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Dood Trigger™
Day 19 - Spawn (blind) » Done!

Blind SNES game. It's an action sidescroller/2D beat-'em-up not unlike Mutant Apocalypse. I was curious about Spawn because it was made by the same developer of Skyblazer and Hook. But this one is just... not as inspired as the others.

The controls are really sluggish. Everything has an awkward delay. Hook was pretty sluggish as well, but at least that game was designed for slower commands... Spawn throws enemies at you left and right (literally), and the boss fights require a good deal of reaction sometimes. Even just turning around to hit an enemy behind you is like an event for this guy. I know your cape is huge and all, but come on, dude. Spawn's hitbox is also big, and he doesn't have a lot of i-frames, which results in some really funny (and frustrating) situations where you get hit, fall down and the invulnerability wears off before you re-gain control of the character.

The main thing about this game is that Spawn has a lot of moves, most of which are activated with Street Fighter inputs. These moves consume mana (the 1K number in my screenshot), which is interesting because those points also buy continues when you die. You can't be too trigger happy with the Shoryukens otherwise you won't have enough points to revive. It's not as unforgiving as it sounds, but I like the concept.

Spawn's sprite is cool, and I like some of the platform-y levels, but that's about it. Not a terrible game, just kind of annoying and disappointing overall.


Clear time: 3 hours
Steam Summer Sale minigame is vaguely interesting, mostly boring.  Just like that clicker game they did one or two summers ago.

Quote from Da Dood:
I know people aren't so into Marble Zone
I'm not attuned to the Sonic fandom, but how can people dislike it with that awesome music that it has??
One shall stand, one shall ball.
Because it's 100% slow platforming in a game that claims to be about going fast.
Dood Trigger™
I love the music too :\

But yeah, like tbob said, people don't like how slow it is (even though most of the time Sonic is a typical platformer where you carefully time jumps)
the problem with marble zone is that it constantly makes you wait for obstacles to get out of your way
red chamber dream
Quote from ryu:
the problem with marble zone is that it constantly makes you wait for obstacles to get out of your way

my memory tends to bad but this was my problem with all sonic stages as a kid..
Edit history:
tomatobob: 2018-06-22 04:29:57 pm
One shall stand, one shall ball.
It's more common than people remember but it's only really A problem in bad stages like Marble Zone where it's actually the whole level.
red chamber dream
ah ok. as a kid, i loved platformers where you can run fast. that's why i liked super mario games ;)
One shall stand, one shall ball.
Sonic 1 is weird because it just straight forgets it's whole premise after Green Hill Zone until Starlight Zone and then it forgets again until Sonic 2.
Dood Trigger™
Day 20 - Scribblenauts » Done... ish!

I like this game, but it's not meant to be fully experienced in one sitting, that's for sure... I said my goal was to either clear all worlds or do something with the level editor. I got to world 4 (puzzle levels), was super bored and realized it would take like 8 hours to finish. Doesn't help that the puzzles still require action-y stylus stuff, which is the most infuriating part of Scribblenauts. And I think I'd rather not hate this game.

So I made my first custom level, which was pretty fun to do. In order to make it not totally free, my idea was to create a simple puzzle and then try to solve it with completely different solutions than I intended.

The puzzle: Free Santa, then get the Starite. Par: 3.

Pic & solutions:


- Intended solution: DRILL walls, then Santa to death.
- Improv solution 1: Create FIRE on the other side of the wall, then drop a BOMB, which causes the walls to collapse. Free Santa, give him anything he wants (ITEM #3) for the Starite.
- Improv solution 2: Create LADDER, climb up and push the walls until they collapse or disappear off screen. Free Santa, etc.
- Improv solution 3: Create TORNADO and hope it clears all walls and doesn't kill the Starite. This one was pretty hilarious. Tornado is crazy, haha.


Clear time: about 1 hour (the whole process)
Dood Trigger™
Day 21 - Mega Man V » Done!

Easily on par with the NES classics (and 9-10) IMO. After 4 games of recycled content, Capcom finally made an original MM for GB, and I think they nailed it. It has very unique levels, new bosses and weapons. I'm still impressed by how much they managed to cram into that tiny screen in terms of platform gimmicks and room layouts. It makes you think that hmmmm, maybe MM1GB could have been a little longer than 15 minutes... >_>

The Mega Arm is so cool. You'd think getting rid of the Mega Buster would be a step back, but they gave it enough bits and features to stand on its own. The item grab power-up is really nice to have (it grabs anything, regardless of barriers in front of it), and the enemy grab is one of those things that become essential once you master it.
There's also a secret power-up for the Mega Arm called Turbo Accelerator (much faster charge and rate of fire), which requires getting four game overs in a row. But the game is pretty easy, so it's not that common to see this. I gotta check it out sometime!


Clear time: 1:35
I played Hollow Knight for a few hours.  I really like the look and feel of the game, but the world feels like a boring maze and I find myself needing to look at the map way too often.  A mini-map and more rooms with distinguishing features would be helpful.  The strider-esque combat got old quick.  Maybe one day I will keep playing but right now it's just not pulling me in.
Strider? Please, it's clearly Metroid Man Zero: Duck Tales of the Night
but what about The Power-four-Mulana Island IV: Risky's UnEpic in the Darkness
Dood Trigger™
Day 22 - Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow » Done!

I played on Hard, mostly for Kaiser Knuckle and Silver Gun. KK isn't used that much, but it sells for 15K! That's enough to stock up on High Potions and High Minds, at least. I usually grab the SG so I can fight Julius with a ranged weapon, but this time I went melee. That boss is amazing.

Did early Floating Garden, which is an easy sequence break. Even though that's an advanced area, you can dash to Clock Tower right away and grab Mystletain + Lightning Doll like 4 rooms in. Then you're instantly powered up again! The only bad part about this break is if you want the Claimh Solais... gotta go back and do the areas you skipped (for Undine).

This game has flawless pacing IMO... feels like you're always finding good powers and progressing through the map at just the right time. I always mention Claimh Solais, but all the elemental short swords are useful, fast and quite powerful when you get them. Even farming Souls is enjoyable in AoS, unlike Dawn of Sorrow where it feels like you don't see anything cool unless you grind a ton. Probably my favorite game on the GBA.

Souls farmed
- Giant Ghost (protection for Death's sickles, ended up not using it)
- Triton (+16 STR)
- Lubicant (less HP = more attack, aka glass cannon mode)
- Succubus, Flame Demon (for the final area and best ending)


Clear time: exactly 2:00
FWIW, re elemental swords: The poison sword, Hrunting (I think), has the distinction of being able to hit Death from below while being one of the faster "stab" type swords, thanks to its expanded vertical hitbox.

Also the lightning sword is useful if you ever do want to kill an Iron Golem without the Killer Mantle.  It's one of the very few weapons that double-hits.
One shall stand, one shall ball.
I was messing around with a randomizer that came out for Aria a while back. It's a surprisingly flexible game. I forgot how good it was.
Dood Trigger™
I gotta try the randomizer!

Quote from Glenn Magus Harvey:
FWIW, re elemental swords: The poison sword, Hrunting (I think), has the distinction of being able to hit Death from below while being one of the faster "stab" type swords, thanks to its expanded vertical hitbox.

That's a great sword for early-ish game. I used Mystletain for Death. Really fun fight!
One shall stand, one shall ball.
Death stone walled me for a good while until I learned about where Mystletain was. It was totally placed there to save dopes like me because it's a smart game.
I like turtles.
AoS is great. To this day the soul system is one of my favorites for the amount of variety it brings to combat (non-viable weaker souls and boring "stat up" souls aside).
I've been trying to stay away from Aria, LttP, etc randomizers for a while now. I get the feeling it'll either be lame or consume my life.
Dood Trigger™
Day 23 - Mega Man Zero 2 » Done!

Z2 retains a few annoyances of the original (weapon level up... snore), but IMO it is a massive step forward. Levels are more creative, EX Skills and Forms are neat additions, Cyber Elf prices are considerably less dumb. And of course, Chain Rod. Being Spider-Man can't not be fun.

I farmed Power and X Forms. Power deals just enough damage to OHKO certain enemies like spike balls, and X makes the buster stronger. You can easily get X Form via Space Invaders mini-game in Phoenix's stage, which also rewards you with the Cyber Elf that doubles the energy gained from item pick-ups. Pretty cool how the routing works out sometimes.

I can see why someone would get infuriated with MMZ games because they can be extremely memorization heavy, and the ranking system basically hates you. I love them, though. It's hard to think of a similar game with controls as smooth as MMZ. And they get more refined with each sequel (well... maybe not 4).


Clear time: 1:14
Edit history:
Glenn Magus Harvey: 2018-06-26 07:56:01 am
Glenn Magus Harvey: 2018-06-26 07:52:37 am
Glenn Magus Harvey: 2018-06-26 07:50:54 am
Glenn Magus Harvey: 2018-06-26 07:50:10 am
Glenn Magus Harvey: 2018-06-26 07:48:47 am
Glenn Magus Harvey: 2018-06-26 07:47:42 am
Glenn Magus Harvey: 2018-06-26 07:45:08 am
Quote from Serris:
I've been trying to stay away from Aria, LttP, etc randomizers for a while now. I get the feeling it'll either be lame or consume my life.
It seems LTTP's randomizer is pretty well-developed; I played one a while back and it's pretty good.  Though after I played that, they updated it and now the logic CAN put single keys behind their own locking mechanisms, and I'm not sure how I feel about that because I like 100%ing things.

On the other hand, there are apparently multiple Super Metroid randomizers, and the main one isn't quite updated on some modes or "difficulty" settings, so here's what happened the other day:

> finally set up twitch streaming
> debut on twitch for a handful of friends
> Super Metroid rando.  what could go wrong? I know this game better than LTTP, and I've already 100%'d it and even 99%'d Rotation.
> excellent early start to the game; lots of energy; lots of all kinds of ammo
> keep playing
> keep getting etanks at major item locations
> finish upper norfair
> no ice beam, hi jump, space jump, bomb
> can't get back up red shaft
> no gravy
> can't get into maridia or lower norfair
> well, crud

final tally: morph, plasma, grapple, varia, fast pants, 15/46 missiles, 10/10 supers, 11/14 etanks, 2/4 reserves, 5/10 powers

If I COULD super-short charge, I COULD shoot back up the red shaft.  But I can't.
The other possibility was quickcharging a shinespark and firing a super missile up the top of the tube room then shinesparking after it, but I couldn't get that to work and I don't think I could get anywhere past it anyway.

I threw it into one of the randomizer tools later and I think the bomb was actually in the gauntlet e-tank location.

Anyhow, this particular randomizer has this distinction between minor and major item locations.  Also, I used Normal mode and apparently there's a softlock-prevention measure on Tournament mode (specifically a gap on the left side of the Red Shaft) but Normal hadn't been updated yet.  Oops.

My friend wants me to play a SMet/LTTP combo rando.  He's run one a few times I think.  That one doesn't distinguish between minor and major item locations.  And he hasn't had trouble with it.

----

Speaking of Castlevania though, I feel like going back to Harmony of Dissonance and speedrunning that.

I wrote this up a while back: https://itjustbugsme.com/forums/discussion/12775/sequence-mapping-castlevania-harmony-of-dissonance/p1

I think this is the best no-glitch route.  (I'm sorta annoyed at how unexceiting the glitch runs are...)

As I mentioned in that thread, I'm still bummed out that Ice Fist Glitch to open up the Entrance circular warp early doesn't actually help sequence break, since the sequences inevitably converge again at beating Death for the Griffin's Wing. If it weren't for requiring that to use the Crush Boots, it actually WOULD be a MAJOR sequence break, because one could just beat Pike Master for its Floating Boots instead and use those to go up to high places.

Besides, beating Death requires going well out of one's way just to (1) get the Floodgate Key, and (2) then get to Death.  There are like, no Dracula relics at all near him, or in the two lower castle areas in general (since he's in the cave and the Floodgate Key is in the catacombs).  The nearest semi-required item is the Skull Key, but there's ways to get around that in low%.
Too bad HoD doesn't have a no-jank route!
Quote from Serris:
Too bad HoD doesn't have a no-jank route!
Huh?