Snickerd00dle's Summer Game Challenge 2011

[geozeldadude]

woah was FFIV 1991??? I was thinking 93, but wow. Yr right.
At any rate, the ATB seems to matter more for boss battles than just usual fights. Either way, ATB adds urgency for me. I'm less likely to eat a snack mid-battle if it's ATB instead of turn based.

i should say that there are some instances where i felt ATB was worthwhile, namely FF tactics, b/c there was an emphasis on slowing down or speeding up characters, (although i suppose technically that battle system wasn't exactly the same thing as ATB). and i just realized that although FF4 used ATB, it wasn't displayed in the SNES original, only the GBA, etc. remakes.

[lisalover1]

You know what? Scratch my previous playing queue. There is one game that I must play this summer. One game, and upon beating it, I will be content with this list. That is Phantasy Star. I am going to beat that game this summer. I have never been able to get anywhere at all in the game before because of the merciless difficulty curve, but now, I am not going to let this game beat me. Lassic is going down!

[equalsign]

Finished off Super Mario Sunshine tonight thanks to AlienJesus's tip about the 7th missions. Only had to do about 3 more stars in 3 levels to get that. It seems almost pointless to have the blue coin stars (which I still havnt bothered to cash in) and the stars in Delfino Plaza. The last level before the end boss was a little frusterating. Stupid wooden boat.

I doubt I'll ever pick this game up again. I love Mario games, but this did not feel like a Mario game. I have no desire to clean up the rest of the stars since hunting blue coins feels like a chore. I'm pretty sure I've done full completions of every mario game I've played so far too. This game gets a fair amount of hate and I'm sorry to say that I think a lot of it is justified.

Now I can shift my focus to FFXII and get that crossed off the list.

I agree completely. The game is just awful. That boat crap at the end is frustrating and feels rushed. Acrobatic Mario is nice, but that's one of the only things. I liked the hover and turbo nozzles at least.

Through most the game it felt like there was very little platforming. Only a few of the stars really require or use it. Other times you're just spraying gunk, pushing fruit, doing really lame platforming with Yoshi, racing, or chasing shadow Mario. There'd be a few jumps here and there on each star, but it felt more like a Banjo Kazooie platformer (where platforming is just sort of mixed in) than Mario 64 (where you're always hopping around). Hotel Delfino anyone? Plus most of the levels just felt unrefined for platforming (I'm looking at you mushroom village, watermelon beach level, and amusement park). When there's only 7, that's kind of a big deal.

Even a few of the random mini platforming stages were just terrible. The red coin pachinko level thing is one of the most frustrating things I've ever done in a video game and is just broken.

Getting all the blue coins is just frustrating, as the game offers very little help to find them. Most aren't difficult, but a few of them are seriously "spray this random wall" kind of crap. Some are only available on certain shine sprites, and I believe there was one that was only available on ONE star if you sprayed a certain sign that only appears then. It's terribly boring finding them all, and just feels like they scattered so many blue coins around to make up for the fact there are so few levels.

When you beat the game with all the stars you seriously get a static picture with the all the characters on it and the message "Have a nice vacation" or something. It was like a punch in the face. I thought they would have learned their lesson about such lame endgame rewards after Luigi's Mansion. I played Mario Galaxy 2 a week later and had so much more fun. I usually like Nintendo's more experimental games, but I'd be extremely hesitant to call this one that. Nothing in it felt original, interesting, or refined. If you feel like this about the game don't bother going back to it. I did, and it doen't get better. I just ended up hating it more.

/nerd rage

[lisalover1]

Just spent the last several hours playing Phantasy Star on an emulator on the Wii, since my Master System is horribly unreliable, and this way, I could play the version with the improved sound and translation. I got up to level 7, and felt pretty good about my progress. So, I took a break for a little while. When I came back, I found that the emulator had lost the save data, and started me back at the beginning of the game. I can't find another save file, so I will have to start over.

[dsheinem]

Just spent the last several hours playing Phantasy Star on an emulator on the Wii, since my Master System is horribly unreliable, and this way, I could play the version with the improved sound and translation. I got up to level 7, and felt pretty good about my progress. So, I took a break for a little while. When I came back, I found that the emulator had lost the save data, and started me back at the beginning of the game. I can't find another save file, so I will have to start over.

Do you have it on any of the Sega compilations? That might be the best way to go...

[noiseredux]

yeah that sucks. Man, I love Phantasy Star. I wanna see you stick with it.

[Crabmaster2000]

Finished off Super Mario Sunshine tonight thanks to AlienJesus's tip about the 7th missions. Only had to do about 3 more stars in 3 levels to get that. It seems almost pointless to have the blue coin stars (which I still havnt bothered to cash in) and the stars in Delfino Plaza. The last level before the end boss was a little frusterating. Stupid wooden boat.

I doubt I'll ever pick this game up again. I love Mario games, but this did not feel like a Mario game. I have no desire to clean up the rest of the stars since hunting blue coins feels like a chore. I'm pretty sure I've done full completions of every mario game I've played so far too. This game gets a fair amount of hate and I'm sorry to say that I think a lot of it is justified.

Now I can shift my focus to FFXII and get that crossed off the list.

I agree completely. The game is just awful. That boat crap at the end is frustrating and feels rushed. Acrobatic Mario is nice, but that's one of the only things. I liked the hover and turbo nozzles at least.

Through most the game it felt like there was very little platforming. Only a few of the stars really require or use it. Other times you're just spraying gunk, pushing fruit, doing really lame platforming with Yoshi, racing, or chasing shadow Mario. There'd be a few jumps here and there on each star, but it felt more like a Banjo Kazooie platformer (where platforming is just sort of mixed in) than Mario 64 (where you're always hopping around). Hotel Delfino anyone? Plus most of the levels just felt unrefined for platforming (I'm looking at you mushroom village, watermelon beach level, and amusement park). When there's only 7, that's kind of a big deal.

Even a few of the random mini platforming stages were just terrible. The red coin pachinko level thing is one of the most frustrating things I've ever done in a video game and is just broken.

Getting all the blue coins is just frustrating, as the game offers very little help to find them. Most aren't difficult, but a few of them are seriously "spray this random wall" kind of crap. Some are only available on certain shine sprites, and I believe there was one that was only available on ONE star if you sprayed a certain sign that only appears then. It's terribly boring finding them all, and just feels like they scattered so many blue coins around to make up for the fact there are so few levels.

When you beat the game with all the stars you seriously get a static picture with the all the characters on it and the message "Have a nice vacation" or something. It was like a punch in the face. I thought they would have learned their lesson about such lame endgame rewards after Luigi's Mansion. I played Mario Galaxy 2 a week later and had so much more fun. I usually like Nintendo's more experimental games, but I'd be extremely hesitant to call this one that. Nothing in it felt original, interesting, or refined. If you feel like this about the game don't bother going back to it. I did, and it doen't get better. I just ended up hating it more.

/nerd rage

I actually thought it felt less acrobatic than Mario 64 mainly because he didnt have the long jump which is by far my most used move in 3D Mario games. And the Hover pack basically eliminated all need for acurate platorming. You basically float from platform to platform without having to worry about under/over leaping your target.

[lisalover1]

Just spent the last several hours playing Phantasy Star on an emulator on the Wii, since my Master System is horribly unreliable, and this way, I could play the version with the improved sound and translation. I got up to level 7, and felt pretty good about my progress. So, I took a break for a little while. When I came back, I found that the emulator had lost the save data, and started me back at the beginning of the game. I can't find another save file, so I will have to start over.

Do you have it on any of the Sega compilations? That might be the best way to go...

Yeah, I have the game in a bunch of different formats, but none of them are as good as this rom; the fan translation is sublime, and the Japanese FM audio is an enormous improvement over the American version. Take a listen:
I think I will wait until my newly-purchased Caanoo arrives to start playing it again. I do have to say that the game is nothing short of gorgeous. My jaw dropped when I saw the mountainous background of the pause screen. The ocean and river animation on the world map is also unbelievable. I also have to say fuck owlbears. I hate them so much.

Also, here is an example of the fan translation:

[alienjesus]

I beat FF3 on DS today, which wasn't part of this marathon, and was thinking I might start Final Fantasy IX now, seeing as I have two logn RPGs on this list to get through this summer. I'll probably play it alongside Banjo Kazooie.

[SwooshBear]

Starting playing Resistance Retribution. On the 3rd or 4th level and it's really nice. Playing this along with Splinter Cell. My ps2 is starting to fail on me so I hope I can still play SOTC and God of War this summer.