NES #24: Super C

I thought it would be fun to go back through Super C after playing the original so recently. Super C is, of course, the sequel to the classic Contra. It was innovative in its use of the word "Super" in the title. In a year or two the Super Nintendo would come out, and every game would start to have "super" in its title. It also has an abbreviation in its title. This was right before the big abbreviation boom of the 90s. I think it was still pre-KFC. I don't think I've ever spent so much time talking about the title of a game, but I haven't written about Street Fighter 2010 or Super Castlevania IV yet. Don't think that this is the last time.

So Super C is one of the ultimate sequels on the NES. It is also one of the sequels that is the most like its predecessor. If you play the two games far apart from each other its hard to even tell the difference. About the only thing that I noticed the first time through was that the base levels from the first games are gone and replaced by fun vertical scrolling levels. This time I waited about a month between the two games, so I was much better able to notice the subtle differences.

What I noticed right away was that on Super C you walk much slower. This is very strange for a game series. In almost every case the next game in a series is faster. This annoyed me at first, but I got used to it. Another difference is that the weapons are better. The fire and laser were both pretty much useless in the first game, but in this one I don't always try to avoid them. There were even sections of the game where I wanted to get the fire gun. This is highly unusual. Also I noticed that the levels didn't have titles on this one. I don't know why, but I really missed that.

It also seems to me that Super C is easier than the original, although it is almost impossible to to be unbiased about it. If you've played through one of the games than you will already know the game play, and that should give you an advantage in the second game no matter which one it is. I sure had an easier time getting through it this time around though. I would say it took about a half dozen tries. I didn't even mean to beat it when I was playing it. I was just practicing because I had a little extra time and knew that it was going to be the next game I was going to play. My girlfriend left the room and actually didn't believe me ten minutes later when I told her I had beaten it. It was all so sudden.

Of course this is where it goes back to being unbiased. I just played through the original Contra a couple weeks before this one and was able to get back into the game play. As you already know Contra took me about a million tries and almost made me want to retire from gaming. So I breezed through Super C but does that make it an easier game? It's hard to say.

One thing I will say though is that they are both excellent games. If you look at the whole Contra series you've got one excellent Super Nintendo installment (which oddly leaves the word "Super" out of it's title) and then a baffling number of games that people don't care about much on just about every system. At best these games usually play like poor Gunstar Heroes clones. It was in the old days that this once proud franchise truly shines, and we should all feel lucky that there were two games that played so well released so close together which can still be found for around ten bucks. Of course there is another NES installment that just about ruins the whole narrative, but I'm not ready to talk about that one yet.

NES #23: Final Fantasy

Sorry that it's been so long since I updated this blog. Is it really just my second entry in September? Well I have a good excuse. I've been busy playing Final Fantasy. This has to be one of the longest games on the whole system. There's no counter on it, but I'm sure I put in a good 20 or 30 hours on it, and this was probably my 3rd or 4th time through. That's really impressive for a game that is about to turn 23.

I have to say that I was really surprised by how much I enjoyed playing through this one again. It seems like it's got some things working against it. You walk very slowly in this game. This gets really annoying in towns, especially when townsfolk block your way. Like most old overhead RPGs there is an over emphasis on level gaining especially in the sections leading up to the first two fiends. Of course a lot of this can be attributed to the game being released in 1987 in Japan. At that time there was only a handful of 8-bit RPGs to use as a template. This game was a pretty bold leap forward when all you had for inspiration was Hydlyde and the first two Dragon Quest games.

So why do I love this game so much? I certainly love how large it is. This game as a very large overworld with with several towns and and dungeons with secrets to be found in all of them. This is a game that really requires you to pay attention because you are going to hear things in towns that you have to remember much later in the game. This really gives the game the feeling of an actual world and not just a bunch of separate quests smashed together. This is a really ambitious game, and I'm really surprised by how well everything in it works.

I've only got a couple of complaints about this one. I hate how long it takes to buy potions. You gotta buy those things one at a time, so buying 99 of them will take a few minutes. There's only one level of heal potion, so when you start to get near the end of the game it could take 20 or so for your character to be completely healed. It would've been nice to have a heal 2 potion so you wouldn't have to buy as many. This was also before the innovation of attacks defaulting to the next available enemy if the enemy selected gets killed. If you select all four of your characters to attack a certain enemy and your first character kills him than the rest are going to be attacking the air. This is a little annoying, but it does require you to actually think about the battles a little bit. I guess I've got mixed feelings about that one.

So I had a lot of fun playing back through this one. It certainly took longer than any of the games on my list so far. I was actually playing through Battle of Olympus before I started this one, but as usual I got bored with it half way through. I'm starting to wonder if I'll ever finish that game. Anyway, if you've never played Final Fantasy than I highly recommend it. It's an excellent first installment of one of the great video game franchises of all time. You might be surprised to see a Final Fantasy game on such an old timey system, especially since it has so much in it that they still use in the series today. I always go with two fighters, a black mage, and a white mage, but I guess that choice is completely up to you.

NES #22: Contra

For as good as I was at Life Force recently I completely embarrassed myself playing Contra. I used to be so good at this game! I remember beating this game without getting killed back in the day. I didn't think it was a big accomplishment or anything at the time. I just didn't want to lose my good gun and felt that the best way to keep it would be by not getting killed. Of course that was quite a few years ago. Recently I picked the game back up because I thought it would be an easy completion for my blog. I am the king of Contra after all.

I played through this game like someone who had never even played NES before. It probably took me a dozen or so tries before I could even get past the first level. The weakest guys shooting at me from the ground gave me endless trouble. I thought I would still have this game memorized, but I didn't even remember anything after the snow level which I thought was in Super C. I persevered though and eventually got through it. Thankfully the last boss is pretty easy. The victory was actually quite satisfying after all the sweat and toil it took me to get through it again. It's nice when I get that feeling again.

I always hear that this game is one of the hardest out there. I don't really know if I would call it that, but it is a game that you have to play a lot. It's not exactly a trial and error game like Prince of Persia, but you do need to play through it enough to learn what's coming next. After you do that the game becomes much easier. I guess you could use the Konami code to get a bunch of lives, but as we all know the Konami code is for sissies. You really won't need it. This game is really fun and no problem to play levels multiple times.

Hmm, I actually can't think of that much to say about this one. It's always more difficult when it's a good game without many flaws. I really can't think of anything negative to say about this one. Well, the fire gun sucks but it's also pretty easy to avoid. This is just a fun and challenging game that all of you should beat at least once. You might think it's too hard or that you need a code to cheat your way through, but trust me you can do it.