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Simply Simon posted:I feel like until they introduced the collectibles, Mario games really struggled with actually meaningful rewards. What good is a single life when you can get much more by claw gaming well, or get lucky in gambling? What's another powerup gonna help you if you already have one? Even the enemy counter thing is just super bizarre, so hard to control to be useful at all. Yes, and even then it took until Odyssey before they realized that 1-up shrooms aren't much of a reward if you can just restart at any time anyway. Even in the Galaxy games they felt completely useless. I really liked the unique Wario Land 2 and 3 no-death system.
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Aug 12, 2020 11:12
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Lives in general just need to die, and yes I'm looking at you, most recent Mega Man and Donkey Kong. Galaxy had a lot of situations in its levels where you'd have a life halfway through a difficult section - which would respawn every time you died - giving you, in essence, unlimited tries if you made it at least up to the point of the life. I think that's actually a really cool way of handling it, if you want to have lives at all in your game. But eventually they must have realized "wait, the first section is usually the easier one so getting the life each time is not really a challenge per se, so..." and axed the concept, blessedly.
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Aug 12, 2020 11:29
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I forgot to mention it in the video, but I made drat sure not to get a game over in SML2 on stream because the punishment is having to beat very boss and get the golden coins back. Brutal.
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Aug 12, 2020 12:03
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C-Euro posted:There's something that I find really charming about the fact that none of the enemy names were localized for the English release of this game. I wonder if they would have localized Wario's name if they had decided to localize the other enemies, I feel like that's a dodged bullet. I'm not sure Wario's name really needs localising. You miss out on the pun, but the fact that his name is Mario with an inverted M tells you pretty much everything you need to know about him already. I do wish he'd show up in more Mario games as the antagonist, though. Coming home to find a mirror version of yourself has taken everything you own and is acting like he runs the place is a way cooler premise than some lizard trying to marry your girlfriend again.
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Aug 12, 2020 12:53
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Action Shakespeare posted:I forgot to mention it in the video, but I made drat sure not to get a game over in SML2 on stream because the punishment is having to beat very boss and get the golden coins back. Brutal. Wait it's all of them? I seem to recall getting a game over way back in the day and only losing one, but maybe I had only picked up one at the time. That's mean as hell if you lose them all on a game over.
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Aug 12, 2020 15:38
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Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Fall of the Foot Clan https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fte81-jgxyU This one's kinda short and sweet compared to what we have so far, but it's the important introduction of Beedrops to the crew! While I have always had a general knowledge and fondness for those turtles, Words actually came out of the woodwork as the premier expert on reptilian ninjustsu, which is a nice change of pace from the rest of the series. I would (generously) call this episode a learning experience, particularly in sound mixing, but it's best not to dwell on these sorts of things. There's I took the images I used throughout from scans of the original manual for the game. Honestly it's incredibly charming and every single page is written in such a specific voice. Anyways there really isn't much more to say, but I did also get some footage from this neat documentary of Michiru Yamane made in 2010. Worth the watch for a brief bit of history and some funky camera decisions from some Konami intern. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTHJR0k88RU
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Aug 14, 2020 19:04
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Action Shakespeare posted:Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Fall of the Foot Clan Another game I never got to play (doubly so because Ninja Turtles was not an approved franchise in my home). That's a kinda fun take on the usual lives mechanic, it seems short enough that not having a way to add back extra tries probably doesn't matter a whole lot. The big thing though is that TV commercial, I remember that one for sure. The funny thing is that in my childhood mind, there was no major difference between the animated TV characters and the switch to in-game footage. I guess videogames were so big and exciting for me that my brain filtered even run-of-the-mill Gameboy graphics into something awesome.
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Aug 14, 2020 22:30
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Yes! This is a game I played a hell of a lot and remember fondly. Glad it was included. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles...
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Aug 14, 2020 22:32
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Captain Hygiene posted:Another game I never got to play (doubly so because Ninja Turtles was not an approved franchise in my home). You know, I honestly don't care if they're ninjas or mutants or turtles. They're teenagers. They belong in school.
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Aug 15, 2020 09:35
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https://twitter.com/thatgalinthehat/status/1295206479964729344 almost done editing this next episode look forward to some thrilling conversation!!
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Aug 17, 2020 04:54
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What's the complete list of games, out of curiosity?
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Aug 17, 2020 05:28
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Fionordequester posted:What's the complete list of games, out of curiosity? I'm keepin that one a bit of a secret! That said, there's probably some occasional hints at things on my twitter, and those who have peeped the streams themselves might have a bit of insight to stuff I haven't posted.
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Aug 17, 2020 06:25
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Add me to the list of people who owned and read constantly the Game Boy Player's guide. I even played through/a bit of every single game in it last year. One of the things I enjoyed was that the guide has plenty of art of enemies and items in the games; some of which look great, and others...like the SML star...  I mean just look at it. Reminds me of something else: 
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Aug 17, 2020 21:29
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Angry_Ed posted:One of the things I enjoyed was that the guide has plenty of art of enemies and items in the games; some of which look great, and others...like the SML star... I am declaring this official fanart and adding it to the empty reserved post 
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Aug 18, 2020 00:33
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Here's some fun Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles facts! Wordse and PO mention in the video that TMNT originated as a Daredevil pastiche, but did you know that the Daredevil and the Turtles were mutated by the very same canister of goop?  from Daredevil #1 (1964)  from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #1 (1984) Splinter, the Turtles' master, also got his name from Stick, Daredevil's master, since a small stick would be a splinter. I thought he was implied to be Stick's pet rat, but apparently not.  from Dardevil #179 (1981)  (from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #1 (1964) I havent been able to find any evidence that Shredder, April, or any other major characters were based on Daredevil stuff, but maybe they are? If anyone knows they should tell me. Whybird posted:I'm not sure Wario's name really needs localising. You miss out on the pun, but the fact that his name is Mario with an inverted M tells you pretty much everything you need to know about him already. TBH when I first saw Wario i just thought the pun was "War" because war is bad and so is Wario, so the name worked fine for me even when i didnt know that "waru" was Japanese for "bad." Waluigi completely stumped me back then though so v v
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Aug 20, 2020 23:03
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The Smurfs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=glW2VozK-k8 The Smurfs seems to be a vacuum of knowledge as far as history goes. Perhaps it's somewhat futile to try and dig into a game that was more or less an afterthought to its developers, but such things only make me want to pursue it more. Alas, this video leans far less into the historical aspects and more into the challenge run style. I could have trimmed a lot more from this, truth be told, but the madness this game inspired right out of the gate truly needed to be preserved for future generations. Or something. The original recording was twice as long, so I showed a little bit of restraint here. The one interesting thing we latched onto was the game's composer, Alberto Gonzales, who really did go hard as hell on the soundtrack. Alberto will be featured in at least one more 50 Shades entry in the future, so look forward to more of his sick jams!  Snake count: 2
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Aug 21, 2020 18:57
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I did watch a good amount of Smurfs growing up, but I never played a video game featuring them. This one looks ok.
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Aug 21, 2020 19:00
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I had that game as a kid. It was hard, I didn't get far.
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Aug 21, 2020 21:49
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Goddamn, there were some level design decisions which are loving brutal. I feel like the character sprite/all the stuff in the levels was scaled just a little too large, which make it impossible to see threats/pitfalls just at the edge of your jump radius. Do bonus levels happen randomly? Because waiting until levels 10 then 12 seems weird instead of spacing them out a little more. Lastly, I am irrationally set off by the company being called InfoGrames, instead of InfoGames
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Aug 22, 2020 01:06
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mercenarynuker posted:Do bonus levels happen randomly? Because waiting until levels 10 then 12 seems weird instead of spacing them out a little more. We kind of forgot to acknowledge it, but the bonus levels happen when you collect five(?) stars in the level. I just never managed to do it till some later levels for some reason.
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Aug 22, 2020 02:11
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I think the audio was really bad in this episode. Everyone was way too quiet and Action Shakespeare was way too loud. It's been kind of an issue throughout the videos but this one was especially noticeable. I couldn't make out what anyone else was saying so I turned it way up only to have a Frenchman scream in my ear about "LA GARGAMEL" which actually was pretty funny.
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Aug 23, 2020 14:51
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4 games in I didn't have Super Mario Land but I did borrow it from friends and I was bad at the game. I made it to level 3 a few times, never got to level 4. There was something about the controls that just didn't work for me. Action Shakespeare, you proved that it is a good game. I felt that the controls were floaty and weird, but as you said this was your first Mario game so you figured out the floaty controls. The way you got through the first few frames made me think you were going to do a no death run because you had much better control of Mario than I ever had. I had no idea about the notChina level. I did have Super Mario Land 2 and I played that all the time. I loved the 3 little pigs fight. And yes, when compared to SML the screen feels constrained and tight however the development team took that into consideration so it worked very well. I had TMNT Fall of the Foot Clan and I broke that game over my knee. BTW: even though it was an Ultra game it still had a Konami Code bonus. If you paused the game and put in up up down down left right left right B A then it would refill the Turtle's health bar, but it was only available for one refill. I did not play Smurfs and that game looks like platformer hell, but it did get this exchange: "I would like to replace all instances of the word "gamer" with "smurf" "I bought this jar of smurfette bath water" edit: Are you planning on playing some of the more time intensive games like the puzzle games or RPGs or those Koei dynasty management games? CannonFodder fucked around with this message at 06:54 on Aug 24, 2020 |
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Aug 24, 2020 06:43
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CannonFodder posted:Are you planning on playing some of the more time intensive games like the puzzle games or RPGs or those Koei dynasty management games? While I won't go into specifics, I can say that we definitely have a couple puzzle games and RPGs in the pipeline! I'm really excited to get to a couple of them! No dynasty management ones, though. I didn't fall down that rabbit hole, unfortunately. Probably for the best, as far as my sanity is concerned. Beartaco posted:I think the audio was really bad in this episode. Everyone was way too quiet and Action Shakespeare was way too loud. It's been kind of an issue throughout the videos but this one was especially noticeable. I couldn't make out what anyone else was saying so I turned it way up only to have a Frenchman scream in my ear about "LA GARGAMEL" which actually was pretty funny. Yeah no bones about it, these first few episodes are rough. I kinda charged headfirst into a lot of these recordings and had to kinda learn the hard way with every video wrt lovely flickering and audio quality. I can say with confidence that it does all improve, some sooner rather than later! To give you something to look forward to, and to act as a soft bit of bonus content, I present one of my most recent Monday streams. As my overtly serious preface to this whole LP mentioned, I have a real soft spot for the content inspired by the Game Boy's legacy. This Mario fan game took a distinct element from Super Mario Land 2 and tried to modernize it. Despite its clunkiness, I always respected that inspiration! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFF1EKfXOY4
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Aug 24, 2020 08:14
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During the final TMNT level there was talk regarding the whole Hero Turtle thing - I was 10 when it came out in the UK and always assumed the cartoon was Hero Turtles and the movie was Ninja Turtles as the cartoon would be more sanitised. It wasn't until many years later I discovered that Hero Turtles was a UK thing, and the rest of the world was Ninja Turtles. Of course in retrospect it seems more obvious - for one when I saw the show in France it was 'Tortues Ninja'. Of course there was more to the UK edit than just replacing the title (and redubbing the theme tune) - Michelangelo had most of his fight scenes cut as there was an issue with showing nunchucks as there was concern for children somehow making them (a Doctor Who VHS release was edited to cut them out as well). Of course, I'm not sure why nunchucks are considered so easy to make, yet no-one had a problem with Donatello's staff since I'm sure it's a lot easier for kids to get hold of a two by four and swing it around, rather than get a chain and fix wood to each end!
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Aug 27, 2020 04:02
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Zaroff posted:Michelangelo had most of his fight scenes cut as there was an issue with showing nunchucks as there was concern for children somehow making them (a Doctor Who VHS release was edited to cut them out as well). I recently rewatched the whole series start to finish, and one of the things that stood out was that in later seasons, Michelangelo's weapon was swapped to a grappling hook. I believe that was to make the editing for the UK version smoother. But there were so many other moments that I love to point out just because I find it impossible to believe that anyone was still watching by the end. Like, remember when those random mutants from the movie that were clearly not Rocksteady and Bebop showed up in the cartoon once, possibly just to stop kids from complaining that the familiar villains from the show weren't in the movie? Remember when they turned the 90s into a character and gave him more airtime during the commercials than during the actual show? Remember when the Turtles got powered up, but Leonardo got sick from the power rush, so a kid named Carter who I assume was a producer's nephew or something became the fifth Ninja Turtle instead and just sort of never went away? Anyway, please tell me I made these things up, except for Mondo Gecko, who I know was real because I will never forget that commercial.
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Aug 27, 2020 10:42
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Balloon Kid https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8z2p-rtkG1Q Game number five! We're a tenth of the way there. I decided every fifth game in the list would always be guaranteed to be a mainline Nintendo game (with maybe one or two exceptions), so we'd always have a bit of a rock to come upon after long bouts of licensed game hell. Balloon Kid caught my eye immediately as I was initially compiling the list. A sequel to Balloon Fight but as a charming character platformer! Who knew! Not a lot of people, probably. I'm happy to be able to show it off. It did occupy a somewhat torturous position regarding information, though. As a Nintendo game it had a bit of trivia tied to it on legacy alone, but if there are extended bits of information I certainly couldn't find them! Not even, like, a magazine ad. Let alone a strategy guide. As such we were left with only little bits of info, including only half of the enemies and one boss being listed in the manual!  Balloon Kid's legacy is not very far reaching either, tragically. It does seem to strangely survive through a WarioWare character, though, and I'd be super supportive of a reboot based around her. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-rfeYhv2yw i mean just look at her 
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Aug 28, 2020 18:50
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Tragically Balloon Kid later visited New York City, somehow let go of her balloon, and then lost it. A newspaper publisher with insider knowledge of the incident said Spider-Man could have helped her but, for unknown and probably selfish reasons, refused. I just made that up. Never heard of this game before. Will check it out.
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Aug 28, 2020 20:17
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Audio quality is way better in this one!
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Aug 29, 2020 21:22
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Beartaco posted:Audio quality is way better in this one! Yeah! And we only have two more entries with screen flicker! Stay strong everyone!
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Aug 29, 2020 23:17
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Action Shakespeare posted:Balloon Kid Another new one for me, I think I would've liked this one pretty well back in the day. Its release differences kinda remind me of Tetris Attack's changes, but seen from the other side. Also the title screen bugs me to no end  Because (a) I can't see this as anything else nowadays, and (b) WHY WOULD YOU SHIFT THE TITLE SO FAR RIGHT THAT THE TRADEMARK SYMBOL IS LITERALLY TOUCHING THE EDGE, THERE'S PLENTY OF ROOM TO THE LEFT  e:vvv 
Captain Hygiene fucked around with this message at 02:16 on Aug 30, 2020 |
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Aug 30, 2020 00:24
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Captain Hygiene posted:
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Aug 30, 2020 02:10
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Belatedly re: the Smurfs, I was very confused because I know I played a Smurf game as a kid, but maybe not this one? Or only a bit of this one? The forest level seemed familiar, but little else. I then looked up Smurf games for GB, and apparently there's 4 of them? The one you showed is the first, and I played the third (The Smurf's Nightmare). It looks really good but is tough as nails, in a typical-for-that-era not very fun way, sadly. It's surprisingly difficult to find information for these games online, there's not even a Wikipedia article. Makes it hard to piece together release dates, versions and so on. I think the second game only came out in Europe, and the third one (which I played) was originally a normal GB game (in Europe) and then was ported to be a GBC only game for an international release. re: Balloons, looks pretty good and surprisingly generous with lives and continues, but the physics are something else. How you bounce off walls seems ridiculous, as do the hitboxes. Props for getting through it!
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Aug 30, 2020 14:53
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Sneaky Snakes https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7BLVswaGQOI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13U8IoquqZc We're back with an obscure title from Rare, and probably the first proper chapter of bullshit that our lineup can throw at us. It's Sneaky Snakes! There isn't a whole lot to say on the game itself, and frankly it amazes me that there were even people out there who looked upon its prequel with fondness. It's a tedious experience at best and the best thing I can even say about it is its musical taste. Somewhat importantly, this is also the introduction/discovery of our new mortal enemies, the defunct UK publication Advanced Computer Entertainment, hereto known as ACE. ACE's nightmarish review system and smarmy 90s attitude really seal the deal of making them the perfect companion to this lovely lovely game. They deserve each other. Feel free to read it for yourself. This also marks the beginning of the first themed block of 50 Shades of Grayscale. With the possible exception of the multiples of 5, each stack of games has a running theme throughout it. Sneaky Snakes marks the beginning of the reptile block, so please look forward and guess at what possible titles may arrive! Snake count: 5 Action Shakespeare fucked around with this message at 19:30 on Sep 4, 2020 |
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Sep 4, 2020 19:24
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Action Shakespeare posted:We're back with an obscure title from Rare, and probably the first proper chapter of bullshit that our lineup can throw at us. Also ACE grading things on a 1000 point scale is some insane granularity. Angry_Ed fucked around with this message at 21:20 on Sep 4, 2020 |
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Sep 4, 2020 21:12
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Remember, Snake - this is a sneaky mission. Try not to get caught. I don't remember seeing this one at all, even though I vaguely remember the NES one. At least the box art looks a million times better, even if the switch to Gameboy 2D looks less interesting up front than the neat isometric look of the original.
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Sep 5, 2020 00:03
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I like how they gave you the bouncy ball for like ten seconds in the first level, promptly abandoned it for the next 14, and then expected you to figure out the jumping hell when it comes back. Game Design!
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Sep 5, 2020 03:44
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Captain Hygiene posted:Remember, Snake - this is a sneaky mission. Try not to get caught. What's weird is seeing the footage of the NES version made me have a recollection, but I've never played the NES game, just the Game Boy one (because it was in that huge guide from earlier) EDIT: Speaking of huge guides, I was helping my parents clean out their attic last week and stumbled across the other big Nintendo/Nintendo Power game guide from around the same time that I had, which was this:  Basically a guide full of passwords and level select codes (plus some other stuff) for various games on the NES, Game Boy, and SNES. It's what first introduced me to River City Ransom and a bunch of other NES games. Angry_Ed fucked around with this message at 18:53 on Sep 5, 2020 |
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Sep 5, 2020 18:44
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Angry_Ed posted:EDIT: Speaking of huge guides, I was helping my parents clean out their attic last week and stumbled across the other big Nintendo/Nintendo Power game guide from around the same time that I had, which was this:  Yo this things got tips AND tricks????
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Sep 6, 2020 20:11
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Action Shakespeare posted:Somewhat importantly, this is also the introduction/discovery of our new mortal enemies, the defunct UK publication Advanced Computer Entertainment, hereto known as ACE. ACE's nightmarish review system and smarmy 90s attitude really seal the deal of making them the perfect companion to this lovely lovely game. They deserve each other. Feel free to read it for yourself. Getting some real GamePro vibes from that article. Action Shakespeare posted:This also marks the beginning of the first themed block of 50 Shades of Grayscale. With the possible exception of the multiples of 5, each stack of games has a running theme throughout it. Sneaky Snakes marks the beginning of the reptile block, so please look forward and guess at what possible titles may arrive! I can only assume Revenge of the Gator will be in there, though I'd understand if you instead went to Pokemon Pinball for GB pinball titles.
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Sep 6, 2020 23:48
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Ayndin posted:I can only assume Revenge of the Gator will be in there, though I'd understand if you instead went to Pokemon Pinball for GB pinball titles. Pokemon Pinball, while I belieeeeeve is compatible on the original Game Boy, has always been more of a Game Boy Color title in my mind. It was certainly heavily marketed as such. As for Revenge of the Gator, well...proper entries of 50 Shades are all going to be games with clear start to finish points, as a rule. That said, that doesn't mean there won't be a bit of extra content throughout the series. 
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Sep 7, 2020 00:17
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