Let's talk about Journey to Silius.

[XYXZYZ]

I just started playing Journey to Silius. How the hell have I been overlooking this game for 20 years? It's got solid controls, that awesome Sunsoft style music and I love the graphics, I really dig that 80s mecha design thing it has going. It's one of those "firm but fair" games that kicks your ass and you know it's your own damn fault. Usually when I die it's because I don't put much effort into figuring out enemy patterns, or general carelessness.

I mean this game is no joke. You have less and less room for error the farther you get. So far I've gotten to the stage 3 boss, and that's only using the code to get more credits. I think I used about 4 credits getting there. I still have some difficulty with the second boss, the first time I beat it was luck and I haven't figured out a good pattern yet.

Does anyone have any advice for playing this game?

[ccovell]

Does anyone have any advice for playing this game?

Crank up the volume!

[Terminusvitae]

Ah, man, that game kicked my behind six ways from Sunday when I used to play it. I need to try it again, as it was always great fun.

The thing that always did me in with this game is how all of your special weapons draw from the same ammo pool. At least, I think they do.

[XYXZYZ]

Yeah. they do. You only have one GUN meter.

The thing I hate the most is that when you defeat a boss, you can't move. But the bosses always fire one shot just before you kill them, and it hits you and does damage and there's no way to dodge it! I've been killed by "boss paralysis" several times and it drives me crazy.

[TheChristoph]

Is there any truth to the story that this was originally supposed to be a licensed Terminator game?

[Compute]

I think I may have heard it on Retronauts, the "old" Retronauts. I consider that a valid source for anything related to the Famicom/NES.

[Astrosmash]

Is there any truth to the story that this was originally supposed to be a licensed Terminator game?

Yup. It was even previewed in Nintendo Power as a Terminator game at one point, and apparently the Terminator copyright info is still in the game data.
http://tcrf.net/Journey_to_Silius

[Astrosmash]

Does anyone have any advice for playing this game?

Basically, practice. It's one of those games you have to keep playing and getting a little further each time until you master each section. About two years ago I got to the point where I could beat it with no continues, but it wasn't easy. At least you get to enjoy fun gameplay and awesome music along the way.

[A Black Falcon]

Crank up the volume!

Yeah, I think Journey to Silius is a very strong contender for most impressive NES soundtrack ever. It's just unbelievable what Sunsoft pulled off in the game's music... sure, the game's good too, but the music's probably even better.

[Oldskool]

It's definitely a great game which I discovered just a couple years ago. Somehow I missed it during my childhood. The music is sweet, Sunsoft really mastered the NES audio circuitry I believe. Great game, great controls and play mechanics.

[Graham Mitchell]

I love the game for all the reasons everybody mentioned. I hope you've played blaster master because if you like jts, you'll flip over blaster master.

[jajaja]

I love this game, especially the music Sunsoft often (always?) had such amazing soundtracks. Pity that they arent making games anymore. Probably wouldnt be the same when moving to 3D gaming though, but still.

EDIT: Oh, and this is my first post here in 3 years! Time goes fast.

[Graham Mitchell]

I love this game, especially the music Sunsoft often (always?) had such amazing soundtracks. Pity that they arent making games anymore. Probably wouldnt be the same when moving to 3D gaming though, but still.

EDIT: Oh, and this is my first post here in 3 years! Time goes fast.

They had some lukewarm 16 bit titles, but Waku Waku 7 for the Neo Geo is a masterpiece. That game exceeds my expectations for a neo geo cart. I don't usually dig fighting games that much, but I love ww7. I hear that Galaxy Fight, another Sunsoft 2d fighter from the same era, is really good as well. I haven't played it, but it's available for download on psn, in the import ps1 section.


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I am here: http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=33.928125,-118.229071

[XYXZYZ]

Of course I love Blaster Master, I played it to completion back in the day.

Okay, so it turns out there's a Game Genie code to activate the debuggers' stage select mode. That will make practice less tedious. I made it to level 4 and after spending a couple credits trying to get through it, I finally made it to the boss. And I immediately walked right off the left ledge. On my last life. I was a little fatigued at that point so I turned it off and later used the stage select mode to restart level 4. Made it to the boss on the second credit, beat him without problem and now I'm learning stage 5. About three credits later, made it to the 5th boss once, touched it and it murdered me. Fatigued, I put it down and I don't have time to play it until Monday.

This game is called RAF World in Japan, and I think the prototype was called "Rough", so RAF = ra fu, romanji for "rough", so "Rough World" is a rather appropriate title. But I'm slowly closing in on it...

[ccovell]

Ya can thank me for the Game Genie code (self plug self plug)

And yes, the game had several names in its development cycle. See here: http://www.chrismcovell.com/secret/FC__1990Q2.html#raf

The "A" in rʌf is not actually an alphabetical "a" but a phonetic symbol, which the guys at Sunsoft probably pulled out of their Japanese dictionaries for the word "Rough."

Useless trivia time over.

[FoxNtd]

The "A" in rʌf is not actually an alphabetical "a" but a phonetic symbol, which the guys at Sunsoft probably pulled out of their Japanese dictionaries for the word "Rough."

Huh? It's just a fancy way to write "a" to me. My dictionary says ラフ can be used for the English "rough" so without explanation from Sunsoft that's probably what it is. (Citation) I just want to know why the intro is in English. That "terrorist are" grammar error carried over to the US version; guess nobody bothered to proofread it. Someone probably thought, "Oh it's already in English, carry on then." Batman has the same issue. It was already in English on Famicom and there was a spelling error, which was copied over to the US version without correction haha. (The error was "PARRENTS")

I don't understand the frustration. Raf World is easy. I even played using only the handgun and still finished the game without a death.

Still fun, and the BGM is wonderful which is inspiration to play to see how many times I can loop the game before game over...

[ccovell]

Huh? It's just a fancy way to write "a" to me.

People usually go "Huh?" when they learn something new, yeah.

See the [ and the ] beside the characters rʌf on the title screen, on the box, etc? Those brackets are there in dictionaries to tell you the pronunciation of words, and usually IPA (phonetic) characters follow. It's not just simply an "A" because sounds written as "ou" or "uh" both transcribe to ʌ in the phonetic alphabet.

The guys in Sunsoft just wrote the word "Rough" in 3 different ways: as it's spelled, phonetically, and in Katakana. It's easy to research this one.

[FoxNtd]

Sonofabitch.. I had to pull the game out to look at the label to see those brackets. Never noticed this, and surely would not have thought it was phonetic dictionary notation.

Tell me how many Japanese natives looked at this title and figured out the significance of the notation? XD

[XYXZYZ]

Thanks for that code Chris, it really comes in handy for learning the difficult parts.


I played Journey to Silius this morning to get some practice in, and I wound up finishing it in one credit! (no cheats, died twice) So, today is excellent happy day.

[rbudrick]

Always loved this game. I flew through it in 2 days back when it came out. Certainly one of Sunsoft's easier games, but so good. Music RULES.

-Rob