Summer Games Challenge 2016

[Ack]

No worries, I'd suggest trying everyone, but Nakoruru is not a bad character to use for your main. Also which port are you playing? It's not the SNES port, is it?

[alienjesus]

It's the 3DO version. It's not too bad - some muffled sound effects, some loading times and a slightly odd control scheme, but it's playable for sure. Plus, it still has Earthquake in, so that's nice.

The 3DO control scheme is A,B,C is for weak slash, medium slash and heavy slash respectively. Holding L or R whilst pressing the buttons changes them to weak kick, medium kick and heavy kick. I like it a lot more than the control scheme that was used on Super Street Fighter 2.



Anyway, I spent some time tackling chapter 9 of Fire Emblem again today. It had stopped my progress as it was very easy to die early on when you are rushed by pirates who are good at dodging and hit really hard, aswell as archers, meaning my peg knight support was useless. It was going pretty well this time until near the end. Here is a play by play of the last couple of turns, which I refer to as 'Mission get the sword'.


Mission Get The Sword
For clarification the boss of this chapter is very bulky and hits like a truck. A weapon I picked up in the chapter was super effective against the boss, so I needed to go pick it up. I had my forces split into 2 teams - team 1 secured the route to the boss, whilst team 2 went the long way around to visit a village - this was the team that needed to grab the sword from the inventory. Unfortunately, tons of reinforcements showed up just as I grabbed it, and it got pretty hairy for a while there.

There's a lot of screenshots here, so feel free to open this spoiler if you want to read through.

Here's the map set up. Blue guys are mine. One of the horsemen on the right has the sword I need to get to the far left of the map. The axemen may not look too intimidating, but most of them have ranged weapons and about 6 spawn every turn, so they vastly outnumber me! I've already had a few close calls this map where a lucky dodge meant I could heal up and survive another turn.



Here my team have all fled to the right (brown units are my own team after their turn is used). I left one horseman where he is to guard my archer as he can't fight enemies right next to him. You can see I took out a couple of pirates on the way too, using my ranged characters. My thief to the north ran the other way as he'd be in harms way if he advanced to the left.


This fortress is where I need to get to, and where my other team are waiting. It doesn't seem far, but pirates will appear in my way every turn, the forest slows me down, and pirates can walk across water, unlike my characters who need to use the bridge.


Whilst team left were trying to clear the way to the fort, my cleric took a big hit, so now she need to back off to heal for a few turns. That's gonna make this harder.


As expected, the pirates all attacked Hardin, who did an admirable job taking them on considering I've never actually used him - I bought him in to fill out the roster and nothing else


At the end of the turn though, pirate numbers have doubled - 6 of them spawned and attacked me on the enemies turn:


Luckily, thanks to passing it to my fastest guy, the sword arrived at it's destination with my best swordsman, so I can go kill the boss this turn! Hooray! Except of course it wasn't that easy...


My swordman had no space to take the sword! That mean I had to use up a turn giving an item away with him, which means I have to hold out against the pirate onslaught for another round. You can see my poor used up turn units on the left hand side here. My cleric is still low on health, but I needed to heal my axeman badly.



Because of the extra turn of survival, I tried to clear out some of the pirates immediately in the way by sending some reinforcements from the left team.


My new sniper who joined me in this chapter had to prove his worth too, which he did with flying colours.


Health was getting a bit low though, so I had to spend a turn healing with my Sage instead of attacking like I'd have preferred.


I'd had to leave George the Sniper at the back of my party due to HP concerns on other team members and a lack of space to move him further. This meant nearly all the attacks came his way this turn. Luckily, George is awesome.


He's not the only one who can dodge though.


After the enemies turn, things were look bad for George, who was surrounded on all sides.


Although he's invisible in this shot for some reason (he's on the lone tree to the north), thing were looking bad for my thief Julian too - 3 enemies in range, and not enough HP to take a hit. I needed to finish the map this turn or I was screwed.


Luckily, my swordsman was in range with his Dragon Killer sword. This is why I needed it!


You have to be fucking kidding me. I missed both attacks. No what could I do?


It turns out I could have fucking killed him about 8 turns ago, as my mage (who was right next to him this whole time) took him down with no effort required. Literally this whole fucking exercise of getting the sword was pointless, and I risked failing constantly for 3 turns for nothing


Oh well, it was worth some exp. I spent some time killing any enemy I could before finishing the map to make the most of it.


And here I am capturing the fort to finish the map. That was a lot harder than it should have been

[Ack]

Sanitarium

This time I picked up at the start of the circus portion. I'm now playing as Sarah, Max's sister who died when he was a boy(and though he could not have done anything for her, he may blame himself based on the memory I was presented with). The circus is run down and stuck on an island after a flood left the surrounding earth awash in filthy, murky water. That wouldn't be so bad, but one of the human curiosities managed to break loose, and he's now prowling about the water, seeking revenge by killing and possibly eating anyone who tries to escape. As a result the only residents on the little island are effectively sitting and waiting to die. Empty vodka bottles litter the fair ground, the amusement machines are sitting in a state of dilapidation, and everything is seen through a state of malaise and despair.

It's a strange setting for a horror game, but it is eerie in its perversion of joy. The tattoo artist has to use dirty needles, the clowns reek of alcohol, and the one-armed juggler is bored out of his mind. There's also a single homeless child trapped on the island, and he's taken to thievery out of boredom. Some of the freaks are also trapped in their cages, one of which has become so hungry he's considering a form of pseudo-cannibalism...depending on whether he was ever really human to begin with. Truth be told, I'm really not sure.

Anyway, after releasing wolf boy and gathering up the necessary materials to learn how to breath fire and visit the fun house, I fell into an underground cave and was forced into a sort of boss battle against the octopus man who has been terrorizing the circus. Unfortunately I'm pretty sure he killed the wolf boy before I could save him. I've now pressed on, and I'm in some kind of mansion where the walls are warping. Technically speaking the circus was chapter 4 while the cave with the octopus was chapter 5, so I'm now at the start of chapter 6.

[BoneSnapDeez]

With regard to Moon Patrol, I recommend the GBC and PS1 versions:

Just got it on GBC. That was an excellent idea. So much more playable this way.

[BoneSnapDeez]

Akumajō Dracula (Famicom Disk System)
Fire Emblem: Ankoku Ryū to Hikari no Tsurugi (Famicom)
Guardian Heroes (Saturn)
Hikari Shinwa: Palutena no Kagami (Famicom Disk System)
Moon Patrol (Game Boy Color)
Ninja Gaiden (NES)
OutRun (various)
Super C (NES)
Wonder Boy (Sega Master System)
Zaxxon (various)

Moon Patrol is done!

Pretty rad game. The platformer/shmup hybrid concept is way ahead of its time. The parallax scrolling is sexy as hale. Only one problem: the land mine section is absolutely infuriating. The controls completely fall apart here.

Nevertheless, this is an essential second gen title. Glad to have it wrapped up. Six games done. I'll probably consider summer over when September hits. I'd like to get a few more finished. Doubt I can do Fire Emblem, choosing a difficult long ass RPG was a bad idea.

[Exhuminator]

Bone, do Akumajō Dracula next. It's the best game left on your list.

[Key-Glyph]

I've been really stymied lately, but I socked away another dozen or so games in Bases Loaded last night. I'm heading into game 51 and inching ever closer to the World Series...

I think I'm going to disappoint myself this summer in terms of quantity conquered, but at this point I feel that if I can just beat this one game, it will be a personal triumph.

[BoneSnapDeez]

Bone, do Akumajō Dracula next. It's the best game left on your list.

Yeah I think that's where I'm headed.

I just got the NES cart too, so I may to FDS/NES back-to-back.

[Exhuminator]

It'd be fun to read your comparisons.

[Ack]

Done, 7/10. Goodbye, Sanitarium. You were a strange and creepy ride, unique in the realm of point-and-clicks I have played. I will be posting my thoughts in the Games Beaten 2016 thread, likely tomorrow. I really hope that some of you take the time to track it down though; I think it is wonderfully different. It's a shame that it was cursed to be forgotten due to its release year.

Up next: Mortal Kombat 3

NOW PLAYING:

Mortal Kombat 3

7/10 BEATEN:

Alone in the Dark
Call of Duty 2
Might and Magic III: Isles of Terra
Sanitarium
Silent Hill
Thief Gold
Turok: Dinosaur Hunter