VideoGame_Discussion

Happy 29th birthday, Chrono Trigger. Only one more year before college girls no longer find you attractive.

I beat two more DK games: Donkey Kong Country and Donkey Kong Jungle Beat .

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I raced a friend at DKC. To make it a bit more fair for him, I remapped my Joy-Con and played the game with one hand, even putting said Joy-Con in an awkward-to-hold peripheral. I won by a country mile, but we both expected that given my knowledge of DKC.

I love DKC. The challenge, the personality-filled foes, the Animal Buddies, rolling through enemies, finding bonus rooms, etc. the graphics are a product of their time, yet we’re also revolutionary for said time! My personal favorite stage is Misty Mine—you can practically feel the sweat on your brow as the cave becomes a snake-infested sauna! Poison Pond and Tree Top Town are the worst stages—one likes pelting you with fast hazards that come out of the limited camera, the other has annoying barrel cannon sequences.

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As for DKJB, it works way better than it has any right to. The would-be Super Mario Galaxy devs got DK flinging around stages, grabbing bananas, killing enemies with sound waves, and racking up combos… using a bongo-themed controller! The game is crazy fun, and even earned the very first E10+ rating from the ESRB. You beat the ever loving snot out of bosses, sometimes in a straight-up boxing match. It’s a blast, and you should really try it if you get a chance.

Damn, @SupremeSarna is on a roll this month. I know I'm a little behind on badges - both of my PCs are in pieces at the moment - but I'll catch up shortly.

I'm still working on the GBC release of Donkey Kong Country. The 8-bit arrangement of Fear Factory (the music in the factory levels) is the remix I never knew I wanted.

Quake 1 + 2 is on sale on PSN

https://slickdeals.net/f/17357574-quake-1-2-bundle...

Mission complete. I finished Donkey Kong Country for the Game Boy Color.

https://twitter.com/Renaissance2K/status/177030808...

Definitely wild that they were able to cram most of the original game into such a limited platform, but it works fairly well. Unlike a lot of downsized games like this, the smaller viewport didn't seem to hinder the core gameplay all that much. Moving platforms and barrels, however, seemed to be a lot more finicky than their Super Nintendo counterparts. The original wasn't without its frustrating moments, too, but there were a couple of jumps, bees, and barrels that made me want to throw my Pocket out the window.

There was also something funny going on with the A and B buttons when both held down, but I don't know if this was an issue with the game or with the Analogue Pocket. Both seem equally likely. Both the jumpiness of the engine and the imprecision on the Pocket are well documented.

Next on my list is Donkey Kong Land 2. I played through most of the first world when OpenFPGA was released for the Pocket last year and will hopefully work my way through the rest of it before the end of the month. I've also managed to track down cabinets for all three of the original Donkey Kong arcade games at work, so I'm trying to figure out the logistics of hammering on them for a few hours next week.

Renaissance2K wrote:

You work in at a business with arcade machines? Keep an eye out for Donkey Kong 2, which I have played in an arcade. I have no clue if it’s an officially-licensed Nintendo game, but it looks the part.

I also beat DKC on GBC.
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It’s so much better than the GBA port that came two years later. This one feels like an earnest attempt to bring the original DKC to a handheld while adding a few neat extras, rather than an attempt to “improve” the original with really bad sound effects and colors grading (looking at you, GBA). It even contains a couple tunes from DK Land, which was refreshing.

Did you enjoy Necky Nutmare, Renaissance2K? It’s a completely unique stage, y’know.

We're entering the last act of March, so let's look at all the monkeys among us that are the Kings of Kong this month:

BloodPuppetX image Frank image image Renaissance2K image image image SupremeSarna image image image image image image

Many thanks to everyone who picked up a Donkey Kong game this month. Hopefully you found it a-peel-ing.

April 2024 marks a milestone anniversary for Final Fantasy VI and Super Mario Land, two classics that we've played before. Let's start taking nominations for the April 2024 Game of the Month and add some new titles to our pantheon.

We'll start voting on March 26 and call the winners on April 1. What does everyone want to play?

Renaissance2K wrote:

Don't forget my DKC GBC barrel!

I nominate Kirby's (Extra) Epic Yarn , since it scored highly last month.

SupremeSarna wrote:

I work in Big Tech. A bunch of our buildings have dedicated Game Rooms, and some of them have arcade machines or consoles. There's a running spreadsheet of which buildings have which games, and I found two Donkey Kong machines on them. Hopefully, everything is up to date.

(Intentionally not mentioning the company name. I'm sure it's not a big deal, and I may have even mentioned it before on the forums - I know it's come up in Discord - but you never know these days.)

Necky's Nutmare would have been fine, except for those segments where you have to go through a crawlspace while Necky is spitting nuts at you. You have to take advantage of the crummy clipping to jump "through" the edge of the overhang to some extent, but that's not at all intuitive.

@Renaissance2K didn't you say we'd get a barrel if we beat Mario vs. DK last month for Frank's thread? I did that, thought I said it before. I've not been playing much of anything after I beat Lies recently... need to get back into DKC2 and Trepang^2

Slickriven wrote:

Updated. Sorry, I missed your original post where you reminded me that you beat it.

Anybody else a fan of LGR (Lazy Game Reviews)? His videos have been keeping me company lately as I do the dishes.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLx053rWZxCiYWsBE...

He leans very heavily into old PC hardware - especially oddities - but he occasionally looks at old consoles, console mods, and retro games.

He's a bit of a goofy guy, and his sense of humor is probably awesome for some and annoying for others, but I think his scripts are well written. He does an on-point Duke Nukem impression as well.

I've had a blast checking out videos about hardware I had when I was younger or at least wished I had. His videos about Orpheus soundcards, Microsoft Sidewinder Force Feedback Pro, Zip drives, CompactFlash, etc. were great trips down memory lane. He even posted something on Patreon this week where he restored a Gateway 2000 G6 tower, which was my family's first "modern" PC back in the day.

Renaissance2K wrote:

Yeah, you could say I know him. :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eO89FPclQjk

Foxhack wrote:

Well, that was a much cooler response than I was expecting. Where on Earth did you find that gun?

On the monkey front, I finished Donkey Kong Land 2.

https://twitter.com/Renaissance2K/status/177133294...

Other than Diddy and Dixie jumping much higher than the monkeys in Donkey Kong Country GBC, I don't have much to comment on here. Toxic Tower was a brutal way to start the endgame, especially not knowing about some of the animals' special moves going in.

I started Donkey Kong Land III immediately afterwards, and while I barely remembered 2, III came rushing back like a nostalgia tornado. The songs that back the overworld and the data screen must have been living in the back of my head all these years without paying rent.

Renaissance2K wrote:

At one of the two flea markets in town. I think it was at the one that burned down four years ago. I left mentioned this in a comment EIGHT YEARS AGO, so I'm updating it a bit:

I bought some of these at my usual thrifts in the early 2010s, and sold them for a bit of cash. Then a few years later, a bunch more showed up; apparently a batch was donated to a Goodwill in California (which is where many of my sources got their stuff.) The online prices on these skyrocketed around that time.

I think I bought a few more and sold them, but kept one around for whatever reason. I found it while cleaning and figured he'd like it so I offered it to him and shipped it out.

Renaissance2K wrote:

I think just adding one new Animal Buddy would've made DKL2 a more memorable experience. DKL1 had a scrapped Animal Buddy--a ram named Rambunkshus, likely intended for the Monkey Mountains--so that idea wasn't off the table when the Game Boy series was conceptualized. It's a little interesting that technically-complicated stages like Castle Crush and Haunted Hall had to be replaced with unique ones, but that's sorta it for DKL2. It just leaned into DKC2 too hard to gain its own identity.

DKLIII at least has a new hub world, new stage names and arrangements, time trials, concentration, and a Bear with a teleporter. That's just enough to keep things fresh, which I appreciate.

I missed out when you explained it earlier, but Donkey Kong Land III got a full-color Game Boy Color port in Japan? I did some save file magic, downloaded a translation patch, and am going to work through that version of the game instead. I made it through the first two worlds already, but at least now I don't have to start over.

Anybody have any other games they want to nominate for next month?

Renaissance2K wrote:

Ms. Pac-Man Maze Madness, came out for and if i recall (or any of the Pac-Man World games if that one's too obscure)

There's a version of Maze Madness on GBA as well. I have it on a cart with Pac-Man World.

Ugh I love ms Pacman as well as Dreamcast.

Throw in a trip to Disneyland the LA Arboretum and some princess crap and thats the best 2024
I can imagine at this point. Unless something else pops up to add to
the festivities.

Renaissance2K wrote:

Bear has full animations in the original GB version, but is completely static in the GBC version. They also added a pit to the end of one stage in the GBC version to fix a barrel-related glitch. Small prices to pay for yellow Re-Koil enemies, I say.

I've got more work for you, @Renaissance2K : Four DK barrels, please!
Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest
Donkey Kong
Donkey Kong Jr.
Donkey Kong 3

I beat the NES ones in both Game A and B, doing multiple cycles and achieving a score of 50,000+ (or 100,000+ for DK3). To boost the challenge, I beat all four of these games with one hand, with the Joy-Con in a bizarre, nonergonomic peripheral that covers some of the buttons!

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DKC2 is excellent! It takes the framework established by DKC and expands it naturally. You can do team-up tosses, fight tougher bosses, use currency to buy help from new Kongs, and unlock secret stages to reach a secret final boss! The new Kong, Dixie, has a ponytail that she can spin like a helicopter--this makes platforming and boss-dodging easier. Additionally, Cranky hid Video Game Hero Coins in each stage, and you can top Mario's legendary rank as a hero if you nab them all. I did just that!

The game isn't perfect, of course. Stages flipflop on having two or three Bonus Rooms, so you can never be certain you've found everything until you finish the stage. Some Bonus Rooms and DK Coins are hidden in particularly obtuse locations, like hiding them inside solid walls with no indication. Two of the DK Coins are rewards you can get by hitting the end-of-stage target, so if you mess up the timing, you have to replay the whole stage. Web Woods is a pain in this regard, especially when using my one-handed setup.

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Donkey Kong is a great arcade game. It's fun jumping over barrels, platforming across girders, and loosening the bolts to defeat Cranky Kong and save Pauline. The fiery enemies are pretty tricky in the final stage, and the Pie Factory stage was removed from the NES version altogether (except on certain Red Wii Consoles in Europe and Australia and through a limited-time 3DS rewards program). Other than that, top-notch.

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I don't like Donkey Kong Jr. It's weird and finnicky, with bizarre obstacle courses that feel poorly thought-out. Climbing ropes isn't as fun as platforming to the top of a construction site, and the timing of the spring bounce in the second stage annoys me. Does anyone actually like the cheeky ape in the tanktop?

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Donkey Kong 3 is weird but fun. It's a space shooter-esque game in which Cranky Kong fools around in a greenhouse for some reason, and Stanley the Bug Man has to ward him off with pesticide. To progress to the next stage, you have to blast the ape with enough bug repellent to make him flee the top of the screen. But if you stick around without fending him off, you can blast the waves of incoming insects to rack up a high score. Which do you choose?

Given that light platforming is factored into this verticle shooter, it can be cumbersome trying to shoot the bugs. I always opt to blast Cranky as fast as possible to get to rack up a score that way.

Sweet monkey Christmas, @SupremeSarna!

I really need to play Donkey Kong Country 2 at some point. Donkey Kong Country is one of my favorite Super Nintendo games, and everybody seems to talk about the sequel like it's a perfect game.

Any other nominations for April?

Renaissance2K wrote:

The whole trilogy is phenomenal. Definitely play 2, 3, and the Competition Cartridge if you can.

SNES DKC is one of the most bland, uninteresting platformers I've ever played.

I've always found the graphical style to be off-putting as well.

Maybe 2 and 3 are better, but I don't get the love for the first one, and never have, even back in the 90s when it was the new hot thing.

It came out the same year as Earthworm Jim, Sonic 3, Sonic & Knuckles, and Super Metroid, any of which make for a far more engaging platforming experience.

Let's start voting on the April Game(s) of the Month. We only had a handful of nominations this time around, so I padding things with some fairly well-known, fairly accessible games that are seeing notable anniversaries this month.

Nominees
Kirby's Epic Yarn
Ms. Pac-Man's Maze Madness
Pac-Man World series
Painkiller (released April 2004)
Super Mario Land (released April 1989)

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 highest-scoring game will be the April Game of the Month.

Here are my votes:

Kirby's Epic Yarn - 5 Ms. Pac-Man's Maze Madness - 4 Pac-Man World series - 4 Painkiller - 3 Super Mario Land - 4

Vote!

Painkiller - 5

Kirby’s Epic Yarn - 5
Super Mario Land - 3
PAC-Man World Series - 1

Kirby's Epic Yarn - 0 (the 3ds version is out of most people's budgets, and I'm one of the few here I think that still has a wii hooked up)
Ms. Pac-Man's Maze Madness - 5 (PS1 version may still be available on PSN for PS3 if I'm not mistaken)
Pac-Man World series - 5 (even the reboot on modern systems has gotten cheap)
Painkiller - 0 (I'm sure the modern versions on GoG are fine, but this had some bad copy protection mallard in it when it came out originally so 0 on principle)
Super Mario Land - 0 (could have sworn we just did this one last year?)

benstylus wrote:
|
I was mistaken. Just Pac Man world. (Keeping my vote of 5 for Ms Pac though)

benstylus wrote:

We did Mario Land 2 in 2022, and Frank's thread played it back in 2020, but we've never done it in the RTT, unless it was picked in prehistoric (i.e., before Lunar started recording them in the OP) times.

Kirby's Epic Yarn - 3 Would play on my WiiU
Ms. Pac-Man's Maze Madness - 3 Sure, why not
Pac-Man World series - 3 Sure, why not
Painkiller - 5 So long as the Black Edition counts, have that from Steam
Super Mario Land - 0 Beat it for Franks' club, then beat 2 for here, neither are worth replaying IMO

Ms. Pac-Man's Maze Madness - 5
Pac-Man World series - 3
Painkiller - 4



I’m still working on DKC1 I started it yesterday but it is, as someone else
mentioned kinda bland. I tried starting DKC2 also but it stopped working
once before I could save my progress and I got annoyed. I figured the
Snes classic mini would be more reliable and I just want to finish one
of them before the month is over. So bland or not Imma try to finish
DKC1.

Maze Madness - 5
Pac-Man World series - 5

I've not made much progress on DKC2 lately, been trying to finish Trepang2 while it's still available via Luna, but also have a sick cat who may not be with us much longer and that's sad, frustrating and draining.
I will seek to beat it eventually, potentially in April as I don't think I'll get through it this month.

Slickriven wrote:

Do whatever you can for that kitty. That's most important.

I beat Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble! on TUFST difficulty, using only my right hand, and the controller was in an unergonomic peripheral that covered some of the buttons! The only way to make this tougher is the have someone kick me every time I press the jump button.
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This is one of my favorite games of all time. Many decry it for being gimmicky, but to be fair, the previous games weren't devoid of gimmicky stages. I find very few of these ones intrusive or poorly-implemented--just Murky Mill and Rocket Ride, really. The graphics are top-notch by this point in the series, too. I dig the Northern Kremisphere and its interactive world map, with secret caves to find and NPCs to assist for rewards. The soundtrack is the least of the series, but Eveline Novakovic composed a good one regardless. DKC3 is definitely worth your time if you're on the fence about playing it!

Donkey Kong Land III - erp, I mean Donkey Kong GB: Dinky Kong & Dixie Kong - finished rather abruptly.

https://twitter.com/Renaissance2K/status/177356287...
Despite hating Dinky Kong's "What if Baby Huey was a gorilla?" character design, this might be my favorite of the three Donkey Kong Land games. I'm not a big fan of the soundtrack, and losing both lives and Bear Coins with every reset seems like a terrible choice for a portable game, but I enjoyed the breezy level designs, being able to save for free again, and re-gaining access to a bruiser that can take down particularly surly Kremlings. The bosses were really annoying this time around, but I don't blame Rare for overcompensating, considering how simple the bosses in the original Donkey Kong Country/Land were.

In other gorilla news, my plans to play through the arcade Donkey Kong games didn't go as planned. I took a field trip to another office and indeed found a full-size Donkey Kong Jr. cabinet - complete with a CRT - but while I was expecting the game to progress like the console versions (Levels 1, 2, 3, and then 4 before looping), the International arcade release plays out with a 1, 4, 1, 2, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4 pattern before it loops. My clumsy gorilla mitts could barely swing through the first instance of Level 4, so I didn't see myself completing all nine on a single credit.

I went down the street in search of an original Donkey Kong cabinet and found one, although this one had been modded with an LCD that wasn't to integer scale. No idea if it was emulation or original hardware with scaled output, but the sound was convincingly filtered, if it was indeed emulated hardware. Donkey Kong apparently follows the same level progression as Donkey Kong Jr., so completing a loop seemed equally unlikely.

I also came to the harsh realization that I just really suck at Donkey Kong. Maybe I'll load up the Japanese releases on MiSTer and see if I fare any better.

I hold the original Donkey Kong Country series in too much reverence to attempt the GBA ports right now, so I scratched the surface of DK: King of Swing. Unclear if it's a brilliant platform or just briliantly annoying, but I'll report back.

I also bought some Donkey Konga bongoes. If there was ever any doubt that @SupremeSarna was a bad influence, there's the proof. Speaking of which, I really need to catch up on barrel badges...

Slickriven wrote:

Big hugs for you and your cat. Regardless of what a bunch of frozen-hearted souls say about pets, I still miss my wife's cat who we lost to cancer back in 2018.

Very sad update about my cat.... we recognized that his body was shutting down and to be as humane as possible we opted to give him rest on Wednesday evening. It was a super difficult decision.

He was my buddy, I found him as a baby kitten across the street (borough property, not someone's home) in a pricker bush and then he lived in a hole in my yard for a few months until he warmed up enough for us to touch him and bring him inside. From then on he lived with us for nearly 16 years and was a big bushy kitty, but often more scared of people vs. overly friendly. When he wanted to be around us though (normally at least once/day) he was a big purrer and would sit on your leg or next to you for long stretches of time and loved his chin scratched. After my wife had to put down our oldest cat a bit over 2 years ago, he grew closer to her, but was still my buddy.

I will for sure miss him but I know that we did the right thing, he had lost over a pound in ~3 weeks btwn 2 visits and stopped eating. We tried to force him to eat and gave him some meds, but he really wasn't interested. He also had his at least 3rd seizure (that we witnessed) in the past handful of years and was just seemingly 'out of it'. I believe his body was giving up even if I didn't want to accept that at first. It was pretty quick as we came home Sunday and he was not himself and isolated beside our bed all day. Monday evening we took him in and that's when we got the meds and mandate to get him eating again. He had some glimmers in the next ~12ish hours, but by Wednesday morning it started to feel cruel forcing meds into him when he just wasn't responding, nor himself. So we scheduled an appointment for that evening and said goodbye.

His nearly 16 years with us were filled with love that encompassed the vast majority of my adult life. It will take awhile to cope with his departure.

@Slickriven You did the right thing. It's very hard losing a longtime feline companion, but 16ish happy years is a generous lifespan for him. May he rest in peace, and may you and your family relish the memories.

Thanks @SupremeSarna (and @Renaissance2K) for your kind words. Yeah I've been realizing that 16ish years is exceedingly long for most cats and longer than lots of folks get with dogs or pets in general. So I'm grateful for the time I had with him, that was a blessing. But all that time also means coping with his absence will be possibly even tougher to deal with.

I am sorry for your loss @Slickriven but you did make the right decision.

There are no real words of comfort when you lose someone you love so much.
And yes pets are people, moreso than other humans in our lives sometimes are.

They really are our best friends and family members.
I hope you are doing okay sir, I know I wouldn’t be but at least he is
Not suffering. 💜

Thanks @BleedingViolet yeah he was akin to a child.
Honestly discussing him on here and with a friend today really helped, so I appreciate y'all reading or just letting me 'borrow' this thread for a moment to share about this, it's helpful to begin the healing process.
My wife and I could've tried to force more meds and food but we could simply see that there wasn't going to be a benefit to that beyond a little more time with him. And that wasn't even quality time due to how he looked so tired, mainly wanted to be alone to sleep and didn't seem to even recognize or acknowledge us. We knew that would've only been selfish, but calling the vet and scheduling that visit was brutal.

So... I played some Donkey Kong on Game & Watch Gallery 4 on GBA. Made it through all 3 stages of thr modern version. Still working towards 5 stars/1000 points on hard mode but got it on easy.

Classic version throws me off due to the scrunched screen and having to switch between which one is big. But still fun.

Also got a copy of Ms Pac-Man Maze Madness & Pac-Man World combo cart for GBA today, and found Pac-Man World Re-pac for PS5 at a local shop earlier this week. Already have both games for PS1 as well so hopefully one of them wins LOL

I just popped on to say that King of Swing is one of the most uniquely frustrating games I've ever played.

Davey Bones might be one of my bottom five bosses. It's not a bad game, necessarily. I actually think the swinging is a neat concept, especially when it's framed by Nintendo's experimental GBA/GameCube era. But the imprecision of it all is maddening, and being sent to the bottom of a level - as I've now done dozens of times - because you were one frame too early or late is really discouraging.

Oh well. I think I'm actually pretty close to the end, but with how the difficulty is spiking, that may be wishful thinking.

benstylus wrote:

I guess I need to make a Game & Watch Gallery 4 barrel then. Your Agent of Chaos gland continues to function appropriately.

One more day to vote! I briefly considered announcing a different game on the 1st as an April Fools joke, but I don't have the energy.

Just in time for the end of the month I finally passed Donkey Kong Country 1!

It gets to be more fun as the game goes along. Some of the levels are just gimmicky and annoying AF.
Its a pretty good game, I’d say overall about a 7 out of 10. I didn’t 101% it I think more around 60 something%
Playing it in a hurry like this makes it less fun and more anxiety inducing but whatever I had a long weird month and kept
putting it off so its mostly my own fault. The third set of levels were the most fun because they were beautiful
stages. There was even an Ewok village looking level or two that made me happy to see.

Also why tf was the first mine cart level so much more difficult than the second one that happened
near the end of the game? Thats just weird to have easier stages later on but I’m grateful in a way since the last levels were
more fun anyways. I liked it a little bit more than I remembered liking it before. Overall it was worth replaying and I’m
glad I did.

Didn't get DKC2 completed in March. I just completed the 2nd main area's boss and after how the month ended for me, plus my focus on another game, I simply didn't get/put enough time into it. Was a big fan of the original as my good friend and I played it a lot back in the day, but I'm not sure if we beat it so I did back in '21 and while it wasn't as great as I remembered, certain sounds like the minecart hitting the rails are seared into my brain and are fond memories. After beating 1 I did want to get to 2 and 3, so I will keep playing this and hope to beat it before long. 3 will likely wait for a bit though as some sections of this are just annoying.

BleedingViolet wrote:

Funny you should mention the Ewok thing--the Japanese soundtrack refers to the Treetop stage theme as "Ewok Village." Given Rare's sense of humor, it wouldn't surprise me if they saw that and delared it canon.

Wjat were your favorite and least favorite stages? Got any in mind?

Donkey Kong has dived into his Banana Hoard, Scrooge McDonk style. Here are the results from this month:

benstylus image BleedingViolet image BloodPuppetX image Frank image image Renaissance2K image image image image image Slickriven image SupremeSarna image image image image image image image image image image image image image image image

You folks have been busy!

Thanks to everyone who peeled back the banana on the Kong dynasty this month. Should you pay another visit to Donkey Kong Country, Land, Commonwealth, DMZ, or any other internationally recognized gorilla-ruled sovereign body, feel free to share here to add another barrel to your cache.

Here is the final tally for April's Game of the Month:

1. Ms. Pac-Man Maze Madness - 22 points
2. Pac-Man World - 21 points
3. Painkiller - 17 points
4. Kirby's Epic Yard - 13 points
5. Super Mario Land - 7 points

Gender dynamics being what they are, while Pac-Man built an empire of arcade games, follow-ups, and power-ups, it took his poor wife 18 years to get the pseudo-sequel that her grown-breaking eponymous title deserved. Ms. Pac-Man Maze Madness - a reimagining of the blockbuster classic arcade game - dropped for the PlayStation in 2000 and infused the Pac Maze formula with 3D graphics, level progression, and a big bad that's after the world's treasures. The initial PlayStation release was followed up with spruced up ports for the Nintendo 64 and Dreamcast, a 2D portable release for the Game Boy Advance, and a PC sequel that nobody cares about.

Play Ms. Pac-Man Maze Madness on
PlayStation
Nintendo 64
Dreamcast
Game Boy Advance

Complete the single player mode in any release of Ms. Pac-Man Maze Madness to earn the 3D Ms. Pac-Man badge: image

Not enough to satisfy your dot appetite? How 'bout a Bonus Game or two?

Complete the Quest Mode in any Pac-Man World game - or the Re-Pac remaster - to earn a bonus badge: Badges coming soon

Feel free to post any #BeatIt screenshots you accumulate; wakkawakkawakka sound effects optional.

I just missed the deadline, but I finished DK: King of Swing early this morning. Or, it finished me, depending on your perspective.

https://twitter.com/Renaissance2K/status/177481260...

Having never heard of this game before and heard it described as "Donkey Kong controlled by shoulder buttons", I don't know what I was expecting, but it wasn't an evolution of Clu Clu Land. Donkey Kong leaps around, grabs pegs, smashes into barrels and enemies, and somehow floats his way up level after level. And he spins. Oh lawdy, he spins a lot.

While the first two worlds are straightforward and inoffensive, nearly everything that happens after that point seems engineered for maximum frustration. Missing one jump - which is extremely easy, considering how precise timing needs to be with DK almost never being stationary - could mean having to watch a monkey slowly fall back to the bottom of the level, forcing you to start all over. Boss fights - especially the final boss - feel chaotic and random, and take way too long, especially by Nintendo's standards.

I should have just played one of the other GBA games. At least I've checked off one of NIntendo's odd experimental games and no longer have to wonder if it was any good.

Renaissance2K wrote:

I started that last year but never finished it. From what I've heard, the DS sequel is a stark improvement.

SupremeSarna wrote:

Coming from a King of Kong like you, that says a lot.

Got started on Ms. Pac-Man on the - it's alright I guess. I played the first level twice and still didn't get all of the dang fruit nor yellow balls (actual name escapes me) which was annoying. I'm 4 levels in I think and finally got all of the fruit in 1 level.
Am pretty sure I won't be replaying levels to get all of the stars per, especially the time-attack type run, but for something I can play for just a handful of mins and make some progress, it's not too bad and worth sticking with.

So.. GBA is not the ideal way to play this game. It's not terrible but the graphics aren't always clear where you can go due to the pseudo-3d angle.

Also I got to the boss (i think there is just the one) but it appears to be a multi part fight. I need 32 stars to do the next part and I have 19 now.

So that means replaying old levels. Boo.

I just ordered the Dreamcast version off Ebay from a seller in the City of Orange here in CA,
which I mainly ordered from them because its not too far from me.

Like other sellers they didnt show the bottom of the disc so I am being kinda hopeful,
but they also listed it in very good condition so that made it a little easier too.
Hopefully we can both enjoy this game and get through it this month 😃

I’m excited because the veedjo clips I saw look like a mix between a 3d ms Pac-Man and
a puzzle game? Idk but it looks really cool to me 💜 Its going to be fun 😃

Slickriven wrote:

Dots?

SupremeSarna wrote:

I meant to reply to this the other day but there were more negative levels than positive ones.

Let me post the main ones imma power up the Snes Mini and tell you if you don’t mind 😉

Favorites:

Mine Cart Madness: (somehow this was a better easier and more fun version
of the first mine cart stage, which was too hard so early in the game)

TreeTop Town: its beautiful and maybe the best level in the game based on aesthetics alone.
Also its not too hard but still a challenge.

Coral Capers: The best and easiest underwater stage. Its just fair and pretty darn good.

Forest Frenzy: based on it being another beautiful level ….. basically everything in Vine Valley is pretty good.
so Imma stop listing favorites onto the gimmicky bullcrap that Rare was like what fudge ever bro about.

Least Favorites:

SlipSlide Ride: gimmicky and too difficult too be fun. Its OKAY but its also a fudging waste
of time like many of the more gimmicky stages of the game that were just not very well thought out.

Stop & Go Station: fudging stupid annoying garbage, seriously Rare ….. wtf?!?

Mine Cart Carnage: If pacing of difficulty means anything to yall this level belongs closer
to the end of the game. Really dum level placement here.

Blackout Basement: another annoying Gimmick based waste of time.

…..

Seriously though Rare clearly got their act together for the second game and the first one was just
more like a trial run. There were some levels that were just filler bullcrap and honestly that is frustrating
looking back because this game was clearly supposed to be either WAY better or just a random
flex of the graphics the SNES was supposed to always be capable of. And yet the DKC games were
almost the only games ever released that showed the SNES could compete with the Genesis as far as
graphics were concerned. Better mechanics, for the most part absolutely. Better graphics? Fudge no! Not ever.
Gameplay does MOSTLY matter more than graphics but still, I doubt anyone wants to play
Super Mario Bros 2 over whatever the newest platformer by Nintendo on Switch is.

I still think DKC1 is a really good game but future installments show how much better
it should have been. I imagine there was a rush to release it but who gives af?
People paid full price at release …. Sigh.

I guess this is partially why games these days take forever to release.
Gotta make sure its representative of the effort you pretended to put into it.

Fancy graphics and boring bullcrap gameplay do not a classic game make.
Case in point.

BleedingViolet wrote:

Hahaha yeah.... those

I've collected 2 of the warp device's gems now and played 1 level after that. After benstylus' comment, seems like I'll need to get more stars for collecting stuff and am up to 15, but annoyingly missed like 2 dots and a fruit on a recent level. I guess it's good that stages aren't horrible to replay, but needing to collect all of 350+ dots in a level, even with that compass thing pointing some out has still left me missing just a few too often.

BleedingViolet wrote:

Um, what? There are a ton of amazing looking SNES games. If you don't like the more cartoony style of Mario and Kirby, there are still games like Contra, Castlevania, Axelay, Castlevania, Street Fighter, Final Fight, Metroid...

The Genesis had a far more limited color palette (512 total versus 32,768 on SNES) and also could display fewer on screen at a time (61 vs 256).

There is a lot the Genesis Does that Nintendon't, but SNES typically won out in the graphics department when you compared games side by side.

BleedingViolet wrote:

They're called Pac-Dots because of course they are.

My sentiments are in line with what @benstylus said. The perspective on the GBA makes depth perception impossible, and the small viewport makes everything feel claustrophobic.

I'm about to fight my first boss and wasn't aware of the star gatekeeping, but that's another bummer. I've done fairly well with dot pickups but not great with the others.

Renaissance2K wrote:

Up to 27 stars now. Just 5 to go.

All righty, GBA version cleared.

Some bugs in the game. Had sound issues the first few times I started it, sound was all the way turned down in the options menu. Turned it up, played a bit and saved, and turned it off. When I came back the sound was all the way down again. I changed it, loaded my save, and started a level and it was immediately turned all the way down again. You can't access the volume from the pause menu, only the options, so every time I started playing it got muted. I then restarted the game and used the second save slot and had no troubles there.

During the game I had a bit of background flicker of a couple of the falling bridges you have to cross, but that doesn't affect gameplay.

One time during one of the ice block pushing stages, I pushed it, it went forward a space them back towards me and crushed me. I'm sure this was a bug because it never happened again.

@Renaissance2K if you got to the Gobblin boss fight, when you beat it you get a witch key they let's you open those green blocks you couldn't open before, which will let you complete some stars you couldn't before. However it seems that when you power off, that key goes away so you want to start with that boss before going back and star hunting.

Also, I have the Pac-Man World / Ms. Pac-Man Maze Madness combo cart, so maybe the bugs are just in that version (was published by DSI so I wouldn't be at all surprised).

Looking forward to playing the PS1 version later, as this one was... mostly playable, I guess? It was mostly not unpleasant (except for the boulders and lightning block stages), but only very rarely veered into pleasant territory. Oh also segments with the ghosts that carry black powder are awful. It just seems random when they start dropping it so you basically can't lure them to explode boxes without some dumb luck.

I would say it is thoroughly average, or just slightly below.

benstylus wrote:

{face_palm.gif}

Trying out Pac-Man World GBA now. It's far more action oriented so far. You have actual attack moves for non-ghosts instead of just power pellets. And you can jump!

Maybe we picked the lesser game, but I still think Ms Pac-Man was the right call. It's one of those mostly forgotten games (especially now that Ms. Pac-Man is dead.)

Just beat Esmerelda with 24 stars and the version I'm playing says I need 42 to do the next part. I also hit a bonus level earlier in a boat that kept freezing on me, at first just randomly early in the stage but after some tries and reloading the ROM I could reach the end of the stage only for it to freeze consistently when the Stage Complete message came up. Might not be able to play that level to get more stars so hopefully they're not required.

EDIT - ugg, I think I'm going to need to do some time trial runs to get all 4 stars per level to get to 42 total - blah

Got to 41 stars, just 1 more to go. Finally got the boat level to pass thanks to hitting the pause button a bunch, so that was 3 stars that I relatively easily earned once I could get the game to avoid freezing. Ended up having to do some time trials which are annoying. I see there's some other bonus levels including one called Shock Therapy that I'd love to do, it's like Frogger and should be pretty easy, but I don't know how to unlock it, so if anyone knows please share, Google wasn't too helpful. I think I might need to get a certain high score threshold in the Haunted Halloween level, but I'm not certain.

Got the last star I needed and faced Esmerelda a 2nd time to #BeatIt. Certainly won't land in my top 300 games beat, heh, but it wasn't horrible, just mediocre. I am not sure that the version that I beat has the additional bonus levels that other versions do. If anyone hasn't started this, I don't recommend my version, do the or version instead.

Proof:

I'm back to playing DKC2 and dang that honey region and the bee/hornet boss royally sucked. Didn't like getting stuck on the honey all the time, but that boss was brutal. The rollercoaster parts before him were decent, but you didn't jump with your cart every time and the sound when you hit the rails again was not the same, sad. Oh well, looks like I'm seemingly finally around 50% through. I'm for sure not getting all of the optional/hidden coins and such, but just nailing most jumps and such is enough for me.

@Slickriven There are secret stages and a true final boss, but they require the Kremcoins. Fortunately, there’s a weird cheat you can do in the first stage to get all 75 coins instantly: https://youtu.be/B8XgZLQt5os?si=ErPXfo4h-cweuKWw

Interesting @SupremeSarna - I was just playing and holy jumpin' did the levels I just do in the R. Kool's Keep totally stink - the windy cavern one, then the rising platform, the chain climb and icy lake weren't bad, but the F that toxic one where you need the stupid snake. I gave up after a LOT of deaths, will have to deal with that one later.
I was up to a pathetic 7 of the huge DK coins and 35+ of basic ones, not sure about the hidden ones behind the side-rooms mainly. I certainly wasn't trying to get them all and missed plenty but might do that trick when I'm near the final boss, thanks.

Ugg, been using a YT Let's Play to follow along and gage my progress and rarely spot a coin or something to go for. I just caught up and watched that Toxic level and gross there's the snake, then bird and finally the spider - that one is going to kick my butt for a while, can just feel it.

#BeatIt - Got DKC2 completed, proof below.

@SupremeSarna After beating it, the only 'special coins' thing I was shown was related to the seemingly 1/level huge DK branded coins and not the smallest ones that you get in levels or from that video you posted or even from the somewhat hidden rooms in most/all levels. But maybe there's some exchange? There are K. Rool (had that backwards in my last post) coins you get from beating bosses, too - I'm confused. I recall the golden animal statues you could collect in the first game, so this isn't new, but being all coins this time is a bit dumb, as it's a little hard to tell them apart, maybe that's in the manual... oh well. Nearly positive that I won't want to snap my controller and replay most of these levels seeking out any additional coins, just too frustrating. The Toxic one ended up not being too bad once I got through the snake section as I got the bird section in 1 or maybe 2 tries, ditto the spider, though I know I missed a bonus room that I saw the Let's Play hit as said spider.
Was not a fan of the final boss, but ramping difficulty was within reason I suppose.

@Slickriven Did you find the Lost World? Klubba's Kiosk lets you access each one of those secret stages, but only if you pay him 15 Kremcoins (the ones with K. Rool's face that you get from Bonus Rooms) apiece. Beat all those and you can do a (slightly easier IMO) rematch against K. Rool and nuke Crocodile Isle once and for all!

I assume you got the regular ending where DK uppercuts K. Rool, sending him down the mountain into shark-infested waters?

Yeah @SupremeSarna I got the Donkey Kong uppercut into shark waters ending. I never tried to pay Klubba 15 coins to access that secret world but just watched the Let's Play do it and yeah I don't think I would've done too well with most of those, but it was cool to watch. I do agree though that the other fight with K. Rool certainly seemed easier and was only really 1 phase vs. several for the main ending I got. I just loaded up the ROM and visited a Klubba Kiosk, I only had a paltry 18 coins for him, so I would've only made 1 trip. I'll stick with what I beat and be happy with that - those coins were from all of the generally hidden areas in the levels where you needed to collect the coin after a rather short section, correct?

Sure is a lot of DKC talk still... just goes to show how big that game was.

Anyone else doing Pac-Man World? I'm struggling with the GBA version and I think I'm only on level 3. Lot of cheap fall deaths in this level.

benstylus wrote:

I'm still working on Ms. Pac Man, but I was going to start the GBA version of World after.

Heh I forgot that World was an optional additional game, might have to see about playing one.

Just hit the star cutoff point in Maze Madness. Time to go farming, I guess.

Edit: Nine stars to go.

Edit 2: Two left!!