Racketboy Summer Games Challenge 2020 - begin when ready!

[PretentiousHipster]

I'll definitely wanna try King’s Field out if it's a predecessor to the Souls Games. Severance: Blade of Darkness felt like that too. I also recently played a game called Moonstone: A Hard Days' Night for the Amiga. It definitely had a similar combat style to the Souls games.

[opa]

Kong’s Field is a classic. Unappreciated in its time, and unappreciated now. It spawned five direct sequels (King’s Field II - IV and Kong’s Field Additional I and II), three spin offs (Eternal Ring, Shadow Tower, and Shadow Tower Abyss), and laid the groundwork for the massively popular Souls series, the second of which is frequently cited as one of the most influential games of the last decade. Like epic poems and silent film, it’s not necessarily to modern taste, but it’s influence is undeniable.

Also, I’ll be playing the US versions of the SoR games, with my eight-year-old son, who loves the series, and my eleven-year-old daughter (who loves Super Smash Bros. Ultimate and Fire Emblem Three Houses, but will inevitably end up watching us once we start running the series and who, I predict, I will ask to take over for her brother from time-to-time). We’ll be playing the on Sonic’s Ultimate Genesis Collection for the PS3, and I foresee us using a lot of save states for SOR3.

The most hard core Donkey Kong; no monkey-business at all.

[prfsnl_gmr]

I updated it...

A dark hardcore first-person dungeon crawler starring Donkey Kong would be pretty amazing, though...

[opa]

I imagine Kong's Field would be fifty hours of that swamp level in Demons Souls. You reach the banana tree at the end and it's dead. On the tree Cranky Kong left you a note that says "I took the last banana; Get good." Credits roll.

A short list of ideas from my unbeaten list:

Dragon Warrior 2 - GBC - I love the original Dragon Warrior (and have beaten it several times) but I never really touched the second adventure on the cartridge. I think they add the party system in 2. I do have the original game and a patched rom that doubles XP and gold drops. Really tempted to play the patched rom though it wouldn't be a legit playthrough

Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness - N64 - I've had this for a while but never got past stage one. Which is a darn shame because I love CV64 and this is just more content. Is it a "classic"? We'll call this a questionable choice.

Earthbound - SNES - I have to beat this. I'm ashamed this is on the pile of shame.

Super Mario World - SNES - I have beaten the gba version but not the original. Now that I have the Nintendo Online I have the ability to play it.

Super Mario Bros. 2 - NES - again, beaten gba; not original.

I'll have to look around some more but I do want to stick to the classics that I haven't beaten. Kind of off-putting that a lot of them are RPG's. Ideally I wouldn't have but maybe 2 or 3 RPG's on my list. I feel like that's reasonable.

[dsheinem]

He doesn't post here anymore, so...

boi plz

[PretentiousHipster]

Resident Evil and Silent Hill 2 seem quite inaccessible for someone new to those genres. I of course will still play them, but am wondering about another thing. I found out about a game called Nocturne, and it seems to be a more accessible version of it as it still has the camera angles and atmosphere, yet the ammo seems to be infinite. Has anyone played it? Would it be a good idea to try something like this first, or just go straight to the deep end?

[Ack]

He doesn't post here anymore, so...

boi plz

I was talking about Exhuminator. I know you're still lurking around here. Probably in the bathroom.

Resident Evil and Silent Hill 2 seem quite inaccessible for someone new to those genres. I of course will still play them, but am wondering about another thing. I found out about a game called Nocturne, and it seems to be a more accessible version of it as it still has the camera angles and atmosphere, yet the ammo seems to be infinite. Has anyone played it? Would it be a good idea to try something like this first, or just go straight to the deep end?

Deep end. Always pick the deep end.

[opa]

Silent Hill 2 isn't even hard. I'd say it's super accessible (they throw ammo and healing items at you; even on normal difficulty).

[alienjesus]

Here’s a very tentative list for me:

Donkey Kong Country 1-3 - I beat the first game years ago, but I never spent much time with the sequels. I should change that. (Also, how much do the Donkey Kong Land game spoofer from the SNES games. Should I play those too?)

King’s Field - This is FromSoftware’s first title and a PS1 launch game (in Japan). The game set FromSoftware on its path to the Souls series, and it has a relatively recent fan translation.

Metal Gear (NES) - I’ve beaten the MSX version of Metal Gear, the the NES port is better known outside of Japan. I think it also differs substantially from the original .

Resident Evil 3 - This recently-remade game is the only one of the classic PS1 Resident Evil games I don’t have under my belt.

Streets of Rage 1-3 - I’ve already beaten the first two games, but with Streets of Rage 4 dropping soon, now is likely a good time to run the series on the Genesis.

Some good choices in this batch. The DK Land games on GB do differ somewhat from the SNES games - some levels use similar themes and gimmicks but normally new layouts. The games vary in how different they are - DK land 1 is quite unique with some completely different worlds, DK Land 2 follows the SNES game more closely, DK Land 3 kind falls somewhere in the middle.

[pook99]

@aj: good list, I looked at your draft list, I would replace pilotwings with zone of the enders, I played pilotwings when it was fresh and new and I was just always found it kind of boring and more of a tech demo than a game, ZOE is a really fun action game that is very unique and worth a play through

@pretentioushipster: the best version of the original RE is the gamecube update, the original ps1 games have a lot of campy b-movie charm so you can't lose either way. the GC game is the superior game but the ps1 game is more relevant to play for historical reasons

@prfsnl_gamer: I agree that kings field is a classic, I never played it, but did watch my brother play through it pretty obsessively, it always seemed like a cool game and was definitely a unique experience.

I have mixed feelings on SOR 3, it is an okay game, it definitely is not as good as 2, and there are much better fan games you could be playing, but it is not as bad as people try and make it out to be. It is worth playing if your a fan of the series IMO, but going in with tempered expectations will probably lead you to enjoy it more


I personally have not thought about this yet but it may be a good time to start, maybe if I start early I can actually accomplish some of my goals. Just spitballing some games that spring to mind:

1. castlevania: harmony of dissonance
2. Mega Man zero 1-4 (might start with 2)
3. Metroid fusion or zero mission
4. Metroid Prime 3
5. Super Mario 3d world (is this game old enough to qualify)
6. Perfect dark or Perfect Dark zero
7. Muramasa the demon blade ( I have seen it on enough best of wii games to qualify it as a classic)
8. Epic Mickey (wii)
9. Zelda skyward sword or twilight princess
10. Last story
11. Chrono Trigger
12. Shining force 2
13. New Zealand story
14. Shinobi (which version should I play of the original shinobi)
15. Sonic 06 (do games like this count as classic?? )
16. A ratchet and clank game on ps3
17. Final Fantasy tactics or FFT advance
18. Kirby and the amazing mirror
19. Metal Slug advance
20. Shadow of colussus (I will play it on ps4 but it is still the same game as the ps2 as far as I know with better graphics)
21. resident evil code veronica (I can do this for together retro and it is still the only mainline RE game I have not played except for re3make which I am going to play soon)

thats 20 + off the top of my head, I'll try and narrow it down some.