Been replaying Chrono Trigger(DS) which is a version I have never played before and it's such a darn good JRPG just in terms of pace. Yes the levels are very linear and there isn't TOO much sidequests until much later on but it's such a good story and I liked the dual tech abilities and I feel like there isn't a dud of a character throughout the entire party. I've used every character in some capacity outside of the mandatory sections of the game. About 15 hours in, I know the DS version has an additional dungeon so I am curious how much more length I shall get.

🤯 I know you love WWF No Mercy, but did you ever go back and play any of the other AKI games? Was there anything you liked from those games that weren't in No Mercy?

If not, what about some No Mercy mods. Did you ever find your way over to No Mercy Zone back in the day?

Jul 14, 2020 18:30:22 GMT Big Pete said:

🤯 I know you love WWF No Mercy, but did you ever go back and play any of the other AKI games? Was there anything you liked from those games that weren't in No Mercy?

If not, what about some No Mercy mods. Did you ever find your way over to No Mercy Zone back in the day?

Yes, yes, yes, and yes. Remind me to come back and elaborate later.

Finally beat Castlevania(NES) via the Castlevania Collection(PS4) Saturday night........

+ The music rules, AS ALWAYS. Yep. The game mechanics are great, yes they are flawed, the lack of a slide is tough to get used to after being so spoiled with it. The Remastered game does not tell you about the secondary item usage which is MASSIVE in this game, always thought that was odd.

+ Game is very, very fair with the 3 levels per area where if you lose all your lives, you can simply retreat back to the start of the trifecta. Absolute forgiving in that sense. The fight with Dracula on Stage 18 is forgiving too, if you die to him, you simply start right back at the beginning of the boss fight, appreciated!

- The fall back after a hit is brutal and with so many cheap fall deaths, you will die from a madusa head or some fleaman bullshit. But that's the name of the game with the NES, you simply know it's coming.

- Shame the remaster inherited the NES file of this with no changes, but I guess you can't really fix the games on their own. Experienced a typical NES freeze during the infamous hallway to Death which sucked BUT thankfully I saved prior to that so I didn't get screwed over with my file. The perks of the collection works both ways!

- The RNG with the items kinda sucks, you want to save a certain item but want to get more hearts and WHOOPS you get a time clock or dagger. Sucks, sucks, sucks. Cost me on that hallway to death as I saved all of my hearts for that fight with the cross only to accidentally get a time clock which somehow stops death but not his scythes. Explain that!

Still a very good game, yeah it's frustrating no doubt and the jumping mechanic takes time to get used to for sure but that dracula fight took me a good 30-35 minutes before I figured it out timing wise and I cheesed the 2nd form by keeping it in place with the concoction secondary item.


Up next is a replay of Mega Man 1(NES) via Mega Man Collection. Shin may not be here anymore but that doesn't mean his baby goes by the wayside! Not on my watch.

And we take down Mega Man(NES) via Mega Man Collection on PS4. Another collection much like the Castlevania one that allows for save states(Not that I will abuse em, I beat both this and Castlevania in one sitting!) and the like but fails to address the slowdown this game suffered from the NES or the freezing this game can endure. But that does work in a positive for us which I will get to in a second....

+ The Music is again GOOD! Now the original Mega Man OST pales in comparison to it's sequel which is a borderline top 10 GOAT soundtrack in all of gaming but it still has some bangers in it's own right. Fire Man is probably my favorite, Cut Man a close 2nd. With Castlevania and Sonic, you get some absolute slamming music.

+ Very basic Mega Man, I appreciate that this started the foundation of this amazing series. From the Mega Man side scrolling to the different powers inherited from robot masters to exploiting their weaknesses in an order that is loads of fun to figure out on a very 1st run to the endless cheap deaths and pitfalls that every stage has that makes it unique

+ Another forgiving game that lets you replay a stage and of course you know the little nuances of any Mega Man game. NEVER start a stage with 0 lives, it is a waste! A lot of instant deaths to kill yourself on, the lone good thing in that regard.....speaking of

- This game has wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy too many cheap instant deaths. Spikes, fall deaths, obstacles that can knock you to instant death, some enemies take off chunks of your health ridiculously. You are going to die, ALOT in this game. In that regard, this game is very unforgiven and I am so used to sub tanks or a DASH that I don't think comes until MM3 or MM4. The maneuverability is lacking in this game and some levels are absolutely brutal(COUGHICEMAN COUGHGUTSMAN COUGHWILYSTAGE1COUGH) excuse my cold.

+ Praise be to the lord that is the magnet ability, this saves the day in that atrocious Iceman level. By atrocious, yes it is one of the worst levels off the top in any Mega Man game. ESPECIALLY when the platforms can glitch with you randomly dropping down to your death despite being fully on it or you having to navigate through the endless bullet hell to try and survive.

- I will admit I used the elec man power exploit twice, once vs the Yellow Devil who might be the most broken boss in the original Mega Man series and I think I used this power on the Mega Man copy after my fire power ran out when he barely beat me the first time.

But I HATE that your powerups aren't refilled after a death, I forgot how bad that is. I don't remember if all of the Mega Man games are like that but yeah you really want to finish a boss with their weakness in 1 go because if not.....

I know if I do not have full health, I won't even bother using the special weapon and try and give the Mega Buster a good old college try.

A very frustrating game and I think the weakest of the series if I recall but it is iconic and I guess there is some sentimental value in that it was the very first of the series and it made the series what it ended up becoming and for that it deserves a lot of credit but it just does not hold up well at all in 2020 IMHO. Game ran me just 2 hours, shocked! I think Castlevania took me about 3 1/2!


Up Next: Castlevania II: Simon's Quest OR Mega Man 2. What a choice, I thinkkkkkk I should go the latter here

You're the man Blindy. I wish Shin had that Beetlejuice/Biggie Smalls power where you just say his name three times and boom there he is. I feel 🤯 has tried hard to fill the void, literally making another member just to replenish numbers but it just isn't the same.

I've got the N64 plugged in, so I've been having these really comfy late night sessions of Mario 64, Virtual Pro Wrestling 64, Mario Kart 64, Wave Race 64, Diddy Kong Racing, F-Zero X and Mystical Ninja 64 which I touched on. Currently playing through Mystical Ninja 2 aka Goemon's Great Adventure which reverted to 2D but seems more sure of itself. The original Zelda-like Mystical Ninja gave you a ridiculous amount of health, to the point where it was nearly impossible to die, here there have been so many pitfalls I've been completely decimated. I just completed the first area which ended in this marathon of a level. You're going through this destroyed castle that's getting destroyed by your mech that's gone rogue. It's fairly straight forward right till you reach the top and suddenly they throw in all the platforming tricks with a robot throwing lasers every few seconds.

Sept 7, 2020 12:57:35 GMT Big Pete said:

You're the man Blindy. I wish Shin had that Beetlejuice/Biggie Smalls power where you just say his name three times and boom there he is. I feel 🤯 has tried hard to fill the void, literally making another member just to replenish numbers but it just isn't the same.

I've got the N64 plugged in, so I've been having these really comfy late night sessions of Mario 64, Virtual Pro Wrestling 64, Mario Kart 64, Wave Race 64, Diddy Kong Racing, F-Zero X and Mystical Ninja 64 which I touched on. Currently playing through Mystical Ninja 2 aka Goemon's Great Adventure which reverted to 2D but seems more sure of itself. The original Zelda-like Mystical Ninja gave you a ridiculous amount of health, to the point where it was nearly impossible to die, here there have been so many pitfalls I've been completely decimated. I just completed the first area which ended in this marathon of a level. You're going through this destroyed castle that's getting destroyed by your mech that's gone rogue. It's fairly straight forward right till you reach the top and suddenly they throw in all the platforming tricks with a robot throwing lasers every few seconds.

I wish there was a way to retrofit N64s for online coop play.

Sept 7, 2020 12:57:35 GMT Big Pete said:

You're the man Blindy . I wish Shin had that Beetlejuice/Biggie Smalls power where you just say his name three times and boom there he is. I feel 🤯 has tried hard to fill the void, literally making another member just to replenish numbers but it just isn't the same.

I've got the N64 plugged in, so I've been having these really comfy late night sessions of Mario 64, Virtual Pro Wrestling 64, Mario Kart 64, Wave Race 64, Diddy Kong Racing, F-Zero X and Mystical Ninja 64 which I touched on. Currently playing through Mystical Ninja 2 aka Goemon's Great Adventure which reverted to 2D but seems more sure of itself. The original Zelda-like Mystical Ninja gave you a ridiculous amount of health, to the point where it was nearly impossible to die, here there have been so many pitfalls I've been completely decimated. I just completed the first area which ended in this marathon of a level. You're going through this destroyed castle that's getting destroyed by your mech that's gone rogue. It's fairly straight forward right till you reach the top and suddenly they throw in all the platforming tricks with a robot throwing lase

I know PI is good though! 

Beat Mega Man 2...

That soundtrack is still AMAZING. The Dr. Wily Stage 2 theme rules, the Air Man, Metal Man & Flash Man music is so good. I got most of the songs down to pat with the humming, that's how you know I am on par with this. This game does it better than the 1st by that there is more meat on the bone. 8 Robot Masters instead of 6, THREE new powerups that are vital for conversing through a stage, ENERGY tanks that give you a boost(I still am used to the sub tanks though, hate that these do not carry over after you lose all your lives). 

This game does indeed still have the same flaws the first had and the final boss is just so random and wacky that it still makes me It feels like a much more polished version of MM1 and while it isn't a perfect game(I still feel like the game is slow in comparison, I meant SLIDE instead of DASH my previous post, I miss that slide since it makes the game a smudge faster). The game is still riddled with instant deaths but the RUSH mobile or whatever it's called is so good. 

Not too much else needs to be said, I don't think this is one of the GOAT type of games but the game still plays well still in 2020 and despite it's flaws, is still a fun 3 hour game. I do hate the puzzle Sentinels boss though, hate having to use one weapon PERFECTLY to beat a boss with no messup and if you die, you have to grind for refill of that special weapon again. Maybe the lone boss I would have a gripe on. That and some enemies just take monster damage off of you for reasons. In turn, the mega buster and Metal Man weapons absolutely shred enemies. Feels like you do more damage but end up taking more damage too.

Think I am taking a mini break with the MM Collection but plan on doing the other games! 

Doing my 3rd run of Final Fantasy X and I just got to Al Bhed Desert. Game is still outstanding, very good soundtrack, a voice acting work you just get used to and sort of laugh at times, yeah the outfits are outrageous but the game is just so much fun. First time I am doing this as a Expert Sphere Grid and doing the Remastered/JP version of this, curious just how much harder it is than the PS2 version of FFX. The Expert Sphere Grid is VERY different, like I am not use to having two characters meet so soon in the grids like Auron/Tidus, Yuna/Khimari/Lulu/Rikki. Wakka seems like the lone one who is out on his own thing and even then I had an option of having Khimari go down Wakka's path. Very weird mechanic from what I am used to but in that aspect it's different.

And BLITZBALL baby. I got the mojo back. I put a 13-0 mauling on the Bevelle Beasts, WEDGE is the saving grace of that :lol: So much fun just destroying about everybody(Al Bhed Psyches have Nanook at goalie who gives them a short every time). That Jecht Shot I baby.

Mega Man 3

So I just decided lets revisit this Mega Man Collection for the 3rd installment which I remember far, far less than the 1st two where it was basically a first playthrough and BOY is it tougher than the first two! It was like Infaune played the 1st two games and was like "This is too easy, this mega buster needs a nerf!" and man, the nerf the Mega Buster got is astronomical. This has to be the 1st unofficial nerf of any weapon in video game history because you mowed through enemies AND robot masters in MM2 vs this one it takes 3-4 hits per shot on 95% of the enemies and vs robot masters, it's a grind as they have to outhit you almost at a 1.5/1.0 scale which has you as the underdog in all of the fights with them.

Music is great but it is a step down from the 2nd one which is I-CO-NIC *pose*. Spark Man's theme probably the best of the bunch with Snake Man a close 2nd. No real intro story so your basically thrown into the game with no real premise although the epilogue is made with explanation about what happened after everything was done.

I admitted after the initial 8 robot masters which I guessed and experimented weaknesses(How the hell is a SNAKE super effective against Gemini Twins? What?) that I sort of used a guide for the super effectiveness of the gimmick of MM3 which is the spirits of the robot masters of MM2 going inside a robot for a fight that borrows the patterns of said robot masters in a fight. Some make sense like Spark Man's weapon being great against Bubble Man reincarnate, others like Hard Man being great against Metal Man(I think) ehh. I really relied on a guide for the bosses to see what does better damage than the mega buster because again the takeaway of this game is the almighty mega buster is a weak weapon. By no means should it be the "Win Button" but cmon it's useless for many of these bosses. I get it that Wily after two defeats probably said "Gee golly maybe I should make my henchman pretty invulnerable to Mega Man's signature weapon" but from a gameplay perspective, I don't agree.

Game is pretty good overall. The Rush mechanics are forced upon you unlike the last game and the Rush Jet being able to control is GREAT and massive for so many cheap fall death parts of a level. One knock I will say is the Wily Stage gauntlets are cruel in the sense that even after finishing a Wily stage, you DO NOT get your acquired robot masters replenished which is hella frustrating. Now, granted there are plenty of pickups to replenish it but still an odd choice and one that makes a defeat at the hands of a boss really rough. Thank goodness for energy tanks, grab em, use em wisely and do your best to tank or dodge as much BS as you can on a boss(Looking at you Yellow Devil). The difficulty curve is massive to open the game but once you get just one robot master down(I did in Needle Man), you are going to be alright. This is unlike Bomb Man or Flash Man for me who I can waltz right through and go from there.

The collection doesn't touch up anything in regards to how it is emulated so the SLOWDOWN in MM3 is real and the problem is with so much platforming where it's do or die, the slowdown and completely mess you over and often an enemy catches you in mid air and it's enough to knock you back to death. Be forewarned that this will happen to you as the slowdown happens when there are too many enemies on your screen which this game doesn't mind doing at times. 

Oh and both the SLIDE and PROTO MAN make their debuts here, that gives you the brownie points anytime. Two iconic parts of this franchise brought to life thanks to this game.

I am taking this thread over, going back to the FFX playthrough and MAYBE(maybe) sneak in a DKC2 playthrough now that Big Pete has me tempted.

Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon 2 (or Goemon's Great Adventure)

This was actually the game that got me into the series. Just have a look at the PAL Box Art

What a wonderful cast of characters! When the game was originally released, I just had to see what the commotion was about. What I wasn't expecting was a co-op platformer that ran like silk with colourful enemy designs and over-the-top animations. For whatever reason, I remember the relatives and I being enamoured with the wriggling animation.

The game also has one of the toughest final stages on the N64. It's one of those levels where they take two of the hardest elements from previous levels and frankenstein it into a monster level. I wasn't ready for it and must have burned through 50 lives. The worst was when I had actually cleared the level and reached the character select room which is supposed to be safe. I returned to the level, went to jump to the next platform only to land short and get game over. Naturally I grinded up a few more levels, and only proceeded to lose 1 the entire time, wasting about an hour's work. 

It's just classic Konami 2D platform design. Tons of pitfalls and cheap deaths where you reach a platform only to get knocked back by an enemy you couldn't hit before landing or jumps that require pinpoint timing. It pretty much means that Goemon is the character you're going to play as 95% of the time since he's the only character that has double jump.

What I enjoyed about the game is the amount of towns. Not only is it a nice change of pace and a change for Konami to flex their personality, but each town changes dramatically. They're not just all variations of a small Japanese town, they all have different themes like Beach Side, Halloween Inspired, Giant Tree, a town run by friendly Tengus and a Sky Town. It gives each world it's own scenary and the Totoro inspired town in particular stands out from the usual fare.

To beat the game you need 30 Gate Passes which you get for reaching each exit in each stage and completing sidequests. To complete the game, you need 44 which unlocks 4 player mode and costumes for each character. Some gate passes they hand out like candy, sometimes it's as easy as talking to an NPC or just going back through a level and collecting items by a certain time.

Two sidequests that stick out was this race you had to have and another where you had to collect 30 mushrooms.

The race was tough because you couldn't make a mistake and you constantly had to stop and jump around your opponent who would constantly get distracted him. If you ran into him, it was game over and you had to do it at least 10 times.

The 30 mushrooms I could only beat via a glitch. You have a selection of two levels to collect 30/30 mushrooms. You can only pick one level, but if you get a game over not only can you pick the other level, but the game still counts your previous tally.

One other element that seperates the series from others are the Impact fights. They were relatively easy in the first game and not much has changed despite having to control two mechs at the same time. It soundscomplicated, but they actually made the Special Attacks even more OP than before so it's ridiculously easy now to loop enemies into massive combos and beat them in seconds. The only thing you have to watch out for is if you miss a loop, they'll go for an OHKO attack which can spell game over unless you can get a baton pass off. It's pretty tense as your other mech just wanders around aimlessly and you have to aim the projectile right as the attack is charging. You may only get two chances before you have to start over again.

Also worth mentioning the western gamers were jipped. Not only did they cut the intro and Impact theme music, but the game is harder in the west and they took out the save battery. From the looks of it, the Japanese version is the definitive version.

I wish it was more readily available. I hear both it and the original are still pretty difficult to emulate so unless you own the original there's no real way of playing it. If only Nintendo had their Virtual Console in order.

Lets bump this thread up.............beat Spyro 3: Year of the Dragon for the first time via Spyro Reignited Collection. I know it's a remaster but the core game, story are PS1 so lets stick it to this thread. Sucks 2021 is Year of the Ox because this was a pun absolutely waiting to be happened if if truly was Year of the Dragon on the Chinese zodiac calendar :laughy:

Got the 117% completion and Platinum trophy so that's a perfect 3/3 on fully completing the trilogy(outside of skill points). Much like with the first two entries I really enjoyed myself with this game, it's more of less the same as the previous two games, just a different story, different characters. Core gameplay is identical to Ripto's Rage outside of one big feature. I will say the following things as to why I think I enjoyed 2 a LITTLE bit more than 3.

1) Spyro 2 seemed to have a little more to it vs the 3rd installment. End level animations that were cute and about 15-30 seconds, better levels(imo). That isn't to say Spyro 3 sucks in this regard as the game is full of personality and life but after playing 2, I found 2 has a little bit more personality. Both shine bright in this regard nevertheless.

2) In Spyro 2 you always play as Spyro who is the mascot and main character of the entire franchise(duh). In Spyro 3, you play as Spyro, as Sparx his dragonfly companion in his own minigames, Hunter his best friend in his own minigame, and 4 other sets of character ranging from Sheila the Kangaroo to Sgt Bird the uhhh....bird to Bentley the Yeti to Agent 9 the space monkey. I like all of the characters personality and enjoyed (most) of the minigames but I liked the simplicity of playing as Spyro. This is far from a negative as again I liked the ambition in giving you a different feel into the minigames but I am a traditional platformer through and through mainly so less is more for me in this genre.

3) The bosses are not as difficult or overdrawn as they were in 2 which is a good thing, particularly the final boss. I did find more about Ripto than the Sorceress in large part due to the cutscenes that featured the main villain more than Spyro 3's major villain where she was talking to a side character introduced in 3. Same formulatic structure in 3 vs the 2nd one with an arena sort of showdown with different phases of the boss that you needed to run around and pick your spots in, simple enough.

The game's music fits the themes of each level that range from desert to ancient China to underwater to wild west. Most clique themes get tackled in this game and the characters in turn feel clique(Canadian accent in the ice world ) but I liked this personally speaking. Gameplay feels good BUT I have to say I felt the glide and lift up that is instrumental in the series feels off this game. By that I mean when I feel like Spyro's body is fully above the platform that it's life or death to get on, the game doesn't register it and I die often due to either the jump up(triangle button) not working despite in gliding animation or it again doesn't count it as I am not fully above the platform and you often get a clipping animation with Spyro sliding to his death. Quite a few times I died because of this, very frustrating.

The minigames which are a big part of this series charm range from hit(Sparx minigames, Agent 9 ones, Bentley the Yeti's) to MISS(Skateboard and racing minigames, awful). The skateboard one tries to draw inspiration from the Tony Hawk series only the major gripe is you think your skateboard is fully on balance to land but the game says you crash the landing. Absolutely painful minigames and among the worst in the series IMHO. The less of that, the better, sadly eggs which are the game's equivalent to a collect-a-thon to pass through to the final boss(100 eggs needed out of 149 main story) are tied to the minigames, including the skateboarding ones so while not absolutely mandatory, if you wanted to get the secret world and 100%, you gotta suck it up.

Altogether, the game ran me about 13 hours to fully complete the game and once again I enjoyed myself with yet another Spyro game. I didn't get into this series on the PS1 due to my brother hogging the system up due to the RPGs so I had the N64 but after playing through all 3 games on this collection, I really get and respect the original Spyro creators, Insomniac's attention to detail in what makes a game fun and what makes platformers fun. Bares saying that I CANNOT wait for the new Ratchet and Clank game from them, a series that borrowed if not perfected a lot of what the Spyro series made prior a generation ago.


Will not be a stranger to this thread because I have both Super Castlevania IV and Mega Man 4 on the very near horizon.

I feel that the first Spyro game is the best game. The additions they made to the second and third only padded out the game with content that just wasn't as good as running around with Spyro himself. All great games, and I think I actually like the third slightly more than the second, but the first is my favourite.

Good run down Blindy, I've always found it difficult to distinguish between Spyro games. Namely because it's been 20 years since I played them, but a lot of the time I'd just happen to come across the game at a friend's place or at a random arcade room at a football club and just mess around. When I bought my modded PS1, Spyro 2 was one of the games that came along with it, but it kind of blurs together with all the other 3d platformers like Crash, Bugs Bunny, Ape Escape, Pac-Man World etc.

I've been dabbling with retro games lately. Every now and then I'll load up the SNES Emulator on Switch and play through Super Tennis where the AI just obliterates me. I also get the odd Super Mario Kart session in which is just as charming as ever. I just love the sound and vision of the game, I don't even mind the AI spamming mushrooms at me.

The only retro game I've really sunk my teeth into is Warsong on Mega Drive. It was the American localization of the first Langrissier game, a famous Tactics RPG that along with Shining Force went after Fire Emblem as the definitive series of the genre. The game just throws you straight into it, you control a young prince and you have to escape the castle as powerful units surround it.

The game does a good job of letting the gameplay tell it's story. The character is in grave danger, so you can't just sit around, exploit the AI and defeat the enemies one by one, you have to escape. The game gives you multiple paths to go down, but by looking at the enemy units you know to take the left since they're at the lowest levels. Even then, getting by them is pretty tough so when your prince destroys their commander, it actually feels like a significant moment.

What seperates Warsong/Langrissier from other Tactics RPGs is that you don't level each unit. The only characters that gain experience are the MCs and before each fight, you recruit soldiers/horseman/archers etc. who work alongside MCs. The flow of combat is slightly different as well since combat is built around formations and keeping units as close to the MC as much as possible for all the perks like stat increases and HP regen.

In the end, it took me about three attempts to beat the prologue. The first time I wasn't aware you had to recruit your units, second I split my commanders up, sending my powerful bodyguard to help hold off the powerful units instead of just assisting the prince. The third, I got greedy and tried to get the young prince to take down one of the commanders and just got bad RNG. That's one thing about the game, the RNG is all over the place. Usually there's room for the odd critical in a JRPG, but I learned that fights vary dramatically and while there's ways to influence the odds, sometimes you'll just get bad rolls. The game allows for mid-combat saves, so there has to be playthroughs where one poor sap has had to re-do countless fights until they get the best result for their party.

My only complaint is how long the battles can take. I think there was something like 30 AI controlled units and the game went through every single one and unlike an Advance Wars where they zip by, they play out as slowly as your own characters. What's worse is that they have babyface and heel music, the babyface music is great and does a great job of making you feel empowered and sounds like something you'd hear in Dragon Ball. The heel music on the other hand is the most cliche heel music and it drags on and on.

It's still not as bad as the battle music from Shining Force which was a series of wah-wah-wahs to show you how random some of those battles could be. Times that by 50 and it was easily the biggest blemish on a classic game.

I suppose Playstation 2 games are retro now.

Following Kingdom Hearts I fired up Vexx. Don't know what Vexx is? This is Vexx:



3D Action Platformer. The story is paper thin but inconsequential. Vexx is one of the last of a civilisation that was wiped out by some bad guys. He was a slave to these bad guys but escaped and found some magical talons which allow him to kill things and do platforming well. Now he has to roam the world in order to...do something.

I'm a couple of hours in and I have mixed reactions. The closest comparison I can make is with the first Jak and Daxter game. Think Jax and Daxter without the voice acting, the charm, the story, and with jankier platforming. It's not an awful game by any means but does suffer from some technical issues that can make it frustrating to play. And I've only just started the game - could potentially get worse later on. The camera is awkward to control and doesn't often highlight what needs to be highlighted to land a jump successfully.

The game is very much a collecathon. In each world you have to find Wraithearts which unlock new worlds. They can be obtained in a number of ways. Minigames, climbing to the top of something, or by collecting items. 100 fragments make up a Wraitheart. On the first level I had 86 fragments before reaching the first Wraitheart the game indicate to me. I grab the Wraitheart. It takes me out of the level without warning and into the hub world. I re-enter the previous world and I'm back at 0 fragments. Hoo-fucking-ray.

It's a bit trial by fire in that sense, but on the positive side the tutorial is pretty slick and there's an awful lot of movement and combat tech which I'm sure can be leveraged to great effect once I become more accustomed to it. I'll stick with the game for the next few hours but I can't guarantee I'll make it to the end before tapping out.

PS2 3D platformer, good money I played it in the day. Could not tell you a thing about it though, which explains a lot of PS2 era stuff. Looking at you Legend of Kay.

Jan 23, 2021 0:15:38 GMT Emperor said:

I feel that the first Spyro game is the best game. The additions they made to the second and third only padded out the game with content that just wasn't as good as running around with Spyro himself. All great games, and I think I actually like the third slightly more than the second, but the first is my favourite.

If I recall with Spyro 1, it wasn't so much a minigame showcase for some of it as the later entries would end up being. I thought some of the levels like the treehouse one was rather a slog but I haven't played the 1st game since 2018 I want to say so my mind isn't as fresh on it as the other two were. Still very much enjoyed my time with it. 


Finished Super Castlevania IV last night, AKA RNG the video game. AKA bat enemies are so small and broken and do more damage than bullet shots or fireballs from bigger enemies. AKA spike/fall deaths galore. AKA a super fun game.

As with plenty of old games, especially the hard ones, this game is littered with RNG. Sometimes on a balcony it's two enemies instead of one, sometimes the precise jump you make lands on an awkward gear and doesn't count and it's instant death. Truth be told, this game will see more pit deaths or spike deaths more than the actual enemies widdle you down to. Excluding bosses, I can safely say I barely needed one hand to count the amount of times I died because of an enemy. On the contrary, the fall and spike deaths were easily my nemesis in this playthrough, as is usually the case in the early Castlevania games. 

The music is EXCELLENT. Bloody Tears? You got it. Simon's Theme? You got it. Vampire Killer? You got it. Arguably the best soundtrack in the series IMHO, the game is made massively tolerable with the banging themes. As with a majority of these games, you have anywhere from 2-5 parts of a chapter/stage and you have to complete it, often with a boss at the end to progress through. If you run out of lives(Start with 4), you go back not to the beginning of the game but the beginning of the act. Fair enough. What is difficult in this game is if you are not aware of what is to come, you will often see your lives swallowed by a cheap fall death or spike death or an enemy coming out of nowhere knocking you backwards(Curse you old school backwards momentum after taking a hit) to a aforementioned spike or fall death. Very rarely did I think I died a death that wasn't my fault but often is the case, I say out loud "How was I suppose to know that was coming"? Story is simple enough, Dracula is to be revived by a cast of dedicated minions(DEATH and etc.) and you are Simon Friggin Belmont, Vampire killer and whip aficionado himself. 

The cool feature in this game is the whip isn't a standard horizontal attack spread but can be used in attacks that go vertical(Up and down), diagonal and Horizonal. You can even use your whip as a minishield while standing in place! Your whip just feels really good and really strong, it borrows the classic needing to find 2 upgrades which are easy to find via candles placed all over the levels to extend your range and (i think) make it a little stronger.  Each time you die, you do have to re-get those power ups but again they are easy to get if you are hitting the candles littered all over. If not that, you will get hearts which is a staple in the franchise for the secondary items that of course range from cross to axe to knife to timeclock to bottle. Nothing new here, exactly the way the NES games rolled. 

What was cool is the background environment and even a level rotates the level around and really gives you a feel that the SNES(at that point and time) was that more powerful than the NES. Levels feel more alive in this game admittedly, you can go in the back of a level in the 1st stage even! This game also has platforms that you are expected to hold onto and whip with momentum around to make life or death swings or to go to places with health and powerups when the going gets tough. Lots of new features that difference SCIV from the previous 3, we love that. 

SCIV really is a homage to the older Castlevania games and really 1-up's it all with a more forgiving balance and makes for a fun 4 or so hour playthrough. I can say by Stage 8 is where I felt I was dying an absurd amount of times and that Stage-B is absolutely brutal. The one gripe I do have and it may be because I played this on the PS4 via Castlevania collection is the diagonal movement is very wonky. In particular, Stage B has you walking diagonal on stairs which as any Castlevania fan knows is walked on slow pace and jumping on it is prohibited in a chase from a one hit KO buzzsaw from below, the problem I found is my inputs on these stairs, especially the diagonal ones weren't registered which caused some absolute cheap deaths and game overs. How much is to be put on the game or more so how much is to be put on the Dualshock 4? Not quite sure but sometimes my input for the stairs worked, other times not so much. In particuarly, going diagonal was a task in itself, other times I know to hold my character down and they will automatically trigger the staircase animation(IMPORTANT FOR NES Castlevanias!). Still frustrating nevertheless.

Boss fights range from me killing them in one go to constantly having to trot my sorry ass back and retry again(Looking at you Dracula). Dracula is much more forgiving in this game say vs the original NES Castlevania where he isn't constantly doing the teleport, fireball, you get 1 shot to his very, very small hitbox of a head, repeat until 2nd phase. He at least shoots orbs that can (yes) be shield whipped into small chicken pieces that restore decent amounts of health(Yes) which is a game changer and his fire ball minion summons can be wiped out with a good whip strike before they go to town on your health bar. 

Game is just super fun and after I could not find it in me to go after Castlevania II or III, I really think this game changed the franchise for the better and kept a level of hardcore and toughness the diehards will always like yet not be too unforgiving for casual/newcomers to get into. This and Castlevania: Bloodlines do this well pre Iga-Castlevanias. 

But boy do I need a slide in this game. Man Simon has to learn how to friggin slide, so many times I told myself "I really need that slide". Same feeling I got playing Mega Man 1 & 2. Speaking of about to start up Mega Man 4 so we aren't leaving this thread just yet.

And Mega Man 4 is in the books......


It's really much of the same, the music is a step up from Mega Man 3 IMO. Gameplay is much easier to me with a boss that practically jumps around at you when up close(Toad Man) that gives MM2's Flash Man a fight in easiest boss in the series. There's a nice swerve with the antagonists but it's really much of the same. Couple additions that add to the series are.

1) CHARRRRGED UPPPP MEGAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA BUSSSSTAH. Just as Mega Man 3 brought in the slide, MM4 is responsible for the birth for the ever important and soon to be staple of the franchise, the charged up mega buster. This bad boy adds additional damage when impacted, increases the width of the shot to further the chance of hitting a enemy's hitbox and in later entries, can be used to charge powerups you pick up from downed Robot Masters for all sorts of new features. Great, great addition, revolutionary to the series. Almost on par with Sonic 2's SPIN DASH and the aforementioned Castlevania slide that was introduced in Rondo of Blood(I think?).

2) Uncle Eddie bringing the goods. Eddie the mini repair bot is introduced here and he basically is a RNG creator but he will always try and help you. Whether it's a extra life, a big health repair, a big secondary weapon repair or if your super lucky, a full energy tank AKA the game's subtank and ultimate pick me up when your low on health and refuse to concede defeat.

Outside of that, it's really much of the same. If I had to rank difficulty of the visits to this franchise, it'd go

Mega Man 1
Mega Man 3
Mega Man 4
Mega Man 2

From hardest to easiest. I would say the true final boss is the lone real blemish or difficult part as in typical NES fashion you have to know there's only one way to truly hurt him and it's a charged up power shot from one of the robot masters weapons you acquired previous. How would you know that as a kid, the heck if I know? Nintendo Power? No shame, had to look up the weaknesses of the post robot masters. 

Game runs you a good afternoon's worth of time. Game is lenient with the energy tanks and the drop rate is far better in this game vs MM3 for trying to grind for lives or health, the last game felt like a waste of time in that regard. 

Virtual Pro Wrestling (1996)

I decided to tick off a bucket list item and finally play some of the OG AKI Wrestling.

Going in, I was expecting WCW vs. nWo World Tour Version 1.0. I thought there would only be minor changes and expected to pick it up fairly easily. Instead it's more like a fully fledged pledged prequel with different mechanics entirely. For instance instead of having a slightly longer animation for strong grapples, instead the wrestler stands in place and you have to release to enter a grapple. There's a dedicated button for leapfrogs that can be triggered at any moment and as a whole the game feels very rough.

I only played a couple of matches before I decided to try and translate some of the Katakana in the menu. I spent about 30 minutes deciphering one of the menus as 'Road'. I thought I was completely off track until I played the English version of the game and remembered that L doesn't exist in the Japanese language - it was a menu for Load Save. -_-

WCW vs. nWo World (1997)

It's the same game with a couple of roster alterations such as Sting having his original (and better) crow make-up. I only played a few matches in League Mode as Sabu who for whatever reason does Mongolian Chops and little else. I'm very new to the game, but it seems like you can't do any moves off the top rope, I'll have to look into this.

WWF No Mercy (2000)

I was just trying to get back into the NXT TakeOver mod. Every few months I remember I have this, I run into some issue, fix it and then proceed to move on. I think this time around, I was having issues with the controller where the game would randomly register c-button inputs so my guys would just start dragging opponents around the ring when I was ready to hot dog or hit a huge strong grapple. Instead of just fixing the deadzone in the controller, I fiddled with all these buttons to the point where the textures wouldn't load so everyone looked like transexual pirates. -_- It's a pretty good mod, and the guy involved has been making some amazing Fire Pro models lately, his Mr. Brodie Lee in particular is on point.

I just need to set up Freem's latest Virtual Pro Wrestling 2 Mod on my Everdrive 64. It's a hack that runs on native hardware and allows you to play as a bunch of characters from Wrestlemania 2000, Revenge, Virtual Pro Wrestling and some modern guys like AJ Styles all in one save.

I'm going to look further into making my own No Mercy hack. Nothing too extradinary, just the ability to replace wrestlers entirely so I can make that 2002 save I always wanted.

I'm not sure if you heard the news 🤯 but the X Box Live Arcade Beta of Goldeneye 007 leaked. The game was planned to come out in 2007 but they couldn't sort out the license in time. It's basically the original game with updated textures, with dual analogue support and a stable 60 FPS. There's a couple of quality of life features as well, such as the game highlighting any key items the enemy dropped and if you walk away from it, they'll toss up an arrow to remind you where it might be.

I played through the game earlier and it was a blast. My only knock issue and it was more of a 'me' thing was getting lost in Statue. They changed the aesthetics of the level, so I lost some of the visual cues I had memorised from all those years of playing through it. Fortunately you can toggle the modern textures and classic N64 buttons with one press of RB so you can see what changes they made really quickly.

Feb 4, 2021 13:00:23 GMT Big Pete said:

I'm not sure if you heard the news 🤯 but the X Box Live Arcade Beta of Goldeneye 007 leaked. The game was planned to come out in 2007 but they couldn't sort out the license in time. It's basically the original game with updated textures, with dual analogue support and a stable 60 FPS. There's a couple of quality of life features as well, such as the game highlighting any key items the enemy dropped and if you walk away from it, they'll toss up an arrow to remind you where it might be.

I played through the game earlier and it was a blast. My only knock issue and it was more of a 'me' thing was getting lost in Statue. They changed the aesthetics of the level, so I lost some of the visual cues I had memorised from all those years of playing through it. Fortunately you can toggle the modern textures and classic N64 buttons with one press of RB so you can see what changes they made really quickly.

Haven't heard the news. This sounds awesome and makes me regret buying a PS4 instead of an Xbox.

You shouldn't be regretful, it's playable on PC.

One of my favourite aspects, instead of playing the Nintendo screen, this pops up.

'Do you expect me to play the Nintendo load screen? No I expect you to die, Mr Bond.'

Feb 4, 2021 14:07:36 GMT Big Pete said:

You shouldn't be regretful, it's playable on PC.

One of my favourite aspects, instead of playing the Nintendo screen, this pops up.

'Do you expect me to play the Nintendo load screen? No I expect you to die, Mr Bond.'

We talking emulators?

I do think I have an N64 controller with a USB adapter that I never figured out how to actually make work for modded PC versions of No Mercy. Maybe time to finally sort that all out...

I've completed the first world in Vexx. By that I mean I've collected all ten Wraithhearts. Most of them are optional - only need two to advance to the next world - but it was mostly fun.

The challenges required to get the hearts were varied. Some platforming challenges, some minigames, some collectible hunting. I quite liked the sumo battle - you have to defeat a sumo wrestler to get one of the hearts. Good variety. Each heart also has a short Olde English poem giving you hints as to how to discover it. Nice touch.

While there are some great aspects to the design, a successful platformer has to have tight controls, otherwise everything else falls apart. Vexx is not terrible in that means, but it's far from perfect either. The highlight of this so far is the Tower that contains one of the optional hearts. This Tower was actually the first place I found after the introductory levels. It's not intended, but I'm an explorer and the first chance I had to go off the intended route let me right there. As it happens this Tower is a platforming nightmare. I collected the easier hearts first to get used to the mechanics, but when I returned it was still a nightmare. I got there in the end but it was pretty brutal.

On a difficulty scale I'd put it right up there with Stormy Ascent - the level that was taken out of the first Crash Bandicoot game (but included in the remake as an optional level) due to being too difficult. But bear in mind that the Tower is in the first level of this game, and while it is optional, it is really intense even for this stage.

I think it would have been a nice challenge if it weren't for the technical issues. Sometimes the game plays nice - when you're navigating a complex area the automatic camera movement helps you to find out where the next platform is and to avoid you having to circle the right analog stick around. However other times it does not, and you have to circle the right analog stick to figure out what to do. Objects in the environment can block the camera, and if you move it manually it has a tendency to move back, or in a random direction, once you release the right analog stick.

That's just one of the issues. Depth perception is difficult. Many times I attempt a jump that looks really short, I can make this without trying, only for me to not reach the platform and fall to my death. There is a long jump option which is easy to execute, but platformers follow their gut and when the game tells them it's a short jump, it better well be a short jump. So that's some trial and error bullshit. There's also a little too much movement mechanics. It's not that difficult to accidentally high jump instead of long jump, or unintetionally wall jump, or leap off a climbing wall instead of dropping down gracefully. It doesn't happen often, but enough to cause an annoyance. There's also a lack of a checkpoint system. In this Tower, you miss a jump and you almost certainly die or, if not, you fall right back to the start which is pretty much the same. No failsafes. You fuck up, you start again, and there's plenty of opportunity to fuck up, sometimes beyond your control. It takes 5-10 minutes to climb the Tower, and that's after a couple of hours of practice, so the time penalty for messing up is pretty steep.

The ideal platforming experience is one where you can rely on your judgement and your controls, so that after some practice you can whiz through a level with few hiccups. With Vexx I'm constantly second guessing myself, pausing before I make each move, twiddling the camera.

The combat and enemy design is pretty shit. The monsters have no character, they're just annoying little dweebs that walk towards you and leap at you. Plus they render very late, so if you're running in a straight line the enemy appears almost before you have time to react. You don't get punished for it really, you take one hit which can be recovered easily by killing the enemy, but it's that little bit frustrating. There's fancy combos, good fun for the first few battles, but soon you get tired of watching the enemy fly 20 feet in the air or 20 feet away from you and you just want to get rid of the bloody things. So I've learnt to just attack once, pause, attack again. So I'm just using the first attack of the combo to kill enemies in the most efficient way. Plus aforementioned camera/depth perception issues make it impossible to reliably hit an enemy with air strikes.

The game does a lot of things right. The world design is great with tons of areas to explore and minigame variety. It's also very ambitious with its level design, but unfortunately the various technical issues don't live up to the ambition, making what should be a fun platformer pretty frustrating.

I'm going to stick with it now that I've started the second world. Maybe with some more time to adjust to the controls things will get easier. But I can't see myself grovelling through this to the end if the experience stays the same.

I've been unwinding with a couple of N64 games lately.

Banjo Kazooie

I feel like the game hits a wall three levels in. The first couple of stages are quaint and set the tone for the rest of the game, but then you get to Clanker's and it's a water level. They try and do something different with it by including a giant monstrosity in the middle that you have to climb and go inside, but that doesn't stop a fair chunk of the level being slowly swimming through tunnels and having to constantly come up for air.

However, I forgot how slow the swamp can be. There's a lot of challenges that punish you if you fail and the whole level requires you to wear this special power up that causes you to move slowly. The worst one is this one challenge where you have to quickly walk on a narrow ledge to reach the platform in time. Not only are you contending with the N64 controller, you also have that camera to contend with. If you fail, you're losing at least a minute of your life to go back and re-do it. Fail enough times and you'll have to go back and re-fill your health.

I don't remember the level being that painful before, but it really isn't until the fifth level rolls around that BK really earns it's stripes.

It's one of those games where as I'm playing it, I'm assessing whether it's a classic or just a really good Mario 64 clone. I think the main advantage it has over Mario is that the game has a better flow since you're constantly not being spat out. The only time this becomes a problem is when you've done everything in the level and you have to make your way back to the start. Really the only option to do this ASAP is to lose a life which isn't ideal.

I'm not sure if it's a positve, but it's a better collectathon than Mario. It satisfies that easter egg hunt itch all of us have as each nook and cranny is filled with something to collect. Collecting items feels good because each sound notification really sounds nice to the ear. I think why it's OK here and excessive in games like DK64 is that only three items gate-keep your progress, while in DK64 there's at least a dozen things you have to collect (golden bananas, all the individual kong bananas, all the individual kong blueprints, coins etc.)

It's not necessarily one of those games I'm looking to complete, it's just something I throw on when I want to listen to a podcast or an album or something like that.

Same deal with...

Mario 64

At this point I could do the opening four levels in my sleep. I like how everything is laid out and while Jolly Roger Bay suffers from water level tropes, the music is so incredible that it's the closest I've gone to achieving enlightenment. Everything is just so well laid out in those opening levels, I especially enjoy Cool Cool Mountain and the different ways you can just slide down the mountain. It really captures that feeling of being a kid again, lord knows if there was a slide, I was going to go down it.

A couple of other games I've chucked on these past few weeks...

WCW/nWo Revenge

Mario Kart 64

Diddy Kong Racing

Wave Race

F-Zero X

Goldeneye

WWF No Mercy

Virtual Pro Wrestling 2

Fighters Destiny

Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time

Wayne Gretzky's 3D Hockey

Star Wars: Shadow of the Empire

Mortal Kombat Trilogy

Killer Instinct Gold

Star Fox 64

Blast Corps

Despite not having many RPGs I think the N64 can go toe-to-toe with any console.

Apparently Dinosaur Planet has leaked.

For those who don't know, Dinosaur Planet was set to be Rare's final release on the N64 and was going to be their attempt at making a Zelda type of game. As the story goes, Miyamoto noticed they had a Fox as a main character, so he asked them to turn it into a Star Fox game causing them to re-work the entire game and somehow work Star Fox elements into the gameplay.

I've always been curious to see what they had in mind, so this maybe the biggest release of the year.

Now all I need is the original Mother 3 and I'll be set.

I've played around an hour of Dinosaur Planet.

As expected it's largely just a rough draft of Star Fox Adventures. The only major difference as far as I can tell is that the game is split into two and you have to play through the game as Fox and Krystal. The opening section felt different as well, I recall it largely took place in an Aztec Temple while in this build you jump around a bit.

The Fox section seemed to largely be the same from SFA. You go to a snowy area, rescue a triceratops and you have to command him to dig up items or tunnels to proceed.

From what I hear, the game starts to crash pretty frequently in the next section so it's far from a finished product, but it's a neat time capsule all the same.

A lot of games I am juggling, both retro and new............I am revisiting as many Ratchet and Clank entries as possible(hence the avatar) so I will post the trilogy thoughts here for me but let's give some love to my jump into the Wonder Boy franchise!

Wonder Boy Returns Remix

A remake of a mid 1980's game that was an early Sega Mega Drive game, can this game be playable here in 2021 you may ask? The answer is yes! Game is insanely short, I finished it barely over 2 hours my 1st playthrough on the normal mode and the game practically requires you to go fast with a depleting health bar(For reasons not known) and a screen that scrolls off as you move, your reflexes will be put to the test with this remake. I actually had quite a bit of fun and was doing great up until the 6th out of 8th world! I can say the last few levels are somewhat challenging and it sort of forces you to stay in play and snipe from small distance what is ahead. A lot of the time, pressing the hammer attack consistently on the runs only helps as your shots often catch enemies that pop up and try and surprise you on these speedruns to the finish line. Throughout the game you pop up and pick up health in the form of fruit or desert and while the enemy variation is lacking(I can count with 2 hands how many enemies there are and they are near identical outside of sprite look and maybe one gimmick each has like the frog has a leap or the gremlis that try and hurt you from behind running quick from out of nowhere. Story is simple enough and the game's soundtrack while only having 5 tracks is cutesy enough where again in a 2 hour playthrough is harmless. There is a 1CC mode and a practice mode, neither I tried as I felt content with the original mode. The graphics are done in a very CHIBI/mobile phone like design way which was fine enough for me but the purists of the original game would go haywire over LOL.

They are crazy to charge 15 bucks full price for this game all things considered and even at 7-8 bucks I felt like I didn't really get my money's worth but honestly the game is fun and perfect for a quick night's playthrough to relax. One thing I will say is the trophies listed are full of typos and errors. Don't believe me?

psnprofiles.com

Wonder Boy Returns Remix Trophies
1 Platinum • 7 Gold • 10 Silver • 4 Bronze
psnprofiles.com


Tropical fruites
Get hidden fruit 1-3 stage

He's body is hard than I thought
Killed by collsion with boss's body


Again this is a Korean company who brought this over so naturally there may be translation errors but I legit laughed when some of these trophies popped up and I had to check myself to find out these were typos.

Altogether I had a lot of fun with the game, might not be worth the price of admission but if you can get it for real, real cheap, it's a fun couple of hours. I got more than half the trophies! Think it doesn't matter which version you play(There are two!), I think the one I played has the original couple of bosses vs the original remake of Wonder Boy which has a different cast of bosses. The bosses are nearly identical outside of a different fireball that swirls around differently each time, for the most part it really isn't bad although the final boss shoots all of the previous incarnations fireball waves so you do need to be a bit on guard for that.

Beat the 2002 Ratchet and Clank via R&C Collection as I embark on trying to get as many main R&C games in before Rift Apart drops in June. The 2002 Ratchet and Clank is very good still to this day in what was my 4th(?) playthrough of the game, it is surprisingly meaty content wise with me not even going for the 100,000 RYNO bolt grinding or getting all of the golden bolts for the golden weapons in the game. The drawback of this game right out of the bat is the checkpoint system is terrible, you die or fall to your death once in an area, your more likely than not starting at the beginning. I am used to retro games so not the 1st nor last culprit of this...............but the problem is you don't get your ammo back nor do you get the crates to refill it along the way because you already used them. This leads to you having to cave in and buying ammo from the merchant which makes your task of trying to get all of the weapons(Some are expensive like the aforementioned RYNO or the 30,000 Tesla Claw pre Hypnotizer which makes the sales better in your favor) all the more annoying. Had the checkpoint system either been a bit more kinder or they brought everything crates wise back like normal for a retry, I think it would have been better but this was the lone real sticking point here.

I also appreciate the sequel's weapon building that encourages/rewards weapon use for a stronger/evolved weapon so it's tough to go back and play this one in this sense. Add the lack of true strafing which is a core gameplay point of the R&C series and this game certainly plays every bit like the original entry of the series.

I still appreciate this game for what it is though, it's my 4th run after all! The story is simple yet fun, the different environments of all the planets are great, there was a lot of platforming in this entry which is always appreciated and again this game has a 10-12 hour campaign without doing all of the side content which is more than fair for a PS2 platformer. A lot of weapons, a lot of gadgets, the one thing I do appreciate in Going Commando which I jumped straight into after this is the quick buttons to use the gadgets that are necessary to move forward in a level yet aren't weapons. Feels so good to tap triangle on some of these puzzles rather than go to the menu if it isn't quick saved and press the button.

I also gotta say the PS3 port via the R&C Trilogy stinks, the slowdown and FPS dip so much when a lot of enemies are on the screen, I don't remember it being this bad on the original PS2 version. Talking about my Visibomb missiles which are remote controlled and damn strong, going in slow motion on a giant aerial vehicle which was such a slog to use(but necessary!). Again, it's been years since I played the original but I don't remember the PS2 version having this in there.

I've only played R&C 1 and 2(And R&C 2016 as well as Into the Nexus) so the other ones will be brand new plays but for the purpose of this thread, I will keep the core 3 here and move the other ones in the WAYP thread.