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KingEffingFrost
Jul 9, 2011

Extreme corset action!
I'm really enjoying all of the Contra videos, but what about that other difficult Konami platformer franchise? You know...



Castlevania lays the groundwork for a lot of future games. Originally released in 1986 on the Famicom Disk System, Castlevania's simple but devilish level design, cool sub-weapons, excellent soundtrack, and thoroughly :black101: premise (beat Dracula to death with a whip) made it incredibly popular. It's spawned an absurd number sequels and spinoffs that range from incredibly fun and excellent to inscrutably awful. The original Castlevania certainly shows its age these days, but it's still fun, and you can see all the bits and pieces that show up in future games, both Castlevania related and otherwise. If you want to play it yourself, you can find it for your 3DS on the Nintendo eShop. It's pretty cheap, so I'd definitely recommend giving it a shot.

Stage 1
Stage 2
Stage 3
Stage 4
Stage 5
Stage 6

KingEffingFrost fucked around with this message at 00:05 on Jan 13, 2014

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Allmightybob
Jun 22, 2004

I'm not saying that I'm Batman. I'm just saying that... Oh, wait, yes I am. Yes, I'm Batman.

Level 2, the water world; Only the calm before the storm

Dickey Butts
Feb 3, 2008

Sometimes I doubt your commitment to Sparkle Motion.
I'm really surprised I've never seen this game before. The art in it is really great for an NES release. (still looks bullshit hard, though)

Allmightybob
Jun 22, 2004

I'm not saying that I'm Batman. I'm just saying that... Oh, wait, yes I am. Yes, I'm Batman.

Dickey Butts posted:

I'm really surprised I've never seen this game before. The art in it is really great for an NES release. (still looks bullshit hard, though)

They really did do a bang up job with the animations, it's worlds ahead of what Wizards and Warriors 1 was. But you haven't seen the real bullshit yet.

beep by grandpa
May 5, 2004

Really enjoying the videos and commentary Allmightybob but could you bring the game audio down just a bit for future vids? I was having trouble hearing you over the music.

Allmightybob
Jun 22, 2004

I'm not saying that I'm Batman. I'm just saying that... Oh, wait, yes I am. Yes, I'm Batman.

beep by grandpa posted:

Really enjoying the videos and commentary Allmightybob but could you bring the game audio down just a bit for future vids? I was having trouble hearing you over the music.

No problem. I thought I dropped it enough, but I'll fix it for the future ones.

Conskill
May 7, 2007

I got an 'F' in Geometry.

I played the hell out of this game as a kid, but some of this is completely new to me. I don't think I knew about the Sindarin items at all.

I think I got to the point where I could routinely make it to the Earth stage without losing all my continues, but never beyond that. I'm not sure I ever even saw the last level of the game, despite all the effort I put into it.

discworld is all I read
Apr 7, 2009

DAIJOUBU!! ... Daijoubu ?? ?
It's been years since I played Iron Sword, but I seem to recall there be fall damage (or just instant death) from certain heights. Is that why the animation changes from certain heights or is that just an animation change?

DeathChicken
Jul 9, 2012

Nonsense. I have not yet begun to defile myself.

That's how it worked in the first Wizards and Warriors. Falling a certain distance would make you go into the animation and you'd take damage (unless you had the Feather).

Deargodalion
Jun 27, 2011

Something clever.
Lipstick Apathy

What did you pick up at the very end there, the sword's brick of gold?

DeathChicken
Jul 9, 2012

Nonsense. I have not yet begun to defile myself.

Maximum Carnage Update

In which holy poo poo why did I think a no-death run of this was a good idea?

Allmightybob
Jun 22, 2004

I'm not saying that I'm Batman. I'm just saying that... Oh, wait, yes I am. Yes, I'm Batman.

Niggurath posted:

It's been years since I played Iron Sword, but I seem to recall there be fall damage (or just instant death) from certain heights. Is that why the animation changes from certain heights or is that just an animation change?

If you fall too far and land on flat ground, you're stunned for a few seconds, but no fall damage. If you land on a steep slope or underwater, there's no stun.

Olesh
Aug 4, 2008

Why did the circus close?

A long, chilling list of animal rights violations.

Deargodalion posted:

What did you pick up at the very end there, the sword's brick of gold?

It's supposed to be a piece of the blade.

Honestly, most of the difficulty in the game stems from the fact that playing blind, you don't really know where you're going or how to get there, and enemies are deadly (in a very lazy fashion) and constantly spawning. There's no real way to tell that the invisible wall hiding the magic is there, and while you can get the waterspout spell fairly easily it might take some trial and error to figure out that you have to use it in a particular spot in order to get the golden fly. This level really is the easiest one, and it was my favorite - the Diamond Sword was the best weapon in the game to my child self because it made it possible to actually kill things without taking damage.

Also, it IS possible to grab the golden fly without using the waterspout spell, but the platforming is kind of tricky.

BombiTheZombie
Mar 27, 2010
Oh god the flying hamburgers! They used to be my bane when i played this game. You could be doing just fine one moment then BAM!, killed by one of those bastards zooming right into you from across the screen.

Cant wait for the next level, it has my favourite music of all the stages bar the last one.

Dectilon
Aug 15, 2008

Remember that thou wast a servant in the land of LP, and that the Lord thy Master brought thee out thence through mighty balls and a stretched out dive.
Dectilon 5:15
I'm really liking the picture-in-picture demonstrations of how dangerous various things are. It can be hard to demonstrate difficulty sometimes.

Dectilon fucked around with this message at 19:07 on May 26, 2013

TooMuchAbstraction
Oct 14, 2012

I spent four years making
Waves of Steel
Hell yes I'm going to turn my avatar into an ad for it.
Fun Shoe
Man, that vertical scrolling is not kind. You're only a few tiles above the bottom of the screen and enemies are spawning underneath you. How the heck are you supposed to respond in time to avoid taking damage? (Answer: you don't. Bad, lazy game design!)

JesusGeorge
Apr 29, 2005
TheKeeper bought me this account so now I have to rub peanut butter on his nipples on a daily basis.

Some of my favorite censorship on the Nintendo was from this game. It's not Holy Water, it's Magic Water! And no Rosaries, just a Magic Cross! While we're at it, the Holy Cross is really just a funky lookin' boomerang! Certainly doesn't beat substituting bananas for opium or pop for beer, but it was cute.

Also, I seem to recall that yes, the stopwatch works on the first two bosses, but on the Third, the wrappings stop mid air, but the mummies keep on trottin' and the Frankenstein Monster is frozen, but the real boss (invincible flea man) keeps moving. Or was that the other way around...

DeathChicken posted:

Maximum Carnage

I loved beat-em'-ups, but I could never really get what the strategy was supposed to be... In the arcades (gods rest their souls) I usually just prayed that stun-locking enemies was sufficient, because aside from dodging, I didn't know of any other combat tactics. Stick and move? Just jump-kick everything like in Ninja Turtles?

I want to laugh along with you, but I can't make out what Venom is doing in his power hit animation... I see him grab mook, hold mook in the air, a blurred frame sometimes occurs, and then mook flies into the sky... is there a sweet face bash preceding mook flight?


Part of me wonders, when I play Wizards and Warriors and/or Ironsword, if the developers realized their primary enemies amounted to two off screen cannons firing homing missiles that were replaced whenever they were neutralized, and that the protagonist was armed only with an apparently RNG controlled "Passive Hit/Miss" field. Then I see the design on these bosses and realize, no, they really just didn't care about poo poo. "Monsters go to Hero, check. Swords visible on Hero, check. Tiny afro on Hero, check. Game done. Aw crap, skipped bosses, throw in some faces on solid color fields before launch, stat."

TooMuchAbstraction
Oct 14, 2012

I spent four years making
Waves of Steel
Hell yes I'm going to turn my avatar into an ad for it.
Fun Shoe

JesusGeorge posted:

I loved beat-em'-ups, but I could never really get what the strategy was supposed to be... In the arcades (gods rest their souls) I usually just prayed that stun-locking enemies was sufficient, because aside from dodging, I didn't know of any other combat tactics. Stick and move? Just jump-kick everything like in Ninja Turtles?

In a good beat-em-up, the tactics are generally a matter of managing your position (and thereby, the position of your enemies) so that the enemies can't attack you effectively while you can attack them, ideally in a group. How exactly that works depends heavily on the AI of the enemies and your own mobility and move set. For example, in Streets of Rage 2, one common tactic is to try to single out an enemy, grab them, and then wait for other enemies to move into range so you can throw the grabbed enemy at them. This does good damage and knocks down several opponents. In other games, you might try to play keep-away with long-range attacks (like Spidey's web grab), abuse highly-mobile aerial attacks to deal damage and then get out before the enemy reacts (TMNT, The Simpsons), etc. Generally the golden rule is to avoid getting surrounded, because in most games that means taking a lot of damage before you get knocked down and thus have a chance to recover.

Crigit
Sep 6, 2011

I'll show you my naval if you show me yours.
Let's get naut'y.

JesusGeorge posted:

I want to laugh along with you, but I can't make out what Venom is doing in his power hit animation... I see him grab mook, hold mook in the air, a blurred frame sometimes occurs, and then mook flies into the sky... is there a sweet face bash preceding mook flight?

It looks to me like he's holding the mook with one hand, and backhanding him across the face with the other. A bitch-slap, bascially.

X_countryguy
Dec 31, 2007

Whatscha holdup, Tron? If you don't hurry up there's not gonna be any pizza left!
I like seeing the Ironsword movies. Brings back memories of me running to my Game Genie for help because screw effort. I did not find out that there was a W&W 3 until years later. Playing it... confused me utterly. Will that game get a play through because I have been really curious to see how that game is supposed to be played.

Bruceski
Aug 21, 2007

The tools of a hero mean nothing without a solid core.

Looks to me like Venom uppercuts them in the junk.

DeathChicken
Jul 9, 2012

Nonsense. I have not yet begun to defile myself.

It's either an uppercut or a bitchslap. Either way it makes me laugh and laugh.

http://i.imgur.com/oQBJ1VL.jpg?1

Shame it doesn't work on most bosses, since the only one who can be grabbed is Shriek.

DeathChicken fucked around with this message at 20:39 on May 26, 2013

Allmightybob
Jun 22, 2004

I'm not saying that I'm Batman. I'm just saying that... Oh, wait, yes I am. Yes, I'm Batman.

Dectilon posted:

I'm really liking the picture-in-picture demonstrations of how dangerous various things are. It can be hard to demonstrate difficulty sometimes.

Thanks. With trying to conserve lives, it seemed the best way to go about showing off bullshit deaths. The first level's pretty easy to show off dying, you're getting shot at from every direction non-stop, and there's no real bullshit way of dying, short of throwing yourself into the little horned demons. But later on, the bullshit deaths can start to happen with alarming frequency.

TooMuchAbstraction posted:

Man, that vertical scrolling is not kind. You're only a few tiles above the bottom of the screen and enemies are spawning underneath you. How the heck are you supposed to respond in time to avoid taking damage? (Answer: you don't. Bad, lazy game design!)

It doesn't matter where you are on the screen or where the enemies spawn. The only way to avoid damage is not to play the game.

JesusGeorge posted:

Part of me wonders, when I play Wizards and Warriors and/or Ironsword, if the developers realized their primary enemies amounted to two off screen cannons firing homing missiles that were replaced whenever they were neutralized, and that the protagonist was armed only with an apparently RNG controlled "Passive Hit/Miss" field. Then I see the design on these bosses and realize, no, they really just didn't care about poo poo. "Monsters go to Hero, check. Swords visible on Hero, check. Tiny afro on Hero, check. Game done. Aw crap, skipped bosses, throw in some faces on solid color fields before launch, stat."

Only the first two bosses are cakewalks. The rest actually require a little bit of thought.

X_countryguy posted:

I like seeing the Ironsword movies. Brings back memories of me running to my Game Genie for help because screw effort. I did not find out that there was a W&W 3 until years later. Playing it... confused me utterly. Will that game get a play through because I have been really curious to see how that game is supposed to be played.

I'm planning on doing #3 after this one. If you don't know what you're doing, the game can be insanely difficult.

Conskill
May 7, 2007

I got an 'F' in Geometry.

Allmightybob posted:

I'm planning on doing #3 after this one. If you don't know what you're doing, the game can be insanely difficult.

Godspeed, #3 has a lot of neat mechanics that deserve to be shown off. There is one specific part of that game (the third Wizard's challenge) that repeatedly wrecked my playthroughs as a kid.

TooMuchAbstraction
Oct 14, 2012

I spent four years making
Waves of Steel
Hell yes I'm going to turn my avatar into an ad for it.
Fun Shoe

Allmightybob posted:

It doesn't matter where you are on the screen or where the enemies spawn. The only way to avoid damage is not to play the game.

Well, granted, but it seemed like it was at least theoretically possible to avoid most damage in the rest of the game, assuming you were highly skilled and willing to progress at a painfully slow pace. Not so the underwater segment.

SmockJoc
Oct 4, 2004

Dectilon posted:

I'm really liking the picture-in-picture demonstrations of how dangerous various things are. It can be hard to demonstrate difficulty sometimes.

Echoing this. Showing the deaths concurrently with the no-death run is a great idea and really promotes the sense of danger.

Allmightybob
Jun 22, 2004

I'm not saying that I'm Batman. I'm just saying that... Oh, wait, yes I am. Yes, I'm Batman.

SmockJoc posted:

Echoing this. Showing the deaths concurrently with the no-death run is a great idea and really promotes the sense of danger.

Thanks. But the water world is about the only world you can no-death. With all the other recordings, my goal is just to make sure I don't leave with fewer extra lives than I came in with, because I'm gonna need them all for the final stage.

DeathChicken
Jul 9, 2012

Nonsense. I have not yet begun to defile myself.

Maximum Carnage

On to my favorite stage. They're just setting me up for the misery to come, though.

And here's one for the blooper reel. gently caress you, Shriek.

DukeofCA
Aug 18, 2011

I am shocked and appalled.
Man these stages are way shorter than I remember them being.

Fragger
Aug 21, 2010
Well then time for some more N+ action!

Allmightybob
Jun 22, 2004

I'm not saying that I'm Batman. I'm just saying that... Oh, wait, yes I am. Yes, I'm Batman.

Part 3 - Realm of Fire; shiny happy demons holding hands!

This is the part where the game takes off the kiddie gloves and starts to throw you the double deuce. And it only gets worse from here.

NAME REDACTED
Dec 22, 2010

Fragger posted:

Well then time for some more N+ action!



I find it really interesting that you seem to beat the high score times on 8/10 level sets in every video. Are they the default for a new game, or are you just making runs that are that much better than previous attempts?

KingEffingFrost
Jul 9, 2011

Extreme corset action!
Meanwhile, in Stage 2 of Castlevania...

Stage 2

Given the "arcade mentality" that many early home console video games had, I've always been surprised at how sparingly Medusa Heads were used in this game. There are no status ailments here, so no need to worry about being petrified if a Medusa Head hits you. The only thing to worry about is the pits that they will almost certainly knock you into during their second appearance.

Choco1980
Feb 22, 2013

I fell in love with a Video Nasty
Perhaps I'm misremembering, but in Maximum Carnage, in two player mode, didn't they do a weird thing where before the point where Spidey and Venom meet up in the story the two players have to play their respective single player levels (with player one as Spider-Man, and player two as Venom)?

Lord Chumley
May 14, 2007

Embrace your destiny.

Choco1980 posted:

Perhaps I'm misremembering, but in Maximum Carnage, in two player mode, didn't they do a weird thing where before the point where Spidey and Venom meet up in the story the two players have to play their respective single player levels (with player one as Spider-Man, and player two as Venom)?

MC doesn't have a 2p mode. The sequel does though.

Dickey Butts
Feb 3, 2008

Sometimes I doubt your commitment to Sparkle Motion.

Fragger posted:

Well then time for some more N+ action!



Thanks so much for showing off N+. I love the N games, and it's very impressive to see someone (even in edited footage) dominate it. Someday my afro Ninja will finally beat all those levels. Looking forward to the expert challenges.

BombiTheZombie
Mar 27, 2010

Allmightybob posted:


Part 3 - Realm of Fire; shiny happy demons holding hands!

This is the part where the game takes off the kiddie gloves and starts to throw you the double deuce. And it only gets worse from here.

Yessss, this level has awesome music. Its balls-to-the-walls hard but the music is awesome so its OK. This level was the level where I lost most of my lives/continues, mostly due to those fat floating demons.

BMS
Mar 11, 2009

by FactsAreUseless
Well first off, I've been enjoying all these games up here. Definitely a lot of nostalgia. I grew up playing games such as the Contra series, as well as Gradius, and even Maximum Carnage. I remember as a kid, playing these games for a few hours a day after school, and then finally learning the ins and outs and conquering them, was a really good feeling! So watching the LP's of these games and listening/reading the commentary and posts regarding them is like a trip down memory lane.

So I got to thinking, "well what games that I used to play would qualify for this thread?" A couple came to mind, such as Karnov, and Dino Riki (gently caress if I still don't have a hard time with that game), but one in particular stood out. This is a game that I drained countless hours into as a kid, and still do when I get the chance today. KingEffingFrost is playing the predecessor to the game I have in mind.



Stage 1 - Warakiya Village || Stage 1 - Warakiya Village Region Difference
Stage 2 - The Clocktower of Untimely Death || Stage 2 - The Clocktower of Untimely Death Region Differences
Stage 3 - The Mad Forest || Stage 3 - The Mad Forest Region Differences
Stage 4 & 5 (Alucard) - The Murky Swamp of Morbid Morons/Alucard's Cave Pt. 1 || Stage 4 & 5 (Alucard) - The Murky Swamp of Morbid Morons/Alucard's Cave Pt. 1 Region Differences
Stage 4 (Sypha) - The Haunted Ship of Fools || Stage 4 (Sypha) - The Haunted Ship of Fools Region Differences
Stage 6 Alternate (Alucard) - The Sunken City || Stage 6 Alternate (Alucard) - The Sunken City Region Differences
Stage 5 (Sypha) - The Cursed Tower || Stage 5 (Sypha) - The Cursed Tower Region Differences
Stage 5 & 6 (Alucard) - Alucard's Cave Pt.2/Catacombs || Stage 5 & 6 (Alucard) - Alucard's Cave Pt.2/Catacombs Region Differences
Stage 6 (Sypha) - The Stream || Stage 6 (Sypha) - The Stream Region Differences
Stage 7 (Alucard) - The Abandoned Mines || Stage 7 (Alucard) - The Abandoned Mines Region Differences
Stage 7 (Sypha) - The Castle Courtyard || Stage 7 (Sypha) - The Castle Courtyard Region Differences
Stage 8 - The Main Hall || Stage 8 - The Main Hall Region Differences
Stage 9 - The Inner Halls || Stage 9 - The Inner Halls Region Differences
Stage 10 - The Castle Keep || Stage 10 - The Castle Keep Region Differences

As KEF mentioned Castlevania is known for being an extremely fun series, and these early 2-D Castlevania's for the NES are known for being notoriously difficult. Queue Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse. This game was released in America in 1990, and the fourth to be released in the main series (not counting Vampire Killer and the various early remakes of the original). Dracula's Curse turned away from the RPG feel of CV II Simon's Quest, and returned to the action/platform roots of the original. And it does it well. Everything that was good about the original Castlevania game has been polished to a near shine for CVIII, and it adds some small little twists of it's own, such as branching paths, and other playable characters that you can join along the way. The controls are solid, the music is great, and the difficulty is high.

For this playthrough I'll be using Trevor only, with the whip only on the second quest. The second quest is another way of stating second playthrough, which picks up straight after you beat Dracula the first time! It features enemies that do more damage, more enemies, and even new enemies not seen the first time around. In addition to the normal playthrough videos, I'll also post a video showing off some of the things I'm missing out on, such as the extra characters, and the differences that are found throughout the Japanese version, such as different sprites, and updated music.

This game is without a doubt one of my favorites, and love playing it to death. Hopefully a couple of you will give this game a try, as it's a really well put together, fun experience! (Wii Shop has this for just a couple hundred points if memory serves). Definitely worth a look!



Stage 1 - Warakiya Village

BMS fucked around with this message at 00:17 on Jun 29, 2013

dis astranagant
Dec 14, 2006

So, would you guys like to see 15 minutes of horrible dolphin related fatalities or should I bundle the 67 second successful run in with the next few levels?

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Choco1980
Feb 22, 2013

I fell in love with a Video Nasty

Just one little thing--I'd wager that "Warakiya" is probably a multi-translated mess version of "Walachia", as in the famous area in Transylvania.

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