4847 replies to this topic

[Kite]

I finished Jumping Flash! and I really had fun with it. I didn't realize just how much this game was made for speeding through and still having fun until I got to the stages with stricter time limits. I liked the level designs overall. I was kinda afraid they were all just going to be a random island with a bunch of small islands surrounding it like the first world hints at, but there are quite a few setting varieties and there are even stages that don't rely that much on jumping at all like underground caverns and tombs. I was also afraid they would try to make pixel perfect platforming later on, but that thankfully didn't happen. There were close jumps, but there was always leeway if you knew where to find it. The bosses ultimately boil down to shooting and jumping on them, but you can't really expect to run up and gun it all of the time since the attacks can get pretty vicious if you are not dodging, especially in the harder worlds.

 

I kinda wish the mid-air controls were a bit better and turning happened faster, but it's still pretty impressive how workable the controls ended up being since the game predates Super Mario 64 and a few other more commonly known 3D platformers. The same company (Exact) apparently made another 3D platformer before Jumping Flash called Geograph Seal, but it's for a computer system I don't feel like emulating (if there are even emulators for it). It also doesn't star a mechanical rabbit named Robbit fighting an astrophysicist named Baron Aloha.

 

So yeah. It wasn't a perfect game and there are definitely things that future platforming titles got down better in the controls department, but it was still a pretty fun game for me and I don't think I had any moments where I really cursed the controls for failing me. I'll probably be hopping over to Jumping Flash 2 soonish.

[Dawnlight]

I beat the Order 1886...excellent visuals, but the ending was really bad. lol

 

Also, Steins;Gate comes out for Vita and PS3 tomorrow! Time to get my microwave ready!

[Eddy]

Began playing Wind Waker HD. I made it as far as starting off Windfall Island before Joel began playing Splatoon.

 

I gotta say, playing this game in HD graphics is amazing, and seeing how I haven't played this in a while, it's definitely refreshing. I'm really looking forward to playing more of this.

[Dark Ice Dragon]

Saturday i started Tales of symphonia, i never play to this game in past, is nice, but my favorite of the saga is still tales of graces.

The last week instead i play again to Atelier Meruru, i want to take the platinum and so sometimes i "new game plus" this game and try to found what is still missing...I miss four trophies and two are related to two different endings..i will try again in future.

[Kite]

I finished the first loop of Jumping Flash 2 (both games have a thing where you basically have to beat the game twice with level layout and difficulty tweaks on the second loop)... but then I lost my save file somehow. I don't particularly feel like playing through the first loop of the game again so soon after beating it, so I guess that's that for now.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o7ViNlDj604

 

Jumping Flash 2 improved on the engine a lot. There's a greater draw distance, inclines actually effect your POV to make it look like you are tilting, the enemy AI is smarter, and the HUD is a lot better and more helpful than the first game. There's also some really nice set pieces in the stages since they are able to focus a lot more on height than the first game did. And I really liked some of the exploration that was introduced that the first game simply couldn't handle doing.

 

But... it's really obvious to see that they basically took the first game, updated the engine, and put a new level pack over top of the old levels. The underground levels in the first game correspond with where interior levels can be found in the second game. The final world is really thematically identical to the final world in the first game. The final boss arena and even the fight itself are almost copies of the ones from the first game even if they are a bit more difficult. I know they did a lot of this to cut development time and costs, but it's still pretty disappointing that it isn't too hard to notice this stuff, especially with the final boss.

 

The levels themselves are hit or miss for me. While it's great that they introduced a lot more exploration and this led me to like a few of the levels more than some levels in the first game, they also decided to introduce a lot more near pixel perfect jumps. There are so many one square wide platforms in this game. It's not hard by any means, but it is super tedious, especially if you are trying to go fast. The music was still pretty nice, but I didn't find it quite as catchy as the music from the first game.

 

This game introduced a lot more voice acting and the English VA cast is... uh... hit or miss. Baron Aloha sounds okay, but the other villain in the game sounds really... off and makes groan inducing jokes that are worse than any puns I could come up with. There is an announcer guy that shows in the intro, the ending, and carries over to the title screen and I just can't help but chuckle every time I hear him say "Jumping Flash 2! <insert game subtitle here>" since he sounds like an old Saturday morning cartoon announcer. They also introduced navigation AIs that have their own voices instead of what I kinda assumed was Robbit speaking in the first game (not that he said much). The voice you are stuck with for the majority of the game sounds like something out of a Monday morning educational cartoon and doesn't really fit with the atmosphere. The brief listening I had of the other AI voice on loop 2 sounded like a "I wanna be cool and smooth" voice that's also a bit weird.

 

So yeah. I did have fun with Jumping Flash 2 and I liked the improvements (especially the draw distance), but at the same time I probably played this too close to the first game and it made it easier for me to notice where they cut the corners. The final boss was a huge disappointment even ignoring that, though. So yeah, I liked the first game better.

 

Still, this is probably a lot better than the Japan only final game in the series, which I dunno if I plan to try that or not. It's sounded pretty terrible and the one video I watched of it didn't improve that impression.

 

Edit: Nevermind. Managed to find my save file. I somehow swapped which emulator I was using in the middle of playing since I've got both a stable release of RetroArch and a nightly version of it. Still, that's probably the last I'll yak about Jumping Flash in here unless I subject myself to the final game or I find something that blows me away in loop 2.

Edited by Nick, 24 August 2015 - 07:42 PM.

[Air Luigi]

Making a break of Castlevania, so the logical thing was to play the sister series, Ninja Gaiden in the nes. I (re)played the three games.

 

Ninja Gaiden --> SUPERB CLASSIC. This game is like a good wine, it gets better with the years. It's like Castlevania but is much fast paced, ninja world, wall jump, a very fitting story with awesome 8 bit cutscenes and very good music. It's considered one of the hardest NES games, though only the final Act is really hard. The design is cheap at times and it isn't as refined as Castlevania, but it's part of their appeal. It's not perfect, but it is fucking memorable.

 

Ninja Gaiden 2--> Better graphics, better design and more fair, environment gimmicks like wind, new subweapons, Ryu's doppelgangers to help you... it's what you expect by a good sequel. The difficulty was toned down, but it's still challenging. The issue with this game is the story and cutscenes, they were really disappointing at times, and while the game is still a lot of fun, the generic and convoluted story (full of plotholes) made a negative impact in my enjoyment. But apart from that, the gameplay itself is super enjoyable. But I prefer the challenge and charm of the original game.

 

Ninja Gaiden 3--> Trash. I wish that this game didn't exist. The phrase "If you have bad music, you have a bad game" was never more true. This game want to annoy you with the sound, it's nearly unplayable. The design lost the fast paced of the prequels, the story is horriBAD, unfitting sci-fi setting, bad balance of difficulty... Really disappointing ending for the trilogy. 

 

 

[The Satellite]

I've been interested in Ninja Gaiden, since it looks like it has a lot of cool elements to it, even if it's grueling. And it was easy to tell it took a lot of inspiration from Castlevania... The subscreen is almost the same for crying out loud! And subweapons you can find in wall decorations... They weren't hiding it at all.

 

AVGN's episode on Ninja Gaiden remains my favorite of his entire series, mainly for the ninja, whose lines are just great. "A ninja must look beyond the borders... of the screen." But why in the world did they remove continues in the third game? Why did anyone (Konami included) think this was a good idea?

[Air Luigi]

The third Ninja Gaiden game has unlimited continues in the jap edition, and this time I'm 100% sure xd (I played it). It's very lackluster anyway.

 

Ninja Gaiden took a lot of inspiration from Castlevania, but succeeded totally in being their own thing. The feel, pace and tactics are totally different, reflexes are more important and there are way more enemies and they are way more annoying (You are quicker, but the enemies also...). And also, the cutscenes and progression through the story adds a lot to the game.

 

Castlevania is the superior series anyway, but Ninja Gaiden was an awesome tackle in the formula back in the day. And the difficulty of the first game is legendary (thanks to the epic respawning of enemies, and the love for birds) xd But it's pretty forgiven at the same time, because there are unlimited continues and a lot of checkpoints. The real hard part is the Act 6.

Edited by Air Luigi, 25 August 2015 - 09:47 PM.

[The Satellite]

I know about stage six... It was apparently a bug that dying at the boss sent you back to the start. The developers decided to be dicks and kept it in as an extra challenge. That's like if dying at Dracula took you back earlier in the stage— OH HI THERE CASTLEVANIA 3 NES VERSION.

[Air Luigi]

 

[The Satellite]

Has anyone made a Ryu Hayabusa in Castlevania hack/fangame? Cuz I'd play that. It'd probably suck, but I'd play it.

[kurt91]

Oh god, I used to have the original Ninja Gaiden on cartridge. I loved that game, but never beat it until about a year ago when I had access to an emulator and save states. I never could beat Level 3 (where you start from the cabin), although I think I got as far as the mine with the kick-ass music. Pretty good when you consider that I had to give away my NES when I was seven, and so all of my attempts were when I was incredibly young. (not that I got any better when I got around to downloading and trying it again! )

 

I would love a Ryu-in-Castlevania hack, as long as it was the real deal and not just a sprite swap. I don't mind if you keep the Castlevania sub-weapons, but let me have the rapid-strike katana and the wall-jumping. That would be amazing!

 

Anyways, I'm still playing Bravely Default. There's a minigame of sorts, where you're rebuilding the protagonist's hometown (yes, typical doomed hometown cliche, but you get something out of it!). It uses StreetPass to count how many people you encounter with the game, and gives you a worker for each one. (Thank god, the game takes pity on you if you don't live near anyone, and gives you freebies each day you can link online!) Each worker can be assigned to rebuild a shop or clear an area to access more shops. Assigning more workers will get a job done faster, and they'll work even while you're not playing. Each time a job is done, the Adventurer that you can save your game at will sell you the things from those shops.

 

The part that breaks the game completely is that I haven't been able to play for the last few days, but I've been keeping the game in Sleep Mode, and finding time to assign workers every so often. I got the Weapon and Armor shops much further upgraded than I should have them at this point, and blew all my money on a powerful set of claws for my Monk. Combining his natural high speed with my massive Attack bonus from those claws, on top of going into the Config menu to double the random encounter rate, turning on Auto-Battle, and setting the battle Fast Forward option to x4, means that I'm able to grind money INSANELY quickly, to buy the other overpowered gear in the shop. Made the Black Mage boss battle an absolute joke!

 

I did notice one thing that bugs me. You know those situations where something bad happens in the plot that you know you have the ability to undo, like a side-character dying even though you've got revive magic and more than enough stuff to cast it? Yeah, I hit a spot like that early on. Are there any games whatsoever that actually takes stuff like that into account? I'd love to see a game where the characters can just use their abilities to help somebody who's dying, and they adapt the plot to fit. Like if a soldier is saved, and he'll offer to train you and teach you new abilities or act as an optional boss battle when you agree to spar with him, and if you don't have the skills to rescue him, you just miss out on the opportunity.

[Dawnlight]

Since Steins;Gate is delayed for next week, I decided to go back and do A Link Between Worlds Hero Mode. I had no deaths on my Normal run of ALBW, so I wonder how much harder Hero Mode is. lol

[UZF]

Hmmm. I don't play games as much as I hack them. I just made an Action Replay code that skips the intro of, Wind Waker when starting a new game.

However, I bought an NES recently and I have been playing a lot of games on that. I'm playing Contra a lot right now, and I beat, Crystalis a few weeks ago.

I played Super Smash Brothers Melee with a few friends before they moved out of town for college.

 

And I'm about to order, Metroid for the NES so I can play that too. I'm waiting for Mother 4 to come so I can try it and see if it's any good, but it keeps being delayed.

I've also been playing Golden Sun on my GBA, bought a bunch of new games for that system. 
Welp. Back to more Golden Sun.

[KingPridenia]

Well, working on all achievements in Terraria. Currently am sitting on 72 / 88. Biggest thing holding me back is the fact I STILL never attempted fishing. On the other hand, that will also mean a lot of my achievements will be a byproduct of fishing. I think 5-6 of them are based off how many quests you do and Duke Fishron would give me 2 achievements (Slayer of Worlds and Fish out of Water). Anyway, today I unlocked the one that requires all Slime kills, the Pumpkin Moon one and the Frost Moon one. Now to make a noob and have him crushed by a boulder than to have myself bathing in lava while repeatedly making the nurse heal me...