Nintendo Online Service and SNES Online Jubilation Thread

On the subject of the old NES games, I thought I'd ask here first, before just watching a generic walkthrough:
Has anyone played Rygar or The Immortal? I'm strangely fascinated by these, and NES games are usually pretty straight-forward, but I'm absolutely bamboozled by both of them. The latter is more like an Amiga/Atari ST game, which looks very impressive, but again, no idea what's going on.

I got stuck on Rygar when it first popped up on NES Online, I can't help you there. I had to get a guide to make any progress into The Immortal when it was on an Evercade cartridge, but I stopped playing it when I realised it was very boring and not about to get any more exciting.

Instead of playing Rygar I'd just use my time to play Wild Guns on SNES Online if I were you. And instead of playing The Immortal, I'd go complete Wild Guns again.

...OK Might just watch some walkthroughs then.

Although the Wild Guns bit does sound fun, mind! The trouble is, I absolutely have to* be trying at least one NES game I haven't played before. The NES game is now going to be Wild Guns on the SNES.
(My actual SNES game is the apparently superior Kirby's Super Fun Pack or whatever it's called - seems ahead of its time structure-wise)



*don't have to, of course, it sounds like I might have a brain thing



EDIT: Yeah Rygar's been consigned to clunky history. Having watched what to do in The Immortal to get past where I'd got to, I've decided it's exactly the kind of obscure bullshit old-school game that I'm going to persevere with. I'll just say "yeehaw" occasionally and pretend I'm playing Wild Guns at the same time.

So, have any of you given Goldeneye a spin yet?

As when I fired it up, the controls were so awkward I was moving about like I had never played a game before   (even with the n64 pad) then I decided to see if the dual analog stick option would convert to the switch pro controller but it doesn't. I had pretty much given up on doing a full replay until I saw a neat way to remap the switch controls on twitter & after I tried it I was zipping through levels like I used to.

I've heard that it's much better on XBox, to my non-existent chagrin as I have no love for the game personally.  Hope the rest of y'all enjoy with your remapped control scheme!

Balladeer wrote:

I've heard that it's much better on XBox, to my non-existent chagrin as I have no love for the game personally.  Hope the rest of y'all enjoy with your remapped control scheme!

I think it depends on what you are after, xbox obviously as an up with default modern FPS controls & boosted 4K visuals (which don't look good in my opinion) then switch has portability & a way to play it with the original controller. (if you want to take the time to get used to it again)
The funny thing though is apparently neither of them are emulated as well as they could be, but the average player myself included won't really notice the difference.

I had a big session on The Legend of Zelda II: The Adventure of Link.
It's really creative and it looks and sounds great, I want to see more of it because it sometimes does some interesting stuff. Unfortunately, it's brutally hard in a way that often feels outdated.

After banging my head against the second dungeon for a bit, I tried the SP version where you start with full health, strength and magic. The game felt easier, 'natch, but also somewhat empty. The reward structure is really built around growing stronger. I eventually returned to my original playthrough and beat the second dungeon on that.

I'm conflicted. Even on my non-special playthrough, I was abusing the fuck out of save states, so I'm hardly getting a "pure" experience, but the SP version feels hollow. I don't know if I'll play more, but this is the most I've ever seen of the game and I really appreciate what I got out of it. The origins of some key parts of the series are in here.

The_Jaster wrote:

So, have any of you given Goldeneye a spin yet?

I went to my friend Rob's place this weekend; he recently moved to the city the other side of the mountains. I knew he had an N64 pad for his Switch, what I didn't know was that he'd bought his girlfriend one too. The game made a lot of sense on a pair of N64 pads and we had a good time. We then did some F-Zero X and Starfox, both of which make much more sense on this controller than bolted to a different one.

Me, Cappa, Dusty, Mas & Smurf all tried Goldeneye online (a bit of Mario mini golf too) on Sunday night and it was a good laugh, it ran pretty smooth for the most part too with just a handful of audio skips over the 2 hours we played which I've noticed seems to happen to every NSO game when you take them online.

Buskalilly wrote:

I'm conflicted. Even on my non-special playthrough, I was abusing the fuck out of save states, so I'm hardly getting a "pure" experience

I don't really have any guilt in using save states on NES games - the difficulty on some of those games is brutal and the cost of dying is usually a big loss of progress. I think if it lets you experience a game that you'd likely never have finished otherwise, then go for it.

Aye, just give yourself a little rule for when you use save states. On Goldeneye for example I stick to after every level or 2.

Usually that's how I roll but for this fucker it has to be for like every encounter.

[quote="Buskalilly"]I had a big session on The Legend of Zelda II: The Adventure of Link.
It's really creative and it looks and sounds great, I want to see more of it because it sometimes does some interesting stuff. Unfortunately, it's brutally hard in a way that often feels outdated.

I’ve tried to get use out of my Legend of Zelda 35th Anniversary Game & Watch and go through Adventure of Link, and tried it both the “pure” way and with the SP cheat on. I’ve long given up though, I just don’t think it’s a good game.

The_Jaster wrote:

Me, Cappa, Dusty, Mas & Smurf all tried Goldeneye online (a bit of Mario mini golf too) on Sunday night and it was a good laugh, it ran pretty smooth for the most part too with just a handful of audio skips over the 2 hours we played which I've noticed seems to happen to every NSO game when you take them online.

I really enjoyed Goldeneye the other night. It’s the first time I’d played it in multiplayer in over ten years for sure, but I was pleasantly surprised that it was pretty close to how I remembered it. Mario Golf was funny too, it brought back some happy memories.

JayMoyles wrote:

I don't really have any guilt in using save states on NES games - the difficulty on some of those games is brutal and the cost of dying is usually a big loss of progress. I think if it lets you experience a game that you'd likely never have finished otherwise, then go for it.

That’s my outlook on it. I just play games to relax and unwind, there’s nothing gained by me putting loads of time into getting good at Star Soldier on the NES. Just let me see the whole game, experience it’s fun bits and let me decide if I use one or a hundred save states.

If you can get along with the controls then Goldeneye is still a banger, I struggled a bit myself, think I would have faired better with an N64 controller but of course Nintendo only seem to be able to make 3 a year.

The Cappuccino Kid wrote:

That’s my outlook on it. I just play games to relax and unwind, there’s nothing gained by me putting loads of time into getting good at Star Soldier on the NES. Just let me see the whole game, experience it’s fun bits and let me decide if I use one or a hundred save states.

Urgh, it's one of those things. I would never judge anyone else for using them - at least not really, I may rip the piss - but I'd for sure judge myself.
Just as I'm quick to advise other people that they should take a day's vacation if they need it, or take it easy if they're having a mental health day, or rest if their feeling sick, but I'm disgusted at myself for being weak if I ever do less than 100%.
Sure, anyone can use save states or easy modes, but not me, I'm Luke Fucking Summerhayes.

(reads this while taking a sick day)

I feel very similar about some games, I've probably purposely hamstrung my enjoyment of Celeste by refusing to play its later parts on normal (because I don't think I'd enjoy bashing my head against the B-sides) or on easy (because "it's not how it's supposed to be played" or some equally wrong nonsense). Then again, I used to feel similarly about sick days, before realising that since I wasn't Luke Summerhayes they were fine. Although surely the most Luke Summerhayes thing to do would be to stick it to The Man whenever possible?

I like sticking it to the man in principle but, much as I hate how capitalist it is, I get a sense of pride from being a "hard worker".

Also in Japan, sick days and vacation days come from the same pool so I obviously want to save them for when I take trips etc.

Also also, I did once decline the 100% Attendance award at Tesco as I think the very existence of such a thing is disgusting.

I don't think I've ever used a save state, but something there if ya want it.

Know different, but I played The Last of Us Part I on normal, then to get the collectables etc just put it on super easy that I could just run past enemies to get the collectables.

masofdas wrote:

I don't think I've ever used a save state

Ooh, check out the hard man here!

Yeah but Mas has never played a game with gameplay, so he wouldn't need to.

I know all the battles are ruining my tea parties with Louis and Yunaka in Fire Emblem Engage.

I agree, don't worry about using save states on NES games, even Zelda II. I'd argue it's fairer than perhaps you've described there, but this is a tainted opinion as I know the game like the back of my hand. But also as has been described more eloquently above, it's not just how hard it is, but the punishment for failure - games were happier to waste your time repeating earlier steps in the olden days, and that's just not on now. So definitely save away, as Enya once sang.

I definitely don't feel bad about using save states in lieu of a game having a modern saving system, it bothers me slightly when I'm resetting over and over to brute force through one encounter. But again, that's probably a sign that the game isn't worth revisiting . . .

Excited for GBA and what that can bring, maybe on my Fire Emblem Tier List the GBA, go from own on Wii U VC but not played to actually playing them.

here’s many-a-stoater on both those apps already. I’m most looking forward to Kirby Tilt ‘n Tumble – it’s just about unplayable these days on original hardware, but with gyro controls on a bright Switch screen it should be very good fun. It might even lay the table for WarioWare Twisted too, which I say is the best Game Boy/Colour/Advance game of them all.

More immediately though, mind that Pokemon’s anniversary is always celebrated at the end of February, and let’s remember that Pokemon Stadium and Pokemon Stadium 2 were announced for Nintendo 64 Online.