RetroGameClub #1 - Little Samson (Lickle)

[Sayo]

Well that was certainly a ride, not one I am willing to undertake again anytime soon but a worthwhile one all the same.
It's a great game, it easily sits among the upper echelon of NES platformers, however it has some flaws that hold it back from being anything other than a really good game, mostly its life system and some purposely devious level traps, unfair checkpoint systems near the last bosses and its over reliance on having extended health. The risk and reward system is not that well implemented because some areas like tunnels for the mouse are intentionally meant to deceive you and get you shot at. Otherwise this was a fancy little game, it has some of the best animations I've seen on any 8 bit title and the ending is one of the most rewarding ones on the entire console.
I will now make a thread for the second iteration of RGC.

Spoiler: end

Wahoo! I have beaten the game! If you are struggling with the final boss, reveal the Boss spoiler to see my winning strategy.
As for the ending, well, unfortunately I played the game on Easy, and as I should have expected, after the credits there were some additional scenes, eluding to another area and ultimate final boss. If I had known this I would have started the game on Normal. Doh!

Overall I enjoyed this game and would have loved it had I owned a copy back when it came out. Despite some of its more difficult parts, I think it was much more forgiving than the Mega Man games. I think the only downside was that the music was the same for every stage because it only changed when you switched characters. I found myself hardly changing Samson, so it was his theme song for every level except for a few instances where I had to change my character for a short period. I think they had a good concept that likely would have been fleshed out better had there been a sequel.

Spoiler: Last Boss Strategy

In his first form, use Samson and simply dodge the boss' attacks and as he descends, stay up close and spam your attack at him.
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In his second form, you will want to be the mouse when dodging his flurry of magic ball attacks.
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When he returns to attack you, use the dragon to get some attacks in before flying over his projectiles. You will only get a few hits in before he returns to the background to unleash his balls of fury, so this will be an endurance match. Good luck!
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Oh and be sure to stay after the credits...
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Thanks for sharing your thoughts and joining me along for the ride, I really appreciate your contribution to the thread and I want to apologize for not replying earlier. I played the game on Normal myself and I struggled quite a bit with it, I had to end up using save states because passwords take away all your health extensions, I used them in limitation, only before the start of the stage and only reloaded them after rebooting my computer, never after dying. I realize this is a questionable approach but I sadly wanted to be on schedule for finishing the game, the final boss took me about 30 tries but he was worth it. That one boss you posted, the yellow mage, was the most challenging one in the entire game for me. It took me about 40 tries and 2 hours.

 

[sandogma]

What was the final boss like? Did he have multiple forms? I think using save states is perfectly fine considering how unforgiving some of these classic games are and the fact that we want to actually finish the game before the deadline. Like you, I will only use save states when I'm at a point where I need to use them in order to progress. I'm looking forward to the next game and hope more people join the club!

 

[Sayo]

What was the final boss like? Did he have multiple forms? I think using save states is perfectly fine considering how unforgiving some of these classic games are and the fact that we want to actually finish the game before the deadline. Like you, I will only use save states when I'm at a point where I need to use them in order to progress. I'm looking forward to the next game and hope more people join the club!

The final boss has two phases, however the entire final act is comprised of three stages.

1. The first one is a fairly challenging stage riddled with jumping eyeballs and firing skeletons, after clearing it you must fight Death again and the cyclops (?) one after the other with a single life, if you fail you also need to redo the stage again
2. The second stage is a similarly challenging one filled with enemies, clearing it makes you fight another two bosses, the thunder wizard and the bootleg Mega Man 2 dragon, same deal as before regarding dying
3. The final stage, it's quite difficult but very brief, after clearing it you fight the final boss, he has an easy first phase but his second phase is not that forgiving and he can recover health by stabbing you with his sword, the most annoying part is having to redo the entire stage each time you die and farming for health potions by killing the flying skulls, which are both annoying and a lot of them
4. After beating the boss, you must complete an escape sequence not unlike those of Metroid, it's I think pretty much impossible not to take damage during this stage and the way to beat it was a bit confusing, it involved hitting a moving block to move over it

As for your statement regarding save states, I appreciate your understanding, and hopefully you will join me in the second thread, which I have posted to the board. Yup, I believe ten days have already passed, so Bonk's Adventure time haha.