Fifty Days of UFO 50: Day 17

[The hour grows late. Too late for blogging. You've got to post something.]

Time for a somewhat painful progression check-in. I continue to tinker with the games I'm already interested in, much to my own chagrin. Gold-ing and cherry-ing cartridges is always going to be appealing thanks to my completionist nature, but there are still plenty of games I absolutely should have dusted off by now and haven't.

Some of those red "complete" games up there still manage to pull time occasionally:

Bushido Ball

(Best Time... 00:09:47.528, Fighters Used: 6/6, Fighters Won With: 5/6)

I've managed to win the tournament without continuing as five of the six characters, but the final and most technical fighter, Yamada, requires a very different approach and muscle memory. He can only dash forward or backward, and while his spear gives him excellent vertical coverage, it's predicated on great timing. Those bombs are powerful, but require setup and prediction to master.
This is one of the first games to get the red cartridge treatment, but it's still seeing play.

Night Manor

(Best Time... 04:01:27.144, Journal Entries 16/17)

That timer is almost certainly the result of leaving the game running while eating or something. This might be an even better "why are you still playing it?" candidate than Bushido Ball, given I'm mostly just wondering where the final journal entry I missed is hidden and seeing whether or not I can end the nightmare without any "Bad Dreams," which is how you continue after getting caught/killed; waking up at the start but with all your items and progress intact.
Theoretically, a perfect run will remove this from the rotation and free up time.

Seaside Drive

(Best Time... 00:14:05.500, Most Lives at Once: 6)

I should think about writing a whole analysis about why I'm good at and continue to practice for a deathless run at this, but can't manage to get past the second level or so in Ninpek.
Vibes, I guess? Primarily the vibes?

I should also call out the two gold cartridge blockers up there standing between me and fresh explorations, before retreating into whatever writing hole allows me to finish my idea for finally writing something inspired by Magic Garden...

Mooncat

(Best  Time... 00:24:27.319, Levels Seen: 36/42)

This represents the two-out-of-three eggs found mark. The routing feels somewhat arbitrary, but it's absolutely consistent, just hard to remember which warps I've already taken in what order. Despite the Barbuta influences, I'm not sure a screenshot-cobbled map is the way to go here. I'm at a bit of a loss for what kind of map would actually help, so I just sort of meander through it repeatedly looking for something I haven't seen yet.
Remarkably, the controls feel almost normal at this point, as long as I place my thumbs on that designated "home row" of D-Pad Up and the Y button.

Pilot Quest

(Best Time... 03:48:22.17, Still Searching for the Donka Donka Idol)

I've basically got the pattern of this all worked out, it's just a matter of time and execution. There's a weird, black-suited, magnet-headed, dark Pilot-lookin' motherfucker that needs to be found and defeated three times, so I need to build up the resiliency to do that in a single run. Escaping from the planet repeatedly awards more persistent meta-buffs each time you crash again, but I don't know how much patience I'm ultimately going to have for grinding out bonuses before going after the cherry in earnest.

[To catch up, you're going to have to randomize the cobwebbed cartridges again and get cracking tomorrow... that, or dig really deeply into something like Rakshasa or Party House...]

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