Games Beaten In 2024

[Mad-Mike]

Dragon Warrior II for the NES - for the second time (the first time was when I caught COVID in 2022 and was half-asleep).  Everyone says this game is super hard, but I never had much of a problem with it to be honest.  Of course, I tend to treat "Grinding" as a relaxation activity rather than a serious burden, so that probably helps, especially near the end, and on my channel, I like to show ALL of my work.  Again though, I forgot to double check the audio the first few videos out.  I tend to work like a chaotic artist on my videos.

 

I'm a huge Dragon Quest/Dragon Warrior fan, and I've been LPing those games on my channel.  They don't get the most views or comments, but I don't really mind since it's kind of cool to go back and watch myself play sometimes and see where I messed up or really cut-through fast, or play it in the background as ASMR.
 

 

[+wongojack]

I completed the final mission on both the Atari 8bit and C64 versions of Blue Max on the hardest difficulty.  The 2 versions give several options for difficulty and different play styles.  I played on the highest of 3 difficulty options with pilot controls turned on, but I did not activate "gravity" which is more of an annoyance than a challenge.

 

Blue Max is a scrolling shooter that requires the player to fly a World War I style biplane.  You can shoot or bomb targets, and when you destroy a number of randomly generated special targets, you advance through a series of 3 (and a half?) different procedurally generated maps.  If you fail to hit the special targets, you repeat the previous map with a different procedurally generated set of enemies and random targets.  I first played this game on the C64 as a child of likely only 7 or 8 years old.  Playing so many years later brings back some foggy thoughts and memories that only such a long gap of time can generate.  This may have been the first game that introduced me to the concept of pilot controls.  Down IS up after all in a cockpit - right?

 

I didn't know back then that there was an ending for this game.  I just played it blindly shooting and crashing.  The game's complexity put me off back then, or maybe it was the difficulty, or that I just had no patience for learning how to play this game as an 8-year-old.  Even so, I have very fond memories of this game.  It is a classic of the era, and while I'm not a "shooters" guy, this one should probably get a bit more attention for furthering the genre.  From '83, the isometric point of view is somewhat unusual, but the theme and gameplay certainly fit with other influential titles.  The combo of bombing and shooting was made popular in games like Xevious from the same year and the "war sortie" as levels concept was used in the following year's 1942.

 

Overall, the game is definitely above average in my opinion.  I like the combination of action and light simulation, and the historical setting gives a sense of importance to each game.  The procedural nature means that each game is different, and the difficulty is enough to give you a sense of accomplishment without discouraging you.

 

As for differences between the versions, the C64 version shows a bit more detail on the plane controlled by the player.  It also offers similar extra details on the enemy planes.  I suppose this is due to the way sprites are used on the two different systems, but I don't really know.  Sounds are slightly different on the C64 but not by much.  The only music in the game is played at the intro screen and after completing the final mission.  Rule Brittania sounds about the same on either computer and doesn't invoke much of what makes the C64's SID unique.  The tune is Predictably a bit slower in PAL environments.  Notable from my time with the C64 version is that I repeatedly encountered multiple crashes in NTSC no matter which version (cracked, uncracked) I played.

 

 

The A8 version was the original.  Besides some graphical differences, things are almost the same.  I do think that executing the down+button mechanic to drop a bomb is a bit harder on this version which leads to some frustrating moments.  There're also fewer ground targets which makes strafing less meaningful.  You'll eventually notice that the enemy planes behave differently and give the player fewer chances for air-to-air kills which sometimes feels a bit unfair or just kinda like your job is to avoid getting hit as opposed to getting your chance for a kill.  I experienced no crashing or game-ending bugs on the A8 version, but some report that bombing the friendly hanger crashes the game.

 

 

Both of these games are similar enough to get a 4 out of 5 from me.  I had a lot of fun going back and playing the C64 version and then comparing it to the A8.  There's plenty of challenge and the variation of maps and targets means you'll never encounter the same mission twice.  The advancement of the shooter/SHMUP genre has of course left this game in the past, but a player in 1983 would likely have been very impressed with the combination of different enemies, mission objectives, and light simulation.  If I had to rank the two against each other, I'd put the C64 slightly ahead due to graphical details on the aircraft and the more responsive bombing controls.

[newtmonkey]

On 10/20/2024 at 5:11 AM, Mad-Mike said:

Dragon Warrior II for the NES - for the second time (the first time was when I caught COVID in 2022 and was half-asleep).  Everyone says this game is super hard, but I never had much of a problem with it to be honest.

Nice job!  I'm glad to see another fan of this game.  I know that Dragon Warrior III mostly does everything this one does but better, but I think I actually prefer Dragon Warrior II due to its somewhat darker atmosphere and because you get access to open world exploration much sooner than in the sequel.