noiseredux wrote:ok, y'know what? Adventure Island is actually really fucking hard. There's a lot of times I don't even make it past 1-3.
If you're playing the NES one, there's a secret item that lets you continue.
whaaat???
SPOILER Just to the left of the Goal (G) sign in stage 1-1, jump up and down to find the hidden egg. Step on the egg to pick up the Hudson's Bee. Once you have found the Bee, you can continue after losing your last life. To do this, hold any direction on the Control Pad and press Start when the game returns to the Title screen. /SPOILER
I haven't played the game, but I've heard about this several times from different sources, so it seems reliable.
Ok, so I can confirm that the Continues trick really works. Here's how to do it:
[spoilers]
at the very end of 1-1 when you jump off the moving platform right before the G-post, go to the edge of the ledge on your left. Jump up and an egg will appear. Get that egg and you've activated the code.
Now when you die, and the game goes back to the Start Menu hold down UP + A + SELECT and hit START. You will now start off at the beginning of the last zone you were in. (IE: If you were in 3-3 you'll start on 3-1).
[/spoilers]
at any rate it totally works. And since it's part of the game as it was designed, I'm gonna exploit the shit out of it. Because well... this game is really really hard.
noiseredux wrote:at any rate it totally works. And since it's part of the game as it was designed, I'm gonna exploit the shit out of it. Because well... this game is really really hard.
Amen to that. I might play the first one just because of this.
Of course, this means long hours of play, since I'm using an emulator...but hey, why not?
Gaming accomplishments: Nibbler (marathon): 251,169,160 / Nibbler (one life): 5,263,360 (WR) Donkey Kong: 423,100 [L12-1] (150th place as of 2019-01-15) Super Smash Bros. (N64): Ranked top 5 in Wisconsin from Q1 2016 to Q2 2017 Shrek SuperSlam: won largest tournament in game's history (Shrekfest 2018)
noiseredux wrote:at any rate it totally works. And since it's part of the game as it was designed, I'm gonna exploit the shit out of it. Because well... this game is really really hard.
Amen to that. I might play the first one just because of this.
Of course, this means long hours of play, since I'm using an emulator...but hey, why not?
I'm playing the actual GBA cart, so I feel like this is fair... like a cheat built-in isn't the same as Game Genie or save states.
noiseredux wrote:at any rate it totally works. And since it's part of the game as it was designed, I'm gonna exploit the shit out of it. Because well... this game is really really hard.
Amen to that. I might play the first one just because of this.
Of course, this means long hours of play, since I'm using an emulator...but hey, why not?
I'm playing the actual GBA cart, so I feel like this is fair... like a cheat built-in isn't the same as Game Genie or save states.
...ah, whatever helps me sleep at night...
Considering Wonder Boy, which is basically the same game, has infinite continues by default I wouldn't feel too guilty about it.
So I got to the last level of Wonder Boy in Monster Land today, and this game is a cheating pile of crap.
Actually, that's a bit harsh, because it's enjoyable enough in it's own way, but some of these game design choices are just atrociously unforgiving and cheap. I'd say it's its heritage as an arcade game, but wonder boy 1 was an arcade game too, and they at least gave you continues.
Wonder Boy in Monster Land has one life, and no continues. You can get potions to revive you when you die, but they're very rare and you can only carry one at a time. The game has one major flaw imo, that has been the source of all of my grief - it has a timer. In an RPG. A timer which hurts you everytime it runs out. It's not a particularly long timer either. The only way to replenish it is to beat a boss, enter a new area or find a hidden hourglass - the problem here is that unlike wonderboy 1's constantly dropping timer, the items to refill it arent common at all.
In the final level, you're in a huge labyrinth (a pet hate of mine in games). When you're trying to explore this labyrinth (and its ridiculosuly huge, I mean, enormous),your health is constantly dropping because of the timer. There are no hourglass items to refill the timer at all, so you just have to deal with it. With your one life...
Enemies that drop hearts are also few and far between, so you cant even grind for health to keep the levels up. And then you reach this one bit where you have to climb upwards up a shaft on some blocks, jumping from one to the other. This, for whatever reason, is ridiculously hard. And if you fall back to the bottom, instead of putting you at the bottom of the shaft, you are place in a room literally a full minutes walk away. And that timer just keeps on ticking...
I'm never gonna beat this damn game ¬_¬
Recommendation to other people: Ignore Wonder Boy in Monster Land, just go straight to the superb Wonder Boy III: Dragons trap.
I'm getting to the point where I actually think Adventure Island is so cheap that it's not even all that fun.
Compare it to SMB -- I find the first SMB rather challenging, but it's not impossible. It's not completely unfair. I can make it all the way to the end of the game. In most levels that are really difficult you can take it slow and time yr jumps if yr patient. It's rare that the timer really even bothers you in SMB.
Adventure Island has a timer that goes waaay too fast and yet the level-design is completely reliant on memorizing enemy patters and really hard jumps. It's unfair. You have to do everything carefully to succeed, but need to speed through it to beat the timer.
In short I think the game is kind of a dick. After 2 weeks now I still can't even get to the 2nd boss. And it's kind of boring to replay the same handful of levels over and over again. (How many levels are there anyway?)
Didn't even realize this was going in. I was in the mood to play some 8-bit platformers yesterday and I put Wonderboy for master system in briefly. I've played it before obviously. . .
Don't know if this was mentioned but in the master system version the manual actually tells you how to skip ahead. I think it's something like push A twice, B twice, then press A+B. Then you hold A and push left and right to increase the level or Hold B and push left and right to change the round. I went ahead and just skipped to the final level for the hell of it. Apparently it looks exactly like the first level. Lame. . . And it's rediculously hard. I only gave it a couple of tries.
Overall the later games in this series are far superior. This is clearly an arcade type game, although it seems way too long to be played in an arcade. It's pretty generic as well. Same enemies in the last level as you see in the first. Limited variety of levels. It's not something I have a strong desire to complete. I'm more likely to go back to it every once in a while just to try and beat the final stage.
Dragon's trap is great though. I need to invest more time into that one. The problem is between plays it's usually been a couple months so instead of entering my password to continue I feel like I'm better off just starting a new game, so I never really make much progress. Someday. . .
Alienjesus: Thanks for your writeup on monsterland. I removed that one from my list of games to get.
