there will be multiple icons or whatever. I’m happy either way,
> but does this mean we aren’t allowed to nominate anymore Castlevania
> games after this? It’s literally one of my favorite series.
There will be one badge per game, but nothing too crazy; probably just cover art based, like Tony Hawk and NBA Jam were.
I don't have any plans to restrict Castlevania nominations moving forward. Feel free to nominate specific games, and the game will get a specific animated badge.
Heck, I don't care if you repeat nominate any game, for that matter. If enough people are willing to play it and vote for it multiple times, who am I to stop them?
Many thanks to everyone who experienced this beautiful monstrosity. If you happen to finish later on, feel free to ping me in this thread, and we'll add the appropriate badge to your total.
As announced last week, to get psyched for Halloween, we're playing games in the Castlevania franchise.
Castlevania got its start in 1986 with an action platformer for the Famicom Disk System and has been spanning generations ever since. The formulas changed a lot over the years - starting out as a series of tough-as-nails platformer, but morphing into one of the namesakes of the Metroidvania genre - but most games can promise a good challenge, some awesome weaponry, and a whole mess of gothic monsters to take down along the way.
Beat any game in the Castlevania franchise to earn a new badge based on the game's cover art.
I was going to start off the month with Symphony of the Night on Saturn because (a) it's probably time that I check Symphony of the Night out, and (b) I'm a weirdo that likes playing games on odd platforms, but in a turn of events that could only happen to somebody with too many modded consoles, I sold my Pseudo Saturn cartridge and my Satiator, and I flat-out can't find my Saturn's MODE, so I have no way to play the game. I'm going to start with the 8-bit titles instead.
I just started the second GB game and it is SUCH an improvement over the first one. GB CV1 plays like it were the jankiest, pixel hunting platformer released for the ZX Spectrum. The player's collision boxes are godawful, you have to step like half a body off a platform to be able to make a ton of those impossible jumps. You need some serious TAS skills to beat this game legitimately. Konami allowing a game in such poor shape to ship in that condition is bonkers.
GB CV2 feels like a mix between Simon's Quest and Dracula's Curse. It's very playable, but not unfair. I'd actually place it just under Dracula's Curse in playability.
Honestly, if the frame issues in the first one were addressed I'd like it a lot more, but yeah, overall CV2 is like going to the moon whereas CV1's like walking through Brooklyn. Both really good, both have really hard encounters but pacing, music, general stage design much much better in the second. Drac was tough in both games. Second game has what I think may be the first handheld jump scare spooky moment.
I might play through the first GB title again since I have it in a compilation digitally anyways. It really is pretty awful though. Most Gameboy games are anymore. I’ll prolly start with the first NES title though since I always love playing through that one. If only there were an extra badge for playing through the second time on hard mode or whatever it’s called 😉 (mostly kidding unless it’s an easy badge to make 😃)
> The first Game Boy game is really short, so at least you're not suffering for long.
>
>
Oh I know plus I thought you could use save states on the digital Xbox version which helps especially for some of those lame af platform jumps that had to be kinda perfect.
If I get my Trimui with a week or more left in OCT I will probably beat one of the GBA ones. The Trimui is a small emulator with a screen almost as small as the micro.
> |>> They can't even be bothered to release Dracula X and SOTN on PCs. Konami won't
>> spend
> |>> a dime on these things.
> |>>
> |>> I'd KILL for a third CV collection with those two games.
>>
>> Dracula X is included on the Advance Collection, if that helps.
>
> ... I meant the REAL Dracula X, Chi no Rondo from the PCE CD, not the passable, but
> still mostly redone, SNES version. :P
The one that got an English Tranlsation for PC Engine CD, Rondo of Blood? I have that on my emulation portable, might be playing that. I have a huge list of games I want to beat for Spooktober.
Yep, that one. I have nothing against emulators or fan translations, what with me being involved with both for more than twenty years, I just want a legal release available to all instead of a mini console that didn't get a huge run.
Also I still don't quite understand how to emulate the system, haha XD
> Yep, that one. I have nothing against emulators or fan translations, what with me
> being involved with both for more than twenty years, I just want a legal release
> available to all instead of a mini console that didn't get a huge run.
>
> Also I still don't quite understand how to emulate the system, haha XD
Yeah I had lots of trouble at first. I am using retroid pocket 2+ that uses retroarch. The big thing I was missing is I didn't put the PC Engine CD and Turbographx BIOS in the retroarch bios folder. Once I did that, and converted all of the .iso's and extra files into one .chd. My emulator detected them and ran them perfectly. It's pretty exciting because I've always wanted to play those turbo cd games like Valis, dragon slayer, rondo, ect. . Now I can.
I decided to start with Bloodlines as I knew it was shorter and I started on it via my mini not too long ago. Well I wasn't as far along as I first hoped and my trying to avoid (almost) all damage is stupid as it's causing very slow overall progress and abusing the reset and save-states of that console. I need to stop trying for 'perfection' and just make progress. I'm now into stage 4, so here's hoping I can do that.
Yeah I was in no way doing it b/c I thought it was going to get my a special ending or anything, it's the allure of those save states as I have at times saved with too low of health later on and then been effectively screwed against a boss or section where I die. It's dumb and is all on my and my foolish approach. Seeing my health restored to full at the end of stage 3 was a reminder to me that it was dumb to try that...
Finished Castlevania II: Belmont's Revenge on Konami GB Collection, Volume 4. An incredible improvement over the original just in terms of how much smoother it is to control and to look at, but not all that different mechanically. There are a few tougher platforming segments that are tough in their own right, not because of the controls you're fighting.
I spent an hour this afternoon trying to get one of the patched versions of Symphony of the Night to work on my Saturn, even going as far as to take my Saturn apart (again) to move the disc images to different devices. The newest fan patch won't get past the first load screen, the full English translation freezes on the first relic pickup, and the Internet says the older patch isn't even worth trying. So, I've switched to the PlayStation version like the basic dog that I am.
And yeah, it rocks. I got my ass kicked by that big jumping demon dude in Marble Gallery more than I'd care to admit, but this plays like a juiced up 16-bit platformer, and I love it for that.
More badges added to the OP as a preview. Including Lords of Shadow.
I wanted to like this game. I hadn't played it before, but it was given to me with my N64 from a friend I haven't seen in years. I was hoping it'd be a hidden gem that everyone was too critical towards. Sadly, it's a clunky mess with uninspired music (composed by Kirby's Epic Yarn's Tomoya Tomita? How?!) and a lot of cheap deaths. You get one life, and then you can continue from your last save point or restart the stage entirely. The Stages 1 and 2 had potential, and Stage 6 is decent, but Stages 3-5 are aggravating. Stage 4 in particular is such a slog, it's basically a full third of the game all on its own! You've got a nasty mineshaft to traverse, a puzzle to decipher, rooms of enemies you must defeat any time you pass through them, bombs to detonate (twice, and one requires a lengthy detour where you can't take any damage), two bosses in close proximity to each other, and an elevator to repower! That's too darn much!
The characters were nice, though. I got a real kick out of Reinhardt's blantant Catholicism, especially during THAT scene with Rosa. Renon and Vincent were amusing to meet, and I liked the Grim Reaper. There are things to like here, but it's rough and annoying too much of the time.
I liked it until it came to being a question of "Would I complete it", the answer is no. I'd play through CV1/3 before I ever considered a playthrough of CV2. The other two games are hard but respect my time, you can't overcome skillgap in CV2, the game hold you back until it's time to move you forward. It reminds me a lot of the way AC went, actually, after Origins
I actually really liked Castlevania 64. I certainly have fonder memories of it than SOTN or Super Castlevania which Y’all seem to swear are the best. I’d play it if I had a copy or could find a cheap copy.
Castlevania 2 was fine back in the day but I prolly haven’t played it in like 30 years. Maybe I wouldn’t like it anymore?
Simon's Quest is the only Castlevania game I have some history with back in the actual NES days. I borrowed it from a friend and found it absolutely incomprehensible.
I'm going to play it next after I finish Symphony of the Night. It's going to be interesting, given all the terrible feedback I've heard about it and the little nuggets of nostalgia I vaguely remember.
>> You should have been subscribed to Nintendo Power!
> Or call the Nintendo Hotline, only $1.50 per minute!
>
>
Hence why the internet had to happen. What a crapty way to rip off kids back in the day! (The hotline not the magazine, the magazine was actually a pretty solid deal)
I'm just about to beat Bloodlines as well @SupremeSarna I've been playing on my Gen mini and took down Elizabeth Bartley last night - she was very easy (after I figured out her pattern) especially after fighting the mini boss-rush and Death just prior. I took on Drac after just once before calling it a night. I'm playing as John since it's a Castlevania game so you HAVE to use the Vampire Killer, but I watched a little gameplay from Eric and think I might have enjoyed his Alucard Spear more and might play as him next/soon.
I finished the Original Castlevania (the NES version not the Arcade version) I’m working on the second time through (I guess it’s the hard version). It’s still fun but the second time through is pretty cheap sometimes. Only on stage 29 right now.
Beat Castlevania Bloodlines - proof: https://photos.app.goo.gl/bNzM3AGbmoPr3uSH6 Ending was swift, after I took that pic a word or more appeared on screen and boom off to credits. I beat it as John as I said recently, might try with Eric. Game wasn't too bad and had some unique ideas and such.
Finally started Bloodlines yesterday. I've only beaten the first stage, but I'm not yet seeing why this one is so highly regarded. It's just ok (for a Castlevania game) so far.
While people tend to give franchise one-offs on Genesis a bit of a leg up, the game does some really cool stuff with graphics and level design later on.
Ok, I just beat Stage 2 and my opinion immediately changed, this game is pretty awesome! The graphics are great, I really liked the first section of Stage 2 where everything is reflected in the water. I'm loving the interactive environments too, hitting things with your whip to knock pillars over/create new platforms, etc. The two water sections were really cool too, first trying to escape the rising water, then later being careful not to fall in as the water slowly drops. I played the first section of Stage 3 just to check it out and it was really cool how those minotaur looking enemies rip pillars out of the ground to use as weapons!
Some of the stuff it does in the final stage was trippy, won't spoil them but they were unique and I'm not sure I've ever played a level like at least the 1 part and the next part while thankfully short, was pretty rare in games that I've played.
> hitting things with your whip to knock pillars over/create new platforms, etc.
Thththththth... BWOWM!
Yeah, the enemies are funnier in this than any other game. I like how bone-chucking skeletons will rip off their arms and then their skulls to throw more projectiles. The pillar-wielding minotaurs are a riot as well. There are even some skeletons that hide inside steel drums later on, thinking they're so clever. The fourth boss is also... interesting.
I finished Bloodlines with Lecarde. (Did it with the other guy the first time I played.) Also finished Kid Dracula, the only game on the Anniversary Collection I didn’t beat when I first bought it a couple years ago. I’m not sure if the latter counts or not.
I been playing a few of the NES and SNES Castlevania games today. Just to get them started, I’m maybe halfway through Super Castlevania 4 and while there are some really cool things there are just as many annoying gimmicks. Did Nintendo seriously go to every developer and say “You have to utilize mode 7 or your game will never be on Super Nintendo!”
Idk, it’s maybe better than I remembered maybe worse. It was both of my foster brothers favorite games that we had so that’s a good memory. And it’s more “challenging” than I used to think it was but I played platformers so often back then maybe I’m just out of practice since I play so many other types of games more often now?
But Simons Quest is cooler than I remembered. And Castlevania 3 is prolly the most fun but I only played an hour or two of those. I’ll try to finish SC4 first.
> I have really great memories of SCIV, but it's been a really long time since I played
> it. I'm hoping to get to that one this month too.
I hope you have time to, I finally got to the stage I have some of my best memories from with all the gold everywhere. I’m pretty close to the end I think. I guess back in the day I must have just used passwords whenever I did play so I could play my favorite levels over and over again.
> I been playing a few of the NES and SNES Castlevania games today. Just to get them
> started,
> I’m maybe halfway through Super Castlevania 4 and while there are some really cool
> things there
> are just as many annoying gimmicks. Did Nintendo seriously go to every developer
> and say
> “You have to utilize mode 7 or your game will never be on Super Nintendo!”
>
> Idk, it’s maybe better than I remembered maybe worse. It was both of my foster brothers
> favorite games that we had so that’s a good memory. And it’s more “challenging” than
>
> I used to think it was but I played platformers so often back then maybe I’m just
> out of practice
> since I play so many other types of games more often now?
>
> But Simons Quest is cooler than I remembered. And Castlevania 3 is prolly the most
> fun
> but I only played an hour or two of those. I’ll try to finish SC4 first.
Konami loved to abuse the hell outta any features present in the hardware they used at the time. You should see the amount of scaling and rotation they used in their arcade games those days...
> Ok, I just beat Stage 2 and my opinion immediately changed, this game is pretty awesome!
Yeah, That’s when most people come around if they haven’t already. I’d already started playing with the Spaniard and liked the jams by stage one but by design I think that’s supposed to sorta ease you in and set you up for being very impressed with stage 2, and almost everyone is. Amazing, beautiful score, fantastic special effects (arguably more impressive than mode 7 fudgeery in Super CV4), just good crap.
>> I been playing a few of the NES and SNES Castlevania games today. Just to get
> them
>> started,
>> I’m maybe halfway through Super Castlevania 4 and while there are some really
> cool
>> things there
>> are just as many annoying gimmicks. Did Nintendo seriously go to every developer
>> and say
>> “You have to utilize mode 7 or your game will never be on Super Nintendo!”
>>
>> Idk, it’s maybe better than I remembered maybe worse. It was both of my foster
> brothers
>> favorite games that we had so that’s a good memory. And it’s more “challenging”
> than
>>
>> I used to think it was but I played platformers so often back then maybe I’m just
>> out of practice
>> since I play so many other types of games more often now?
>>
>> But Simons Quest is cooler than I remembered. And Castlevania 3 is prolly the
> most
>> fun
>> but I only played an hour or two of those. I’ll try to finish SC4 first.
>
> Konami loved to abuse the hell outta any features present in the hardware they used
> at the time. You should see the amount of scaling and rotation they used in their
> arcade games those days...
Well I have finally played the original Castlevania arcade game since the last time I played SCIV And it does seem like they finally got to get more of that original look and feel in there with this SNES offering than was possible on the NES games.
I think the best additions for the series in this game were the freedoms of movement though. Not necessarily any graphical or sound upgrades. Moreso the jumping than the whip flailing. Both of which are super cool. I started goofing around in Bloodlines right after I finished SC4 and was immediately wanting to whip things directly above me while jumping. It would not work lol. At least I got to finish the first boss before I saved so I could sleep.
>> Ok, I just beat Stage 2 and my opinion immediately changed, this game is pretty
> awesome!
>
> Yeah, That’s when most people come around if they haven’t already. I’d already started
> playing with the Spaniard and liked the jams by stage one but by design I think that’s
> supposed to sorta ease you in and set you up for being very impressed with stage
> 2, and almost everyone is. Amazing, beautiful score, fantastic special effects (arguably
> more impressive than mode 7 fudgeery in Super CV4), just good crap.
Yeah, it's not like Stage 1 was bad or anything. It was just ok, which surprised me after having heard such good things about the game. But I'm totally fine with the first stage easing you in, and then the game really picking up in the following stage.
Spear's a much better option later on in the game. I did go ahead and beat it with John once I'd finished it with Eric, doable but definitely harder! Love the angles you get with the whip tho.
I beat Castlevania Bloodlines today. Stage 2 was incredible, but honestly, the game kinda went back to mediocre (for a CV game) after that, at least IMO. There were some cool things here and there, but idk, overall it just felt kinda blah. I did like that the Dracula fight wasn't excruciatingly difficult though like it is in many CV games, that was refreshing.
Probably the most fun I've had playing a Castlevania game. Everything is just so polished. The amount of content and secrets squeezed into the game is extraordinary, and I didn't even bother with the Inverted Castle yet.
I'm planning on coming back and doing that next, but I've been dying to pick up the NES Castlevanias, so I'm going to start on those this afternoon.
This was the only Castlevania game I played during the actual NES era. It was positively impenetrable for a seven-year-old, and not much better for a full grown adult with all the false floors, breakable walls, and NPCs giving bad advice. It isn't bad with a guide, though.
> This was the only Castlevania game I played during the actual NES era. It was positively
> impenetrable for a seven-year-old, and not much better for a full grown adult with
> all the false floors, breakable walls, and NPCs giving bad advice. It isn't bad with
> a guide, though.
It was my favorite in high school because of its low difficulty, coupled with a motivation to clear it quickly for the best ending (which ironically is the worst ending). I knew all the tricky stuff from childhood, so getting that tornado at Deborah Cliff was second-nature. I've since grown to appreciate challenge more, so it's dropped a bit since then.
As much as I don't like being lost and backtracking, I do like that you have options to deal with the difficulty of the Metroidvania games. The straight-up platforming titles just have to be muscled through, but the quest games let you grind for levels and resources, plus the special items.
Speaking of straight-up platforming titles, I took a detour from Circle of the Moon to play through The Dracula X Chronicles on PSP.
This feels clunkier and foggier than the original Rondo of Blood, but it definitely plays decent tribute to that game. At release, this must have been an incredible offering, considering it comes with unlockable versions of Symphony of the Night and a translated version of the original Rondo of Blood.
> As much as I don't like being lost and backtracking, I do like that you have options
> to deal with the difficulty of the Metroidvania games. The straight-up platforming
> titles just have to be muscled through, but the quest games let you grind for levels
> and resources, plus the special items.
I kinda feel the opposite. Sure, "letting you grind" sounds fair enough, but my experience is often that you are practically forced to grind to level up in order to have any kind of chance in some areas.
I think the most interesting part of doing everything wildly out of order is learning how many enemies and concepts actually started with the really early games.
> I think the most interesting part of doing everything wildly out of order is learning
> how many enemies and concepts actually started with the really early games.
>
>
Were there any real differences between this and the American release? Prolly my fave Castlevania but idk there’s so many good things in almost all the games. Perhaps not the first Gameboy game but when I originally played it as a child it seemed much better to me.
Pretty cool, I’ll try and play through it before the end of the month. I never got to finish “hard mode” in Castlevania 1 since the game froze. The Xbox itself didn’t, just Castlevania. It was the second time that game froze. I hadn’t been doing save states except right before Dracula in the first play through. So I stopped for that night and instead started playing the other games the next times I started again.
The keys work in the USA, they're just not available in the US store for some reason. If you have a US Gamesplanet account, your credentials work there too.
There's a little less than a week left to defeat some Dracula reincarnations while it's still en vogue. Keep posting your kills in this thread.
Let's start taking nominations for the November Game of the Month. No themes or executive decisions this month. Post the name of a retro game you want to play as a group during the month of November.
When we hit five nominations (or October 29), we'll start voting.
I'm on stage VII of SCIV. It's actually very different than how I remembered it. I only played it once, when I was fairly young, and did manage to beat it. My memory of the game was pretty fuzzy though, there were just specific levels/sections I remembered, and that's it. It's a lot harder than I expected. I was thinking this was one of the easier ones. At least it has unlimited continues, that's nice. It seems heavier on tricky platforming than any of the Castlevania games I've played, often to an annoying degree. I'm really enjoying it overall though.
Are y'all using save states, or are you all just amazing at Castlevania? Some of you are just cranking out game after game. I'm trying to beat these legit, but it's taking me a lot of tries.
I'd like to nominate SOS (NOT to be confused with S.O.S. Save our Ship) for SNES - very original and fun game IMO. "Each character has approximately four or five main endings, depending on how many survivors you’ve rescued"
I’ve never really played any of them besides this one anyways and I’ve never finished it. I want a fun adventure. This was always one of my favorite games with my friends.
It wasn’t much different. I did beat it way faster though, and I played it on the normal setting not easy and I’m not playing through hard either. I’d say it took me just under 2 hours but maybe it was less than that.
You really only need save states around Dracula 🧛♂️ maybe before Frankenstein and the Grim Reaper too but I think I passed the whole Grim Reaper stage without dying since I had the Holy Water x 3 all the way through it. That was the only stage I didn’t die on tonight besides the 1st stage though. It was pretty fun too.
Didn't enjoy it as much as I expected it to. It feels a whole lot slower, and the soundtrack didn't make the transition to 16-bit as gracefully as I would have liked. Still a solid game, and I actually like circling the d-pad to swing your whip.
I was going to pick up Castlevania 64 next, but I doubt I'll finish that before Monday, so I'm going to start Castlevania Chronicles instead. I've had that game in my PSN library since the mid-2000s and never played it, and I can't figure out how to do anything productive in the MiSTer X68000 core, so now seems as good a time as any to play it.
I'm enjoying SCIV a lot overall, but I definitely have some gripes about it. It's not holding up quite as well as I'd hoped.
These are the non-3D Castlevania games I still haven't beaten:
Castlevania Chronicles Castlevania: Dracula X Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles Castlevania: The Adventure ReBirth Castlevania: Lords of Shadow - Mirror of Fate Castlevania: Harmony of Despair
Hopefully I can finish up SCIV in the next day or two and at least start up one of these before the month is over. I've been wanting to finish beating all of the Castlevania games for a while now but kept putting it off for other games, so I'm glad this thread finally got me back into it.
I'm still not really clear on what Harmony of Despair is like. I know it has online multiplayer, but is playing it solo an option?
> Me and my three chest hairs are fine with our current growth rate, thank you very
> much.
>
> Still waiting on two more nominations for November's GOTM, if anyone has any ideas.
>
>
Are we doing six nominations this month? That would be pretty cool.
Also I concur about Castlevania 64 being way better than people will ever give it credit for. Sure I haven’t played it in 20 years but when I did I loved it and I always enjoyed it more than more conventionally popular releases like SOTN and Super Castlevania.
Obviously it’s in 3D so if you can’t even with that then it’s not going to make it any easier with a Castlevania game, which I don’t Remember it being all that hard but it’s been awhile. If I had not given my copy to my friend I would have started playing it already. As it is I did start on the first Gameboy game and for some reason these games that played fine on Xbox One are really glitchy on my Series S. The Gameboy game has a ton of slowdown which makes an unplayable game even less playable. Utter nonsense.
I guess Pokemon X/Y isn't quite as old as I was thinking. What is the cut off for this thread anyway? You could have just told me that, instead of an unclear gif and then mocking it in another post.
> I guess Pokemon X/Y isn't quite as old as I was thinking. What is the cut off for
> this thread anyway? You could have just told me that, instead of an unclear gif and
> then mocking it in another post.
Was just trying to be silly. I'm not sure what post sounded like mocking, but the GIF is the only response I intended to be for the Pokemon suggestion. Sorry, either way.
Generally Speaking™, I've been treating the 360/PS3/DS/PSP generation as the first non-retro consoles. Exceptionally, we've played two DS games - The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks and Shantae: Risky's Revenge (bonus game for Shantae month) - and allowed modern remakes of retro games (the N-Sane Trilogy version of Crash Bandicoot, Turtles in Time Re-shelled, The Dracula X Chronicles, etc.). There's also the Lords of Shadow discussion we had earlier in the month.
I've said this before, but just to reiterate: I'm less in favor of strict rules and more in favor of anything that makes people want to play along. Historically, that seems to be short (4 hours or less) games that are easily accessible, especially for modern hardware, with no restrictions on things like cheats, save states, walkthroughs, etc. We have nominations and voting to boost the games that more people are interested in, but there's not much correlation between a vote of "5" yielding an actual playthrough, and two of the more "popular" or successful months we've had were this month and Darkstalkers 3 month, where I just said, "Screw it, we're playing X." That could be a badge thing, though, since both months potentially offered dozens of different badges.
But if expanding things to the 360/PS3 era would get more people to play along, I'd be fine with it, "true retro" or otherwise.
I beat Castlevania: Rondo of Blood (originally ). [imgt]https://i.imgur.com/V6HErt9_d.webp?maxwidth=640&sh...[/imgt] Game looks and sounds great, with plenty of secrets and strong enemies to keep you on your toes. I found the journey a little too hard with Richter, with stages 4 and 5 being a serious pain. But you gain satisfaction through hardship, and blazing through such frustrating stages as Maria afterward is cathartic. Love the inclusion of her—she really adds some weird quirkiness to the Castlevania universe, with her cute animal companions and modern candy power-ups.
I’d still say Castlevania III or maybe Bloodlines are the best in the series, but this one’s definitely in the top 5.
I just finished Super Castlevania IV less than an hour a go. It was pretty good and the score got to kicking the last few levels.
Castlevania III is my pick for best of the series.
Also, I finished Simons Quest when I was 9 or 10, about 1990. It was grueling. I had a friend that also had it and we shared discoveries and eventually I figured it out.
We're running out of November, so let's start voting.
Here are our five six nominees, including one from me and one that's wearing a red hoodie and saying, "Hello, fellow retro games!":
Nominees Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins SOS Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas Robo Aleste Battletoads Pokemon X/Y
Either publicly in this thread or privately in a PM to me, give each nominee 0-5 points. Omitting a nominee is equivalent to giving it a vote of 0. The game with the highest score by the end of the month will be the November 2022 GOTM.
Here are my votes:
Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins - 5 SOS - 2 Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas - 3 Robo Aleste - 4 Battletoads - 3 Pokemon X/Y - 2
This plays like Rondo of Blood with the 8-bit Castlevanias' sensibilities, or an 8-bit Castlevania with Rondo of Blood's aesthetics. Either way, it was a lot better than I expected and a lot closer to what I was expecting/wanting from Super Castlevania.
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.
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.
[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.
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.
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.
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.
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...
> 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.
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.
> If you want a truly brutal experience, try the 2nd loop of Castlevania 3 with Trevor
> only, and take the lower path...
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.
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...
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.
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
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.
Here are our eight nominees, including some familiar faces:
Nominees The Nightmare Before Christmas: Oogie's Revenge Mega Man 7 Bonk's Adventure *arcade* Diddy Kong Racing Mortal Kombat II *gen* *gg* Call of Duty franchise Pokemon X/Y The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
Either publicly in this thread or privately in a PM to me, give each nominee 0-5 points. Omitting a nominee is equivalent to giving it a vote of 0. The game with the highest score by the end of the month will be the November 2022 GOTM.
Here are my votes:
The Nightmare Before Christmas: Oogie's Revenge - 2 Mega Man 7 - 5 Bonk's Adventure - 3 Diddy Kong Racing - 3 Mortal Kombat II - 3 Call of Duty franchise - 2 The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess - 2
>> Man, I really need to keep up with this thread. I JUST did my yearly playthrough
>> of Super Mario Land.
>>
>> Had I seen SML2 as this month's RTT I'd have gotten a move on and played through
>> that as well.
>
> YouÂ've still got a full day to beat it. ItÂ's only 3 hours long if you want to beat
> every stage, including optional ones.
>
>
>
I always rush SML. My last playthrough was just under a half hour. I don't know if I want to rush SML2, but we'll see. I've been needing an excuse to try out the DX patch
The Nightmare Before Christmas: Oogie's Revenge - 1 Mega Man 7 - 2 Bonk's Adventure - 2 Diddy Kong Racing - 4 Mortal Kombat II - 5 Call of Duty franchise - 3 The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess - 3
Super Mario Land 2 is using the Carrot power-up to float off into the horizon, while Robo Aleste sits in the corner, curled up in the fetal position, complaining that life is too hard. Here are all the badges we earned this month:
Many thanks to those of you that took shots at the Games of the Month, and also took the opportunity to take a few more parting shots at Dracula. If you happen to beat either of November's games later on, feel free to post here to get your badge.
Coming from a list of eight nominees, here are the results for December's Game of the Month:
1. Mega Man 7 - 22 votes 2. Mortal Kombat II - 19 votes 3. The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess - 16 votes 4. Bonk's Adventure - 15 votes 5. Diddy Kong Racing - 14 votes 6. Call of Duty franchise - 12 votes 7. The Nightmare Before Christmas: Oogie's Revenge - 6 votes 8. Pokemon X/Y - 5 votes
Released hot on the heels of the edgier Mega Man X, Mega Man 7 is the Blue Bomber's second outing on the Super Nintendo. The game largely follows the formula of its predecessors but borrows the concept of an item shot from Mega Man's portable outings, and also serves as the franchise's introduction to Bass and Treble. The game saw a number of re-releases as part of the Mega Man Anniversary Collection and Mega Man Legacy Collection 2, and has been featured on a few of Nintendo's Virtual Console offerings.
I've tried a couple different times to play the Mega Man games on NES and they just haven't hooked me. Maybe it's time to finally give the ones on SNES a chance.
I'm early to the party with one finished Mega Man 7. #BeatIt [imgt w=1280 h=720]https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FjAdGZyakAAQCyd?format...[/imgt] Great game with detailed graphics, fun bosses, and entertaining characters. But it sadly kneecaps itself at the 11th hour with the final boss: Wily Capsule 7. I'll give all you guys a tip for fighting him: Though he isn't weak to it, the electric weapon you get from Cloud Man can shock him momentarily, making him cancel his projectile spreadshot. You still have to dodge some sparks he sends along the floor, and you'll need to hit him with other weapons to actually hurt him, but this will help you avoid heavy damage whenever you can pull it off successfully.
I wanna see different screenshots for all the victories, people! Keep 'em creative.
I attempted a playthrough of Mega Man 7 back when I was binging the Anniversary Collection for PS2 many moons ago. After breezing through the first six games, I made it to the Wily Stages of 7 before something I remember as a "beast-like monster bot" stopped me in my tracks. Couldn't adjust to their movement patterns, couldn't find a weapon weakness, and even with save states, couldn't deal enough damage to make it past them.
I'm pretty sure that boss was the one I've just hit in Wily Stage 2, and just like before, I'm completely stuck. Although now I know that there are a ton of optional items scattered around the Robot Master stages that I didn't know about originally, and having played through Mega Man 9 and 10, I know that those bolts I keep finding can be exchanged for power-up items and refill items.
I'm taking a break to farm some of those optional items in hopes that it will make the going a little easier, though SupremeSarna's post about the final boss makes me nervous.
> I attempted a playthrough of Mega Man 7 back when I was binging the Anniversary Collection
> for PS2 many moons ago. After breezing through the first six games, I made it to
> the Wily Stages of 7 before something I remember as a "beast-like monster bot" stopped
> me in my tracks. Couldn't adjust to their movement patterns, couldn't find a weapon
> weakness, and even with save states, couldn't deal enough damage to make it past
> them.
>
> I'm pretty sure that boss was the one I've just hit in Wily Stage 2, and just like
> before, I'm completely stuck. Although now I know that there are a ton of optional
> items scattered around the Robot Master stages that I didn't know about originally,
> and having played through Mega Man 9 and 10, I know that those bolts I keep finding
> can be exchanged for power-up items and refill items.
>
> I'm taking a break to farm some of those optional items in hopes that it will make
> the going a little easier, though SupremeSarna's post about the final boss makes
> me nervous.
Sounds like Turtlerizer. He’s weak to the charged Wild Coil, but I suggest just charging Mega Buster shots and blasting his face whenever you can. Make sure you master that slide! You can deal with the mini turtles using Danger Wrap or charged Buster shots.
> Great game with detailed graphics, fun bosses, and entertaining characters. But it
> sadly kneecaps itself at the 11th hour with the final boss: Wily Capsule 7. I'll
> give all you guys a tip for fighting him: Though he isn't weak to it, the electric
> weapon you get from Cloud Man can shock him momentarily, making him cancel his projectile
> spreadshot. You still have to dodge some sparks he sends along the floor, and you'll
> need to hit him with other weapons to actually hurt him, but this will help you avoid
> heavy damage whenever you can pull it off successfully.
>
> I wanna see different screenshots for all the victories, people! Keep 'em creative.
>
Just reached Wily Capsule 7, and yeah, he sucks. Really wish it didn't mean repeating the first three stages, but I think I'm going to need to start over again tomorrow, save all my E cans, and see if I can make a dent in him using your shock tip.
Credit for this clear, without a doubt, goes to @SupremeSarna. There's no way I would have survived that final fight without knowing Wily could be stunned. Even then, it still took me multiple attempts and more E-cans than I'd care to admit before Wily took pity on me and started spawning low enough to be hit with a Coil/Shock combo.
Meta post time! Let's talk about ways we can do things in 2023.
Nominations & Voting I like the idea of allowing any number of nominations during a voting month. It reminds me of when the Oscars increased the Best Picture category to ten; in theory, it allows for a broader range of options and lets more people participate.
I can't think of any downside except that - if we stick to the usual at T-minus 7 days - it doesn't leave a lot of time for either nominating or voting. It used to take a few days to reach five nominees which gave us plenty of time for everyone to weigh in who wanted to, but giving threeish days to nominate and threeish days to vote isn't a ton of time, especially if one of those blocks falls on a weekend where people seem to be less active.
Does anybody else have a problem with removing the nominations cap? If we stick with that plan, maybe we can start the process at T-minus 10 days instead of 7?
Annual Franchise Challenge I started the Annual Franchise Challenge this year as a bit of a side quest, since GOTMs tend to favor shorter titles, which means a lot of retro titles with longer campaigns are going to be overlooked. As a trial run, I picked Lunar because of the franchise's obvious connection to the origins of this thread and the game club, offering up a "permabadge" of sorts as the reward.
As far as I know, I'm the only person that played a Lunar game this year. I don't know if this is because people don't like the concept of the quest, don't like Lunar, or didn't realize this was actually a thing that we were doing. (It's underneath the GOTM details, so it's not difficult to miss.)
Should we try again next year with a franchise that gets voted in, or should we K.I.S.S. and just do monthly games?
O Captain, My Captain I've been thread "captain" for two years now, and I'm having a lot of fun. I've played through a ton of great games, some of which were on my radar and some of which weren't, and I've especially enjoyed when we pick a game or a franchise that stirs up a lot of clears and discussion.
I'm content with keeping things rolling through 2023, but I wanted to reach out in case someone among you has been quietly wishing you could take the reigns, either because it sounds like fun or because you want to do things differently.
Basically, the "duties" include the following: - Keeping the OP updated with objectives and results each month - Running the nomination and voting process - Producing badges for GOTMs - Coming up with themes (spooky games, sixth gen games, FPS, etc.) or "executive picks" (Darkstalkers 3, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2, Castlevania franchise, etc.) for some months - Stirring up discussion about retro topics (I've been slacking a bit here, especially in the second half of the year when I get busy with RL stuff)
Again, I'm happy to keep things going as is. I just don't want to selfishly keep it all to myself if there are people out there that wanted to take over.
@Renaissance2K unless you’re tired of all the duties or are just too busy I’d prefer to see you or @Lunar Keep running this. Neither one of you seems biased and you both let everyone speak and be heard. There have been arguments in the past over really dumb and or petty crap and you have never seemed to engage in any of it. I know I’ve been in plenty of dumb arguments here and plenty of them were because of my (or someone else) overreacting to things that don’t really matter.
I like the idea of more nominations too. And having more time to nominate and vote might be cool too. Also why not do the regular GOTM plus one bonus game of your own choosing so even if one person is really annoyed by a GOTM they have at least one other game to try to play through instead? It might get more people participating.
I’ve always wanted us to play more rpgs so of course I’m on board with certain games or series being more spread out over the year where people don’t feel forced into speedrunning through a giant RPG with tons of different paths in one month. Most people intentionally vote AGAINST games like that. I’ve personally never played the Lunar games but the series started when I had less money for games and couldn’t just buy something whenever I wanted. So I stuck more to games and systems I knew and had already.
I like the idea of removing the nominations cap. However, I don't know that it should be unlimited. Maybe we should have a per-person cap at least, like 3?
I somehow missed the Annual Franchise Challenge and knew nothing about it. I'd say it's fine to keep, but honestly, I'm not very likely to go out of my comfort zone and try a brand new franchise. However, if a franchise I like is selected, I'm very likely to fit in 1 of its games over the course of the year.
You've been doing a great job and I have no interest in taking over running this.
Hah - it's even on sale for 20% off! The whole series (four 3d games plus the two earlier 2d games) for under $5 total. Easy to play on any pc that uses dosbox. And all of them are short enough to not become a slog.
Dr. Wily deserves as many smackdowns as we can muster, and there's still time to be a cool kid and finish Mega Man 7 before the ball drops on 2023.
Let's start taking nominations for the January Game of the Month. The theme for January, as suggested by @benstylus, is first-person shooters. Nominate some games or franchises that fit the theme, and we'll play through them as a group in January.
We'll start voting on December 26 and call the winner on January 1.
Ben has already nominated the Catacomb franchise. Since we're not capping nominations anymore, I'm going to throw my hat in the ring and nominate the Unreal franchise, especially considering Epic is about to turn off their servers next month.
Both of these games may be available other places and of course I wanted to nominate Doom or Final Doom or Doom 64 (you get the idea) but I can’t see no one else nominating it AND the other two games are really cool and not as well known I don’t think. There’s also insanely cool looking remakes of Dark Forces with graphics that just weren’t possible when it was released almost 30 years ago. Worth checking out on YouTube just to see what’s different and new. I’m not sure if there are playable builds of it anywhere but I was mostly just looking for the original PS1 game. I never played through Hexen and always wanted to, I DID play through Dark Forces I’m pretty sure and it was just great 😃 both games are still not crazy expensive on PS1 so I figured they were both worth nominating.
I tried playing through Hexen when it was a new release, but there was so much backtracking I eventually gave up. I don't think I would want to try it again.
Here's another nom:
Powerslave/Exhumed Got a great Saturn port and a remaster was recently released on Switch (and I'm assuming other current gen consoles).
Happy Boxing Day! Let's unbox which of our nominees will be the January 2023 Game of the Month!
Nominees Catacomb franchise Unreal franchise Star Wars: Dark Forces Hexen: Beyond Heretic Powerslave / Exhumed Doom 64 Duke Nukem 3D series Disruptor
Either publicly in this thread or privately in a PM to me, give each nominee 0-5 points. Omitting a nominee is equivalent to giving it a vote of 0. The game with the highest score by the end of the month will be the January 2023 GOTM.
I'm not going to vote because, honestly, I really want to play nearly every one of the games we nominated, and giving everything a 5 doesn't really change much. Looking forward to seeing the results, so git yer votes in.
I beat Doom 64 last year, so I'm not looking to play that, don't want to crush Scott's vote, so: Unreal franchise 3 Hexen: Beyond Heretic 2 Powerslave / Exhumed 2 Duke Nukem 3D series 3
I really already like all these games, and normally I don’t like giving Different games the same scores but to me they all deserve to be played. Hopefully everyone has a fun time with whichever game wins this month.
Still playing Mega Man 7 and I’m west coast so I still got 4 more hours to beat the final (?) boss. This game is kinda annoying tho so who tf knows? But at least I’m trying I guess.
Oh I am feeling the judgement from myself already, I wish I had decided to play this much earlier in the month. Definitely not the most “fun” entry in the series due to how annoying it is. If I had played earlier I would have given up already though since I had so much to do in the real.
At 11:17 pm I finished Mega Man 7 and got the achievement too. Now I just need my RTT badge. They ruined that game by making that boss so stupid cheap. Even though one could technically Beat the final boss without taking damage I’m pretty sure that is almost impossible. Happy New Years everyone! I been drinking most of the day but now I can finally enjoy it 😃
Many thanks to those of you that averted Dr. Wily's first 16-bit shenanegans. Feel free to post an update later on to get your badge.
These four Mega Man badges are a subset of the 99 badges we earned as a thread this year, playing through 26 different games, 14 of which were Castlevania titles. With 35 badges, @Slickriven took home more than anyone else in the thread, largely thanks to our NBA Jam challenge to play through the game with each available team.
To kick off 2023, here are the results for January's Game of the Month:
Doom 64 was released as a brand new Doom campaign for the Nintendo 64, set after the events of Final Doom. While not extremely successful or lauded upon its release, the game has become somewhat of a cult classic over the years for its difficulty and atmosphere, in part due to a spooky ambient soundtrack from Aubrey Hodges. The game's sleeper status peaked in recent years when Bethesda dropped a remaster of the game in 2020 for modern platforms at a bargain price.
Beat Doom 64 or its remaster to earn a badge.
Badge coming soon...
Whether you're too young to die or death incarnate, feel free to post a #BeatIt screenshot here to celebrate your achievement.
My apologies, as I am sure this is covered somewhere, but are submissions accepted after the month is over? I'm playing a lot of vintage games, but I am pretty particular about the order, so it'll be a miracle if I happen to play something at the right time.
You can any game we've played since 2018 to earn a badge. Its just nice to play them the month thereof because we're all likely discussing it, reviewing it, and urging each other on.
But if you suddenly decide to pick up the original Outrun this month, you can earn the Outrun badge.
OP has been flipped over for 2023. Check out the 2022 section for a recap of how everyone did this year.
We'll vote on the franchise challenge for 2023 (or decide we don't want to do it) on January 20, alongside the February GOTM vote. In the meantime, start Doom 64'ing!
Oh I already started 😃 it turns out imma need a new series S controller though since the right bumper is integral to this game. (My RB stopped working) Otherwise I woulda at least gotten past level 2. I still can I just can’t pick up the berserk item since I can’t switch out of hand to hand back to shotgun or anything else.
Btw if you don’t know Doom 64 is “free” ish on Gamepass. It also looks really good and is smooth af. This is such a good way to kick off the year 💜
I finally put some time in with Doom 64 last night. I've heard the game is dark, but is it supposed to be this dark? I've never had to turn the in-game brightness up all the way for a game before.
I like that they're doing some cool stuff with scripting and in-game events. The Terraformer had a few of these, like when the eponymous machine finally activates. It already feels pretty brutal, though, beyond the usual "there's way too many demons here" challenge. I can't imagine what it turns into if my palms are already starting to sweat.
This is the point in the month where I'd call out everyone that's earned a badge so far. It doesn't sound like anybody's there yet, though a few of us have started. My January has been pretty crazy and I haven't been doing much cheerleading, so that's on me. Heck, I haven't even made a badge yet. I should probably get around to that...
There we go. Keep shooting demons, and we'll check back in at the end of the month.
Let's start taking nominations for the February Game of the Month. No themes next month; we're looking for any retro game that y'all want to play.
Also, if you want to nominate a game series for the Annual Franchise Challenge, feel free to do so at the same time. We're looking for classic retro games or series, probably on the longer side, that reward a permanent badge next to your name when completed.
We'll start voting on January 26 and call the winners on February. Let's hear what everyone wants to play!
Some levels early on are the kind that make you never wanna play it again though. Maybe higher brightness would have helped but there’s 3D platform elements that Almost don’t belong in a Doom game EVER at least not a “classic” Doom. Especially not without a dedicated jump button.
Level 6 is the worst so far with the platformer nonsense, but yeah after the first level basically it stops being “just a classic Doom game”. After the first “set” of levels and it kinda starts over the game becomes much more enjoyable for awhile. I really gotta get back onto 14 again so I can slog through that one. (The monsters are more difficult with way less ammo than you need to move forward easily, it’s almost like a puzzle with your health and ammo to get through levels like this).
It is still a good game it’s just not as free flowing as one would hope for. It’s definitely less “intentionally annoying” than Mega Man 7 was but there are still plenty of places to get stuck for awhile.
I'm unlikely to play Doom64 b/c I beat it in '21, the PC port, so I don't recall it being overly dark when I played it. I like the vibrant colors of the tweaked enemies. I don't know that I would classify it as 'classic' Doom, but it was close, certainly closer than Doom 3.
Yeah I never got into Doom 3. I know I have at least rented or owned a copy. Maybe I still do have a copy idk it’s just not my thing. I don’t really like any modern fps games either.
There are spots in Doom 64 (the remake at least) that are way too dark, and you’re basically blind in a couple of spots which is a really messed up gameplay “mechanic” to make the game harder or more annoying or whatever. I’m thinking of a spot in stage 2 I think And another in stage 6 in particular with this complaint.
Just spent 45 minutes on Level 6 and still haven't beaten it.
Got pretty far in it with one attempt, but then I fell down the bottomless pit filled with those invisible enemies, and couldn't figure out how to get out. If there is even a way out.
Every other time, I just did a terrible time of strafing to avoid the Hell Knights. Having a hard time juggling the shoulder buttons and the rear trigger on the N64 controller.
How many levels are in this game? *checks* Hoo boy, this might take a while.
I would like to retract this nomination and instead nominate Sword of Sodan . A game that is pretty terrible, but in a way that we can all enjoy and commiserate about? Maybe??.. and it will be like super props to anyone that actually beats it. :D
> I would like to retract this nomination and instead nominate Sword of Sodan .
> A game that is pretty terrible, but in a way that we can all enjoy and commiserate
> about? Maybe??.. and it will be like super props to anyone that actually beats it.
> :D
I added it as an additional nomination. Today's our last day to nominate, and we haven't hit the minimum of five yet.
Psst... Nominate some more games!
So, I tweaked my button profile and switched A to "Shoot" and B to "Use", moving the weapon switching to the C pad. This made strafing a whole lot easier and was the nudge I needed to get through Level 6. Made it to Level 8 last night and died at the final ambush. Oh whelp. Keep on truckin'.
I nominate Wario Blast: Featuring Bomberman!, any Mario vs. Donkey Kong game, any Harvest Moon game, Pikmin 2, Tetris 99, and Chip's Challenge. Though I already nominated Final Fantasy VI, so you can ignore those if you have to. =]
> Can you finish Harvest Moon? I thought it was like Animal Crossing and you just take
> care of your farm forever.
I’ve never played one, so I don’t know myself. I’m sure there’s a fan-established “end point” where nothing new happens anymore or the credits roll before letting you go back to the farm. I’ll look into it.
@Renaissance2K I’ve asked around and it seems most of the Harvest Moon games do have credits rolls or an end goal to reach. Most of them let you play indefinitely if you have the willpower, but in some cases, you have to set your own realistic goal and declare the game done after that’s reached. The SNES one does have multiple definitive endings, and the N64 one has a 3-year evaluation that you build up to (not three years IRT). The subreddit believes most Harvest Moons are feasible to beat in a month. Hope that helps.