Hello everyone and welcome to the final round of the 2014 NintendoAge Weekly Contest Winter Tournament.  Round 2 had some incredible scores posted and some fantastic competition between all the participants.  The Finals will likely see even more fierce competition and excellent scores as the remaining participants are now playing for the prizes!  The game for the Finals is a personal favorite of mine and a great way to wrap up the 2014 competitions!  It's time for the participants to take on Double Dragon 2.  Here are the rules (Participants, please read the rules carefully for your tier to make sure you play by the correct rules.  Failure to play by the correct rules can result in your score being invalid):


 TIER 1

• 1 player only
• Play on Supreme Master
• 1 life only
• No point racking allowed
• If you beat the game, pause the game as it goes in slow-motion during the final death blow to the Shadow Boss to take your picture
• Highest score wins
• GENRE: Beat ‘Em Up

 
TIER 2
 

• 1 player only
• Play on Supreme Master
• Play until Life 1 (once your life counter reads “1x,” you must immediately stop playing and take your picture.  Anyone suspected of playing after this point will have their score disqualified)
• No point racking allowed
• If you beat the game, pause the game as it goes in slow-motion during the final death blow to the Shadow Boss to take your picture
• Highest score wins
• GENRE: Beat ‘Em Up

 
TIER 3

• 1 player only
• Play on Supreme Master
• Play until Life 0 (once your life counter reads “0x,” you must immediately stop playing and take your picture.  Anyone suspected of playing after this point will have their score disqualified)
• No point racking allowed
• If you beat the game, pause the game as it goes in slow-motion during the final death blow to the Shadow Boss to take your picture
• Highest score wins
• GENRE: Beat ‘Em Up

Here are the participants that will be playing in the Finals:

TIER 1
arnpoly
arch_8ngel
BriGuy82
CLAYB1RD

TIER 2
BilltownSparty
Caleb47
EgasKrad
khog143

TIER 3
bearcat-doug
Beliskner
Commander_Santa
Thundercat08

Remember, the top three scores in the Finals for each tier will win a prize.  The fourth place finishers will be entered into the drawing for the elimination prize.

The contest ends Monday, 1/19/15 at 11 PM NA time.  Your user name MUST be written on a piece of paper and be in the picture for your score to be valid.  The entire TV screen, or computer monitor if you are playing on an emulator, MUST be in the picture for the score to be valid.  No partial screenshots will be considered or accepted.  No screenshots by hitting "print screen" on a computer will be allowed.  You must take a picture of your computer monitor.  There may be instances where this will be acceptable, but it will be at the discretion of myself and the contest organizers.  Also, the use of turbo controllers is forbidden, as well as any cheat codes, Game Genies, or save states if playing on an emulator.  Also, we will only be using NTSC systems for the contests.  The use of PAL systems will NOT be allowed.  Good luck everyone and have fun

Ooh...never tried a 1-life game of this one...pretty sure I have only ever beaten it via human sacrifice of player 2...

The current Twin Galaxies world record is 159,260 for anyone that wants to take a shot at it this week.

Ah,I'm actually pretty good at this game. Oh well,have fun guys.

I've come close to breaking the TG record before, so hopefully I can do it this time with a week of practice.

I was afraid you'd say that since that adds a bit to my survivor's guilt . 

I'm hoping just to be competitive this week.  I haven't played this game in years and the majority of my experience has been in 2 player mode with my brother, with barely any at all in 1 player.  I've got a lot of practice with the moves ahead of me before I can even think about posting a score.

Ohh man...played this one alot. Use to be able to no death this one but haven't played in awhile.

If it makes you feel better about your potential chances, I have never played this game.  I played the first one a ton, but only on the Master System at my cousin's house as a kid, so I have a real uphill battle.

I played this one once I think when I first got it.

With my little experience in it, I think we're closer to even than you think, but still we're in this together.  You're a great gamer so I think you'll be fine.  Let's have fun this week no matter what!

Agreed!  Always look forward playing a new game I've been meaning to get around to for 5+ years.

I'm sure everyone will do well. A lot of your success depends on how familiar you are with the games chosen. Sure,you have a week to practice like mad and improve greatly,but if you are already good at the game to begin with then that's a huge advantage. I've never played Dr. Mario very much and I had never played Rollerball until it came up in the weekly contests prior to this past week and it showed. It's just the way it goes sometimes. Still really disappointed,but oh well.

I didn't figure anybody had played Rollerball before except for the previous contests.

DD2 on the other hand has me a little worried... not as worried as a TMNT game... but I am expecting to be shocked by a couple of 1 life victories.

I'm right there with you.  I've played DD2 sparingly over the years to where it is sort of a new game for me this week.

That being said, I'm planning to play like there's no tomorrow and I fully expect to 1-life it this week if it kills me. 

Tier 2 Game Completed 136,560. I'll get my tier started. The platforming can be tricky in the later levels (esp that temple and gears level) just take your time and don't rush for the timing of the needle in the gears stage. Also, hurricane kick everything and use the uppercut against Arnold in the spike ceiling part.

After a quick playthrough, I am pretty damn impressed with that 130k+ score!

Took me awhile to realize we need to do the same type of power-scoring that we had to do in the Double Dragon 1 contest.


Great game for the contest, Bimmy, since I'll bet that spreads the scores pretty well, in terms of who can consistently pull off all the special moves.

That's the main secret to getting a high score. The cyclone kick gives you the same amount of points (500) as the uppercut and jumping knee attacks, but it does less damage allowing you do get extra hits in.

All these years of playing, I never researched the ACTUAL mechanics behind the spin kick and hyper knee... feeling a little more confident.
(understood the hyper uppercut)

Score updated.

Wow, you guys are killing it already!

I'm really excited to get started on this later.

Man, couple really good scores already. I'm gonna have to work late tonight, and probably start putting work in tomorrow.

That score is actually over 3000 points shy of my personal best of 158,630. I've tried to beat the Twin Galaxies record of 159,260 a few times, but I've always fallen a few hundred points short. I'm hoping I can finally do it this week.

That is nuts.

Also, I'm guessing for maximum points, you want to open with spin kicks, get in some punches short of a knock-down, and finish off with a spin kick, right?
Seems like there is probably room to eek out a few extra points per enemy that way, depending on how the HP math works out.

I honestly just stick with the spin kicks. The regular kicks/punches are only worth 10 points so they don't really help your overall score that much. If you use punches, you're running the risk of going into the hair grab when they are stunned and not having a chance to finish them off with the spin kick. You can technically chip away at the enemies using the standard back kick without killing them, but since there's no timer the TG rules consider that point racking and it's forbidden.

Think of how many enemies there are in the entire game.

An extra punch, here and there, will make a difference when they all add up.


I'll have to study the knock-down mechanics, but in the first couple of levels a Williams should go down from a Cyclone + Punch/Kick, or 2 cyclones --> obvious the two cyclones is better.
A Roper on the other hand will absorbe Cyclone + Punch + Cyclone for 1010 pts each.

Most enemies, over the course of the game will absorb at least that much extra damage.

Implying that optimally, you can goose your score by at least 1%- 2% -- in your case 1500 - 3000 pts extra
(i.e. the distance between you and the WR)



For some of the bosses if you can survive all cyclone kicks instead of needing uppercuts and knees, the difference is even bigger, based on a quick look at the math.



EDIT:  nevermind  looks like the punch mechanics won't lead to a knock down 1-punch-at-a-time just like the kicks you mention...