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Post by toei on Mar 8, 2019 13:13:18 GMT -5
I tried some Golvellius myself last night, and holy hanna, those enemy patterns are cheap. Apparently you need to do some grinding to get stuff to up your max gold and life, rinse and repeat. I'm... not sure why this is considered a good game yet, honestly, because it feels quite unfair in all the wrong ways. I used to feel that way, too, but I feel like I finally "get it", and I enjoy it so far. The thing is, despite what the overworld looks like, it's not Zelda, and shouldn't be approached like Zelda. Here's how it's structured: The game is divided into 7 self-contained sections. When you start the game, or when you get to a new section, the first thing to do is to explore the overworld thoroughly. Each screen hides a cave or entrance, typically triggered by killing an enemy (or a few), though some just appear by themselves. So you make sure to find every entrance. There's at least one spot where you can't in every area - that's the one that will open after you beat the boss - so if you kill a few enemies and nothing happens, move on. Every section has a few old ladies that will sell you a permanent max HP increase or max Gold increase, as well as a place to heal, a place to get passwords, and various fairies who act as typical NPCs. Eventually you'll get the chance to buy equipment, such as shields, which let you repeal projectiles, etc. This is where the "grinding" comes in. First off, you should avoid fighting anything that flies. Those are the cheap ones, and they suck, but you just don't have to fight them unless there's nothing else in a particular screen. When you just traveling, it takes a moment before they spawn, so you can avoid fighting. All enemies drop gold; you can see how much you just got from killing one by pressing Pause. So you find a screen with enemies that are easy to handle (like snakes, frogs or spiders, early on) and give nice gold, find a nice spot where you're mostly protected (like behind a rock, which are very common), and you can typically kill dozens of them and max out your gold in very little time. You'll find that you're very vulnerable in the beginning, but it gets a lot better. Then you find the dungeon, which is actually an action level, beat the boss, and move on to the next area.
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Post by Ex on Mar 8, 2019 13:29:41 GMT -5
I played the Master System version of SF2 last night. It's about as good as you'd expect. - 11. Power Strike II | Master System | 1993
"Power Strike II" is a shmup developed by Compile and published by SEGA in Europe in 1993. This game was not released in any other regions. It is indicative of Compile's usual style of shmup. That is to say an impressively programmed, quickly moving action feast of shooting and dying, presented in an overhead vertical format. The plot here sees the player as a pilot hunting down air pirates, with said pirates acting as the bosses. There are eight stages, although the eight stage itself is just a final boss fight. "Power Strike II" is indeed a sequel to the original "Power Strike" on Master System. Thankfully "Power Strike II" is very much improved over its SMS predecessor. However, these SMS "Power Strike" games are not to be confused with the "Power Strike" (Or "GG Aleste") entries on Game Gear. Although they share the same developer, genre, and naming convention, they are not the same games.
The first thing that strikes the player about "Power Strike II" on SMS, is its detailed and colorful graphics. Indeed this shmup looks way above average for an 8-bit entry. The next positive would be the speed and number of the amount of sprites on the screen. "Power Strike II" is a very frantic game, with further stages verging on bullet hell style. The difficulty curve is there, and by the latter half of the game, the player will likely be dying quite often. It becomes tremendously difficult to dodge the constant onslaught of well aimed enemy bullets, in tandem with enemies that often take too many hits to destroy. Thankfully "Power Strike II" gives out extra lives at a consistent rate, and stage continues are unlimited. +Really good looking for an 8-bit shmup. +Fast moving sprites and frantic action. +Strong boss battles will test your mettle. +Nice intro and outro animated cutscenes. +Unlimited continues. -Standard player weapons are underwhelming. -No screen filling special weapons or secondary bombs. -Later stages barrage the player with way too many bullets. -Many regular enemies take too many hits to kill.
-The OST isn't all that great. The Master System has a fair amount of shmups. Some of them are terrible, most of them are average, and a few are pretty damn good. I'd say "Power Strike II" falls into the "pretty damn good" tier. It's certainly not perfect. This shooter needs better weapons, proper gameplay balancing, and a more enthusiastic OST. But still; "Power Strike II"'s good graphics, crazy action, huge bosses, and sheer amount of stages keep its wings in the air. Ex's time to beat: 1 hour 25 minutes Ex's rating: 7/10
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Post by Ex on Mar 8, 2019 14:07:47 GMT -5
Oh wow dudes. I'm considering playing SMS Rastan next, so I was reading its USA manual. Um, there's some "interesting" artwork in said manual. I took some screenshots from the PDF and collaged them into one NSFW image: What a different world we lived in back then.
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Post by Sarge on Mar 9, 2019 1:18:17 GMT -5
Well. That's... interesting. Hope everyone is quiet on here 'cause they're playing games. I... have been, but more in a testing mode since I decided to swap out RetroBoot for AutoBleem on the PS Classic. Finally got everything working like I want again.
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Post by Sarge on Mar 9, 2019 15:58:04 GMT -5
I forgot to weigh in on Power Strike II, Ex. That looks really slick! If there's one thing that I'm appreciating about the SMS, it's that it has a ton of color. While I don't think the color palette works for all games, it does have a signature "pop" that the NES often doesn't have. Since it's a Compile shooter, I should probably give it a go. What's a good comparison for the difficulty on the NES?
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Post by Ex on Mar 9, 2019 22:08:55 GMT -5
What's a good comparison for the difficulty on the NES? Difficulty wise, maybe Gun Nac.
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Post by Sarge on Mar 9, 2019 23:34:20 GMT -5
How 'bout some vintage Master System posters? Terrible photography? You betcha! But I wanted to show these since I decided to pull down my SMS games and Master System.
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Post by Ex on Mar 10, 2019 0:06:44 GMT -5
That hit like a nostalgia nuke. I used to have that very same poster hung up in my bedroom as a kid! I haven't seen that image in decades. - 12. Rastan | SEGA Master System | 1988
"Rastan" is a Master System action-platformer developed by Taito and published by SEGA in 1988. This was actually a home port of the arcade game of the same name, although changes were made. The Master System port had redesigned level layouts, and replaced some of the boss characters. The plot concerns Cona-err, Rastan the barbarian killing lots of monsters and ultimately saving a princess from a dragon. Yes, really. The gameplay is mostly standard side scrolling action-platforming. Meaning Rastan can attack in many different directions, and jump around. Although his jumping physics are weird and take getting used to. To make Rastan jump far, the player must point diagonally and up while jumping. Then Rastan will jump very far, but his jump arc is non-correctable reminiscent of older "Castlevania" entries. Anyway, slice, dice, and jump through the levels to get to the boss, kill the boss, rinse repeat through seven stages.
+Nice clean graphics with well scaled sprites. +Simple controls that are actually responsive. +Good checkpoints for continuing. +Rastan can wall jump! +The user manual has "interesting" artwork.
-The OST while good, is very repetitive.
-The level designs while decent, are very repetitive.
-The jumping physics are less than ideal.
-Bosses all take the same strategy to kill.
-Take too long darkness bees is just dumb.
"Rastan" can be a difficult game. If the player takes too long to clear a level, literal darkness descends and endless swarms of bees start attacking the player. The player only gets one life (and a life bar). By default "Rastan" only gives the player a handful of continues. Thankfully checkpoints for these continues are well placed. (And there is a built-in secret code for unlimited continues, which I did in fact use thank you very much.) The most effective way to kill bosses? Jump over their heads and down stab them to dust. "Rastan" is a good choice for retro gamers who enjoy platforming and slashing in the same game. That said, it's all very simple minded, with no surprises or clever anything to surprise the player. Which I suppose fits the barbarian mindset, so fair enough. Ex's time to beat: 45 minutes Ex's rating: 6/10
- I'm gonna hit up Sonic Chaos next.
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Post by Sarge on Mar 10, 2019 0:10:57 GMT -5
Altered Beast's port is awful, y'all.
EDIT: Played some Astro Warrior, a very basic shmup. I... don't recommend dying. Much like Gradius, losing all your powerups pretty much dooms you. I got halfway through stage 3, then took a death and a whole bunch more after that due to being slow and underpowered.
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Post by Sarge on Mar 10, 2019 0:38:59 GMT -5
It's pretty apparent most of my SMS library is crummy. Dead Angle is a sort of Operation Wolf-style gallery shooter, and it isn't terrible, but the frame rate is crazy choppy. There was a sort of software sprite mode that the SMS did, but it led to this sort of chunky, unresponsive scrolling.
I did get to the fourth stage boss, which I suppose isn't bad for a first go of it.
The best legit titles I probably have are Phantasy Star (duh), Golden Axe Warrior, Kenseiden, and Rambo. Oh, and Outrun and Hang-On.
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