Summer Games Challenge 2014

[darsparx]

Got the first two spiritual stones easily enough (I'm surprised how short the dungeons were), and now I'm onto Jabu Jabu's Belly. I do remember this being a pain in the butt, and since everybody else seems to also think so... I'm not really looking forward to this ><;

Yeah that and the water temple is a pain in the rump. I only finally beat the game a few years ago, and usually when I'd rage quit, jabu jabu's belly is usually where it was. Ended up taking a break from it then coming back days or months later and beating a little more, but man did i hate that section as a kid. It was satisfying to finally beat it when I did.

[BoneSnapDeez]

Cor blimey, Skies is a long game. Not even on the second disc yet, though I think I'm near. Just landed at Sky Japan. The people are pretty arrogant about westerners considering I turned up in a gigantic steel plated battleship.

I think Skies took me 55 hours or so. I found all the treasures, but I think I skipped some optional boss.

[Cronozilla]

• 1. Shadow of the Colossus PS2
• 2. Nightmare on Elm Street NES
• 3. Omega Boost PS1
• 4. Spyro: The Dragon PS1
• 5. Metroid Prime GCN
• 6. Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble! SNES
• 7. Pikmin GCN
• 8. Unfinished Zelda Games
  • a. The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker GCN
  • b. The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past SNES
  • c. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time N64
• 9. Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy PS2
• 10. Skies of Arcadia DC

Two more down.

Jak and Daxter
Was pretty good. Kinda short and a little too easy. (Though not as easy as Spyro)
I liked it!

Ocarina of Time
Don't wait two years after getting almost all the way through a game to finally finish it. For some reason, I stopped in the middle of the Spirit Temple, as Adult Link. Going back made it more difficult than it probably is considering I hadn't touched it in a very long time.

Overall, the game is great. I really wish I had finished it back when I got it. At this point in time, it's been so spoiled and talked about I just feel late to the party and everyone's already left.

Next ... I gotta finish Metroid Prime. I'm thinking the boss fight is a lot easier than I was making it out to be, I might just be doing something dumb.

I'll probably power through A Link to the Past also.

The next new game I'll start will probably be Shadow of the Colossus.

[Sload Soap]

Hiyoooo!

Skies of Arcadia (DC)
Wonder Boy In Monster World (360)
Nights...Into Dreams (SS/360)
Viewtiful Joe (GC)
Super Mario Bros 3 (Snes)
Ys (PC)
Otogi 2 (xbox)
Rocket Knight Adventures (MD)
Golvellius (SMS)
Exhumed (SS)
Castle of Illusion (SMS)

Added Castle of Illusion and then beat it on the same day. Or was it the other way 'round? Either way, I got a Master System game on the list that I didn't despise, so I'm happy.

As for the game itself it actually plays a bit differently from its more famous Mega Drive counterpart. The levels are all present and correct but there is more puzzling. it's very light stuff, keys for doors about two screens away, but it is different. It's a bit like the SMS Sonic games or Mario Land 2: pared back to a point where it becomes its own thing. It's as breezily paced as the MD version though with that same precise jumping. And you still defeat your foes via a well placed arse drop.

I felt there was a maybe a bit of dodgy hit detection here and it's a bit easy (aside from the dragon boss) but I enjoyed it. I'm not exactly sure what makes some UK SMS aficionados think it is the superior version though. Probably nostalgia.

So now I have beaten this and the remake (which is also excellent) but not the MD version.

Also knocked out Rocket Knight Adventures which is brilliant on every level. Really, really enjoyed it. It's like the perfect amount of platforming, action and difficulty with a cool gimmick. Excellent graphics and music as well. I think the only sour note was an overly drawn out end sequence. But then most games of the era do that and it was pretty epic. So not really a criticism after all. And, extremely rarely for me, I beat it again after beating it just for the jollies and expect to do so again in the near future. Another rainy sunday afternoon game.

It's one of those twatty games that makes you beat it on the highest setting to get the "real" ending though. Never been too cool about that.*

I think this one will find its way onto my yearly top ten.

*The difficulty for this game changes from region to region. The PAL "Easy" is equivalent to "Child" on the US release and "Hard" for us is your "Normal". To get the proper ending you need to finish the game on normal/hard which is I guess makes sense but why not just have a normal PAL mode? That and both versions had a level select code removed that was present in the Japanese version meaning Konami actually went out of their way to make it this convoluted. Weirdos.

[laurenhiya21]

Well I beat Jabu-Jabu's Belly last night... and actually I didn't think it was that bad. Jellyfish were a tad annoying, but not much. Really the only major trouble I had with it was after the mini-boss, when Zora lady leaves (can't remember her name gah), I needed to hold a switch open and I thought I needed her. So I went all over the dungeon several times looking for her, until I realized I was supposed to use a crate. Derp ><

And today, I started on the Forest Temple and I'm having a ton of trouble with it... I keep on getting lost, and right now I've gotten completely stuck. Going to have to consult a walkthough *sigh*

[Cronozilla]

• 1. Shadow of the Colossus PS2
• 2. Nightmare on Elm Street NES
• 3. Omega Boost PS1
• 4. Spyro: The Dragon PS1
• 5. Metroid Prime GCN
• 6. Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble! SNES
• 7. Pikmin GCN
• 8. Unfinished Zelda Games
  • a. The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker GCN
  • b. The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past SNES
  • c. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time N64
• 9. Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy PS2
• 10. Skies of Arcadia DC

It's over. It's finally over.
I finished Metroid Prime.

I think the way they balanced the final boss is complete garbage. I can kind of tell the states they used and how each section relates to the other.

I'm surprised I actually was able to finish it this time, just like every other time I got hit with some glitches. Like an energy tank disappearing.

Considering how much people hate Metroid Prime 2, I have absolutely no desire to touch it ... ever. I would like to play 3 though. I played a little of that when it came out and it was pretty fun.

My verdict on Metroid Prime is ... I wish the boss fights were more balanced. Because they're not. And the tactics that are used for the Boss' state machines are kinda BS, they're based around taking advantage of handicaps built into the player's control of the character.
It is an otherwise fantastic game.

Now, if these issues are alleviated in Metroid Prime Trilogy, with the new controls, I'd be very happy to play it again. Otherwise, f-that.

[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)

OK, I'm back from my holiday, so it's time for an update!

I'm currently working through Tactics Ogre. I'm a good way through chapter 3 on the chaos path. My units are becoming fairly reliable now in terms of power, but some are getting dangerously low on Loyalty, rather annoyingly. I should polish it off by the end of the month no problem, we'll have to see if I can manage Super Aleste too.

I also finished off MGS2 whilst I was away. Thoughts (and spoilers!) in the tags below:

At first when I was playing MGS2, I was a bit worried. The stealth seemed a lot more developed than the first, and I generally took a more gung ho approach there, as I both suck at stealth and find it a bit dull.

After some teething troubles though, I quickly got the hang of it and had a ton of fun running around the tanker and the big shell. I liked that the game had so many ways to get past guards, but found it a bit easy to forget about stuff like shooting steam pipes, using 'magazines' to distract them, and in fact, using any gun other than the silenced pistol and tranquilizer pistol.

Story wise, the game is over the top and silly, as usual, but even moreso than ever. A lot of things are left unexplained which I assume are addressed in 3 or 4, but we'll wait and see. Raiden seems to get a lot of hate, but honestly I don't get why. He seems a bit of a doofus early on, but he quickly becomes more complex as a character, and he's a nice juxtaposition against the almighty solid snake as someone not quite so infallable.

The ending of the game was the only thing story wise that kinda bothered me. The premise of the patriots and controlling the government is a big step up in terms of stakes from the previous games, but I could go along with it. The extent of control the patriots had just seemed kinda silly to me though, and made it all seem like it was trying a bit too hard.

Overall, I liked the game quite a bit. The Metal Gear series repeatedly shows that despite appearances it's the type of thing I can get into and enjoy. I look forward to seeing how MGS3 goes in future, as what I've played of that so far has been rather frustrating due to my terrible stealth skills.

[Xeogred]

Considering how much people hate Metroid Prime 2, I have absolutely no desire to touch it ... ever. I would like to play 3 though. I played a little of that when it came out and it was pretty fun.

Um, who hates 2?

I know I'm probably in the minority about liking 2 over 3, but at the least, 2 is still damn good and has some obvious pros over 3.

- The most difficult of the three by far (3 being the easiest)
- Twice as long as 3 (3 being the shortest)
- 3 is arguably the most linear and throws about 90% of the energy tanks at your face

The dark world concept was interesting and handled better than a lot of games. Really, it just straight up builds upon the first game and increases the difficulty, I've always compared the transition between the two to that of OoT's jump to Majora's Mask, kind of the same deal. I can't fathom how someone who truly enjoys 1 or 3 could not enjoy 2. The formula is completely consistent throughout all of them.

[prfsnl_gmr]

Here is my list for summer 2014:

1. Dragon's Lair
2. Flashback
3. Halo 2
4. Jumping Flash! 2
5. Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake
6. Military Madness
7. Return Fire
8. R-Type Delta
9. Virtual Boy Wario Land
10. Ys III: Wanderers from Ys

I captured the green army's flag and finally, finally beat Return Fire.

The game is best known for its very fun, two-player competitive mode, but the single player campaign is also fun. In it, you use your "army" of three assault vehicles, three helicopters, three jeeps, and three tanks tries to capture a flag from one of the green army's flag towers. There my be dozens of flag towers on a map, but there is only one flag. Moreover, the flag towers are guarded by relentless turrets. Accordingly, the single-player games plays like a tower defense game in reverse.

Unsurprisingly, each of the vehicles uses "tank" controls, but once I got the hang of it, the game was a lot of fun. My general strategy for each map was to use my helicopters to locate the flag, use my assault vehicles and tanks to clear a path to the flag, and then send my jeep to capture the flag and return it to my bunker. The maps started off easy enough. By the halfway point, however, they become quite challenging, and by the end of the game, they are exceptionally difficult (and frustrating).

The game also has the all the hallmarks of an early CD game. It plays public-domain video clips whenever you complete a map, and the soundtrack is composed entirely of CD-quality classical music. (The classical music is a nice touch. The game plays "Ride of Valkyries" when you are piloting the helicopter, "Flight of the Bumblebee" when you are driving the jeep, and "Messiah" when you complete a map.)

Like Military Madness, this game has been on my "summer gaming challenge" list for several years, and I am glad that I have finally beaten it. I am going out of town for a few days, but I should be able to finish up Halo 2 shortly after I return. I will then push through Metal Gear 2 before heading into a final showdown with R-Type Delta...

[Cronozilla]

Um, who hates 2?

Everyone I've ever met, ever, whom has played it? Especially when it came out. People railed on it hard, I never got to it because I hadn't finished the first yet.

You're literally the first person I've ever talked to who even liked it.

To be frank, if it's not better balanced than the first, I'm not interested. I'll probably dabble in it sometime, but not anytime soon.