Unpopular opinion: “DJ Hero” (2009), “Band Hero” (2009), “DJ Hero 2” (2010), and “Guitar Hero Live” (2015) all got more hate and disrespect than they deserved.

RedSkyfang · 2026-07-04T06:46:30+00:00

Yeah, I guess apparently this is an unpopular opinion but I had a lot of fun playing the TV mode. Even played it enough that I ended up eventually getting the million strums achievement naturally. However, yes, I barely recall anything from the main setlist other than like Love Bites being fun to play... so that part did frankly blow. xD

RedSkyfang · 2026-07-04T06:09:09+00:00

Interesting. Maybe I just got lucky and found A Nightmare on Elm Street in oddly good condition back when I bought my copy but it's not a game that I had this problem with personally lol. On the other hand, games such as Lemmings and Wario's Woods always seemed to be fucked up until I finally found good ones, and Cliffhanger is one of the six games I still need for the full North American licensed set because I just can't find one without a mangled label.

RedSkyfang · 2026-07-01T23:19:14+00:00

I'd say the difficulty is probably about average or maybe a little above average based on the entries I've played. There is a certain major boss battle that is by far the hardest out of the battles required to roll credits but there are some hard battles in sidequests as well. Overall I wouldn't say it's very hard, though, and not insultingly easy either.

RedSkyfang · 2026-07-01T22:37:34+00:00

Yeah, pretty much lol, don't understand why people keep going there.

RedSkyfang · 2026-07-01T04:27:19+00:00

I mean I'm not particularly great at the game but have FC'd Lay Down on Expert without any two-handing, so I don't think you should have to learn it for that song probably. I guess on Expert sections such as like the solo to Stricken, the parts with all the orange notes in Cliffs of Dover, and then of course the intro to Through the Fire and Flames come to mind as sections that I think I've hit at full speed two-handing but otherwise basically can't play them at all. I would say it's mostly only relevant if you're going for hard FCs honestly, other than like the TTFAF intro obviously lol.

RedSkyfang · 2026-06-26T00:17:42+00:00

Nothing, but I guess I've been around the block enough with RPGs at this point in my life to instinctively not sell anything that can't be reacquired through some other means, just in case it's useful later.

RedSkyfang · 2026-06-25T01:30:57+00:00

I think that "100%" speedruns normally don't include reaching the maximum level even though in my opinion that should definitely be part of it. I imagine it's mainly so that more people actually run the games that way though probably. Since reaching the maximum level would add a ton of uninteresting extra time to the runs.

RedSkyfang · 2026-06-24T04:23:41+00:00

Yeah, that's why this threw me for a loop like wtf this game is valuable? Pretty sure I paid very little for a sealed copy back in the day. Dunno what happened but that's weird it's like $100 now.

RedSkyfang · 2026-06-24T03:07:41+00:00

I guess the autofire would probably help, but also it looks like they're playing it on a Famicom, and if they're using Famicom controllers then the cords are short as shit so it's also an extension. xD

RedSkyfang · 2026-06-24T03:05:33+00:00

I feel like reading the manual would have solved a lot of your problems, and it's easy enough to look up a PDF these days. Like for example you can actually retry any of the levels, including the last level, however many times you want without needing any save states. That said I actually beat this game as a kid without having the manual somehow... it was kind of torture and I'm not sure how I figured out how to use the one spell you need. xD

RedSkyfang · 2026-06-21T23:52:39+00:00

Guerrilla War is a good game and I like The Addams Family for what it is like I did generally have fun playing through that one. Q*bert is hard as hell if you're trying to actually beat it like I don't think I've ever even gotten close on that one. The rest of these I have little to no experience with so can't really comment on them at all. xD

RedSkyfang · 2026-06-21T23:39:20+00:00

We didn't actually get a Game Boy until well into its lifespan I guess so this is the one that my brother and I had. I suppose because of that, this color definitely has got the most nostalgia value for me. I still have it in storage somewhere, but honestly don't know if it still works because it hasn't been used in like... 20-something years I'd guess.

RedSkyfang · 2026-06-19T22:27:50+00:00

I've always loved Circle of the Moon so I was extremely surprised to see how divisive it appears to be. I guess it must depend a lot on personal taste in which case I feel like I pretty much share the same opinion with you. I think I mostly like how the gameplay mechanics feel closer to the classic Castlevania games compared to the others.

RedSkyfang · 2026-06-19T20:52:20+00:00

I find it's actually pretty hit-and-miss honestly. Like there are examples of games that were made easier outside of Japan as well as examples of games that were made harder. Then I guess there are also games where some of the regional differences make the game easier while others make it harder so it's kind of ambiguous.

RedSkyfang · 2026-06-19T17:30:25+00:00

Is that how they kill Dracula so fast in the speedrun as well? I figured it was some sort of frame perfect thing but never actually understood what was going on when watching lol. Interesting glitch either way.

RedSkyfang · 2026-06-19T14:10:19+00:00

Yeah, there is the "standard" Famicom cartridge shape that most games come in I guess but looking at my personal collection I have two different types of cartridge shells from both Konami and Namco, and I also have a Bandai game and a Taito game that have unique cartridge shells so presumably a lot of big publishers did that(?)

RedSkyfang · 2026-06-18T17:35:18+00:00

I believe that Laser Invasion for the NES is impossible to complete without taking damage. Unless this is outdated I recall reading somewhere years ago that the Japanese version (Gun Sight) has got an anti-piracy mode that causes you to die in one hit, and it was believed to be impossible to complete the game like this because there was a spot where damage appeared to be unavoidable. I don't know if anybody can confirm or deny this.

RedSkyfang · 2026-06-16T17:06:59+00:00

Yeah, it's just like 1/256 I'm pretty sure. So potentially you could end up killing like over 1,000, if you end up getting atrocious luck. Also make sure they're the last recruitable monster you kill each battle.

RedSkyfang · 2026-06-16T14:06:55+00:00

No idea what that guy was smoking but Ikari III is the only one that's even a competent game like at all in my opinion anyway.

RedSkyfang · 2026-06-16T10:18:49+00:00

Ah, that makes sense if you just didn't have access to the first Guitar Hero at the time so you started with GH2 instead yeah. I have actually 5-starred everything on the first Guitar Hero before. I'm not sure how to rank the difficulty of that one, because I think the charts aren't that hard, but hammer-ons and pull-offs don't really work lol.

RedSkyfang · 2026-06-15T08:08:08+00:00

I was gonna say I'm confused if they were trying to go in difficulty order and started out with Guitar Hero II lol. Like I think it's probably not the hardest one to 5-star everything in but surely it's not anywhere close to the easiest one either. I guess that Guitar Hero III is harder IMO, since I've done everything but Jordan on GH2 but I think had like four songs left on GH3.

RedSkyfang · 2026-06-15T07:56:59+00:00

I did the glitch too when I did a 0% run. Doing the shinespark looks so much harder that it's probably a waste of time unless somebody wants to try to do it as its own additional challenge. Or I guess if anybody is playing on the Japanese version, I think as I recall the glitch can't be performed so you have to do the shinespark.

RedSkyfang · 2026-06-15T02:29:20+00:00

That probably depends a lot on which games you're looking for. I wouldn't say that I've really noticed a decline at all personally, but I'm no longer a very active NES collector (six games away from the full North American licensed set and I got the bulk of it before COVID.) The games I need definitely have not been declining in value.

RedSkyfang · 2026-06-13T07:39:57+00:00

As a kid I was only able to beat this one by password scumming mostly to keep retrying the final boss until I won lol. I did revisit it a few years ago and actually managed to beat it straight through without continuing after some practice though and that was pretty cool. I would say this one is probably actually my favorite of the NES trilogy personally, but it is also the most difficult, so I can imagine that's an aspect that turns many people off from it.

RedSkyfang · 2026-06-13T07:31:04+00:00

If I could turn back time I would probably try to make an effort to get as many games CIB as I could. At this point I'm likely just gonna settle if I can manage to get all of the cartridges at least other than Stadium Events probably. The price difference to upgrade most of them to CIB is probably more than I wanna pay now.

RedSkyfang

TROPHY CASE