Hi all, I just wanted to go over how this game tracks endings (and also why I think additional endings should be considered for the leaderboard).

According to GameFAQs, endings aren't based entirely on deaths, etc. The game has a hidden score. If you take damage from weak or strong enemies, you get hit by bosses or Penguin, or you die, it will affect your score. Here is how the game tracks points according to the guide:

"In this game, you'll find that your health - specifically how often you're hit and how many times you die - determine the ending. Taking hits and dying adds points to a counter:

• a hit from basic enemies: +8
• a hit from middle grade enemies: +12, +16, +18 or +24
• a hit from bosses (Penguin excluded): +48
• a hit from Penguin (both boss fights): +80
• dying: +1,024 (overwhelmingly the greater influence).

Basically, outside of dying, the points added to the counter are proportional to damage received. When you finish the final stage, depending on the values of this counter, you will get a different ending. The estimates in regards to number of deaths are merely estimates, as taking a certain number of hits is still equivalent to a loss of life."

And as for endings:

Hidden score is less than 5,376 = Best Ending (Awesome! You are the hero of all heroes!)

Hidden score is between 5,376 and 9,984 = Good Ending (Congratulations, Batman! You've saved Gotham City.)

Hidden score is between 9.984 and 14,848 = Bad Ending (Your skill has improved, but you're not a real hero yet.)

Hidden score is more than 14,848 = Worst Ending (You took too much time to get here. Try getting here sooner.)

With all of this said, it is possible to get the Good Ending despite dying. In fact, I did it while prepping this game for NES Odyssey 2024. I'm going to link a video of my stream archive; it shows me dying in Stage 5, then I keep playing, and eventually I still get the Good Ending. I played on regular cartridge + top loader NES.

As for why I'm bring this up at all, I want to offer my two cents regarding how this board is set up. The rules state you have to get the Good Ending, but it also says you can't die. However, turns out dying at least once is still okay (depends on that hidden score). Obviously, dying at all is slow and this game is still fairly punishing. The thing is, I think this game would attract more runners and attention if we allowed for any ending to be submitted. You could even mark your ending as "best, good, bad, worst" on your submission, as some boards allow you to do so. For example, Batman: The Video Game allows you to click "yes" or "no" if you did the Joker Glitch.

Let me know what you all think about this; I know it's a lot but this game is such a hidden gem and it'd be a shame if people avoided this game just because they died (which as I've shown, can still lead to a Good Ending). Thanks!

Hi,

Cool discovery! personally i'm ok with modifying the rule but what should we put in it instead to made it clear?

would love nobleboy77 input on this too.

Sounds great!

I'm thinking something like "beat the game" as the category name, and then we could add a variable on the board that says what ending you got (and we can link to this forum if people need help figuring out what ending they got).

I feel like this would allow other people to do a run of this game and feel less pressure to not die (dying can still yield a good ending!).

And yes, @Nobleboy77, if you don't mind reading my initial post and giving thoughts, I'd appreciate it.

Thanks guys! :)

Hey there! Thx for turning on the Bat signal to me. Interesting discovery how the endings work in this game, alec. Essentially, don't score farm forever or the game calls you out of it after beating it. Take one death, preferably at the beginning of one of much later stages, so you can a health box refill when needed.

I can agree the category name should simply be "Beat the game" based on these discoveries, and you can add that into the forums and resources place as reference.

super mods, you make the final veridict! :D

@TricKyBoy Looks like you can change the category name to "Beat the Game". Maybe you could add timing rules too? Such as: Time begins when choosing "START" and ends on the last hit of Penguin.

And then if you want to add a section to display the ending the runner got, I think you have to do variables -> annotations and then do it that way. Not required but would be neat.

But yeah, thanks to you and @Nobleboy77 for your feedback!