I guess this is kind of off topic, but is Gun.Smoke worth buying? One of the guys at the local game shop I go to keeps telling me I should give it a try.

It's definitely worth buying, Doug.  It's an overhead-view Western shooter made by Capcom where you fight outlaws, Indians, and even ninjas.  Here's some gameplay footage:





The only downside to it is that you have to find the wanted poster for each stage boss, which is hidden somewhere in the level.  If you don't find, the level repeats infinitely until you find it.  Alternately, you can purchase it from one of the townspeople in each stage, but it's a little pricey.

I was just watching some YouTube videos and it looks kind of like an Old West version of Commando. The reviews on GameFAQs were pretty favorable. The only real complaint that I noticed was the issue with having to find the wanted posters before you can finish each level, but that doesn't seem like a major issue. I'll have to check it out next time I'm in there. Too bad I don't still have my Retro Duo Portable. They would actually let me try out the games before I bought them if I had it with me.

177,150

Still don't care for this game after all these years, and still can't figure out the 2nd long jump from when I was a kid.

29,250 

Kinda forgot about the contest this week.  Doesn't matter with this game, I could've had a month to practice and I still wouldn't have cracked the top 10.  Very nice scores everyone.

Almost didn't get a chance to try this week. This is the first time I've played Battletoads since renting it a few times when it came out. I'm pretty proud of how far I made it. I pretty much sucked at whacking the birds, though.

265,450

999,999 5-2




I wanted to max the score before stage 7, so mission accomplished! I took a second picture to show where exactly I maxed the score, which is in between the two tall enemies.

Now I know for sure that maxing the score at level 4 with one life is possible. You need to get around 790k-800k after level 2 to do it.

Congrats to Tom for maxing out score in stage 6, and Stan for getting furthest in the game with one life. Next time it would be nice to forget about points and see who can get furthest with one life.

148,250



I didn't have enough time this week to put in a sincere effort.

613,150



Damn, wasn't too far off from beating Parpunk...a few more birds would have done it. That said I can't be ashamed of this score.

Had a blast with this one, finally beat the speedbike stage (multiple times) and can't wait for the next 'Toads contest. What an awesome unique game this is.

223,300

Nice score man! Sounds like you improved at kicking birds this week

^^You know it. One more session would have been nice and I'm sure would boost my score quite a bit, maybe even beating Stan's score, but I had to work today so I just played for a few hours before posting (though improved quite a bit in that short time).

BATTLETOADS RESULTS

1st: 999,999 (stage 5-2) – guillavoie +11 points
2nd: 999,999 (stage 6-2) – rdrunner +10 points
3rd: 704,150 – Stan +9 points
4th: 661,100 – Parpunk +8 points
5th: 613,150 – Krunch +7 points
6th: 564,900 – dev(2) +6 points
7th: 524,900 – Vectrex280996 +5 points
8th: 385,150 – Space Jockey +4 points
9th: 353,900 – Caleb47 +3 points
10th: 265,450 – BenPlusPlus +2 points

PARTICIPATION

250,200 – milesp1 +1 point
241,500 – Shane +1 point
224,750 – Crabmaster2000 +1 point
223,300 – dropkickorange +1 point
177,150 – LukeAF24 +1 point
169,600 – treismac +1 point
148,250 – RetroDave +1 point
106,250 – bearcat-doug +1 point
97,000 – RoteDelano +1 point
96,250 – JBOGames +1 point
81,000 – hitmantommy +1 point
74,750 – rcolingmx +1 point
32,500 – Clyde The Jackal +1 point
29,250 – MegaMartyr +1 point

Nice job, Guil. That was some crazy bird kicking!

I was thinking that the same numbers would be needed to max out by the end of stage 4 on one life. 790-800k really ought to do it. That would need to be a near-perfect run though.

Idea for a future Battletoads contest: Force people to warp from stage 1 to stage 3. I'd be interested to see if anyone could max out the score on one life without the bird level.

Tonight is Random Prize Night I'm assigning numbers to everyone right now and will have the game and details posted shortly

Thats a neat idea for sure, Parpunk proposed it in the beginning of the week and I thought it was a nice way to play points while skipping the stage where you can get too much points.

Nice to see you back here Tom
I feared you would skip a few contests for whatever reasons after you decided to skip Ninja Gaiden. I don't want to be the guy that wins only when Tom is away

DING DING DING DING!!!!!  That's right everyone, it's Random Prize Week for the Battletoads contest!!!  The game up for grabs this time around is Guardian Legend.  I cleaned and tested the game tonight on my front loader and it started up on the first try.  The front label is in decent shape with a little bubbling on the left side of the label.  There is a crack running across part of the front of the cartridge and a very slight rattle sound, but game still works great.  It doesn't look horrible but the crack is still there.  The back is in decent shape with minor scuffing.  While I'm not big on damaged carts, I couldn't pass up the chance to give this one away to you guys   The winner won't be disappointed in this game Here are a couple of pics:





I have assigned everyone who participated this week a random number to win the prize.  rdrunner is the only one exempt since he has already won a rnadom prize drawing.  As with the other two giveaways, ookii_risu helped fund this prize.  Thanks ookii I will be using a random number generator to determine the winner and will post the picture on here as soon as I pick the number.  I will send the winner a PM after the drawing.  There are 23 people eligible for the game so everyone will be assigned a number 1 through 23.  Here's everyone's number:

1 - bearcat-doug
2 - guillavoie
3 - Crabmaster2000
4 - dev(2)
5 - LukeAF24
6 - rcolingmx
7 - BenPlusPlus
8 - JBOGames
9 - Parpunk
10 - milesp1
11 - MegaMartyr
12 - Space Jockey
13 - treismac
14 - Stan
15 - Clyde The Jackal
16 - Shane
17 - Krunch
18 - Vectrex280996
19 - RoteDelano
20 - RetroDave
21 - hitmantommy
22 - Caleb47
23 - dropkickorange

We have a winner!!!  Here's the winning number (I will also attach it to the post since it is hard to read):



Congratulations to RetroDave for winning Guardian Legend

I've always liked it, it's slightly unusual.  Yes, something like Commando, B button shoots left, A shoots right, and you move around with the control pad like usual.  It's strange because as you kill enemies your points are essentially your "money", which you can use to purchase different weapons, a horse (which gives you speed and more hits), or as bimmy mentioned the wanted poster.  They're actually easy to find, if you shoot like a fiend, and you'll need to after level three, you'll come across spots that make a sound and you'll see your bullets stopping short, keep blasting and surprise things appear like a free horse, some special damage icons, and the wanted poster.  In the last level, for example, right before the twins there's a bunch of tombstones and the poster is in the middle of them.  So I don't think that's a downside, in fact you simply go through the levels again and again to get more points for buying things, which I recommend if you want to beat it.  It's an awesome game overall with some tight music.

I should get bonus points for making it the furthest without dying once!

What 2nd long jump?  You mean with the ramps?  You just hit them.

Yeah, the ramps. The second one I can never land. If you hit it going normal speed you only make it like half way. If I push forward I come close but for whatever reason fall off the bottom of the screen and die. I dunno.

Whoa, I actually made it into the top 10. This was a fun contest, I enjoy Battletoads even though I'm not particularly good at it. Those maxed out scores are amazing!

Funny that someone already mentioned the warping idea.  -1 for me for originality, I guess.

No worries, I'm still here.  I skipped Ninja Gaiden because I was on vacation for most of the week and then quickly flew out to a wedding on the weekend.  I actually almost had time to play on Thursday night that week, but I ended up working overtime at my job instead.  Oh well.  You guys gave that game a proper beating without me, so the week was in good hands.

I picked up a copy at the local game shop today and I really enjoy it (although I didn't get to play it too much). Thanks for the tip!