NES

Pro tip: All girls team in Baseball Stars

This one's slightly on the odd side, but in Baseball Stars if you go to make a custom team

And press

Down, Right, Left, Down, Down, Right, Up, Up, Down, Up, Down, Up

That should put you on the Veterans team.

Hit the A button to choose a name, but you'll first be greeted with a question:

And, of course, the answer is:

And you'll be presented with another question:

With a slightly less obvious answer:

Once you go through all that and pick your logo for the team (the logo doesn't matter), check out your team lineup.

It's all girls... at least, I think they're girls

What's the point?

Well, I'm not sure, but I thought that the method was more interesting than the result.

Pro tip: Ghosts 'n Goblins is a pushover

If you ask people what the toughest NES game is, you're probably going to hear "Ghosts 'n Goblins" quite a bit. Sure, you'll hear "Battletoads" and the occasional "Dragon's Lair".

And it's true, all of those games are tough, especially Ghosts 'n Goblins, which is made doubly tough in that you have to beat the game twice to see the real ending.

But...

Let's say you go to the title screen

and press the following buttons

Press and hold Right, press B, B, B. Release Right. Press Up, B, B, B, Left, B, B, B, Down, B, B, B, Start

Done correctly, instead of starting the game, you'll be presented with the level select screen

Just pick the last stage, Stage 7, and go to town fighting the last boss.

And when you win, you get the false ending.

But!

You get to level select again after you clear the stage, so choose Stage 7 again, and fight the boss again to reveal... the true ending!

Which is below this line


Is it worth all the frustration of playing the game normally? Eh, probably not.

Pro tip: skipping ahead to whatever level you want in Rocky and Bullwinkle for NES

The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle for the NES is a pretty terrible game, but if you're determined to play it, I've got a shortcut for you.

First, start the game

Then, on Controller 2, press

B, A, A, Start, A, B, B, A

Done correctly, you'll hear a confirmation noise. You can then press the B button on Controller 2 to skip to the next stage.

If you skip the final stage (the second one with the painting) you'll end back up at the beginning, so you have to actually finish it if you want to see the ending

Or you could look below this line for the entire ending (spoiler warning, I guess)


Yeah, it's just the one screen.

Pro tip: free quarters in Deja Vu

It's pretty difficult to get stuck in Deja Vu (not quite impossible, but close).

Take your supply of quarters, for example. You'll need them for a few things, but mostly to pay for your cab fare. How do you get them?

By playing slot machines in the abandoned casino, of course. But even that's no guarantee.

Also, you don't want to throw your money into the left slot machine, you lose every time.

So what happens when you're completely out of quarters... er, 'coins'? Well, if you EXAMINE the right machine, you find a surprise.

A free coin! Better still, is that if you're foolish or uncoordinated enough to put your lone coin into the wrong machine, the coin will magically be back for your taking.

Giving you plenty of opportunities to win at the 'real' slot machine.

Pro tip: Choosing your level in Skate or Die 2

Skate or Die's adventure mode is pretty tough. Partially due to some wonky hit detection, but mostly because of some pretty evil level design. There are 4 stages total, but odds are that you're going to give up on it well before you see them.

Unless...

If you have a second controller, at any time in the adventure mode you can press on it:

Start, A, Select, B

And then either Right, Left, or Up. Depending on the direction you pressed, you'll be instantly warped to a different stage: Right takes you to the Mall (Stage 2), Left to the Beach (Stage 3), and Up to the Warehouse (Stage 4). You would think that Down would take you back to Stage 1, but no.

Just be aware that you don't get any board or trick upgrades when you warp around. So I'd definitely recommend hanging out on Level 1 for a while getting upgrades before you go on. (Yeah, you can get some upgrades in Stage 3 also, but there aren't any items to collect to pay for them. So stocking up on those is probably a good idea, too).

Pro tip: Blue Marlin's Sound Test

Trying to catch fish in any fish-catching video game can be tedious. Good thing that the designers gave you some passably decent music to listen to. If only there was a way to listen to it without trolling for fist.

Like going somewhere in the title sequence

then holding Start + Select and hitting the Reset button to go to some kind of screen where you could hear the music any time you wanted

Yeah, something like that would be awesome.

Pro tip: alternate uses for the Bubble Lead

When you finally get to Dr. Wily's castle in Mega Man 2, you get stymied by these floors that look solid, but you fall right through them. They're kind of tough to deal with until you remember that you have a (not so) secret weapon: the Bubble Lead.

The Bubble Lead follows the ground's contours (but never goes up, always down), so all you have to do is to fire one

and watch where it falls through the floor

Which makes it much easier to tell where the intangible blocks are, instead of trying to rely on your memory.

Pro tip: all Bo team in Bo Jackson Baseball

You remember Bo, right? Multi-sport athlete, and Nike spokesman? This guy?

He had a baseball game for the NES, and in it, you could kind of recreate that commercial.

First, pick a team, any team. Then, at the player lineup screen

press Left + Select + B. The result?

Everyone on your team turns into Bo Jackson.

Which means, among other things, that every time someone on your team strikes out a bat gets broken

Because that's how Bo rolls.

Pro tip: ceasing the flow of fluid in the NES Pipe Dream

Pipe Dream is a little odd. You have to lay down some pipes to create a path for some kind of liquid to run through. The thing is, though, that the liquid flows as you're laying down the pipes, and if it dribbles out the end your progress is stopped, and your score is tallied. So, it's a high-pressure situation.

Unless...

Unless you press (and hold) Start to pause the game

And while you're holding Start, press

A, B, B, A

Then, unpause.

Done correctly, pressing the B button will stop the ebb of fluid, and allow you to build pipes to your heart's content.

Then you just press Select once you've created your masterpiece to let the fluid flow again.

Pro tip: Getting Star Cards in Super Mario Bros. 3 any time you want them

In Super Mario Bros 3, getting maxed out on 1UPs on that one stage is pretty great, but what about the rest of the game?

Well, every time you finish a stage, you get a Card, which sits down at the bottom-right of the screen.

Collect three cards and you get a 1UP. Collect three matching cards, though, and you get more. Three mushrooms nets 2UP, Fire Flowers nets 3UP, and Starmen get you the pretty awesome 5UP.

So, if you know how to manipulate the cards, you can slowly build up a pretty good stockpile of extra lives.

You start by running into the dark area at the end of the stage at full speed (or pretty close to). Then jump up and hit the goal at 45 degree angle.

Done right you'll get a Star. Every time! Which will lead to

5 extra lives, every three stages or so.

Not a bad ROI, I'd say.

Syndicate content