ZRofel wrote:
VICE: Project Doom
Kickmaster
Air Zonk
The New Addams Family Series
Lords of Thunder
Kill.Switch
Whelp, at long last, I finally did it. I finally beat VICE: Project Doom. I have to admit, it was actually a bit anticlimactic. I'd played all the way to the final boss multiple times, so it was really just a matter of finishing him off. And the ending, while robust for an NES game, was pretty brief, and the last of the major plot twists is revealed in the cut scene before the final boss, so you don't get much more story with the actual ending. Also, my cat was yelling at me for most of the last few levels because it was her dinner time, so that was kind of distracting. I suppose I could have just paused the game to feed her, but after the last time I interrupted VICE to help a cat, I didn't want to chance it.
I did make one interesting discovery while playing, though. So, you pretty much need to use grenades to defeat the final form of the final boss. But, like an idiot, I used up all my grenades on the first form. I figured I was screwed, but low and behold, if you completely run out of grenades, the game gives you two after a few seconds. It's not an item drop or anything, your count in the HUD just goes from 00 to 02. I don't know if that's particular to the final boss fight, so you can't get yourself into an unwinnable situation, or if the game does that with your ammo throughout the entire run. Regardless, it made me smile and just reinforced the fact that VICE was a very convenient, forward-thinking game on the NES.
Despite the perhaps sub-optimal conditions for my final run, I still think VICE is a great game and would recommend it to anyone who's an NES fan.
Other than that, my progress on the challenge has been... not great. I played through most of Kickmaster, which is a gorgeous-looking, extraordinarily technical action game on the NES. It's made by the same people who made the NES G.I. Joe games and Low-G Man, so it's got a very similar graphical style to those games, with very dark colors that tend to blend in very distinctive ways, almost like paints or pastels. But unlike G.I. Joe and Low-G Man, which are more sci-fi, Kickmaster is dark fantasy, and I think the visual style works even better for that kind of a setting. A lot of the creatures you encounter look really awesome and gross. Makes me wonder what an NES Castlevania game would have looked like with a similar visual style. And, as I said, it's very technical. It's not like Ninja Gaiden, where you can just run forward and slash at things. Positioning and movement really impact how your kicks come out, so depending on whether you're crouching, moving forward, standing still, jumping, jumping forward, etc. you'll do very, very different moves if you hit the attack button. I like it, but it definitely takes some time to learn. I got to what I think is the second-to-last level, where there is a lengthy boss rush mode that is just brutal. There's a password system, so I should be able to just pop back there when I've got some time, but I think I need to practice a bit first.
I got stuck pretty similarly in Air Zonk. That game is a hoot to play, and the first three levels are fairly easy. Level four gets quite a bit tougher but is still manageable. Level five, though, is absolutely savage. The enemies all take so much damage to kill that you really need to be in upgraded form all the time or you'll quickly get overwhelmed. But that means if you take one hit at any point and downgrade to the weaker gun, you're basically screwed and will have to restart the whole level. If you're half-way through the level your starting gun won't be enough to kill most enemies before they disappear from the screen or swarm you, so you won't get any to drop the power-up you need to upgrade a second time. I don't know, gang. I like this game a lot, but that last level is rough. Tips/suggestions are appreciated.
I probably put the most time into The New Addams Family Series, but frankly, it's been a disappointment. Despite being the spiritual sequel to The Fish Files, it actually seems worse in pretty much every way. The graphics aren't as good, the music is pretty bland, the puzzles are more obtuse, and it's just not very funny. Perhaps worst of all, it commits the cardinal sin of point-and-click adventure games and shoehorns in a terrible action section that you need to navigate multiple times. I would almost guarantee there will be more of them. I'm stuck on a puzzle right now that I think may actually be the result of a translation error (like The Fish Files, you can definitely tell it was translated by non-native English speakers, although it never messed up the puzzle solving in that game), and I'm just not feeling very compelled to figure it out.
I also played through a few levels of Kill.Switch. It's okay.
I think the overall takeaway is that I should go play Lords of Thunder instead
