Cheerful Ghost: An Awesome Community For Gamers

Super Mario Bros. 3 Turns 30 And Fred Savage Can't Stop Celebrating!

Super Mario Bros. 3 was released in Japan in 1988 and later came to the United States a year later making it widely regarded as one of the most influential Mario and platform games. Back in the early 90's I played a ton of Super Mario Bros. 3 and loved it so much I constantly read the Nintendo Players Guide to the point of destroying the magazine binding requiring me to fix it with some packing tape. I still have my Nintendo Players Guide and was happy to see it largely recreated in the recent "Playing with Power" NES Classic guide.

A lot has been said about Super Mario Bros. 3 and I think a good way of shining a light on this classic game is through a recent series of... Read All Super Mario Bros. 3 was released in Japan in 1988 and later came to the United States a year later making it widely regarded as one of the most influential Mario and platform games. Back in the early 90's I played a ton of Super Mario Bros. 3 and loved it so much I constantly read the Nintendo Players Guide to the point of destroying the magazine binding requiring me to fix it with some packing tape. I still have my Nintendo Players Guide and was happy to see it largely recreated in the recent "Playing with Power" NES Classic guide.

A lot has been said about Super Mario Bros. 3 and I think a good way of shining a light on this classic game is through a recent series of interviews Nintendo did with the original developers of the game during the launch of the NES Classic. If you haven't played Super Mario Bros. 3 and have the inclination to i'd recommend picking up a NES Classic as it's one of the best ways to relive it.

"Super Mario Bros. 3 came out in 1988, three years after Super Mario Bros. How did that come about?

Miyamoto: The game before that, Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels, had been Tezuka-san's directorial debut. That went well, so we decided to make a completely new game.

Tezuka-san, did you feel pressure as the director of Super Mario Bros. 3? After all, the original Super Mario Bros. was an incredible hit.

Tezuka: I didn't feel pressure from the original game so much as I felt like I needed to do a good job. But it wouldn't come together well and dragged on.

Miyamoto: And Nakago-san got angry. (laughs)

Tezuka: Yeah, he definitely got angry. (laughs)

What wouldn't come together?

Tezuka: At first, we were making it with a bird's-eye view rather than a side view.

The view was looking down diagonally from overhead rather than directly from the side as in Super Mario Bros.

Tezuka: Yes. But we couldn't do it well.

Miyamoto: He said he wanted to look from a little above. But in Super Mario Bros. it is important whether Mario's feet hit the ground or not, even barely. With a diagonal view from slightly overhead, you lost your sense of distance to the ground. So I told him that development would be difficult.

Tezuka: Yeah, it was. (laughs wryly) So partway through development, we switched to a side viewpoint, but there are relics of the bird's-eye view in the final product.

Miyamoto: Yeah.

For example, the black-and-white checkered floor.

Tezuka: Yeah.

Tezuka-san, what was your original idea for making Super Mario Bros. 3?

Tezuka: We made Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels by changing the original game's difficulty and stage design, but we couldn't do that again, so I wanted to change everything, including its general appearance."

If you want to read the rest of the interview and I recommend you do, head over to the Nintendo website!

https://www.nintendo.com/nes-classic/super-mario-bros-and-super-mario-bros-3-developer-interview

Goodbye Life... My Review Of Egg, Inc.

jdodson gives this a solid "Rad" on the Ghost Scale

This is fun, with very few issues, and is well worth your time.

jdodson gives this a "Rad" on the Ghost Scale

This is fun, with very few issues, and is well worth your time.

Travis let me know about an idle clicker game I haven't heard of before called Egg, Inc. and since I like clicker games I decided to give it a shot. As with many clicker / idle games Egg, Inc. has you amassing a ton of eggs to sell on your egg farm and it starts out fairly simply. You have a modest egg farm making a few thousand to where I am now with a farm making Septillions of dollars. One huge upside to playing Egg, Inc. is that you learn what the names of high number counts are which is kind of a neat thing to know. One other cool aspect of Egg, Inc. is that it will draw you back to play each second of your life away until you are a soulless husk that only wants... Read All

Travis Admin wrote on 10/25/2018 at 08:49pm

Man I dunno what it is about this one but I’m sooo incredibly hooked. I don’t like clicker games. Thankfully for the most part you level out of needing to tap the button to hatch chickens or else I probably would have moved on long ago.

I’m currently making decillions per second on my Infinity egg farm and there are a few eggs to go. Some people have been casually playing this thing for two years and still haven’t gotten to the last one.

I think this one is going to keep my interest somehow.

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 10/26/2018 at 02:35am

I don't believe I've played a clicker game, but I'm aware of Clicker Heroes and Clicker Heroes 2. Have you tried those games? The first is free, I might check it out sometime.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 10/26/2018 at 03:15am

> I’m currently making decillions per second on my Infinity egg farm and there are a few eggs to go. Some people have been casually playing this thing for two years and still haven’t gotten to the last one.

Wow, that's an incredible amount of focus.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 10/26/2018 at 03:15am

I don't think I have Greg.

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 10/26/2018 at 04:37am

What exactly is a clicker game? One that you just click stuff often? I think I understand the concept.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 10/26/2018 at 05:11am

It’s a game where a big part of it, at least for a time is clicking to collect a resource.

If you want to join this conversation you need to sign in.

Sign Up / Log In

The Portland Retro Game Expo 2018 Retrospective + Gaming Pickups!

Thank you to everyone that stopped by to visit the Cheerful Ghost Booth or played in one of our game tournaments. The Portland Retro Game Expo is my favorite convention and everyone who comes out makes it awesome. I also want to thank Adam Farnsworth for working the booth with me this weekend!

The Winners of This Years Cheerful Ghost Tournaments!

Super Mario Bros. on NES Speed run to Bowser's axe on World 1-4

David Harrison (The Winter Soldier) won this with a blistering time of 2:03.20! Seriously time yourself and stop when you hit Bowsers axe at the end of 1-4. Now do it when people are watching. Good luck!

https://imgur.com/SbpUhjt
https://imgur.com/8C0djTw

Mario Paint... Read All

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 10/24/2018 at 04:34am

I strongly recommend you add Hyrule Warriors to your list of Wii U games to get. It's definitely my favorite! Smash Bros. is a great one to get, too. And yeah, I knew that the zapper doesn't work on modern TVs (aka flat screens). I can't remember how I know that, I just do. LOL

Do you have a Switch? If you don't have one with Breath of the Wild, you can get the game for the Wii U! You should also check out Twilight Princess HD, there's one that comes with a Wolf Link amiibo that works great with BotW. Speaking of amiibos, you should look into collecting them, too. They have a variety of uses, depending on what game you're playing. For instance, the Wolf Link amiibo adds Wolf Link as your companion in BotW. I'm not too sure, but I think you can get Epona by using an amiibo. Other amiibos give random or certain things in the game.

I'll look forward to your Wii U review (hey that rhymes!) and add my "2 cents." Oh, I just remembered Mario Kart 8 is pretty good, too! I never thought the Wii U was a bad system, but it didn't sell as wildly as the Wii.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 10/24/2018 at 04:46am

> I strongly recommend you add Hyrule Warriors to your list of Wii U games to get. It's definitely my favorite!

Done. You've talked about it so much, surprised it's not already there. Which system, 3DS or Wii U?

> And yeah, I knew that the zapper doesn't work on modern TVs (aka flat screens). I can't remember how I know that, I just do. LOL

So we used a flat CRT screen so the shots registered most of the time. It's just that 20% didn't so it made for a terrible tournament game

> Do you have a Switch? If you don't have one with Breath of the Wild, you can get the game for the Wii U!

Not yet, but I plan on getting one for Christmas and want to save getting Breath of the Wild for the Switch.

> You should also check out Twilight Princess HD

It's totally on my Wii U pickups list. I didn't see it at the expo or i'd have bought it.

> I'll look forward to your Wii U review (hey that rhymes!) and add my "2 cents." Oh, I just remembered Mario Kart 8 is pretty good, too! I never thought the Wii U was a bad system, but it didn't sell as wildly as the Wii.

There are a lot of games I want to get ONLY on the Switch that are available for both systems. Breath of the Wild, Mario Kart 8, New Super Mario Bros Wii U & Luigi U. Sometimes I don't mind having dupes on multiple systems but in the case of the Wii U and Switch i'd rather get the Switch version. I'm focusing on Wii UI games you can't get anywhere else but the Wii U.

Will_Ball Game Mod Super Member wrote on 10/24/2018 at 04:50pm

It was a lot of fun! I am after all Marvel games (including bad and meh games), so I picked up a bunch of Marvel games. I also got Altered Beast for the Genesis, Donkey Konga 2 and Donkey Kong Jungle Beat for the GameCube and finally Q-Bert and Mickey Mousecapade for the NES.

As always I was overwhelmed by the number of vendors and goods on the expo floor, but it was still a lot of fun.

The best panels IMHO were the ones done by Ben Heckendorn. He is a really good speaker.

The biggest meh of the expo was the Intellivision Amico. They did not have any actual hardware or games to show, but announced a 10-10-2020 release date. The price point of $149 - $179 seems under-priced for the hardware that they want to ship. Plus I am not a fan of digital only games. I was not impressed and walked out of the talk.

On the other hand, I was really impressed with the CollectorVision Phoenix (https://collectorvision.com/shop/colecovision/colecovision-hd-system/). Not only did they have a working console there, they had actual games running on the thing. This FPGA console will run CollecoVision and Atari 2600 games. They mentioned that the code will be open source so people will be able to expand on it. It was a really impressive piece of hardware.

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 10/24/2018 at 05:19pm

I haven't tried Hyrule Warriors on the 3DS, but I know that it only works well on the "New 3DS," not the model before that.

I didn't realize so many games were for both systems and I think Hyrule Warriors is among them. I wouldn't really recommend getting duplicates either.

AdamPFarnsworth wrote on 10/24/2018 at 11:33pm

I just realized there's only a 4-hundredths of a second difference in the winning time of SMB AND F-Zero :)

Will_Ball Game Mod Super Member wrote on 10/25/2018 at 01:52am

I am surprised I didn’t get special mention as fastest to game over!

If you want to join this conversation you need to sign in.

Sign Up / Log In

The Intellivision Amico Is Coming in 2020!

One big piece of news to come out of the Portland Retro Game Expo this year was the announcement of the Intellivision Amico. It looks to revision the classic console for the modern era and a few people I knew went to the panel. So far, it's mostly all specs and artistic renderings and a splashy video but if it delivers 80% of what it sets out to do it should be pretty awesome.

With that I have a few questions about it. Do all the game on the system need to be exclusive? Have yet another place to play Indie games might not be a bad thing, new Intellivision included. How are they going to ship this system at an $180 price point? Seems like a very hard target to hit and... Read All One big piece of news to come out of the Portland Retro Game Expo this year was the announcement of the Intellivision Amico. It looks to revision the classic console for the modern era and a few people I knew went to the panel. So far, it's mostly all specs and artistic renderings and a splashy video but if it delivers 80% of what it sets out to do it should be pretty awesome.

With that I have a few questions about it. Do all the game on the system need to be exclusive? Have yet another place to play Indie games might not be a bad thing, new Intellivision included. How are they going to ship this system at an $180 price point? Seems like a very hard target to hit and be a quality system. Why do the controller need wireless charging? I get that Qi is the new hot wireless charging standard but plugging stuff in isn't a big deal for retro enthusiasts and you can save a couple bucks for everything else you want to pack in to the Amico.

In the end i'm really supportive of this system and I think there is room in the market for a new retro enthusiast console that has a modern online ecosystem.

"Almost 40 years after the release of the original Intellivision® home video game system which helped to redefine the video game industry, Intellivision Entertainment is proud to carry on its “Legacy of Firsts” by announcing the brand new revolutionary family home video game console named Amico to be released on October 10th, 2020 (1010 2020). Amico is the Italian word for “friend” or “buddy” and encapsulates an element of the approach and dynamics for what makes the new console so unique and an exciting addition to everyone’s family.

INTELLIVISION AMICO FEATURES AND INFORMATION:

PRICE RANGE (RETAIL)
US $149 - $179

NORTH AMERICAN, UNITED KINGDOM AND EUROPEAN RELEASE DATE
October 10, 2020 (1010 2020)

SOFTWARE OVERVIEW

All games are family friendly and rated “E for Everyone” or “E10+”.

Every game version on the console is EXCLUSIVE.

Quality over quantity! All games must past a strict quality control seal of approval.

Balanced gameplay and design for Equal Opportunity Gaming for all.

All games are downloadable and between US $2.99 - $7.99.

No costly DLC (Downloadable Content) add-on’s or “In-App Purchases”.

Launch to include several built-in reimagined Intellivision Classics (pre-installed in every console) and over 20 games including both reimagined industry classics and brand new exclusive titles via the Intellivision Online Store.

CONTROLLERS

2 wireless Bluetooth controllers (up to 8 player compatible and connectivity).

3 ½ inch (2:3 aspect ratio) Color Touchscreen.

Pioneering tilting positional disc with surrounding interactive LED border.

4 arcade-style tactile feedback buttons.

Gyroscope & Accelerometer.

Force feedback.

Controller to be used horizontally or vertically including dominant left or right hand usage.

Qi (pronounced “CHEE”) wireless onboard charging.

Speaker

Microphone

Free downloadable app enables mobile phones as additional controllers (up to 8 players).

HARDWARE & TECHNOLOGY

State of the Art 21st Century 2D Image Processing and Graphics Capability

Intellivision Prism™ Onboard Interactive Lighting Technology.

WiFi/BT & Ethernet Connectivity.

HDMI Video Output.

Multiple USB Ports

System Expansion Interface.

ONLINE

Intellivision Online Store for the ability to purchase additional software.

Multi-player online gaming and structured multi-tiered tournament play.

Time & Space Leaderboard System™ which includes high scores by locations and calendar.

Trophy/Achievement rewards system which awards unique accomplishments to each player.

Cheerful Ghost Radio Mini-Episode: Cheerful Ghost at the Portland Retro Gaming Expo

In this episode of Cheerful Ghost Radio, Adam and Jon are on the floor at PRGE talking about all the fun they're having while Tim and Travis sit at home and wish they were there.

jdodson Admin wrote on 10/22/2018 at 03:48am

A little behind the scenes magic for everyone. Adam and I recorded this episode from our booth and right afterward I texted it to Travis. He cut it up into a show and posted it, which made for a very fun and timely episode. I think it turned out fairly well so i'd expect a few more episodes like this.

AdamPFarnsworth wrote on 10/23/2018 at 04:31am

The expo was tons of fun! Thanks for posting this so quickly, Travis!

Timogorgon Member wrote on 10/24/2018 at 03:33am

Can confirm: Wished I was there!
PRGE sounds like a lot of fun!

jdodson Admin wrote on 10/24/2018 at 04:16am

It is. One thing I want to do for next year is demand Travis & Tim fly in and work the expo with us for the weekend.

DEMAND! (see all in caps, must happen)

Timogorgon Member wrote on 10/27/2018 at 04:52am

YOUR WISH IS MY THING I'LL THINK ABOUT AND POSSIBLY CONSIDER.

If you want to join this conversation you need to sign in.

Sign Up / Log In

The Directors Cut Of The Accounting+ Trailer Is The Craziest Thing You're Gonna Watch Today

Not only is the new Accounting+ trailer the craziest thing you might watch today but it's also one of the most entertaining. From the folks behind Rick and Morty & The Stanley Parable come Accounting+ a new VR game for PS VS, Occulus and the HTC Vive. From watching a few minutes of actual gameplay it looks like a cross between Office Simulator, The Stanley Parable and Rick and Morty which makes sense given the creative team behind the game. If I had any kind of VR i'd play this thing immediately but since I don't I imagine that want will die on a pile of other dead ambition. Which seems entirely fitting given the games style and content.

Digital Foundry Does A Comparison & Review of Luigi's Mansion!

Digital Foundry has another incredible comparison review video and apparently I have to share them all so here's one that compares Luigi's Mansion with the original Gamecube and recent 3DS release. Grezzo is the company behind the 3DS port of Luigi's Mansion that has previous worked on the amazing 3DS ports of Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask. Luigi's Mansion seems to be similarly as good but this time Grezze had to make the game run on somewhat limited hardware. The choices they made in some ways were better than the original game and very clever due to the limitations of the 3DS.

"What made Luigi's Mansion so special when it launched with GameCube and how much of... Read All

World of Final Fantasy Review

Azurephile gives this a solid "Rad" on the Ghost Scale

This is fun, with very few issues, and is well worth your time.

Azurephile gives this a "Rad" on the Ghost Scale

This is fun, with very few issues, and is well worth your time.

Review

Recommendation: Kind of around "meh" and "rad"

Final Fantasy meets Pokemon

Many familiar Final Fantasy monsters and characters

A couple PC quirks

We no longer have to imagine a world where Final Fantasy meets Disney, that of course is Kingdom Hearts. But there’s a new FF blend, it’s like FF meets Pokemon and it’s interesting. I’ve had this on my wish list and it recently became a $20 game (50% off), so I picked it up.

In World of Final Fantasy, you wake up (late as always) and find yourself as a twin of mirage keepers. Mirages are basically monsters and you can catch them, much like Pokemon. However this isn’t a game where you have monsters fighting monsters, it... Read All Review

Recommendation: Kind of around "meh" and "rad"

Final Fantasy meets Pokemon

Many familiar Final Fantasy monsters and characters

A couple PC quirks

We no longer have to imagine a world where Final Fantasy meets Disney, that of course is Kingdom Hearts. But there’s a new FF blend, it’s like FF meets Pokemon and it’s interesting. I’ve had this on my wish list and it recently became a $20 game (50% off), so I picked it up.

In World of Final Fantasy, you wake up (late as always) and find yourself as a twin of mirage keepers. Mirages are basically monsters and you can catch them, much like Pokemon. However this isn’t a game where you have monsters fighting monsters, it’s a bit more complicated than that. Instead you stack them on your head. There are also two sizes that the main characters can be, called Lilikins (for small) and Jiants (for large). Lilikins can have a mirage on top of their head, but they may be able to actually ride a large mirage. As a Jiant, you can have two mirages stacked on your head. Each mirage has a size, which can change as it….”evolves.” There are small, medium, and large mirages. Small ones get stacked on top of medium ones, while large ones are ones that you stack yourself on top of.

There are a number of unique mirages, many of them familiar monsters within the world of Final Fantasy as a whole, such as chocobos and cactuars. Each mirage has it’s own way of what you need to do to capture it, such as use physical attacks, magic, or give it a status ailment. You can find out how to get the mirage into capture mode by using Libra on it. Libra can also tell you the mirage's elemental resistances. Each element has it’s own weakness and strength and it goes something like this; fire is strong against ice, but weak against water. Ice is strong against wind, which is strong against earth, which is strong against thunder, which is strong against water. Dark and light seem to be strong against each other. So, it’s not quite set up like Pokemon, but it is kind of similar.

The reason capturing mirages is so important is because mirages have abilities (like Cure) and stats. You make yourself more powerful by stacking a mirage (or two). Areas in the game seem to have similar mirages with similar and expected strengths and weaknesses. For instance, in a fire place you can expect to find fire based mirages like the Bomb.

The game does a pretty decent job of telling you how to go about capturing mirages and how to stack them to receive their benefits. It also explains that, for instance, if you have two mirages stacked that have the ability of Fire, it will in turn give you the upgraded spell, Fira. You are limited to how many mirages you can keep with you. The rest go in a special storage area that easily accessible at save points.

One thing that makes this game a bit more enticing for fans of Final Fantasy is that it contains areas and characters in previous Final Fantasy games. For instance, I met up with Tifa who lead me to Nifelheim, but there are many others!

The PC version is kind of confusing in a way. When I first started the game, it was in windowed mode, which I didn’t like. I went into the options/settings menu, but didn’t see anything to change it. However, there’s a small configuration tool you can select after clicking on the “play” button on Steam. Here you can chose to configure it or jump in the game. This still doesn’t add very much configuration, but you can change to full screen and a different resolution. It’s actually simple, it’s just a bit buried.

Another interesting thing is that I wanted to play with a controller. I have an Xbox 360 controller I use for PC gaming. At first it was kind of difficult because the game was telling me which keys to press instead of which buttons. Then, I noticed in the options menu that you can select which input device is shown in how to do things. I thought this was cool, even though it didn’t auto detect.

Mega Man 11 Is Getting Amazing Reviews + Digital Foundry System Comparison!

Mega Man 11 finally hit and the reviews are coming in and so far, it looks like it's one of the best games to come out in quite some time. Cygnus Destroyer, a YouTuber known for his Innocent Until Proven Guilty series has a fun Mega Man 11 review and to put it simply... he finds it "mega magnificent." You can watch his review at the link below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4CZvay5gHU

Digital Foundry has also reviewed Mega Man 11 and finds it similarly as incredible but goes much more in depth and compares each version on PS4, XBox, Switch and PC and all the various versions to the frame rate level. It's the quality you'd expect from Digital Foundry and I appreciate... Read All

Cheerful Ghost Radio Episode 37: Disenchantment

In this episode, we talk all about Matt Groening's new Netflix series, Disenchantment, and whether we think it lives up to the standard of The Simpsons and Futurama. But first we discuss what we've been playing and watching over the last month and discuss games that might not need sequels (thanks to @noigelarcane on Twitter for the idea).