What Game(s) Are You Playing? Daily Check (2011)

[retro junkie]

Been playing Excite Truck on the Wii, Dragon Quest 4 on the DSi XL, and Bio-Hazard Battle, Fire Shark, & Lightning Force on the Genesis.

[The 1 2 P]

I finally decided to go back to Star Wars: Knights of The Old Republic for the Xbox. I've been playing for the last few nights. Since MW3 comes out tomorrow/later today this might be the last night I play it for awhile.

[starchildskiss78]

Yesterday:

Duck Tales (NES)

I finally got a chance to beat game I was exposed to over 20 years ago (from issue #8 of Nintendo Power) and never managed to. I never owned the game, instead opting to rent it from the local video store.

I played it from start to finish this time and marveled at how relatively short the game actually is. I still think it was a good effort from Capcom, with colorful graphics, excellent sound and music, and a storyline that made sense in the context of the source material.

Today:

Castlevania (NES)

Leave it to the Angry Video Game Nerd to get my interest in the other games in the NES series. I used to own Castlevania 2 in cartridge form years ago but got rid of it when I realized I was not good at it and would get frustrated. With the Wii Virtual Console (and free points from Pepsi's Rock Band 2 promotion) I gave it a second chance. (The NES Game Atlas worked wonders in my understanding of parts I was missing). When I bought all three in the series in cartridge form Saturday I finally saw the appeal. Castlevania is not an easy game by any means, and found myself dying quite a few times. I came very close to beating the game, making it to the Grim Reaper. The game froze on me however and I decided that I would try again another day.

[starchildskiss78]

Last Night:

Back to the Future (Wii)

I love this game! I played the first episode when it was a freebie download on Telltale Games' website. I am playing through the first episode now again so I can get through the whole game and remember what went on since it has been a while! The only thing that seems odd is that it feels like it has load times longer than I would expect, but maybe it's just me...

Today:

Midtown Madness 3 (Xbox)

I just got this one in the mail and I hooked up the Xbox (and the component cable) to see how it looks. I thought it was nice from what I have experienced so far. Seems like it has a lot of meat to it.

[Aussie2B]

After several days of having a rubber band wrapped around my Game Boy Advance SP, I finally got to level 99 in Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance. Just took a little bit past maxing out the clock (at 100 hours), haha. I guess it is kind of satisfying to have these crazy stats now, but it's still silly and pointless in the end. :P

For actual playing, I've been enjoying Giana Sisters DS for DS (duh) for the past few days, and I beat it today. I still have a few levels to unlock and a few levels to 100% clear (gotta do one to do the other), but I've mostly been pretty good about collecting all of the red crystals. And I did get the "achievement" for beating the game without ever seeing the Game Over screen. Lives are even less of a concern now that I have access to the 9-2 bonus level. I'm sure I'll need them as I attempt to get all of the red crystals in a few of the map 8 stages.

[Shulamana]

Terranigma.

This is becoming a real chore. I'm about halfway through, and I don't see how this is really a "hidden gem" or even remotely close to Illusion of Gaia in terms of quality (which I re-played for the first time in 10+ years about six months ago).

The boss fights come out of nowhere, seem completely random and are usually more "annoying" than "hard". About halfway through them I'm completely bored and just want it to end, there's no real feeling of victory. The magic system is completely useless, I only used a magic spell once, and I didn't even manage to hit an enemy. You can't even use magic during boss fights so why ever bother, you don't need them. Rather than using the healing magic I just spam the healing items and even a stack of 9 (the most you can have of any one thing) is more than enough to last through pretty much any dungeon/area.

I lost interest in the plot completely after the 2nd hour, and the English translation is one of the worst I've ever seen in a SNES game (it makes Robotrek and Illusion of Gaia look eloquent). I like Quintet's games usually, and I'm generally a very forgiving and optimistic guy when it comes to games and their flaws, but wow, this just feels like a giant turd to me.

I have given myself until next Thursday to finish it, then I'm moving on to the Final Fantasy VI re-translation / bugfix patch. I guess I'll just have to go head down and grind my way through the rest of it.

[Manga4life]

I've been playing Dragon Warrior IV quite a bit lately on my NES inbetween sessions of Lego Batman (Xbox 360) and revisiting MW2 for a 6th run through on my 360 in anticipation of MW3. Dragon Warrior IV is one of those games that I re-visit once every 2 or 3 years and remains (in my opinion) the best RPG on the NES, though part III is up there as well. When I finish DWIV I plan on firing up either some Faxanadu or possibly focusing on some "beat em' up's" like TMNT II or Double Dragon II or something to that effect, should be fun.

[timewarpgamer]

Fire Emblem: Sacred Stone on GBA. Just got owned last night by some crappy mages with Berserk staffs. What could be more frustrating than watching your most powerful characters go nuts and start offing the rest of your team?

I'm also slowly chugging through Dragon Quest VIII, played on a wonderfully backwards compatible original PS3.

[starchildskiss78]

Yesterday:

Ninja Gaiden (NES)

I can't say how many times I have owned this game. I owned it when the NES was still in the stores. I then got it a few years ago when I restarted my collection. I got rid of it but then decided to get it on Virtual Console. I wanted the real deal again. I got it in the post yesterday and played that sucker like there was no tomorrow. The cut scenes are just so epic!

[Aussie2B]

I finished off everything in Giana Sisters DS for DS (duh). Good times.

I just started up Otomedius Excellent for Xbox 360 (after digging the system out of my closet). Leave it to diehard bullet hell freaks to make you feel like a complete failure, haha. They claim that the game is easy, but I got my ass handed to me on my first attempt. I hate how this game has all of this pay DLC. I know that's the norm these days, but I mostly play older games and, of the modern games I play, that's not usually a "feature". I want Kokoro Belmont, dangit, but I don't want to pay for her. Same goes for the BGM. I wish all of this content was just unlockable. I especially don't think they deserve extra money when they went so extremely cheap on the manual. It's 4 pages, and it barely explains anything. There's no tutorial in the game either. So I'm left just guessing what some of the icons I'm collecting do. I pity anyone that's never played a Gradius and has no clue what's going on.

[starchildskiss78]

Donkey Kong Classics (NES)
Legend of Zelda (NES)

Thanks to the near impossibility of finding the instruction manual for the original Donkey Kong, I ordered Donkey Kong Classics with the instruction manual. The upside of this is I now have both Donkey Kong and Donkey Kong Jr. I had never made it past the second screen of Donkey Kong Jr and marveled at the third screen. This is definitely one of my favorite games now on the NES.

I have never made it very far in Legend of Zelda. I decided I would pull out the NES Game Atlas and see if I could make some progress. I now have two pieces of the Triforce which is no small feat for me because I can never get into the game in the past.

[The 1 2 P]

Being playing alot of Halo: CE Anniversary and MW3 lately.

[jdc]

Playing Hunted The Demons Forge and GT5 on the PS3. Playing Star Ocean First Departure on the PSP. Nothing on the retro systems at the moment, although the Dreamcast is being hooked back up soon.......

[BenG76]

Working on Retro Game Challenge after rebuying the game. I traded it off a while back. Gald to get back to it. I made it to Star Prince last night.

[starchildskiss78]

Last night:

Street Fighter II (SNES)
F-Zero (SNES)

I still marvel at the graphics and playability of these two games to this day. I was having a ball kicking butt with E. Honda. I had to tell my girlfriend about the fact that they released two marginal upgrades for Street Fighter II at and insane price....I remember buying Super Street Fighter II Turbo for $60 brand new when it came out!

F-Zero has some memorable music, and I am glad to have it back in my library. I like the idea of the Virtual Console for obscure games that cost too much to replace, but those are games easy to get in the physical format.

[JSoup]

Bouncing between inFAMOUS 2 and LEGO Harry Potter: Years 5-7. And, as always, WoW.

[Hawksmoor]

Alpha Protocol, SF3: 3rd Strike, Wordsmith, and Blast Monkeys.

[starchildskiss78]

Last Night:

Back to the Future (Wii)

I finally made it through episode 1! I would have finished sooner but I only played in small chunks and just now got back to it from the other day. I could have skipped directly to episode 2 because I beat it on the PC with the free download Telltale Games was offering, but I wanted to start fresh and go through each episode in order.

[jammajup]

R-Type and Enduro Racer on SMS,Cosmic Ark on 2600

[starchildskiss78]

Last night:

Cruisin' USA (N64)

I think the game has a bad reputation for some reason. I happen to like the game, however. My biggest complaint is that the manual is a poster. Would it have been too hard for a manual that was just a manual?

I did the race across the USA with a police car and had fun. It was the first time since I bought it well over a year ago that I actually sat down and played for more than five minutes. I think next time I will change the controller configuration. Using the joystick made it easier to control but I felt cramped with my big hand wedged in there.