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Post by wyldephang on Jul 29, 2013 17:27:57 GMT -5
After hitting a bit of a lull in Mystic Quest, I set forward to complete Shining Force. As I mentioned before, I reached the last battle, but my characters were a bit overwhelmed for this point of the game. So, last night, I spent a good hour or two boosting their stats and gaining experience points ("grinding") before making the final push today. It wasn't easy at first, but eventually I settled on a workable strategy and stuck with it until I whittled away at the enemy forces. The boss characters were surrounded by stronger units that needed to be lured away from their position, and that was an exercise in patience. It took some time before I could isolate the boss, but afterwards, he put up little resistance without his henchmen guarding him. Then, I was instantly transported to a second boss battle with a three-headed bone dragon! Luckily, the dragon wasn't nearly as well-protected as the previous boss. I swarmed it with my strongest warriors and attacked from all angles until it gave up the ghost. Overall, I've enjoyed the Shining Force experience from beginning to end. The game plays out at a steady pace, gradually becoming more complex with time.
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Post by TrekMD on Jul 29, 2013 19:52:53 GMT -5
I spent some time this weekend playing Intellivision games. I played Thunder Castle for the first time and I must say it is an awesome game. The graphics and sound are impressive, to say the least.
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Post by detonator on Jul 30, 2013 23:20:18 GMT -5
Crystal Castles... took me a while to remember where those 3 hidden warps are. Now I can score BIG again!!! Bal Cube is pretty cool obscure game on MAME... I've played that too. My 3-year old son loves it too.  |
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Post by wyldephang on Sept 13, 2013 22:26:32 GMT -5
I've been putting some time into the SNES game SimCity. The first game in a well-established franchise, SimCity puts the player in charge of city development with a simple goal: construct a burgeoning metropolis while facing all the challenges a typical mayor would encounter (and some challenges a mayor normally wouldn't). While monitoring urban growth, players contend with inevitable factors like unemployment, crime, and pollution. And just when daily life seems to be settling into a mundane groove, natural disasters will threaten to break up the flow of the city. Expect tornadoes, earthquakes, floods, and the rare visit from a 50-foot-tall fire-breathing Bowser! Thankfully, the disasters can be deactivated, and there are three different difficulty settings which determine the starting budget: easy mode gives the player $20,000, medium $10,000, and hard $5,000. It may not seem like a large handicap at first, but the residents will voice their discontent if the city planning isn't going as expected. In fact, sometimes it seems impossible to appease the residents because their demands are nearly impossible to meet; they want employment, but factories cause pollution, which in turn causes crime, and the residents don't want to leave near smog or crime. After a certain point, I grew tired of their incessant complaints and unleashed hell on the city. I started by chopping apart the mass transit system, then cutting the police and fire budgets to zero and raising taxes to 20 percent. Then, I activated the natural disasters: in blew the tornadoes, and the earthquakes and fires soon followed. The largest parts of the city were reduced to ash in no time, and all those annoying residents with it. Unfortunately, the remaining residents weren't as enthusiastic about my changes and I was kicked out of office. Nonetheless, my reign of terror was short but sweet, proving that it's just as fun to tear down one's creation as it is to build it. |
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Post by VectorX on Sept 13, 2013 23:38:22 GMT -5
^Kids, this is what could happen if you choose Ryan to run the world  |
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Post by wyldephang on Sept 14, 2013 3:13:45 GMT -5
^Kids, this is what could happen if you choose Ryan to run the world Bah! A lifetime of political ambitions dashed before my eyes!  |
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Post by VectorX on Sept 14, 2013 8:25:59 GMT -5
You forgot to add "infidels!" at the end.
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Post by detonator on Nov 11, 2013 22:44:42 GMT -5
Raiden Fighters + Raiden Fighters JET.
Pretty much the best shooters from the 90'S.
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Post by wyldephang on Feb 11, 2014 18:44:29 GMT -5
I decided to put some time into Metroid Prime (GameCube) over the weekend, and I have to say that it exceeded my expectations. It's a first-person shooter, but instead of using a second analog stick to aim, the player uses a fairly intuitive lock-on system to target enemies more efficiently. There is a great deal of platforming in Metroid Prime, and this can be difficult to pull off in some FPS games, but Samus' jump physics are forgiving enough to make it work here. And being able to reach even the deepest of crevices is important because there are a lot of power-ups scattered throughout the world. Some of them upgrade Samus' missile or energy reserves, and others add another ability to Samus' blaster or her suit. So, it never hurts to stop and take a second look at a structure that you think might be interactive. There's a wide and interesting assortment of enemies, all of which are true to the classic Metroid design. I hear one of the main villains of the series was resurrected for this game, but I have yet to come across him. Still, it gives me something to look forward to. In preparation for a Metroid Prime marathon, I decided to open up an old GameCube controller and clean it out. I bought this controller on eBay a year or two ago; the buttons and analog sticks work, but there was dirt trapped in all of the crevices. When I took apart the controller, I was unprepared for the sheer amount of grime that had accumulated around the buttons! After cleaning all the buttons with rubbing alcohol, I started to put the controller back together piece by piece. The reassembly was much more complicated than I anticipated, but I eventually got everything back in place. I feel a lot less dirty handling the controller now.  |
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Post by gamezone on Feb 16, 2014 16:48:55 GMT -5
Just read your SimCity story Wyldephang. That is a great game that is still enjoyable to play. I do not have the patience these days to wait so I use the million dollar cheat. I have never been able to get the Mario Statue. Probably never will. Never played Metroid on the GameCube, sounds like a winner. Glad you had better luck fixing the controller then you did with your city. |
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Post by wyldephang on Mar 6, 2014 2:52:58 GMT -5
Thanks, GZ. The controller was frustrating to clean, but I'm just lucky I didn't wash a piece down the drain like I did with the PlayStation 2 controller! The worst button on the GameCube pad was the Z-button; I can't count how many times it kept falling out of its place as I tried to snap the two halves back together. It turns out I was having a lot of difficulty reassembling the thing because I put the rumble motor in backwards.  Like Trek, I guess I'm on a bit of Genesis kick, so my latest gaming ventures include Phantasy Star II and Beyond Oasis. PSII is a run-of-the-mill turn-based RPG set in a sci-fi/fantasy universe. From what I can understand, the narrative operates around the point that an ancient evil has been unleashed on a peaceful planet, and it's up to Rolf and his party to stop the Biomonsters and restore balance to Mota. Beyond Oasis has been described as an action RPG/adventure game in the styling of The Legend of Zelda; I find it shares a lot in common with Zelda, as well as Crystalis and Illusion of Gaia. Beyond Oasis takes place in a well-designed desert oasis overworld. You control Ali, who wields a dagger by default and can be made to perform combos with his blade and other melee attacks. As the game progresses, you'll pick up new weapons, each with a limited number of "charges," and interface with elemental spirits who will grant you various magic abilities, all of which are mapped out to the A button. The narrative is a bit vague--at least in the beginning--but you'll never get lost thanks to the inclusion of a helpful map, which can be accessed on six-button controllers by pressing the X button. This is another feature of the game that I like; not all Genesis games made use of the six-button controller, but Beyond Oasis allows players to bring up menus with the X, Y, and Z buttons. I'm having a lot of fun with Beyond Oasis so far, so I'd recommend it to anyone with a Genesis who likes Zelda-esque adventure games. |
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Post by gamezone on Mar 6, 2014 14:34:29 GMT -5
Good to hear Genesis talk. Sometimes the system gets overshadowed by the Super Nintendo RPG talk. I am not sure why the Genesis has some great RPGs. Most are from early in its life span but still fun to play.
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Post by TrekMD on Mar 6, 2014 15:10:09 GMT -5
I have to say that I'm quite happy with the Genesis. It really is an excellent system. Really enjoying it so far. |
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Post by VectorX on Mar 6, 2014 15:26:35 GMT -5
"So far"? How long have you had it?
I got mine in '92 or something.
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Post by TrekMD on Mar 6, 2014 15:29:18 GMT -5
"So far"? How long have you had it? I got mine in '92 or something. I got it recently. I never had a Genesis back in the day. |
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