Tanooki

Switch, I wouldn't count boutique items, even if I did, still Switch. It's the only one of the three on the market that actually offers any unique value vs the cost of the system and continued use. The other twos hardware are just walled garden capped performance machines from a good many years ago on the PC market, and you know when you jump systems they don't let you carry stuff forward without usually buying it again so I cut them out of my life for a good PC that'll run console stuff as nice as the home unit in how PCs are now around a decade so over time it pays for itself. So my preferred modern console is the PC, but since that's out, Switch.

Surprised I failed to bring it up but I'm slowly chipping into a new stack of not FC, but NES titles. i ended up having a bit of luck getting a stack at a local resale shop where the value was there to bother for me. I'm only surface level on most, so not sure it's quite what I'd call doing it lately exactly but... StarTropics I got CIB w/letter, had been making good progress until I got to where the gameplay suffers against the control mechanics, the back half of Ch3...still like it, but it makes me think maybe Game Genie's do have value, which is a first. But also there's a good bit of fun trying a few stages or levels in Batman Returns, Kickle Cubicle, Monster Party and Lazer Invasion. The lot of them puzzle aside are pretty much on the hard side of things. And this weekend(Friday really) I got my hands on something I hadn't see a cart of in ages, Kiwi Kraze(the Newzealand story) along with strider, so I started to chip away at both of them, good challenges and very well made games. Kiwi I'd put into the tricky category. I made it so far into the second stages/areas of those games.

Nice, wish I was around but yesterday was a holiday and well ...overnight. I was thinking Ropit on the one that was metal mech, the description fit pretty decently but yeah I can see that too since you remember it now. The other was thinking it was perhaps the two you eventually mentioned, the Gallious game or Knightmare. I've seen the art pop up in the Konami Pixel Puzzle game on iOS enough times but also over many months have gone through all the Famidaily videos on YT where a nutty amazing person bought up, catalogued, and 5-10min reviewed every single game in chronological order to watch/listen to, to learn about the stuff.

Well did they really rank it higher honestly? Or was this an earlier PRINT version of the Kane & Lynch bullshit over at Gamespot that burned it with fans to the ground with the 250K bribe from Square-Enix to give it higher marks, and when a reviewed didn't a shit storm exploded? Maybe the concern over game length by journalists is projection of another small matter?

@roots.genoa I usually can decipher things pretty well, but that post of his really can not be read well as it is. I was snarky but dead serious, it needs to be re-written, re-translated. Something is just wrong there, but in the end the intent is right as you said, the sad sod can't handle Nintendo on non-Nintendo systems, when Nintendo wasn't even a system. Bonkers is what it is.

Yup and that pile of crap is on N64 as well. Story goes it was meant to be Streets of Rage, but Sega wasn't having it whatever the reason, so it was reskinned and well ...that. And I guess maybe that's why Sega didn't give it the gold star. I've had it a few times, and I get kind of fed up with it after not very long. Batman Beyond is a better game than that one, not to knock it as it's not phenomenal either, but also it more than leaped over the fighting forces low bar.

So you're saying you put this illegible post of his into googles god awful supposedly racist AI script and THAT is what came out of it in image format?! Shit...now I know why it was making my head hurt. :\ I'm now tempted to go back to his other posts and see what happens. This could make for one hell of an interesting thread of its own.

Since that post went up that pretty much is how I've felt trying to read that disaster. Does anyone have a J-Cthulu to English (I'd take Engrish even) translation as (not joking at this point) I can not read and process that mess to even answer if if I wanted as it just makes my eyes upset enough to cause a low dull pain in my temples from it. :\

I agree. I don't think it deserves the dating but I just grabbed some stuff for that post. It was just a random fart in the wind of a note within a Prime game, and it caused fanboy speculation. At some point later ignoring and denying it for years, they started to maybe on some computer started a document or maybe sketched a few ideas that also wasn't even a real 'start' so you have to kind of guess at it since Nintendo won't ever likely say. Mother 3 definitely would be one, I mean, most fanboys who lose it over the franchise will conflate it with Earthbound 64 that I think started on N64, then went on to the DD, to then twice fail those ...rot in hell for years, then was demade/finished into a 2D title on the GBA in the 00s. I really don't buy into that crap in the slightest. Maybe some concepts were lifted from a failed project/pair of projects which happens often with other media, but the delay time on that isn't touching reality at all.

I put him on subscribe just to get a notification. I need this tool, i want to use it. I've struggled to get anything from NES Maker for instance. I was gifted it last year and I have no idea how to even make textures, tiles, let alone save them. The fucking menu is obtuse, confusing, and utterly ove rmy head and the how-to videos are shit to be bluntly rude about it. I need something hands on like this, his video alone is very good, no asinine hurdles, you can get right in and bring your ideas to form without fighting the machine(the creation tool) which is HUGE. His engine looks top notch, on the level of wow factor that TORUS games did with Doom 2 and Duke Nuke Advance on GBA which are out of this world above what others pulled off in a FPS space. Their only rival really being the v3d french engine and the blue roses one that WIng Commander used.

Ooooh I forgot one, (Vampire on GG) Master of Darkness is fantastic, the Castlevania of Sega. That game is quite quality for what it is and all that. I didn't want to flood my other list, but the SMS totally since it was them really nailed it when it came to Sega arcade conversions as much as the SMS could (and GG) handle. I tried to stick to more unique stuff, but SMS was never wanting for quality titles despite the Nintendo grip on the market of the era if you were into Sega titles, you were well fed still. It was also a boon that it wasn't region locked even with PAL oddly, so you could get stuff like the Sonic 2 I had, or the re-stickered Golden Axe Warrior (Strider, SPiderman, etc.) too. Brazil has some gems as well which were more GG conversions that did nice on the home TV.

I did my yearly run to the Louisville Arcade Expo yesterday for its opening day in the afternoon into the early evening with my kid. The first hour about we spent in the vendor area before it got picked over before heading to the rest to do a number of arcade games, including some insane modern Japanese ones all the way back to DK on a cocktail, some time on Duck Hunt as she wanted to since we did last year, a bit of that weird Mario kart real world RC car thing on Switch in a room, and more including pinball a bit. In the retail space it wasn't as great as last year, for me that is, I like finding import games and there were none for my systems, oddly Gameboy in general was lean too as I tried to get something for her, she ended up with (not pictured) an Alolan Vulpix she loves, so, still a win. Anyway the first vendor I hit is this guy I like to talk to who comes down from cincy with his own private stuff he swaps out, doubles, etc and he's not expensive. Didn't see the FC games other than leftovers of last year but did spot that Dynamite Headdy game, and he started showing me a few things not out yet and I saw something I almost forgot existed, and haven't seen a cart of in probably 20 years ... Kiwi Kraze aka The NewZealand Story, wanted this so long I was all about it, got the pair for $40. Another guy in the side space, I came across had the Strider in a snap case with the manual for just $15 and threw in Batman on top for $30. The Ranger X was Wednesday, someoen dumped a big collection at the half price books, a whole case load of SNES games and Genesis along with a few others, RX was only $20 which was solid so I grabbed it, such a unique hardware pushing yet quality game. That's it...for now. I have to go out later today to get some dog food at a shop I discovered had another location near my weekend check of places so maybe??

The most depraved amusement I'm getting out of this was half through reading the title Duke Nukem came to mind, but it's not that...but the fact it's not even shockingly in the Top 10 anymore thanks to revelations over the this year, or in fairness console cycle. Shantae's lost completed GBA game edged it into 11, no one saw that coming at all. And shockingly a Nintendo game (Metroid Dread) and Starfox 2 (WTF right?) made the list above it, with SF2 even in the top 5. I do question are some of these though fair to put on the list? Was like Diablo 3 really planned and delayed over a decade? And Kirby's Return toe Dreamland? That's dubious, I get it was first thought up for a GC game, but it never took form until later so is that a gimme? What about the generously amazing finds from the anals of lost media that Eli discovered and released under his Piko Interactive company? 40 Winks N64 was finished, canned...that rotted for like what 15-20 years. If you go through that ones backlog, Dorke and Ymp was a lost SNES game from the mid 90s that only was finalized and released after the maker died in 2015 for sale. The (in the day) well wanted Tyrannosaurus Tex, a FPS for GBC is another and I could list more, but if you just ctrl+f search for 'unreleased game' on the wiki page of their releases there's a few that were advertised, given dates, then ghosted until he bought them up and dug up the corpses and re-animated them for release. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piko_Interactive

On a nicer note... I was at the arcade expo yesterday and hit up the retail space... walked away with Batman Beyond for a more than fair (ie: not ebay) price. Harder game, I need to re-learn it as you can't just FINAL FIGHT the thing... it never got a lot of love but it's pretty well done, better off than the GBC and PS1 titles at least.

It's amazing as it is amazingly SAD this work he does exists. I've felt this way about that, but going back over 20 years now to Dinosaur Planet as I saw it on the E3 floor in 2000. It shows that while it was marketing PR bullshit in general as bean counters always hamstring projects, it wasn't all fluff in the press talking up how much the N64 really was capable of doing things back in the 90s thanks to the CGI interface computer at its core. As you see when someone is given freedom (kaze) or a team (thanks to Nintendo, Rare) could really pull off with that hardware despite the few limits it had (largely storage space, but also the tiny buffer for textures.) If you can for fun just excuse the lower polygon core, look at the obscene level of detailed quality looking visuals you see in that captains quarters in one, or the ships in that last one, and i'm not even talking in motion, but the screen caps in time used for the thumbnails to peddle interest in checking it out. You rarely outside of RARE which rarely released games due to their long winded development times see a glimmer of what this thing could do the PS1 wished it could have. PS1 was no slouch but it was gimped in pretty ehhh ways too, but the one that mattered at the time due to CGI and music pandering, was the CD due to space and that N64 lacked horribly being stuck with a more costly 64MB max (1/10th of a CD.) It's cute but you can look at the added detail of the N64 copycats/remaster + type games that went to DS a decade later...and even those perks don't match what you see here.

Honestly for me there were a handful of games that kept me coming back around to it over a period of 20ish years, twice owning the hardware too. It was going lean due to time and other stuff I iced it out, outside of having the ROM support off the GG (and Gen) everdrives. In no real particular order though would be stuff I actually owned like Alex Kidd in Shinobi World, Aerial Assault, its port of Ys, Ghouls n Ghosts, Phantasy Star, both downgrades of the duos of Sonic1+2 and Streets of Rage 1+2, Golden Axe Warrior, and Wonderboy III

It was super fun to own the thing until I found that getting the games became and ever increasing toxic pit of stupidity. When I saw it would cost me some NES level style prices to get the more decent stuff I checked out as classic segmented LCD style games are NOT worth that price nostalgia or not.

Hah color...finger... it's him. Either way it's not the only Disney/Capcom had no hand in, Pinocchio is another.

Batman is going back f that game it's awful. I'd call it the Genesis version of GnG, except it has one of those, and the capcom game plays well, has fair balance, it's just naturally a hard game. Batman is just rife with really bad design, questionable mechanics, a shit ton largely unavoidable hits, and a stupid supply of endless enemies so forget pacing yourself. The weapon stock is like using a pea shooter, but you're so mobbed charging it for about 2 seconds or so to do an effective shot is playing with fire, while the more effective jump kick can not hit anythin on the same level you are, the foot just won't connect and then you get slapped for it from behind. Sega crafted one beautiful turd. Ranger X though I got to the end of stage 3 and ran out of tries. The design on that one is quite good, super unique more than batman for playing up some hardware strengths yet coupling it with some unique game design mechanics that work, pacing and going slow, working it out so you don't just get whacked is the name of the game there...and even then, it's tougher than average stuff.

That second one, anymore detail? I think I know what that may be, but I do not know the name of the game and maybe a few more things like look or color of the robot might help or what the kid looked like, or something about the stages or title screen that stood out? As to the other, overly generic as well, any other details? I know a good number of the games for the library and this is tricky.

Sadly on the homebrew front no, the N64 was kind of screwed. The best way to grow a collection is to fish the nuggets out of the prototype pile which is a mix of lost and recovered media, or finished projects that got bought up and finally published like 40 Winks through Piko Interactive. Stuff like Wonder Project J2, Doubutsu no Mori(Animal Crossing), Lost Legion GX, the two original Custom Robo titles we missed, (if you can tolerate it) Neon Genesis Evangelion, and a handful of others from Japan have translations and are supremely worthy. And then there's the proto stuff -- Dinosaur Planet which was finally fixed up to run through 100% with lame Fox removed for Saber, Viewpoint, 40 Winks, etc.

I'd agree on that about the original, such a stunningly spot on port other than the dopey one piece swimsuits on the ladies between the tracks. It's such a solid version as I used around that era play that arcade game anytime I found it and it carried itself well. Seemed like a common thing of early 90s and back stuff. MK1 sweatiness aside and MK2 were on the money, Smash TV and Total Carnage were pretty solid. The source port/conversion of Williams Arcade Classics was another. A decent list of titles were in that 80-95%+ conversion level quality of workmanship. For some years or at least original source material years the SNES was this odd valley that went kind of a little uncredited for being very arcade like with the ports, not like how say the NES and Genesis did an admirable job earlier on and then faltered more obviously so as the years ticked by. I kind of amount it to the high level of color capabilities (translucencys too), along with the sampled audio so you could belt out some really solid approximiations of stuff.

@shane857 I forgot one I'd love to have, Wonder Project J2 which seems like a lot of fun from a translated rom I put an hour on years and years ago.

Before going into work yesterday I went into the half price books, oddly ignored the gaming stuff to start in rear and almost ran out of time to find a big WALL of SNES games with stacks of Genesis to both sides! I eyeballed two in the case I wanted to get my hands on, price was lower than online -- Ranger X and Adventures of Batman & Robin to I paid up and late last night after cleaning them gave it a shot. Ranger X I got confused on in stage 2 and couldn't figure out how to complete it. Batman though, I must be missing some mechanic because the game is utterly infuriating, it's like I'm throwing spitballs at the endless(?) supply of enemies and slowly watch that health erode from endless unavoidable hits. :\ I think it could be a hard but fair game, but I tossed the controller, broke my first genesis pad though it was on its way out anyway. Now I need another 6 button controller. It lost against a 100 year old solid wood cabinet that laughed it off.

Ok so like what were they talking about and all that they'd throw the old NES Advantage into the mix, as that is what that is.