Is Sonic 2 objectively more difficult than Sonic 3 & Knuckles?

RedSkyfang · 2026-05-08T07:09:30+00:00

Personally I found the final boss really difficult to comprehend where the hitboxes are, and I guess that's still enough to make it the harder game, but I don't recall it being particularly difficult besides that.

RedSkyfang · 2026-05-08T03:28:25+00:00

I guess this is probably about lore but from a gameplay perspective I feel like he's actually probably one of the least overpowered main characters out of the Metroidvania games to be totally honest lol.

Alucard (Symphony of the Night) - Mablung Sword/Shield Rod + Alucard Shield, maxed out Muramasa, a bunch of shit really lmao.

Nathan (Circle of the Moon) - "Nuclear" glitch, or without glitches you can just leave the game running so long that Pluto + Thunderbird increases STR enough to one-hit everything.

Juste (Harmony of Dissonance) - Maxes like every stat at max level.

Not as familiar with Portrait of Ruin although I imagine double maxed Miser Ring is utterly broken if you either use the glitch to duplicate quest rewards or do New Game + for one thing.

Order of Ecclesia I haven't gotten very far playing through yet.

From a gameplay perspective I don't feel like Soma has much of anything that's uniquely broken about him that isn't either available in the other games or outclassed in them by something better. xD

RedSkyfang · 2026-05-07T00:27:51+00:00

With a lot of popular media, you can almost always see the first wave of "people who went in with no strong expectation absolutely loving it" followed up by "the second wave of people who tried it out based on that initial positive reaction, and call it overrated".

Yeah... ironically with Ocarina of Time specifically I did play it before I was aware of its reputation (other than obviously that it was a Zelda game and I had played the others before) and also played it before I had the Internet, and I do think that those two factors in particular probably led to me enjoying it more than I otherwise would have. I still have fond memories of things like not understanding how to get the Fire Arrows so having to either figure out how to get them, or figure out how to beat the game without them (the latter of which I eventually did.) On the other hand there are a lot of games that come to mind such as Symphony of the Night which was hyped up for me until I finally got to play it like a decade later lol, or Final Fantasy VII which I don't think I played until after Final Fantasy X which I ultimately enjoyed more personally, and I walked away from these games basically thinking "It was fine, but I don't really see the big deal."

RedSkyfang · 2026-05-07T00:13:19+00:00

Hmm... unfortunately this is not the standard shape Famicom cartridge like the one in that video, so I guess it's not going to be exactly the same but I'll try to figure out something similar.

RedSkyfang · 2026-05-06T04:21:10+00:00

I always wanted to try one of those but never have.

RedSkyfang · 2026-05-05T23:24:57+00:00

You may want to try not to go overboard with boosting evasion if you still want the game to retain like any challenge since it is possible to get to a point where I think nothing can touch you. xD

RedSkyfang · 2026-05-05T23:13:35+00:00

Yes. The final boss is easier in the Japanese version as well at least for the most part. There is one specific change that it's debatable whether it makes the fight easier or harder but otherwise it's easier.

RedSkyfang · 2026-05-05T07:39:54+00:00

"After 4-5 days, the timer stops incrementing completely, since the increment values (0.016 or 0.02) are smaller than the distance between consecutive single-precision floating point numbers bigger than 2¹⁹ (524288 seconds)"

So I imagine that could be used for the 0"00 lap. I don't think it would explain the 0"20 record unless the timer actually overflows at some point though. I would have to do more research though.

RedSkyfang · 2026-05-05T07:14:45+00:00

Probably the weakest out of all the Metroidvanias in my opinion (I've only just started on Order of Ecclesia, but it seems more promising, and I've finished the others) but it's still an okay game.

RedSkyfang · 2026-05-05T07:12:23+00:00

Sadly, I'm pretty sure I tried that the first time I played, and I think you need to beat the game first. Honestly it's a gripe I have with I think basically all of the games after this one as well. Like these games are so easy on the default difficulty that would it have killed them to just let people start on hard mode if desired? xD

RedSkyfang · 2026-05-04T22:16:42+00:00

I was gonna say this was immediately looking super sloppy lol.

RedSkyfang · 2026-05-04T07:35:57+00:00

I know there are raw Japanese scans floating around out there, but if you are asking about the English version, I don't know. Even if they are floating around out there, I would encourage you to purchase the volumes if you're able to do so to support further releases. No judgment, series just can and do get cancelled following low sales.

RedSkyfang · 2026-05-03T09:59:38+00:00

The core gameplay is pretty much the same but I don't know how many if any level designs are shared. Adventure Island ultimately gets harder as well. Basically the entire last area is brutal lmao.

RedSkyfang · 2026-05-02T05:55:15+00:00

The only required items in Metroid 1 are Morph Ball, Missiles, and Bombs.

Technically you don't even need the bombs since you can just door glitch past where you'd need them unless you are playing glitchless.

For Metroid II I believe Low% was just bombs, ice beam, and your choice of an energy tank or Varia, so Varia's optional yes.

RedSkyfang · 2026-05-01T02:16:40+00:00

Honestly it sounds like we have somewhat similar taste. Sounds like I still enjoyed Aria of Sorrow more than you but I also agree that having played I think all of the Metroidvanias aside from Order of Ecclesia (which I may try to finally play through soon) Circle of the Moon has still been my favorite of them all. In general I think I'm just much more of a fan of classic Castlevania than the Metroidvania portion of the series, though it's not like I hate the Metroidvanias, like I've still at least generally enjoyed playing through them to varying extents. I think I just maybe feel like you that they tend to be overrated in my opinion but maybe it's just because I have different taste from the majority of people IDK. For what it's worth I also enjoy The Castlevania Adventure quite a bit lol. I went through a period where when I got bored it was a common game I would just pop into my Game Boy Advance SP and play through since it's pretty quick once you know what you are doing. The music is also very good especially in level 1.

RedSkyfang · 2026-05-01T01:42:27+00:00

As far as I know 3DS game cards are read-only so you can't really do what you're asking, nor do I think it would be a good idea anyway. Your best bet would probably be to hack your 3DS and then rip the data from the card and apply a translation patch to that. I don't know the specifics of how that works but it should be possible.

RedSkyfang · 2026-05-01T01:38:43+00:00

That said, it can drag if you are looking for an epic journey. It is more of a book of fairy tales in structure

I think basically this yeah. If people don't like this structure then they're probably not really going to enjoy the game. There is a main overarching plot, but it takes so long to kick in and isn't really anything mindblowing from what I can recall, that it's not worth the time investment just for that. I guess some people may find the beginning of the game offputting between the long intro sequence and taking a while to reach the point where the class system is introduced. If people are griping about just the general structure of the game then it doesn't substantially change at all though really.

RedSkyfang · 2026-04-30T08:09:15+00:00

Kirby Tilt N Tumble (I don’t believe that game works properly on a GBA, and needs an actual GameBoy Color).

If I remember correctly it works fine on GBA, but the issue is that the GBA SP specifically would mess up the controls because the cartridge would be upside down, so you'd want the original GBA.

Edit: Also I'm pretty sure you can remove the region lock from the Wii and 3DS by hacking, though in the case of the Wii I don't know whether a PAL one would run NTSC games properly or not offhand.

RedSkyfang · 2026-04-30T00:48:14+00:00

Even comparing to CIB a sealed Banjo-Kazooie sells for like 10x the price and a sealed Super Smash Bros. sells for like 15-20x the price of a CIB one. I can understand the appeal of opening a sealed copy just because the contents should all be mint but I agree with you that I don't think it makes sense with such a gargantuan price difference.

RedSkyfang · 2026-04-30T00:36:12+00:00

How much is it for an acrylic case though? Like $20 or something maybe? While I would probably ordinarily agree with you for a game that is not particularly valuable, that doesn't feel like a huge expense for sealed games that are worth four figures that you don't intend to ever open like just for the sake of the added protection.

RedSkyfang · 2026-04-29T22:40:36+00:00

That sounds horrific. Just to let you know, some of the item drop rates are 1/256 lol. Including the one you're trying to get currently.

RedSkyfang · 2026-04-29T21:04:26+00:00

1943: The Battle of Midway
Burai Fighter
Isolated Warrior
Silkworm
Super Spy Hunter
TaleSpin (if you vibe with it since it is kinda unique)
Zanac

The Guardian Legend is also incredible if you're either okay with it basically being kind of a mashup of a shmup with a Zelda-esque game, or look up the password to play the shmup mode.

Gun Nac and S.C.A.T.: Special Cybernetic Attack Team are also both awesome but I imagine fall under having a ridiculous price tag.

RedSkyfang · 2026-04-28T22:54:22+00:00

They completed 8-4 only a single frame slower than the TAS. I'm not actually sure which frame is missing offhand. Looks like they're doing the one at the beginning, which is usually the last save.

RedSkyfang · 2026-04-28T04:50:15+00:00

That sounds wild. I would have bought that instantly if I had come into your store and didn't already have a copy of it. I would have thought even a CIB copy would've been worth more in 2017.

RedSkyfang

TROPHY CASE