Took down Lethal Weapon tonight which was a new one for me. Also brought along a couple other short games that I noticed hadn't been taken care of yet so you can also cross of Mighty Bomb Jack and Blues Brothers

You're in third place already for the year, crazy...

I've beaten Last Ninja before, it is certainly weird. I kind of dig the crazy music in the first stage. Overall, it's pretty easy once you get past the ridiculous stage 1 jumping section. Without a doubt two of the hardest jumps on the system.

Yeah that first stage song is like someone cut samples from weird computer noises and made a catchy tune out of it. I like it too. I lost most of my lives to those stupid boat jumps. My last password for the final stage ended up having only 1 live left because of it and I was worried if I had too much trouble on the final stage I'd have to start over and do a better job at those parts. Luckily there really isn't much too that last encounter. 

Thats easily the hardest part of the game if I remember correctly.  The game also saves your life with passwords making life much easier.  But if you get to the final boss without a specific weapon you're fucked.  The final boss battle is very annoying because of the isometric but I thought it was a cool game.  Another PC port.

The Last Ninja 1+2+3 were really the flagship games of the old Amiga system. I remember my older cousin had the Amiga and he was really good at them and I used to watch mesmerized by them.

I've heard the NES port is pretty bad, so its so odd hearing someone only familiar with that one. Kind of like never having heard Mozart except played on a broken kazoo.

Blues Brothers??? that game is almost the worst platformer on the system.

Got so freaking close to finishing Silk Worm tonight, but couldn't quite do it. Got to level 8 like 6 times with the Helicopter and then would just get slaughtered. Tried with the Jeep and made it there much easier, although the bosses are slightly tougher. Finally beat level 8 and had all my continues left so I was confident I could finish off that last boss level.......but I died and it negated all of my continues!! How rude! Next time Silk Worm!!

Kings of the Beach is done! Gimme that Konami crown!

I'm also reaching the final boss of Toxic Crusaders with regularity, but I just can't get to him with any power-ups and I can't hit him safely and reliably with that crappy melee attack. And I'm still trying to figure out Tecmo Baseball, but I just can't seem to win game #2. I know scary has beaten it a couple of times... which team do you prefer? Any strategy pointers?

Silk Worm seems pretty tough. I don't even think I got to stage 8 when I was playing it a few years ago. Fun game though.

As for Tecmo Baseball, I don't remember too much about it, so I'll repost what I wrote last year:
 
Seems like I said you should use the NY Mets as well, since they're the toughest cpu opponent.
 

Nerdy is the Konami champ for 2018! It's been quite a while since somebody won one of these...




Konami/Ultra champions:
 

2012	Crabmaster2000	8 games
2013	Sukhov	6 games
2014	babywuchki	31 points
2015	DoctorNick	68 points
2016	TheMexicanRunner	43 points
2017	guitarzombie	46 points
2018	nerdynebraskan	55+ points

We had 15 people beat at least one Konami game. I think only Nintendo will top that. Pretty competitive too:
 

	Points	Games
nerdynebraskan	55	11
Kid Dracula	39	11
arnpoly	34	4
bimmy lee	25	9
Strikezone1	24	3
Svankmajer	13	2
Crabmaster2000	10	1
tablew/chairs	9	1
SilvertongueBullet	8	1
mbd39	7	1
guitarzombie	5	1
Jandrem	3	1
scaryice	3	1
Daniel Doyce	1	1
fusoyaff2	1	1

 

Tecmo Baseball is done. I'm the Tecmo champion!

This game is really awful, and I'm glad it's over. I played through with Chicago, and only two of their pitchers were even capable of controlling a ball all the way into the dirt. Once they wear out, I had to precariously throw a low-speed curveball (probably the second-most reliable pitch in the game) away from the hitters and hope for the best. My fingers are hurting from how hard I was mashing the controller to get those semi-responsive physics to do what I told them to do. The defense is so bad that you need to find those pitching exploits to strike out most of the CPU batters.

Was able to take down Silk Worm after a couple more attempts. I quite like this game and I'm eager to try out the co-op, seems like it has some potential. And stage 6 looks so freakin' awesome!!

Yup, and that's now a total of 40 bonus points for you (max is 50). Just to clarify, you can still win more than 5 publisher crowns, you just won't get any bonus points for those. I won't give the points to the second place finisher also, they just wouldn't be awarded

So that's half of the champions decided for the year. Do you think it's been exciting enough to do again next year? I know the overall point race has been a blowout, so maybe it hasn't reached its potential because of that... Or maybe there's another way to group games (genre, year, etc) to give out some bonus points that would be more interesting?




Tecmo Champions
 

2012	buttheadrulesagain	3 games
2013	Enternal	3 games
2014	gutsman004	14 points
2015	DoctorNick	26 points
2016	nerdynebraskan	20 points
2017	nerdynebraskan	10 points
2018	nerdynebraskan	29+ points

 

You can cross off Hook and Hudson Hawk

2 More done tonight. Phantom Fighter and Ren & Stimpy Buckeroo$

Finally knocked out Bill & Ted's Excellent Video Game Adventure this morning!

How awful was it? You can usually find the good in any NES game.
 

Thats perhaps as big of a dedication and completion as Ikari Warriors and Q*Bert. Don't say you didn't use any hints or guides?

Well done!

I'm just glad to have Bill & Ted out of the way. In some ways it's not so bad. The worst part is figuring out which areas on the screen your items are typically hidden, and then you have to search those spots all over. Definitely make a map based off the ones in the manual and mark off where things are as you find them. It's tedious work but it gets easier as you go. The last stage was tough in that you had to find three of the historical figures in three separate maps while just about every person is trying to throw you in jail. It's tough when you need to find something on the opposite side of the map and keep getting thrown into jail on the way to the item or location you need. I'm guessing most people found the game too tedious and slow to see all the way through. The ending sucks too.

What?!? That was the one thing I loved about the game. Ending with a sweet Wyld Stallions Concert was rad!!

Nah, it was bad.     You get the concerts after each level anyway but the last one was just too Wyld for me and didn't sound good at all.  And then after that you get a one-liner on top of the Game Over screen.  Just not worth all the busy work.
 

You should do Back to the Future Parts 2 and 3 next!

 

@ scary

I've enjoyed the publisher bonus twist to this year's challenge. I think it would have been a bigger hit if only it hadn't been such an off year in general. But there was some intense competition early on for Capcom, SNK, and Taito. Would Destiny of an Emperor have fallen in January without this gimmick? With more participation, I don't think Konami, Nintendo, or Tecmo would have survived the first third of the year either.

@ crabby

I really like Silk Worm, too. It's an underrated, B-list NES shooter. I've never been able to beat it, though I've reached the final boss a few times. That last stage is just too intense for me, but I'm a pretty mediocre shooter. I only really hate the game for the Invincible Death Missiles once they start shooting spreads of secondary projectiles in the last stage. That is cheap and unfair, especially when they are legion during the final fight.

But I've played it a bit in 2P co-op, especially when RetroNESnerd lived in the neighborhood and we tried to tag-team it for this thread a few years ago. It's very rare for an old school 2P shooter to have separate vehicles; obviously in 99% of these games you've got the same physics, controls, and logic as Player 1 except you're the BLUE helicopter and his is red. Also, in these games you can usually just cut the screen in half; I'll murder everything on the left, and you slaughter everyone on the right. I think the strategy and logic of Silk Worm is pretty well executed because both players are responsible for the full screen. There are tanks on the ground that are so dangerous for the jeep and a pain to kill, but the chopper can blast them in a couple of shots (which is actually even realistic, since real tanks' armor is usually thinnest on the roof). And there are aircraft too that are very dangerous to the chopper, but have soft spots on the belly that the jeep can wipe out pretty easily by shooting up. I found it to be a deeper cooperative experience than most shooters I've played.

@ arn

Congrats on Bill & Ted. I've never cleared the first stage, and I'm not sure I ever will given how much I dislike that game. Your patience and dedication amaze me.

@Nerdynebraskan - Totally agree with you on everything. That last stage is quite a jump in challenge compared to the rest of the game. It's pretty crazy. It's so great to find a hidden gem like this when I'm so far into the NES library. Keeps me positive and hopeful to find more great games as I keep going.

Destroyed enough enemy ships to get invited for lunch at the White House (Beat stage 8) in Stealth ATF tonight. Played a few more levels without losing a single life and then just got bored and purposefully crashed my ship to end the run. Flight Sim/Flight Combat games are just so boring to me. Has there ever been one that is fun to play and you don't need to be into aircraft or military to enjoy? Also knocked off another easy one with Peter Pan & the Pirates tonight too.