I was hoping I would be sharing my victory today, but instead I will have to settle for another update post!

This was the first time since I’ve started playing Ikari Warriors where real life got in the way of making progress. I was in a wedding two weekends ago and with all the activities going on I didn’t get to play any NES for four days. This was easily my longest stretch without playing in quite some time. Then last week I got sick which led to both playing less and playing badly whenever I got around to it. I’m feeling better now so hopefully this will be the week I beat Ikari Warriors. I’m looking forward to moving on to something new for sure!

I did reach a new personal best last week. I made it all the way to the final boss with a couple of lives but I could not finish off the game. The final stretch introduces a couple of new elements to the game that were quite a surprise to see so late in this long game. Honestly I’m surprised I got as far as I did. It was one of those lucky runs that I have written about before. The next run like that will probably be the winning run, but with Ikari Warriors you never really know for sure!

One common thread of my relatively poor playing lately has been a resurgences of deaths in Level 2. I have beaten this stage without dying many times. However I have not had a clean Level 2 since my personal best run almost a week ago. There is really no explanation for it either. I had a run where I lost a tank in Level 2 at a really awful spot and yet I somehow managed to clear a large chunk of the level on foot without dying. I still have these moments of awesome playing that get lost in the mistakes I am making that cause decent runs to fizzle out.

With any luck this will really be the last Ikari Warriors update. I am still targeting a Monday update either next week or in two weeks, but that might change depending on when I finish the game. I’m excited to share my final thoughts with you on this grueling NES game!