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Post by Ex on May 3, 2023 8:51:57 GMT -5
Okay, here's my updated list for this theme. > The ImmortalIf you beat this I will beat Atomic Runner. > Clock TowerI did not enjoy that one: gamefaqs.gamespot.com/snes/563032-clock-tower/reviews/169986Some of my complaints (slow walk speed, slow health regen) from my review were addressed in a later patch. By "later" I mean this patch didn't exist when I originally played CT: www.romhacking.net/hacks/5397/That patch also fixes some annoying bugs. > Dark HalfThis one seems interesting to me as well, and it's an RPG I never see anyone talk about on forums. > Operation Logic BombThis is the next game I plan to beat for this CR. The two GB games I've beaten thus far were its predecessors.
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Post by Sarge on May 3, 2023 11:54:18 GMT -5
I've played a little of Dark Half, it's certainly an interesting idea. Didn't play too badly, but I didn't stick with it long enough to see how it all shook out. I actually have the cart for this one.
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Post by Sarge on May 3, 2023 19:07:49 GMT -5
Alrighty, knocked out a game for this theme - and it ain't Robotrek! (Got a ways to go on that one.) Instead, it's Tail 'Gator for the Game Boy. I should have absolutely known that with Natsume at the helm, it'd at least be a solid title, and yep, it's very, very good. You play as a gator (duh), and proceed through increasingly difficult multi-screen levels until the end. You don't get many tools at your disposal: a tail whip attack, some power icons that, once filled, give you a limited-time long-range attack, and a screen clearing bomb that happens on pickup. The platforming feels quite good here - it's pretty forgiving, especially with bumping your head on a ceiling not sending you plummeting, and some stages toward the end require you to take advantage of this fact.
Areas can scroll in multiple directions, but typically they're either two-ish screen wide (horizontal), or 2x2 (vertical and horizontal). The goal is to find the key that will unlock the door to the next set of screens. I say "find", but it's always in the last treasure chest you smash open, so the puzzle is actually figuring out how to get all the treasure in a level. Once you get the key, you move on. The first three worlds actually let you pick your next stage - there's four sub-stages, which comprise sky to sea, with a cave and overland sort of area in between. It mixes things up visually, and also brings different challenges. For example, the water stages are filled with swimming, the caves are mostly platforming with a little water, the overland stuff is pretty much all platforming, and the sky sports clouds that you can fall through if you stay on them too long. (That also gets used for progression.) You get a few life restoratives each time you finish a sub-stage, and thankfully, the game doesn't take all your progress from you, letting you keep all your sub-stage progress.
While the first two worlds are fairly standard, the kid gloves absolutely come off in World 3. I won't call this the hardest thing ever, but I definitely found myself having to respond to multiple threats on all fronts (enemies respawn after a little bit), and the layouts can be quite tricky to navigate while avoiding unnecessary damage. This culminates in World 4, which doesn't give you any choices in route, but puts everything you've used to the test, although I found myself in a groove and wrecked it - the last boss ended up super easy because I'd stacked up plenty of health and I just went to town on him.
Graphically, the game looks really good, although the sprites are very, very small. It's very Super Mario Land-ish in that regard, but I appreciated that a lot - it gives the levels more room to breathe, and I could have seen a higher-fidelity version of this hit on the NES. The music is appropriately bouncy as well.
The game took me a little over an hour and half to finish off. Thankfully, you don't have to do it all in one go - the game gives you passwords after each sub-stage, which was well-considered for portable play.
Needless to say, I'm pretty enamored with this one. I'd probably give this a 7.5 or 8/10. Perhaps a bit too simple in some regards to truly ascend to the top of the heap, but I would have been proud to own this one as a kid.
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Post by Xeogred on May 3, 2023 22:21:14 GMT -5
- Super R-Type ~30m Easy
Thought I'd give Super R-Type another quick run. This was quite possibly the first shmup I ever actually owned and played more than a rental. The crazy thing about Super R-Type is that there's no respawns OR checkpoints. You die at any point in the level or even at the boss, it's back to the beginning. But it is easy to cheese a lot of the bosses with an up close charged shot to their CORE. The music and graphics are excellent, which is what I kind of went back in here for after wanting another "atmospheric" shmup like Axelay. But R-Type doesn't really get the blood pumping like that one or more intense, faster paced shmups. I still respect and appreciate R-Type and most of its games that I've played, but once I got into Gradius, Thunder Force, etc, I never really looked back in regard to preferring the faster paced stuff.
So the slowdown is crazy though. Way more than I expected. IREM maybe took this to heart as Shmup Junkie mentioned in his latest video, because R-Type III doesn't have much slowdown from what I recall, has checkpoints, etc, but is as brutal as ever. Maybe I'd warm up to R-Type III with another few runs. I felt it was -insanely- challenging even abusing save states and being decently skilled at shmups. It has a few ship/power up options for some replay value, so yeah... I'll give R-Type III another playthrough someday. But probably not for this theme or anytime soon.
Now here's the sad news, while this was a fun trip down nostalgia lane again... apparently I replayed Super R-Type in 2019 as well, but already totally forgot about that. Maybe I played it so much as a kid, I just always remember most of the game anyways. So a replay years later might not leave another huge impression. Or it's just that I don't totally love R-Type, hah. Anyways I'm not beating down on it, I'd still say check this one out for any SNES shmup fans. That said! I jumped into the FastROM too and it seems pretty neat, I wish I revisited it this way, but I'm not about to double up two runs tonight haha. So anyone reading this, if you're interested in this one maybe just go in first with the FastROM. Might be neat to revisit Gradius III SNES that way, though I bet that one could be substantially harder as such heh.
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Post by toei on May 3, 2023 23:05:40 GMT -5
Xeogred If you want fast, intense and blood-pumping, you need to play Download on the PC Engine. One of my favorite shmups on any system. It's super aggressive and hot-blooded, it's got an Akira thing going (in the first levels you fly a hoverbike) and it's got the infamous Engrish cursing when you die. Shit! Is not this a great beginning. I can not fuck up for this.
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Post by Xeogred on May 3, 2023 23:10:43 GMT -5
Looks freaking good. Do you respawn mid stage with a stock of lives or does it have checkpoints?
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Post by toei on May 3, 2023 23:19:43 GMT -5
Looks freaking good. Do you respawn mid stage with a stock of lives or does it have checkpoints? It's checkpoints in the levels with a stock of lives, but when you lose all your lives you restart the stage with infinite credits (and passwords I think). Using a credit and restarting the stage is actually helpful sometimes because you might make it to the checkpoint in a better position - more power-ups, etc. The levels are nicely-paced too, they're not super long, and the bosses are cool and don't take infinite damage without being pushovers. It is a pretty hard game, and memorization helps, but it's very much about reaction speed and making quick decisions too. I died a lot but I still beat it despite not being very skilled at shooters.
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Post by Ex on May 4, 2023 9:35:06 GMT -5
I put half an hour into Operation Logic Bomb last night. So far it's pretty decent, you can see the previous Game Boy games' DNA in it to an extent. There are changes, the immediate first being there's no longer a female commando to switch to. I'm not sure what this game's story is as its intro tells you nothing, except that maybe your protagonist is a cyborg I guess. I'll likely have to read the manual for the plot. The stage structure is very different than the Game Boy versions. Apparently there's just one huge maze that you go through, that is dividing into sections, which you warp in and out of as you unlock portions of it. I wouldn't say I like that better than the unique stages of the Game Boy versions. Also in this one you don't uncover the map as you go, rather you have to find and download maps, like you do in some of the Metroid games. I recently found a laser weapon that can ricochet off walls and corners, it's very useful. I might be able to finish this one tonight.
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Post by Sarge on May 4, 2023 12:46:56 GMT -5
Hopefully you end up enjoying it in the end.
I made more progress in Robotrek last night. The Volcano and base there took quite a bit of time - it might have been a bit too long. But then again, the game mitigates so much by letting you save in most places, so it's not like it forces you to do everything in one go. I actually got absolutely wrecked by the boss there, at least the first time - I got smacked from behind (and he hit a critical!) which one-shotted me, and then, after I screwed up and accidentally used my bomb (it's on the X button, that brings up the menu in so many games) instead of reviving my other bot, then he goes and smacks my other bot from behind and also one-shots him (another crit, dang!). I didn't lose too much progress, though, and proceeded to stomp him the second time around.
Anyway, I also got back to town, got the stones I've been collecting stolen (of course) and thrown in jail. I mean, I knew that would happen eventually - generally if you see a jail in an RPG, you're gonna get thrown into it at some point! But I got through that particular scenario, which was also surprisingly more involved than I was thinking it would be. There's a lot of hunting for the next trigger for events here. To the game's credit, though, it's not always just "find this NPC", you get items that allow you to make progression, and you actively use them as opposed to them just sitting in your inventory. Like the Drill that goes through walls, or an item that lets you talk to animals, or glasses that let you see hidden objects (and some enemies). Heck, after a whole sequence where you're turned into a mouse, the game gives you the item to turn into a mouse at will, which it leverages (and I find really neat). You're not terribly inconvenienced by this, though, since your robots still fight on your behalf, although I didn't test where I can still use items in battle while in mouse form.
Also, I know you can program macros, but is there really any advantage to this? It feels like the recharge takes so long that you're better served keeping your options open in case bosses do something crazy.
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Post by Ex on May 4, 2023 14:07:39 GMT -5
Robotrek sounds fun, makes me want to replay it someday. (There are some SNES RPGs I hope to have time for next month.) I kinda remember that mouse sequence now that you describe it. I don't recall using the macros much, they must not be as useful as PS4's were. It's certainly a unique game with some innovation, that is always appreciated. I seem to recall the physical copy of Robotrek came with a really big fold out graphic with all the robot parts you could buy/find on it. That may be a fake nostalgia memory though, have to do some looking.
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