The Animesuki Retro Game Challenges!

[Hiroi Sekai]

Hey AnimeSuki gamers! You remember those difficult and frustrating retro games, right? They would make you throw your controller onto the floor or pull at your hair because you'd fall into endless pits or get caught in a kill cycle.

Or perhaps you remember those high scoring/time trial games like Tetris or OutRun? You'd do anything to get your name on the battery save and keep it there.

Either way, I bring you the "Retro Game Challenges"! Whether you have these classic games as ROMS or the hard copy, we're going to tackle these games. Go for the high score! Beat what has beaten you for so many years! Every 2 weeks, a new game will be set, and you have until the next game is announced to either complete said game, or get the highest possible score you can get.

Basic rules apply: no in-game cheats, no codes, no savestates (in-game password saves are okay), no slowdowns, and no warps.

So all in all, you're expected to beat the game as it was intended to be beaten. Suggestions for games are welcome, but only games that are actually difficult or scoring games with progression is allowed. We're not going to look into notoriously bad games such as "The Uncanny X-Men", "Cheetahmen", or "Wayne's World", but if a game presents some form of bad control while still actually being playable, then it can be suggested. Examples of such may be "Die Hard" and "Fester's Quest" on the NES.

Another thing to note is that certain games are not allowed. I'm talking about full-length RPGs, text-based games, and games that can't be played through a ROM.

Check back here to see the current game. If you can, be sure to upload videos (Veoh works well), and screenshots (imgur is good) to provide proof of your accomplishments. Good luck!

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June 10-June 24: Battletoads (NES)

Goal: Without using warps or cheats of any sort, attempt to get as far as possible with your limited continues.

Tips

- 100,000 points nets you an extra life. Taking your time on Level 2 - The Wookie Hole will add additional points. When fighting weaker enemies, punch them around as much as possible before delivering the final blow for extra points. Once you hit 999,999 points, you cannot get anymore, so just beware.

- For quick, cheaper enemies, quickly take them out using your power attack. To execute said attack, enter a dash by double tapping the direction you want to head in. As you dash, push the attack button (B). For stronger enemies, even a power attack might not take them down right away, so watch out.

- There is no time limit (except for parts where you're forced to move, like the turbo bikes and chasing cogs), so take your time. Access all situations; Battletoads makes you think you're safe, and once you step out, something will come out and cheap shot you to death.

- Ragnarok's Canyon. This level is quite simple, just a beat-em-up with a little bit of platforming. Be careful not to get caught in an enemy's attack, as you get no recovery time. Take them out quickly, but if you have them cornered, punch them out instead of power attacking for bonus points. Grab a stick from one of the enemies early on; the extra range assures that you won't be cornered so easily. At the next part, a flying pig-like creature will attack; hit him with your stick quickly, and DO NOT get on him. His bad controls will get you killed in the upcoming pit. Take him out with the stick, and prepare for the jump. Jump from the top most part, as the bent plates are closest up there. Try not to miss the 1-UP, and then you'll face the boss. Stay away from the crosshairs and you'll be safe. Grab the cannonballs he shoots at you, and try to throw them toward the center of his screen.

- Wookie Hole; Odd name aside, this level is pretty easy. Take crows out quickly, or they'll annoy you like the bats in Castlevania do. The plants can be kicked around multiple times for points. If you're good enough, you can also juggle crows as they fall for extra points (mastery can net up to 1 extra life +points/bird). At some point, flying robots emerge from the wall. These things take too many hits, so press up against the wall until your toad turns into a wrecking ball. Then, hit the attack button and you'll fly across the screen, destroying everything you touch in one shot. One electric shock from these robots takes out a good chunk of your health, so use the wrecking ball attack. One point there will be electric gates, so weave through precisely to avoid losing lots of health. Almost forgot to mention; there are crows with large beaks; take them out quickly! They'll cut through your tether for an instant kill, but killing them gets you a sword.

- Turbo Tunnels. This is where most of us waste all of our precious lives and continues. Stay as far back when you get on the bikes, and when you need to make a jump, push forward and jump earlier for more momentum. Once you clear the barricade or pit, immediately pull back, as another obstacle might pop up, or you may need to aim for a ramp. There's a part where you need to make constant jumps over pits, and another part where you need to speed-weave through blazing fast barricades - Early WARNING, this is ludicrous.

- Arctic Caverns; they show up after the Turbo Tunnels, and are filled with cheap enemies and tricky platforming. Just a few tips: don't try to take shortcuts (as you will be forced to die with an indestructible wall in your path), don't make full jumps (as spikes camp on the roof, along with the potential of hitting your head on a plain roof and losing all momentum), take out the snowmen as quickly as possible (if you get stuck in front of them, they can kill you in one punch), and don't be hasty making the jumps onto the moving platforms. Some platforms even sink as you step on them, so make constant, tiny jumps on these to judge your location.

- Surf City; easier than most of the other levels. Similar to the turbo tunnel level, but you have no choice but to bounce about for the entire level. Push forward as you bounce to propel through obstacles, but make sure they're not in your way. The mines are a one hit kill, so avoid them at all costs. In the middle of this level, there is a mini-boss of sorts. Pick up a stick from the enemies before the boss, and once the fight begins, corner him and juggle him with the stick. Keep melee attacking and he'll go down without a fight. The rest is reflexes; avoid mines (and annoying whirlpools), and be prepared to hit jumps as well.

- Karnath's Lair; damn it, riding snakes sure does suck. These snakes serve as moving platforms, and they are annoying and difficult to stay on. If two spike balls are in your way, get enough momentum before attempting a jump over them. Try to stay in the back/middle part of the snake while it moves so you can anticipate its path and judge jumps. The snakes often begin to curl about, so stay on it until you're sure you have a safe jump onto the newly positioned platform. Move quickly; if you miss a jump, you'll fall down to the spikes. At several points, you'll have to jump up to a new snake as the current one disappears into a hole. Wait until you can see the last two sections of your snake, and then jump up to the new snake. The final part of the level forces you to stay on a curling snake until the absolute last moment, and make a jump to the tip of its head to beat the level.

- Volkmire's Inferno. This level is insanity. Pure insanity. The first part seems forgiving as most enemies die after one hit, but then you'll reach the jet. Take the turbo tunnel level, and add another dimension in which you can move. Then, add obstacles that constantly attack you in random patterns, and electric gates which force you to clear before they close. Tips here: Once you reach the jet, pull back. The electric gates will have a small opening that you need to fly through. At a certain point, they'll start opening and closing. There is no way you'll pass on the first try, so memorize where they do this, as you'll have to move to the very front of the screen to pass them before they close, and then pull back before the next ones hit you. Remember, you'll die but there are checkpoints. At another point, little meteors(?) will fly at you constantly, and you'll have to weave around them. Don't bother trying to get the 1-UP here; you'll die too much to make it worthwhile. Stay in the back and either the top or bottom for this part, and look ahead. A single pixel touching your jet means death, so make sure you avoid them entirely. Then, the missiles show up. They'll fall from the ceiling and also rise up from above. Place yourself in the bottom-left corner and most of them will not come too close. The last part is another set of electric gates that is ALL memorization. If you die, memorize the pattern so you don't keep dying. The gate will be a lot faster as well, and will flash on the right side like the turbo tunnel obstacles did. Weave INSANELY QUICKLY; the last part of this level requires absolute perfection.

- Intruder Excluder; an elevator level that requires you to ascend while dodging unbelievable obstacles. The electric robots take half of your health per hit, so wait until they shoot, jump up and duck. Then, follow through with a power attack. If you want, the little curved bar in the wall can be pulled out and used as a stick. Another difficult part are the jumps up the moving ledges. Some of these have electricity going through them; if you see the smaller charge showing, do not jump until it's gone. Poison gas shooters also get in your way next; touching the gas instantly kills you, so once the gas is gone, quickly move past them. At one point, you need to jump up past one of these gas machines, and then quickly ascend even further before you get pulled into a set of propellers which of course equals death. Lastly, the boss. Power attack this guy and he'll fly across the screen and bounce off of walls. While he does this, be sure not to land under him, as he'll squash you and instantly kill you. Avoid getting crushed, and duck immediately, as he'll shoot out a stream of cheap bullet that will constantly torment you until you're dead. (No, you cannot move as you're shot) Keep up this pattern until he goes down, but be careful as he speeds up dramatically as the fight progresses.

- Terra Tubes. There are robots at the beginning that fire quick electricity streams at you, so duck to avoid them. Get too close to the robots before taking them, and they'll instantly explode and kill you. Take them out fast with a power attack or three quick jabs. Swimming itself doesn't need to be explained, but beware when jumping out of water; you'll come out with full force! The next part, you'll grab onto a floating tether and descent. Move to the very left, and after a spike passes, move to the very right. Weave in this fashion to avoid death. In the waters, you'll find a fish that will push you around into death spikes. Avoid him or safely corner yourself and kill him. Later, you'll find sharks, swimming away from these guys are a better idea. At some point, giant cogs will chase you. Swim as fast as you can along the path, and at the end of a cog's path, you need to decide where to hide. The cogs will break at the end of their path and open the next part, but only if you dodged them completely. There are also jumps you need to make, so be very quick. Further along the level, there are more cogs, but this time you'll be swimming the entire time. Remember, you're slower when you swim, so weave corners quickly! Later on, you'll see ducks in the water; THEY'RE NOT FRIENDLY. Jump over them and don't try to fight them. From the front, they'll bite you and kill you instantly, but punching their back can knock them out for a few seconds. Most ducks show up by themselves, but there's one part where there's two of them. Strategize and don't get cornered by the second duck; you can't jump them in the middle.

- Rat Race. You'll race a speedy rat 3 times to defuse a bomb before he detonates it. You NEED to dash constantly here; dash to the holes in the ledges and weave through the gaps as you fall. A nice tip is to time a power attack as the rat nears a hole in the ledge, and he'll fly over the gap, forcing him to re-run the stretch. Don't rely on this too much though, as if you miss him, you'll lose precious time. In between races, be careful of rolling cannonballs and gas. In the third race, the rat will be unbelievably fast, so you NEED to apply every technique mentioned above to beat him. Remember, once you reach the bottom of each race, kick the bomb to get rid of it. After the third race, you'll face General Slaughter. He'll bum rush you, so put your back to a wall, and jump up as high as you can once he gets close. He'll bounce off the wall and run in the opposite direction. Turn around, and power attack his back. Continue this tactic and he'll go down.

- Clinger Winger. Did you actually make it this far? Wow. You'll be immediately put on a ridiculously awkward bike - HOLD RIGHT. See the arrows on the ground? As they change, you need to hold the direction shown. Change directions as you turn corners and learn to do this perfectly. Pressing any other direction than the one under you will slow you down dramatically, and the glowing orb chasing you will catch up and insta-kill you. Miss about 2 corners and you're dead. If you reach the end of the bike track, you'll face off against the orb that chased you. Power attack it constantly while you can, and back up if you don't have a sturdy foundation to stand on. The orb will bounce about like Bowser from Super Mario World, and getting hit hurts a lot. Luckily, this boss isn't bad.

- The Revolution. The final level! What do you do? Ascend a huge tower which revolves as you move. Yellow rhinos will cheap shot you until you die, so power attack them first, or dodge their first attack and quickly follow up. Jump as the spring hits the lowest point to progress, but watch out! The next part has a spike ball that revolves around the stage. Jump these and make your way up the green platforms. Green platforms disappear and reappear, so be quick! When you see a stick stuck in the tower, QUICKLY GRAB IT AND HOLD ON. A cloud will immediately come down and blow you off the level if you're not holding onto this. Once it's gone, pull out the stick at the right time so you fall onto the spring. (You can still die here, careful!) In the second half, you'll see red rhinos; these can eat you and instantly kill you, so avoid their lunge and then power attack. (Then pull back again, and repeat) In the last parts, you'll be bothered by a smaller green cloud; this guy won't kill you instantly, but could cause you to mess up your platforming. You could jump attack it if you want, or wait until it comes down and revolves around the stage to get a shot in. Once you kill it, you'll move up to a final spring platforming section, where a small yellow cloud will push you around with wind. Position every jump correctly to reach the top and the Dark Queen.

- The Dark Queen! I really hope you have lives left here, because losing here would be more bitter than biting into a raw lemon and lime at the same time. The Dark Queen can kick you about from the front, so get behind her and power attack her when you can. When she disappears, careful! She'll come up from underneath in a tornado attack, which juggles you to death. She goes down if you continue to power attack her back, but be careful of her final strike she puts in. You could potentially kill her and she can end your game with the last attempt.

[Xacual]

I have a selfish suggestion since I haven't played it in a while. Super Metroid? I'll give this a shot later.

[Hiroi Sekai]

Sure thing, I'll keep it on file. That's mainly the reason for this - nostalgia.

[Hiroi Sekai]

Dracula X challenge is going decently well, but I haven't really hit any of the B.S. moments yet. I recall Stage 4' holding a boss that flies around cursing you, so that won't be fun at all.

Here's footage of my first 3 stage playthroughs; I keep dying, I've gotten worse>.>

Stage 1
Stage 2
Stage 3

[SaintessHeart]

I have a proposal - the very first 2 ShinMegaten games. Collect EVERY single demon.

[VDZ]

For a challenge like that, wouldn't it be better to have short games? You know, the kind of games where a single play is 20 minutes at most, and you get a score at the end or the game is so difficult you can count your progress in the game as score? "Just complete the game" is a bit of a boring challenge.

Suggestions for next games: Buggy Popper/Bump 'n' Jump, Bubble Bobble, Ice Climber, Kung Fu, Legend of Kage, Marble Madness, The New Zealand Story (Master System version, Arcade version is even more awesome, but is harder to emulate. Other versions suck), Shooting Gallery (you can use the mouse), The Revenge of Shinobi, Zero Wing and Contra 3/Super Probotector.

[Blackbeard D. Kuma]

The Ninja Gaiden Trilogy (NES versions), Battletoads, Super Mario 2 (the original version; aka Lost Levels for the SNES), Castlevania 3: Dracula's Curse.

I'll post more later.

[Hiroi Sekai]

Originally Posted by SaintessHeart

I have a proposal - the very first 2 ShinMegaten games. Collect EVERY single demon.

Bloody 'ell, that certainly WOULD be a challenge, to say the least.

Originally Posted by VDZ

For a challenge like that, wouldn't it be better to have short games? You know, the kind of games where a single play is 20 minutes at most, and you get a score at the end or the game is so difficult you can count your progress in the game as score? "Just complete the game" is a bit of a boring challenge.

Well technically this was made so people have a reason to re-tackle those games they couldn't beat when they were younger. The high score and progress thing are just side challenges, but it's definitely good to have them included. Also, short "attempts" without actually beating the game seems much less satisfying.

Suggestions for next games: Buggy Popper/Bump 'n' Jump, Bubble Bobble, Ice Climber, Kung Fu, Legend of Kage, Marble Madness, The New Zealand Story (Master System version, Arcade version is even more awesome, but is harder to emulate. Other versions suck), Shooting Gallery (you can use the mouse), The Revenge of Shinobi, Zero Wing and Contra 3/Super Probotector.

Originally Posted by Blackbeard D. Kuma

The Ninja Gaiden Trilogy (NES versions), Battletoads, Super Mario 2 (the original version; aka Lost Levels for the SNES), Castlevania 3: Dracula's Curse.

I'll post more later.

Thanks for all the suggestions, but is anybody ACTUALLY attempting these?

[Hooves]

I think they are more like suggesting then attempting from how I see it atleast

[SaintessHeart]

I have got exams this week dummy.

[Hiroi Sekai]

Originally Posted by SaintessHeart

I have got exams this week dummy.

Why, I've never heard such foul language in my life! Have at ye, sir! XD

Hooray for exams; I've got a few meself.

[Hiroi Sekai]

Bwahaha, I'm worse at this game than I remember, but I got into a little bit of a spree. 3 levels down!

Dracula...you're next.


Stage 4'
Stage 5
Stage 6


Small note, I can easily get to Dracula (aside from that retarded floating platforms part), but that damned fight...one accident sends you hurtling into the abyss.

[kenjiharima]

Suggestion on the next game.

Spoiler for Dr.Jekyll and Mr.Hyde:

[SaintessHeart]

Originally Posted by papermario13689

Why, I've never heard such foul language in my life! Have at ye, sir! XD

I call you what I want! Dummy! Dummy! Dummy!

I was thinking of doing System Shock 2 myself with 0 deaths, collect all items and not using the recycler bug, or Deus Ex 1 without the infinite SP bug, but I can't run any x32 games on my OS.

Damn Microsoft and their idiot architecture. Why don't they code backward compatibility into it?

[Hiroi Sekai]

Bwaha, take that Dracula! Got a little lucky, but I completed the game nonetheless.

Final

[Hiroi Sekai]

Any updates from anyone?

Either way, I'm going to announce the next game early, so people can prepare. The next game will be - Battletoads on the NES. And an early note; no, I'm not going to make you beat the game. XD

[Blackbeard D. Kuma]

I see you've taken one of my suggestions. Very good . All of the games I listed provide a formidable challenge, to say the least. So they alone will keep this thread busy. In due time, I will provide more difficult games as well .

[Hiroi Sekai]

I've got some fond memories of that game.

I'd be happy if I wasn't the only one participating this time around.

[Blackbeard D. Kuma]

Forgive me, but I just don't have the time right now. I'd love to participate in this contest, believe me.

I do enjoy reading your progress updates. If you wish, keep it up. Not many gamers can do as well as you're currently doing .

[Hiroi Sekai]

That's alright; if someone's actually paying attention to my video updates, I'll continue to post them.