Track Meet is a game I have owned since the late 90s. I’m not sure how I got it, but I remember playing it a lot one of those years between 1997 and 1999. So it's quite nostalgic to play it again. Its a lot like Track & Field, where it has several «summer games» events and you need to be a fast clicker to succeed. The difference with Track Meet is that instead of beating another nation or something you have 5 weird unique opponents you have to beat in succession. The opponents are quite cartoony characters and they do silly unrealistic exaggerated things sometimes. It makes me think of the opponents of Punch Out.
Did I beat it before in the past?
YES. I remember vividly I did too, but only once. I remember the last opponent Jack Strop being very hard to beat. I think I had struggled with him quite a while, but something very unlikely happened which I consider to be unlikely luck. In weightlifting where he always is thriving he actually failed to lift his weight. I didn’t know that was even possible it, but it happened once, and it resulted in a combined win for me. It was a big moment I remember, but I couldn’t replicate it because next time he would always lift his weight.
Track & Meet a fun little game, but not relaxing, because just like Track & Field you perform by how fast you’re able to tap your A button. All the events need you to do this, no exception, and your arms will hurt like crazy after a long session. Perhaps they should have a couple of events that didn’t depend on button-mashing. There’s 7 fields you have to master. Those are Fast Lane, Hurdles, Javelin Throw, Long Jump, Pole Vault, Discos Throw and Weightlifting.
There’s 5 opponents to compete against. Ricky The Barbarian, Swammi Pastrami, Kenichi Katana, Irwin B. Cheetin and (the definitely hardest) Jack Strop. They’re lined up to make a gradual rise in difficulty, but some of them have fields they are supposed to be their «specialty». For example the first opponent Ricky The Barbarian is supposed to be big, dumb, slow but also very strong. So he’s low-paced and even useless in some events but at weightlifting he’ll lift more than anyone. Others like Swammi Pastrami, an Indian guru stereotype who can levitate is naturally good at Long Jump (even if thats funny, because why he lands at all when he doesn't have to?). The Ninja Kenich Katana is supposed to be pretty good at all. Then there’s Irwin B Cheetin «cheats» on most events, making him quite difficult, but nothing extreme.
Last opponent however Jack Strop doesn’t have a weakness at all. He looks like he’s inspired by Super Macho Man in Punch Out. He’s the actual challenge in this game. You have to master all the fields and have a perfect or close to perfect round to stand a chance against him.
I beat the game in two days, and that was both surprising aaaand a little disappointing too as you kind of on some level want a game to «last» a little longer. I had even gave myself a handicap: I couldn’t use the password and had to beat all the opponents in order or it wouldn’t count. I thought that would make me force to play it fo a while. To my surprise I did the whole game and beat Jack Strap on first attempt to do so. It was very intense however.
I’ll recap what happened in my round with Jack Strap.
Fast Lane and Hurdles:
It did feel like I had a very lucky round with fast lane and hurdles. I actually probably did my personal record ever on both of them. I fucked up a lot on hurdles with the other opponents before that - so I consider that somewhat lucky.
Pole Vault:
I’m pretty good at pole vault, He jumped 4.60 meters, which is very daunting, but I luckily managed to match that, but nothing higher.
On Long Throw and Javelin Throw:
I beat him on both. Not by too much, but enough to increase my lead. He wasn’t that amazing on these I’d say.
Discos Throw:
I almost messed up on the disco throwing as I failed my throw 2 out of the 3 attempts, I feared I was done, but managed to get a decent throw on my last throw. Not as good as his, and not near the best throw I’ve done, but very close. Disco is perhaps the most unpredictable one, and it almost went wrong here. I had a good lead now before the final event, but I knew this is the one he tends to kick your ass.
Weightlifting:
On the final even weightlifting Jack Strap is amazing.. You better have a better combined lead before this event so you can win in a total score. I was nervous.
He lifts 200 kilos. I already had 400 points lead on him in total at this point, so I knew I had a very good shot unless I completely messed up. So I started with «safe» 100 kilos just to have an alright score if I was very unlucky on the next ones. I then lifted 150 kilos, then 170 kilos. It was a relief because I knew his chance of gaining my score got slimmer and slimmer for every increase in lifting I could, and I had a solid lead. When I lifted 180 I understood I had beaten the game. Crazy relief! I then lifted 190 kilos, so I had a pretty amazing round. I almost got 200 kilos too, which I’ve never done before and would have been crazy to even match him on the event he’s the best at. I didn’t need it though. I beat him by 400 points. It wasn’t even a close call. However, I am very uncertain if I could do it again. (My arms does not want to try. Mashing the button was painful!)
Not sure how much was luck, but I also noticed that even if its probably over 15 years since I played it I definitely got a lot for free just by remembering how to do everything. That thing with motor memory is so weird.
The conclusion is Track Meet is a fun game. The events are all cool to play and there’s funny surprises by the opponents to keep you interested. It's kind of a short one though, and even if Rick is a formidable last boss the game perhaps should have had a few more opponents before him. It should have been closer to 10 opponents and not 5 opponents. (Imagine Punch Out with only 5 opponents) I’d also appreciate some events that wasn’t button mashers to give you some breathing room, but its quite recommended.
Difficulty: 6/10
Quality: 8/10
Deja Vu har arguably one of the best and complex stories or plots in any NES or Game Boy game. (Despite it being a quite cliched trope in the cheap pulp literature.)
So the story is you are a man who wakes up inside a bathroom stall and you don’t remember who you are and you don’t know where you are. Your gun and large coat perhaps gives a hint at what sort of person you are, but that doesn’t mean much. You walk out and soon realize you’re in a pub past closing time. To your shock you find a dead body whose been shot. The police will have you as a main suspect, and thats a big problem. You start finding clues yourself implying you might be the person who did the killing, but you don’t remember anything. You’ll find clues to new places and you soon understand you’re part of a conspiracy and someone has set you up to make it look like you did the murder. So your goal in Deja Vu is to make the police understand its not you and get the real criminals targeted. Its like a film noir crime story, and its quite a plot for a NES game which usually had very simple set ups like Mario (save the damsel), Mega Man (stop the evil professor) and so on. Obviously doing something like this couldn’t be done with those kinds of games, so you kind of have a point and click adventure game, but it works very well. This is not to everybody’s taste perhaps, or so is my impression, at least on NES og Game Boy, but I’m personally a big fan of these types of games.
I always wanted to see if I could beat Deja Vu, and I was intrigued to find there is a pretty rare sequel Deja Vu 2. You get both of them on the same cart for Game Boy Color. So thats how they ended up on this run.
Did I beat this before?
No. I think I have vaguely tested it on emulators for Nintendo, but I never really made a real attempt at playing or beating it. My strongest memory is reading about it in Nintendo magazines when I was a child I was quite impressed by the concept of being someone who doesn’t remember who they are or where you are. I always wondered if that was possible to just wake up one day to not remember who you are. I was also quite impressed that a Nintendo game could have such an elaborate story. I have come some way into its sister-games Shadowgate and Uninvited, also released by Kemco, but Deja Vu I haven’t played a lot before this run.
Deja Vu is known to be a quite hard game, and it's a fair challenge, but it's not impossible. It's a game where it definitely pays off to pay attention to while you play. There’s a lot of items to pick up, and many you’ll never use for anything, and there’s a lot of notes which provides hints, which you need to figure out what happened.
The game has a pretty complex storyline in some ways, because the main character has basically been put inside a murder conspiracy, and you’ll get the pieces a little bit out order sometimes. The puzzles themselves for the most part makes sense compared to a lot «moon logic puzzles» you’ll find in some games. I actually did get a pretty good flow going through most of it without being stumped too much. The only mild problems I had was that I realized that your gun has limited bullets and usually when you shoot a door that is locked it has no effect, making me conclude you always needed keys to open doors or locks - but then later in the game there actually are doors you open with gunshots, which isn’t very consistent.
There’s some very odd elements of the games as well. Why there are two different cabs I find very curious. There’s one blue cab and one yellow cab. The driver in the blue one we’re told «seems very nervous», while the one in the yellow cab is «warm and friendly». The driver in the yellow cab however drives recklessly, while the one in the blue cab drives normally, but the effect of taking either cab seems to be exactly the same. While it's implied there’s something odd going there’s no right or wrong cab to take. We’re never told why the driver of the blue cab seems nervous for example. This I found extremely odd, even a bit mysterious since its a lot of build up for no apparent reason.
There’s also a house late in the game where is a kitchen which many food and jars with flour and sugar you can pick up, but for whatever reason there’s absolutely no use for any of it. You can just skip the whole room if you want to, so why did they make it in the first place? There’s also a gun store where the only purpose is you can buy a gun, but you start the game with a gun so what is the point? You can also hit down a person who tries to kill you and take her gun. So you have three loaded guns at one point yet they function exactly the same. So there’s some very bizarre design choices with Deja Vu.
There’s also a lot of ways to die. Some of them quite silly. If you go to the route right of the police station for example you’ll fall down a construction pit in the street and just die. The game also has humor. When the main character suddenly starts to remember things about himself its usually completely irrelevant and goofy things from his childhood.
After you’ve solved the case and you understood what happened you realize you have to go to the police, who you’ve been avoiding so far because they just arrest you. You learn this through a hint for you’ve see while police still arrests you they are a little bit more open to giving your story a chance for every evidence you attain. You somehow have to have enough proof who the real killers are, and you have to get rid of all the evidence against you (which has been planted to make you look like the killer). This part is a bit frustrating and I would say the hardest puzzle.
I got confused in my first round, and I got completely stumped, so I chose to replay the whole game over again and pay extra carefully attention so I understood exactly what happened. I even took notes sketching out what items I should get rid off and which ones I should keep before going to the police. I failed so many times before succeeding I was almost shocked to see my character not going to jail. I’m relieved I stayed in there and didn’t use a walkthrough.
The last puzzle, and the sometimes a bit convoluted story was the only minuses I thought. The story was good, perhaps even very good, but it could have been laid out in a more straight fashion. I really enjoyed the game otherwise, and I’m curious to what Deja Vu 2 is like.
Difficulty: 8/10
Quality: 9/10
18. Deja Vu 2: Lost In Las Vegas (1999)
Deja Vu 2 is obviously the follow up to the original Deja Vu, and are both old games from the late 80s originally released on Mac. ICOM Simulations eventually ported 3 out of 4 games they made to NES. Deja Vu was a popular game on the NES, even more so was Shadowgate and to a lesser degree Uninvited, but the last of their games the sequel to Deja Vu never made it the NES, although screenshots and previews were featured in Nintendo magazine indeed confirming it was on its way but was cancelled for one reason or another.
Therefore it's a little bit of an oddity that ICOM Simulations managed to release both Deja Vu 1 and 2 on Game Boy Color many years later cleverly renaming it «The Casebooks Of Ace Harding» selling it as one long adventure. It still feels like two different games than one story.
Deja Vu actually the good type of sequel in theory…and mostly in practice. It plays on the same engine and follows the theme and atmosphere of the first game, but has a different enough story to make the game unique on its own.
The amnesia theme is not present this time. This time you have not forgotten who you are, nor are you waking up in a toilet in a closed pub. Now you wake up (aware of who you are) in a hotel room after being kidnapped by people who think you have money from to guy who was killed in the first Deja Vu. You quickly learn a mafia boss Anthony Malone says you have the missing 120.000$ and if you don’t get them to him in a short time you’ll be swimming with the fishes. Of course, your character Ace Harding don’t have the money but you can’t prove that to them. There’s one of his henchmen Stogie Martin meeting you in the hotel room informing you of this. He’s a frequent looming presence, and is following you around and will kill you if you try certain things like leaving to another city. Sometimes he’ll just come and kill you without warning no matter what you do. Luckily you start right before you died and then he’s gone. It doesn’t happen so often it gets annoying perhaps just enough to keep you on your toes.
The game first sort of tricks you into thinking its larger than it is, because there’s a train-station where it seems like you can go to several big cities like New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, St. Louis and Chicago. When I first played I thought «wow, several whole cities to explore». However, you’re not allowed to go outside Las Vegas which again only has three locations to explore (the hotel, the train-station and a laundry). If you try to take a train to another city you’ll be stopped and get shot. For some reason I never understood you are allowed to go to Chicago, perhaps because your main character has its apartment there and the henchmen let you go back. In Chicago you can visit a lot of the old locations from the first game which are now dusty and decayed. This is a nice touch even if you are limited from many places too.
The story is kind of complicated, but it seems like what you’re uncovering more and more is that Malone’s trusted partner Danny Ventini is the one who has secretly been portioning out money that is missing. You’ll find more and more that documents this, not least a secret office in the laundry. When you have evidence enough for this your only way out the mess is to set the two mafia heads up against each other causing a big mob massacre. You need to uncover many things to get to that point though.
Deja Vu 2 is a bit harder. While I managed to get through Deja Vu 1 without a walkthrough, this game felt more demanding and had to use it a couple of times. I see other reviews also complains about some puzzles. I got completely stuck at one point and couldn’t for the life of me understand what to do next. At one point you get a «button» which is described as magnetic, but you don’t get any hints beyond that. You’re actually supposed to use that on the elevator in the hotel to get a fourth button that leads you to a secret floor on top of the building. While its a clever idea I found it to be too convoluted to figure out and its never hinted there’s a secret floor nor that the elevator had an empty space for an extra button. I sort of wished the game would have given a hint. The game also has quite a few red herrings and strange dead ends. Meaningless notes, useless items and locked doors leading places that seems like they have relevance but really don’t. For example there’s a bum sitting in front of a door, who sounds like he has information but won’t tell you. You can give him both food and money, but in the end neither he nor the door he is in front of has any use. There’s also an office in the bar which there’s just no way to get into. Both games also have many useless items to pick up. Why you can pick up plants or pots around the hotel when they have no function I don’t understand. Of course most adventure games have items you never find any use for and red herrings aren’t uncommon, but the Deja Vu games have some odd ones making you wonder what the designers were actually thinking.
Beyond that just like in Deja Vu 1 getting to the ending is one thing, the final puzzle is a very complicated set of things you have to arrange in at the very end to win the game, and it plays like an exhausting trial and error nightmare. In Deja Vu 1 you have to have to collect a perfect amount of evidence to the people trying to get you while removing any evidence planted against you. If not you will be arrested and it's game over. You basically have to find out the magic amount of evidence by going to the police over and over and just cross your fingers dearly you have it right THIS TIME. It will take you more than one try. I actually re-played the first game all over again closely following the story to try to make sense of everything I needed to keep and what to get rid of. Only then could I beat it.
Its the same type of scenario in Deja Vu 2, but here you have to plant the exact combination of evidence at Anthony Malone desk to make him go against his partner, and it was very frustrating finding the perfect mix the game wants you to do. Usually the henchman would come after you saying the evidence wasn’t enough or that the evidence you planted was understood as blackmailing before killing you. After a lot of testing I couldn’t figure it out. I had to basically with pen and paper try out one by one all evidence and see which one’s would work and not. When I did get through it I was incredibly relieved to see it finally worked out. I almost didn’t believe it. The ending is actually very cool too and that made the frustration pay off a little bit. I struggled a little with both games, but in the end I’m happy to say I figured them out.
The story driven plot in both games are both the their strength and weakness. The plots themselves are actually very good in both games, but at least too me they’re unfortunately also quite hard to follow sometimes. There’s so much information and it's a bit convoluted. Many letters and notes you get can get a bit overwhelming to understand the relevance of sometimes. I often got confused and had to re-read many of the things I got several times until I sort of understood what was going on. I think it could have been a little bit better executed, but the stories are also good when you understand them.
These are pretty tough games even if they are not very long, especially if you’re the type to stubborn to use walkthroughs, but they are worthwhile playing today. I liked both games in the end.
Difficulty: 8/10
Quality: 9/10
The first Turtles game for Game Boy is probably the easiest Game Boy game I have ever played. I beat it in well under an hour. In this run I’ve beaten other games quick before, but its usually games I’ve played through in the past like Super Mario Land 1 and 2 which obviously helps, but since I never played this game before that speaks volumes on terms of difficulty.
I don’t remember why I bought this game as its not a nostalgic game for me, but probably because I was curious what it was like + I got it cheap. I also quite like Turtles I was a big fan as a child.
That the game is easy doesn’t mean its bad though. Its a nice little game, it controls well and is not frustrating in any way, but at this point I do prefer something more challenging. After playing the Deja Vu games it was somewhat refreshing playing something easy though. My theory why its so easy is perhaps because of complaints about the NES version being too hard and convoluted so they just took that criticism to the heart but went too far in the other direction.
What kids at the time wanted was probably something exactly like this though. They didn’t want Turtles Labyrinth or an inventive puzzle game, they just wanted to be their favorite Turtle beat the crap out of a bunch of the known enemies from the series they watched and loved and thats it. In a way its the safest formula for a Turtles game I’ve ever seen. You simply pick your Turtle of choice: Leonardo, Raphael, Michaelangelo or Donatello (although they all seem to play the same but they count as 1 live each) and you’re going from left to right just one-hitting footclans and other foes, and then there’s a boss at the end of each level: Rocksteady, Bebop, Baxter Stockman, Shredder, then Krang. 5 levels and 5 bosses in total. Its a very straight forward game, there’s no jumping puzzles so I suppose it comparable to a beat ‘em up, although it still feels more like a platformer because everything dies with one hit and there is no 3D perspective on the ground you walk on.
It is arguably a little bit too simple in gameplay I thought. I have to admit I definitenly prefer the NES version (which I played first at the Commodore 64) as its ambitious even if a bit clunky, but this is a Game Boy game from 1990 so perhaps its fine for its time. It is definitely too easy though. I got to Krang the very last boss on the last level on my first attempt, which was actually just meant as a test run. On my second run I didn’t even take a single hit from Krang before beating him, and whoop! The game was done! Nothing more to see. Something like Spiderman which felt similar in some ways had a more arching difficulty scale I thought, but its pretty good beyond it being easy.
Difficulty: 1.5/10
Quality: 7/10
After the first Turtles game on the Game Boy was so numbstakingly easy it was pleasantly surprising seeing an actual challenge this time.
Reading some reviews of this game there’s a suggestion this is merely a remake of the first game «Fall Of The Footclan» from the year before. Well, its a different game, but in some ways its correct. Its like the previous game also a platformer and one that has the same basic structure otherwise: You have 4 lives, 1 life per Turtles and 5 or 6 levels which ends with a familiar boss from the Turtles universe. Ending with Shredder and then Krang. There’s other similarities as well.
This is a much better game in all ways however, and much more challenging. So if its a remake its a welcome remake. I liked this one a lot better too.. despite being tired of playing it now.
When I started the game I saw there was a difficult setting I figured I should play it on HARD MODE, but I only could get to level 3 before throwing in the towel.
Mousers! In this game they can get pretty damn annoying.
Level 3 is very difficult and has a section where mousers are storming you from both directions. Its very difficult to not take some hits, and you need to save your energy since the level serves you with the hardest boss in the game. The first form of Krang! If you save a lot of your health before getting to him its insanely hard to beat him. I couldn’t do it my first round. Most bosses you find some kind of weakness to exploit, but I couldn’t find it here. I had to admit defeat and I put the game to NORMAL difficulty. On normal difficulty there’s not as many mousers, but Krang is still very difficult. The game is challenging enough on NORMAL, and especially the last Level 6 is long and difficult with 3 bosses along the way.
The weird thing is how Krang was one of the hardest bosses I’ve played on Game Boy in his first form on Level 3, but his second form which is also the game’s final boss is a joke. He’s actually so easy its almost suspicious. However, getting to him is still very hard though, I always did with almost no health left - so him being so easy may be a forgiving balance issue by the creators.
After I managed beat it on NORMAL a couple of times, I swore I probably sould try doing on HARD as well. With practice its possible, but it took a while. I’m glad this game is over with. It helps the game has endless continues at least.
Difficulty: Normal: 6/10 Hard: 8/10
Quality: 8-9/10
Battletoads for NES is perhaps one of my favorite games for the good old 8 bit system. (If I had to choose my favorite game it would probably be a toss up between Battletoads and Mega Man 2. Not to Pat The NES Punk’s affirmation, as he hates both games, but hey — you can’t win them all) Anyway, it made sense I had to check this one out while I was doing a Game Boy Run. So yes, another game thats not a nostalgic game.
Both the cover and title looks exactly like the NES game so its a bit surprising when you first learn its not a port. It has similarities and it looks like it's built on the same formula, but it's a different game altogether. Its actually a great game, and if you like the NES game you’re doomed to enjoy this one as well. If you didn’t like the NES game, it's also possible you might not hate this one as much since its a little bit more forgiving.
It is a hard game though, like all Battletoads games seem to be. Now I haven’t played them all, just going by hearsay here! It's not quite as difficult as the NES game though. Far from it. With the NES game it seems like 80-90% of players give up at the same spot, Level 3 - the infamous Turbo Tunnel, and the ironic thing is that the game has a many levels much harder than that one coming up. The Game Boy game I think more people can probably get pretty far into with a little practice, but to master it completely you have to be quite determined because some of the latter levels are very hard.
First level is quite easy and is actually a lot like the first level on the NES version. It serves as a warm up to the game play. Second level is like Volkmire’s Inferno on the NES, where you fly on the little rocketship, but not much easier. Third level is another platform level. It has the toughest boss in the game arguably. Fourth level is a swamp level where the second part ends with a surfing section much like Surf City on the NES version. It can be tricky, but it's not too bad. Fifth level is this game’s Intruder Excluder where you have to out-chase a rolling rock. You run through a tunnel here and you’re not on that unicycle thing. It's pretty hard but it gets easier with each practice. Sixth level is like the second level in the NES version where you go sink down a shaft on a rope, but fairly harder I’d say. There’s these gooey blob-things flying back and forth which will one-hit kill you. So it's hard, but I think most people could get through the first sixth levels with some practice. It's the last two levels where I suspect the majority of players will stop. It just gets a bit frustrating.
Oh yes the final levels Level 7 and Level 8 that gives you a good chase for your money. Level 7 has these platforms with rolling blades which is difficult to master. Its hard but if you have enough lives spared up (meaning you have to get pretty good at the previous levels) you can simply push through it, which is what I did. I never got good at Level 7, I just rushed through it quickly and expected to lose 3 or 4 lives. From there I cut my losses, and just hoped I had enough lives to attempt Level 8 afterwards.
Level 8 is the real deal though. It's different from any levels on the Battletoads NES and plays more like an up-scrolling shooter. Seems like Rare liked to experiment with level designs when it comes to Battletoads, which I always found impressive. Its basically Zits on a jet-rocket, and you have to get past obstacles trying to squeeze flatten you, and there’s these Space Invader-ish sections you have to finish to get through.
It wouldn’t be that impossible hadn’t it been for the fact that it has a TIMELIMIT and its short. VERY short. This means you basically have to speed run the level to get through it. You just barely have enough time to reach the end if you play it pixel-perfect. Since level 7 probably (probably) drained a lot of your lives already you have to play this game quite a few times to get enough practice to be able get good at it. Its a daunting task, but if you can do it you’re treated with a final boss fight and, phew, the timer is gone…
I struggled forever with it.
I played it almost for so long I did no longer expect to get through it, but by daily routine it happened one day.
The good news is the last boss fight isn’t that hard. I beat him on my second playthrough without much of a strategy or practice. Just pick up the weapon go fiercely for his arms first, and then the head - and perhaps try to avoid projectiles coming at you if you can - and just hope you beat him before he beats you. Worked for me at least.
The bosses are never too hard in this game in general.
Battletoads is always great fun, and I really liked this game, but its a relief to finally have it off the list. It was one of the tougher ones yet.
Difficulty: 9/10
Quality: 9.5/10
Its been a while since I have updated on this little project!
No new Game Boy games finished lately, but since I’m around 50% finished with this Game Boy Run it made sense to some status half way report.
Hardest games so far: Battletoads, Motocross Maniacs (on hard), Deja Vu 1+2
Most timeconsuming: Pokemon Red+Blue+Catch all the pokemons
Most annoying: Pocahontas
Easiest: Turtles: Fall Of The Footclan
Currently playing
After beating Battletoads my next choice was initially Star Wars (1991). Thats a game I played back in the early 2000s but I never really finished even though I gave it some effort. I only remember getting to the Death Star and things getting really disorienting and hard there.
Star Wars was a lot harder than I remember. Getting to Death Star is not too much of a hassle, but when you get to Death Star its extremely long, disorienting and messy.Its a maze and labyrinth of doors and its tough to know where to go without starting to draw maps and exhausting every option. Its actually quite a grind, and its not that fun. This summer i unfortunately got very ill and I didn’t get to do much of anything, and even Game Boy was tiring. Star Wars demanded a lot of concentration, so I switched to Zelda: Links Awakening (1993) hoping that would be more relaxing. It was. Zelda is more fun, and if not nail hard difficult but like most RPG-ish games it takes time and is probably one of the longer games in the run. Especially since I’ve never played it before at all. It also has some demanding puzzles. I wouldn’t say its easy, nor would I say its hard but with such a large map when you’re confused what to do next, well, it can be daunting wandering around trying to figure out what you missed. I’m currently over half way done with it having done 5 of 8 dungeons.
The way ahead
While things have been slow lately I suspect its because I picked some of the longer and harder games in the run and/or games I had no familiarity with like Deja Vu 1+2, Battletoads and now Links Awakening… and there’s some easier ones left so I think things will pick up pace. There’s also 5-6 handhelds left that I suspect are very easy get through, and some of the games left I think I’ve beaten in the past, or at least very close to.
Of the one’s I worry might be tough its probably first and foremost Gargoyle’s Quest. I played it a little, and it starts heavy already on the first stage. Its known to be very hard, although I also heard its quite short too which might even things out?
I suspect Pokemon Ruby might be a bit of a grind as the Pokemon games usually are, although this time I’m not going to collect all the pokemons, which was what made beating Pokemon Red+Blue such a crazy project. 999 is game for Nintendo DS which a joker. I have no idea how difficult it is. Its a puzzle game but can be superhard. I’m not sure I’m too worried about the others, although some games may surprise me.
When I’m done with Links Awakening its probably back Star Wars again, and that one has already proven to be very challenging.
