Snickerd00dle's Summer Game Challenge 2011

[Snickerd00dle]

I am still in the race and I am about half way through my list so far- more detailed reviews to come

[alienjesus]

I'm on the Green Earth missions on Advance Wars 2 now. They've started to get much longer now too, and apparently harder (my first 6 star mission appeared, only had 5 stars up til now). I don't like these COs much, they're really kinda generic - we have the boat guy, the plane guy and the tank chick - each CO is better at land, air or sea respectively.

[o.pwuaioc]

StarTropics: I got really stumped in the Ghost Tunnel, after spending way more time there than I should have, I looked at consulted Nintendo Power, but they didn't tell me anything that I didn't already do, so I checked a walkthrough, and seeing the same information I realized that my rom is defective. I tried another one: same verdict. I don't have an NES here with me, so I guess I can't finish this game. :(

[Crabmaster2000]

StarTropics: I got really stumped in the Ghost Tunnel, after spending way more time there than I should have, I looked at consulted Nintendo Power, but they didn't tell me anything that I didn't already do, so I checked a walkthrough, and seeing the same information I realized that my rom is defective. I tried another one: same verdict. I don't have an NES here with me, so I guess I can't finish this game.

Sucks for you, because Star Tropics is awesome! You should definitely give it a go when you get access to your NES again.

I got to put a few hours into Chrono Cross tonight. Battles were a bit clunky at first, but I think I've got the basics down now and things are flowing nicer. Level system in interesting. It seems like you can only level to a certain point and then your character stops improving until you fight a "boss" type character and that unlocks your ability to improve again to a certain point. If it stays fairly consistant then I may never need to grind which is nice.

Story is unusual so I'm looking forward to hearing more about it. Apparently I died 10 years ago so far.

[Crabmaster2000]

Some more hours in Chrono Cross tonight. Some cat faced jerk accused my character of being the "Chrono Trigger" tonight. I laughed a bit. Judging by the character select screen there are going to be a TON of characters to collect along the way. Also judging by a few choices I've had so far I'm going to miss many of them. Seems like this game might have a lot of replay value with different paths you can take to make your way through it. I'm curious to know if it has multiple endings like Chrono Trigger now.

[Alex WS]

Super cool thread. I'm pretty late to the party, so I will join but with only 5 games. My due date is september 15 why not.

THE LIST:
DJ Hero - Xbox360 - Love the Rock Band games, and found this with the board for only 20 bucks.
Mario & Luigi: Bowser Inside Story - DS - Love the Paper Mario games, but couldn't quite get into Superstar Saga, but the raving reviews means I have to give this one a chance.
TLoZ Links Awakening - 3DS - Played it for a couple of hours about ten years ago, found it difficult. On the eStore at a very good price, so time to revisit it.
Golden Sun - GBA - Almost same story as with the last game: Played it for a while but got frustrated with the random battles and gave up.
F-Zero X - Another one I have played before, but never quite completed.

Bonus game (that I might play if I have the time for it and feel like it...):
Chrono Trigger - DS - Have never completed it, and everyone else in here is playing it.

[Ack]

StarTropics: I got really stumped in the Ghost Tunnel, after spending way more time there than I should have, I looked at consulted Nintendo Power, but they didn't tell me anything that I didn't already do, so I checked a walkthrough, and seeing the same information I realized that my rom is defective. I tried another one: same verdict. I don't have an NES here with me, so I guess I can't finish this game.

Sucks for you, because Star Tropics is awesome! You should definitely give it a go when you get access to your NES again.

You guys ever play Star Tropics II? I remember making it almost to the end, but I kept getting killed by the owl boss.

[o.pwuaioc]

StarTropics: I got really stumped in the Ghost Tunnel, after spending way more time there than I should have, I looked at consulted Nintendo Power, but they didn't tell me anything that I didn't already do, so I checked a walkthrough, and seeing the same information I realized that my rom is defective. I tried another one: same verdict. I don't have an NES here with me, so I guess I can't finish this game. :(

Sucks for you, because Star Tropics is awesome! You should definitely give it a go when you get access to your NES again.

You guys ever play Star Tropics II? I remember making it almost to the end, but I kept getting killed by the owl boss.

No. I was going to do STII for this summer challenge, but seeing as how I never beat the first one, I thought I'd do that first. :/ I definitely want to play it though, especially to see how it compares.

[Crabmaster2000]

Sucks for you, because Star Tropics is awesome! You should definitely give it a go when you get access to your NES again.

You guys ever play Star Tropics II? I remember making it almost to the end, but I kept getting killed by the owl boss.

No. I was going to do STII for this summer challenge, but seeing as how I never beat the first one, I thought I'd do that first. :/ I definitely want to play it though, especially to see how it compares.

I've finished them both, but its been a couple years now. I seem to remember liking the first one more and it had something to do with the dungeons being more fun I think. The travelling through time in Zoda's Revenge was a blast though.

[alienjesus]

Game 7 is down, Advance Wars 2 is beat. It didn't feel as interesting as the other games in my summer list because I've already beaten the 3rd and 1st game before, so it was just more of the same. It was still very good though.

I felt the new mission structure was an improvement on AW1. In AW1, you essentially ended up having to use 1 of 3 COs for the entire campaign. In AW2, you get 8 missions for each army. Each army has 3 COs, who have two missions each, plus each countries missions has a secret mission where you get to choose which CO to use and a final map where you can do the same. It's nice because you get to use all the COs through the game (besides the secret ones). There are still some problems with this format though - for example, having Orange Star first means all their missions are squandered on the tutorial, and having Green Earth last means you're forced to use them for the games hardest missions, which I didn't like, as I'm not keen on their COs so much. Dual Strike did it best imo, giving you new COs throughout, but letting you use any CO you've found up to that point for each mission.

This was probably the hardest of the 3 imo, the last mission was crazy. The enemy CO was crazy overpowered, getting enormously powerful units (20% attack and defence compared to yours, which is huge, and at no extra cost) with no movement costs (meaning you cant slow them down with forests etc) and no weak points. Hus CO power destroys your expensive units, he had two giant cannons which wipe any units health in their GIANT range in half, and a laser which shot down the screen every 7 turns reducing each units health it hit by 80% - except for his own >_<. In addition, he had 3 times the funds of my COs. They matched him altogether, but it meant he could deploy expensive and powerful units each turn, whereas my money being split meant it wasnt possible for me. Finally, the mission objective required me to destory the laser - up a thin tunnel covered by aforementioned laser and cannons. It was hellish, but it felt SO good to finish it off.

Overall I enjoyed it, it's my 2nd favourite in the series, which I feel improved with every iteration - the latest one (Dark conflict/day of ruin) being the exception.

Next up: Probably Secret of Mana, provided I can stand the grinding./