PixlBit

I've got a large chunk of the old site backed up, but I know that my time is limited regarding doing so. I should be able to find time to do the rest of it this week, as well as finish review #97 (Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!!). I must admit that I haven't beaten Tyson with a normal password - that is, going through Super Macho Man to get to him, rather than just using the Tyson code. That last fight is probably one of the toughest things I have yet come across in the NES library; maybe it's because I didn't grow up with it as a kid, or because it's so different from so many other NES games. I can down a tough side-scroller with enough persistence, but taking down Tyson is something I've only done once. I'll come back to it at some point, though, so I can mark it - as well as the other eight "provisionally beaten" games - off of my list for good.

Speaking of which, I managed to knock out Ghosts 'N Goblins over the weekend, going through both playthroughs and getting the "happy end." Most of the game is not nearly as brutal as most people would have you think, save for two sections: the second half of level 3, and all of level 6. The former is a large cave full of "Red Arremers" - swooping devils that are difficult to avoid, and are more aggressive the more you attack. The latter is a gauntlet of pure pain, which takes you past a series of bosses and other difficult enemies. Both of them require very specific methods for getting through safely, although I'm sure there's a speedrun out there that takes a devil-may-care approach and miraculously gets through to the end with seemingly little effort. Were I to play the game again, I think the first go of levels 3 and 6 would be a lot easier, but when the game forces you to play through the second time with faster enemies... well, screw Capcom. Or screw Micronics, really, who's responsible for the port and seriously botched the pathing for those things. It took me about six hours to beat the game, which I've otherwise spent little time playing; this run was the first time I've ever gotten past level 3.

Tiger-Heli, on the other hand, took about 17 minutes to finish. Not much to say here - a standard shooter, with plenty of seizure-inducing flicker from the good folks at Micronics.

Who's Micronics, you ask? We'll get into that sooner or later... for now, I'm nearly 50 reviews behind, and will try to get the next one up within the week. Balancing professional and free-time pursuits is a tricky thing these days, though, so I'll do what I can when I can, and try to figure out a good way to archive the old blogs in some capacity. Stay tuned!