VideoGame_Discussion

Here are the nine nominees for Febrary 2023's Game of the Month:

Nominees
Final Fantasy VI
Super Mario Galaxy
Wizards & Warriors
Sword of Sodan
Bomberman GB / Wario Blast
Mario vs. Donkey Kong series
Harvest Moon franchise
Pikmin 2
Chip's Challenge

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 February 2023 GOTM.

Also, by default, the 2023 Annual Franchise Challenge will be Donkey Kong. More details will be posted on February 1.

Here are my votes:

Final Fantasy VI - 5 Super Mario Galaxy - 4 Wizards & Warriors - 4 Sword of Sodan - 3 Bomberman GB / Wario Blast - 4 Mario vs. Donkey Kong series - 4 Harvest Moon franchise - 2 Pikmin 2 - 1 Chip's Challenge - 2

Vote!

Mario Galaxy 5
Final Fantasy VI 5

Final Fantasy VI 5
Super Mario Galaxy 0 - was picked (& I beat) for Frank's GotM not super long ago
Bomberman GB / Wario Blast 3
Mario vs. Donkey Kong series 3
Pikmin 2 5

Final Fantasy VI 5
Pikmin 2 5
Chip’s Challenge 5
Wario Blast 5
Mario Vs. DK 3
Harvest Moon 2

SupremeSarna wrote:

Excuse me, but this is a lie: "Little Caesars is better."

...I just can't keep quiet in the face of such egregious misinformation.

My votes:

Wizards & Warriors 5
Sword of Sodan 5
Final Fantasy VI 1

Renaissance2K wrote:

What exactly is an Annual Franchise Challenge? Can I eat it?

Play a game from the franchise at some point in 2023, and you'll get an icon next to your username. It was meant to be a way to get longer games on the docket that probably couldn't be finished in a month.

It was Lunar last year, and I was the only one who played a Lunar game. And when I asked for nominations, we just got Donkey Kong. Which is fine. Lots of games to choose from.

It's no more or less edible than Little Caesar's.

Renaissance2K wrote:

Fair enough. My other choice would've been Kirby, and that's even shorter. So DK is probably better for everyone. I've already beaten DK 64 last week, so that probably bags me the icon automatically. I'm definitely gonna play more, though--I bought DK: King of Swing and Jungle Climber on Wii U this week, I'm about ready for another DKC2 playthrough, and DKC GBC is currently booted up on my GBASP.

How about Metal Gear for the annual franchise? Not super long, but surely longer than DK.

Now that everyone's aware of this, does anybody have any other suggestions? We can do another vote.

Renaissance2K wrote:

I would nominate Monkey Island games, or if we want to have more variety it could be Lucas Arts point & click adventure games - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LucasArts_adventure_...

OR if we want to be even more broad we could say point and click adventure games in general since I feel like it is a not oft considered genre nowadays.

I'm still voting Donkey Kong for Annual. The games are hard enough to last players a while.

Last day to vote for the Game of the Month and nominate a franchise for the annual challenge.

In other news, I still really suck at Doom 64.

What are the votes currently?

FF6 is leading with 21, followed by Wario Blast with 12.

Funnily enough, I just beat Wario Blast over the weekend. If that one wins, do I have to replay it to get the icon? Or are past clears also counted?

I'll allow it.

Imma vote for

Harvest Moon - 5 (I really feel like these games are better for the year long challenge though I would prefer to vote for that)
Pikmin - 4

And imma nominate a bunch of series for game of the year (if that’s okay, if not just count my first nomination please)

Shining Force series (they just released Shining Force cd and Shining Force 2 on the mini Genesis 2. Shining Force 2 is awesome!)

Tony Hawk series (one of the reasons I like the idea of us playing series so much is we can play any modern game in the series also
And some of the more recent non retro THPS games are just awesome and easier to access for newbies to the series.
Tony Hawk games are just fun but they aren’t as easy as some people seem to think. They are worth. Mastering though)

Tenchu Stealth Assassins series (These games are really fun but they do have some glaring flaws in earlier entries. The dialogue in the background
is great and hilarious when you are sneaking up to kill your enemies. They have a ton of great levels that you can
Use almost any strategy you like to try to get through. And in some of the games you get graded on your level
performances.)

Fatal Frame series (These games are atmospheric, literally haunting, gorgeous and above all else creepy as fudge.
The gameplay is not the star here as much as the story and the ambience are. They are the main
draw and these games are almost unlike anything else you will play.)

I also wanted to nominate the Harvest Moon and Deception (Tecmo) series but I figure four is a lot anyways.
If it’s allowed then I would like to add them too, if not, it’s cool. Harvest Moon is not a good monthly choice since
These games can be infinite. You could add stipulations to “beating” these games like get to the end of year one
or year 3 or 5 depending on the game played but I would have nominated a Harvest Moon game years ago
if there was one (that I liked and am aware of) that didn’t just keep going on forever. I LOVE Harvest Moon.
Also, If we are only going to have one main series to play all year I figure we should have a lot more to vote for.

Doom 64 has gone back to Hell. In its wake lie the defeated occupants of the Retro Talkshop Thread, none of which were able to finish the game this month.

I made a semi-valiant attempt, but I got off to a late start, and the game's difficulty curve took some adjusting. I made it as far as Level 15 and will finish the game if it kills me. And it will. A disgusting number of times.

On that note, here's the tally for February's Game of the Month:

1. Final Fantasy VI - 21 points
2. Pikmin 2 - 15 points
3. Wario Blast - 12 points
4. Mario vs. Donkey Kong series - 10 points
5. Super Mario Galaxy - 9 points
5. Harvest Moon franchise - 9 points
7. Wizards & Warriors - 8 points
7. Sword of Sodan - 8 points
8. Chip's Challenge - 7 points

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. {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/wCPZEqH.gif 64 96{imgt}

Choose whatever path you want with no regrets, but your #BeatIt screenshots are always welcome.

---

With your marching orders distributed, let's vote on the 2023 Annual Franchise challenge. Here is the multitude of nominees:

Deception (Tecmo)
Donkey Kong
Fatal Frame
Harvest Moon
Metal Gear
Monkey Island
Shining Force
Tenchu: Stealth Assassins
Tony Hawk

As with Game of the Month votes, please give every franchise for which you'd like to vote a score from 1-5. Not voting for a game is equivalent to a score of zero. On February 6, the franchise with the highest score will be our Annual Franchise Challenge. Beating any game from the franchise in 2023 will get you a permanent icon next to your name anywhere in the Retro Talkshop Thread.

Here are my votes:

Deception (Tecmo) - 2 Donkey Kong - 5 Fatal Frame - 2 Harvest Moon - 3 Metal Gear - 5 Monkey Island - 4 Shining Force - 4 Tenchu: Stealth Assassins - 3 Tony Hawk - 4

Start voting!

Votes:
Donkey Kong - 3
Fatal Frame - 3
Metal Gear - 5
Monkey Island - 3
Shining Force - 3
Tenchu: Stealth Assassins - 3

Dang, that Kefka badge is sweet! But I won't be playing FFVI this month. I finally replayed it in 2019 after wanting to do so for many years. I can only re-visit long RPGs every so often. I do wonder how quickly I could speedrun it though...

Not going to lie... I'm pumped about this.

I haven't played FF6 since Final Fantasy Anthology came out. I read through the Boss Fight Books release for the game, and it got me itching for a replay.

I also didn't play any Final Fantasy last year, and I need my fix.

Yeah, I had been wanting to replay it for a long time. I think when I played it in 2019, it was the first time I had played it since my early teens, so around 20 years prior. The nostalgia was off the charts, and the game held up great. I thoroughly enjoyed it. I played the GBA version because I wanted to check out the bonus dungeon at the end, it was worth it.

Donkey Kong - 5
Harvest Moon - 3
Fatal Frame - 2

I’m still on level 15 of Doom 64 as well. But I too plan on finishing it no matter what.
The difficulty is due to quite a few things that I would almost consider to be design flaws.
The controls aren’t really helping as simple as they are. Things like needing to run
with these controls mean you are going to take a LOT of damage that will feel
impossible to avoid.

I doubt very much I will play this Final Fantasy game this month or any of them after,
But I have the SNES Mini classic and it’s still hooked up to my tv I believe,
So I may start it. If I can slog through some of the other games we have played
Maybe this won’t be as hard for me to stomach since at least it shouldn’t be difficult.
And hopefully not too monotonous?

How many days do we have to start voting for game of the year?
It’s a much harder decision for me to make than game of the month since
I want to figure out which games I have the most of or could easily get more of
and which games I would enjoy playing the most for a whole year.

Donkey Kong 3
Metal Gear 3
Monkey Island 5
Tony Hawk 3

Donkey Kong 3
Shining Force 5

BleedingViolet wrote:

Five. We'll do the tally on 2/6.

Sounds good thank you!

I got a couple more levels done on Doom 64 level 15 is annoying af
BUT level 16 is pretty cool and then level 17 ….. might take a minute for me.
They are both cooler than 15 though, at least they look better.
You may want to save throughout these levels though jussayin.

The N64 version doesn't let you save mid-level.

I was inches away from finishing 15, and then I got stuck on a corner and died to some fireballs. "That's enough video games for me today."

I'm curious what you guys will name your FF crew. So far I've got...

I like funny names.

Renaissance2K wrote:

Honestly I might start again after I beat it on the Xbox. I want to play the 64 version too.
Is there 4 different difficulty levels in that version too? I’ve been playing on the “normal”
difficulty. This game is so scattershot, some levels are amazing mixed with levels that are
literally just there to annoy you. I’m not sure why they would do that unless maybe
There were different people designing each one. Idk. What are your thoughts about the
levels and the designs of the enemies for this installment?

Oh and also I hadn’t actually saved on level 16 after it started the first time I was playing it ….. until after I had
almost beaten it and there is a really negative thing right at the end of it. You will be pissed but I don’t like
spoilers unless you really wanna know.

Yeah, there are four difficulty levels. I'm playing on the second easiest, which I think is equivalent to Normal. You can't change the difficulty mid-playthrough, or I probably wouldn't have done that by now.

I'm playing with a Brawler64 controller with the brightness turned all the way up. I don't know how anyone survived this with an OEM controller, or on stock brightness.

I like the enemy designs. I have an irrational appeal for the new Imps in this vs. vanilla Doom. The levels are all over the place because the devs tried really hard to differentiate the game from the original, for better or worse. I think they're fine... Not better than the original Doom, but fine.

I just need a reprieve. I fudging hate traps and "Gotcha!" triggers. It really sucks to limp through a level for 15 minutes just to die to a Baron of Hell that spawns point blank in front of the exit.

I feel ya, and yeah I’m not sure how they made it through this back then.
I did play through Final Doom on PS1 but it was way closer to Doom 1
Although it had a ton of new stuff too.

I’m not a huge fan of any of that spawning or gotcha bullcrap really but
it does give me some trepidation about playing like an idiot or ever feeling
invincible. They really wanted to slow the players roll with this type of pacing.
Every time you turn a corner something big might show up and kill you.
The main difference I feel like is that they give you way more firepower almost
Right away and then throughout the whole game.
I like the eyeball monster things (cacodemons?) much better now. They used to give me
the creeps, now I kinda like them. Overall I think this game is great despite
Some of the flaws I guess I just wish it were more consistent.
One level is wide open and fun almost kinda easy and the next is
a claustrophobic clusterfudge. I usually prefer the difficulty
Gradually bumping up. This game is all over the place.

SupremeSarna wrote:

I always keep the default names in video games.

In other news, Banjo-Kazooie is the game that made Nick Offerman swear off video games.

https://movieweb.com/nick-offerman-banjo-kazooie/

Deception (Tecmo) - 4
Donkey Kong - 2
Fatal Frame - 4
Harvest Moon - 5
Metal Gear - 1
Monkey Island - 3
Shining Force - 5
Tenchu: Stealth Assassins - 4
Tony Hawk - 5

Get your last votes in for the Annual Franchise Challenge!

Metal Gear 5
Shining Force 5

The votes are in. Here is the tally for the 2023 Annual Franchise Challenge:

1. Shining Force - 22 points
2. Donkey Kong - 21 points
3. Metal Gear - 19 points
4. Monkey Island - 15 points
5. Tony Hawk - 12 points
6. Fatal Frame - 11 points
6. Harvest Moon - 11 points
8. Tenchu: Stealth Assassins - 10 points
9. Deception (Tecmo) - 6 points

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.

Having not grown up with Sega or Genesis, I've never played a Shining Force game before though they're mentioned everywhere in retro circles. I'm looking forward to trying one out.

Wasn't expecting that to win. I'll use the opportunity to finally play Shining in the Darkness. Might try to beat the DKC games still, since I haven't done that yet.

BloodPuppetX wrote:
I’m currently trying to beat them with one hand! Already got the third game finished.

I am a tiny bit familiar with the series from my Saturn days and am not a huge RPG fan generally, so taking a shot could be fun. Looks like the shortest 3 could be the 2x Souls titles on the or Wisdom on the with Final Conflict on the not being much longer.

If you're not looking to emulate, the original title is on the mini.

I'm likely either going to play Shining in the Darkness because it's the first in the series, or one of the Gaiden games so I can play it on a portable.

Back to FF6...

There's a lot more information on the game now than there was 20 years ago, and it means I'm actually using Gau regularly for the early parts of the game. He's a freakin' powerhouse.

Renaissance2K wrote:

2 words from me- Stray Cat. I make sure I have this rage before I leave the Veldt.

*pokes internet* Glad to see it mostly agrees with me, too.

dunno001 wrote:

D'oh. I've had this one for a while but never used it. Just spent two hours learning the Rages from the Serpent Trench, too. Oy.

Back 25+ years ago, I spent a few hours learning and experimenting with rages. Sure, I had the strategy guide, but all it tells me is the name of the specials from the rages. (This IS useful for Gau to teach Strago…)

That said, I wasn't without my mistakes. This one time…

And in the fanatics' tower…

Starting FF6. Playing on the Ayaneo.

Mr. Thou! Mr. Thou!

image

Any tips on things to not skip or miss out on? I'm gonna start it up soon. I know some characters are missable like Shadow and Gau and remember nothing on how to get them.

Gau is not missable. His abilities come from monsters, and some of those monsters are missable, but the character itself is part of the main plot.

Shadow's behavior and ties to the plot are really complicated, so you may want to find a guide that lays it out plainly for you.

There are a handful of optional characters of varying functionality, but they're all in the second half of the game and are skippable, but not missable. Pretty sure you can just go to their hiding spot at any point after them becoming available and have them jump aboard.

Just got Gau. I will eventually beat this but probably not this month.

Same, I don't think I can finish it in the two weeks we got left.

I just learned the main woman’s backstory, and now I’m told to attack the Empire in the east. Where specifically should I go?

Scratch that, I have to spend time in Narshe.

I'm about to hit the Opera House, and I won't be able to play until next Monday most likely, so I'm also not going to finish it this month, but I'm going to stick with it. Really enjoying myself.

Renaissance2K wrote:

That octopus is bad news.

Meh, he's just misunderstood.

Renaissance2K wrote:

Well, the little girl (Sejess in my file) just made him self-conscious. This is going in a weird direction.

SupremeSarna wrote:

In response to your spoiler:

And what may actually be spoilery:

@dunno001 Thanks for the tip! I’m glad to know a bit more about what I’m up against. I’ll keep at it.

In other news, I’m the first person to give a +1 to this thread. You’re welcome, @Renaissance2K .

I think the votes get reset every time the thread is archived, but your enthusiasm is appreciated regardless.

Following up on my previous update... Dang, a single section in an RPG hasn't infuriated me this much in years. I'm serious, the Floating Continent is up there with Persona 5's last room as one of the most aggravating portions of a quest I've ever played. It just feels like the game is bullying you every step of the way.
Want to proceed? Heh, it's a maze.
Tired of fighting enemies? Heh, the Ninjas can't be escaped, and the Brainpans freeze you in place at their earliest opportunity, making it a slog to flee.
Want that one chest at the start? Heh, it's the first Monster-in-a-Box I've seen this whole game.
Liked your party? Heh, you're stuck with three characters and Shadow, who has been in and out of the group so much that he's underleveled with worse gear.
Want to switch members or buy items? Heh, you've gotta navigate the whole maze before bailing out, which forces you to restart from the beginning.
Want to save before the boss? Go for it, but the save point is pretty far from him, and the enemies won't let up.
Ready for a good boss? Loooool, he hits the whole party like a freight train and casts countdown-KO effects. And no, there's no save point afterward! Better backtrack, heh.
You like cutscenes, yeah? Hope you love 'em, because given what happens next, you're gonna see the same long one multiple times with no option to skip it!
Remember that countdown at the operahouse? The one where you had to fight common enemies quickly or dodge them under threat of failure? How about a ticking timer as you battle brand-new enemies that do their best to freeze or silence you? With a timed boss at the end, of course. Run out of time and it's a game over.

I was greatly enjoying FFVI up to this point, but holy frickin' fricks, this one area was an ordeal and a half. I eventually caved and looked up the Naughty weaknesses. The Thunder Blade was equipped by a non-present party member (Locke), so I had to leave to get him, then restart the continent. It's one of those RPG dungeons I won't forgive or forget, and will have serious influence on any plans I make to replay the game. Hope it gets better from here.

[imgt w=750 h=920]https://ih1.redbubble.net/image.758602492.4888/fla...[/imgt]
I think Terra here sums it up.

SupremeSarna wrote:

In all honesty, that dungeon is my least favorite part of the game, though I never really had problems with the section after the cut scene. (I do spend quite a bit of time running from most enemies in the first half. There are still some maze-type dungeons in the second half of the game, but the enemies aren't nearly as brutal. I'll mention a few things I found helped me in the game-

I remember the Floating Continent kicking my butt on my first playthrough when I was a kid. I think it's a rite of passage.

I remember a few bosses from the Floating Continent consistently giving me trouble on my playthroughs. We'll see if my new strategies change that at all when the time comes. I still have quite a few areas to go before I make it there.

We're approaching the month's final lap. There are no badges earned yet for Final Fantasy VI, which is to be expected given the game's length. That hasn't stopped sandy-booted Kefka from laughing at us, though.

{imgt}https://i.imgur.com/wCPZEqH.gif 64 96{imgt}
fwaaa waa waa waa wop wop

Let's keep discussing our progress, and feel free to share if you've earned badges for any past monthly games so we can deck out the trophy case a little.

I briefly considered delaying the March GOTM since there are a few pending playthroughs being tracked, but that isn't really fair to the people that sat February out. With that in mind, let's start taking nominations for the March Game of the Month.

We'll start voting on February 25 and call the winners on March 1.

I’m going to try again with a nomination I made last month: Pikmin 2. Since we now have a firm release date on the long-awaited Pikmin 4, folks might want to revisit the series. 2 drops the stressful time limit from the first game, making it a good starting point.

Renaissance2K wrote:

I beat Super Mario Land 2 a couple of weeks ago.

I'll nominate Metroid Prime for next month. Just hope those physical copies for Remastered start showing up in stock at retailers again tomorrow.

I don't often put nominations in the pool unless it's a quiet month, but since it's the 30th anniversary, I want to nominate the original Star Fox. I'm pretty sure it's not the first time it's been nominated, but there's any time it deserves its due, it's probably now.

DO A BARREL ROLL!

Can I nominate all the kung fu movies I've been buyin? Lol, j/k. I'd buy and play metroid if I could get my hands on the physical.

One more day to nominate games for March before we vote!

I’ll nominate

Adventures of Lolo 2

NES and hopefully there are other ways and places to play this.

We submitted four nominees for March 2023's Game of the Month. To round out the list and add a non-Nintendo option, I added a fifth game from Sega that also celebrates its 30-year anniversary next month.

Here's the full list:

Nominees
Pikmin 2
Metroid Prime
Star Fox
Adventures of Lolo 2
Virtua Fighter

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 March 2023 GOTM.

Here are my votes:

Pikmin 2 - 1 Metroid Prime - 4 Star Fox - 5 Adventures of Lolo 2 - 3 Virtua Fighter - 4

Come forth and vote!

Pikmin 2 - 5
Metroid Prime - 2

Virtua Fighter- 5

Would give me an excuse to plug in the Astro City mini and also wouldn't take too long

Prime - 5

Pikmin 2 - 5
Metroid Prime - 1
Star Fox - 4
Adventures of Lolo 2 - 5
Virtua Fighter - 3

I’m sure Metroid will win anyways but I’m down to
play everything else as long as I can get a copy
of them somehow. I may have a way to play 3 of these
games already and I always wanted to play Pikmin
so I might buy it if it does win 😃 this is a good list of games!