Recent Posts

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Map Requests / Re: Shadow Complex Map Request

« Last post by ericstaine on Yesterday at 09:42:31 am »

Absolutely! Shadow Complex was indeed a remarkable game, and I totally get why so many players keep coming back to it. The level design, combat, and exploration elements were all top-notch for its time. A sequel would be incredible, but even if we don't see one, the original still holds up as a shining example of what a well-crafted downloadable game can achieve. If someone manages to map out the entire game, that would be an impressive feat—I'd love to see it too!

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Map Requests / Re: Metroidvania games

« Last post by ericstaine on Yesterday at 09:41:41 am »

That's a fair point! The green backgrounds definitely detract from the overall presentation, especially if you're aiming for something closer to the in-game feel. It might be worth checking if anyone in the community has worked on custom maps or more complete recreations that include both the foregrounds and the proper backgrounds. Alternatively, if you're up for it, customizing or editing the maps yourself could be a satisfying project—especially if you want to add item markers or other details to really enhance their utility!

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Map Requests / Re: "Tom and Jerry: Frantic Antics"

« Last post by ericstaine on Yesterday at 09:41:02 am »

It’s awesome to see your passion for preserving this game! Creating a complete map set sounds like a great project, and it’s fantastic that you’ve already started working on some of the maps. I think there are likely a lot of talented folks here who would love to contribute or collaborate with you. If you’re open to it, maybe sharing some details about the tools or techniques you’ve been using so far could help others jump in more easily.

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Map Requests / Re: Cave Story details

« Last post by ericstaine on Yesterday at 09:40:23 am »

Hey there! I completely understand what you mean. Having detailed maps that include item locations, characters, enemies, and exit connections would make navigating Cave Story so much easier. Maybe someone with some experience in map editing or someone familiar with the game’s layout could take on this project. It would be a lot of work, but the end result would definitely help a lot of players. Have you tried reaching out to any communities or forums dedicated to the game? They might have folks who’d be interested in collaborating on something like this!

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

« Last post by Cyartog959 on November 02, 2025, 03:21:55 am »

I guess I do have another miniboss favorite group to say, anyway...

We've seen many powerful robots that became mini-bosses, but I feel the more collective group I'm referring to are Dr. Robotnik's Super Badniks, a branch of his ever growing Badnik army that are more powerful than regular Badniks, even going far as not needing animals to power them in most cases, their power sources are self-made.

Technically, Super Badniks did debut in Sonic 2's 8-Bit version, but the batches seen in that game, Sonic Chaos, and Triple Trouble were classified as regular bosses, because Robotnik's been busy dealing with Sonic, and later Tails, to deal with them. Rather, he created and sent Super Badniks to try to destroy them or slow them down while his scheme goes along in his bases.

Archie Sonic did label Antlion Mecha as a Super Badnik in Issue #268, so I stood to realize that those robots from those 3 Sonic Game Gear games ARE indeed Super Badniks. I think their former labels, "Master Robots" and "Boss Robots", are kinda rendered unnecessarily needed, because they have a proper robot line name now, and it contradicts these former labels they had.

Their more prominent appearances and additional role as minibosses came to be in Sonic the Hedgehog 3, and continued onward. Their designs are all original and well-made as more robots Sonic and his friends can demolish.

Well, I can say one of the more favorite Super Badniks is Red Eye, the final miniboss of Sonic 3, in Death Egg Act 1. That was the most powerful Super Badnik in that game, as it's the Death Egg's miniature reactor core and internal defense system made in one. It was encased in its metallic, tall, cylinder-like housing structure that encompasses its outer body.

The weaponry I can still remember is its metallic spheres Red Eye controlled telekinetically to attack its intruders onboard the Death Egg, and upon each hit dealt to it, each sphere explodes to shoot out spikes loaded in it as a countermeasure.

Once its housing broke off, its actual body appears, a robotic pod with its singular eye-like core built into it, with hovering spiked platforms accompanying it, and serves as that miniboss' second phase. Dealing each hit makes Red Eye enraged and spins the platforms crazily as it fires its laser for a short time before calming down, though, more hits can leave its laser firing a bit more longer.

It still remains to me a favorite miniboss in the Sonic series, among others, like Fire Breath, Big Icedus, Uber Caterkiller, in both states of attack, Hey Ho, and of course, the most memorable Super Badnik, Gapsule!

Wonder what other Super Badniks are your favorite as minibosses?

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Maps Of The Month / 2025/11: Scurge: Hive (GBA) - Spanettone

« Last post by JonLeung on October 31, 2025, 09:30:43 pm »

Scurge: Hive

For this month's "Maps Of The Month" featurette, I wish to draw your attention to Spanettone's Scurge: Hive (GBA) maps.

On the planet Inos, at a research laboratory, a virulent alien parasite known as "the Scurge" has breached containment.  As the Scurge infects organisms and machines, it transforms them into creatures and obstacles that our heroine, Jenosa Arma, will have to overcome.  She has been hired by the military to eliminate the Scurge while salvaging whatever equipment she can.  Good thing she has a special suit and is capable of upgrading her abilities along the way, but she'll have to stave off her own infection, which she gets after her first exposure to the Scurge.

Though comparisons with the Metroid series are expected, Scurge: Hive is more action-heavy, so Jenosa's survival will be very much a priority, that exploration of this isometric world won't be that easy.  It's fortunate that we have these maps by Spanettone to make getting around Inos easier.

Though this game was released on the GBA and DS back in 2006, it recently got rereleased - last month, in fact -  for the PC and all the major platforms, so it's easier to experience Scurge: Hive than ever before.

So to recognize the effort put into mapping this "isometroid", Spanettone's Scurge: Hive (GBA) maps will be known as VGMaps.com's Maps Of The Month for November 2025.

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Gaming / "10 Games To Get To Know Me..."

« Last post by JonLeung on October 31, 2025, 11:58:52 am »

I could've sworn I already posted this in these forums... but maybe I'm confusing it with the VGMaps Discord... or my X, Bluesky, Facebook, or Instagram... too many social media platforms to keep up with!

Anyway, if I haven't, here's my image as part of the "10 Games To Get To Know Me" trend on social media where people post an image of themselves, as well as box shots (usually, or some use screenshots) of ten video games that they really like, or define them, or whatever.

I couldn't settle on 10 so I took it up to 11 (like Spinal Tap).  Well, I had kind of settled on ten games a few days earlier, but noticed right after posting it that I had somehow forgotten the game with my favourite map on all of VGMaps.com, Castlevania: Symphony Of The Night!  (Thanks yet again, Revned!)

A bizarre thing to forget as it should have been high on the list to begin with.  As I saw others were breaking the "rule" (if there ever was one) and posting fewer or more games, and as it IS Hallowe'en, I was like, yeah, I'll stick Castlevania: Symphony Of The Night on there, it's fine.

Obviously, The Legend Of Zelda: A Link To The Past is there, as the first maps I ever made for VGMaps.com are of that game.  But some weren't sure bets, at least not initially.  I hesitated on if I should include SimCity Social (a now-defunct browser game on Facebook that didn't even last a year) or specifically the arcade version of SoulCalibur II which I played when I worked at Playdium (especially the Risk-like "Conquest" mode not seen in any of the home versions).  Then my brother said those are EXACTLY the reasons why I should include them if I wanted my image to be personally unique, because others likely wouldn't have such strong and specific memories.

So, yeah, that's my eleven games.

(I guess.  In my over four decades of gaming, I've played MANY games, so this wasn't easy to choose in the first place... This might be a little different if you ask me about the most influential games in my life if you ask me on another day, if I remember something else... for me to even forget Castlevania: Symphony Of The Night in the first place... wow, maybe I am getting old...)

If you want to partake in this trend, you're welcome to share your ten (or however many you want).

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Map Requests / Re: "Tom and Jerry: Frantic Antics"

« Last post by mechaskrom on October 29, 2025, 10:26:20 am »

Any progress on your Tom and Jerry maps kiddingfan? You seemed very committed to mapping this game, but have been worryingly inactive since your first post.

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Maps Of The Month / Re: 2025/10: The Mummy Demastered (PC) - eishiya

« Last post by mechaskrom on October 29, 2025, 10:07:48 am »

Nice maps eishiya.

How did you map this game (tools, methods, etc. used)? Ripping the parallax layers separately in a PC game must have been difficult. It also sounds like you were able to rip the tiles from the game. How?

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Map Requests / Re: List of unmapped NES games

« Last post by JonLeung on October 27, 2025, 10:02:04 pm »

And so what we have here is the combination of the two previous wallpapers from my two previous posts... the 72 games Nintendo Of America published for the NES in North America.

Nintendo did things differently in Europe, so that might be interesting to look at later.  They published The Battle Of Olympus, Kickle Cubicle, Little Nemo: The Dream Master, and others.

Sorry for the North America-centrism, but if we compare the 72 games here to the listing on VGMaps.com...

Wow, we actually have maps for them all... except for Cobra Triangle.

I'm going to put that on my personal requests list now, as well.

That will be a milestone, wouldn't it?  Would be cool to be able to say that we have every Nintendo (of America)-published NES game here on VGMaps.com: The Video Game Atlas?