Summer Games Challenge 2014

[dsheinem]

does typing of the dead give you a wpm score?

Yup! I completed the DC original mode and picked up all 30 coins a while back. I'll be playing it again for TR.

cool. what was yours, noise?

[noiseredux]

What was my what?

I dont currently own the original game. I have Overkill though. Haven't played the original in a few years, but am planning to for TR later this year.

[dsheinem]

Words per minute. And nevermind... this game isn't typical typing so it doesn't much matter. In regular typing 16/wpm would be horrendous, here I felt it was good for my first go. The DC keyboard isn't bad at all.

[Blu]

The only tricky thing is getting a system of how to prioritize your targets. If you start typing at one zombie, and another gets close, having to be smart about hitting escape to switch targets. It's really only troublesome with the zombies that throw axes rubber hammers at you.

[dsheinem]

The only tricky thing is getting a system of how to prioritize your targets. If you start typing at one zombie, and another gets close, having to be smart about hitting escape to switch targets. It's really only troublesome with the zombies that throw axes rubber hammers at you.

ah, was wondering about that. didn't know escape was used.

maybe i should read the manual

[Retrogamer0001]

The only tricky thing is getting a system of how to prioritize your targets. If you start typing at one zombie, and another gets close, having to be smart about hitting escape to switch targets. It's really only troublesome with the zombies that throw axes rubber hammers at you.

ah, was wondering about that. didn't know escape was used.

maybe i should read the manual

Or be a man and start typing faster and more accurately!

[dsheinem]

i fear I will have to retrain myself a bit to do well….the manual states that capitalization doesn't matter and that spaces are ignored. I am having difficulty not typing these things, which of course slows me down…

Made it to level 5 (early on) on the second attempt. Basically I am getting killed by the quick tosses of knives and things (because hitting "escape" mid-word seems so strange) and I lost about a credit and a half because i couldn't consistently tell if the sentences ended in a period or comma on the stage 4 boss fight.

I'll give it another go or two before the day is out, though

[alienjesus]

1. Double Dragon (NES)
2. Super Aleste (SNES)
3. Perfect Dark (N64)
4. Wave Race 64 (N64)
5. Shantae (GBC via 3DS VC)
6. Ristar (MD via Wii VC)
7. Bangai-O (DC)
8. Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (PSP)
9. Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together (PSP)
10. Metal Gear Solid 2 (Vita)

5th game down!

So, Shantae. When I first started playing I thought the game seemed pretty decent. I like the whole sidescrolling adventure thing a lot ( I like Zelda II and adore the Monster World series), the transformations showed some promise, the environments were nice and the music and graphics were very impressive for GB.

Towards the middle though, I started to despise the game. Whilst most things about the game are very well done, there are a few problems wih it that I consider pretty major that really detract from the game overall.

First of all, the game has a lives system. It also has instant death pits, and tons of them. Way more than you ever encounter in Zelda 2. It almost seems like it's trying too hard to be a platformer instead of embracing it's action adventure side. The pits are ofter over blind jumps and drops, which are plentiful due to the Game Boy Color's small screen. In addition, it's not always clear what is a deadly put and what is a safe place to drop.

To compound this problem, the game has a lives system. In soem areas (especially the third dungeon which is riddled with spikes) you will burn through so many lives and have to start the dungeon over and over and over. That said, most of the dungeons are the best parts of the game as they use less spike pits than the overworld, and have fairer enemies and more interesting gameplay.

Speaking of the enemies in this game, they are the cheapest bunch of bullshit I have ever encountered. Fighting them isnt worth it - they all have very ahrd to avoid attacks (some I truly believe are unavoidable in some situations) and take way too many hits to kill. In addition, the worst enemies appear in the two earliest possible routes you encounter in the game - the difficult curve of this game is more of a steady hill, starting very high early on, peaking at the half way to two thirds point ridiculously high up, before turning into a cliff, with the difficulty dropping like a rock as soon as you get the last transformation.

That last third of the game was the most fun I had with shantae - getting to properly explore without having to worry about the cheap ass enemies was bliss. By the end of that section ( and the game) I was feeling pretty good about Shantae again.

Shantae is a polished experience in most respects, but it throws way too much cheap or unavoidable shit at you to be truly enjoyable. It did show enough promise that I do plan to try the second game one day though. Maybe they balanced it a bit better on their second attempt.


I plan to go to Bangai-O and Ristar next once I'm back from a music festival in early July. I want to whip through them because I have the three longer and harder games left afterwards and I'll need all the time I can get!

[laurenhiya21]

Wow, that's almost exactly what I thought of Shantae when I played it a while ago... Except that I didn't get anywhere close to finishing it I have very little patience for cheap deaths in games ><; (unless you can start back up very quickly)

[Retrogamer0001]

1. Mega Man 2 (NES) Beaten
2. The Legend of Zelda (NES) Beaten
3. Star Tropics (NES)
4. Castlevania 2: Simon's Quest (NES) Beaten
5. Earthbound (SNES)
6. Panzer Dragoon Saga (Saturn)
7. Metroid: Other M (Wii) Beaten
8. Silent Hill 3 (PS3 HD Re-release)
9. Shadow of the Colossus (PS2) Beaten
10. Final Fantasy 9 (PS1) Beaten

Finished Metroid: Other M today...so disappointed.

Pros:
1. It was cool to see some of the classic Metroid moves updated with newer graphics and most even retained their original Super Metroid sounds.
2. Nice to see an attempt to flesh out a backstory for Samus, even if it was lame.

Cons:
1. Another classic case of a game made to fit the motion controls of the Wii, and not the console being made to fit the game. The controls for this game are fine until you have to go first-person to shoot missiles or hit a boss in a specific area - in these cases, the game takes a dump as the targeting reticle flies all over the screen and you really have to force the controller to go where you want it. Frustrating and unfun.
2. The story is stupid, overwrought, and full of cheesiness. The characters are lame, their interactions are lame, their voices are lame - lame, lame, lame. Samus is constantly referred to as "Princess", everyone loves giving the ol' thumbs up whenever something is accomplished, and the whole thing is just way off track for what a Metroid game should be. In some parts, it feels like many elements were ripped straight from the movie Alien Resurrection...
3. There's a ton of cryptic bullshit in this game, which is trademark Nintendo, so I shouldn't have been too surprised. That being said, it doesn't feel rewarding to explore the levels to find items, and in most cases it's just missile tanks anyway, which really aren't very useful.
4. One of the most disappointing things for me was the fact that enemies don't drop items or powerups like in the other (much better) games in the series. They don't drop anything at all. Instead, save points now completely refill health and missiles, so you're never really in any danger of running out of ammunition. There's also a feature where Samus can refill a few energy tanks and missiles in combat by tilting the Wiimote and holding A for five seconds - this is a completely worthless ability that is impossible to use in a boss fight because of how intense and aggressive they are.
5. The soundtrack is forgettable, even with the inclusion of one or two tracks from the other games. I also would have liked to have heard more sounds from the older games, for example, those iconic sounds of picking up a missile tank or saving your game. Instead, there's no sounds for these events.

I really didn't like this game after about two hours of gameplay, and I even played for an extra hour to find the hidden end boss (which was actually pretty cool). I don't recommend this game at all, which disappoints me considering the huge Metroid fan I am. Moving on to greener pastures with Silent Hill 3!