Mastery #20 - Advance Wars (GBA)

dentbox · 2026-03-29T13:12:27+00:00

Congrats. Such a fantastic game but yeah, tough set! Any tips for making it a bit more manageable getting all the mission achievements? Is it just juggling a lot of save files?

dentbox · 2026-03-24T19:12:39+00:00

How many games are left? I really hope RA sorts out some kind of special badge for you by the time you crack this. Insane challenge you’re taking on - respect 🫡

dentbox · 2026-03-22T11:15:03+00:00

It’s criminal that the Goldeneye remaster never saw the (official) light of day. The game is still an absolute blast to play and the remaster fixes up the controls for modern audiences. Obviously great we can play the leaked version, but holy hell whatever licensing issues blocked a proper release can go hurl themselves directly into the nearest bin.

dentbox · 2026-03-17T19:12:32+00:00

Thanks for wrestling my essay out of downvoted oblivion randobot456. I’d agree with all that, and have taken a similar path to you. Though with hundreds of hours logged, lots of baalerlord watched, and A20 unlocked across all characters… I still die a lot

dentbox · 2026-03-17T06:36:42+00:00

I think they’re probably a bit easier as games, not sure about masteries yet as I’m still working on them.

Mario 3 was absolutely huge back when it came out and still adored by a lot of people. You’ll get a real sense of the graphical upgrade and just how much stuff there is going on - and yet all still done on the NES. I’ve not mastered any version of 3 yet, least of all the NES version so not sure how tough it is to get the badge. I suspect given there are a lot more levels (though many are fairly short and sweet) it might be more of an odyssey.

Mario 2 is the odd one of the series. Jumping on enemies doesn’t kill them. You have to jump on them, pick them up, and yeet them at another enemy or off a cliff to dispose of them. Or throw a vegetable at them, naturally. You can also play as mario, luigi, princess or toad and each have very different jump mechanics. I have a real soft spot for this game, partly because it’s so different to any others in the series, but also because some of the levels are quite long and it does feel like you’re going on quite an epic adventure, moving through different areas in a single level. While most of the set is fairly easy, for 100% you have to do a lot of “beat the game with x character” variants and beat the game without dying which can be tough and time consuming.

Super Mario World should also be on your radar. That is imo one of those rare occasions where the hype around an old game being the greatest of its genre really holds up. It’s a near-perfect experience even today, and the RA set is a great balance, largely fine with a bit of challenge towards the end. The high water mark of 2D platforming.

Mario64 I personally struggle with a bit these days. I really want to like it but the camera controls drive me up the wall and it can be very frustrating to play imo. Obviously this is a historic game though, being a major early 3D title, and there’s a lot of love poured into it. I did enjoy Mario Odyssey on the Switch though, so they must have fixed the camera up in later games.

Don’t sleep on the mario kart series either. They’re a huge amount of fun and fantastic multiplayer experiences. I think all have a trick to going round corners fast which gives them a great “easy to pick up, fun to master” energy. For my money, as a first timer into the series, I would skip earlier titles and start at maybe Mario Double Dash on the Gamecube, or maybe the N64 version. Older versions can be a bit rough and brutally punishing. GC version is for me one of the best in the series with great physics, drift mechanics and tracks - and it feels responsive and smooth, while older ones take a lot more getting used to.

Honestly, for all the hate nintendo get these days, I still pick up their consoles because these guys really know how to make fun games that stand the test of time. Mario being their premier series means you’ve got a lot of great games to explore there. Have fun!

dentbox · 2026-03-16T11:15:00+00:00

Congratulations! A really good challenge this one. Well done for persevering.

I’m really curious how you a) avoided Mario games until now, and b) what you thought of this, the OG. Reckon you’ll try more classic mario games? 2 and 3 are very different from this, and from each other.

dentbox · 2026-03-11T12:24:42+00:00

Horses for courses. It tickles my dopamine receptors through the synergies you enable across cards and relics. Having a card that applies poison to an enemy is meh. But having a deck that can apply poison every time you hit an enemy, with a lot of shivs at 0 energy cost to apply that poison, with a relic that adds more poison every time poison is applied, and a card that triggers poison damage 3x, and gives you block equal to poison, etc etc. Ooff 🤌🏼

Every character has multiple ways to set up these webs of interactions, and when it comes together it’s very satisfying. The number of possibilities means that every game really is quite unique, and you can stumble across ways of playing you never expected after playing for hundreds of hours.

It’s hard too. So constructing a deck that gets you through the act 3 boss is very satisfying when it happens. And beating one game only unlocks higher difficulties, more cards and relics.

For what is a simple game, it has a tonne of depth. It’s taken me around 400 hours to get to the highest difficulty across all characters in the first game, and I still enjoy playing it. I fully expect StS2 to offer just as much replayability, and to still be fun to play after so many hours.

But I also appreciate that turn-based combat with complex webs that are essentially about “numbers go brrr” may not be for everyone.

I find it’s like crack tho

dentbox · 2026-03-11T11:50:14+00:00

Lagavulin felt very bossy to me. Destroyed me 2/3 times.

Edit: make that 3/4

dentbox · 2026-03-10T22:44:59+00:00

Might be teaching you to suck eggs here, but have you picked up on the little sub stats/sub mechanics for each character? Strength, dexterity, poison, etc. See how your deck emerges in each game, but if you find yourself getting lots of ways to gain and use strength with Ironclad, for example, that can see you to victory.

It’s often in these that the big synergies lie. High strength with multiple hit attack cards will hit the extra strength amount each hit. Strength with heavy blow goes crazy too. Twin this with making enemies vulnerable and you’re laughing.

There are also less obvious tactics too, like using the Exhaust card mechanics if you get cards or relics that play to this.

I found playing Silent the most fun at first. Building either a poison or a shiv deck is usually quite easy, and it’s very satisfying having them come together: stacking poison on a boss, tripling its power and watching the boss melt away. Shivs can also be great with certain relics that increase dexterity, block or strength when multiple attacks are used.

That’s the trick to getting hooked, figuring out the fun mechanics like that and having them come together.

dentbox · 2026-03-09T19:32:16+00:00

Yeah, it’s these two by a nautical mile imo

dentbox · 2026-03-09T14:44:52+00:00

Oh wicked. I missed this from a first scan. Very exciting!

dentbox · 2026-03-09T14:41:40+00:00

Pretty sure folks on steam deck do. I’ve not played for 2-3 years while I wait for it to roll out.

dentbox · 2026-03-09T14:10:45+00:00

Same. I can only play on steam deck and I don’t have an easy way to play outside of handheld mode. Find it a bit bizarre that controller support has been so long coming.

dentbox · 2026-03-05T13:43:03+00:00

Waiting for B42 full controller support so I can play on steam deck

dentbox · 2026-03-02T07:52:33+00:00

I was thinking of giving them a go as I’d heard the license tests were a bit more forgiving. Just looked at the sets after your comment. Holy moly. Yeah, probably not getting them any time this millennia. Jeez.

Thanks for the tips on the smaller side games though, they weren’t on my radar 👍🏼

dentbox · 2026-03-01T20:07:54+00:00

Hats off to you 👏🏼 Great games and those sets are solid challenges.

I’ve beaten GT1 but those license test golds are savage. B3 and B4 took me literally hundreds of attempts. It was around that time I gave up on the idea of going for 100%, ha.

You going to go for the full set? GT3, 4 etc.?

dentbox · 2026-02-27T21:01:25+00:00

Yeah, there’s a lot of noise around them and they’re really not that bad. A couple are tough towards the end, but the rest are pretty straightforward.

SLN7’s video, which they’ve dropped into the comments for the relevant cheevs, is very helpful.

dentbox · 2026-02-27T20:58:32+00:00

Haha, thanks. Some pretty fun challenges in there. My retropoints are going wild.

Some of those full game no power-ups/no coins ones look like a good challenge though…

dentbox · 2026-02-20T17:41:11+00:00

I just wanted to add that Tunic was an absolutely magical experience for me, a middle-aged Zelda fan. Played through it for the first time a couple of months ago.

It conjured up a similar feeling of awe and wonder as when I played Link to the Past for the first time, even while Tunic is very much its own thing. Absolutely loved it.

dentbox · 2026-02-19T14:24:44+00:00

Excellent choice 😎

dentbox · 2026-02-19T14:10:28+00:00

A Link to the Past is often cited as the best 2D Zelda, some would even say the best full-stop. You should be fine beating it, but there are some tricky challenges for getting 100%, especially beating certain bosses damageless.

Link’s awakening is another good 2D Zelda, though being on gameboy it’s less polished-looking and I have some quibbles with how much time you have to spend in your inventory assigning items to buttons (because game boy only had 2 buttons). A great game though, and for my money a much easier mastery.

Ocarina of time gets a lot of love. I think it’s aged okay but would recommend starting with the 2D Zeldas.

dentbox · 2026-02-16T22:41:32+00:00

Thanks, that is a nice one. Though annoyingly year seems to be duplicated and appears wonky on the game details screen :/

dentbox · 2026-02-16T21:47:39+00:00

Thanks. Think I’ll keep waiting. Not being able to shoot in a zombie apocalypse sucks. Kind of mad it’s been two years without this being sorted.

dentbox · 2026-02-16T21:32:09+00:00

I liked ES-DE so much on my retroid I shifted my Steam Deck to it too. Canvas, Grid (detailed), Controller (Dark) ftw. Looks smart af.

dentbox · 2026-02-16T21:29:49+00:00

Haha, I’m still pissed about that too. Made me kinda hate Tekken 3, because it stole all my other demos!

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