Site Event Midwinter Holiday Game Event | December 2021

[Tanooki]

Those are some awesome, and EXTREMELY generous prizes! I’m gonna put off buying SMTV now juuuuust in case.

I also finished Tropical Freeze this past weekend. But I’m going to try to get Cool, Cool Mountain & the Ice Cavern done this week, then put them all under one post.

 

[Bulletbill10]

@Chaotic Neutral @WestEgg

A couple more badges to claim. I got the record in snow whirled in Mario Party Superstars for the Snow Whirler badge. I actually hadn't played this game before, so I first made a record over the default one, and then played it until I beat it, just for good measure. Overall, I've really enjoyed my time with mario party superstars, but only had two thirds of the games played after going through all the boards once.



And finally, I trekked back into Xenoblade to earn the Valak Mountaineer badge. I initially started a new game plus, but it carries over your collectapaedia! Fortunately I had an old save from before I finished off the whole collection, and then had to work forward from there. If you want to guess what my last item was, it was...

Spoiler: surprise!

ice cabbage

I think I spent more days working on this than any other badge even with a head start, though getting the shiny eiscue probably took more time. I just binged that. Valak at night sure is a beauty though, so worth a revisit just for the mood.



And with that... I think I earned all of the badges! Again, I really appreciate everyone who has organized this and other challenge events. I've enjoyed all of them so far, and this one came at a perfect time for me. Combined with being a bit on the easier side, setting the goal to do them all has really brightened some long nights and encouraged me to plunge into a variety of wintery worlds!

 

[Chaotic Neutral]

wow those prizes, that is soooo cool, now I'm really gonna step up

btw, is there any restriction as to which version of Ocarina of Time to get Fogless Steel?

Because I was thinking of playing OoT3D;

No restrictions! OoT3D is fine, so is the original N64 version, so is the NSO version

@Chaotic Neutral @WestEgg

A couple more badges to claim. I got the record in snow whirled in Mario Party Superstars for the Snow Whirler badge. I actually hadn't played this game before, so I first made a record over the default one, and then played it until I beat it, just for good measure. Overall, I've really enjoyed my time with mario party superstars, but only had two thirds of the games played after going through all the boards once.



And finally, I trekked back into Xenoblade to earn the Valak Mountaineer badge. I initially started a new game plus, but it carries over your collectapaedia! Fortunately I had an old save from before I finished off the whole collection, and then had to work forward from there. If you want to guess what my last item was, it was...

Spoiler: surprise!

ice cabbage

I think I spent more days working on this than any other badge even with a head start, though getting the shiny eiscue probably took more time. I just binged that. Valak at night sure is a beauty though, so worth a revisit just for the mood.



And with that... I think I earned all of the badges! Again, I really appreciate everyone who has organized this and other challenge events. I've enjoyed all of them so far, and this one came at a perfect time for me. Combined with being a bit on the easier side, setting the goal to do them all has really brightened some long nights and encouraged me to plunge into a variety of wintery worlds!

Wow, that is amazing. Well done! And we're not even halfway through the month. Next time I do this, I'll have to step up the challenges!

 

[Ramune]

Has anyone done the shiny Eiscue one? I haven't really done shiny hunting in SwSh, so I'm wondering how long it takes (not that I think I'll have time this month). I love that penguin!

Prizes for this event are up! We now have an associated Midwinter Holiday Raffle for which badge holders in this even are eligible to enter! Six lucky badge holders will be eligible to win an eShop code for one of three new Nintendo games for this holiday season: Pokémon Brilliant Diamond, Pokémon Shining Pearl, or Shin Megami Tensei V!

Famiboards helping drive up SMT sales, we love to see it! But driving up Pokemon sales? They'll never learn if we do this!! /s

 

[Chaotic Neutral]

Has anyone done the shiny Eiscue one? I haven't really done shiny hunting in SwSh, so I'm wondering how long it takes (not that I think I'll have time this month). I love that penguin!

Famiboards helping drive up SMT sales, we love to see it! But driving up Pokemon sales? They'll never learn if we do this!! /s

@Bulletbill10 is currently the only holder of both the Eiscue and Wario challenges, having done every single one, which is frankly amazing.

 

[Ramune]

@Bulletbill10 is currently the only holder of both the Eiscue and Wario challenges, having done every single one, which is frankly amazing.

And here I am having not even bothered to boot up New Horizons to make some ice furniture.

 

[Bulletbill10]

Has anyone done the shiny Eiscue one? I haven't really done shiny hunting in SwSh, so I'm wondering how long it takes (not that I think I'll have time this month). I love that penguin!

Famiboards helping drive up SMT sales, we love to see it! But driving up Pokemon sales? They'll never learn if we do this!! /s

It took me the better part of a couple days to get one. It's further up the thread, but I think I encountered about 800 Eiscue, and chained about 600 in a row, with the shiny charm. I'm not actually sure if I chained correctly or of that does anything in sword and shield though, I just ko'd every Eiscue I saw and ran from anything else. Obviously only doable in shield. If you have sword you'll have to hatch eggs.

 

[Raytro]

I'm back eheh

A Dream Above The Clouds

​

Didn't planned to do this but after some researchs I found it would be way faster to get than I thought. So here it is: I took a break on Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and did it! Only took me a couple of minutes, thanks to some farming strategies eheh (ping @Chaotic Neutral )

It's the only one I can claim for now but:

• I finally decided to do another playthrough of DKCTF! I was too lazy at the beginning of the month but after days thinking about it, I decided to do it! I'm on World 3 so far and it's excellent. I loved the game first time I played it 3 years ago and I love it exactly the same nowadays: level design is great, gameplay is too
• I'm doing the Animal Crossing one these days! Only have 2 recipes as I write this but it should be done in like 3 days.
• I'm thinking of trying to get the Wario Land one. Never played the game but I saw some videos about it this morning and it looks pretty cool so I might try to get the game and play it before the event ends.

Aaaaand... That's it. I think when I will be done with these 3 others challenges, I'll also be done with the event itself. Can't do the Pokemon Shield and Origami King because I don't have the games (I could borrow them from my sister but it would be too long to get the badges). I don't have Xenoblade Chronicles anymore since I had it on Wii U VC and my Wii U is... dead lol. And I don't really want to play OoT again at the moment. It could change before the end of the month but I assume it won't.

 

[SnesCartman]

Nana Nana Popo
@Chaotic Neutral


This is my first attempt for Winter Event Badges, beating Ice Climber mountain 1 to 32.
I forgot Switch could only capture clip for 30 seconds so this clip is all i've got. It took me at least 4 hours... with save states (I used it 3 or 4 times).
Hopefully this time I can get more than one Badges, unlike the last one
I'll try to get the iron boots, it's been a while since I beat Ocarina of Time.

 

[Sheldon]

Has anyone done the shiny Eiscue one? I haven't really done shiny hunting in SwSh, so I'm wondering how long it takes (not that I think I'll have time this month). I love that penguin!

It took me the better part of a couple days to get one. It's further up the thread, but I think I encountered about 800 Eiscue, and chained about 600 in a row, with the shiny charm. I'm not actually sure if I chained correctly or of that does anything in sword and shield though, I just ko'd every Eiscue I saw and ran from anything else. Obviously only doable in shield. If you have sword you'll have to hatch eggs.

I remembered some confusion about the bolded from early after Sword/Shield's launch in that there was supposed to be shiny chaining according to the game's code but then it turned out chaining didn't do anything to shiny odds in actual testing. So I went and looked if any further progress had been made on the subject since I last checked in. Seems like chaining doesn't directly increase shiny appearance but sorta does indirectly because defeating a certain number of a species (not necessarily in uninterrupted succession) increases the spawn rate of yellow aura pokémon and those have a higher chance of being shiny.

From what I gather the shiny rate for yellow aura pokemon maxes out at either 1 in 512 or 1 in 456. If that's true the fastest method for obtaining a pink Eiscue is still combining Shiny Charm + Masuda Method and burning through penguin eggs at 1:512 odds.

 

[Bulletbill10]

I remembered some confusion about the bolded from early after Sword/Shield's launch in that there was supposed to be shiny chaining according to the game's code but then it turned out chaining didn't do anything to shiny odds in actual testing. So I went and looked if any further progress had been made on the subject since I last checked in. Seems like chaining doesn't directly increase shiny appearance but sorta does indirectly because defeating a certain number of a species (not necessarily in uninterrupted succession) increases the spawn rate of yellow aura pokémon and those have a higher chance of being shiny.

From what I gather the shiny rate for yellow aura pokemon maxes out at either 1 in 512 or 1 in 456. If that's true the fastest method for obtaining a pink Eiscue is still combining Shiny Charm + Masuda Method and burning through penguin eggs at 1:512 odds.

That's interesting. Thanks for looking into it! Personally, if they get close to similar odds, I'd rather ko. I just find egg hatching too boring, especially with the added box management.

While doing this challenge, I realized I have less than a box worth of space left in my shield file

 

[Raytro]

Yoooooo new badges!

Winter Villager

​

Despite being a former AC fan, I NEVER built snowmen. And god that was frustrating, even more because I can't use some tricks to build them easier. But like the October Community Challenge, it was cool to go back to ACNH, even if it was for some hours. Well, here are my 5 seasonal crafts!

---

Funky Mode Enthusiast

​

Did a new playthrough of DKCTF from start. It was INSANE. Like, I loved the game back when I played it for the first time (was in 2018), but this énd playthrough made me loving the game even more. Gameplay and level design are so well designed, as well as all the other parts of the game. It really was a blast and probably one of my favorite 2D platformers ever.

(Ping @Chaotic Neutral )

Now it's time to do the Wario Land one! But before I get into the game, It think I'll do the secret world of DKCTF (since I got all the KONG letters and did all the K levels), and also play a bit of Pokemon Brilliant Diamond (Only 1 badge left!).

 

[Leo]

I did the MK8 challenge, but couldn't figure out how to prove i got 1st in the 200cc. I did on the VS mode, but the results screen doesn't show the category. Then I did on GP, and it shows I won the cup, but not my results on each specific course. The pics prove I got 1st in three races though. So I guess you're gonna have to trust me on this one lol the one race I got 2nd was electrodrome, because of a damn red she'll on the last lap.

 

[Chalphy]

I did the Mario Kart event, I might try the Xenoblade one too.

 

[SnesCartman]

This one for Penguin Protector
@Chaotic Neutral


Okay that penguin race is certainly something, it took me at least an hour for that stupid race.
Next one probably my last badge hunt, iron boots in Ice Cavern, i'm currently at Fire Cafern.

 

[Weebos]

Here's a bunch of the Animal Crossing seasonal items. I had to run around like a mad man collecting the regular snowflakes lol.

 

[Raytro]

Lol Chaotic Neutral will be very busy giving all of us our badges

 

[Krvavi Abadas]

A few more badge acquisitions.

Snow Whirler (As noted, the mini-game was also included in The Top 100.)

Extreme Skier (A nice and condensed 200c race.)

 

[Chaotic Neutral]

Fantastic job, everyone! Sorry how late the badges came in, I was holiday prepping with the family over the weekend and just got back to the computer now!

 

[Estew]

Not really sure how to prove it's 200CC, but hopefully the speed is good enough haha.


And here's a screenshot of Cool, Cool Mountain in 3D All-Stars! Needed a reason to go back to it anyways...


Two so far! Might go for the Kirby Star Allies puzzle, Pikmin 3 DX boss, and Xenoblade Collection but not totally sure yet. Just depends on timing!

 

[MissingNo.]

I've bred 99 Eiscues, but a shiny ain't one.

 

[Raytro]

Started playing Wario Land Shake It, I've done the first two worlds.
I didn't think the game would be this frustrating. Missions are useless because the rewards don't worth it, motion gaming is pointless and ends up only being annoying, finding all the treasures would be really great if we weren't afraid to miss one and can't go back every second.
And maybe the worst to me: wtf with the secret maps?? Locking 1/3 of the worlds behind these is just nonsense. Not really because they're hidden, but because they're at random location without any hint. C'mon I don't want to shake my wiimote at every pixel in the game lmao

The game's core is good but all these things make the experience almost painfull. Hoping I will not get into trouble finding the Santa Sled. Anyway I'll play more later today or tomorrow, but I won't bother with missions and I won't target getting all the treasure for my first playthrough. Might check a wiki to find the secret maps tho.

EDIT: Just did the third world and it was cool! As I said I don't bother with missions anymore but I found almost every treasure

Also I found out there is some help to find the secret levels after beating the final boss, which is a really good thing.

I'll do World 4 tomorrow!

 

[Robert]

Had a bunch of these piled up!

For Chilly Rider:

Never really enjoyed this boss, but apparently I did good enough to get 3 stars and break my record time, so apparently I'm doing something right!

For Extreme Skier:

Went the distance for this one: did the 200CC Star Cup as it shows the results next to each race. There was a few restarts before getting to Mount Wario (nothing less than triple stars for me!), but it was smooth sailing down the mountain when I got there.

For Ice Face:

This didn't take anywhere near as long as I thought it would, lol! Only took me about ~80 eggs or so, which is really good by Masuda method standards. Bless the Shiny Charm. Also love that shinies hatched from eggs have a unique animation!

For Penguin Protector:

I swear the red coin mission in this stage messes me up every time! I got every other star on my first attempt, but ended up tossing poor Mario down the mountain on several occasions trying to get the one on the ledge near where you start. A decent stage, but probably not one of my favorites.

Probably going to grab the Animal Crossing one as my last challenge, unless I get the courage to play Ice Climber, lol.

 

[Bulletbill10]

Started playing Wario Land Shake It, I've done the first two worlds.
I didn't think the game would be this frustrating. Missions are useless because the rewards don't worth it, motion gaming is pointless and ends up only being annoying, finding all the treasures would be really great if we weren't afraid to miss one and can't go back every second.
And maybe the worst to me: wtf with the secret maps?? Locking 1/3 of the worlds behind these is just nonsense. Not really because they're hidden, but because they're at random location without any hint. C'mon I don't want to shake my wiimote at every pixel in the game lmao

The game's core is good but all these things make the experience almost painfull. Hoping I will not get into trouble finding the Santa Sled. Anyway I'll play more later today or tomorrow, but I won't bother with missions and I won't target getting all the treasure for my first playthrough. Might check a wiki to find the secret maps tho.

EDIT: Just did the third world and it was cool! As I said I don't bother with missions anymore but I found almost every treasure

Also I found out there is some help to find the secret levels after beating the final boss, which is a really good thing.

I'll do World 4 tomorrow!

I respect if you want to keep it purist, but if you don't plan to beat the last boss first, I would definitely consult a guide for the secret maps. Otherwise, even getting to the level you need for the challenge may be quite the trouble.

 

[Raytro]

I respect if you want to keep it purist, but if you don't plan to beat the last boss first, I would definitely consult a guide for the secret maps. Otherwise, even getting to the level you need for the challenge may be quite the trouble.

Is the Santa Sled in a secret level??

 

[Bulletbill10]

@Raytro

Well...

Spoiler: santa sled vague location

it's actually in a secret level whose map can only be found in a different secret level

 

[Niraj]

@Chaotic Neutral For Funky Mode enthusiast:

Spoiler

Always nice to have an excuse to play one of my favorite platformers again. If you're going straight to the end, it's actually a pretty quick playthrough.

 

[Raytro]

@Raytro

Well...

Spoiler: santa sled vague location

it's actually in a secret level whose map can only be found in a different secret level

Oh fuck lmaooo
Well I'll try to do it "legit", I only have the last 2 worlds to do and I have enough free time to try it. From what I know it seems to be in World 5 so I'll focus on that just after beating the final boss! Thank you for your answer

 

[MissingNo.]

I just realised I'm fighting non optimal odds because I don't have the shiny charm (I'm missing the sword doggo).

 

[Pineapple]

For the Snow Whirler badge @Chaotic Neutral

 

[Abzeronow]

For Winter Villager, @Chaotic Neutral



Took a while to get recipes and such. Guess I didn't play ACNH around Christmas last year.

 

[Raytro]

And FINALLY

My last badge for these December Challenges:

Shaken Santa

I managed to get the level and the treasure "legit" @Bulletbill10

And I also have finished the game (my 89th for this year). Tbh I have mixed feelings about it: cool ideas and level design but everything else seems awfully designed to me I gave it a 5/10.

As I said it was my last badge this month! Was pretty cool, thank you for the event!

Ping @Chaotic Neutral

 

[Nabbit]

I've always been interested in giving Shake It another go so I'm definitely interested to hear more about your time with it @Raytro. Sorry to hear it was disappointing. Was it mainly the obtuse secrets and mission stuff you mentioned earlier?

 

[Raytro]

I've always been interested in giving Shake It another go so I'm definitely interested to hear more about your time with it @Raytro. Sorry to hear it was disappointing. Was it mainly the obtuse secrets and mission stuff you mentioned earlier?

Was these, but also a lot of other things, like some boss, the terrible submarine stages, or last but not least, the way you can't enjoy the "bis path" at the end of each stage sometimes for just missing ONE jump. I'm a big fan of speedrunning and that feature was so cool to me at the beginning but it ended being as frustrating as all the things I mentionned.

 

[Nabbit]

Was these, but also a lot of other things, like some boss, the terrible submarine stages, or last but not least, the way you can't enjoy the "bis path" at the end of each stage sometimes for just missing ONE jump. I'm a big fan of speedrunning and that feature was so cool to me at the beginning but it ended being as frustrating as all the things I mentionned.

Thanks for the info, sorry it was frustrating
Seems like a polarizing game for sure.

 

[Bulletbill10]

And FINALLY

My last badge for these December Challenges:

Shaken Santa

I managed to get the level and the treasure "legit" @Bulletbill10

And I also have finished the game (my 89th for this year). Tbh I have mixed feelings about it: cool ideas and level design but everything else seems awfully designed to me I gave it a 5/10.

As I said it was my last badge this month! Was pretty cool, thank you for the event!

Ping @Chaotic Neutral

Congrats! Too bad the game wasn't more your speed, but I definitely agree with your complaints. I think it helps for me that they're just aren't enough (in my opinion) high quality 2d side scrollers these days, so I'm happy to get to experience one for the first time.

 

[totofogo]

Didn’t get in last month on time, thank god for Christmas break!

 

[xghost777]

@Chaotic Neutral
I completed the Penguin Protector community challenge! I grabbed all the stars including the 100 coin star again in my 3D-All Stars file. First time I played it since they fixed the un-inverted camera so that was nice to play it like it was meant to. Makes me want to do a fresh 120 star run soon



How do I upload photos more cleanly? I just made an imgur account and was having trouble with the app/site. Does public or private matter? Putting the link in my post directly gave me this big blocky thing, while the image button didn’t like the link at all. Still getting used to a message board, so I was hoping to learn. Thank you!

 

[Nabbit]

@xghost777 congrats on the badge! I recommend abload.de for pics uploaded to forums. Then using the direct link option from the links it generates. It's free and works well.

 

[xghost777]

@xghost777 congrats on the badge! I recommend abload.de for pics uploaded to forums. Then using the direct link option from the links it generates. It's free and works well.

Thanks! I’ll give that a try!

 

[404LinkNotFound]

@WestEgg @Chaotic Neutral


Extreme Skier. Win a 200 CC race on Mount Wario

 

[juuso]

I went through the whole QR code thing to get the screenshot on my phone only to realize a simple photo of my Switch would have been better proof.

Anyway @Chaotic Neutral , here's some of my crafted items for Winter Villager:

I started Animal Crossing from scratch as I didn't realize I could have moved it to the OLED Switch I recently bought (and traded in the old one). It's actually been very fun to only play it for fifteen minutes or something a day instead of spending hours on it like I did around the release and then burnt out on it. Had I not lost the save file, I may not have regained the interest either!

 

[Kitty Paws]

@Chaotic Neutral Adding to my ACNH badge collection...

 

[Suswave]

oh shit I’m running out of month! I really meant to do more of these, and that raffle sounds exciting… but here’s what I have so far (dramatically lit while dinging the concierge bell for @Chaotic Neutral and @WestEgg)

Extreme Skier

Thrilled about this one — this is actually the first time I won ANY 200cc race! and it was absolutely harrowing but I managed to get it first-try! That’s baby magic, I guess.

Penguin Protector

Lots of fun coming back to this in 3D All-Stars — picked up every star including the 100 coins for good measure! don’t ask me how many times I died, cheated, or accidentally walked out the door in the penguin race. it was… many.

Snow Whirler

This was technically easy since the pre-existing record was practically nothing, but I really went for it to make it count!

 

[Illusionary]

It took a few tries to get back into it, but here's a 200cc win on Mt Wario for Extreme Skier:

@Chaotic Neutral

 

[Brock Reiher]

I completed the iron boots and cool cool mountain ones. We love n64 nso, our goty

 

[39Subrosia]

A Dream Above the Clouds



I originally wasn't planning to go for any of these challenges, but I bought Star Allies last month and figured I was going to 100% it anyway.

I still prefer Triple Deluxe and especially Planet Robobot for modern Kirby games, but I had more fun with Star Allies than I expected. It's a nice celebration of the series up to this point.

Nana Nana Popo



I failed the final bonus stage

This is an IP that could really use a modern entry. It's a cute game with a fun concept, but it feels pretty bad to play. Even at the end, I was still getting screwed over by the awkward platforming.

Extreme Skier



I never bothered learning 200cc on Wii U or Switch because my first impression was that it didn't suit the game, so I wasn't expecting to get this on my first try haha.

@Chaotic Neutral

 

[Illusionary]

I must admit, with it being the second picture listed, I wasn't expecting A Dream Above the Clouds to require nearly full completion of the game, but here we are:

I had in mind that Pikmin 3's might be do-able, but with only a day to go, I think that's me about done for this challenge - thanks again for running it!

@Chaotic Neutral

 

[Suswave]

oh man not sure if I’ll be able to finish any of the others

were my previous post ones badge-eligible or do I need to provide clearer photos? @Chaotic Neutral / @WestEgg

 

[Mr_No_U]

Whew, cutting it real close here:

Funky Mode Enthusiast

Penguin Protector

Winter Villager

Extreme Skier

Snow Whirler