Nintendo Online Service and SNES Online Jubilation Thread

I'll have to play a bit of the demo to find out, but I can't see why they'd make the inventory system more complicated than the first title in the series.

I don't know why did but clearly, I and Balla have both found that issue unless we're both doing something wrong but does seem to be each party member have their own inventory system, which does sort of make sense as if you think about it who would be carrying all potions & dishing them out mid-battle.

It's one of those things that makes sense and is more realistic but gets in the way of the gameplay, like (reportedly) RDR2's ridiculously detailed cutting up of animals.

Jimbob wrote:

Can you heal in the middle of a fight? I couldn't find that option, and associated that with its archaic nature; but I don't think that can be right, otherwise I won't be able to beat the first boss until I've ground for about 30 hours.

Turns out, just because a menu option is red, red doesn't mean "not available". I am stupid.

With the NES games seemingly coming to a halt, I've decided to jump back and play the lineup in original year of release order. I'll aim to beat the games wherever possible but for the endless arcade titles or the ones that fuck me off/bore me, I'll play them for a bit and call it a day.

Here's my journey so far:

Baseball: Never been a fan of baseball. It was easily my least favourite of the Wii Sports line-up and I can foresee it becoming the least favourite of the NES sports games line-up. Swinging the bat feels really fiddly in 2D as the game seems to have a really bad setup for hitting the ball. Maybe I'm just shite at it. I played a full game of it (with liberal use of the rewind feature) and had my fill. Not recommended.

Clu Clu Land: This felt really wonky to play! I liked the idea of collecting coins to create a picture on each level, but moving "Bubbles", as the description names the protagonist, is awkward and only gets worse as the bouncy rebounding walls are introduced. I felt like I was grappling with the controls for the 20 minutes or so that I played this. Can't say I was a fan. Not recommended.

Excitebike: Yeah, this one is good. Once you get the hang of properly landing your bike following big jumps and trying to angle your bike so you don't crash and burn landing on a ramp, it really becomes fun trying to place on the podium. The idea of a course designer is really neat on paper too, but I don't know if I could be arsed spending the time creating a course. It'd be neat to design a course and then have folks play it over the online feature, but I don't even know if that's possible as Excitebike is advertised as one player only. Still, worth a look! Recommended.

Ice Climber: I played more of this than I should have done for the High Score Challenge we ran a while back - nearly two hours worth according to the NES Online app - and I think I can cautiously recommend this one. Once you get the hang of the really awkward jump, there's something fun about tackling each mountain and learning how the different enemies work. I think I had fun with this more as a score attack game though, so your mileage may vary. Oh, and never play this in 2 player - having to grapple with the other player climbing quicker you is terrible, especially when you're first learning how to deal with the Climber's jump. Recommended (cautiously).

More to come!

Ooh, I'm excited for more Jay's Yays or Nays...

This feels like a blatant attempt to get Jim to post more.

Obviously I am in favour. Also Ice Climbers 2 please Ninty.

I am so ready for more Ice Climbers, I was genuinely surprised how much I got in to it when we had the challenge going, it definitely feels like all the games flaws would be made much more (polar) bearable with a modern console and engine.

Jimbob wrote:

Ooh, I'm excited for more Jay's Yays or Nays...

And that's what these series posts are now called.

Agreed on the Ice Climbers sequel chat. I'd love a wee eShop download sequel with modernised controls.

Right, time for some more timely NES Online thoughts in which I shamelessly pinch Eurogamer's review methods for a small paragraph's worth of thoughts on the NES Online lineup.

Jay's Yays or Nays - Volume 2

Soccer - I'll be surprised if I recommend any of the NES sports line-up. Soccer is marginally better than Baseball but it's still not one I could recommend. Dribbling with the ball and passing feels awkward and feels like you're grappling with the controls. I'm not expecting bloody FIFA levels of ball control here, but it's definitely a pain trying to move about with the ball. The game also seems to randomly switch which player you're controlling when off the ball which led to a humorous scenario where I somehow had navigated one of my strikers into the goal of the opposing team and scored with a pass in which my midfielder rocketed the ball from the half-way line.

I played two games - one on the lowest difficulty in which a bizarre Great Britain team took to the field (I can only assume this is an Olympics tie-in) and demolished the CPU team, which seems to default to Japan, in a 7-0 drubbing. My second game was on the highest difficulty in which the USA lost narrowly to the CPU Japanese squad in a 3-2 nailbiter. Both times I was utterly bemused by the Annabelle cheerleaders running out at half time to strut and haunt my nightmares. Not recommended.

Super Mario Bros. - What's there to say about this that hasn't been said before? It's the grandaddy of all 2D platforming and still holds up today in my humble opinion. I made sparing use of the NES Online rewind feature to avoid replaying large swathes of the game, but I played through every level for the first time as previous completed runthroughs have been via the warp pipe system. There's still something genuinely brilliant about sprinting full pelt through a SMB level, vaulting over lines of Goombas and dodging between flurries of hammers to reach the flagpole. It rewards exploration and experimentation by way of hidden blocks and the aforementioned warp pipes, which is ace and encourages replaying each level to hunt for secret. It is obviously an all-time classic. Essential

Tennis - ...sigh. I bought this on Virtual Console on Wii as an excited young sprog, eager to try out some NES classics for the first time and figured as a fan of tennis that this would be worth a look. It's not. Look, it's serviceable enough and doesn't suffer from that annoying depth perception issue that I struggled with in Baseball but five minutes with it is all you need. You'll get to see Mario sitting in the umpire's chair and have a couple of rallies but that's about it in regards to the runtime of the game. A full set is sadly too boring in my opinion to sit through. There's better games to be focusing on these days. Not recommended.

Wrecking Crew - This was one that I'd never actually played before, but I quite liked this. I was expecting more of a platforming and enemy dodging adventure like Burger Time, but there's almost a puzzle element to this that makes it more engaging than some of the other arcade titles available on NES Online. You've got to plot a course through the level that allows you to demolish each structure without accidentally cutting off your route to one of the structures. Hammering a ladder might help in the short term as it's close by, but you might have needed that ladder later on to get to another part of the level. Factor in increasingly tricky enemy types and patterns and you've got a stew going, baby. Well worth a look, I'd say. Recommended.

More to come!

JayMoyles wrote:

A full set is sadly too boring in my opinion to sit through.

That's an assessment that NGamer Magazine would have been proud of - and one I agree with too! Whenever I try to play NES Tennis, I get about ninety seconds in before thinking 'offt, fuck that'.

You might get more enjoyment out of NES Hockey, but brace yourself for NES Pro Wrestling.

To paint more platforming-related targets on my back, I found the original Super Mario Bros. too old to be anything but a history lesson in this day and age when I played it on Wii. It's a fine history lesson though. Looking forward to more slaggings off of sports games! (Of course soccer has cheerleaders. )

Some football teams have cheerleaders over here and itself is a sport.

The Cappuccino Kid wrote:

You might get more enjoyment out of NES Hockey, but brace yourself for NES Pro Wrestling.

I've already played a fair chunk of Pro Wrestling. Kin Corn Karn would absolutely make it in my boy stable with his crappy Mongolian Chops.

Right, I've played another four NES "classics", so here we go!

Jay's Yays or Nays - Volume 3

Twinbee - This is an odd shmup, but one that I quite enjoyed. It's a vertical shmup in the vein of Ikaruga albeit without all the colour changing nonsense or absurd difficulty. What is absurd is how the game handles powerups and the enemies it throws at you. To collect powerups, you need to shoot the clouds in the sky to spawn a bell - collecting it normally will just give you points, but shooting the bell and juggling it as it falls downward will eventually cause it to change colour and collecting it in this form will give you a powerup of some sort.

This is vital to take down some of the wacky enemies headed your way, like kitchen knives and hands. Very odd. It was absolutely fine as a shmup and I enjoyed seeing the different enemies that turned up - it's only six levels long (the game just cycles back to the start and ups the difficulty if you progress beyond this) so it's a worth a look, I'd say. Recommended.

Balloon Fight - This is ace. The Balloon Fight mode itself is a good laugh and it's fun trying to outmanoeuvre the other fighters, but the meat of this game is in the Balloon Trip mode. Trying to navigate your balloonist through the obstacle course of lightning and spikes is a great time and it was one of my favourite games we played as part of the GNamer High Score Challenge earlier in the year. I remember reading in an interview that Iwata coded this mode in about three days, which is incredible stuff. It still holds up as one of the finest score attack experiences on the NES. Essential.

Donkey Kong - I reckon my opinion on this one might prove to be a wee bit controversial amongst some of the GNamer gang. Balla mentioned above that he can't see SMB as anything more than a history lesson due to its age and that's exactly where I'm at with Donkey Kong. Is it worth dipping your toes in and seeing the few screens the game has to offer? Sure. But in my book, there's better platformers on the NES and better arcade score attack games on the NES too. I find moving Mario about to feel stilted and slow and whilst I don't mind the opening screen (the one with the barrels, the other screens are somewhat frustrating in my book.

It's worth checking out to see where it all began, but I wouldn't spend much longer than a quick spell with it. Not recommended.

Donkey Kong 3 - One that I'd never played before embarking on this little NES journey. I didn't expect it to be more of a shooter than a platformer! I can't say I found it particularly engaging - juggling blasting DK, the flies and the ever-approaching caterpillars ends up feeling like more of a nuisance than fun in my eyes. Unlike Space Invaders, where blasting the alien threat growing closer and closer feels tense and it's satisfying to repel the horde, DK3 ends up feeling more like a chore than anything else sadly. I hate being negative about these old games because they were probably the business back in the day, but having said that, considering DK3 never really reached the same level of popularity as the original or DK JR, maybe the gamers of the 80s felt the same as I do. Not recommended.

The next edition of this might be a wee ways away as the next quartet contains both Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels and Ghosts 'n' Goblins. I mentioned that whilst playing SMB I used the rewind feature "sparingly"... I think I'll need to be a bit more liberal with the rewind playing those two!

I'm appalled, Jay.   How dare you imply that a former classic doesn't hold up in the modern day!?  TORCHES AND PITCHFORKS EVERYONE

Balladeer wrote:

To paint more platforming-related targets on my back, I found the original Super Mario Bros. too old to be anything but a history lesson in this day and age when I played it on Wii. It's a fine history lesson though.

BOOOOO

masofdas wrote:

Some football teams have cheerleaders over here and itself is a sport.

BOOOOO

JayMoyles wrote:

Donkey Kong - I reckon my opinion on this one might prove to be a wee bit controversial amongst some of the GNamer gang. Balla mentioned above that he can't see SMB as anything more than a history lesson due to its age and that's exactly where I'm at with Donkey Kong ... Not recommended.

BOOOOO

JayMoyles wrote:

Donkey Kong 3 - Not recommended.

Yeah fair enough

Balladeer wrote:

I'm appalled, Jay.   How dare you imply that a former classic doesn't hold up in the modern day!?  TORCHES AND PITCHFORKS EVERYONE

Everything old is good, guys, I don't know how to make this clear to you all!
Naah, I'm kidding - I totally get that Donkey Kong is a bit rigid; DK'94 on the Gameboy managed to tidy Mario's movement up a bit and keep the single-screen platformer fresh, and I'd say that the Mario vs Donkey Kong series started off as the evolution of that, before veering off into puzzle land. I hope for a DK reboot in the future!

But keep your stupid cheerleaders out of our footy you colonials

Yeah, Andy mentioned DK94 being the version to play as well, which I can understand if the game updates Mario's movement to not feel as janky as it does in the NES version.

New games

US/EU Update:
- Star Fox 2 (SNES), This seems big and makes me consider trading in the SNES Mini more but that does have FFVI on it, then I think I have that on VITA so
- Kirby Super Star (SNES)
- Super Punch-Out!! (SNES)
- Breath of Fire II (SNES)
- Journey to Silius (NES)
- Crystalis (NES)

JP Update:
- Star Fox 2 (SNES)
- Kirby Super Star (SNES)
- Famicom Wars (NES), Have people been looking at my quiz as this and something else now in the news
- Route-16 (NES)

Nice new selection of games there though I personally will be booting it the app up again to play the Super Punch-Out and Star Fox 2.

Nintendo Life were just starting to write articles about how we hadn't had any new games for ages. Timing! Good haul, too - nice to see SF2 make it in there...

...oh. For Japan.

SF2 is available in all regions Balla, why I said I might trade in my SNES Mini also you can access the Japanese version easily, why I posted those games as well if you want to play Famicom Wars.

I can't read.

That is banging. Even the NES games are cult classics. I get a bit worried that (a) Star Fox 2 runs at about 5 FPS, and (b) we were all sick of Star Fox 0, but otherwise I'm dead excited about it. I have been ever since is was an exclusive reveal on the front of Total! magazine. Never mind eh guys...

Kirby Super Star doesn't get the kudos it deserves - it's absolutely up there with Super Mario World, Super Mario Kart and Super Castlevania IV as being one of the SNES's very best.

That's a cracking wee line-up. Cappa is right - Kirby Super Star is genuinely brilliant and deserves a playthrough if you've never given it a chance before.

I'm interested in checking out Star Fox 2 too. Top update, Nintendo.