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StarTopic Retro Games |ST| Warp Zone Forever

I played Zero Wing at a friend’s house for the first time two days ago after growing up with the All Your Base Are Belong To Us meme. My friend is one of the few I know with NSO+ and I booted it up with the intention of only playing the first level when we were in between things, but the four of us there all got into it and beat the game (with rewind). I don’t think I ever saw footage of the game beyond the infamous intro cutscene and while I knew it was a side scrolling shooter I don’t think I ever saw it in action. The most interesting gimmick with it is once you get your first power up (there’s the basic spread, homing, and power shots that level up as you get more) you’ll immediately get two drones that fly above and below your ship and they are weirdly invulnerable. Like a laser won’t just pass through the drones, they’ll stop it altogether. If you go through a narrow passage the drones will clump up with you. You also can pull in enemies to use as a shield, but it’s kind of finicky. Anyway it was a good, brief time and the ending with some dancing eggpplant dudes was very unexpected haha.
 
xghost777 said:
I played Zero Wing at a friend’s house for the first time two days ago after growing up with the All Your Base Are Belong To Us meme. My friend is one of the few I know with NSO+ and I booted it up with the intention of only playing the first level when we were in between things, but the four of us there all got into it and beat the game (with rewind). I don’t think I ever saw footage of the game beyond the infamous intro cutscene and while I knew it was a side scrolling shooter I don’t think I ever saw it in action. The most interesting gimmick with it is once you get your first power up (there’s the basic spread, homing, and power shots that level up as you get more) you’ll immediately get two drones that fly above and below your ship and they are weirdly invulnerable. Like a laser won’t just pass through the drones, they’ll stop it altogether. If you go through a narrow passage the drones will clump up with you. You also can pull in enemies to use as a shield, but it’s kind of finicky. Anyway it was a good, brief time and the ending with some dancing eggpplant dudes was very unexpected haha.
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Good times with Zero Wing

Regarding more retro shmups (dreamcast counts already as retro), TriggerHeart Excelica is actually coming back to Switch thanks to the power 700 people and crowdfunding, it's coming late november/december

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My replacement Vita arrived today. I haven't got a chance to turn it on and test all the buttons, but I can say with certainty that this unit is in much better condition than the first one I received. The first one looked like it had been through a war, but this one seems relatively ok. No major scratches or other cosmetic damage. So that's promising.
 
Red Monster said:
My replacement Vita arrived today. I haven't got a chance to turn it on and test all the buttons, but I can say with certainty that this unit is in much better condition than the first one I received. The first one looked like it had been through a war, but this one seems relatively ok. No major scratches or other cosmetic damage. So that's promising.
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All the buttons work! Thank goodness. I'm very excited to try some of these Vita games I've got sitting around now. The first one that's got my eye is Tearaway. Yeah, it might have been ported to the PS4, but it just feels right to play this game on a Vita.
 
Red Monster said:
All the buttons work! Thank goodness. I'm very excited to try some of these Vita games I've got sitting around now. The first one that's got my eye is Tearaway. Yeah, it might have been ported to the PS4, but it just feels right to play this game on a Vita.
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Tearaway is probably the best first party Vita game in terms of really taking full advantage of the system. Uncharted Golden Abyss is rad too, but kind of a false promise for what Vita would be like since nothing else came close to it haha.
 
The first thirty minutes of Tearaway have me grinning from ear to ear. I think I'm gonna like this.

They put me in the Sun. Me! It's wonderful.
 
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I beat a game!

I got the urge to try Turtles in Time the other day, and I’m not sure why. I don’t really like brawlers, and I’m not a massive TMNT fan or anything. But something made me want to give it a go. And I’m glad I did! This game is a ton of fun. I especially liked how you could throw baddies at the screen. The story was simple, but it was told well throughout the game. The music is great! And there’s a good amount of replayability here too.

Turtles in Time makes me want to check out more games like this. I’m gonna try Hyperstone Heist now, and I’m definitely gonna play Shredder’s Revenge. After that, maybe I can try some other brawlers!
 
Red Monster said:
I beat a game!

I got the urge to try Turtles in Time the other day, and I’m not sure why. I don’t really like brawlers, and I’m not a massive TMNT fan or anything. But something made me want to give it a go. And I’m glad I did! This game is a ton of fun. I especially liked how you could throw baddies at the screen. The story was simple, but it was told well throughout the game. The music is great! And there’s a good amount of replayability here too.

Turtles in Time makes me want to check out more games like this. I’m gonna try Hyperstone Heist now, and I’m definitely gonna play Shredder’s Revenge. After that, maybe I can try some other brawlers!
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There’s been tons of great ones recently! Streets of Rage 4 is worth checking out too.
 
Red Monster said:
I beat a game!

I got the urge to try Turtles in Time the other day, and I’m not sure why. I don’t really like brawlers, and I’m not a massive TMNT fan or anything. But something made me want to give it a go. And I’m glad I did! This game is a ton of fun. I especially liked how you could throw baddies at the screen. The story was simple, but it was told well throughout the game. The music is great! And there’s a good amount of replayability here too.

Turtles in Time makes me want to check out more games like this. I’m gonna try Hyperstone Heist now, and I’m definitely gonna play Shredder’s Revenge. After that, maybe I can try some other brawlers!
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PixelKnight said:
There’s been tons of great ones recently! Streets of Rage 4 is worth checking out too.
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Can definitely recommend both Shredder’s Revenge and Streets of Rage 4 for more recent brawlers. Probably my all time favorite is the Scott Pilgrim Vs The World which was recently brought back. Just an awesome time in multiplayer and Anamanaguchi’s soundtrack is incredible.
 
Just had a weird core memory flash back.. Has anyone else played the NES boxing game "Ring King?"



My dad and I used to love this one. Big childhood game for me.
 
I have a lot of distant half-memories of cans kicked down the road

I swear I played something at my grandma’s called Pickle Wars

I’ve also recently been thinking a lot about King’s Quest VIII
 
Elemental Gearbolt and Thousand Arms are just a sample of many lesser known jrpgs that deserve to get more love honestly god i love those games alot.
 
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Since this is my de facto Vita thread, I’ll post about what Vita games I’m currently playing!

I just started Gravity Rush. The tutorial wasn’t promising, honestly. I had a hard time getting a feel for what was going on with the gravity shifting. It felt like I was flailing, honestly. But after maybe thirty minutes, when the first main area opened up for you to explore and do side missions, collect gems, and all that, I’m sold. This game is genius. Using the gyro to aim where you’re gonna shoot off to is an incredible feeling! I’d love to see a highly skilled player, cause I bet the stuff you can do in this game is mind blowing.

The combat is really iffy though. It feels basic and clunky and blah. Admittedly, I’m coming off of FFXVI which has the best action combat I’ve ever played, so anything by would feel bad by comparison. But this just doesn’t feel good. You gotta swipe the screen to dodge, I mean come on. Who thought that was a good idea? I’m sure the combat will get better as I unlock more combos and stuff, but right now it’s a downer.
 
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Red Monster said:
Since this is my de facto Vita thread, I’ll post about what Vota games I’m currently playing!

I just started Gravity Rush. The tutorial wasn’t promising, honestly. I had a hard time getting a feel for what was going on with the gravity shifting. It felt like I was flailing, honestly. But after maybe thirty minutes, when the first main area opened up for you to explore and do side missions, collect gems, and all that, I’m sold. This game is genius. Using the gyro to aim where you’re gonna shoot off to is an incredible feeling! I’d love to see a highly skilled player, cause I bet the stuff you can do in this game is mind blowing.

The combat is really iffy though. It feels basic and clunky and blah. Admittedly, I’m coming off of FFXVI which has the best action combat I’ve ever played, so anything by would feel bad by comparison. But this just doesn’t feel good. You gotta swipe the screen to dodge, I mean come on. Who thought that was a good idea? I’m sure the combat will get better as I unlock more combos and stuff, but right now it’s a downer.
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Yeah the combat in Gravity Rush is definitely the weakest part of both games. Shifting gravity to fall and traverse the world is the best part.
 
xghost777 said:
Yeah the combat in Gravity Rush is definitely the weakest part of both games. Shifting gravity to fall and traverse the world is the best part.
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Setting aside the combat, you know what game I keep comparing this to? Crackdown. Big open city areas with a focus on platforming with a bunch of collectibles all over the place, and upgradable skills.
 
Red Monster said:
Setting aside the combat, you know what game I keep comparing this to? Crackdown. Big open city areas with a focus on platforming with a bunch of collectibles all over the place, and upgradable skills.
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They definitely share a really game-y feel between the two worlds / the way you navigate them so I can see it. Definitely different vibes still as I’d consider Gravity Rush more chill haha.
 
Red Monster said:
Setting aside the combat, you know what game I keep comparing this to? Crackdown. Big open city areas with a focus on platforming with a bunch of collectibles all over the place, and upgradable skills.
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This is a retro game thread why are you talking about Crackdown that's a 360 game.

il_794xN.1983170528_czqy.jpg
 
xghost777 said:
They definitely share a really game-y feel between the two worlds / the way you navigate them so I can see it. Definitely different vibes still as I’d consider Gravity Rush more chill haha.
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According to Wikipedia, Gravity Rush’s director was heavily inspired by Crackdown. That’s cool! Now I feel smart for recognizing the influence, lol
 
Halfway through Asura’s Wrath, and I got questions

how come this dude keeps losing his arms? and gaining them back? and sometimes he has six arms for seemingly no reason. pick a number bro.

how come all the heavenly creatures, gods included, are robots?

how come the remaining deities are so freaking arrogant, even as Asura is wiping them out one by one?

why does this game rock so hard?
 
Red Monster said:
Halfway through Asura’s Wrath, and I got questions

how come this dude keeps losing his arms? and gaining them back? and sometimes he has six arms for seemingly no reason. pick a number bro.

how come all the heavenly creatures, gods included, are robots?

how come the remaining deities are so freaking arrogant, even as Asura is wiping them out one by one?

why does this game rock so hard?
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The answer to all of these questions and more is because the game is awesome as heck :)
 
Was kind of funny these past few weeks I was both playing a new game and a retro game at the same time with The Legend of Nayuta Boundless Trails. It was a former PSP game like Trails From Zero and Trails To Azure before it that was brought over to the West for the first time a decade plus later with a definitive edition on modern consoles. This one I enjoyed and had a good time with, but didn’t super love compared to a normal Trails game. It’s an action RPG like the Ys games, though it is level based and the levels are quite short at just a few minutes each. It was discussed in the ST how it definitely feels like a game from its era with stuff like how it shouts out achievements and has the 3 Star system mobile games at the time were most fond of. It also just feels like a game that would never be made today quite like it is. While it does have a lot of cool things around the short levels (an island of residents to get to know, an Animal Crossing style museum, etc.) it is very focused on those action levels and there’s a big focus on replaying levels and remix levels.

While I’m in the process of figuring out if I’m doing a New Game+ run, I’ve finally turned my attention back to my final Wii U VC games project by starting a replay of Mario and Luigi Super Star Saga! I’m a few hours in and having a blast! I’d like to share some updates as I play through between here and the RPGs ST. I’m really excited to play through this one because while I’ve attempted to start a few replays over the years, I never quite got any going. Here I’m fully committed to seeing it through and because it has been so long my replay is striking a great mix of nostalgia and feeling fresh.
 
Ok, so Asura’s Wrath. This game is ALL spectacle and nothing else. That’s literally all it has. And my god does it do a great job with spectacle. It’s awesome.

Gameplay-wise, it’s really not awesome though. It’s 30% boring combat and 70% QTEs. How many slow-mo punches can you hit Y at the right time for, honestly? What really bothered me about the QTEs is that they don’t actually matter. You can’t fail a QTE. If you miss a prompt, you just get a worse score at the end of the chapter. There’s no consequences for them. And in a game that is mostly made up of QTEs, that’s a problem. It turns the game into mostly just cutscenes. Incredibly entertaining cutscenes no doubt, but it’s hardly interactive.

Also, I gotta ask because it’s never explained - why are the demigods all robots? That doesn’t make any sense!

All in all, it’s really entertaining. Not the best “game” though.
 
Asura's Wrath is like Deadly Premonition, a game worth experiencing but not really a game worth playing imo. They're both best experienced as a lets play or one of those youtube "movie" edits.
 
My favorite part of Asura’s Wrath is the battle on the moon that eventually sees Asura impaled with a sword and pushed out of the other side of the Earth. What I like about the game is it sort of makes gonzo action work that otherwise doesn’t play well in a video game. While I think it works really well as is for the experience it is going for (Asura’s simple anger being his biggest strength), if someone ever revisited the concept they could make a more in depth action system for the regular battles.

Would love to see a Symphogear game made like Asura’s Wrath. It’d be such a good fit!
 
One thing I strongly disliked, and I can’t believe I forgot to mention this earlier, was how often the game wants you to mash a button as fast as you can. I’m old now, my thumbs don’t move as fast as they used to, and by the time the game decides that I’ve mashed enough I’m usually starting to feel it.

If I never have to mash a button really fast again to fill a bar, it’ll be too soon.
 
I wrapped up my replay of Mario and Luigi Super Star Saga which I finished far sooner than I expected. I wrote some thoughts on it in the RPG ST focused on its RPG qualities that I’ll quote here.

xghost777 said:
I didn’t think I’d actually beat Mario and Luigi Super Star Saga tonight haha. I finished around 14 hours which was far less than I was expecting as I thought it’d be roughly 20. I did not remember Joke’s End at all. That was a rad area as it fully played around with separating the two brothers. There’s other RPGs that split your party up, but with the mix of action and light puzzle solving it feels pretty special for old turn based RPGs. The final gauntlet with Bowser’s Castle was a bit draining, but appropriately so. I completely forgot the Koopalings were in this game lol. The final battle was a bit of slog as the attacks weren’t too tricky to dodge and did little damage if they did hit at least with my team. Looked cool though.

Overall I had a great time with the game as the dungeon heavy start gave way to a more balanced adventure for the rest of the game. Super Star Saga is probably my favorite in the Mario and Luigi series due to its tight pacing and variety of events. I rarely ever mixed up my battle strategy especially as I felt like the first Bros attack melted through bosses quick enough though some of the other moves came in handy here and there. Thankfully the variety in enemies and enemy attacks kept the journey interesting from start to finish.

I’m very glad I got this done when I did as I’ll likely play at the very least Mario Wonder and Alan Wake II before the Mario RPG Remake. One day I’ll play the last Mario RPG I haven’t played, Paper Jam, but I think that’s certainly not happening in the next few months at least. I’m now down to my last three games for final Wii U VC project: Mario Golf, Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, and Donkey Kong 64. There’s a very good chance I’ll be starting the only one I would write about in this thread Final Fantasy Tactics Advance sooner rather than later. Like Super Star Saga, Tactics Advance is a replay for me and I’m really excited to replay it for the first time after two decades away.
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Thought I’d post here about some of its Mario qualities that I enjoyed. There’s tons of fun nods throughout the game to stuff like the original Donkey Kong and Yoshi’s Island. I particularly enjoyed a few, mostly hidden areas that turned the game briefly into a 2D platformer as well.

But what I most enjoyed about Super Star Saga was its own ideas about what a Mario game could be. Here Mario goes on a new adventure in the Bean Kingdom and meets all kinds of unique characters. My favorite in addition to the infamous Fawful, was the fabulous Prince Peasly who is just so fabulous the screen fades to white every time he pushes his magnificent hair back lol. Familiar monsters have their own regional variants and off brand looks and twists that are exciting. One of my favorite enemies I encountered last night for example was this incredibly absurd spin on a Bullet Bill enemy that I think was called a sniper bill who was a bullet bill holding a Super Scope like a sniper rifle that would shoot little bullet bills and then also himself for good measure when he attacked.

I forget just how much I missed this stuff exactly until I revisit it. While we won’t know for years likely about what direction the next Mario RPG will head in, Super Star Saga proved to be an excellent choice to play right before Mario Wonder which will again explore new, weird, and wonderful ideas and worlds after an extended gap in the 2D space.

For my next Wii U VC game, my next in line is Mario Golf though I will say upfront I dabbled with it prior like a year ago and I wasn’t too into it. I’ll be picking up that save and I already told myself if I wasn’t feeling it I will be putting it down early since I know I’ll be playing Toadstool Tour in my following GameCube replay project. I plan to start playing soonish so I’ll report back then. Worst case, I’ll roll right into my Final Fantasy Tactics Advance replay tonight which I’m very excited about. Then it’s just my DK64 replay left where I’m aiming to get 100% for the first time…👀
 
Red Monster said:
One thing I strongly disliked, and I can’t believe I forgot to mention this earlier, was how often the game wants you to mash a button as fast as you can. I’m old now, my thumbs don’t move as fast as they used to, and by the time the game decides that I’ve mashed enough I’m usually starting to feel it.

If I never have to mash a button really fast again to fill a bar, it’ll be too soon.
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I want all games to have the following qol options

Hold down button alternative for mashing
Auto complete action commands in rpgs
Auto complete QTEs
 
I must have just been not in the right mood when I last tried Mario Golf 64, because I’m having a good time tonight. While I miss being able to fine tune your shot like in future games, going with your gut on balancing terrain, weather, and distance, and seeing it pay off is great fun. I already had the first gold trophy and was in the middle of battling Luigi so after that I took on the second course and walked away with a trophy. Hoping to clear the third course at least tonight which I just started.
 
I finished Mario Golf 64 today with six gold trophies. I was most interested in playing all of the holes rather than spending too much time with the game so this worked out just fine. I’m not sure there is too much to talk about here, but I had a great time and I’m really impressed how much they nailed Mario Golf in the first game. It’s definitely the toughest of the Mario Golf games, but I was playing on the Wii U and saved at the start of each hole so I could try again if I wanted. I really appreciate save states and (while not present here) rewind in particular with retro releases as it gives you a great way to tackle the game as you please especially if you are more interested in seeing everything rather than conquering the challenge per se. While I did speed through this game with save states, I am looking forward to properly tackling another Mario Golf game with Toadstool Tour in my GameCube replay project next year.

With Mario Golf done I only have two games left in my final Wii U VC games project, a replay of Final Fantasy Tactics Advance and my first ever 100% replay of Donkey Kong 64. How Long To Beat says Tactics Advance is huge which lines up with my memories of it. I don’t think I’ll be beating it before Mario Wonder, but I’ll be playing it as much as possible alongside some other games I’m juggling.
 
xghost777 said:
I finished Mario Golf 64 today with six gold trophies. I was most interested in playing all of the holes rather than spending too much time with the game so this worked out just fine. I’m not sure there is too much to talk about here, but I had a great time and I’m really impressed how much they nailed Mario Golf in the first game. It’s definitely the toughest of the Mario Golf games, but I was playing on the Wii U and saved at the start of each hole so I could try again if I wanted. I really appreciate save states and (while not present here) rewind in particular with retro releases as it gives you a great way to tackle the game as you please especially if you are more interested in seeing everything rather than conquering the challenge per se. While I did speed through this game with save states, I am looking forward to properly tackling another Mario Golf game with Toadstool Tour in my GameCube replay project next year.

With Mario Golf done I only have two games left in my final Wii U VC games project, a replay of Final Fantasy Tactics Advance and my first ever 100% replay of Donkey Kong 64. How Long To Beat says Tactics Advance is huge which lines up with my memories of it. I don’t think I’ll be beating it before Mario Wonder, but I’ll be playing it as much as possible alongside some other games I’m juggling.
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Tactics Advance if you're just beating the main story can be done fairly quickly. The game has a ton of optional quests/missions. It also has an absurd amount of post game content.

I do find it funny your two games are Tactics Advance and DK64, as they're two games I probably won't replay without romhacks in 2023. Tactics Advance has a hack that removes the law system which I greatly prefer. I don't hate the law system on paper, but it's far too swingy for it's own good. You either manipulate it/your army in such a way that your opponents literally can't do anything, or you end up in some kind of unwinnable nightmare scenario where the laws are like "don't copy the prior action" and "penalty for healing status" and then the enemy will spam berserk on your party 🫠

For DK64 there is a hack that lets you swap characters at anytime. It greatly cuts down on the "dang it" factor of going somewhere with the wrong Kong and having to back track to swap.

Also I literally applied a patch today to my copy of Mario Gold that unlocked the 4 GBC link cable only characters 🙈
 
BassForever said:
Tactics Advance if you're just beating the main story can be done fairly quickly. The game has a ton of optional quests/missions. It also has an absurd amount of post game content.

I do find it funny your two games are Tactics Advance and DK64, as they're two games I probably won't replay without romhacks in 2023. Tactics Advance has a hack that removes the law system which I greatly prefer. I don't hate the law system on paper, but it's far too swingy for it's own good. You either manipulate it/your army in such a way that your opponents literally can't do anything, or you end up in some kind of unwinnable nightmare scenario where the laws are like "don't copy the prior action" and "penalty for healing status" and then the enemy will spam berserk on your party 🫠

For DK64 there is a hack that lets you swap characters at anytime. It greatly cuts down on the "dang it" factor of going somewhere with the wrong Kong and having to back track to swap.

Also I literally applied a patch today to my copy of Mario Gold that unlocked the 4 GBC link cable only characters 🙈
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I’m not too familiar with the emulator / romhack scene (the most complicated thing I ever did was everything regarding the fan translation patches and purchasing Japanese and Chinese versions of Trails From Zero and Trails To Azure respectively which thankfully had step by step walkthroughs) so for me it’s basically vanilla or bust. I remember Tactics Advance’s law system getting to absurd points like you describe so I remember liking the game less as it went on. I’m still in the breezy part of the game “don’t use chivalry attacks” when I don’t have any haha. If it was an in game option, I’d disable the law system in a heartbeat haha.

100% Donkey Kong 64 has eluded me for decades and I’m really looking forward to finishing out my Wii U VC games with it! This is one where even if free Kong swap was available to me I’m very eager to tackle the original challenge as is. Mario Golf was an exception, but I saved a handful of replays for the final games in case my Wii U, gamepad, or hard drive stopped working for whatever reason. Knock on wood all of it will work to the end!
 
xghost777 said:
I’m not too familiar with the emulator / romhack scene (the most complicated thing I ever did was everything regarding the fan translation patches and purchasing Japanese and Chinese versions of Trails From Zero and Trails To Azure respectively which thankfully had step by step walkthroughs) so for me it’s basically vanilla or bust. I remember Tactics Advance’s law system getting to absurd points like you describe so I remember liking the game less as it went on. I’m still in the breezy part of the game “don’t use chivalry attacks” when I don’t have any haha. If it was an in game option, I’d disable the law system in a heartbeat haha.

100% Donkey Kong 64 has eluded me for decades and I’m really looking forward to finishing out my Wii U VC games with it! This is one where even if free Kong swap was available to me I’m very eager to tackle the original challenge as is. Mario Golf was an exception, but I saved a handful of replays for the final games in case my Wii U, gamepad, or hard drive stopped working for whatever reason. Knock on wood all of it will work to the end!
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I hear ya on the complexity thing, I have a folder of "romhacking tools" for the dozens of programs for applying all manner of patch files. That said if you could handle the Zero/Azure buying/patching you can easily handle 90% of the average romhacks that are out there. Most of them are as easy as just "click rom click patch click apply". Heck nowadays a lot of romhacks will either come with a "drag your rom file here" batch program, include a program that walks you through it, or have a "apply patch online" link on the web page that'll let you check to make sure your legally obtained back up is in the correct file format. And on those sites your parents warned you about, some absolute scoundrels upload pre patched roms removing any guess work, not that anyone on this wholesome, Christian server would take advantage of sites like that.
 
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I played and “beat” The Mysterious Murasame Castle tonight on NSO. Those air quotes are incredibly heavy considering I made extensive use of rewind because this game was absolutely brutal. It starts off gentle enough in the first level or two, but soon enough the screen is filled with enemies and projectiles all out to murder you including some things that explode when touched and others that also summon more guys!

I would have put this game down entirely without rewind and save states, but I had a good time here with them. Certain extra tough screens that I cleared on my first try felt like I had stared into the matrix to overcome and it felt so satisfying. I’m not sure if I’ll ever revisit it and attempt to do some proper runs, but this was cool to check out like this.

I also tried Devil World in the same NSO drop. I played it for a few minutes and just said nah I’m good lol. Neat to finally play it though!
 
Been pretty steadily playing a few dozen minutes of Hogan's Alley a day. That game is just way too fun, and you can really feel yourself get better at it day after day. I'm considering it trainitn for when I eventually get Gumshoe.
 
After finishing Spider-Man 2 a few days ago, I’m getting the urge to go back and play a classic game from my childhood - Spider-Man 2. The game that revolutionized what a modern super hero video game looked like. I think it would be really cool to compare what the swinging feels like in each game. It was so groundbreaking and iconic back on the PS2.

I don’t remember much at all about the rest of the game though. Did it follow the plot of the movie?
 
Red Monster said:
After finishing Spider-Man 2 a few days ago, I’m getting the urge to go back and play a classic game from my childhood - Spider-Man 2. The game that revolutionized what a modern super hero video game looked like. I think it would be really cool to compare what the swinging feels like in each game. It was so groundbreaking and iconic back on the PS2.

I don’t remember much at all about the rest of the game though. Did it follow the plot of the movie?
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That game was awesome and yup it did roughly! It had some other villains in there too.

Swinging was amazing (in some ways better than the current ones imo) and I’ll never forget the postgame warehouse combat arena.
 
I started my final Wii U Virtual Console game today which is a replay of Donkey Kong 64! I’m going for full 100% for this playthrough which has haunted me for years as all of the other Nintendo platformers I’ve cared about I’ve always gotten 100% in. My immediate goal was to get all of the kongs which took some time as I did fully clear out Jungle Japes with both DK and Diddy and later got confused on how to unlock Chunky (I basically did everything you could do in that room and a smidge beyond before I leveled up Lanky and found the right switch lol). From there I went back and fully cleared Jungle Japes and Angry Aztec 100% with everybody. This wasn’t planned, but amusingly I ended my first day with 64 Golden Bananas so I’m just shy of roughly being a third of the way through.

I’m having a great time so far! There’s a lot to mentally juggle in the game so you move through it efficiently, but given this is the only game I plan to play until I finish it and I’ll be focused on one level at a time from here on it should go more smoothly. At least so far, a lot of the challenges are easier than I remember, but again I’m still early. The horrendous ones like Beaver Bother are absolutely still horrendous and I’m dreading harder variations. Most of my attempted replays in the past fizzled out before I’d really reach Chunky, so a lot of this replay is going to feel very fresh for me from now on which I’m excited about.

My plan for posting about DK64 is to post in here and in the November 2023 Nintendo General Discussion thread and I’ll be posting regularly until I beat it.
 
I’ve jumped from 64 Bananas to 108 bananas in Donkey Kong 64 tonight by fully clearing both Frantic Factory and Gloomy Galleon. Frantic Factory was tied with Jungle Japes for my favorite level in the game and that still holds up now. It’s a pretty disorienting layout despite there not being too many rooms as there are multiple floors all connected by tubes and no real map to guide you. Since I already cleared a good deal when I was struggling to figure out how to free Chunky, I decided to fully clear rooms individually which worked out well. I ended in the production / big machinery zone which was quite a tricky platforming gauntlet especially with the bigger Kongs. The boss was fairly infamous for me growing up, but I beat him with minimal fuss (only got knocked off twice). The smoother frame rate on Wii U helps.

Walking into this playthrough the only two levels I had a clear vision of were Jungle Japes and Angry Aztec since I played through those the most in my prior attempts to get a 100% playthrough started. Frantic Factory I had fuzzy memories of, Gloomy Galleon I had very little (everything beyond is virtually none) so this one was interesting to approach. It was kind of shaped like a plus sign, but with two of the ends being big water zones (which is where you can play as Engaurde). This was the level I was in some ways the most concerned about walking into this playthrough because this is where my prior playthrough stalled (I had a Wii U Save State inside of it when I booted the game up yesterday, though I wanted to start from the beginning). What I’m finding so far at least with this playthrough is perhaps this game is not quite as intimidating as I’ve built it up in my head. There’s a ton to juggle especially if you are aiming for efficiency, but individual Kong progress isn’t too bad overall after you poke away at fully unlocking each level. That’s not to say this game isn’t tedious and draining at times, it certainly is. For example, having to play instruments in specific spots and then run and swim across the level to an open door on a time limit with every Kong (some had two and others required messing with water levels!) to play technically unique, but very similar small zones, is incredibly tedious! I’m amazed at my progress though nonetheless as I’m already more than halfway through the game with only three main levels left to go.

Only other thing I want to note about Gloomy Galleon, is the very last Chunky banana stumped me. I tore that level apart twice and just couldn’t figure it out. Turns out it was inside a pirate ship that I was avoiding since the game kind of slowed down and had the music fail near it. There was a very dimly lit hatch to ground pound through that I didn’t notice when I landed prior with Diddy Kong.

I’ll be tackling at least Fungi Forest tomorrow. I walked inside and stopped because I was too tired to keep going, but uh yeah I absolutely do not remember this level at all beyond that it existed so this is going to be interesting.
 
I stopped and started a few times between new releases this fall, but now I’m playing Ocarina of Time on NSO. I’ve played this game through just once like 20 years ago, so I really only remember it in the abstract: never not screaming when you swing a blade, skulltullas, etc. I feel like the only person who doesn’t know this game by heart lol. In a fun way! I am often imagining the horror of somebody watching me cluelessly amble through. It holds up! Link and Zelda meeting in the courtyard is still a wonderful little scene. Just got to Kakariko Village.
 
Been playing Excitebile 64 for the first time. Wow. I never thought a game like this would hold up after all these years but it really is amazing.

Its got a pretty tough learning curve, but when you get it, you feel absolutely incredible!
 
Mer.Saloon said:
Been playing Excitebile 64 for the first time. Wow. I never thought a game like this would hold up after all these years but it really is amazing.

Its got a pretty tough learning curve, but when you get it, you feel absolutely incredible!
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Excitebike 64 really is amazing. It and Wave Race 64 are two of the best games on the system. It can get really hard though, especially in the later events.
 
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Mer.Saloon said:
Been playing Excitebile 64 for the first time. Wow. I never thought a game like this would hold up after all these years but it really is amazing.

Its got a pretty tough learning curve, but when you get it, you feel absolutely incredible!
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I think Excitebike 64 is the only major first party N64 game I don’t own and haven’t played. If I ever get NSO+ I’ll have to check it out!
 
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Had a lot more free time and enthusiasm today than I expected so I made excellent progress. I completely finished both Fungi Forest and Crystal Caves and even briefly started the final normal level Creepy Castle so my banana count jumped from 108 to 172! Only 29 bananas to go!

This was probably my favorite day of my playthrough overall because I legitimately do not remember these levels at all. If you asked me to describe Crystal Caves for example before I started this playthrough I would have described it as an open, bright, snow and ice cave, which uh nope lol. It’s mostly a normal, dimly lit rock cave with a few crystals here and there with a stream snaking through it (I guess I at least remembered there was a river of some sort lol). I legit might as well be playing a new to me game at this point which is quite cool and obviously since I never got 100% completion before some of these challenges and likely small parts of areas are indeed new to me even if I couldn’t tell you which.

Between the two levels I fully completed, Crystal Caves was definitely my favorite because it was more straightforward for objectives and had more interesting spaces to explore thanks to the multiple levels in the larger areas. I did enjoy Fungi Forest, especially climbing the big mushroom inside and out, but it did have a ton of gates to open and a day and night switch you’d have to run back and flip regularly which is the part of the game I’m least enthusiastic about. Thankfully the warp pads and tag barrels were extra generous on that level which made it fairly smooth to explore.

I’m not sure how busy I am or not tomorrow, but I do think there is a decent chance I conclude my playthrough which is very exciting!
 
A few hours ago now I finished Donkey Kong 64 at 101% for the first time (and got all 3,500 normal bananas!) which had haunted me for decades and concluded my final Wii U Virtual Console games project. I’m really excited I finally finished it after 20 hours and 46 minutes of in game time. Wanted to share my final thoughts on it now that I had a chance to sit on it.

So today I wrapped up Creepy Castle, got the last few overworld bananas, destroyed the laser cannon, and beat K. Rool in the “boxing” match. Creepy Castle was a very solid final main level though it was in some ways anticlimactic by being very straightforward. While the bottom floors are a smidge confusing with multiple layers, you mostly just climb up to the top of the castle and there are stops along the way for various kongs. Even so, I appreciated this level as a “final lap” of sorts. It looks really cool with the moody lighting (especially some of the interior rooms with fog) and the construction of it still feels interesting. Most challenges were short and tough and concluded with minigames (more than most levels) and it did have the audacity to include two rounds of Beaver Bother (which I’m concerned I tapped into some dark force to become somehow good at lol). As for the overworld bananas, I know I was missing some in my original playthrough decades ago, but I couldn’t tell you which. I looked two overworld things up including how to access the battle arena in Fungi Forest’s lobby which is just mean even if there is technically a clue for it (you are supposed to shoot the moving mushroom on the ceiling depending on the color to match the Kongs, but it starts off red so if you didn’t first shoot it with Diddy it just seems to be a weird decoration).

As for the end of the game, the final gauntlet to shut down the laser cannon is of course a minigame challenge rush. I guess you’ve technically been preparing all game for it lol. K. Rool is a very cool boss fight, but some of his phases like Tiny Kong’s in particular are brutal (that was probably my favorite even so). I’m glad I could save state in between rounds since I believe you have to replay it entirely if you fail a round. It’s a very cool note to end on with Chunky’s big wind up punch. Since I rolled credits with 101% I did see the incredibly bizarre extra cutscene you get that I didn’t know existed until yesterday. I largely loved replaying this game even if it was at times obnoxious, so I guess that was a weirdly fitting deflating note to end on lol. I think between this post and my other posts just above, this basically covers all of my thoughts on the game.

…

With my Wii U Virtual Console project done I do want to pick another legacy console project to tackle. I feel very lucky that my launch Wii U lasted as long as it did since I know quite a few Fami members have had theirs die. After I finished DK64 I wanted to take stock of how many PS3 games I have left to play and I found all of my controller batteries are effectively dead which makes sense since I never replaced them. I ordered a replacement battery on Amazon so hopefully I can get one working (if it works well, I’ll get a second one). I was originally going to replay some GameCube games first, but I think I’ll probably play a few PlayStation 3 games first after all due to that. Amusingly, my guess for my remaining PS3 games was dead on as I guessed 40 prior to double checking. I’ll post again when I’ve settled on my plans or when I start playing some retro games again.
 
xghost777 said:
With my Wii U Virtual Console project done I do want to pick another legacy console project to tackle
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Congrats! Your dedication to finishing your Wii and Wii U libraries is definitely inspiring and one of these years I’d like to do something similar myself
 
I might be bouncing between older games for a bit as I definitely plan to play some PS3 games after I fix my controller, but I planned out my GameCube replay project and started it tonight. I’m going to be replaying six shorter games and then playing a longer one probably bigger than the other six combined lol. The seven games and likely order are Wario World, Rogue Squadron II, Mario Golf Toadstool Tour, F-Zero GX, Kirby’s Air Ride (which more accurately I’ll likely just dabble in), Zelda Four Swords Adventures, and Tales of Symphonia. A lot of the bigger GameCube games I’ve replayed over the years at various points (the Metroid Primes, Mario Sunshine, etc.) so it’s really just these seven I most want to replay.

I did start Wario World tonight and I’m already a solid way into it as I 100% finished the first three out of eight levels. I’m not really sure what the reception of this game is on Fami as I rarely ever see it discussed, but I’ve always loved this game. It’s very easy, but Wario feels so good to control it’s just a blast tearing through these levels and collecting all of the treasures, crystals, and more. Given how short it is, I’ll likely post again when I finish it, but yeah if anyone has played it I’d be curious to know what you thought of it.
 
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