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Post by toei on Dec 3, 2023 20:02:41 GMT -5
I'm a big fan of Die Hard Arcade on the Saturn. Great 3D beat-'em-up.
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Post by anayo on Dec 9, 2023 22:27:32 GMT -5
I'm a big fan of Die Hard Arcade on the Saturn. Great 3D beat-'em-up. I played Die Hard Arcade at the mall as an impressionable kid in the 90s, and I still have the Saturn version I bought in the mid 2000s back when prices were somewhat reasonable.
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Post by toei on Dec 14, 2023 1:21:43 GMT -5
Mercs (Genesis) - Still hate it. It's weirdly hard to aim, I don't like the way the guns feel, I don't like the level & enemy designs (in terms of construction & patterns). I'm realizing that I don't really gel with a lot of Capcom's '80s stuff. Most of it just feels off and cheap to me. I've given Strider many chances, for example, but it's kind of terrible. I like a ton of games they made in the '90s, though, to me that's when they hit their stride.
Jackal (NES) - I like this. It's super methodical and has an exploratory feel, the tank is slow but it moves smoothly (you can pull some nice dodges in the heat of the moment sometimes!), I like the way the two different attack types have their own clear cut functions. It really is slow, though. I played through 3 levels and it felt like it took a while. I don't know if I'd have the patience to beat it in one sitting, but I'm going to keep it mind as a game to explore further. I think for me this gameplay would have been ideal with some RPG elements - maybe have a little town-style base between each level with a few NPCs, and a save function (of at least passwords).
EDIT: Ikari Warriors is a shockingly bad series. I do like that it automatically holds your direction while shooting, which makes it easier to aim while moving. It's incredibly sluggish, though, to the point of being unbearable, and it's cheap. The NES port is just sad, on a technical level. III tries to shake up the formula and make it a kind of top-down beat-'em-up, and it's borderline unplayable. I wrote that Capcom got good in the '90s to me, but that's even truer for SNK - prior to the Neo Geo, they were trash for the most part (a word I wouldn't use for '80s Capcom). I know people like Crystalis, I think it's so-so, but what else did they have? It's thanks to the recruitment of those key Capcom game designers and building their own quality hardware that they were able to step it up.
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Post by Ex on Dec 14, 2023 10:41:06 GMT -5
Ikari Warriors is a shockingly bad series. It certainly hasn't aged well. I beat all three of the NES entries co-op with a friend, back when I was 11 or 12 years old. At that age way back then these were a fun time. But no, they don't hold up.
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Post by toei on Dec 16, 2023 6:46:05 GMT -5
Dick Tracy (Sega Genesis)
Now this is hard. The basic concept of the game is great - it's kind of like Shinobi/Rolling Thunder... on one plane, but there's a second background plane that you can fire at with another attack button, so you have to pay attention to two planes almost all the time. A for the gun (main plane), B for Jump, C for machine gun (plane 2). Where you start firing the machine gun depends on which direction you're facing before you press C, so that's another thing to get used to. There are also a few stages that switch it up - one of them I had no gun and could only punch, one of them I was in a car firing at other cars. The boss battles are pretty special - they're actually long, side-scrolling levels too, with one strong guy that keeps showing up that you have to shoot again and again. This game would be amazing if the level design wasn't a little dull and the boss battles didn't drag. But it's pretty damn cool. On Level 3a is where it gets tough - I made it there with almost all my lives, then lost them all without beating it. They start throwing crazy enemies at you from both sides of both planes - that's four side - that suddenly duck and fire quickly and it's just insane. You do have a health bar, thankfully, but it goes down quickly. I would say it doesn't feel quite as fair as a Shinobi, a little less meticulous, but I'll try it again sometime. I also think it's a little too long for that kind of game, with 18 stages (12 normal levels, 6 bosses) apparently.
Also, this is one of those games without credits, but apparently it was the first Sega Technical Institute game (future makers of Sonic Spinball, Comix Zone, etc. and co-devs of Sonic 2). Mark Cerny himself was the lead programmer.
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Post by bonesnapdeez on Dec 16, 2023 10:21:11 GMT -5
Ikari Warriors is a trash series. The NES games are obviously shitty, but so are the arcade originals!
I've mentioned this before, but the best Ikari game is unironically the Atari 2600 port of the first one. The late era Atari games were all pretty interesting.
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Post by toei on Dec 24, 2023 11:19:08 GMT -5
Space Harrier 2 (Genesis) I like Space Harrier, it's such a direct hit of adrenalin. I only ever got into the arcade original before, the ports never seemed to do it for me for technical reasons, and this was no exception when I tried it before, but for some reason it's different now. This was a launch title in Japan, released in late '88, and is very similar to the original, somewhat like how the Genesis-only Golden Axe 2 is to Golden Axe. Same surreal world, short levels that follow each other seamlessly, everything flying at you. The music sounds very much like Phantasy Star 1 and 2 in this one - same composer, same era - which fits the setting very well. You have 4-5 lives and no continues, so it'll take practice if I'm going to beat it eventually. I only made it to Stage 4 so far, and there are 13 from what I read.
Space Fantasy Zone (Prototype) (PC Engine CD) This is Fantasy Zone that plays like Space Harrier, with shops between levels, cover art by the Cosmic Fantasy artist, and made (or at least under) Nec Avenue, not Sega, as Sega actually licensed their late '80s arcade hits to other companies before the Genesis came out. And it was cancelled, possibly due to said licenses having run out by then, but the prototype that leaked is a nearly complete beta. Nice graphics, but it feels a little sluggish compared to Space Harrier 2 and just isn't that exciting to play for me. Having a shop is cool, though. Worth a look for a Fantasy Zone or Space Harrier fans.
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Post by Ex on Dec 24, 2023 21:58:54 GMT -5
Space Harrier 2 Genesis | You have 4-5 lives and no continues, so it'll take practice if I'm going to beat it eventually Yeah a lot of practice is how I beat this game back around 1990/1991 (it was one of those years). Space Harrier II was one of the first Genesis games I owned, can't remember how I got hold of it. Probably asked for it specifically, as I had been a fan of Space Harrier on Master System. The sequel is indeed tough, but I had endless free time back then. Very solid action game with great aesthetics/music.
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Post by toei on Dec 25, 2023 23:05:52 GMT -5
Dead to Rights: Reckoning (PSP) Apparently the Dead to Rights series is considered a lesser Max Payne clone. I thought I'd try the PSP exclusive because it's the shortest one, but yeah, looks like it deserves its mixed reviews. The targeting system is clumsy (you can't seem to cycle between targets?) and you can't control the cameras properly so there ends up being no strategy to anything, you just run around little areas shooting generic guys that either come out of doors or apparently nowhere with no rhyme or reason, then move on to the next area. Story-wise, there's some kind of criminal case going on (you're a cop) but it's very minimal. The first DtR on PS2 looks to have much better level design at least.
Monster Attack (PS2) This is actually the first Earth/Global Defense Force, only released in Europe in English. Lots of short missions where you gun down giant ants and UFOs. It's kind of interesting for a short time, I like the weird low-budget chaos of it, with the giant ant bodies falling everywhere and blocking your sight and the vehicles you can get on for more carnage, but again it seems very mindless and I can't really imagine doing a million little missions like that for over 10 hours. The action doesn't seem substantial enough to justify it. But it's a Simple 2000 game so I can't be mad at it.
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Post by Ex on Dec 25, 2023 23:08:59 GMT -5
The first Dead to Rights sucks on PS2 also, I've played it. The sequel is slightly better due to the dog, but it's still not great. There are far better cover shooters on PSP/PS2/PC to play than this dreck.
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