intellivision is being robbed. :(
― rushomancy, Sunday, 9 August 2015 13:14 (eight years ago) link
Faxanadu was such a weird, beautiful, short game. Loved the idea of being in a tree the whole time
― calstars, Sunday, 9 August 2015 13:18 (eight years ago) link
serious question: are japan-only games acceptable?
sega master system:ultima ivfantasy zone
nes:banana princechip 'n dale rescue rangersdemon swordfantastic dizzygargoyle's quest iigradiusholy diverice climberprince of persiasuper dodge ballsweet home
― rushomancy, Sunday, 9 August 2015 13:26 (eight years ago) link
Solar JetmanCobra Triangle
― Purves Grundy (kingfish), Sunday, 9 August 2015 18:06 (eight years ago) link
Bionic Commando
― AdamVania (Adam Bruneau), Sunday, 9 August 2015 18:25 (eight years ago) link
the best NES/Famicom shooters never made it out of Japan:Gradius 2Crisis ForceOver HorizonReccaOtockyParodius Da (came out in EU though i think?)
― ( X '____' )/ (zappi), Sunday, 9 August 2015 18:35 (eight years ago) link
Why no love for Dragon Warrior III? I never got very far in it (picked it up circa 1995 and was letting go of NES gaming) but it seemed super huge and elaborate.
Everything else I could think of has been nommed already!
― Gorefest Frump (Doctor Casino), Sunday, 9 August 2015 19:12 (eight years ago) link
contra III1943: battle of the midway
― balls, Sunday, 9 August 2015 20:56 (eight years ago) link
contra III is SNES era (and also awesome)
― aaaaablnnn (abanana), Sunday, 9 August 2015 21:11 (eight years ago) link
derp
― balls, Sunday, 9 August 2015 21:19 (eight years ago) link
Baseball Stars
― Mr. Snrub, Monday, 10 August 2015 02:45 (eight years ago) link
RBI BaseballBaseball Simulator 1.000
― intheblanks, Monday, 10 August 2015 03:42 (eight years ago) link
NES: Gumshoe, Commando
― droit au butt (Euler), Monday, 10 August 2015 09:24 (eight years ago) link
Sega Master System:Phantasy Star
― Mr. Snrub, Monday, 10 August 2015 12:49 (eight years ago) link
Sega:Action FighterKung Fu KidMickey Mouse Castle Of IllusionWonderboy III: The Dragon's TrapFantasy Zone
― 9 days from now a.k.a next weekend. (dog latin), Monday, 10 August 2015 12:59 (eight years ago) link
Are we allowed Game Gear games? Defenders Of Oasis was Game Gear only.
― 9 days from now a.k.a next weekend. (dog latin), Monday, 10 August 2015 13:00 (eight years ago) link
someone said that but, yes, definitely
yes!! to the first, yes ish to the second
master system games i suspect i am mainly nominating because of nostalgia:sonic chaospsycho foxalex kidd in shinobi worldcastle of illusion starring mickey mousecolumnsrockygolvellius: valley of doomteddy boymiracle warriorsoperation wolf
probably not, really, master system games, but games which had a definite console presence that should be noted that happened to have master system versions:enduro racerr-typerampartrampageshadow of the beastsmash tvspeedball / speedball 2spy vs spyys
master system game that fucken rools:wonder boy iii: the dragon's trap
er:snail maze
lol xpost
― ♛ LIL UNIT ♛ (thomp), Monday, 10 August 2015 13:04 (eight years ago) link
feel like after the 2600 et al the 3rd gen systems weren't that big over here. the Master System got a little UK traction and the NES got more or less none, most mid-80s gaming was home computer based. only when the Megadrive and SNES launched did consoles get back serious market share.
so most of these games i know thru emulation or versions on home computers that aren't eligible. i did have a Master system briefly in the 90s. dunno that there's much here i can honestly vote for, don't feel inclined to check out a lot either - until the 4th gen i was strictly a Spectrum kid.
― the lion tweets tonight (Noodle Vague), Monday, 10 August 2015 13:13 (eight years ago) link
CTRL + F, folks. It's your friend.
I think Game Gear is pretty firmly 4th gen.
― Those Jorts Are Upsetting (Old Lunch), Monday, 10 August 2015 13:16 (eight years ago) link
i think they had a moment around the time mid-80s kids were in primary school
― ♛ LIL UNIT ♛ (thomp), Monday, 10 August 2015 13:17 (eight years ago) link
also, rampage
xp to NV, from my point of view the nes and the master system were the most lusted-over items and any kid who had one was never short of friends. might be a generational thing. i definitely remember being blown away by my friend's Sega MS and playing Kung Fu Kid, Shinobi and Sonic all the time at his house.
― 9 days from now a.k.a next weekend. (dog latin), Monday, 10 August 2015 13:18 (eight years ago) link
CTRL + F, folks. It's your friend.I think Game Gear is pretty firmly 4th gen.― Those Jorts Are Upsetting (Old Lunch), Monday, August 10, 2015 2:16 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
― Those Jorts Are Upsetting (Old Lunch), Monday, August 10, 2015 2:16 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
It came out at the same time as the Mega Drive, but it was still 8bit and pretty much a portable master system.
― 9 days from now a.k.a next weekend. (dog latin), Monday, 10 August 2015 13:19 (eight years ago) link
OTOH, the Atari 2600 wasn't really something I was aware of, whereas most people pre-3rd gen console were Atari/BBC Micro/Spectrum.
― 9 days from now a.k.a next weekend. (dog latin), Monday, 10 August 2015 13:21 (eight years ago) link
xpost Right, but the same argument could be made about the Game Boy. And that's surely opening a whole can of worms.
― Those Jorts Are Upsetting (Old Lunch), Monday, 10 August 2015 13:22 (eight years ago) link
Golden Axe WarriorJames "Buster" Douglas Knockout BoxingTransBot
― pop addicts should "do their thing", whatever that may be (soref), Monday, 10 August 2015 13:29 (eight years ago) link
xp but the gameboy was its own thing whereas the game gear used pretty much the same engine as the master system and shared roughly the same games, save for a couple of others. you could even buy a converter that let you play MS games on it.
― 9 days from now a.k.a next weekend. (dog latin), Monday, 10 August 2015 13:31 (eight years ago) link
I am having a severe PTSD flashback to one of the water levels in that first TMNT game
― I Am Curious (Dolezal) (DJP), Monday, 10 August 2015 13:34 (eight years ago) link
Super Monaco GP
― pop addicts should "do their thing", whatever that may be (soref), Monday, 10 August 2015 13:39 (eight years ago) link
Will can make a final ruling, but based on memory and looking through a list of what was released for Game Gear, the bulk of it came out in the mid-'90s and a lot of them were unique titles and repurposed Genesis games, so I'd still have a hard time considering it 3rd gen.
― Those Jorts Are Upsetting (Old Lunch), Monday, 10 August 2015 13:41 (eight years ago) link
apparently 3rd gen must have happened while i was doing O-levels and moping after girls
― the lion tweets tonight (Noodle Vague), Monday, 10 August 2015 13:44 (eight years ago) link
it's possible. I was obsessed with video games up through and including the Super Nintendo, but lost all interest once that machine's title got usurped by the PSOne, which was quite a step on in terms of environment and gameplay. I still get confused by FP shooters and the like because those didn't really exist on third/fourth-gen consoles in any major way.
― 9 days from now a.k.a next weekend. (dog latin), Monday, 10 August 2015 13:48 (eight years ago) link
TransBot
srsly bro?
― ♛ LIL UNIT ♛ (thomp), Monday, 10 August 2015 14:21 (eight years ago) link
Nah, Game Gear is a no-go for this one. It is pretty firmly entrenched in that early-90s 4th gen plus I'm thinking there may be need for a portables poll that's separate (mostly thanks to the Game Boy existing for like 20 years?), and that could pretty handily cover every portable console up until smartphones.
― Bouncy Castlevania (Will M.), Monday, 10 August 2015 14:58 (eight years ago) link
fair enough, although i will say that i don't remember even having seen a master system until the early 90s.
― 9 days from now a.k.a next weekend. (dog latin), Monday, 10 August 2015 15:01 (eight years ago) link
I think my aunt gifted us the Master System we had in like '87 or '88. But, tbf, it was similar to playing my neighbor's ColecoVision inasmuch as it's the only time I ever remember directly encountering that particular platform.
― Those Jorts Are Upsetting (Old Lunch), Monday, 10 August 2015 15:05 (eight years ago) link
(Just realizing that this is the same neighbor who also had the only CD-i I ever encountered.)
― Those Jorts Are Upsetting (Old Lunch), Monday, 10 August 2015 15:08 (eight years ago) link
CD-i! Hah!
― Bouncy Castlevania (Will M.), Monday, 10 August 2015 15:09 (eight years ago) link
i def remember the nes being prominent a lot earlier than the master system, but maybe that was a uk thing. with a lot of these consoles, the earlier games would be a lot simpler to start with - the first games my friend had were things like Action Fighter which was a fairly straightforward shooter. But Mickey Mouse Castle Of Illusion really felt like a step-up in terms of quality, and soon afterwards the Sonic games came out for the Master System. I got a Game Gear in around 91/92? Played it to death, and it seemed to have a slightly defter engine than the MS.
― 9 days from now a.k.a next weekend. (dog latin), Monday, 10 August 2015 15:09 (eight years ago) link
there was no Sonic on the Master System afaik, strictly Megadrive/Genesis depending what side of the Atlantic you were on
― the lion tweets tonight (Noodle Vague), Monday, 10 August 2015 15:14 (eight years ago) link
oh my bad, jeez what was the point of that?
― the lion tweets tonight (Noodle Vague), Monday, 10 August 2015 15:15 (eight years ago) link
intellivision is being robbed. :(― rushomancy, Sunday, August 9, 2015 9:14 AM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
― rushomancy, Sunday, August 9, 2015 9:14 AM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
Intellivision is getting a 1st+2nd gen poll eventually if there's enough interest. Not robbed. :)
― Bouncy Castlevania (Will M.), Monday, 10 August 2015 15:20 (eight years ago) link
yeah there was def sonic and sonic 2 and all those on the MS. Its legacy ran on well into the Megadrive days, so often two analogues of a game would come out at the same time on each machine. I seem to recall there even being a Mortal Kombat on MS but maybe it was a hoax.
― 9 days from now a.k.a next weekend. (dog latin), Monday, 10 August 2015 15:22 (eight years ago) link
There were MS and GG versions of Mortal Kombat, MS only Street Fighter II
― DG, Monday, 10 August 2015 15:26 (eight years ago) link
only games i truly associate with the Master System are Alex Kidd and a movie tie-in of Dracula. and i've just remembered a cool RPG-ish thing sent in ancient Japan that i'm googling now
― the lion tweets tonight (Noodle Vague), Monday, 10 August 2015 15:26 (eight years ago) link
If I were to open this up to computer platforms, how much of a can of worms would that be? MSX and Spectrum seem like the most likely candidates. But then do I have to include C64, Amiga, fucking everything in DOS until 1991, etc.?
Britishes, which of these machines fits best into the poll? I am willing to be convinced to put them in
― Bouncy Castlevania (Will M.), Monday, 10 August 2015 15:31 (eight years ago) link
C64 and Spectrum, maybe the Amiga and BBC, nothing else
― the lion tweets tonight (Noodle Vague), Monday, 10 August 2015 15:33 (eight years ago) link
those are all 8 bit machines iirc?
sorry i meant Amstrad, not Amiga
― the lion tweets tonight (Noodle Vague), Monday, 10 August 2015 15:34 (eight years ago) link
Amiga and ST feel like 4th gen
Yeah, SMB3 wins that fight VERY handily. So much craft and detail and joy and vastness, and yet not entirely unthinkable as a "sit down and play in one sitting since there's no save" game. Amazing control too. Basically the perfect NES game imo. The first one is also very pick-up-and-playable and also has basically era-defining control (that, nonetheless, hardly any third-party game ever came close to matching - the basic clunkiness of moving around in nearly ever licensed platformer has more than anything to do with them feeling like headache-inducing wastes of time), music and sound... it's a bit easier to just pop it in and play for a while but it also has less to unveil. Maybe purer as a "game" in terms of the player having to eventually become very skilled with an extremely limited set of skills; SMB3 isn't really hard by comparison.
Am I right that we did a poll of just the worlds from SMB3? Or was it from SMW?
There are a couple of other NES games that I could see giving it passing competition in this poll, basically the usual suspects of Zelda, Tetris and Castlevania, maybe Final Fantasy.
― Gorefest Frump (Doctor Casino), Friday, 28 August 2015 18:14 (eight years ago) link
The original Zelda is groundbreaking and all, but man did that game get tedious and repetitive if you played it long enough. I don't think any kids in my neighbourhood had the stamina to play it all the way through (even though it had save codes, I think?), while most of us eventually managed to complete all the Mario games.
― Tuomas, Friday, 28 August 2015 18:18 (eight years ago) link
Castlevania is amazing but it's so hard to control. If the stairs were better, maybe.
Tetris might be the perfect game on a Ms. Pac Man level.
― AdamVania (Adam Bruneau), Friday, 28 August 2015 18:18 (eight years ago) link
So much craft and detail and joy and vastness, and yet not entirely unthinkable as a "sit down and play in one sitting since there's no save" game.
in retrospect, not having a save system was SO important to SMB3 because, counterintuitively, it encouraged wandering and exploration. although of course it was possible to beat it relatively quickly once you knew where the whistles were and which rocks to break in world 8, the first several dozen times you played likely ended in, say, world 3 or 5 or 6, just because you had to go to school or dinner or bed or whatever. so you ended up playing those early worlds over and over and over again, and naturally exploring and looking for secrets as you went. to this day, i'm amazed when i sit down and play SMB3 for the first time in a few years and i still automatically know where tons of secrets are. it's just cemented in the brain, muscle memory style.
― 1995 ball boy (Karl Malone), Friday, 28 August 2015 18:28 (eight years ago) link
Music from SMB2 is a very good point. Love the character selection soundtrack expecially, pops into my head all the time.
It's amazing in hindsight what a huge mascot Mario was, for not having much backstory or dialogue or anything like that. I remember that Mario 3 commercial and it really did feel like that big a deal. Ditto The Wizard, the gigantic unveiling, obviously really heavy-handed promotion there but no kid in the audience would have disputed the game deserving such a massive unveiling. And all that without an "attitude" or anything like that. It was just so fun to play Mario games!
Zelda has actual save files with a battery in the cartridge - that was a big deal at the time, and for years afterwards tbh. Even lots of A-list titles like the Megaman sequels relied on really clunky password systems - graphical in that case, but godawful tedious gibberish input fests in nearly everything else. I guess I see what you mean about getting repetitive if you really played and replayed it; it's not something like Mario 3 where I played through and won many, many times (sometimes warping past less-beloved worlds, sometimes kicking back to savor every single level and get the Hammer Brothers suit). But it's more like a quest game or an RPG anyway, you save and come back to it and gradually progress and when you win you feel satisfied not coming back right away. Beating Zelda II the first time felt like the biggest gaming accomplishment I had ever, or would ever, attain.
That's a fair point about the Castlevania controls; they're just such landmarks of design, music, and scope for a 2D platformer. You compare the first one to Ghosts n Goblins, which has a similar theme and maybe even a similar number of levels, and while both are brutally hard, Castlevania mostly feels "fair" and it's so evidently a leap forward in graphics and enemy/level design and stuff. It's fun to play even just for the clear sense that you're moving through meaningfully different regions of this castle. Passing over the bizarre failed experiments of the second one, III basically takes all that many steps forward while perhaps being less satisfying as a game. It's huge and there are the multiple paths and multiple characters, but only a few of the individual levels come into focus as much. Still just astounding for how much they could get those cartridges to do on that system.
xpost otm
― Gorefest Frump (Doctor Casino), Friday, 28 August 2015 18:29 (eight years ago) link
i'm trying to think of the most recently released game that has as much content as SMB3, with no save system.
― 1995 ball boy (Karl Malone), Friday, 28 August 2015 18:29 (eight years ago) link
i think it was SMB3
― Gorefest Frump (Doctor Casino), Friday, 28 August 2015 18:30 (eight years ago) link
haha - maybe!
but i wouldn't even want a save system in it, is the thing. you don't miss it at all. i feel sorry for "the kids" who have only played re-releases of the game (through wiiware or emulators) that have save systems, because i doubt they feel as compelled to play it over and over again. when you have a save you don't really revisit old levels nearly as often, if at all. but replaying SMB3 levels is so key to what makes the game legendary.
― 1995 ball boy (Karl Malone), Friday, 28 August 2015 18:34 (eight years ago) link
Agreed. In particular the first two worlds really start to feel like old friends; it's a good thing they're among the stronger in the game I think. Plus it actually increases the novelty factory of the later boards that you might sometimes skip past or just not get to. There's also a certain pace to it, if you really play straight through, where you do get rewards and reprieves every so often; again, not that it's remotely a "hard" game but there's still, for example, that payoff in the water world where you can take a little boat far out to the east (I think after judicious use of the hammer if you didn't use it in the desert world?) and just basically pick up a bunch of little bonus mushroom houses IIRC. That's satisfying as heck.
I do basically agree that the lives are a little too freely given. I don't recall a game of SMB3 ever coming down to a nail-biting "whew!" like, I really needed to win that level on that life. But there are lots of death-defying stunts within the levels, so eh.
― Gorefest Frump (Doctor Casino), Friday, 28 August 2015 18:39 (eight years ago) link
Is there a master list with all the noms so far? like a google doc or something?
― Jeff, Friday, 28 August 2015 18:47 (eight years ago) link
more noms
Ironsword: Wizards & Warriors II (NES)Pang aka Buster Bros. (I only played it in the Arcade and on my Playstation Buster Bros Collection but it was on earlier stuff. wiki link)
I'll try to remember more later
― The Once-ler, Friday, 28 August 2015 19:53 (eight years ago) link
I loved loved loved first Wizards & Warriors, out of proportion to its actual quality. Rented it many times just to march through the same few levels, relish the treasure chests again, sigh at the tedium of ascending the castle exterior, thank god for the Feather of Feather Fall.
I can't remember if I didn't enjoy the sequels as much or if they were just really rare. They looked great in Nintendo Power, that's for sure. I think the third was supposed to be a little more quasi-RPGish, in a Faxanadu/Zelda II kind of way?
― Gorefest Frump (Doctor Casino), Friday, 28 August 2015 20:26 (eight years ago) link
Castlevania mostly feels "fair" and it's so evidently a leap forward in graphics and enemy/level design and stuff
YES in a lot of ways it is like the Souls games are now now. If you master enemy patterns and know how to properly react you should be able to one-life it. It's INSANE that they have NG+ in the original Castlevania, which makes the game harder by manipulating damage. That game is already insane. As for level design, look no further than that room before the Grim Reaper, where you are dodging Medusa heads and axe-throwing knights that take multiple hits to kill.
Highly recommend the Anatomy of Castlevania: http://www.anatomyofgames.com/gamespite-quarterly/gjs13-anatomy-of-castlevania/ it goes into depth at why it's so good, how it may be the first game that really tried to do a linear and cohesive design. IE random platforms sitting in mid-air are connected to brickwork in the background and stuff. It is a masterpiece of impossible architecture. Here the sprite art really shines: what could be rather boring brick walls and archways have weathering and worn paint and moss drawn onto the tiles, one pixel at a time. This details suggests a world beyond what you just see on the CRT. Castlevania tugs at your imagination.
― AdamVania (Adam Bruneau), Friday, 28 August 2015 20:34 (eight years ago) link
Sorry that links is broken. Try this one. http://www.anatomyofgames.com/anatomy-of-a-game/
Jeremy Parish is a great game writer. He covers a lot of the games in this poll on the site.
― AdamVania (Adam Bruneau), Friday, 28 August 2015 20:38 (eight years ago) link
I used to read that guy religiously, going back to like, 1999/2000 or so. Evangelion Thumbnail Theater, all that stuff. He must be the king of unfinished or now un-archived projects, so many loose threads. Clearly struggling between the 'blog' and the 'kitchen sink website' as formats. As it is so much of the recent stuff is virtually un-browsable; maybe that's an incentive to buy the books. I do like that he's picked up the print volume as a format, and zeroed in on a few recurring obsessions (the "Metroidvania" genre in particular).
The only thing is, and this is hardly unique to that site, but there's also a real tension between what's brilliant about the insight and what's popular with most of the readers. I feel like a lot of projects like this burn themselves out screencapping everything and basically let's-playing every single step of the game, like a walkthrough but every sentence has to be written snappily and with nerd panache. Sometimes that's fun to read but sometimes it's just flab keeping us from a really taut single medium or long-form essay about, in this case, the anatomy of the particular game. Part of me loves the idea of a 14-article series on Zelda II, or 27 parts on Super Mario Bros., but I suspect some of the strengths of the insights actually get buried in all that coverage... which nonetheless I'm sure is very popular. This is by no means unique to Parish, and he has a way better ratio than some other blogs I could name, but you kinda wish his experience in print journalism would have helped him internalize some checks on excess. OTOH he's writing about what he loves so, y'know, more power to him!
Sticking closer to content, one thing I wonder about is the tendency for most of the games to assume that they're really well-thought-out masterpieces and that every little move is just incredibly amazing, or just brilliantly effective, or just perfectly calibrated. That's another common tendency in this kind of writing and it's exhausting, but I think it also starts to seep into the argument; he has a general predisposition towards games that 'teach' their mechanics through gameplay, and a good eye for ways games do this in subtle ways that also flesh out the story or atmosphere of the world. But I feel like, and I should have examples for this, but sometimes it starts to feel like every single thing you do in a game is a planned little teachable moment; every jump you have to make early on is there to train you for a more complicated jump in World 7. And yeah, sure, in general I buy that but this was also just an era of games being hard as fuck and throwing you in the deep end, and sometimes stuff wasn't really telegraphed all that well but the games were still fun for it. I dunno, I'm not explaining this well and it's not a reason not to read his stuff. Maybe it would be better to say that his essays for their emphasis on this theme have forced me to think for myself about what makes a good difficulty curve or how much of this stuff is necessary for a good game.
― Gorefest Frump (Doctor Casino), Friday, 28 August 2015 21:29 (eight years ago) link
BTW: What is the best world of Super Mario 3?
Without knowing Castlevania II's secrets (ie without internet help), you won't be able to win. It's not the game's difficulty but the fact that you need a Nintendo Power or the prodigy kid down the street in order to progress in the game. I mean you would have to be pretty damn lucky to find/solve the secrets on your own.
― The Once-ler, Friday, 28 August 2015 22:06 (eight years ago) link
Nobody I know bothered to play all the way through Link II. I wonder if it had any bitchy secrets as well
― The Once-ler, Friday, 28 August 2015 22:09 (eight years ago) link
the tendency for most of the games to assume that they're really well-thought-out masterpieces and that every little move is just incredibly amazing, or just brilliantly effective, or just perfectly calibrated
Well given memory limitations everything was more or less meticulously thought-out, from level design to song length to character art. The designers themselves have admitted as much, the famous example being Mario's design was due to the limitations of pixel art, his moustache and hat being added to fix animation problems that cropped up with the tiny resolution they had to work with.
Nowadays there really aren't any limitations so less consideration probably goes into it. If you can only include X amount of art/music/gameplay, it is going to be the absolute best you can come up with.
But yes there is probably some projection/fandom in there largely coloring things.
― AdamVania (Adam Bruneau), Friday, 28 August 2015 22:15 (eight years ago) link
Also I may be confusing this (with DOOM?) but I seem to remember them saying the first stage of Mario was built at the end of development, after they had figured out the tools, and thus were able to use more deliberate planning irt what the player would encounter and how they would likely respond.
― AdamVania (Adam Bruneau), Friday, 28 August 2015 22:17 (eight years ago) link
Sure, I just think it gets taken to this level of "and here's yet another example of the unfailing inexhaustible genius of the designers" and it just becomes unreadable after a few paragraphs. Definitely talking more about the game design/challenge/information stuff here than the pixel art stuff. Obviously, there's more care at all levels in the classics than the far, far more numerous dudfests... s'what makes them the classics!
Zelda II is profoundly flawed but in the end, basically playable and satisfying in its way. If the first one had never existed it'd probably be pretty well remembered as an ambitious if incompletely-worked-out action RPG. I can think of only two totally baffling points that really scream "Nintendo Power, take me away!" which is basically zero compared to Castlevania II. Will be stunned if anyone ends up voting for that one...
― Gorefest Frump (Doctor Casino), Saturday, 29 August 2015 00:24 (eight years ago) link
Thanks for responding to that
― The Once-ler, Saturday, 29 August 2015 00:32 (eight years ago) link
I never understood the love for Zelda II. All I can remember is getting it and being like WTF, this isn't Zelda. But I was 9, so maybe I'd feel differently now.
― Jeff, Saturday, 29 August 2015 00:49 (eight years ago) link
Yeah it's pretty fun.
CVII is really fun too when you have a walkthrough. Killer music. The bosses are piss easy but I don't mind that after the nightmare bosses in the first game.
― AdamVania (Adam Bruneau), Saturday, 29 August 2015 00:52 (eight years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tfh0ytz8S0khttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_rsycfDliZU
― The Once-ler, Wednesday, 2 September 2015 18:55 (eight years ago) link
zelda 2 the first game i ever beat. dark link an all-time end boss. (his cameo in ocarina is kind of misplaced and random.) a genuinely difficult game, probably less forgiving than the first (definitely meaner: ganon's digitized chuckle on game over) and the last zelda game to be hard at all. its dangerous places (the forests, the pitch-black caves, the big mess of rocky maze in the southwest, the town where people are bats) are stressful and frightening in ways no death mountain has ever been, and a combination of nes-memory restrictions on text and a number of NPCs hugely increased from the first game meant even the non-hostile townspeople (health-restoring hookers aside) seemed standoffish and terse. the rare game i remember (vividly) as a hostile place, remote from help, instead of as a beloved playground. it's also weirdly colorless, simultaneously too simple and too fiddly to be a working platformer, and (alone in the series) reliant on dedicated, mindless grinding without any of the monster or spell variety that's supposed to entertain you when you're doing that in FF games. so it probably deserves its reputation in comparison to the likes of zelda 1 and link to the past, but in the post-twilight-princess era of nintendo's long enslavement to ocarina of time it definitely shouldn't be called the series' worst anymore.
― playlists of pensive swift (difficult listening hour), Wednesday, 2 September 2015 19:22 (eight years ago) link
I had a great idea for the upcoming Zelda game the other day. You start the game with a sword, shield, bow, boomerang and bombshttp://i44.tinypic.com/2z8ce9u.png
― The Once-ler, Wednesday, 2 September 2015 19:55 (eight years ago) link
tbf the last Zelda game was in thrall to Link To The Past rather than Ocarina (and was all the better for it)
― ( X '____' )/ (zappi), Wednesday, 2 September 2015 19:59 (eight years ago) link
Myself and a few other guys are using Minecraft to build a working 3D remake of the original Zelda. Not sure how you guys feel about Minecraft, though.
― Evan, Wednesday, 2 September 2015 20:14 (eight years ago) link
Kid Chameleon (Genesis, 1992) had over 100 stages and no saves. Stages had multiple exits that lead to many paths through the game.
― aaaaablnnn (abanana), Wednesday, 2 September 2015 20:36 (eight years ago) link
those videos on graphics were really cool, thanks - somehow got this far in my life without knowing that stuff. wild about the 'color cells,' amazing how well the artists knew how to camouflage the boundaries. super cool.
high-fives to dlh. love this - "the rare game i remember (vividly) as a hostile place, remote from help, instead of as a beloved playground." totally. I AM ERROR. it's a bleak and ugly sort of hyrule you're saving here, not unlike the transylvania of castlevania ii but a lot more playable. i also think it should get credit for the dungeons, which are sometimes really irritating, and are nothing on the high-concept ones from link to the past, but again, legitimately hard, and considerably more varied than CV2's mansions which really all feel like the same place (and don't even have bosses!). and of course, the 'big rocky maze' - which IS death mountain! - thrown at you way too early in the game, super punishing. these mean motherfuckers, man:
http://www.nintendojo.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/Zelda-Daira.png
― Gorefest Frump (Doctor Casino), Thursday, 3 September 2015 13:42 (eight years ago) link
I'm on vacation so I don't have the master list handy. But I can post it on Tuesday. If anyone thinks some hang is missing, nominate it I won't get mad if it's a dupe.
― Bouncy Castlevania (Will M.), Sunday, 6 September 2015 16:44 (eight years ago) link
Am I missing anything?
Atari CommandoAtari Dark ChambersAtari Desert FalconAtari Donkey Kong Jr.Atari Food FightAtari GalagaAtari Mario Bros.Atari Tower TopplerAtari XeviousNES 10 Yard FightNES 1943: battle of the midwayNES A Boy and His BlobNES Adventures of LoloNES Adventures of Lolo 3NES Bad DudesNES banana princeNES Base WarsNES Baseball Simulator 1.000NES Baseball StarsNES Bases LoadedNES BatmanNES Batman: Return of the JokerNES Battle of OlympusNES BattletoadsNES Bionic CommandoNES Blades of SteelNES Blaster MasterNES BombermanNES Bubble BobbleNES California GamesNES CastlevaniaNES Castlevania IINES Castlevania IIINES Cobra TriangleNES CommandoNES ContraNES Crisis ForceNES CrystalisNES Deja VuNES demon swordNES Destiny of an EmperorNES Double Dragon NES Double Dragon IINES Double DribbleNES Dr. MarioNES Dragon Warrior NES Dragon Warrior IINES Dragon Warrior IIINES Dragon Warrior IVNES Duck HuntNES DucktalesNES Ducktales 2NES Dusty Diamond's All-Star SoftballNES Earthbound ZeroNES ExcitebikeNES fantastic dizzyNES FaxanaduNES Fester's QuestNES Final FantasyNES Friday the 13thNES gargoyle's quest iiNES GauntletNES Ghosts 'n' GoblinsNES GolfNES Golgo 13NES Goonies IINES GradiusNES Gradius 2NES GumshoeNES Hogan's AlleyNES holy diverNES ice climberNES Ice HockeyNES Ikari WarriorsNES Impossible MissionNES JackalNES KarnovNES Kick MasterNES Kid IcarusNES Kirby's AdventureNES Kung FuNES Legacy of the WizardNES LemmingsNES Life ForceNES Little League Baseball: Championship SeriesNES Little Nemo: The Dream MasterNES M.C. KidsNES Mach RiderNES Maniac MansionNES Marble MadnessNES Mega Man NES Mega Man IINES Mega Man IIINES Mega Man IVNES Metal GearNES Metal Gear IINES MetroidNES Mike Tyson's Punch OutNES Mission ImpossibleNES NARCNES Ninja GaidenNES Ninja Gaiden IINES Ninja Gaiden IIINES Nobunaga's AmbitionNES OtockyNES Over HorizonNES Parodius DaNES prince of persiaNES Pro WrestlingNES Rad RacerNES RampageNES RBI BaseballNES RC Pro AmNES RC Pro Am IINES ReccaNES Rescue RangersNES Ring KingNES River City RansomNES Rockin' KatsNES Romance of the Three KingdomsNES Rush n AttackNES RygarNES Section ZNES ShadowgateNES Smash TVNES Snake, Rattle & Roll NES Solar JetmanNES Spy HunterNES StarTropicsNES StarTropics 2NES StriderNES Super CNES super dodge ballNES Super Mario BrosNES Super Mario Bros 2NES Super Mario Bros 3NES Super Spike V'BallNES sweet homeNES Swords and SerpentsNES Tecmo BaseballNES Tecmo BowlNES Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles INES Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IINES Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IIINES TetrisNES The Adventures of Rad GravityNES The ImmortalNES The Legend of ZeldaNES The Legend of Zelda IINES Tiger HeliNES Town & Country Surf Designs: Wood & Water RageNES Track and FieldNES Ufouria: The SagaNES Ultima ExodusNES UninvitedNES Urban ChampionNES Wall Street KidNES WillowNES Winter GamesNES Wizards and WarriorsNES YoshiNES Yoshi's CookieNES ZanacSega Action FighterSega Alex Kidd in Miracle WorldSega alex kidd in shinobi worldSega Altered BeastSega Batman ReturnsSega columnsSega enduro racerSega fantasy zoneSega GhostbustersSega Golden Axe WarriorSega golvellius: valley of doomSega James "Buster" Douglas Knockout BoxingSega Kung Fu KidSega Mickey Mouse Castle Of IllusionSega miracle warriorsSega operation wolfSega Phantasy StarSega psycho foxSega rampageSega rampartSega Revenge of ShinobiSega rockySega r-typeSega Shadow DancerSega shadow of the beastSega ShinobiSega smash tvSega snail mazeSega sonic chaosSega Space HarrierSega SpeedballSega Speedball 2Sega Spy vs. SpySega Super Monaco GPSega teddy boySega TransBotSega ultima ivSega Wonder Boy in Monster WorldSega Wonderboy III: The Dragon's TrapSega ysSega ZillionSega Zillion II: The Tri Formation
― Bouncy Castlevania (Will M.), Tuesday, 8 September 2015 17:01 (eight years ago) link
Nes Balloon FightNes Donkey Kong JrNes Flintstones: The Rescue of Dino & HoppyNes Guerilla WarNes Wizards and Warriors II: Ironsword
― The Once-ler, Wednesday, 16 September 2015 19:57 (eight years ago) link
Those are going to be the final nominations unless someone else adds to it in the next ~3 hours, going to start the new thread around 7pm Eastern! (also sorry it took me so long!)
― Bouncy Castlevania (Will M.), Wednesday, 16 September 2015 20:03 (eight years ago) link