What have you been up to lately with your SNES/SFC?

[newtmonkey]

I posted something similar in the Genesis/MD subforum, and thought this subforum could use a topic for general discussion, too.  Feel free to post what you're playing, mods you've done, stuff you've bought, interesting rom hacks, etc.

 

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I've taken a long break from this system after completing Final Fantasy V (I'm playing mostly PSX and MD now), but hooked my system up last night and played a couple of games:

 

Contra Spirits (aka Contra III; The Alien Wars)

A nostalgic favorite from my adolescence.  I never owned this game back in the day, but instead borrowed it regularly from a friend.  This game is simply awesome, amazing graphics, tight playability, and a surprisingly spooky soundtrack.  It's a quick play, too, so there's almost always time for some Contra.

I can clear it on [Easy] without continuing (nearly without dying), and am working on a no-continue clear on [Normal].  The biggest difficulty spike compared to [Easy], strangely enough, is the opening section of Stage 4; on [Easy] this is a great chance to earn 1-ups because the flying enemies are so weak and numerous, but on [Normal] they are much tougher and don't die so easily.

 

Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest

I loved DKC1 back in the day, but by the time DKC2 came out back in the day I had mostly lost interest in console gaming and was mostly playing computer games.  I'm also pretty sure that the Playstation had already been released?  At any rate, I remember having zero interest in DKC2 at the time.

Well, I'm playing it now and I like it.  I think I prefer DKC1, though.  DKC2 seems much tougher so far, sometimes to the point of seeming like trial-and-error in some levels.  DKC2 also has several stages that require using an animal companion, which I don't care for, and I don't think DKC1 had any mandatory sections like that.  I also don't like the save system used here; why require tokens to save more than once per area?  Finally, no Donkey Kong in Donkey Kong Country?  C'mon guys.

Having said that, it's still a great game.  The graphics and music are, if anything, even better than DKC1.  It plays smooth as silk and even with the great graphics (including some very impressive parallax scrolling and other screen effects) it never seems to slow down or flicker.

[Tanooki]

And that something similar I posted to as well, and the funny thing is, right as I decided after too many years of waffling on it I jumped back in, hard, largely to the Super Famicom market trying to recover largely many of my old games (I had a few dozen) but also snapping up a few other interesting things if it works out right.  Before I knew it I think I had around 17-18 games inbound from ebay, mostly domestic, but a slick deal on a Konami 5pack of awesome from a nice Japanese seller (all parodius+twinbee titles.)  Largely much has arrived, the JP bundle got released from customs a day or two ago (chicago sucks), and I have a loose ranma cart somehow lost in the mail from just 2 states over (idiots.)

 

Below is a list of what has arrived so far and I've been picking away at them but it's competing for time watching a backlog of some discs (movies) I have and the Genesis stuff I locate too largely locally.  The collection below, 2nd bonk sequel, the two Mario games, and Mickey are new stuff to me and quite nice.

 

- Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon
- Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon R
- Caravan Shooting Collection
- Chou Genjin
- Chou Genjin 2
- Choujikuu Yousai Macross: Scrambled Valkyrie
- Dragon Ball Z: Super Butouden 2
- Gojira: Kaijuu Daikessen
- Hokuto no Ken 6 - Gekitou Denshouken Haou e no Michi
- Kishin Douji Zenki - Battle Raiden
- Kunio-kun no Dodge Ball Da yo Zenin Shuugou!
- Mario no Super Picross
- Mario to Wario
- Mickey to Donald Magical Adventure 3
- Rockman & Forte

[Parkeexant]

It's like a good question tbh

[Tanooki]

@Parkeexant Then perhaps .... answer it?

 

I got my import box from Japan a day early which surprised me.  I've now got really clean copies of the Parodius trilogy and Popn Twinbee + Rainbow Bell Adventure here sitting on my desk I cleaned up shortly ago.  Oooh I haven't largely touched these in 10-15 years.

[newtmonkey]

I adjusted the scanline settings for the SFC profile on my OSSC to give it a sort of aperture grille look... looks pretty good and I'm pleased with it for now.  To test, I briefly played a couple games:

 

Contra Spirits

Gotta play this game every time I turn my SFC on.  I was horrified to find the screen glitching out during Stage 2.  I tried switching out my HDMI cable, tried resetting my OSSC settings, even tried switching to a spare OSSC I have in storage, but no good.  I was worried that some firmware update on my TV was causing problems!  Well, it turns out that this game is not 100% compatible with the "in-game trigger" setting of the SD2SNES/FX Pak.  Luckily, you can disable this in-game (by pressing L+R+Y+Start), and then the glitch goes away.  What a relief!

 

Super Mario RPG

Even though I'm a massive RPG fan, I'm not in love with this one.  I like the overall look (it reminds me of early fanciful CG animation) and the soundtrack is pretty great.  I even like the whimsical story.  My biggest issues with this is the combat.  The "timed hits" thing seems tedious; you just have to hit a button one extra time when you attack or get hit.  I really don't think it adds anything to an RPG.

 

Some of the backgrounds also feel sort of unfinished; specifically, grassy areas typically are either a single shade of green (!) or consist of just a single repeated tile.  It looks really simple compared with FF6 or Chrono Trigger.  On the other hand, the battle scenes look REALLY good.

 

I've got five stars so far, so I'm guessing I'm more than halfway through the game.

Edited April 27, 2022 by newtmonkey

[Tanooki]

@newtmonkey Keep trying, the timed hits are optional in this one, just ignore it if you can't.  I'm crap at it in Paper Mario, and that game forces you to do it and will end up killing you in the back half of the game since you're not allowed to RPG level up like SMRPG does, it caps you by the area.  You can be getting 10xp a battle, level up, whole fight is 1XP now...super grindy.  The timed hits in the Paper series at least on n64 is utterly required 100%, but the Gamecube one isn't, nor are the mario&luigi handheld spinoff series like that either.  SMRPG is the most casual of it, you can easily play the game ignoring the mechanic completely.

 

And wow about contra, I have that kit, but I also have a real cart (US version) so that's probably why it never came up.  i'm not good at it, but I can do lv2 just fine so I would have seen that.

 

 

While I'm at it, might as well put an update.

The other day I got my half of a trade in the mail, within it were a SNES game I never had before, and one I have that's FX chip based.  Batman Returns and Stunt Race and they made up 1/2 the box.  On top of that stopped into a walking distance store, came out at $10 with Tin Star, always was curious about it, never had any idea how it worked but knew Nintendo published it so it likely didn't suck.  I did know it was unique in that you can d-pad, mouse, or scope play it, and I used the d-pad (I have the mouse.)  Tin Star is a jokey version hybrid of like Sunset Riders and Wild Guns I guess would be best said, but the characters are like metallic western like steamworld dig.

 

Batman was surprising, Konami with a licensed brawler, but not entirely, it's hard even on easy it's no Final Fight.  You can't just run in and punch in that, you're screwed if you do in some places.  Stunning with your batarang or latching in and swinging on a cable with a kick...smart, as is the blocking, but also throwing shots at others who fire back which makes sense.  Great sense of detail, colors(dark tones largely like the movie), amazing audio work, gameplay is solid.

Edited April 27, 2022 by Tanooki

[newtmonkey]

Played a bit more Super Mario RPG.

 

I switched Bowser out for Geno on a lark, and was surprised to see that Geno seems to be just overall stronger than Bowser.  He's able to take out most regular enemies with a single attack, and also has better special abilities as far as I can tell.

 

I do like how unique the "dungeons" are in this game.  There's always some quirk or gimmick, so you aren't simply just walking around and fighting.

 

I'm surprised by how long this game is so far; I expected it to be a <10 hour game for some reason, but it seems to go on and on.

[+jeremiahjt]

13 hours ago, newtmonkey said:

Played a bit more Super Mario RPG.

 

I switched Bowser out for Geno on a lark, and was surprised to see that Geno seems to be just overall stronger than Bowser.  He's able to take out most regular enemies with a single attack, and also has better special abilities as far as I can tell.

 

I do like how unique the "dungeons" are in this game.  There's always some quirk or gimmick, so you aren't simply just walking around and fighting.

 

I'm surprised by how long this game is so far; I expected it to be a <10 hour game for some reason, but it seems to go on and on.

For shame.

[newtmonkey]

Super Mario Bros. 3 (Super Mario All-Stars)

I was in the mood for some platforming, and Super Mario RPG put me specifically in the mood for some Super Mario platforming.

 

I had completed this back in the day on the NES, so I thought it would be fun to see how this version looks/plays.  I was surprised, however, to find I had the game saved at World 6, as I don't remember putting much time into this version of the game.  It must have been quite a long time ago.  Anyway, I managed to get through World 6 in one go (and slightly inebriated) with only 3-4 deaths, so I'm glad to see my skills have held up somewhat.

 

I remember back in the day preferring Super Mario World, but over the years I've gained more of an appreciation for the NES games, specifically Super Mario Bros. 3.  The level design in this game is really fantastic, and it's got an intereting world/atmosphere with plenty of wacky stuff (especially all the great suits you can find).

 

Anyway, I had a blast playing through World 6.  Looking forward to playing more next weekend.

[Austin]

I tried learning Actraiser 2 for the first time a couple of weeks back. Oof.. it's been challenging, but interesting. Currently stuck a little halfway through the game at a mid-boss that just seems completely random. Just can't get a handle on it.

[Tanooki]

The problem is Actraiser 2, visuals aside, is a large step backwards from the original, a real kick in the teeth.  No world recovery/building, no growth that came from it, cheaped out on the save battery, and by far the most damning just crap gameplay/control problems with trying to land a double jump as you flutter and sputter like you're in an overly aggressively coded ice world, always.

 

 

For me, I've added a lot of games lately, +5 alone just yesterday due to a local trade, and in the days before in this week +3 others of which 2 were local nicely(not online priced) priced titles and one on ebay that was like 40% off average.  I also had another Japanese package come in with 3 more games from the same seller as last time, excellent condition stuff with those being Goemon 2, Lupin, and Gundam Wing.

 

Needless to say, going to be busy for awhile.  And this is around me trying to make the first attempt in over a decade or so at FF2 SNES too.

[newtmonkey]

@Austin

Which mid-boss are you stuck on?

I remember getting Actraiser 2 back in the day and being very disappointed with the lack of world simulation gameplay, but as a pure action game it's really excellent.  Lots of techniques to master and great level design, too!

[Austin]

6 hours ago, newtmonkey said:

@Austin

Which mid-boss are you stuck on?

I remember getting Actraiser 2 back in the day and being very disappointed with the lack of world simulation gameplay, but as a pure action game it's really excellent.  Lots of techniques to master and great level design, too!

Apparently it's Gratis. The fight is a mid-boss that was previously in an ice castle. There are ways to bait him into specific directions on that fight, but I can't really do the same in Gratis. This longplay makes him look super easy, but I haven't been able to do anything:

 

https://youtu.be/qkExWD02Y9U?t=4634

 

[Austin]

15 hours ago, Tanooki said:

and by far the most damning just crap gameplay/control problems with trying to land a double jump as you flutter and sputter like you're in an overly aggressively coded ice world, always.

There's more to the mechanics to retain control. You can actually tap jump in the air again after floating to land on your feet. You can also dive down with your sword which will lock you straight into ducking on the ground, mitigating the sliding when you land.

[Tanooki]

That dive move I remember that, you still would slide I believe when you'd dive into it, kind of to smear any targets into the ground.

[newtmonkey]

Super Mario RPG

I was only able to play for an hour or so this weekend, but cleared Nimbus Land.  I was hoping I'd get my sixth star here, but I guess I won't get that until the following area.

 

I'm enjoying the game, but it's not really hooking me. I find myself losing interest in playing further whenever I reach a new save point.  I think part of it is that the game really hasn't changed anything up in what seems like the last 5+ hours.  Enemies are still all pretty harmless and only rarely use special attacks.  You get tons of money even if you avoid many of the enemies, so you can always afford the best equipment as you progress through the game.  It leaves nothing really to look forward to; one thing I really like in Dragon Warrior 2/3 and Phantasy Star 1/2 is that (without grinding) you rarely have enough money on hand to purchase everything, so it's always fun to come back from a tough dungeon loaded with money and able to afford that new sword or armor or whatever.

 

Anyway, it's still fun even if I am just playing it an hour or two a week whenever I'm in the mood for it.

 

Super Game Boy

I have an actual Super Game Boy 2, but it's a bit flaky (has trouble reading carts, and even sometimes freezes/crashes during gameplay).  Luckily, there's a good alternative in that the SD2SNES/FXPAK has an "unofficial" firmware that adds Super Game Boy support with no additional hardware:

 

https://github.com/redacted173/sd2snes/releases/tag/sgb01

 

This means you can drop your GB roms on the same SD card as your SNES/SFC roms, and play them just like you have a SGB2 attached, including borders, custom pallettes, SGB enchancements, etc.  Even better, it works with the in-game trigger, which means you can easily reset to the SD2SNES menu and select a different game without having to physically reset the console.

 

So far it works great (even better than my flaky actual SGB2).  I spent an enjoyable hour putting some time into two of my GB favs: The Castlevania Adventure (good music), and Operation C (amazing game).

Edited May 8, 2022 by newtmonkey

[Tanooki]

Despite getting trades I mentioned earlier in the week I still have been slowly every day or two plugging away at least an hour on Final Fantasy 2, up to grinding a few levels before running through the shittiest dungeon of the game to me, the magnetic one with the dark elf...SUCKS.  I did a detour as I had money to blow, got Cid the nice silver wrench and silver rings too to destroy stuff by.

 

I got distracted 2 days back, probably a 3rd today...finally ST Picard season is all up so I'm power watching 3-4 episodes a day, glad it stays honest, doesn't get all social issue/political undertone funk that Discovery is polluted with.   (Can't wait for final season 3, the TNG cast returns.)

[Rhomaios]

On 5/8/2022 at 8:39 PM, Tanooki said:

Despite getting trades I mentioned earlier in the week I still have been slowly every day or two plugging away at least an hour on Final Fantasy 2, up to grinding a few levels before running through the shittiest dungeon of the game to me, the magnetic one with the dark elf...SUCKS.  I did a detour as I had money to blow, got Cid the nice silver wrench and silver rings too to destroy stuff by.

 

I got distracted 2 days back, probably a 3rd today...finally ST Picard season is all up so I'm power watching 3-4 episodes a day, glad it stays honest, doesn't get all social issue/political undertone funk that Discovery is polluted with.   (Can't wait for final season 3, the TNG cast returns.)

 

Have you beat FFII before? The Dark Elf cave was definitely the first frustrating moment for me when I first played it, but you learn ways around it very quickly. No spoilers, but a) investigate different weapon options, and b) get ready for even more frustrating caves later in the game. (Well, chiefly one that I can think of.)

[Tanooki]

13 hours ago, Rhomaios said:

 

Have you beat FFII before? The Dark Elf cave was definitely the first frustrating moment for me when I first played it, but you learn ways around it very quickly. No spoilers, but a) investigate different weapon options, and b) get ready for even more frustrating caves later in the game. (Well, chiefly one that I can think of.)

Oh yeah I got it around 1991/92 and every year since I had picked it up for 7 straight I did it yearly start to end, after that been very spotty and far between.  I got to where I could skate by finishing the game in the 18 hours range with levels pretty low the game became kind of high risk in boss fights (especially the end forms, asura, calbrena, evil wall to name a few.)  I've not made an attempt at least 10 years so it's a bit more foggier than ever.

[newtmonkey]

Super Mario RPG

I got the sixth star and beat the giant sword.  I was certain he was going to be the final boss, until he went down very easilt and then I got dropped into what I guess is the final area.  I'll hopefully be completing this one sometime this week.

 

The six doors section in Bowser's Castle was pretty annoying.  At least you only have to complete four of six, so you can skip both of the annoying platforming challenges.  That leaves you with two combat "challenges" (so easy they are just a waste of time, really), and two riddle challenges... suddenly, I felt like I was playing The 7th Guest.  Glad to get that over with!

Edited May 17, 2022 by newtmonkey

[Tanooki]

I had a solid trade come in and an undervalued score of a 5th title in the mail yesterday I cleaned up and started to tinker with.  The 5th was Super Adventure Island II and that is surprisingly more or less well done (confusing where to go next on the map though) but it's like SOTN-lite and well done.  I put a little time on that, but also did a few stages into Smartball, Blackthorne, Wing Commander (pc port well made), and tested to see if Illusion of Gaia was ok... great selection.

 

Smartball is an early Sony title, playing a little slime 'jelly boy' (name in japan too) mistranslated as jerry in the US, get those letters in stage for a 1UP. You can stretch glue to walls, bounce and jump, grab a ball to hit enemies.  It's like adventure island style colorful, not bad.

 

The others I know people are aware of I'll spare ya.

[dudeguy]

Kirby's Dream Land 3. Super easy game however.. that boss rush mode at the end... knocked me on my ass over and over til i finally beat it. you definitely learn to appreciate boss movements and patterns when your energy doesnt restore in between battles and youre saving energy for the final battle with Zero. I love the different hand drawn pictures depicting Kirby and whatever boss you died on.

 

some of the puzzles in that game really were tough. I had to look up a couple of the  on Youtube (cheating.) I was able to 100% the game and it's saved on a brand new battery I put it this year. There is no way whatsoever of backing up the save file for this game or Kirby Super Star due to the hardware inherent to these games. So sadly eventually my save file will fail 20-30 years from now.

[Tanooki]

Not sure what motivated it but I was all in this afternoon.

 

I spent time at first with a little spent on Wing Commander for a mission.  Then I jumped over to TMNT IV and nearly finished it on medium (forgot how to take down super shredder as he's vicious and cheap when not on easy).  From there I went into doing like 4 stages of both Super Mario World and then SMB3 on the combo cart.  Then Final Fight came up and went as far as that annoyance Abigail and that didn't end up well using Haggar (too slow.)  Then I decided to pop in Joe & Mac, and well despite not seriously touching it in over 20 years I finished it.  Considering going back for some Arcana which I got about a week ago, into the second area on that, quite fun.  But I may just watch a movie that came in the mail, not sure.

[Lord Mushroom]

I have played a little co-op games with my 5 year old nephew. His favourite SNES game is Kirby´s Fun Pak (Kirby Super Star). I have to play as the sidekick, and have the difficult task of keeping him alive. He is more interested in frequently changing abilities than getting far, so he almost won´t let me kill enemies.

 

Also, I am used to throwing bombs because that is the best one, so I suck with other abilities.

[newtmonkey]

Mother 2 (aka Earthbound)

I haven't really been in the mood recently to play any RPGs that are difficult or require record-keeping or mapping, so it's finally time to play through this, having really enjoyed the first game in the series (one of my top 5 JRPGs).

 

First impressions: Not bad, but I think I prefer Mother 1.  The world of Mother 2 feels much smaller with less exploration.  It also feels weird just to be weird, from the music to the dialog text and the psychadelic battle backgrounds. I much prefer the atmosphere/story of Mother 1; it's an interesting mix of a serious/touching story with some lighthearted moments, but also some really dark moments.

 

I also feel like Mother 2 isn't paced as well.  It feels like it takes forever to finally get the second member of your team, and you really don't develop any useful PSI abilities (other than healing) until several hours into the game.

 

The first few hours of the game, then, are spent traveling mostly in a straight line from town to town with just a party of one character, selecting FIGHT over and over, and always being roughly powerful enough to get to the next hotel.  Not much to think about.

 

JRPGs have long suffered from absolutely meaningless dialog from random townspeople, but Mother 2 takes it to a new level with how talkative these people are.  It's just a bunch of time-wasting nonsense.  Luckily, all the story-related dialog from key NPCs, etc. is great.  The flow of scenario overall is very interesting, too, and there have been some great locations to explore so far.

 

It's alright, but so far quite a step down from Mother 1.  I'm interested to see how it plays once I get through the early part of the game.

Edited July 26, 2022 by newtmonkey