11th June 2009, 12:50 AM
I really don't know if it was worth it, but for some reason I actually just played through and finished this stupid thing...
Menace Beach, which is a part of the Maxi 15 NES collection I got a last week.
You may remember the game from AGVN's Bible Games 2 video here...
http://screwattack.com/AVGN/2008/BibleGames2
Menace Beach ... Yes, aka Sunday Funday, the horribly hard platformer on a skateboard mentioned in the AVGN's Bible Games video for example. It's... frustrating. The controls are so, so slippery, and you die randomly so many ways... bounced back by spring blocks, hit by enemies or random shots while on a balloon, bumped into a pit, because THAT jump block secretly bounces you down into the pit instead of into the air, etc, etc. It's such an annoying game...
Still, it does some interesting things. You can pick up items, which is vital at some points (for carrying a bomb over to where you have to try to blow up a sumo guy with it, for example). Now blowing up sumo guys with bombs (the only way to kill them) is very hard and frustrating, as you need to toss it and then just hope that he's in its range when it goes off (likely he won't be and you need to go back and try again), but it's somewhat different at least...
Also, you have infinite continues from the beginning of the level, there are only 12 levels, and the first half of the game isn't that hard, apart from some frustration in level two. Level 9 is by far the hardest one; that one took a LOT of frustration to get past, that's for sure. From beginning to end, it's just so, so hard...
Once I finally managed to get past it, though, level 10 wasn't too bad, and 11 only had one tricky part (with a jump too long to jump and with no balloon; I eventually just figured to to the 'floating jump' you do when you repeatedly hit jump in the air (or turn on turbo and hold the jump button... :)), getting as far as possible before dying. This worked and there was a continue point on the next platform... kind of annoying, though, that you seem to have to die to get past that (unless there's something I missed, which quite possible). Oh well... at least the last level wasn't very long. The final boss was kind of tricky, those rocks kill you instantly, but it's short. The final boss is a bit of a pain, but once you figure out how to hit him (use the rocks...), I eventually beat him. It definitely took a lot of tries, though. This is one game that I'd never get anywhere near the end of without infinite continues, that's for sure!
Oh, in classic NES fashion, the ending wasn't particularly rewarding. Oh well, I wasn't exactly expecting much. At least there is an ending scene and not just "END" on the screen and that's it or something. :)
Menace Beach, which is a part of the Maxi 15 NES collection I got a last week.
You may remember the game from AGVN's Bible Games 2 video here...
http://screwattack.com/AVGN/2008/BibleGames2
Menace Beach ... Yes, aka Sunday Funday, the horribly hard platformer on a skateboard mentioned in the AVGN's Bible Games video for example. It's... frustrating. The controls are so, so slippery, and you die randomly so many ways... bounced back by spring blocks, hit by enemies or random shots while on a balloon, bumped into a pit, because THAT jump block secretly bounces you down into the pit instead of into the air, etc, etc. It's such an annoying game...
Still, it does some interesting things. You can pick up items, which is vital at some points (for carrying a bomb over to where you have to try to blow up a sumo guy with it, for example). Now blowing up sumo guys with bombs (the only way to kill them) is very hard and frustrating, as you need to toss it and then just hope that he's in its range when it goes off (likely he won't be and you need to go back and try again), but it's somewhat different at least...
Also, you have infinite continues from the beginning of the level, there are only 12 levels, and the first half of the game isn't that hard, apart from some frustration in level two. Level 9 is by far the hardest one; that one took a LOT of frustration to get past, that's for sure. From beginning to end, it's just so, so hard...
Once I finally managed to get past it, though, level 10 wasn't too bad, and 11 only had one tricky part (with a jump too long to jump and with no balloon; I eventually just figured to to the 'floating jump' you do when you repeatedly hit jump in the air (or turn on turbo and hold the jump button... :)), getting as far as possible before dying. This worked and there was a continue point on the next platform... kind of annoying, though, that you seem to have to die to get past that (unless there's something I missed, which quite possible). Oh well... at least the last level wasn't very long. The final boss was kind of tricky, those rocks kill you instantly, but it's short. The final boss is a bit of a pain, but once you figure out how to hit him (use the rocks...), I eventually beat him. It definitely took a lot of tries, though. This is one game that I'd never get anywhere near the end of without infinite continues, that's for sure!
Oh, in classic NES fashion, the ending wasn't particularly rewarding. Oh well, I wasn't exactly expecting much. At least there is an ending scene and not just "END" on the screen and that's it or something. :)