The Super Famicom / Super NES Thread

[pegboy]

I believe those metal tabs are a ground, but I'm not 100% sure about that. All the ones I've seen only have 1 pin like yours though. I do not think that the game working has anything to do with that pin.

[ColonelFatso]

Yeah, the metal tabs are for grounding. My Yoshi's Island has only one, Star Fox both, Rockman X2 and X3 none. All of the above work perfectly, so I suspect it's just a standardized design for the expansion chip cart shells and 0/1/2 are by design.

[BIL]

little Assault Suits Valken interview+concept art for your perusal: http://shmuplations.com/assaultsuitsvalken/

I also found a short one-chapter manga of Assault Suits Valken. Maybe I'll translate it next month? It's a "side story" that takes place in between stages 5 and 6, I believe.

Excellent. The world can never have enough Valken dev materials. Such a meaty production.

[Ed Oscuro]

casuals be damnëd™
Sounds like a good name for a development company!

Anyhow, short-as-I-can-manage review time, because it's a really unusual game with a lot to explain:

Hide and go sleep: Obitus, Adventures of the Pantsless Man

First off: This is a bad game. You play in two perspectives: Dungeon Hack / Phantasy Star / 3D Monster Maze-style first person, with smooth animation sliding a new direction into focus when you make a 45 degree turn - this is apparently the core "gameplay" idea and these areas represent 90%+ of the game. There's also semi-sidescrolling castles played from a fixed fake 3D perspective, where you watch your player from the perspective of a fly on one of the walls. Gameplay mostly involves drawing maps (which I didn't do because this map exists and is easier to follow than this guide, which is still useful in conjunction with the map for hints and specific requirements), running away from enemies, trying to scroll the inventory quickly, not getting trapped against friendly NPCs, and running, and sleeping. Heavy savestate abuse, in my case, helped blunt the edge of the constant threat of getting into unwinnable situations. Running and sleeping make up easily 20% of the game, if not more, and thinking about running and sleeping will be your obsession all the time.

However, the game is also strangely compelling, at least until you really get into the rut with the running and sleeping cycle. It has a very uneven stage progression, with the most difficult areas all at the start - it doesn't get more interesting or better later on. The most powerful enemy hit sponges in the game can both be killed off early on with items; the first dungeon is arguably the most difficult, and all the while beginning players will still be getting to grips with the interface. The last half of the game is notably easier, as you're mainly just running about, murdering NPCs for trinkets and collecting items. There are some attempts to make the last dungeons more exciting and difficult, but they don't really matter.

So, why don't savestates really seem to make the game "easier" outside of avoiding unwinnable situations? This is not only an adventure game where you can unknowingly get into an unwinnable game or run out of items, but it is one where you must explore everything while respecting very strict time limits; you're basically juggling three sharp daggers at once. Bullet Proof Software's port of the Psygnosis original drops some mouse-driven interface bloat in favor of hard-coded buttons, and where the labeled commands originally where, the SNES game now features two burning candles - labeled stamina and health. Stamina depletes at a rapid pace, and that pace appears to quickens as the candle gets lower. When that happens, Health starts running out at the same pace, so by just exploring one or two rooms in a castle you can go from a half-height candle and feeling pretty good, to eating all your apples and barely making it to an exit in time to recharge stamina.

Whenever you go to sleep, you cannot do anything but watch as the Stamina candle slowly refills, and you'll probably waste a few seconds each time trying to make sure it's totally topped off (it doesn't automatically stop resting you until you choose). And it gets even worse, because in most areas you cannot simply go to sleep and wait. You have to constantly be alert for enemy attacks, and you must Escape & Evade them until you can go to sleep again. In modern gaming language, the word that best describes this gameplay mechanic is probably "farming."

On the other hand, when you're attacked by enemies or traps they do hardly any health damage. The first dungeon - which may well not be possible to even run straight through from its beginning to the end of one of its paths without losing health - will start harming you rapidly, and once that's started you must escape outside and rest somewhere to get it back, which means intense stamina farming. By the time you get to the last dungeon, you'll already know how to play the resting mini-game, and the paths are shorter and more straightforward as well. And while there are more traps and enemies, they do hardly any damage at all.

Psygnosis tried to introduce more interest by having NPCs - including "enemy" NPCs - offer up trades, but this system isn't refined or worthwhile. First, there's no worthwhile dialogue system - you must wait at an NPC long enough for them to commandeer your interface and talk to you. If they don't immediately award you with an item, you must do something to get them to talk to you again - simply waiting doesn't always seem to work; sometimes you will want to look or move away before coming back to them. Hopefully they will then ask you "what will you give in trade for my %macguffin%" at which point you have no idea what item to select in your inventory, and at this point you should simply murder almost every character offering up an item in trade, because they will now automatically drop it - unless they're offering a health item and standing in a convenient out-of-the-way-spot for healing, in which case you should leave them be. The inventory system isn't pulling for you, either - the full inventory menu is excruciatingly slow to navigate and unintuitive since it shifts every item's position back and forth every time you select another item - instead of just putting a cursor over the item you want to select so you can memorize where things are and not tax the poor SNES CPU with stupid animations. You can more quickly switch inventory items from the regular action sequences, but only if you're not turning, and of course you lose stamina (because the clock is ticking) and don't get a description of the item when you do this.

Keep in mind that the whole time this farce is going on, enemies can creep up behind you and smack you around, and you're also losing stamina at the usual pace.

There is one and only one character for whom this doesn't work, and with whom you must trade properly, and that's the dwarf crouching while holding a crosier in Eldon Mine. You must run straight down a path to reach him, and you must have a silver bar selected in your inventory. Thankfully, he tells you this (I think). When he asks for a trade, you MUST press the X button, which normally drops items. Zelda item get chime plays, and you now have a Heavy Key.

The fun doesn't stop there, though. For some reason - possibly just laziness, but possibly RAM or SNES speed reasons - most areas on the map in Obitus can only be run straight down or retreated from. There are plenty of NPCs in this game that you can talk with, rest at, or generally get along with. But if you have some trouble trading with the Eldon Mine dwarf, it is very likely that an enemy will advance on you from behind - and you can't turn around there, nor can you walk through an NPC. If you don't have a silver bar, and sleeping or saving/loading doesn't remove the enemy, then that's it - your game is over, because you can't escape without killing the NPC, and that will prevent you from getting his key. There are many places in the game where NPCs who act friendly enough must be murdered just so you can get to the next area. The game tries to answer for this with a special item - a ring - which lets you see an enemy's "character" and allegiance, and usually it reveals that they're actually Decepticons, but not always. Basically, Obitus tells you to go and murder characters who did you no wrong except stand in the wrong place, or hold an item that they won't willingly give up. No me gusta.

I have to share a little bit more information about the map system, because it's so messed up. Most areas are simply straights that are empty and you can only watch as you slowly advance through them - and it's more fun in the mines and dungeons, where you can still see important things without the use of torches or lamps, but only barely - they really don't want you to feel like you can just wing this game, but the artificial darkness is yet another bad game design decision as it punishes you with eye strain and reduced viewing distances for being thorough or running out of the limited-use torches or just being conservative in using them. In most of these straight areas, you can't turn around, nor is there any indication in the compass rose, but in some you can. Thankfully, I don't think there are any items hidden in any of the hidden free turn areas, but on the other hand, they didn't put one next to the important dwarf. You can only count on being able to turn around in a dead end or at an intersection or turn, where the compass rose shows breaks in the solid circle of walls. On the other hand, in free-turn areas, enemies can advance from any side, even coming out of walls, which makes them unsuitable for resting.

For even more fun, note that there are a few places where you can pretty reliably game the system to sleep even with an enemy trying to hit you - not only can you safely rest near all NPCs (of course, there's one exception - you can't rest near a prisoner in some dungeons), but there are at least three places where enemies get hung up on geometry or something and cannot hit you - back up slightly before the right turn before the entrance to Drakehurst Castle in Eldon Mines, the left turn before Cullen Castle in Cullen Mines, and backing up a bit from the middle path of the three-way intersection at the top right (or northeast) corner of the Burville Dungeon map.

If you can't do that, you can still exploit the system: If you're in a straight section of the map and there's open space in front of you, enemies will reliably come from in front, and so you can walk backwards into a straight section from a turn and start sleeping. When an enemy appears, simply start walking backwards until the enemy disappears, and walk a bit further to despawn them so you can get back to where you were at. This works reliably, and you can even use this when traveling through one previously cleared area as a way to keep your stamina topped off and avoid using your highly limited arrow supply. Of course, since the stamina depletion rate is so high near the bottom of the stamina candle, you will run out of all the stamina you gained when an enemy appears and you try to escape & evade from it, so if this happens you should constantly be running backwards after resting while looking for a safe resting spot. For Obitus, this cycle represents an advanced technique and what you'll be doing through a huge chunk of the game. Does it sound fun, though?

I hope to finish writing soon, but there's one last bit of strangeness to talk about: The Castles. As you reach later castles, they start introducing more varied and dangerous enemies and traps - but, as noted before, they aren't very dangerous. In fact, at the last castle, I noticed that a charging pikeman actually disintegrated on hitting me! The only enemies that remain dangerous are the knights with their backs to the wall (simply run past them) and wizards (only one or two of these must be killed in order to progress; you can ignore at least one of them). Everything else just shatters when they hit a high-level you (possibly you must have a certain ring in your inventory). There's even a HUGE BEAR in the last castle, and guess what - the moment his nose touches you, he disintegrates. I'm not sure he even can do any damage. Amusingly, if you hit him with a knife from across the room, he makes the same "oww" sound that you do.

Obitus' (Obitus's? Obituses?) use of ROM space doesn't seem very efficient. There are three and only three main tunes for game areas - and one of these is just birds chirping for the forest areas. They're not bad as such - the title tune has less of the contemorary Amiga demo music feel and the instrumentation sounds more medieval than the Atari ST version - but there's not much to them (and you won't get to hear all of the title tune anyway). There are also just three types of graphic sets - the forest, mines/catacombs, and castles. As mentioned before, you must run through the castles as fast as you can and so you spend almost no time there - yet for some reason this is where most all the graphical variation is found, as each type of castle has its own wall hangings and even unique window styles, sometimes with birds flying in the backgrounds! Compare that with the same graphic of rubble and a tilted sign seen in EVERY section of wall in EVERY underground area, which you see all the time - assuming you have a torch lit, that is, or else you won't see anything except enemies and items. The way the "sidescrolling" castle areas look is also inherently ROM-hungry: Each room is drawn in 3D perspective, and the main character has unique sprites for running in the background, and a fuller set for including fighting and jumping in the foreground, and also unique animations scaling him up and down for when he runs into the foreground or the background. Most fun of all, the palette choices and muscle definition drawing is such that the ugly fellow appears to be wearing no pants (when you pause, you can see the outline of his pants cuffs, but it's subtle). Enemies and traps are also much more active and animated than the RPG-style two-or-three frame enemy animations from the first person sections.

CPU performance isn't impressive either - there is a notable lag between pressing the d-pad and your character actually turning. On the plus side, you can buffer input for a turn you know is coming up, but often I found myself oversteering, which is ridiculous for a game running at such a leisurely 5mph walking pace. Screen transitions are slow, and the transition into castles is REALLY slow. I also noticed slowdown in some castle areas, i.e., when there were three items lying on the floor of an otherwise empty room, or when I was attacked by two enemies - other two-enemy combinations weren't slowdown-ridden, though.

The game is stuffed full of apparently useless items - the Magic Weapon was intended to be used against the most powerful enemy, but it's not needed because other items serve just as well. There is an "Un-known" item which was advertised by its owner as giving a special light in one area, but I don't see it. There's useless coins and a gold bar for trading, and rings whose purpose I haven't figured out (aside from the ring you start with, of course). There are useless scrolls and a plethora of healing and torch items, as well as lots of different keys, all of which serve to clutter up the inventory and make it harder to get get back to the item you need at the moment. There's a lot of magic "powders," which are your boss killers, and there's a lot more than you need to use in the game. There's hundreds of quivers of arrows, but they run out quick - especially if you aren't very disciplined about running away from enemies while trying to sleep (of course.

Finally, the ending. I read a couple different takes hyping it up, so my exact words on seeing it were "dafuq is that?"
______________

None of the previous online reviews make much sense. On GameFAQs, only one review was written by somebody who actually appears to know how to play the game, but their review is still terrible - for example, writing that the sidescrolling segments are like Link: The Faces of Evil, which is very misleading (personally, I'm at a loss to compare this game's strange sidescrolling segments - in some sense they're a bit more like the Macintosh game Dark Castle or even just Prince of Persia, but they're still different due to the 3D element).

This Psygnosis original was ported by none other than Bullet Proof Software (mentioned in the Valken interview! How the mighty have fallen!), who dropped mouse support and reworked the game to fit the SNES gamepad. YouTube video of the PC and Amiga ST versions suggests it wasn't so hot to begin with, and the SNES version actually seems to have dropped some bloat, like the useless confirmation screen about leaving the current area. The commands are all hard-mapped to buttons now instead of taking up screen space, and the new compass rose is much improved (with an always-centered arrow always showing the way the player is moving, and circle segments to show what areas you cannot move to, instead of the always-open eight-segmented design of the originals). Even the game over screen was fixed, with the ST version's line "[...] your bones will read the carrion" fixed with "crows" added to complete the thought.

[BIL]

Obitus forest footage gave me Nam-style flashbacks to NES Platoon's also curiously well-maintained yet maddeningly labyrinthine foliage. :[

re: NCS, I'm glad to see confirmation of Leynos and Valken sharing key personnel. I always loved the tacit nature of Valken's prequel-dom, subtly but definitively linking the games across rival platforms. Tacit until the secret transmission, and insular even then (only Leynos vets will get its full "OH LAWD" implication, and its chilling of the postwar GOOD END optimism!).

One of many finer details chopped out of the games' overseas releases, and even some fan translations according to Macaw!

The talk of Valken's wider world (sensibly only glimpsed during the game itself) makes me slightly interested in its TBS sequel, on the off chance of design callbacks to the preceding games. Not so much overt stuff like the Jake cameo I read of... I wanna let loose some of those annoying magnetic mineys!

also (・｀ω´・)! an old bugbear appears...

—Are there any secrets you can tell us about Valken, as the developers?

Satou: A number of strategy guides for Valken have come out now, and all of them write that the Punch is useless. Actually, though, we designed the Punch to be more useful than the Missile. I want people to get better acquainted with its strengths. (laughs)

YEAH WTF PEEPS, Punch is you best friend pretty much the whole first half! Less so in the second, with its higher pace and much more aggressive shooters making L3 Laser preferable. The trick is to get it maxed by the end of stage 2, and always let it fully charge before attacking. Flailing away with uncharged hits is useless. Nothing in stages 3, 4 or the first half of 5 can withstand a good ol' smack in the chops!

Spoiler

PUNCH TANKS n PLANES IN THEY FACE FFS

[Ed Oscuro]

That screenshot was more rewarding than the entirety of Obitus Searching for the ULTIMATE WEAPON for the entirety of the game and unleashing it against some 4 HP goon isn't anything to write home about.

In Obitus' defense, there are quite a few frames put into detailing enemy disintegration into piles of goo or bones in the sidescroller levels, for some reason. It still doesn't quite get there. WTF Bullet Proof, you had no more than 4 sprites on a scanline and it slows down?

[soprano1]

http://www.siliconera.com/2015/11/09/se ... haracters/

Faces look ugly up close, but rest looks like SE style CG movie. Wish they ported the game to 3DS.

[DQ187]

I'm a big Super Nintendo fan and have managed to hang on to some of my favorite games for the system. Have a nice selection boxed! Had to bump this thread to show my SNES love! Space Megaforce is one of my favorite Shooters!

[neorichieb1971]

16 bit bug got me lately.

Picked up Yossi island, Super MarioKart and Super Ghouls and Ghosts (all CIB).


I had to buy the machine as well.

Looking at the list I've written in a word document, the total expense will come to near $700-$1000. Luckily I have time, lets hope they don't keep going up.

[andsuchisdeath]

Had to bump this thread to show my SNES love!

Whoa a shelf with boxes!

"Love", yeah, ok.

[Skykid]

Had to bump this thread to show my SNES love!

Whoa a shelf with boxes!

"Love", yeah, ok.

That's a bit cold isn't it? Why be like that?

[superpretendo]

Had to bump this thread to show my SNES love!

Whoa a shelf with boxes!

"Love", yeah, ok.

That's a bit cold isn't it? Why be like that?

Seriously.

[Casey120]

Show me the 1cc´s or you're not worthy nerdgasm ?

[neorichieb1971]

Can't people love boxes and games at the same time?

Once a game is old, sometimes the artwork is the only thing that stands the test of time. I'd love to see some of that type of art on boxes today.

[BrianC]

I wish I had that many SNES games still in boxes. Most of my games are cart only, though I do have a few boxed SNES and SFC games on a small shelf.

[soprano1]

SFC boxes are pure love.

[BIL]

Once a game is old, sometimes the artwork is the only thing that stands the test of time.

Oh hell no - you must be collecting the wrong games, baby. 3:

Nah I'm sure there are some crappy games with rad boxarts out there. I wouldn't recommend collecting too many though! That sounds like a surefire way to one day feel the sad. >_>

[EmperorIng]

Case in point: Vortex. Feeling the sad starts once you pop in the game.

[neorichieb1971]

I've only just started collecting SFC games.

I've bought a mk1 SFC console
Super Mariokart
Super Ghouls and Ghosts
Yossi's island (not arrived yet)


I never realized so many SFC games were prefixed "Super".

[Skykid]

I've only just started collecting SFC games.

The absolute worst time in the history of history Richie. SFC is through the roof right now.

[BrianC]

The absolute worst time in the history of history Richie. SFC is through the roof right now.

and yet a good chunk of games are still cheaper than their US counterparts. I can't believe how much Super Mario World is selling for now. That game is dirt common!

[BIL]

Case in point: Vortex. Feeling the sad starts once you pop in the game.

You know what's the best though, good games with good boxart. EG: Daimakaimura for MD & SuperGrafx. A war between Sega and NEC to decide not only who could do the the raddest port, but who could draw the murderfacest Arthur and the sweetest titties on Prin-Prin. ¦3

Spoiler

Spoiler

Ah, the SuperGrafx. Cruelly short-lived. Survived by a selection of quality work. Kinda goofy-lookin'. A veritable... JohnCazaleGrafx. 3;

[soprano1]

http://www.destructoid.com/natsume-anno ... phtml#post

WTF?!

[Battlesmurf]

I'm a big Super Nintendo fan and have managed to hang on to some of my favorite games for the system. Have a nice selection boxed! Had to bump this thread to show my SNES love! Space Megaforce is one of my favorite Shooters!

My only suggestion is that storing SCD games on their side usually has the manuals warp- or at least all of the ones I've seen do it. The foamies help, but not 100%. Also maybe a strong recommendation to get some of those plastic see htrough bobx protectors- they help the SNES stuff to keep it's shape (and prevent dents from accidental dropping, dust, moisture, etc).


Great collection though. I wish I was young agian and could handle all of those boxes, flip through manuals from the rental store, etc. Good times!

[BIL]

Meanwhile in THE FIREMANS...





u kno who da fuk it is

Spoiler

FIREMANS OF LEGEND

After Tarma's very nice photo of pristine CIB Ninja Warriors Again, Wild Guns and THE FIREMANS in the Awesome Stuff thread, I was inspired to finally put Human's game through its paces. Would it fall apart under pressure?! As it turns out, no. For masterfully cinematic consolised arcade action, I would easily put this on par with my beloved Assault Suits Valken. Impressively hardcore topdown shooting seek and destroy, built for assault course time trialling. Getting 100/100 Legend rank is a hellish little run, was a good bit harder than I'd anticipated! Will have a replay uploaded sometime today.

As criticisms go, it has to be said the camera's southern viewpoint is definitely a bit tight - all of my toughest rooms involve moving downward, the absolute worst in st5's first mech room. On Expert difficulty, that first green mech has enough HP and speed that you'll need to either 1) bomb or 2) artfully deploy Danny and his axe - either way it takes practice to avoid a punishing hit. Of course there's 3) run out the way you came, but that ain't ideal (a wall blocks the north, so no dice there either).

Screen edge riding is among my absolute pet hates, so I don't say lightly that FM just about dodges the bullet. For one, it's a very simple shooter at heart - if something bad is near, it'll try to run into you, and the best course of action is a hasty retreat while shooting. Nothing like Story of Thor (MD) and its acrobatic brawling stymied by myopia. For another, the game's brilliant audio design keeps unpleasant surprises in check - you'll know if the most mobile foes (berserk mechs) are around, fires likewise. Finally, I'm willing to believe the slightly claustrophobic viewpoint was intentional - it's tight on all four sides, with pincer ambushes noticeably slow to compensate. It feels like they strayed just a bit too far for comfort at the lower edge. Ultimately it's forgivable and more than worth working around. The only notable flaw I could find in a superb and surprisingly hardcore shooter.

For anyone playing FM, a small but critical hint - the small "grass" fire can be ignored, where Fire Rate is concerned. It's only larger, audible fires that need to be wiped out. If you suspect any remain, stop and listen. Silence is very much a sound here, signalling the room is clean.

Of course grass impedes both you and Danny, which can easily become deadly later on... but there's no need to obsessively hoover up every scrap. Very smart design on Human's part, that would get old fast. There's other units in the building to take care of the small stuff! You're the vanguard on a suicidal mission to the roof to stop the whole block going up, FFS.

[Mortificator]

Great job! The Firemen's awesome. I meant to give it another run though last Christmas Eve, since that's when the game starts, but didn't get the chance.

It makes for a funny contrast with the Super Nintendo's other firefighting game, The Ignition Factor, which plays like an incendiary version of Operation Logic Bomb.

[neorichieb1971]

This is my current list of NTSC US and SFC games -

Actraiser US CIB
Chōmakaimura (Super Ghouls and Ghosts) SFC CIB
Legend of the Mystical Ninja US CIB
Sanrio World Smash Ball SFC CIB
Super MarioKart SFC CIB
Super Punch Out US CIB
Super Turrican US CIB
Yossi Island SFC CIB


Total spent so far £337.

[Skykid]

This is my current list of NTSC US and SFC games -

Actraiser US CIB
Chōmakaimura (Super Ghouls and Ghosts) SFC CIB
Legend of the Mystical Ninja US CIB
Sanrio World Smash Ball SFC CIB
Super MarioKart SFC CIB
Super Punch Out US CIB
Super Turrican US CIB
Yossi Island SFC CIB


Total spent so far £337.

Lol, I told ya. That's really absurdly expensive!

Meanwhile in THE FIREMANS...





u kno who da fuk it is

Spoiler

FIREMANS OF LEGEND

After Tarma's very nice photo of pristine CIB Ninja Warriors Again, Wild Guns and THE FIREMANS in the Awesome Stuff thread, I was inspired to finally put Human's game through its paces. Would it fall apart under pressure?! As it turns out, no. For masterfully cinematic consolised arcade action, I would easily put this on par with my beloved Assault Suits Valken. Impressively hardcore topdown shooting seek and destroy, built for assault course time trialling. Getting 100/100 Legend rank is a hellish little run, was a good bit harder than I'd anticipated! Will have a replay uploaded sometime today.

As criticisms go, it has to be said the camera's southern viewpoint is definitely a bit tight - all of my toughest rooms involve moving downward, the absolute worst in st5's first mech room. On Expert difficulty, that first green mech has enough HP and speed that you'll need to either 1) bomb or 2) artfully deploy Danny and his axe - either way it takes practice to avoid a punishing hit. Of course there's 3) run out the way you came, but that ain't ideal (a wall blocks the north, so no dice there either).

Screen edge riding is among my absolute pet hates, so I don't say lightly that FM just about dodges the bullet. For one, it's a very simple shooter at heart - if something bad is near, it'll try to run into you, and the best course of action is a hasty retreat while shooting. Nothing like Story of Thor (MD) and its acrobatic brawling stymied by myopia. For another, the game's brilliant audio design keeps unpleasant surprises in check - you'll know if the most mobile foes (berserk mechs) are around, fires likewise. Finally, I'm willing to believe the slightly claustrophobic viewpoint was intentional - it's tight on all four sides, with pincer ambushes noticeably slow to compensate. It feels like they strayed just a bit too far for comfort at the lower edge. Ultimately it's forgivable and more than worth working around. The only notable flaw I could find in a superb and surprisingly hardcore shooter.

For anyone playing FM, a small but critical hint - the small "grass" fire can be ignored, where Fire Rate is concerned. It's only larger, audible fires that need to be wiped out. If you suspect any remain, stop and listen. Silence is very much a sound here, signalling the room is clean.

Of course grass impedes both you and Danny, which can easily become deadly later on... but there's no need to obsessively hoover up every scrap. Very smart design on Human's part, that would get old fast. There's other units in the building to take care of the small stuff! You're the vanguard on a suicidal mission to the roof to stop the whole block going up, FFS.

Amazing, you are the firefighting man!

I didn't know that about the grass fire, very helpful. That will make my 100% attempts less frustrating.

[Immryr]

This is my current list of NTSC US and SFC games -

Actraiser US CIB
Chōmakaimura (Super Ghouls and Ghosts) SFC CIB
Legend of the Mystical Ninja US CIB
Sanrio World Smash Ball SFC CIB
Super MarioKart SFC CIB
Super Punch Out US CIB
Super Turrican US CIB
Yossi Island SFC CIB


Total spent so far £337.

that seems a lot, but I don't really know what the US games sell for. I'm at a pretty similar position with my SFC "collection" but I think I've spent way less.

Super Metroid
Assault Suits Valken
Panel De Pon
Smash TV
Star Fox
Yossi Island
Super Mario World
Seiken Densetsu 2
Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo
Super Mario Kart
Super Donkey Kong 2

all CIB except Yossi Island, which I'm missing the manual for, and my total spend is something like £162. admittedly I've mostly been looking to get the cheaper games first. kiki kaikai is the next game I'm thinking about getting.... but that is definitely gonna raise my total spend by a considerable amount!

[BIL]

Great job! The Firemen's awesome. I meant to give it another run though last Christmas Eve, since that's when the game starts, but didn't get the chance.

It makes for a funny contrast with the Super Nintendo's other firefighting game, The Ignition Factor, which plays like an incendiary version of Operation Logic Bomb.

Thanks. I was delighted when I noticed the game's Christmas theme, given the promising resemblance to Die Hard and other unbridled high-rise thrillers. I was also thinking how easily this could've made for a phenomenal Ghostbusters outing. I'd never want to give up those preposterously intimidating Boss Fires, though, or the floor-shaking backdrafts.

Is The Ignition Factor any good? I briefly tried the JP version, but a language barrier quickly became apparent so I put it aside. I was kinda liking what I saw - certainly is distinct from The Firemen, if nothing else. SFC version is dirt cheap too, never a bad thing in this tragic age!

I really wanted to love Logic Bomb, a few years back. Might well revisit, now that my Hardcore Topdown Shooting roster is much beefier. At the time I wanted do/die action, and quickly moved onto arcadier stuff.

Amazing, you are the firefighting man!

I didn't know that about the grass fire, very helpful. That will make my 100% attempts less frustrating.

Ta! Yeah, I was relieved when I decided to just speed through st1 with only major blazes tackled, and still got the 100%. I do love it when faith in game devs is rewarded. Forcing you to stamp out all the grass would turn a lean, mean assault course into a chore. Like imposing mandatory shrub cutting on a Zelda (hence my pet name for the nuisance flames, haha).

Projectile and roaming flames that burn themselves out on impact are generally not counted either, though there are a few odd exceptions. The fat "fire puddles" aimlessly roaming st2's boiler room can be ignored; OTOH, their "smart" variant in st6's art gallery need to be hosed. There are also encirclement traps that only appear when triggered, like the two either side of st3's circular walkway; note you can still hear these. Basically, if you're hearing that telltale growl and nothing's onscreen, something needs dousing - possibly after being triggered into showing itself. There are a couple rooms (large office in st5, art gallery in st6) with fairly convoluted trap triggers, that seem to demand at least one lap around the joint. I think I got pretty efficient routes down in my run, but I always take a second or two before exiting to confirm nothing's lurking back there.

Another small tip, regarding the default controls - I found it far better to put [crawl] on the L trigger for instant index action. Easier to rapidly go from standing to prone and back (say, when tackling flames while besieged by will o' wisps). And much easier to do other things while prone (like strafing while chucking grenades - very handy on the st2 and st4 bosses).

Danny is a really cool AI buddy/roving Option. Very rarely screws up (I have to really try to get him stuck on a corner), and although you can't directly control him, he's easy to consistently direct. I notice you can "tag" stuff with the low shot, and he'll consistently rush in with the axe. Very useful when you're hacking through blocking fires. Also, mechs die on contact with him. For the green bruisers in st4 and st5, I like to retreat with Danny in tow, killing them in the process. For the hoverbots in st5's offices, crawl right under them and Danny will take care of it - you can absolutely slaughter the "flock" in the largest office this way. Just make sure you stay down, the explosions are lethal too.

Also on that note - deliberately triggering backdrafts to annihilate the enemy is satisfying as all hell. KABOOM. Hit the deck beforehand of course!