Summer Games Challenge 2023 - STARTS NOW!

[Syndicate]

...it's really cool to see the Summer Games Challenge back this year. Unfortunately, I still don't have a lot of my classic consoles hooked up so my list will be really heavy on the Sega side of things. I'm going for the Veteran mode, and two games will even be making a return from last year

Shinobi III: Return of the Ninja Master - It wasn't until I watched Sega Lord X's review of this classic earlier this week did I realize that I never finished this game. I'm going to do my best get through it this summer.

Midnight Resistance - Run and guns are fun and I've never given this one a real go but have enjoyed what I've played before, so here goes.

Ranger X - Another awesome Genesis classic I haven't played, from what I've seen Ranger X is a sight to behold and a joy to play. I'm really looking forward to checking this one out.

Super Mario Galaxy 2 - I tried this one last year and it's great, but I just ran out of time and never even made half way through. I know this will be a blast for sure.

Castlevania Symphony of the Night - I really enjoy a good Metroidvania and other than watching friends play through it while I was in college I've never given this one a shot even though I know it's the reason the genre even exists.

Phantasy Star - I really wanted to have a RPG on my list, I didn't even touch PSII last year which that may be a good thing. I'll be starting on the PS series from the beginning this time around, the plan is to save this one for the end.

Krusty's Super Funhouse - I thought it would be nice to have a puzzle game on my list and it wasn't going to be Columns. I remember having fun w/this one when I rented it from Blockbuster back in the day, so now that I own I'll see if I can get through it.

Biohazard Battle - I think it's always cool to have a shmup on the list, I couldn't make it through Thunder Force III last year but I'm willing to give another shmup I haven't finished a shot. I think Biohazard Battle has an interesting vibe to it, even though it's a mid-level shmup on a system loaded w/lots of great ones. This will be a stretch goal.

[marurun]

Syndicate, I love your Genesis selections. All good games. Midnight Resistance is probably the most middling of the titles you've listed, but it's a fun game nonetheless. What elevates it is Hitoshi Sakimoto's adaptation of the arcade soundtrack. Sakimoto's Genesis work is so smooth and synthy. It's pretty awesome just to listen to the game.

Shinobi III is a fun action game that takes the core of Shinobi and says, "What if Shinobi were faster-paced and more action-packed?" But you already know that, you're just playing to finally beat it.

Ranger X is a graphical/effects powerhouse which also happens to be a good game to boot. It's hard at first to figure out how to coordinate controlling your mech AND your wheeled platform, but it's rewarding when you finally get everything down.

Bio-Hazard Battle isn't mechanically as great as some other shooters, but it's graphically impressive and does some neat stuff. It's something to play for the experience of the graphics and graphical effects. Thankfully, it's not a bad game mechanically, so that helps a lot. It's not "work" to play, like some lesser shooters.

[Key-Glyph]

...it's really cool to see the Summer Games Challenge back this year. Unfortunately, I still don't have a lot of my classic consoles hooked up so my list will be really heavy on the Sega side of things. I'm going for the Veteran mode, and two games will even be making a return from last year

This list is soooo good. Ranger X is fantastic once you get the hang of it. Marurun mentioned that you have to control two different things sometimes, which is a hurdle. I had the hardest time getting used to the way you aim which direction you're shooting in. But if it clicks, it really clicks, and I remember having a blast playing at higher difficulties (although I've lost all those skills now, heh).

I loved Biohazard Battle's spin on shmups and its fascinating music, but I got my butt kicked by it. I shall live vicariously through your success!

1. Out of This World (GEN)
2. Journeyman Project: Turbo! (PC)
3. Theme Park (GEN)
4. Harvest Moon: More Friends of Mineral Town (GBA)
5. NHL Hockey '95 (GEN)
6. Lethal Enforcers (GEN)
7. Prince of Persia (Apple II)

Lethal Enforcers was indeed calling my name, so I started playing this again a few nights ago.

There's a bit of a bizarre backstory to my acquiring this. I originally picked the game up sometime around 2011 because Keith Apicary was putting out a call for fans to join his self-styled security squad, the "Justifiers." The requirements were 1) getting a red beret, 2) a custom "Justifiers" t-shirt, and 3) the Sega Genesis light gun, known as the Justifier. We showed up to PAX East 2012 in uniform and were going to follow him around for shenanigans, but sadly he got kicked out of the convention before we could do that. He did put up a video with the footage he managed to get, which includes a much younger me showing up in the light gun salute section at the 5:42 mark. (I'm the one closest to the sergeant at the front of the line.)

I cannot believe this was over a decade ago.

As for actually playing the game, the CRT TV we had back then didn't work with the light gun, so initially the pickup was only used for cosplaying. Then in 2013 my mom was looking to offload a small CRT of her own. I scooped it up and got a ways through Lethal Enforcers after that, but there was an enemy I couldn't hit reliably on the very edges of the screen, preventing my progress. So I packed the game away in the closet (it comes in its own large box, not exactly a casual fit for tiny game shelves like mine).

I'm pleased to report, though, that after calibrating the Justifier and finding a good spot to sit on the floor, I've managed to make it past that sticking point and maaaybe even up to the final boss, question mark??

It's been a lot of fun seeing myself get better at this game. I was never into light gun titles and certainly never used any of the related peripherals properly; all I ever did was put the Nintendo gun right up against the screen for Duck Hunt. So this is a whole new body/mind skillset I'm developing here. It's neat to see that I'm getting it somehow, even though I can't consciously tell what I'm doing differently to be able to aim better.

I have fears that the final boss might be impossible for me, but I'm going to keep trying! The pandemic era has not been kind to my arms, so I've got some muscles to improve.

[alienjesus]

1. Castlevania II: Simon's Quest (NES)
2. Terranigma (SNES)
3. Star Wars Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader (GC)
4. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 (GC)
5. Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back (PS1)
6. Jumping Flash (PS1)
7. Dark Cloud (PS2)
8. Sly Raccoon (PS2)
9. Sakura Wars (Saturn)
10. Samba De Amigo (DC)

I sat down today and blasted through the last dungeon and a half of Dark Cloud - clearing the first (and longest) game from my Summer Challenge list. I wasn't expecting to finish it, to be honest, as most of the dungeons in the game have taken me a couple of sessions to get through, but the game has a kinda snowball effect where the earlier dungeons take way longer to get through due to being underpowered compared to the longer later dungeons.

Dark Cloud is a decent game overall, a bit of a 7/10 I'd say, but the good kind of 7/10. There's a lot to like about the games aesthetic, the town building and the character designs but it is a very repetitive title - I'd be curious to see how the sequel compares.

Dark Cloud has quite a few ideas that are interesting but it feels like it loses some of them a bit later on. One example you're introduced early on is the idea of a cutscene sequence with a rhythm game style QTE. You do this early in the first dungeon, and then roughly 3-4 more times during the course of a 40 hour game, with the last third of the title completely abandoning the idea.

The town building too is more interesting early on when there are more options about the town layout. You have to build the town whilst meeting the requests of the citizens, and whilst early towns require some thought but offer a lot of flexibility, the third town is too open and empty, the 4th town is very restrictive in how it can be laid out to meet requirements, and the last 'town' literally needs built to an exact blueprint.

The dungeon crawling gameplay also fails to really innovate as it progresses. You get more playable characters but the need to keep all of their weapons up to scratch means you'll probably end up favouring one or two. In addition, the 3 melee characters are so notably worse than the 3 ranged characters that you'll only want to use one of them for the handful of bosses that are immune to ranged damage.

It might sound from my critiques that I don't like Dark Cloud, but actually I found it fairly enjoyable in a mindless kind of way. There's just a ton of potential I'd love to see be met - here's hoping I get to see that in the sequel some day.


Next up on my list, I figured I'd carry on my PS2 momentum and pick up Sly Raccoon (better known as Sly Cooper in the US!). Im sure the gameplay will be fun, but I'm a bit apprehensive about how well I'll handle the characters chatting all the time!

[Markies]

I finally picked up a copy of Dark Cloud earlier this year. I had been looking for it for quite a while, so I was very happy to stumble across a copy.

If I recall correctly, Dark Cloud is an early launch title of the PS2. Also, I have a friend who played through Dark Cloud 2 who really enjoyed it and said that the sequel improves on almost everything for the first game.

But, from you review, it sounds like a good time, so I was happy to hear your thoughts!

[Ziggy]

Also, I was able to finish Sonic the Hedgehog 3 on the Genesis yesterday!

While playing through it again, I realized that when I originally owned the game around the time of release, I did get through most of it. I for sure got at least to the Ice Cap Zone, as I remember really enjoying the brief snowboard sequence and the theme song to that stage, which is the fifth area out of only six. However, it was cool to finally beat Robotnik in the final battle of the game. While the game is quite short (without the S&K add-on), I do feel like it warrants a playthrough to see how it was initially released, and I think Sega made enough improvements that it's still a great showing on the system.

The graphics are more detailed, the levels are larger, you have the ability to play through the game as only Tails, which adds a different play style, and the different shields each add additional moves and abilities. There are also two types of bonus levels, one that gives you additional items and shields, and one which you can potentially gain an emerald. Also, the music that was released on the original Genesis cartridge was great IMO, with some catchy tunes. As mentioned earlier, my favorite track in the game is from the Ice Cap Zone, which I recently found out is an edited version an unreleased song from Brad Buxer's former band, The Jetzons, with the song title being Hard Times. It's my understanding that the recent re-releases of the game on various collections does not contain the music which Michael Jackson's production team worked on and a version of the prototype music from Sega's team has been inserted. Overall, a great platformer that I think is one of the better games in the genre from this era! I think later in the year I'll try to tackle the longer version, Sonic 3 + Sonic & Knuckles.

I was aiming to collect all seven emeralds in my playthrough, but I missed more than a few giant ring areas, and I also just wasn't able to get through some of the later ones when I did manage to find them. In total, I got four of the emeralds. However, with a "cleared" file on the game, I'm able to play through again with a level select, so I might try to get the emeralds I'm missing at some point.

What a coincidence, I've been playing Sonic 3 lately!

Once you have a cleared file, not only can you level select but all of the giant rings will reappear. So you can continuously go back to level 1 and get to that first giant ring (fall down the first chance you can and go left, spin dash through the rock). It makes it easy to quickly replay the blue sphere stages and get all of the emeralds.

Definitely play S3&K, it's such an epic game!

Sonic 3 is actually my favorite of the Sonic platformers -- and I prefer it alone, as opposed to locked-in with Sonic & Knuckles. Obviously having the two connected makes for an incredible experience, but there are a few subtle things that change when you combine them (some music changes, a boss gets skipped, etcetera) and I think it's really cool to try it alone.

Yes, as much as I love S3&K, I sometimes like to play Sonic 3 alone. I don't mind the music changes (in fact, I think most of them are improvements) but I like to enjoy the original Sonic 3 music too. Also, I think Note did it right. You have to play Sonic 3 first, and then play S3&K.

I played Sonic 3 alone for so many years. It was many years until I learned that locking on Sonic 3 to Sonic & Knuckles stitched the games together, and made some changes to Sonic 3. I always thought it just added Knuckles to Sonic 3, exactly the same way it does for Sonic 2. I didn't have a Genesis back when these games were released, and so I missed all of the hype. My first copy of S&K was a cart-only copy that a friend gave to me, so I didn't have the back of the box or the manual to learn this fact from. My mind was BLOWN when I first learned that S3&K made one massive game.

There's a really cool hack called Sonic 3 Complete. It's S3&K but with lots of options and some tweaks. It lets you choose which music you want to hear for various things (ie Knuckles encounter, mini boss, extra life, invincibility, etc). IIRC, there's an option to restore the (harder) boss encounter at the end of Launch Base. And probably the coolest thing, there's an option to reorder the stages so that Flying Battery Zone appears before Ice Cap Zone. Apparently the level order was original intended this way, so that the door that Sonic breaks off at the end of Flying Battery Zone is what he's using to snowboard on at the beginning of Ice Cap Zone. Oh, and it makes a new transition between Launch Base and Mushroom Hill, the death egg crashing down (taken from the title screen of S&K). The hack does a lot more, too. I like playing the authentic carts, but it's neat to check this out if you're a fan of the game.

[Note]

What a coincidence, I've been playing Sonic 3 lately!

Once you have a cleared file, not only can you level select but all of the giant rings will reappear. So you can continuously go back to level 1 and get to that first giant ring (fall down the first chance you can and go left, spin dash through the rock). It makes it easy to quickly replay the blue sphere stages and get all of the emeralds.

Definitely play S3&K, it's such an epic game!

Sonic 3 is actually my favorite of the Sonic platformers -- and I prefer it alone, as opposed to locked-in with Sonic & Knuckles. Obviously having the two connected makes for an incredible experience, but there are a few subtle things that change when you combine them (some music changes, a boss gets skipped, etcetera) and I think it's really cool to try it alone.

Yes, as much as I love S3&K, I sometimes like to play Sonic 3 alone. I don't mind the music changes (in fact, I think most of them are improvements) but I like to enjoy the original Sonic 3 music too. Also, I think Note did it right. You have to play Sonic 3 first, and then play S3&K.

I played Sonic 3 alone for so many years. It was many years until I learned that locking on Sonic 3 to Sonic & Knuckles stitched the games together, and made some changes to Sonic 3. I always thought it just added Knuckles to Sonic 3, exactly the same way it does for Sonic 2. I didn't have a Genesis back when these games were released, and so I missed all of the hype. My first copy of S&K was a cart-only copy that a friend gave to me, so I didn't have the back of the box or the manual to learn this fact from. My mind was BLOWN when I first learned that S3&K made one massive game.

There's a really cool hack called Sonic 3 Complete. It's S3&K but with lots of options and some tweaks. It lets you choose which music you want to hear for various things (ie Knuckles encounter, mini boss, extra life, invincibility, etc). IIRC, there's an option to restore the (harder) boss encounter at the end of Launch Base. And probably the coolest thing, there's an option to reorder the stages so that Flying Battery Zone appears before Ice Cap Zone. Apparently the level order was original intended this way, so that the door that Sonic breaks off at the end of Flying Battery Zone is what he's using to snowboard on at the beginning of Ice Cap Zone. Oh, and it makes a new transition between Launch Base and Mushroom Hill, the death egg crashing down (taken from the title screen of S&K). The hack does a lot more, too. I like playing the authentic carts, but it's neat to check this out if you're a fan of the game.

Appreciate the tip about the rings reappearing, I suspected that might be the case, but I haven't gone back to try to get the other emeralds I missed. Might try to do so in the upcoming week. Also, I'm looking forward to checking out S3&K! When I was younger, I also didn't realize these two cartridges combined made for the full game that was originally envisioned. Just thought it added Knuckles to the game as well, but hey I was just a kid. Lol.

That's an interesting piece of info about the order between Flying Battery Zone and Ice Cap Zone, but it makes sense! I'm curious to check out the minor changes between the two games. Also, that hack sounds interesting. I enjoy seeing these fan hacks with various upgrades and quality of life adjustments, something I'd be interested in playing after beating the official game.

[Ziggy]

Appreciate the tip about the rings reappearing, I suspected that might be the case, but I haven't gone back to try to get the other emeralds I missed. Might try to do so in the upcoming week. Also, I'm looking forward to checking out S3&K! When I was younger, I also didn't realize these two cartridges combined made for the full game that was originally envisioned. Just thought it added Knuckles to the game as well, but hey I was just a kid. Lol.

That's an interesting piece of info about the order between Flying Battery Zone and Ice Cap Zone, but it makes sense! I'm curious to check out the minor changes between the two games. Also, that hack sounds interesting. I enjoy seeing these fan hacks with various upgrades and quality of life adjustments, something I'd be interested in playing after beating the official game.

So if you're already planning on a S3&K playthrough, this is worth noting about the rings... Getting all of the rings in Sonic 3 after you have already beaten the game doesn't really do a whole lot. You'll be able to replay any level and turn into Super Sonic after collecting 50 rings, but that's about it. I mean, by all means go for it. I actually somewhat enjoy the Blue Sphere levels, at least compared to the Chaos Emerald levels in Sonic 1 and 2. Anyway, you get a lot more from collecting the Emeralds in S3&K. In S3&K, if you don't collect all of the Emeralds, you wont be able to play the final level. If you collect the first 7 Chaos Emeralds, you can play the final level (it requires you to be Super Sonic, that's why). Now here's where it gets a little complicated. With S3&K, you can collect 7 Chaos Emeralds as you normally would in Sonic 3. But then after getting to the S&K half of the game, you gain access and the ability to start collecting 7 Super Emeralds. If you collect all 7 Super Emeralds, you gain the ability to turn into Hyper Sonic and unlock the best ending. Anyway, my point is, if you're gonna bother to collect all of the Emeralds, maybe save that for when you play S3&K. Unless you enjoy Blue Sphere, then just go for it!

But, OK, good. I wasn't the only one to be unaware of how S3&K works.

Also suggestion for Sonic 3 or S3&K... It's definitely worth playing a solo Tails run if you enjoyed the game. With Tails' flying ability, there's some alternative paths. Likewise with Knuckles in S3&K, it's worth playing a solo Knuckles run for the same reason. Only with Knuckles, it's more than just alternative paths. Some levels are very different. I would say Knuckles is the game's hard mode.

[alienjesus]

Today I was doing some travelling, so I picked up Castlevania 2: Simon's Quest to play on the train, mostly because it's the only game on my list I have a way to play portably (I'm playing it on the Switch Castlevania Collection).

I didn't have the highest of hopes for the game with the rather infamous reputation it has had since the earlier days of Youtube, but I've actually been pleasantly surprised. It plays great, has a good difficulty level and feels really big and ambitious for the system. Now I know it has a reputation for being way too obscure, and it's true that it is, but I certainly don't think it's particularly unique in this regard as far as NES adventures go. For every 'kneel at a cliff with the red gem equipped' in Castlevania 2 theres a 'hammer a random nondescript tile of the world map with a hammer with no context that you can even do that' in Zelda 2 or a 'Find the ultimate sword by wandering randomly around damaging poison swamp maps mashing search' in Dragon Warrior. That said, I am using a guide because clearly these type of games expect you to be getting that info from somewhere, and because I am an adult without the time or patience to puzzle away for months.

I've finished three of the games mansion dungeons so far, and gotten most of the subweapons. I'm up to the Morning Star whip too which seems pretty strong. I reckon I should finish this one up whenever I play it next as the pace has been pretty speedy so far.

[Ziggy]

As annoying as the cryptic nature of Castlevania 2 can be, it still plays well. I've always liked the game, but would never play much of it because I would quickly get sick of the "not knowing what the hell to do" aspect of it. That's why I made myself a cheat sheet. I posted it here, if you're interested. For me, it makes the game a pleasure to play. Instead of an annoyance with a bit of pleasure.

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