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 In the now distant past (at least, distant in a relative sense) there was a thread wherein I challenged any and all comers to face some of the greatest (and not so great) retro games there have ever been. Ranging from cult classics like Gimmick! to venerable jewels like Klonoa: Door to Phantomile, many rose to the occasion and took on whatever could be thrown at them. But that was long, long ago and since then, there has been a lot of discussion on what constitutes a "retro" game. Did you know that the PS3 and Xbox 360 are considered retro now? Wild stuff, for sure, but it means now is a better time than ever to put a new generation of challengers to the test and crown a new league of Retro Game Masters!  If you haven't participated in one of these threads before (and that would be understandable, given how much time has passed since the last one), then the premise is simple:
But this time, we're going to do things ever so slightly differently. Games have grown in complexity quite a lot since the days of the NES and Master System, and as a result, the challenges are going to get a little extra oomph this time around. Don't worry, though, because now you'll have the option of completing tiered challenges which start easy at their bronze level (a win is a win, after all) but grow in difficulty up to their gold level, which puts some spicy extra requirements into the mix. For example, a challenge may look a little something like this: Our Inaugural Challenge posted:
I will do what I can to include important documentation such as manuals to aid you in completing the challenge. So long as you complete at least the bronze tier before the challenge closes, you get to brag about it! The best part of the previous threads was the discussion and celebration of these games, so you're highly encouraged to let us know how the challenge is going, stream your attempts, and show off when you clear one! However, if you're going to attempt a challenge, you must tag in before beginning. Just post in the thread making it clear that you're going to participate in any given challenge and you're off!  As the definition of "retro" has changed and broadened, we've got more games than ever to challenge! This thread will feature challenges all the way up to the sixth generation of consoles as well as some classic PC games! The seventh generation of consoles is considered a retro generation, but may not be as accessible, and so has been excluded from these challenges, but this may change in the future! I am always open to feedback and if enough challengers feel they could accept challenges from the seventh generation, I may begin screening and issuing challenges for games of that era.  This thread's guidelines are as follows:
All challenges will be catalogued in the next post, and our first challenge will be in the post following that. If you're ever lost or just want a quick link to the latest challenge, check post 2!
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Jan 25, 2022 03:46
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| # ? Apr 25, 2024 13:40 |
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  Doctor Hospital fucked around with this message at 23:48 on Mar 3, 2022 |
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Jan 25, 2022 03:46
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  Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater is the fifth game in the Metal Gear franchise. Set in 1964, you are put in control of Naked Snake, a highly trained stealth operative attempting to clear the United States of escalating tensions after your mentor, The Boss, defects to the Soviet Union and brings a Davy Crockett man-portable nuclear launcher with her. This game is a departure in some ways from previous Metal Gear games in that it does not prominently feature the Soliton Radar system found in MGS 1 and 2, and instead has the player rely on sound and sight to determine if they're about to be spotted. The game features many real world and fictional weapons to fit either a lethal or non-lethal playstyle, and a rank is awarded based on how you played at the end of the game. An updated rerelease, Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence features new free camera control, and comes highly recommended for this challenge! TO COMPLETE THIS CHALLENGE, you must:  Reach the ending... on Hard or higher... with a Fox Rank or better!This challenge will end on Friday, February 4th, at 11:59 PM Eastern Time Resources Manual: Snake Eater Manual: Subsistence
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Jan 25, 2022 03:46
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Ooooh this sounds like fun, and with one of my favorite games of all time too! Not sure if I’ll be able to find the time to commit to this but I do have a question, are we free to use any version of the game for this? The OP says games will be from up to the sixth generation of consoles but what about ports to newer hardware, like if I wanted to play the 3DS or HD version of MGS3?
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Jan 25, 2022 04:23
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The HD version or 3DS of MGS3 are perfectly fine versions to use.
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Jan 25, 2022 04:27
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Glad to see this thread again. I'm in for snake eating.
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Jan 25, 2022 04:33
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It's back and I'm in
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Jan 25, 2022 11:16
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Coming up on the end of the first week of the challenge, so let's see some progress shots! Are you going for the gold, or just taking it easy?
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Jan 29, 2022 20:34
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Just taking it easy, up to post Groz. That escape sequence always makes me completely lose my sense of direction, god drat
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Jan 30, 2022 02:13
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I'll throw my hat in the ring here, been years since I played MGS3. I'm torn on which version I want to play for the challenge, though. I have the original on PS2, Subsistence, and the 3ds version. I'm thinking I'll go for the portable version just because a lot of my gaming is on the go lately. I'm planning on doing a hard playthrough, but it's pretty doubtful I'm gonna wanna do the grinding it'll take for me to get Fox rating with how rusty I am.
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Jan 30, 2022 02:40
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The 3DS port isn't amazing but it does add the crouch walk from 4 which is pretty great Also I might be wrong by I think you stop being able to use 3D when snake loses his eye and that's hilarious
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Jan 30, 2022 02:47
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I've been tied up at work most of the week, so I'm only at the Lab area before you fight the Fear. I'm cutting my losses on aiming for Fox rank as I'm finding that I'm actually too rusty/bad at this game to get it done.
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Jan 30, 2022 06:26
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kirbysuperstar posted:The 3DS port isn't amazing but it does add the crouch walk from 4 which is pretty great You can sorta do the crouch walk using the cardboard box. It's used in speedruns because you don't slow down while going up slopes, but it probably is bad for your camo index. It might just be in first person sequences like those cutscenes that let you look through Snake's eye(s). Since aiming is now over the shoulder it shouldn't affect gameplay. Has anyone ever done a knife and fork challenge? I can't remember if the fork carries over to NG+, or whether each boss can be killed without guns. For something like Ocelot or The Pain you might have to get creative like throwing a bunch of stun grenades followed by a live snake to the face.
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Jan 30, 2022 14:55
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That loving Sned posted:It might just be in first person sequences like those cutscenes that let you look through Snake's eye(s). Since aiming is now over the shoulder it shouldn't affect gameplay. Oh yeah that sounds like it might be more correct than what I was thinking
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Jan 31, 2022 05:00
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 Man, game controls have come a long way huh. Really makes me appreciate how TPP played. Played on Very Easy because I'm bad at this game when my reflexes are decent, nevermind what they've become in the last few years. That and I'm playing on old hardware with a retrotink2x and it doesn't handle 3D PS2 games too well, I need to get a 5x.. The Fury is my favourite boss fight still, for some reason. Also that Starsailor song is still pretty good and is what pushes me into [spoiler]crying territory[spoiler]. That was fun to come back to.
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Jan 31, 2022 09:32
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Today's the last day! A new challenge will be going up at midnight tonight, so try and finish your MGS3 runs by then!
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Feb 4, 2022 13:17
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Finished just in time, took me till halfway through to realize you can stalk with the d-pad.
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Feb 4, 2022 23:39
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I won't be able to post the challenge in a couple of hours, so I'm gonna post it now. MGS3 still has around 2 hours left. Viewtiful Joe is a side-scrolling beat-em-up developed by the no-longer-extant Capcom subsidiary Clover Studios, directed by Hideki Kamiya. Players assume the role of Joe, an avid cinema fan and Tokusatsu enthusiast who is pulled into a vintage Captain Blue film after the plot goes completely off the rails. Imbued with new film-based powers, Joe sets off to rescue his girlfriend, Silvia, and escape the movies. Henshin-a-go-go, baby! TO COMPLETE THIS CHALLENGE, you must: Reach the ending... on Adult or higher... with all Rainbow V ranks!This challenge will end on Friday, February 18th at 11:59 PM Eastern Resources Manual (Gamecube) Manual (Playstation 2)
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Feb 5, 2022 04:28
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I love beat em ups and have never actually gotten around to playing Viewtiful Joe, it's been on my retro "to do" list for ages. Looking forward to diving in to this one (after midnight ET, I don't intend to cheat!)
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Feb 5, 2022 04:55
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I've never actually played Viewtiful Joe so I'm definitely gonna give this one a shot
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Feb 5, 2022 21:53
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I'm in for some Joe
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Feb 6, 2022 02:08
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Some initial thoughts after finishing Episode 1: The art style in this game is absolutely gorgeous and it makes me want to watch some tokusatsu. I was initially a bit nonplussed at the combat system, particularly the focus on first having to dodge to open up an enemy to smash them with Slow, but once I got to the break point and was able to flesh out some of Joe's moveset I was a lot happier, and particularly after getting Mach Speed I had a lot of fun starting to weave together flurries of Mach Speed attacks, dodging and then punishing with a few heavy Slow hits. If I have a complaint it's mostly down to the "boss fight" moments where it feels much more difficult to assess where you actually have openings to attack and some of the enemy attack hitboxes seem significantly bigger than their appearances suggest. Small moments of irritation though, far from being anything that ruins the game for me. Really enjoying it so far - Adult difficulty is taxing me a little bit (I love beat 'em ups, I never said I was good at them) and I doubt I have the time to get good enough at the game to hit the Rainbow V-ranks challenge, but determined to get the game finished.
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Feb 6, 2022 06:35
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Hey cool this is back! I'm in for Joe. I like the other Clover games a lot and remember liking this one when it was current, but never finished it. Save file is still there.. looks like I got to Episode 3 back in 2003. Going to play on Adult but I generally dislike in-game rating systems so not going for that one. Edit: Thus far, have had a lot of fun with Ep. 1-3. Ep. 4 overstayed its welcome a bit. Modoh fucked around with this message at 10:47 on Feb 7, 2022 |
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Feb 6, 2022 22:13
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Oof, time has been getting away from me, I really need to get moving so I can try and get this cleared before the deadline.
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Feb 14, 2022 06:32
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Well, I did it. Mediocre ratings, as expected. Getting all rainbow Vs here would be a monumental effort. Final death count was 65 continues (which seems like it should be on the final stats screen, but isn't). Was a little worried I wasn't going to have time to finish it. It doesn't really lend itself to short play sessions because you can't save at the boss checkpoints. Overall, I thought it was.. decent. Comboing minions together in slow motion for bonus points was always fun, and I enjoyed figuring out what to do on the boss fights. Some of the puzzle-ish things were annoying, and I really think environmental hazards and traps should have affected enemies. All the filler refights in the second half dragged things down a bit, though I was more annoyed by the stage full of tanks and helicopters than the actual boss rush. 
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Feb 17, 2022 11:07
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Absolutely not going to finish this - the first two stages lulled me into a bit of a false sense of security but I found the difficulty ramping up pretty rapidly. Really cool game and one that I'm glad I played, but probably not something I'm in a hurry to come back to. The game absolutely drips style, but something about the combat system just doesn't click with me. For the level of complexity and moving parts in there in terms of available moveset, it ultimately feels a little bit flat and lifeless to me - I'm not sure whether that's necessarily a fault in the game's design or just a case of me not clicking with the rhythm/flow of the combat so it feels a little stiff and awkward. Out of curiousity to see what it did to the game's difficulty, I did start a file on Kids difficulty. Without the challenge of the Adult difficulty it definitely felt like same-y repetitive mush - if I do come back to this at some point on the future I'll definitely be sticking with the Adult difficulty.
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Feb 18, 2022 06:13
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Sorry for the delay on this new challenge. I was a bit indisposed over the past couple of days and didn't have the time to post. Radiant Silvergun is a bullet hell shoot-em-up by Treasure, and the spiritual predecessor to Ikaruga, also by Treasure. In Radiant Silvergun, all life on earth has been eradicated by a being known as The Stone-like with the exception of the crew of the starship Tetra, which was not on the planet at the time. Running out of food and fuel, the Tetra returns to earth one year after the incident. The story is told in a non-linear fashion, and to get the whole story, you'll have to piece it together as you play through the game's six challenging stages. Initially only available in Japan, Radiant Silvergun was released in other regions on Xbox 360 as an Arcade downloadable title. TO COMPLETE THIS CHALLENGE, you must Reach the ending of Story Mode!Only one tier for this challenge, but I suspect that the game will still put your shmup skills to the test! This challenge, since it was issue late, will end on Sunday, March 6th at 11:59 PM Eastern A new challenge will be issued on Friday, March 4th, at 11:59 PM Eastern.
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Feb 20, 2022 18:04
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Well I washed out of Viewtiful Joe, and I've never actually heard of this game before but I'm in for giving it a shot
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Feb 21, 2022 02:30
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I'm in for Radiant Silvergun. Looks like you can set the lives all the way up to 10 per continue in the options. I'm going to see how far I get on the default 3, but may end up increasing it if I'm running out of time. Maybe that should be bronze? Game barely runs at full speed on the ancient Core 2 PC I use for CRT games, hopefully that doesn't cause too much input lag.
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Feb 22, 2022 03:09
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Well, I ran out of time on this one. Spent about 10 hours total on it, and got to stage 5A. Even that was heavily abusing the Saturn version's save file system to keep weapon levels. Kept it at 3 lives per credit but play time did give me 10 credits. I think it's doable with those settings with a bit more practice. I think there's only one more stage after that, but having to play through the whole game to practice the end stages slowed things down too much for me to be able to reach the end in time. It's easy to see why this game gets so much praise, it's really good! I'd played Ikaruga before but I think I like this game more. Stuff I liked: Fun scoring/combo system. I couldn't resist pointlessly going for score on easy levels even though it was getting me killed at times. The weapon system, where all your weapons are available at all times. The system of button combos to fire different guns instead of having a "weapon switch" button is great. The soundtrack. I'm a huge fan of FFT and its soundtrack, and this is the same composer and style. A bit unusual for a shmup but it worked for me. Stuff I didn't like: The weapons at level 0 feel too weak, but with save file carryover were way too strong for the early levels. I wish they were a bit stronger at base level or scaled up faster so I didn't feel the need to start from a save. No high scores kept in save file mode. Even if you start fresh, no high scores are kept for your first credit if you continue. Score resetting on continue is normal for shmups but I would've liked to have it save the score from that first credit so I could have some fun in the early levels while doing the challenge. Bullet visibility is a problem at times. Dodging orange bullets while firing an orange laser on an orange background isn't great. I'm disappointed this thread isn't getting more participation, though. Modoh fucked around with this message at 12:06 on Mar 7, 2022 |
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Mar 7, 2022 11:58
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RS is unfortunately a game I want to like but I don't gel with most vert shmups at all, sadly. The soundtrack is really good though.
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Mar 7, 2022 12:18
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Yeah I wasn't able to finish either (mostly due to my time getting eaten by Elden Ring...). I ended up getting to like somewhere in the third or fourth stage I think? I definitely discovered that 1) I like shmups and 2) I am bad at them
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Mar 7, 2022 14:50
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Once again I'm late on setting a new challenge, so I'm gonna be moving the new challenge day to Sundays. That way I don't forget to issue new ones thanks to, uh, certain events (like Elden Ring). Anyway,  Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne is a monster collecting RPG  TO COMPLETE THIS CHALLENGE, you must: Reach any ending... Make that the True Demon ending... On Hard difficulty!This challenge will end on Saturday, March 19th, at 11:59 PM Eastern I'm sorry for being late again. I'll make sure to get a few more challenges ready in advance so this doesn't happen again.
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Mar 7, 2022 22:39
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I'm in! I really like that game but damned if I've ever managed to finish it. I just always get sidetracked and start playing something else. Deleting my save and starting fresh.
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Mar 8, 2022 01:38
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Think I'm out this time. SMT3 is a great game but I've played it a lot already, and I don't think I have the time to run through it in 2 weeks. Might change my mind if I get bored. On the challenge date changes, personally I'd prefer if it didn't end in the middle of a weekend since that's when most of my free time for retro gaming is available. If that's the best time for you to post a new game maybe you could push the completion date back a day or two, even if there's some overlap?
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Mar 8, 2022 07:56
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Well, this is definitely a lost challenge. Wasn’t able to play for the past two days. Echoing the sentiment that Saturday is sort of an odd day to wrap these challenges, too.
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Mar 12, 2022 00:47
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Modoh posted:On the challenge date changes, personally I'd prefer if it didn't end in the middle of a weekend since that's when most of my free time for retro gaming is available. If that's the best time for you to post a new game maybe you could push the completion date back a day or two, even if there's some overlap? holefoods posted:Echoing the sentiment that Saturday is sort of an odd day to wrap these challenges, too. Would a challenge ending on Sunday night and new one issued Monday morning be preferrable?
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Mar 12, 2022 04:38
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Don't have the time to get through this one but I will play some Puzzle Boy
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Mar 12, 2022 04:56
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Doctor Hospital posted:Would a challenge ending on Sunday night and new one issued Monday morning be preferrable? I personally think that would be perfect, but I’m more than happy with whatever the group opinion is being an overall newcomer to the site.
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Mar 13, 2022 08:55
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Yeah, that works. Best for me would be just to "officially" end it whenever you get around to announcing the next game on Monday, since I'm often up past midnight.
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Mar 15, 2022 08:59
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