alienjesus wrote:I decided to keep up my 8 bit adventure kick by jumping straight into Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap. Obvious I chose to play as Wonder Girl
At first I was confused; "Wonder GIRL?!" Then I looked it up and realized you're playing the 2017 remake of the 1989 game. It's nicely inclusive that Lizardcube put an alternate female protagonist into the remake.
That's right. The nice thing is that at any point in this game you can hit R3 to switch the modern music for the original PSG soundtrack, or R2 to swap the modern graphics for the classic pixelated sprites. They didn't leave Wonder Girl out of this either - if you go into retro visuals, they've made her a classic style sprite too.
I meant to try and play the game mostly in the old aesthetic, but I must admit the allure of the pretty new graphics and bouncy new music has been appealing. I've been switching in an out on regular intervals, and trying to take screenshots of the same point in both styles for comparison's sake.
On the Zelda front, I find it very interesting that so many fans have made things like this - clearly there is a demand for choosing gender in a Zelda game. Considering how minimal Link's character is it'd only make sense to allow players to choose a gender imo, but people do like their traditional design.
On the front of both the Zelda and Wonder Boy games I've been playing - they do display that often in these old games the gender of the character really doesn't matter - but that does highlight the issue of 'if it doesn't matter, why is the default nearly always male'. Of course we all know the potential reasons behind this, but I guess what I'm saying is that it feels significant to be presented with the option, even when it barely matters to the game's story of gameplay.
I wonder if this is similar with racial representation? Either way, that's definitely a question for outside of this thread, but it does make me think.
I beat Madoola no Tsubasa last night, and it was awesome! This is largely going to serve as further evidence of my 'deranged' (I'm sure at least one person has thought it before) taste in video games, but it's now one of my favorite games on the Famicom/NES--up there with Little Nemo, Akumajou Densetsu, Megami Tensei II, and Final Fantasy III.
I, unfortunately, don't have the manual for this game, but after beating it, I found a transcription of the story from the manual. In general, the story goes that Lucia--I love her name--as the only person capable of using magic, is storming Aleks Castle with a group of all the soldiers the Ramel people can spare. They move on the castle in an attempt to unseat Dartos, a betrayer of the Ramel people, who stole the Wings of Madoola, burrowed himself into the castle's labyrinthine depths, and called forth endless hordes of monsters to do his bidding. In the past, the Wings of Madoola caused a great deal of conflict and strife, as they had the mysterious power to grant their bearer dominion over the world. That is, until a kindly king found himself in possession of the wings, and buried them in a cave to remove them from the hearts and minds of his people. After drawing near the Castle Aleks, Lucia found herself to be the sole survivor of the campaign, and the removal of Dartos from his seat of power rests entirely on her shoulders.
I'm not going to sugar coat it: This game is a dick, but I love it. The general consensus is liable to be that the controls are poor, but they work for me. Not that I didn't need to adjust to the jumping mechanics, and adapt to the range of weapons (and their propensity to whiff on all manor of, apparent, sure-hits). Honestly, I just found it to be fun. Barrelling through hordes of enemies, trying to get to treasure rooms, and upgrading Lucias formidable arsenal of magic abilities, was a lot of fun for me. The cave, and castle stages were also really fun to try to navigate. I'm going to seem crazy here, because there were tons of times where I would be running along, trying my best to avoid unnecessary conflict, and I would run directly into a dead end, or actually get stuck (being forced to take an intentional death). I would simply think, 'Totally dick move,' but always with a smile on my face.
Stage 12 was a really make or break moment for me, where the stage comprises of mostly vertical platforming, in an open room, with tons of space everywhere to fall back to the bottom, and even a bridge, up above the open room, with holes in it that will send the player back down into the main room. All the while, there's a pack of Nyuul (flying purple blob monsters that hit like mack trucks, swarm in fours to tens, and something I thought were only in outdoor stages, until they showed up in five of the last six stages) chasing you down, and knocking you off of platforms when they hit you. The main reason that was so difficult, though, was because continuing only gives you the base HP of 1000 (even though my max HP was up over 4000 by that point). There are rooms with fountains that restore all health, but not in Stage 12. That stage was a nightmare, but after that, it was mostly down hill.
I was really happy to finish the game without having to consult any guides, or other information. I actually don't think the difficulty is that ridiculous (with abusing continues), and really just requires patience, and persistence. Also, the game is really meant to be played with a more measured approach to combat, and not brazenly attacking everything in sight. It really rewards being able to avoid enemies, rather than just wipe them all off the face of the planet. Everything constantly regenerates, too, so it's an exercise in frustration to try to go in meat tanking everything. Now is the time where I admit that I had to consult a guide to figure out how to actually use the Wings of Madoola in the final stage, because there is zero information about it in the game, and apparently in the manual, as well. It was also almost completely the opposite of what I thought the button combo would be, and the requirements to use it are also just nuts. I don't feel bad about that.
So, for a game from 1986, this thing blew my mind. I'm very glad I took the time to really try to beat it (and that it actually had unlimited continues). It was an immensely enjoyable (and almost equivalently frustrating/challenging, I will say) experience. At this point I just want to mention the ending, even though I'm conflicted about writing anything here at all, just because I would like it if people saw it for themselves by playing through the game. It's quite relevant to the theme of this month's together retro, though; So--:
The ending of the game just gives a screen where Lucia helps a prince of the castle up from lying on the floor. The ending screen (in great Engrish) proclaims that Lucia has won the day, and won her prince. It seems like there is some criticism from Japanese gamers about this prince not being mentioned anywhere in the manual, or any other story bits until the ending. (I thoroughly enjoyed the concept, either way.) The Game Catalog @wiki page for this game mentions a statement from the artist who worked on the game (Moriken) that this ending was intentionally put in as an antithesis to the Mario-style storyline of a male protagonist saving a princess. So I further enjoy it in its purposeful digging at Nintendo's (read: Miyamoto's) often pitiful attempts at a compelling story.
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PresidentLeever wrote:Speaking of that I made a mockup of an 8-bit version of Arsha from MW4 a couple of weeks ago.
Madoola is alright. Hate that continue system that makes you feel like you're cheating though.
I officially quit Valkyrie. Breakable equipment in an old ARPG? lol no byebye.
Fired up Metroid.... The FDS original, that is. What a marvelous game.
On the Western front, I found an affordable copy of Wabbit on eBay which should be arriving soon.
After Metroid and Wabbit I think I'm good for the month. As much as I love Together Retro, I still have to get back to my "normal" gaming (Lunar 2 awaits!).
This is kind of an oddball week and a half of gaming for me, characterized by a bunch of stuff I played but wasn't able to beat. And I ultimately had to bail on Ninja Princess -- a bit too expensive.
pierrot wrote:So, for a game from 1986, this thing blew my mind.
I'm glad Madoola turned out to be a winner for you, and this TR helped to serve as an impetus for giving it a chance. I might give Madoola another go myself for this TR, though I've already got quite a few other entries to try yet.
BoneSnapDeez wrote:After Metroid...
If you've never beaten Metroid before, it'll be interesting to see your overall take on it. If you have beaten it, revised thoughts would be still be cool.
BoneSnapDeez wrote:... and Wabbit I think I'm good for the month.
Sounds like Valkyrie really took the wind outta you. Sucks it didn't turn out to be a winner.
I'm currently at 5 games beaten for this TR, and the month's not even half over. I'm shooting for 10 total games beaten for ELN. Normally I wouldn't try to beat so many, but seeing as I'm the curator for this month, I feel like I should put in the extra effort. With the following TRs I'll go for 1-3 games beaten at most, depending on my enthusiasm for the theme. I love doing this themed stuff and trying unusual games out, but at the same time, I've got quite the backlog library that needs whittling down.
I have played Metroid many times, but I find that periodic replays are in order. It's just fantastic. I've really taken a liking to the original FDS versions of NES classics, to boot.
Metroid is still godly and I can go back to it all the time. I vastly prefer it to Zero Mission, which is still excellent in its own way.
Can I emulate the FDS version easily?
Hoping to get in some Guardian Legend this weekend. I dabbled into it and it seems amazing. The shmup sections are so-so, your hitbox is MASSIVE and weird haha, but I love the overhead sections. I'm impressed at how good everything looks and runs framerate wise too. Seems finely tuned and crafted for sure. I don't think I've gotten around to much Compile stuff but always hear great things.
I've already beaten Metroid, and since I'm not hot on re-beating games I've already beaten, I won't be replaying it. However I found a way to revisit Metroid and beat it once more for this ELN, without retracing the steps I've already taken before. As such it'll be the last game I beat for this particular TR.
Xeogred wrote:
Can I emulate the FDS version easily?
Yes. Most NES emulators will run FDS games, though you will need to seek out a FDS BIOS and place it in the proper directory.
Have you ever played a FDS game? Disks need to be flipped on occasion -- with emulation this is done in menus or configured keys.
Also, don't be surprised to find FDS ROMs (disk images, really) with save files already on them. Just delete 'em before you start.
I played a bit of Metroid this evening. About to go into Kraid's Hideout. There are lots of little tricks to get items "early" that I like to employ, just as freezing flying enemies to reach great heights before the boots are obtained.
Love the game. Love having the save files on the FDS version. Sound effects are ass though.
Just stumbled on this thread, ironically, the 2 games I am playing right now both feature a female lead(bayonetta 2 and a metroidvania on steam called guardian). I think I may use this thread as an excuse to finally play guardian of legend, I never played it and hear fantastic things, it has been on my to play list forever.
The Guardian Legend is incredibly solid (once you get past the first few areas). I played through it for the first time last year, and I now understand why it is considered one of the best NES games.
