Messages

1

Map Requests / Re: Full map set for Sonic the Hedgehog's games

« on: June 10, 2025, 08:06:34 pm »

Uh, G.E.R., I think you left out mapping all the Challenge Missions that are unlocked after finishing each Act in all 6 main Stages, and then the last by finishing all 2 unlocked Missions from "Sonic Colors DS".

Those Missions, while serving as the game's side content are, yes, slightly modified layouts of already existing Acts with blockades with different objectives, but they do offer some replay value.

And, as you may or may not remember, there are 2 Red Star Rings found in each Mission, alongside the 5 in each Act.

Just thought I'd let you know.

2

Gaming / Spark the Electirc Jester... Played it?

« on: June 08, 2025, 08:54:33 pm »

Any in the VGMaps community that may need to know, I have come across a rather neat 2D game that has some Kirby, Mega Man X, and Sonic influences, but stands well on its own as an indie game.

It's "Spark the Electric Jester".

It shows the main hero, Spark, setting out to reclaim his job as a rather entertaining jester after being "let go", inadvisably, and stop a robot rampage threatening the world, led by a rather unknown individual, and must plow through swathes of robots to get answers, including a rather obvious look-a-like robot copy of himself(Fake Spark, I call it), and save the world, with some allies Spark may meet on the way.

Its been made by one whole person, who some of you may be familiar with some Sonic the Hedgehog fangames, preferably "Before the Sequel" and "After the Sequel".

I'm talking about LakeFeperd. He made those previous fangames with Clickteam's Multimedia Fusion 2 engine, until he upgraded to Fusion 2.5, paired with a framework, "Sonic Worlds", which was also used by Galaxytrail(not Feperd, mind you) to make Freedom Planet.

It got funded through Kickstarter to help out finish the game, despite no stretch goals being funded, unfortunately. The music was done by composers Feperd picked while he kept working on the game.

I found a few YT videos about it, including playthroughs, and watched some.

Here's one to watch - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEbz95ypPX0

I'm fond of the game, because of its familiar speeds to Sonic, and it harbors plenty of content, including an unlockable, tougher campaign as Fake Spark himself. The game holds a total of 16 Stages, each having at least a mid-boss in most, and a main boss at the end of them.

I've seen how long each stage can be, and later stages can go for more than 5 minutes, especially the later stages that have more than one map. And, speaking of maps, they are LARGE. I mean, QUITE LARGE, as in within, or above, the size range of 20,000s, mostly horizontal. There's even a few stages that go vertically taller, or deeper. I mean WAY tall or deep.

Comparably, their maps' sizes are much more larger than Freedom Planet's, but the map amounts in stages are lesser than the latter.

The few things that kinda bother me in that game are the minor, numerical grammar problems in the dialogue. I mean, just mainly lacking of commas, periods where question marks should've been, etc..(I've been paying attention while watching)

The story did get an overhaul in a patch update(unusually in a game, but, understandable), because its former plot didn't felt consistent and in-line with specific elements in its story.

The more bothersome thing of it all, for me, is that it didn't get a port to a Nintendo console first, before Feperd went to work on its sequels.

In my perspective, any console port after launching a game in PC, if such a choice was made first, should've been a priority before doing another or a sequel. Even more, Feperd went to port sequels to consoles WITHOUT doing the first game. It could've been given a better priority, at least. I could've enjoyed playing it on a Nintendo console.

If anything, Feperd could contact any console porting team to do the work on porting the first game.

Though, should that be made, I would mind a few updates and cosmetic changes to improve the adventure, like additional sound ambiance in stages, grammar corrections, maybe a speed  boost, refined and streamlined defeat sequences to bosses, the timer stopping for doing conversations and resuming after finishing them, resolved inconsistencies with the bosses' health bars' appearances(that should've been lesser for mid-bosses and perhaps more for main bosses), and, OH! I almost forgot...

In a prior Kickstarter demo, the game's second stage, F.M.(Flower Mountain) Canyon, HAD a mid-boss to fight, plainly called Tank SECR-01. A later demo removed it, and I felt disappointed it got removed. It should be reinstated to make it less dragging and more fun.

Here's an image link showcasing that mid-boss itself, as proof, from the game's artbook album - https://i.imgur.com/eAnzSua.png

To add more on it, here's the mid-boss' whole body sprite - https://tcrf.net/images/e/e5/STEJ_tank.png

And, in accordance to its artbook launched for free later, the 10th stage, Luna Base, HAD a boss planned, but for some reason, it got scrapped, leaving that stage to be the only one WITHOUT bosses, even a mid-boss that should've been fought midway.

Luna Bay's Scrapped Boss Pattern Design Doc. - https://i.imgur.com/a9N0OjD.png

Luna Bay's Scrapped Boss 3D model - https://i.imgur.com/mmCEe0K.png

I should say this, Luna Bay needs all-new bosses, or at least, at least have a new mid-boss or two in it, THEN have a new main boss in the end that's more fun to fight and would suit well to use the magma against Spark.

I happen to come across YT vids from SparkleGem that's working on a mod to the first game that may give a few updates and changes, called "Spark the Electric Jester: Recharged".

Now THAT'S sounding like a good name for an updated edition to the game! One that's worthy of a Nintendo console port!

I leave these video links for you to see what I mean.

Spark The Electric Jester: Recharged Mod Trailer - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ex3vLbxv5k8

Spark The Electric Jester: Recharged, Shopalo's Goods Video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTUK-RKjRNM

Well, overall, aside from it not being mapped yet, Spark the Electric Jester is a fun game to play. If you've not played it, give it a go. You'll enjoy some of the hi-speed action and adventure!

And, of course, if you want, give Feperd a good talk on his Twitter Account, here - https://twitter.com/LakeFeperd

3

Map Requests / Re: JonLeung's Requests

« on: June 08, 2025, 05:57:58 pm »

I think its neat to keep track of any game's maps in progress via colored indication. The blue marking helps, but I think for games that may have one or more mappers working on them, maybe a different color would help to better differentiate.

Other than that, your changes to your list are good.

4

Map Requests / Re: JonLeung's Requests

« on: June 07, 2025, 05:51:49 pm »

Hi, Jon.

I was able to scout for more yet-to-be mapped games for your list, and did bring up some more Metroidvanias, and in one of your topics about them, I've lined a few up in order about the largest map yet, which is "Afterimage", at the top of my latest post's list there.

I still try to inform you of whatever games I can find, when not swamped with anything else or trying to keep myself out of boredom.

If you've not played it yet, maybe give it a go when you can. I was able to uncover just about every area in the overall map, and there are so many.

I don't know the actual overall size, but I can only say this, it tops Hollow Knight as the largest Metroidvania map yet(and any game map, in general, so far). Even I felt a bit exhausted a few times when still trying to find every path in every corner of every area. Still fun, though, having played it.

5

Map Requests / Found Giana Sisters DS Maps!

« on: June 03, 2025, 08:14:26 pm »

This has been untouched in very long since Wario Bros posted, but, I have to bring this matter up, anyway.

I have found the entire collection of Giana Sisters DS maps uploaded onto a Fandom Wiki Page that has them!

The maps were made by a member called GianaSistersFan64, and the name is quite obvious of what a big fan of the series that member is. Many of them are not viewable unless anyone makes a membership account.

Alternatively, but fortunately, I found the same collection on The Spriters Resource uploaded by that same member, as well as a few other games' maps in the series that member did there, and they're available to see in full, rather than locked by a membership to the website.

The page to where the game's maps are is there, just below a section called "Level Maps" - https://www.spriters-resource.com/ds_dsi/gianasistersds/

Looks like that person saved Wario Bros whatever amount of  time and effort spent on doing it.

If anyone in the VGMaps community is around, please try to get in contact with GianaSistersFan64. The maps are still yet to be uploaded on this site.

6

Gaming / Creativity Towards Mini-Bosses

« on: June 03, 2025, 05:14:04 pm »

Well, the one other thing I would like to talk about mini-bosses are the thought, effort, heart, and, oftentimes, soul in giving mini-bosses their unique, original designs... along with making them not too repetitive in their appearances.

The Mega Man and Kirby series do have many games that feature mini-bosses, though their amounts and originality really differs.

Many Mega Man games have mini-bosses, but only in select stages, not in each. The one thing is some are fought more than once mid-way through select stages, even with hazards place in to make these battles a bit tougher, like Paozo from Mega Man 9, fought not once, not twice, but THRICE in Concrete Man's stage, all in a row. Granted, that game was made for WiiWare, as well as PSN, and XBLA, and that's fine by me, but still.

Being that many were made for NES, SNES, and PS1(despite the CD's storage size that could've guaranteed some more, then), it seemed like there weren't much, due to the former's carts holding little space for game content at the time, even on SNES because the sounds are comprised of recorded DPCM samples, at least until Mega Man Zero, ZX, and ZX Advent, had a bit plenty more in these games.

Mega Man 11 was first game in the whole series to have a mini-boss fought in each of its main stages, and that gave me some satisfaction in fighting them in their own chosen stages. I fought them, and it was more fun.

Kirby's Dream Land, the first Kirby game, debuted mini-bosses, Poppy Bros. Sr., Lololo, and Kracko Jr., all original, and Kirby's Adventure introduced many new mini-bosses that went on to become recurring in many games to come, such as Bonkers, Mr. Frosty, Grand Wheelie, and Bugzzy.

What I don't find it select games in that series trying to make any regular enemy a mid-boss, like Waddle Dee, for instance. Sure, it may seem like any one enemy's trying to prove capable of being one, but it doesn't do any good being original, nor uniquely creative.

We had more new mini-bosses in later games, but others weren't chosen to reappear, like Batafire, Bombar, Gao Gao, Miasmoros, Water Galboros, Super Bonkers, Box Boxer, Big Metalun, Tedhaun, Rolling Turtle, Boxy, and Phan Phan. King Doo, Blocky, Gigant Blade, and Kibble Blade did reappear, but I feel they're more better favorites chosen for their reappearances as somewhat of a priority than having new mini-bosses to fight.

Kirby: Mass Attack does have mini-bosses, mostly unique, others slightly.

Super Kirby Clash have different variants of select mini-bosses and regular bosses, being mostly about battles and such, being a spin-off; Kibble Blade was given, Frost Kibble Blade, Bonkers was given Spark Bonkers, Kracko was given Venom Kracko, and Gigant Edge was given Gigant Edge was given Ignite Edge, and Ice Dragon was given Electric Dragon. all neat variants with designs that stood them apart.

Here's image links about their concept art...

Venom Kracko and Frost Kibble Blade - https://cdn.wikirby.com/b/b7/SKC_Venom_Kracko_and_Frost_Kibble_Blade_concept_artwork.jpg
Ignite Edge, Spark Bonkers, and Electric Dragon - https://cdn.wikirby.com/7/72/SKC_Team_Elementrio_concept_artwork.jpg

What I find quite disappointing from Kirby: Star Allies, and Kirby and the Forgotten Land is that they only have one new, debut mini-boss, whereas all the rest are just recurring mini-bosses from past games, the latter given "Wild" re-appearances. I can easily recognize their designs.

I'm feeling in my mind sometimes the designers behind Kirby are kinda having their own creative blocks in trying to create new minibosses in new games. Its a bit worrisome because it takes away brevity, and it doesn't add much to the series' overall bestiary total.

Zelda's Tri-Force Heroes' worlds in The Drablands all have mini-bosses fought at the end of their second dungeons, being stronger variants/alternatives of past and recent monsters, such as Electric Blob King from Buzz Blob Cave, Electric Blob Queen at Abyss of Agony, Freezlord at Snowball Ravine, Grim Repoe at Palace Noir, and Gigaleon at Deception Castle.

The reason they were not fought again in later dungeons is because they were given their own designs to stand out from normal monsters, and it keeps the game's brevity and ensures no single mini-boss gets fought more than one time. I find it enjoyable to fight unique mini-bosses without having to face them too many times or as downgraded enemies.

SMALL FACT: All the bosses, even the mini-bosses, were all designed by Grezzo's designer, Mikiharu Oiwa. That was confirmed true by that designer's answer via a post in Miiverse, while it was up.

I don't know if its more tougher to create new mini-bosses than normal bosses in new games, despite the more available RAM memory and stronger CPUs guaranteeing lot more than just bigger 2D levels and more mini-bosses to place them in, which I really like, but I think it shouldn't be. We have loads of tools, programs, and inspiration sources to create them. The matter is utilizing and harnessing them.

I felt like speaking more about them because their attention should be given more.

7

Gaming / Re: Mini-Bosses... Favorites?

« on: May 31, 2025, 03:35:41 pm »

I beat it on an emulator with the help of a ton of savestates. The game punishes you hard for even the slightest mistake, so savestates help a lot. Savestates are also helpful considering it's a long game with no passwords, which it really should have had.

I wasn't thinking about mapping it. It was just a childhood game that I never beat and a game praised by many so I just wanted to finally play through it.

Oh, yeah. That tough. Yeah, I kinda thought the same about what it should have had. No wonder.

I only meant the maps are available to see, not you to map it, because it was already covered.

Well, that's fine, and good for you that you finished it.

Not sure. Hard to say without actually playing the game. It felt a bit overused, but on the other hand it gave the game a coherent and characteristic style. That's something I feel is important in games. If you can tell what game/series/company it is just by a random image or sound clip, then it has good characteristic/soul (not sure what's the right word).

Characteristic is that word, but yeah, soul works as an alternate. Don't worry.

Well, when you get the chance, you can purchase and play the game. It's still up on Xbox(the  later consoles, at least) and PS3(still standing, thankfully. don't ask why, but, yeah.).

8

Gaming / Re: Mini-Bosses... Favorites?

« on: May 30, 2025, 11:17:06 pm »

I didn't know they had names. Thanks for telling me.

No problem. Many do have names, all differing on their own design.

Thanks also for the concept art/development doc links. It's always interesting to see the groundwork behind a game.

Yeah. It is. I kinda feel some indie game devs should follow more organized groundwork and pacing for their games and their schedules. It got games out quite fast, even though delays do happen for quality improvement and necessary polish work. I mean, they don't really have to be too tough or strict, but, still, I worry about their games and sequels' development times.

I've only played "Blaster Master (NES)". It has some cool (and big for the NES) bosses for sure. Nice graphics and music too, but it's way too difficult. I also don't like the controls, especially with the Wall 1&2 upgrades. "Blaster Master Zero" looks fun though and something I want to play sometime.

Guess you had a tough time trying to get to the end. Well, there's already maps, so no need to fret about getting by.

Oh, yeah, for a bit of backstory, for those that may like to know, the game first launched in Japan as "Chō Wakusei Senki Metafight", which is Japanese for "Super Planetary War Chronicle: Metafight", and it showcases its own protagonist, Kane Gardener, and the setting is Planet Sophia the 3rd, found in the near center of the Epsilon Galaxy, and orbiting it is the NORA Sattelite, home to the Science Academy of NORA itself, where Kane got trained to defend the planet from evil within Sophia's defense forces.

The backstory's from the game's Jap manual, but it tells quite a lot. Anyway...

Speaking of evil, a large horde of alien invaders, called the Invem Dark Star Army(the name for the series' enemies, blandly called "Mutants" in the localized NES game), has attacked the planet, and the leader behind them is Lord Goez(I kinda felt throwing that title in with his name makes him more villainous as an intergalactic conqueror. "Emperor" is fine, too, but, I went with the former.), and seeks to be the galaxy''s supreme ruler, unopposed.

Having no time to waste, Kane Gardner jumps into the fray with his all-purpose weapon tank, the "Metal Attacker", designed and developed by his obvious lover, scientist of Sophia's defense forces, Jennifer Cornet, and sets off to clean out the Invem Army, defeat Goez and save Sophia the 3rd.

The premise does fit more with the original setting, but the overall endgame goal is pretty much the same. Its only that the localized game has a slightly different story, which we all know has Jason Frudnick finding his pet frog Fred, and undergoing an identical adventure as Metafight's. I think Metfight's original story stands a bit more to me... and it was rather interesting to know some lore beneath it.

The bosses, that are Goez' top monstrous enforcers, they all do have names; Chlameatle, Gizzala, Z-88, Geroll, Lobsgator, Neo Gizzala(the copy-and-paste ice reskin of Gizzala), Fire Geroll, (fire reskin of Geroll), and Skelevenom(the penultimate boss before Goez, or in the localized game, "Plutonium Boss")

The enemies also have names. You can see them from this link, here - https://strategywiki.org/wiki/Blaster_Master/Enemies

The Blaster Master Zero trilogy neatly blends with the storylines of Metafight and Blaster Master together for a more unified storyline, and the palettes are all NES-styled, but clearly Hi-Bit, all the same(no past tech constraints included). The soundtrack and the sound effects, past and new, are all made through Famitracker, obviously, with the S5B sound chip expansion to accommodate Sunsoft's sound chip usage. You can notice that by ear.

I think you'll find the trilogy's gameplay quite enjoyable, the first giving some changes, even including mid-bosses in each area, and a very neat surprise at the end(if you can find all items and upgrades first), and the sequels improving so much more(with more surprises to find, too). Even the sprites from effects and bosses are undeniably big, as in screen-filling big, on some.

Yeah, these games are not yet mapped, but I have no idea of any existing tools/programs that covers ripping Inti Creates' maps... or if any have been made yet, but that's for another time.

Give it a go. You'll enjoy the rides Inti Creates and Sunsoft(the companies behind it by team-up) made. And, enjoy kicking Invem filth!

Of course, if you, and anybody else, too, really want to see the whole bestiaries of the whole trilogy, I've got image links of the trilogy's booklets that cover it. You might need a regular translator for it(just regular, to be exact), because its all in Japanese language. You can post the translated names when ready, too. I have no idea what their names are, either.

[SPOILER WARNINGS AHEAD!]

Blaster Master Zero Booklet, Pages 05 & 06, Enemy - https://kappa.vgmsite.com/soundtracks/blaster-master-zero-original-soundtrack/05%20Booklet%20p%2005-06.jpg
Blaster Master Zero Booklet, Pages 07 & 08, Boss Mutant - https://kappa.vgmsite.com/soundtracks/blaster-master-zero-original-soundtrack/06%20Booklet%20p%2007-08.jpg
Blaster Master Zero Booklet, Pages 09 & 10, Boss Mutant(continued) - https://kappa.vgmsite.com/soundtracks/blaster-master-zero-original-soundtrack/07%20Booklet%20p%2007-08.jpg

Blaster Master Zero II Booklet, Pages 11 & 12, Enemy - https://kappa.vgmsite.com/soundtracks/blaster-master-zero-2-ost/Image007.jpg
Blaster Master Zero II Booklet, Pages 13 & 14, Boss Mutant - https://kappa.vgmsite.com/soundtracks/blaster-master-zero-2-ost/Image008.jpg
Blaster Master Zero II Booklet, Pages 15 & 16, Boss Mutant(continued) - https://kappa.vgmsite.com/soundtracks/blaster-master-zero-2-ost/Image009.jpg

Blaster Master Zero III Booklet, Pages 11 & 12, Enemy - https://vgmsite.com/soundtracks/blaster-master-zero-3-ost/Booklet%20p.%2011-12.jpg
Blaster Master Zero III Booklet, Pages 13 & 14, Boss Mutant - https://vgmsite.com/soundtracks/blaster-master-zero-3-ost/Booklet%20p.%2013-14.jpg
Blaster Master Zero III Booklet, Pages 15 & 16, Boss Mutant(continued) - https://vgmsite.com/soundtracks/blaster-master-zero-3-ost/Booklet%20p.%2015-16.jpg

Honestly, when you find and face Skele-Venom(well, the bigger one, to be exact), you'll find its more monstrous variants, Skele-Veros, and Metal-Veros, quite challenging(I chose to go with those names because they're more original sounding than their generically inputted names, "Skeleton Boss", "Cerbeboss" and "Metal Cerbeboss").

I haven't played "Hard Corps: Uprising", but I took a quick look at some YT-videos and I understand why you pointed out the green lights style. It's everywhere.

You like it? Really accentuates their technological style. Even in some stages.

9

VGMaps Social Board / Hatch Engine Curiosities

« on: May 30, 2025, 01:59:57 pm »

I kinda have a few curiosities in regards to Hatch Engine's adaptability to frameworks, like the OpenMania Framework, for instance.

I don't know anyone that has prior experience with it, but, does that engine adopt to custom-made frameworks?

I mean, I could only imagine it being compatible with custom frameworks based on those from past games, even indies, carried over from other engines' workings and such.

Well, yeah, anybody can create one, but what steps are needed to do it and have it adapted to a specific game of anyone's choosing?

What I already gathered, Freedom Planet was made in Multimedia Fusion 2 before it upgraded to Clickteam Fusion 2.5, and despite the impressive feats on it, other limitations kept the game from increasing its potential and expanding, as was formerly planed, such as DLC support and a better game patching pipeline, I think. That, and it had a previous map size constraint, regardless of their amounts in any 2D stage.

I already know Hatch is compatible with Tiled's own .tmx format, and it can handle big maps; my one example was Sonic Galactic's Coral Garden Act 1, whose size is, just from one video I've seen a bit after Demo 2's launch, but was taken from before it, 64,000 x 11,200. Unusually long and large being the game's second Zone, but yeah.

Guess it was made at that size to have its map layout designers to create a unique path for Knuckles in Act 2, even including an exclusive mid-Act mini-boss for him to fight. I've tried it, and it was more fun. Don't know if Act 2's one whole big map, or divided into 3 maps.

Video link's here as proof, just for anyone to watch(small advisory, the video has the Act's map layout not yet finalized, so its different from before it got changed for Demo 2's launch) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TviqDQ1lGog

At mark 13:18, look at the level map's size, just below "Camera".

I really felt a bit of exhaustion at first playing it, but, that Act was fun to play through. And, it did take any player about 6 minutes to get to the end and face the mini-boss.

Spark the Electric Jester was also made in CF2.5, and the game was neat for any that played it.

I wonder if such games would be compatible with Hatch Engine by custom frameworks that retains all the familiar workings made in existing engines, but with none of the dragging constraints and outsourcing to other companies for console porting. I also wonder if it can be capable of console porting.

Makes me think of such games as these receiving updated re-releases on Hatch and having additional content built from scratch.

Oh, and the engine's next update is already in the works, 1.4, and I guess, from my recent visits to its Github page, a user there, Lactozilla, is spearheading development now. If anybody's up to it, volunteer as contributors to its development.

10

VGMaps Social Board / Re: 3D Art inspired by Level Art / Level maps

« on: May 29, 2025, 09:13:59 pm »

Apologies for reviving this post, but the airships look amazing. Looks fitting for an airship infiltration.

Believe it or not, there's a rather funny coincidence about the airships' artwork and old-fashioned based aesthetics...

They harbor some strong resemblances of some airship themed stages, mostly likely from Frozenbyte's latest game in their Trine series(never heard of it? its a rather neat series), Trine 5: A Clockwork Conspiracy; the 17th level, The Magnificent Airship, where the framed Heroes of Trine, Amadeus(the timid, but good-minded, box conjuring wizard), Pontius(the eponymous, heroic knight) and Zoya(a rather leeway, but good-hearted, thief), board Lady Sunny and Lord Goderic's(the game's main villains) central airship in their attempt to rescue Amadeus' triplets, Agnes, Julius, and Lucius from their grasp, only to find hordes of the villains' Clockwork Knight Army(the mechanical, construct-themed automatons), and complications, standing in their way, or maybe tiny hints of Sky Battalion from Freedom Planet.

They all look rather captivating. Wonder how more would look good in pixel art and in tilesets?

11

Gaming / Re: Nintendo Console History

« on: May 29, 2025, 05:19:18 pm »

Well, I'd keep a careful eye about Nintendo, as many people have. Their consoles have been thrilling, but what their plans and "changes" to their next system people have seen stands against physical media and game preservation as a whole.

Those "Game-Key Cards" aren't such an "evolution" as Nintendo wants people to think and themselves claim it to be. I feel, in my perspective, and out of my own great concern, as others that stand for physical media and game preservation that share such concerns, not to mention game ownership protection, so to speak, they're just a mere repeat of what happened to certain games' discs on the Xbox 360 that seems to have full data/on-disc DLC on their games, but haven't; that content in them were locked, and only required a price to actually play them/download from said disc.

I read that kind of story before, but, believe me, it did cause problems to any that thought they had full games.

Why would any game company try to "evolve" their own physical media that speaks the polar opposite of preservation at the behest of game collectors and preservationists all over the world?

Regular discs and carts always work very well, their sizes of which do get increased from time to time, and preservationists have been fighting to protect them.

People that have heard and seen the truth about theses Key-Cards have caused them to be against Nintendo for their anti-game preservation actions, merely mirroring to what happened with WiiWare, DSiWare, and 3DS eShop only games.

Not only that, the way how these cares are, they're trying to create more repetitive steps to playing and switching between physical games numerous more times.

And, people also strongly fear that should Nintendo's servers for that system go off, regardless of any digital game getting delisted from the marketplace in and at any situation, all their Key-Cards are permanently useless. Not everyone has fast Internet connection speeds and routers.

Nintendo, turning a blind eye to gamers and game preservationists, indeed.

Honestly, I feel Nintendo's trying to bankroll the Switch's hybrid console blueprint success quite too much because of its same features... and present management's vision. And, what the successor system offers is still the same, bland experience, in UI, sounds, pretty much as the original.

Since the Gamecube, Nintendo's consoles had their own charm and senses of identity that stood them out as regular game consoles. The DSi was the first handheld to have that kind of charm and identity, and improved on the 3DS. The Switch lacks it, and so is that new system... well, even more, to be precise.

People are advising not to purchase the Game-Key Cards after this. I'm all for preservation, but given the severity of its situation, I'd advise not to. I greatly worry for those people saving physical media.

I pray for things in the gaming industry and the game preservation business to sharp turn a 180 for the positive...

12

Gaming / Re: Mini-Bosses... Favorites?

« on: May 27, 2025, 06:12:12 am »

It feels like mini-bosses are a bit overlooked in games and that the "real" bosses are what people remember/talk about. I don't know when games started having mini-bosses, but it feels like they've been around for a long time.

Yeah, and come to think of it, the concept and stock artwork about them hasn't often been seen nor discovered by people yet, but I have this often constant feeling those are around, perhaps left behind in some gaming companies' buildings.

Mini-bosses do have their own right to share some spotlight and attention time as regular/major bosses do.

I can only presume they've drawn them before being programmed into games. Enemies' and bosses' stock and concept artworks are always commonly seen, but the mini-bosses' own artwork are hardly seen. Kinda tough for people to see them as references when they want to draw them in their own styles, gather inspiration to their game projects, or plainly re-draw them for the fandom.

One of Sonic 2's development docs I've seen did have a task list for Tom Payne(image link here - https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/sonic/images/c/cd/S2TASKLIST.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20170520184810), at the time when he was working at Sega's Technical Institute division, and the tasks included in the list were to draw up mid-level mini-bosses, 2 in one task, and 2 more in another in-between his other tasks of drawing more enemies in his list, bringing the total of 4 mini-bosses he would have made, meaning Sonic 2 was planned to have mini-bosses while it was under development. But, because Sonic 2's worldwide launch day was closer, I guess he didn't get to create them in time, so the mini-bosses were left out until they were put in Sonic 3 in almost all Zones' first Acts.

Sonic 3's dev docs also feature mini-bosses in in Zones, but the map layouts and minibosses' drawings on paper were placeholder works until they were finalized in the game. They weren't seen until Sonic Origins as gallery unlockables.

The image links I've placed here is for anyone here to see(comments are written in Japanese language, basic translating required)...

Angel Island Zone & Hydrocity Zone Map Layout Concepts - https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/sonic/images/5/5e/AIZHZmapconcept.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20220630015849

Marble Garden Zone & Carnival Night Zone Map Layout Concepts - https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/sonic/images/f/fc/MGZCNZmapconcept.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20220630020714

Launch Base Zone Map Layout Concepts - https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/sonic/images/c/cd/LBZmapconcept.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20220630024106

Death Egg Zone Map Layout Concepts - https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/sonic/images/1/1c/DEZmapconcept.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20220630032845

I still feel there's still a bit more than these out there, yet to be seen in full...

Believe it or not, I just kinda know they're still around somewhere, and in need of preservation. Hopefully some people can take on a task to find them and compile them in new artbooks or update current ones.

I was thinking about my favorites and all I could think of was Konami's Contra series. There are a lot of mini-bosses (and bosses) in those games that I like. Two examples:
 -Contra: Hard Corps (Genesis), the big dancing robot in stage 1. It looks cool and also uses the Genesis's tilt layer scroll-trick in a neat way.
  https://youtu.be/3lyv5U9WTBQ?t=2048
 -Contra III: The Alien Wars (SNES), the wall climbing robot in stage 3. It's rare that games let you fight a boss while clinging to a wall.
  https://youtu.be/3lyv5U9WTBQ?t=1055

You mean Maximum Jumbo and Tri-Transforming Wall Walker? Oh, yeah.

Despite being a mini-boss at a large size, it was rather very impressive for it to pull of great layer-tilting tricks beneath the Genesis' capabilities, as other bosses did from other games, like those from Gunstar Heroes.

Yeah, I guess it is rare to fight bosses while holding onto walls, but that mini-boss does provide a good example of one. Rather challenging, actually.

If you think of Contra series, and it's fine that you do, there are other games and series that have them. The entire Blaster Master Zero Trilogy from Sunsoft and Inti Creates has them, for one, and they were rather fun to fight.

I don't know if Contra's mini-bosses count though. They're a good example of when mini-bosses are often bigger/worse than the bosses at the end of the levels. It's more like Contra has many real bosses per level rather than a few mini-bosses.

I'm sure they do count, especially the spin-offs, if I could remember any having them.

I can tell that from what I've seen, many mini-bosses from "Hard Corps: Uprising" are more uniquely designed and original in most stages, alongside select past normal bosses were given their technological makeovers to suit their places among Emperor Tiberius' ranks in his Commonwealth Empire army and were re-established as mini-bosses, such as Defense Wall.

If you've not seen them yet, I think you should give them a look. Their designs are rather cool, especially when you can notice their usage of green coloring for their lights.

13

Gaming / Mini-Bosses... Favorites?

« on: May 22, 2025, 12:17:20 am »

I don't ever recall such a time before mini-bosses came to the video gaming history, but I think I wasn't around when these weren't yet officially classified into the terminology for bosses as a whole...

I kinda thought someone may remember what point in gaming history mini-bosses were included in games of different kinds, besides platforming, because, well, I don't know what day and time that occurred.

But, other than that, I felt I should ask anyone in the VGMaps community about Mini-Bosses and what their best favorites are.

What I always remember, mini-bosses are fought in the midst of any stage, or in a select stage in a world, or, whichever, and they're ranked below main/major bosses as weaker than them, but still stronger than regular and/or big enemies, especially when they're unique opponents with attack patterns of their own to stand out from enemies... but, their goals to defeat them still remain the same.

For me, in any platforming game that has them, I expected them to be unique and fought in each world or world's stage in its mid-point, or midway in a stage, on the case that more than one are present. My fond of mini-bosses came quickly when I saw Sonic the Hedgehog 3, and felt more should be seen in games since.

Sure, people do have different thoughts and opinions about them, but I have my fondness.

What also stands them more are the many battle themes they have to distinguish them from other bosses, and it helps accentuate them.

And, no, to any thinking, copy-and-pastes of any kind, even resizes, do not count towards that classification as mini-bosses, not without even trying to make changes to make them distinct. Any dev or designer doing so can be shortly described as a "lazy thinker" with no thought, effort, nor originality in their creation, even if they think and believe its for cutting corners in design.

Also, I kinda don't feel how mini-bosses can be brought back as enemy fodder to players that have gotten stronger through their journeys in many games. Kinda takes away brevity and their uniqueness, especially when they're still trying to stand out from them.

Oh, and, in some games, mini-bosses seem to surpass main bosses in their power, health, and attack patterns, and that seems kinda unfair and balance disrupting in different difficulties, regardless of level order. They should be weaker than main bosses, not the other way around. I can remember some games that gave the opposite case.

The one thing I could think outside of gaming is that there should be some encouragement and/or tutorials/crash courses in making mini-bosses to games, with simple steps in making them, their distinctions on making them stand out, etc., etc..

They came in all different kinds of shapes and sizes as main bosses do, such as monsters, robots, rivals, for-hire thugs and mercenaries, and so on, but they all never stood a chance against heroes, and more were still coming.

Of course, in the days of early gaming, if any can remember, many games didn't have any additional boss types because of their size limits, like in NES' time of game carts, for instance. I can understand there's not much storage space to cram them in, even with devs and programmers using clever know-how and trickery under their tight limits, but games grew bigger in size capacity and we we're given much more than plenty of room to create them.

Not that I could remember any, but I think so far, I've not seen any placed in the Internet. I mean, the present tutorials in my spare time seeing them do cover bosses, but the accommodation of other boss types, especially mini-bosses should be included by updating whatever available tutorials so far... or make new ones.

I mean, we've got the tools and programs for designing and implementing them. Only thing to cover is the knowledge in doing it, along with the processes and inspiration sources.

That was quite much to talk about, but that was to give something in the community to talk about from time to time... and to kinda make sure they're not forgotten to most.

Now, for this...

I can remember favorites of mine fought so far... In fact, I've got a list's worth.

1 - Cyclone W, Acid Man's Stage, Mega Man 11
2 - Drap Trappers, Forest Area, Blaster Master Zero
3 - Heavy Gunner, Studiopolis Zone, Sonic Mania
4 - Totemer, Block Man's Stage, Mega Man 11
5 - Unknown Cell-046, Immigration Ship L-229, Blaster Master Zero II
6 - Mosquitus, Doppler Laboratory Stage 2, Mega Man X3
7 - Fire Breath, Angel Island Zone, Sonic the Hedgehog 3
8 - Melon Bread, Dice Palace, Gunstar Heroes
9 - Hinox Brothers, Hinox Mine, Bomb Storage, Legend of Zelda: Tri-Force Heroes
10 - S.A.M.U., Fortune Night, Freedom Planet
11 - Dodongo Snakes, Key Cavern Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening
12 - Bullet Kahn-I, Mass Driver Facility, Blaster Master Zero III
13 - Red Eye, Death Egg Zone, Sonic & Knuckles
14 - The Absolution, Battle Glacier, Freedom Planet
15 - Super Gondola, Dice Palace, Gunstar Heroes
16 - Rover, Face Shrine, Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening
17 - Kahn-Forbidden, Forbidden Sector, Blaster Master Zero III
18 - Hey Ho, Mushroom Hill Zone, Sonic & Knuckles
19 - Tricastle, Old Castle, Mega Man 10
20 - Greenfist, Greenhorn Forest, Wario World
21 - Big Icedus, Icecap Zone, Sonic the Hedgehog 3
22 - Giant Buzz Blob, Color Temple, Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening
23 - Syntax Spider Armor, Thermal Base, Freedom Planet
24 - Photophage, Industrial Area, Blaster Master Zero
25 - Heat Arms, Lava Reef Zone, Sonic & Knuckles

What mini-bosses are your favorites you've fought and defeated so far? You can place your favorites here.

For a little spare time fun activity/challenge to anybody as a bonus of my own, what original mini-bosses could you conceive in what game and game series of your choosing? Try a simple timelapse of any and let your imagination flow. Uniqueness and/or distinction necessary.

Just a little something for the creative juices and perhaps motivation to any game developer and programmer or dev-to-be, if you don't mind.

(ADVISORY: Other boss types DON'T COUNT. Games not yet released don't count either, because spoiler protection reasons.)

14

Map Gab / Hey... I just remembered one thing...

« on: May 18, 2025, 11:21:49 pm »

I feel its always worth the challenge of conquering longer and larger levels in Sonic games, and I always love doing it, but there's a little something hardly anyone's noticed...

I'm talking about the Time Bonus scoring rewards, along with the Time Over caps.

With longer and larger 2D Sonic maps, not that such a thing couldn't be possible, but, why didn't the Time Over cap nor the Time Bonus ranges for time amounts for points get adjusted in the first place? Moreover, why didn't bosses' points amounts get also increased in some tougher, later Zones, even the mini-bosses?

To some that might recall, in many, key past games gave out more points to bosses for their defeats in later levels at the end, even up to the final boss and/or true final boss giving out the highest amount of points added to the final, overall players' score.

Sonic the Hedgehog's scoring amounts for Time Bonus and the bosses hardly changed to accommodate for longer levels and/or tougher bosses, even with the amounts of hits to defeat above 8, compared to many.

Since the beginning, 2D Sonic games hardly had their ranges for Time Bonuses that depended on how fast players could get, alongside, well, defeating bosses.

From Sonic 1 to 2, the Time Bonus ranges were set at the fastest gaining 50,000 to any completing any Zone's Acts the fastest, which is under 30 seconds, while pretty much, all bosses award 1,000 for their defeat. Sonic 3 readjusted that range to under a minute... until Sonic Mania reverted that range back to 30 seconds.

I tell you, with Sonic Mania's large levels, it's quite nearly impossible for anyone to get 50,000 in under 30 seconds without using Debug Mode. How could anybody expect that tough task to be done like that, even without cheats?

Moreover, all the mini and major bosses from Sonic 3's both halves and Sonic Mania give out just 1,000 for their defeat, not raised above for the main bosses and/or later, tougher bosses in later Zones, even the final/true final bosses themselves.

To put that shortly, minibosses, maybe the same's ok, major bosses, more than 1,000, tougher bosses in later Zones should also have their values upped than the early Zones', and the final and true final bosses should give out the most amounts in the games.

In my opinion, it's kinda very hollow for said bosses to give so very little after everything any player has been through. What was good with the greater risks without the greater rewards to accommodate it all?

Should the need for longer levels and/or tougher bosses with more hits to defeat in Sonic games come again, well, I feel the score bonus ranges for fastest times in any stage, as well as all bosses, regardless of status, should also have their point values increased.

This post's for covering those of actual 2D Sonic games concerning score bonus rewarding ranges, not counting those trying to do different takes on the 2D adventures.

I hope any around here may think about that.

15

Map Gab / I found Rayman Maps through one site...

« on: May 12, 2025, 02:56:52 am »

I know this section of the forums is called "Map Gab", but I do have a good reason to bring this up.

As many of you in the VGMaps community may or may not know, Rayman's 30th anniversary is coming up, and I felt I should share this discovery to honor the long-standing, albeit too long-dormant, series from Ubisoft.

The VGMaps Atlas' PlayStation, Saturn, GBA, DS and PC pages all don't currently have numerous maps from the Rayman series thus far, even though the 3D Rayman games and the Rabbids sub-series do all kinda count(which I may talk about another time), but I found one website that holds them; RaymanPC, the site's name, not the PC version of the first game.

Its a neat community wiki site that keeps track of numerous Rayman information across numerous games, including the games' concept art, screenshots, maps, and so on.

Rayman's games have been through... rather different directions in gameplay formula and art style, even though Rayman 2's been the more well-loved and remembered game in our lives, but the heroic, limbless hero has always come through against numerous evil forces.

I just only feel the series should have a more well-deserved return with a new game having Rayman being less too silly and idiotic from "Origins" and "Legends", but not too serious and dark, and more competent, well-meaning and slightly goal-focused and heroic once again, and, yes, his allies can be with him, including Globox.

I mean, don't get me wrong. I was kinda fine with Rayman returning to his 2D roots, but the tone, story direction and structure from Origins and Legends all kinda veered away from what we've been through before.

Honestly, in my opinion, the series kinda lost some sense, plot cohesion, continuity grasping, and focus after the launch of Origins and Legends. Would be nice if all that would be straightened out.

Well, anyway...

Through my searches, I found uploaded maps from 2D Rayman games across different versions and ports, including the first game's DSiWare port, canned games and prototypes, and though some members at that wiki did their part in putting together their maps, their image quality wasn't sharp, so to speak, but one member was able to do so and provide them in the sharpest PNG quality no prior mapper previously could've thought of, despite that option already available to them.

That member I'm talking about is RayCarrot, responsible for the high-quality maps of many 2D Rayman games... so far. That guy's a huge Rayman fan and has done many map uploads on that wiki time and again. He's quite a chronicler. If and of you'd like to contact him, well, the link I've left here should take care of it.

They were already completed and uploaded by him, and seeing them really helps out to those struggling to get through the game's levels. Even I had such tough times trying to win.

And, let me tell you, you should definitely see many differences between many maps from the first game's different ports, even the GBA and DSiWare ports!

So, if you're looking for Rayman maps, I've got one source that covers it. Here are the site's pages' links as proof...

RaymanPC's site link - https://raymanpc.com/wiki/en/Main_Page
Category: Rayman Maps link - https://raymanpc.com/wiki/en/Category:Maps_from_Rayman
RayCarrot's RaymanPC page link - https://www.raymanpc.com/wiki/en/User:Raycarrot

There's loads of maps to look at, all of which needs to be uploaded to VGMaps. I hope it helps.