Bizarre, counterintuitive methodologies you have adapted in games to expedite victory

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In other words, shit that never makes sense and isn't required that you do anyway out of a compulsive desire to get that extra mileage out of your games:

1. prolonging combat and giving weak units lots and lots of extra work to better grind your party up in RPGs.

2. spend hella time avoiding fireballs and spikes and various other deadly traps in a room that's full of them just to make sure you don't miss a weak spot in the wall or a hidden door

3. visit the same meadow over and over and over again to stab the same poor sap in the face 250x times because you really want that fuckin' vest/axe/wtfever

4. your turn!

― TOMBOT, Friday, 16 December 2005 21:06 (twenty years ago)

Okay, I have to paste this comment that a friend posted on lj today, because it's just too amazing:

In Zelda 2 I once decided that I wanted to play through the game as the highest level from fairly early on. The problem was, most monsters that provided experience points didn't respawn without moving back and forth. But there was a swamp that continuously spawned birds with a paltry amount of experience. If I went to the swamp, hit the challenging encounter, and positioned myself at the edge of the board, I could stand in one spot facing an endless stream of birds for the slaughter. So I rigged up a series of objects to keep the sword button pressed on my NES advantage, fine-tuning the rapid fire amount so that I'd be hitting the birds at exactly the right time. The only problem was, when I would get a new level, I'd have to hit a button to accept the increase in power. So I had to turn on slow motion on the NES advantage, which hit the start button regularly. So the game would sit there, pausing and unpausing, firing my sword at each bird that came down.

Went to church with this running, attended a family event with this running, and eventually came back to an overpowered Link with most of the game left to go.

Ah, memories.

― Jordan (Jordan), Friday, 16 December 2005 21:16 (twenty years ago)

leaving the psx on overnight on Castlevania:SOTN, in a particular room where constantly respawing enemies helped the familiars(sword, bat, etc) level up.

― kingfish holiday travesty (kingfish 2.0), Friday, 16 December 2005 21:19 (twenty years ago)

Jon to thread re: pausing UN Squadron literally every couple seconds to change to optimal weapon.

― Laura H. (laurah), Friday, 16 December 2005 21:24 (twenty years ago)

similarly, pausing Master Blaster to do the grenade trick when killing certain bosses

― kingfish holiday travesty (kingfish 2.0), Friday, 16 December 2005 21:28 (twenty years ago)

Also, dropping back from first in Mario Kart DS if I get a dominant lead in the first lap or two, as there's a pretty good chance that becoming #1 too early will only lead to getting fucked by blue shells, and likely getting kicked back to 5th or below. I've even had good results with starting badly and using my crappy ranking to get sweet powerups and get into the lead just in time to win but not for long enough to attract blue shells.

― Laura H. (laurah), Friday, 16 December 2005 21:30 (twenty years ago)

Oh yeah, that sounds vaguely familiar. Was it pausing while it was exploding that did it?

― Jordan (Jordan), Friday, 16 December 2005 21:31 (twenty years ago)

yeah sometimes when i'm in a crowd in mario kart ds & we come up on the item boxes i fall back a bit so as to increase my chances at a sweeter item.

― s1ocki (slutsky), Friday, 16 December 2005 21:42 (twenty years ago)

Haha, last night I was in a game against sleep and Jeffrey, and I'm pretty sure at one point in Delfino Square we all slowed down to do this at the same time.

― melton mowbray (adr), Friday, 16 December 2005 21:46 (twenty years ago)

Was it pausing while it was exploding that did it?

yup. never dead beat that damn game, tho.

still remember the main theme.

― kingfish holiday travesty (kingfish 2.0), Friday, 16 December 2005 21:47 (twenty years ago)

I loved UN squadron

― Polysix Bad Battery (cprek), Friday, 16 December 2005 22:02 (twenty years ago)

In the original MarioKart I used to set it on battle mode board 4, use set an opponent at the center of the course. Then gather red turtle shells and see how many I could get to orbit around the character simulatneously.

― Polysix Bad Battery (cprek), Friday, 16 December 2005 22:05 (twenty years ago)

Always try to go backwards at the start of a level, because that's where the good power-ups are going to be.

Similarly, any path that looks completely bland? That's the one to check first.

― The Yellow Kid, Friday, 16 December 2005 23:48 (twenty years ago)

In Secret of Evermore I always get stuck holding the L/R buttons to get the dog to sniff out all the powerful alchemy ingredients.

― Curt1s St3ph3ns, Saturday, 17 December 2005 01:03 (twenty years ago)

Shooting guards in the groin in GoldenEye.

― Obsessing over the unobtainable and nonexistent. (Leee), Saturday, 17 December 2005 01:28 (twenty years ago)

So OTM about the groin shooting..something far too satisfying about doing it and then landing a double tap to the skull to finish them off. Also in Goldeneye, making a game of trying to land headshots from the most obscene distances with the sniper rifle. UN Squadron was indeed a great game, I always regretted not buying a copy when I was younger!

― Mingus Dew (Mingus Dew), Saturday, 17 December 2005 04:04 (twenty years ago)

Shooting all the limbs in Goldeneye... then later in Metal gear Solid 2 - shooting the guard's radio, both arms and a leg, then putting your gun away. The enemy desperately limping for help was terrific.

― Vic Fluro (Vic Fluro), Sunday, 18 December 2005 00:04 (twenty years ago)

cprek, battle mode 4 in Super Mario Kart was such an amazing track. I really miss the feathers for battle modes in the later mk games... I used to love jumping up just in time to avoid a red shell, or the less practical but easier and more satisfying option of just jumping yourself out of the track (particularly in the water stage. it was always satisfying to totally sink my kart.)

― Laura H. (laurah), Sunday, 18 December 2005 00:59 (twenty years ago)

When I played Tecmo Bowl I would try to get into a first and goal situation, and then I'd run all the way back to the other side of the field and try to convert on third and 98. I did this a lot, as sad as it might sounds.

I've spent the last two days trying to get five stars on every song on Medium difficulty on Guitar Hero, but damnit if that Pantera song isn't hard to nail down.

― polyphonic (polyphonic), Sunday, 18 December 2005 08:59 (twenty years ago)

this mario kart self-nobbling sounds a lot like my old "hang back behind the leaders, then make the big attack on the last lap" techniquie on daytona. works like a charm!

― haitch is the realest topic alive (haitch), Sunday, 18 December 2005 12:53 (twenty years ago)

fwiw that IS a pretty common race-winning tactic in the real world

― s1ocki (slutsky), Sunday, 18 December 2005 17:21 (twenty years ago)

just ask a horse

― s1ocki (slutsky), Sunday, 18 December 2005 17:21 (twenty years ago)

they don't have automatic catch-up on horses though!

― haitch is the realest topic alive (haitch), Sunday, 18 December 2005 22:48 (twenty years ago)

...OR DO THEY

― haitch is the realest topic alive (haitch), Sunday, 18 December 2005 22:48 (twenty years ago)

Things you do to EXPEDITE victory? More like prolong or fend off!

This Friday (while "working at home" cough), I spent a couple of hours doing the taxi submission in Vice City so I could get to 100 people served all @ once. Made an assload of money ($130K!), AND now my taxis have turbo jump capabilities!

― David R. (popshots75`), Monday, 19 December 2005 15:56 (twenty years ago)

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