2017 Game Completion Challenge

[Emperor Megas]

I completed Insector X for my player's choice game, but it was about 20 minutes after midnight Central time, so I think I missed the cut off.

I had to use several continues to complete it. I used to be able to fly through this game with a single credit, no problem, sometimes on a single life, but I'm EXTREMELY rusty now. I forgot how large the hit box on your character is. Jesus. I don't know how I used to be so good at this shitty game.

This was the only game I managed to play this week. I was out of town for a few days and when I got back home I had to get one of my cats fixed, and the wife has a dentist appointment, then I had to play catch up at work. Urgh!

One good thing is that the dentist is in a town I only go to a few times a year, and I had some decent pawn shop finds. I actually got a loose replacement battery for my PSP-3000 that I took a chance on for $5. Got home and tested it out and it works great so far (knock on wood). That alone was worth the trip.

I also hit up a pawn shop with a cool ass older dude who runs it. He always throws in a game or two for free when totally up my lot. It's awesome because we don't have a rapport or anything (I'm not there enough for him to remember me I don't think), but he ALWAYS hooks me up when I buy a lot of games, which is just great. I LOVE people who do cool stuff like that just because.

[Niku-Sama]

Yay i have some of those games!

[Az]

I played through a bit of SMS Rastan this week but never finished it, still playing on my original cart I had from '88 or '89. Great SMS game, looks a bit flat but plays good. The arcade cabinet was one that I always would plop a coin or two in no matter where I saw it at. The main tune is straight-up epic and would make Basil proud. As far as I can remember it was the first game I ever saw that had a heart as the meter, heart as in an actual anatomically correct organ.

Sat down tonight and played through Arcade Mode on the US PSX release of Psychic Force. I hadn't touched this game in years, probably since it first came out, and didn't spend that much time with it even then. It plays alright enough for one of the first entries in that type of fighter (3D floaty free flying) so rough edges should be expected. What I didn't care for was some of the damage scaling. There are bread & butter 3 or 4 hit combos that take off waaayyy more damage than they should.

I'm assuming that since I used continues I didn't fight the real big bad, but the final boss I did encounter was the usual overpowered controller-throwing nonsense. Unblockable or giant chip damage attacks, techniques unavailable in normal play, the whole shebang. He ended up getting the Mortal Kombat treatment where rather than using the normal flow of your skills you instead find one AI hiccup and cheese it to death.

[Emperor Megas]

I knocked this one out right away. Target Earth is EASILY one of my favorite 16-bit titles, and honestly one of my all time favorite video games. What a trip playing through this game again after so many years! The nostalgia was just washing over me like a wave of awesomeness. This game was so ahead of it's time for an early 16-bit entry. Dynamic NPC allies fighting along side you, dialog windows with cheesy Anime banter, offensive and defensive mission objectives, floaty zero-G battles. I remember the first time I ever played it. It was like playing an actual Macross game before importing was a thing.

Excellent picks for week 7!

[jperryss]

-RP2A03 and Cornelius are busting through The Illusion of Gaia. Anyone else chasing a Quintet Heaven and Earth game for the RPG points?

Just started on Soulblazer yesterday. Forgot how great the music is on this one, definitely my favorite of the series and some of my favorites tunes on the SNES.

Hoping to do some damage with this week's titles.

[RP2A03]

I wrapped up Illusion of Gaia myself.

Also, I finished with 49 red jewels. I was using a guide to find them, but still missed one.

If it makes you feel any better, collecting all of the jewels would have gotten you a kinda cool dungeon, a difficult boss fight, and... what else was it?

Hold on.

Let's see...

Ah, yes, that's it!

You get nothing else.

[celerystalker]

I wrapped up Illusion of Gaia myself.









If it makes you feel any better, collecting all of the jewels would have gotten you a kinda cool dungeon, a difficult boss fight, and... what else was it?

Hold on.

Let's see...

Ah, yes, that's it!

You get nothing else.

True, but it is one of many direct ties to SoulBlazer story-wise...

Emperor Megas-glad you enjoy Target Earth so much! It's so unique on the Genesis. I always felt like it and Leynos 2 on Saturn were sorely underrated. Also, you do get the completion point for Insector X. I've been allowing up until about noon on Sundays central time.

Az-yeah, the original Psychic force is a bit unbalanced. 2012 is probably the best of the series as far as that goes, though 2012EX included in the PS2 Psychic Force Complete adds back ina few characters. It's a series that us definitely at its best in multi-player. Glad you did Rastan on SMS! I feel like it was a pretty great home port for its time.

Congrats RP2A03 and Cornelius on the RPG points! I was surprised at how many references there are to SoulBlazer in the Illusion of Gaia once I played them back to back, and the fact that Jeweler Gem was a direct tie to SoulBlazer was neat, kind of like the ending to Drakengard that ties to Nier... good luck to jperryss with SoulBlazer!

[Emperor Megas]

kind of like the ending to Drakengard that ties to Nier...

Drakengard was one of the games I purchased from the pawn shop the other day (for $5). I bought it because I'd learned (from you, I think) that it had ties to Nier. It's been on my radar ever since I read that, because I freaking LOVED Nier.

I got Drakengard 3 as well from the other pawn shop that I found the PSP battery at. I already owned Drakengard 2, so I figured I might as well get it, too.

Great to hear that my Insector X point gets counted, BTW. Sunday night is one of my peak gaming hours.

[Cornelius]

God damn it! I now have a Saturn, NES, SNES, and CDX, (plus modern systems) in my living room, and I'm thinking of setting up the Jaguar. This is bad, but also good. I'm just not currently set up for all these, and the basement project (DIY) can't come along fast enough, but at least I'm playing for a change.

Anyway, I kind of suck at classic action games. Took me an embarrassing number of tries to beat the first level of Target Earth. Made it to the third but blew my continues there. I doubt I'll be able to complete the game, but I do like it a lot. It is kind of hard getting back into the mindset to play this sort of game (i.e. die, start over, gradually improve, repeat). And reading about Emperor knocking it out the first night didn't help. I was thinking, "how hard can it be?". Kicking my ass.

Great to hear that my Insector X point gets counted, BTW. Sunday night is one of my peak gaming hours.

I'd advocate for having the week start on Monday so the weekend can be a solid chunk devoted to a game if needed. Or maybe give each 'week' 8 days and just let Sunday overlap all the way. Totally not a big deal, whatever works for celerystalker is fine with me, I'm just happy for the community incentive to play.

[celerystalker]

God damn it! I now have a Saturn, NES, SNES, and CDX, (plus modern systems) in my living room, and I'm thinking of setting up the Jaguar. This is bad, but also good. I'm just not currently set up for all these, and the basement project (DIY) can't come along fast enough, but at least I'm playing for a change.

Anyway, I kind of suck at classic action games. Took me an embarrassing number of tries to beat the first level of Target Earth. Made it to the third but blew my continues there. I doubt I'll be able to complete the game, but I do like it a lot. It is kind of hard getting back into the mindset to play this sort of game (i.e. die, start over, gradually improve, repeat). And reading about Emperor knocking it out the first night didn't help. I was thinking, "how hard can it be?". Kicking my ass.



I'd advocate for having the week start on Monday so the weekend can be a solid chunk devoted to a game if needed. Or maybe give each 'week' 8 days and just let Sunday overlap all the way. Totally not a big deal, whatever works for celerystalker is fine with me, I'm just happy for the community incentive to play.

I'm generally pretty flexible on it so long as nobody's getting upset about it. A Sunday overlap is fine by me, especially since some weeks I don't get the new games posted until after midnight Saturday/Sunday.

Target Earth is likely the hardest of the Assault Suits games. If it's hitting too hard, Cybernator/Valken is a lot more accessible. Leynos 2 is as well, but it's quite a bit longer, and Valken 2 is a strategy RPG in the vein of Front Mission, making it the longest by a mile.

Glad you're having fun! That's what's most important. I'll be sending a prize to the winner and second place at the end of the year, but it's really about playing games and having a good time.

[Emperor Megas]

Target Earth is a lot easier if you stock up on choice weapons in the first stage.

I'm not sure if you know about this or not, but in the first stage if you ONLY destroy the enemy attack ship and NOTHING ELSE AT ALL, you'll be rewarded with one of almost every weapon type in your stock. You won't see them displayed at the end of the stage where they normally show the weapons you've acquired, but you'll see them all there when the second stage starts.

The thing is, it's actually REALLY TOUGH to do it this trick, because enemies destroyed by your allies (it happens), and any enemies who get caught up in the aftermath of the attack ship falling to the ground when it's destroyed count as enemy kills. You have to spend a lot of time corralling enemies and keeping them alive and 'safe', and it's especially tough to keep them away from the attack ship wreckage at the end of the stage. You'll know if you've done it right if your score is 2800 points (the value of JUST the attack ship) when the stage ends. I pretty much always play it this way, so that's probably why I breeze through the game. It's not too tough to play it without the full weapon spread, but you have to play it really, REALLY conservatively.

The Jetpack and Missle Pod make the game SO MUCH more fun, and carrying the shield just looks bad ass. I usually just stock up on defensive armaments each stage and just equip the HG Gun (the more power version of the standard Gatling gun) and a Missle Pod (which makes short work of Rance encounters) and just have a blast.

[jperryss]

Took a break from Soulblazer for the player's choice challenge: Lords of Thunder completed (with the volume at 11, the way god intended).

This game is in my top 3 of all-time and if you enjoy shmups even a little and have never played this, I highly recommend checking it out.

Someday I'll learn how to take decent CRT pics...

[celerystalker]

Took a break from Soulblazer for the player's choice challenge: Lords of Thunder completed (with the volume at 11, the way god intended).

This game is in my top 3 of all-time and if you enjoy shmups even a little and have never played this, I highly recommend checking it out.

Someday I'll learn how to take decent CRT pics...

Awesome game! Did you do it on Turbo or Sega CD? I'm slightly partial to Gate of Thunder, but both are tremendous.

[jperryss]

Awesome game! Did you do it on Turbo or Sega CD? I'm slightly partial to Gate of Thunder, but both are tremendous.

Oops! This was on the TG16. I have GoT also (on the 4-in-1 Duo disc) but have only finished it once and don't revisit it too often. I do listen to both soundtracks quite a bit.

[FieryReign]

Target Earth is pretty awful, what am I missing here? Never played it before, is it a nostalgic thing?

[celerystalker]

Target Earth is pretty awful, what am I missing here? Never played it before, is it a nostalgic thing?

Nostalgia plays a role, but its unique approach makes it a different animal from the usual run 'n gun, and playing it like you would a Contra just gets you dead. It's an odd duck to be sure, and not a lot of folks really dig it. I'd recommend giving Cubernator a shot instead. It has a much more arcade presentation and feel, and gets played more like an action game... I think most people prefer it.

[celerystalker]

As of this morning, here are the current standings:

RP2A03-12

Snow Bros
Bucky O'Hare
Guerrilla War
Magic Sword
Tiny Toon Adventures
Mega Man X
The Illusion of Gaia (RPG pts)

Cornelius-8

Space Invaders Extreme
Duck Tales
D
The Illusion of Gaia (RPG pts)

Scissors-6

Super Smash Bros
Road Runner
Strider
Trap Gunner
Bucky O'Hare

FieryReign-6

Super Fantasy Zone
Street Fighter II
Strider
Pit Fighter
Quackshot
Rastan

jperryss-6

Breakthru
Grind Stormer
Duck Tales 2
Guerrilla War
Mega Man X
Lords of Thunder

Az-6

Street Fighter II
Pit Fighter
TMNT Tournament Fighters
Magic Sword
Guerrilla War
Psychic Force

Emperor Megas-5

Pocket Fighter
Puyo Puyo Fever
Aladdin
Insector X
Target Earth

Those RPG points for this month are shaking things up!

[Emperor Megas]

I just ended Thunder Force II for the first time in decades. I haven't touched it for probably 20 years, so I had to use about 3 or 4 continues. In the end I had 1 left in the reserve. 75% of the difficulty of this game stems from the speed that your ship moves. It's INSANELY fast if you're not used to playing it, and I think I may have used a joystick back in the day. I used to have the absolute quickest routes for every overhead stage, and could complete all of them in like a minute and a half or something, tops, but I was completely lost and getting horrible times of like 5 minutes+ or worse today.

Target Earth is pretty awful, what am I missing here? Never played it before, is it a nostalgic thing?

It was a nostalgic thing even when it was new. Growing up loving Robotech and giant robot Anime, this game was as close as you got to a playable Macross type game. There were a lot of things going on that weren't common place when it was released. There was diversity in the stage's objectives, full on space battles with NPCs that you could assist and defend (If you wanted to), lots of cheese, Anime camp, and cliches galore, wacky music that only makes since if a Japanese game, you could outfit your mecha, customizing it for each stage, which was awesome. Trust me, this game was the shit if you were an otaku in the late 80's, early 90's.

[Cornelius]

Thanks for the recommendation jperryss! I just completed Lords of Thunder!!

I decided to give it a try and for this one I had to install an emulator. I haven't run one in a good 10 years it seems like. I setup RetroArch and this is like a dream compared to what I remember. So I loaded up the SegaCD version of Lords of Thunder and gave it a whirl. Got beat up pretty bad and didn't think I'd likely pursue it enough to finish, but then I just started squeaking through levels and realized the bosses were a lot easier than I expected / thought at first. Then today I've got a cold and my drill broke so construction is on hold so I had time. Did pretty well through most of the game but blew it all and couldn't get past the big laser mini-boss thing. Finally, the Elixir got me past the balls'n'chains with enough health/elemental thingies to get past the laser. Then, again, the bosses weren't that bad*, though I only had one tick of health left. I was actually shocked to finish it because I took a beating on that last guy.

*Have I mentioned I suck at action games? So I kinda cheated and watched some videos for strategies. Plus, I read about the different suits because I really wasn't noticing much difference besides the blatantly obvious. The manual would have been nice to read.

I took a picture of the same scene as jperryss because it is awesome.


The emulator is so easy I gave Legend a brief try, too. We'll see how that goes.

[jperryss]

Thanks for the recommendation jperryss! I just completed Lords of Thunder!!

I'm glad you enjoyed it. Earth Armor all the way! Your pic isn't working BTW.

That final stage can be tough and you don't have much time or space to dodge many of the obstacles. The reverse and vertical scrolling later in the stage is also a trip.

If you buy the max shield for the final boss stage and don't take too much of a beating on the first two bosses, for the final boss you can just about sit in his mouth and drop a couple bombs while swinging at him to finish him off.

This was one of the first games I ever played with rockin' CD audio and I still remember being absolutely blown away. I'm not very good at shooters but found this one to be approachable at Normal difficulty. Hard is pretty tough and I've only cleared it once. On Super, every enemy shoots bullets at you when they die.