TG16/PC Engine Game Rage Moments

[Ninja Spirit]

Just making this thread is cooling off.

What were some parts of TG/PCE games that really made you mad and throw the controller at times or curse up a storm?

Me? Well just now the final boss of Bloody Wolf pissed me off beyond my imagination.
>His beam will kill you in one hit. That's enough to put you on the edge. The real problem: You don't know which direction he'll fire that thing!

>His boomerangs seem to follow you everywhere you go

>That measly little standard gun is no match for that beefcake. it's a matter of time before you knock down one block of energy.

>Phase 2 is where the fun begins. He got his legion of illusions throwing me off and the real one may be out and gets a freebie on that one hit kill beam and you're gone before you know it.

This mothafucka is just.......cheap & unpredictable!

[Seldane]

Well, I can't really recall any "rage" moments when playing PCE...

But...

Neutopia really annoys me. That third area (water-ish) is terrible! I just can't get past it! I have no idea how I did it when I played it back in the days.. Damn game.  


Oh and when my Duo's SRAM got formatted three times in one month. That was annoying too. Really annoying.  

[Digi.k]

Lots of games like ninja spirit's last level can be done if you can perservere.. XD  (hmmm actually yea I think I did get mad doing this level)  ^__^



The only ones that I can think of that were ridiculously hard ... and I wasted no time in trading it for another game were Ninja Gaiden and Darius Plus (takes ages to level up)...

Salamader really does make my blood boil.. but I just can't help resist that awesome music from the PCE sound chip. I've been holding off from buying this because of its difficulty but I think this is one of those love/hate games.. so after playing this on emulation for a while I've decided to track a hard copy down later this year.

[rolins]

Super Star Soldier: Stage 6 + final stage

Super Raiden: Stage 10

[esteban]

Hey Ninja, that boss in Bloody Wolf is awesome, no? You'll get him, don't worry.

Space Harrier -- everything is going fine for the first dozen stages and then bam! and then bam! and then bam! Stupid little f***-ups prevent me from 1CC'ing the game. It took me ages to get decent at Space Harrier (I don't use continues).  

JJ & Jeff -- holy crap this game gets tough in the last level or two! I only beat this game a few times (2-3) and I had to use a LOT of continues (normally I don't like to resort to this). Adventure Island (NES) is just as challenging as this game, IMO. Both great games, though.

Sinistron -- I suck at stage 3, the asteroid field and stage 4, the maze. I can't consistently pass either stage. Sometimes I sail right through them, otherwise my game ends. What's funny is that I can play the final stage ,with a pea-shooter, better than I can play 3 or 4 (I'm not kidding, and the last stage is much tougher). I think I have a mental hang-up about asteroids and mazes. Seriously.

[Bake]

YEah I remember when I was 10 trying to beat the final guy in bloody wolf- I was crying, I stomping my feet on the floor... my dad was PISSED.  haha.  But now I'm older and yeah he's still kinda hard, but he's no match for me.

Darm in Ys is usually pretty tough... The first time I ever played Ys, I finally beat him with 3 HP left.

Still to this day, I cannot beat the final guy in bomberman.  He's so hard!  Well it's hard to hit him, but the thing that kills me is when I run out of time and all those things attack me.  

The ice stage in Keith Courage was pretty hard.  I remember as a kid I loathed that level.

And of course the falling level in Ninja Spirit, that took a while to get through---all luck.


and don't get me started on Bonk's adventure
 

[motdelbuort]

Any game I get pretty far in and then have to start over. Turrican was not designed for human players. I'd like to see the developers try and finish it. But I'm not good at games in general, I only finished Zonk CD for the first time a few weeks ago.


 

[Keranu]

I remember cursing up a storm on the last boss in Bloody Wolf as well. There was another boss in Bloody Wolf that was Bloody Annoying as well, I think it was the third or fourth level boss where you can only stab the guy - that boss took me awhile to beat!

R-Type can get pretty frustrating too because you'll make it so far and have the most badass weapon built up and then BAM, you die, loose your weapon, and start from the beginning of the level.

J.J. and Jeff definitely has it's moments too, but it's just so much fun to play anyways .

[Ninja Spirit]

Yeah that's R-Type for ya. Once you die and lose your power ups in later stages, you're pretty much fucked for good.

[_Paul]

Bomber Man 93 final boss can drive you up the wall sometimes.

[OldRover]

Turrican was not designed for human players.

I breezed through it...

The one game that had me so pissed that I actually tossed the disc at the wall was Strider. Seems to be some sort of platforming problem in the last level that makes it almost impossible to complete (during the reverse gravity area). I think I tossed a copy of China Warrior as well.

Bake: to beat the final boss in Bomberman, you pretty much have to wait for the crazy things to attack you when the time runs out. In order to beat them, what you have to do is sit on a bomb for a second or two...when they approach you, they cannot go through your bomb, so they'll go in the opposite direction. Then walk off to a safe area and boom, annoying critter gone. Repeat this for each of them and when they're all gone, you can take on the annoying-ass final turd yourself with no time limit.

Seldane: if you need help completing Neutopia, lemme know.

[esteban]

Turrican was not designed for human players.

I breezed through it...

What? I'm with motdelbuort on this one, Turrican kicks my ass. I actually haven't spent much time with it, but it struck me as a very tough game. I never beat the first stage. I probably should read the instruction manual . I remember losing a lot of life in some areas... it was if I was on a suicide run...

[pixeljunkie]

not really TG...but PCE

Tatsujin makes me scream out loud repeatedly

[akamichi]

RayXanber II.

After the first stage, which isn't that bad, the game just becomes impossible.  I think furthest I got was stage 3 or 4.

[pixeljunkie]

RayXanber II.

After the first stage, which isn't that bad, the game just becomes impossible.  I think furthest I got was stage 3 or 4.

oh god, I gave up on that one WAY before it could drive me crazy.

Nexzr, however drives me INSANE but I can see where I F'ed up and how I can do better. So I keep going.

[OldRover]

What? I'm with motdelbuort on this one, Turrican kicks my ass. I actually haven't spent much time with it, but it struck me as a very tough game. I never beat the first stage. I probably should read the instruction manual . I remember losing a lot of life in some areas... it was if I was on a suicide run...

Turrican is a total memory game. If you don't remember the location and actions of every single enemy in the game, you're gonna get your ass handed to you in short order. And the first level is a creampuff compared to the later levels (especially the 3-x levels, those are difficult). You have to remember where every enemy is, how the react to you and to the environment, and you have to know of environmental hazards as well. Also, correct usage of your alternate weapons is crucial...knowing when to use grenades, shockwaves, mines, and of course, the buzzsaw. It also helps to know where to use the laser and where to use the spreadshot. Finding 1UPs is vital (there's 1 at the very beginning of the first level, just walk left, avoiding the enemies that drop down the hill...when you get all the way to the left, simply jump up and one will fall from the sky...Super Turrican has the same thing at its first level except you dont have to jump for it, hehe). But anyways, a few tips for conquering Turrican (warning: spoilers ahead):

-Remember that while in buzzsaw mode, you can't be hurt...very useful for boss fights. It can take longer to fight the bosses this way but at least you won't be killed.
-You can shoot grenades (press select to select it, then press fire) at walls to damage everything on-screen. It causes even more damage by hitting something directly...again, good for bosses.
-The shockwave (press select twice and then press fire) is best used to clear out a whole screen of lesser enemies. You can also use it on bosses with large hit areas, but it's best used for this when they are moving in one of the directions the wave is going in (so it hits more times, causing more damage).
-Use mines (hold down and fire for two seconds) to clear the screen of anything that is stationary and shoots at you. It also works for many things that are walking on the ground but obviously is quite useless for flying things. You can even lay a mine while falling or while the "Entering level x-x" screen is showing (interesting game glitches).
-Use the laser whip (hold fire while standing) to clear out enemies you know are coming, as well as finding secret boxes (there's one near where you find the very first 1UP in the first level, quite useful for just starting out because you can usually power up your weapon to full with what it gives you).

For bosses, here's some hints on beating them:
1-2: The big hand boss is quite easy to beat. If you use the laser whip (provided it's long enough), you can face all the way to the right, activate the laser whip, and direct it towards the hand. It'll take awhile but this is a sure thing. Also, you can jump and toss grenades when it's away from you. The laser also does adequate damage.
1-3: The giant head boss is a bit trickier as there are no safe spots. I find it best to use the buzzsaw and a fully powered spread shot. Go back and forth, making sure to be right on him when he comes down so he gets a good pelting with shots. Also, when he comes down, you can hit him with a grenade if you time it right.
2-1: The fish mother is probably the toughest of them all, as her hit area is extremely small (it's her eye). The laser is useless here, and even the spread shot won't hit very much (and often not at all if it's not full power). Expect to lose a few lives here if you don't want to spend a half hour using the buzzsaw + shoot method you can use for the 1-3 boss. Grenades work great, as they can hit her anywhere, but the shockwave is virtually useless here. Also, when she starts to explode, put on your laser whip and direct it up towards her to avoid being nailed with the bouncing balls she explodes into...and make sure you get a good distance away as well.
2-3: The trash compacter boss is very easy. Have the laser for this one. When the fight begins, go back to the entrance to his room, crouch, and blast away. His weak spot is the ellipse behind the jaws. If he gets too close to you, use the buzzsaw and roll past him, toss some grenades at him. As with the fish boss, the shockwaves are pretty useless here.
3-1: The Monolith is the most annoying boss in the game. You will need to use the buzzsaw for this whole battle unless you want to die quickly because when he hits the walls, you'll take damage whether you're touching him or not, but in buzzsaw form, he can't hurt you. Go back and forth in buzzsaw form, and have the spread shot. Try to hit him with grenades while travelling right (if you travel left and shoot one and it misses, it will fly offscreen...at least if it goes right, if it misses him directly it'll hit the wall and still cause at least some damage).
3-3: The spawn-mother boss is the easiest boss in the game. Just use the buzzsaw and go back and forth with whatever shot you want, either laser or spreadshot. Toss grenades, and use shockwaves when she's moving away from you for maximum damage. You'll have no problem with her, which is nice considering how difficult it is to get to her...the 3-x levels are a nightmare.
4-2: The final boss "MORGUL" is almost the same as Monolith except there are no walls to launch grenades against. Again, use the buzzsaw and the spread shot. Shockwaves are good here as long as you hit him when he's moving away. Grenades will be hard to land but try it anyways. He is not difficult to beat, only slightly harder than Monolith.

[esteban]

What? I'm with motdelbuort on this one, Turrican kicks my ass. I actually haven't spent much time with it, but it struck me as a very tough game. I never beat the first stage. I probably should read the instruction manual . I remember losing a lot of life in some areas... it was if I was on a suicide run...

Turrican is a total memory game. If you don't remember the location and actions of every single enemy in the game, you're gonna get your ass handed to you in short order. And the first level is a creampuff compared to the later levels (especially the 3-x levels, those are difficult) ...

Rock on! Thanks for the scoop. I saved your advice on my machine locally, just in case I need it in the near future. I like to figure out games with as little assistance as I can get. However, I don't think Turrican is one of the games I am willing to bleed over! We'll see...

Thanks again

[BadIdeaSociety]

Shape Shifter -- The platform edge detection was a royal pain in the rear. For the number of times I landed Lycos on a platform almost completely only to watch him tumble to his death I'm a little shocked that I didn't throw my TG16 into the river.  Never did beat that game.

[Keranu]

The platform edge detection is annoying at first, but I got used to it after awhile and it was actually kind of fun since you had to react in time . It's like when you get the panther; he feels uneasy at first since you're not used to his controls, but after awhile the panther feels smooth to play with.

[BadIdeaSociety]

The platform edge detection is annoying at first, but I got used to it after awhile and it was actually kind of fun since you had to react in time Laughing . It's like when you get the panther; he feels uneasy at first since you're not used to his controls, but after awhile the panther feels smooth to play with.

Its funny, the Panther character is easier to move than Lycos. Both of his feet will be on the platform, but he will still tumble to his death.

[Keranu]

I think the panther suffered from the platform detection as well, and it was even worse for the panther since he was longer, so you had to act faster. I still managed to enjoy it though . By the way, nice to see another Illinois-ian on the boards! There are quite a few people from Illinois on this board, usually in Chicago or in the Chicago subburbs area (I'm in Crete, south Chicago subburb).

[Bake]

I have to say that Shapeshifter usually gets terrible reviews due to the extreme difficulty level.  I actually beat the game tho.  Easily one of the hardest games I've played.  Altho the game was hard, I enjoyed it very much.  But the game did indeed give me a turbo rage moment.  If I remember correctly, you had 9 continues and they go quickly!  If you die often during the beginning of the game, forget it.  I had to restart from the beginning so many times just to master the first couple of levels so I wouldn't die.  Save spots are limited as well.  If you want to beat this game, master the first couple of levels without dying and save it.  Then repeat the process (master levels then try to find a save spot).  Extremely difficult but very rewarding.

[ParanoiaDragon]

Turrican was not designed for human players.

I breezed through it...

The one game that had me so pissed that I actually tossed the disc at the wall was Strider. Seems to be some sort of platforming problem in the last level that makes it almost impossible to complete (during the reverse gravity area). I think I tossed a copy of China Warrior as well.

Bake: to beat the final boss in Bomberman, you pretty much have to wait for the crazy things to attack you when the time runs out. In order to beat them, what you have to do is sit on a bomb for a second or two...when they approach you, they cannot go through your bomb, so they'll go in the opposite direction. Then walk off to a safe area and boom, annoying critter gone. Repeat this for each of them and when they're all gone, you can take on the annoying-ass final turd yourself with no time limit.

Seldane: if you need help completing Neutopia, lemme know.

I've beaten Strider, I don't remember having any problems, that doesn't sound familiar.  And for some reason in Neutopia, I could never beat the final dungeon, so I always got as far as I could, then gave up, & entered the code for Dirth Vader.

Shapeshifter, yeah, now that game has pissed me off   I beat it only cuz of the code

[Ninja Spirit]

I've had it up to HERE with Final Zone II. Hansen/Momoko's stage is mental torture.

Anyone who can beat that game gets my props.

Too many enemies flood up the screen in a matter of seconds and trap your ass into oblivion. Have the programmers ever heard of "crowd control"?  No matter how careful you are not to get shot, it's hard to avoid sometimes. Because once you get caught in a stream of bullets, 90% of your life bar flies out the door, or you're terminated instantly! Geez the last thing you want is to run into a mid-boss tank with at least two soldiers around.

Some other things that contribute to the insane difficulty of FZII:
> When you turn around to change direction, your mech *spins* causing a slight moment of lag time and makes you a sitting duck.
> The aim of your gun is totally fucked up, the stream of fire is directly on the right hand side of your mech. When you're shooting a tank or blasting through soldiers, it's irritating that you find yourself blasting at nothing and it might force you to walk into enemy fire. Momoko is an exception with her three-way, but the firing rate still sucks.

[esteban]

I've had it up to HERE with Final Zone II. Hansen/Momoko's stage is mental torture.

Anyone who can beat that game gets my props.

Too many enemies flood up the screen in a matter of seconds and trap your ass into oblivion. Have the programmers ever heard of "crowd control"?  No matter how careful you are not to get shot, it's hard to avoid sometimes. Because once you get caught in a stream of bullets, 90% of your life bar flies out the door, or you're terminated instantly! Geez the last thing you want is to run into a mid-boss tank with at least two soldiers around.

Some other things that contribute to the insane difficulty of FZII:
> When you turn around to change direction, your mech *spins* causing a slight moment of lag time and makes you a sitting duck.
> The aim of your gun is totally fucked up, the stream of fire is directly on the right hand side of your mech. When you're shooting a tank or blasting through soldiers, it's irritating that you find yourself blasting at nothing and it might force you to walk into enemy fire. Momoko is an exception with her three-way, but the firing rate still sucks.

FZ II isn't too hard (and this is coming from someone who chokes on Samurai Ghost... also, the Generalissimo Boss(es) with the boomerangs / lazers in Bloody Wolf are much tougher than anything you'll find in FZII, IMO). Usually, it's easiest to take it nice and slow in FZII -- allowing only a few enemies on the screen at a time. Admittedly, this is a pretty lame technique , but at least you'll finish the game .

IIRC, there are some parts of the game that you just charge right through and dodge like mad (like the radioactive toxic zone, which has annoying electric barriers)...

I think FZII is a pretty poor game -- it should have been so much better -- and I agree with all of the points you listed.

[Keranu]

I once made it to that stage with the electric barriers as Steve said, but stopped to check something out in the real world . I think I could've beat the game if I kept playing and it was the farthest I have ever made it in the game (since I put the most effort into it at that point, I was really wanting to see the Bowie slap and hear that song Steve always mentions). I haven't had the determination to try beating the game since then, but since we are talking about it now, maybe I will give it a go. The game didn't seem too hard for the most part, I mainly did the slow method Steve mentioned. The one stage that was quite a bit of challenge though is the helicopter stage that plays like a vertical shooter, that's usually the stage I always play to until I stop. I remember the electric barrier stage being a real pain in the ass, but once again, I am sure I could've beat it with more time.

[Paladin]

The fourth stage in Valis 4 used to piss me off so bad that I would scream utter nonsense at it, I was to pissed off to think of what to say. I mean getting up almost the whole way and then getting knocked 3/4 of the way back down got old real fast. Eventually I got the path down and how and when to do everything so its not a problem, but I remember the hell of when I first got there. Now I curse at the ice levels because I hate using the third character.

Cotton makes me want to use the disc as a frisbie sometimes. Even when you know how to handle certain parts something can always go wrong and then your screwed. If you die more than once in the later levels your boned as you can't deal with everything fast enough. I know it shouldn't be this hard but seriously not even Nexzr gives me this much grief.

Dragon Spirit hates me. I'll get so far without getting hit like up to stage 6 and then I get crushed. I can make it to stage 7 now but seriously how is anyone supposed to beat this game. Sometimes I've had thoughts of snapping the card in half, but I've found that after trying to beat constantly I've come to actually love the game. So I guess its a one sided relationship. It hates me and kicks my ass yet I can't stop playing it.

[Keranu]

Dragon Spirit is a really hard game for me, I usually only make it to stage 3 or 4.

[Odonadon]

Altered Beast - the entire game.  I don't think I've ever played a game with worse game mechanics.  The Genesis/arcade versions were relatively simple - I can barely get past the first level in the PCE version.  Just a crappy game, really.

Fighting Street - frustrating controls and special moves are hard to pull off.  The game isn't particularily hard, but nothing I want to happen actually happens  Plus the d-pad is not designed for the half-circle moves - keep shredding my thumb.

R-Type - reasons why have already been posted

OD

[Digi.k]

I'm at that last level of dragon spirit but the spikes just before the boss just .... ARRRRRGGGGGHHHHHH!!!! and those stupid skull gels.. >__<


Also trying to complete Valkyrie no densetsu but that last boss .........   i feel the veins in my necks gonna burst >__<;

[runinruder]

Whoever said Sinistron was right on the money.  That game becomes extremely tough as soon as you get halfway through level 4 (the asteroids).  I love it, though; felt great to beat it, and the music is excellent.

As far as Shape Shifter goes, the controls take some practice and it does suck that you can save in only one spot, but the game is AMAZING.  I've beaten it without dying, and I'm hardly a great player.  For what it's worth, I like to play it with the TurboStick.  Put in some practice and get in a zone, and the controls start to feel great; and then you can enjoy all the great concepts at work.

[Keranu]

Well said, mate.