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Post by Sarge on Jun 2, 2019 21:49:50 GMT -5
Yeah, I played a bit of that back in the day when I, uh... well, played a lot of PSP games through dubious means. (I also bought a ton of PSP games, too, so no guilt from me right now.)
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Post by dunpeal2064 on Jun 4, 2019 10:51:34 GMT -5
This month's theme is much more up my alley than the lasts, I've already got a solid list of games I plan to visit.
I'm not as well versed with Irem's stuff as I am other devs, but I've spent a good amount of time with some games:
R-Type: As Toei said, this game was hugely influential to the genre, and it still holds up really, really well. Its graphics, sound, and atmosphere are top-notch, and its pacing and difficulty are really solid. It takes chops to make a shmup this good, especially when there was so little to copy from. I've played this game a ton, but have never actually 1cc'd it (Though with checkpoint games I think they provide a great experience no matter how you approach them), so that is something I'd like to aim for this month. I also can't help but think of the Master System when I think of R-Type, since its port there was rather impressive for its time. I don't think its quite unique enough to stand apart as its own game, and were I looking for ports I'd pick the ps1's R-Types, but its still quite a showcase for the SMS.
Ninja Spirit: Another killer title early in Irem's library. I haven't played this in a while, but I remember it being really good, with very snappy and satisfying gameplay. I save-stated my way through this way back when I first got into retro gaming and emulation, so I'd like to give this game a proper attempt, as it seems more than deserving of it.
X-Multiply: This is tied for my favorite Irem shooter. Its visuals are so good, everything looks like the great practical effects you'd see in 80s horror. The gameplay is also spot-on, and a little more free-form than R-Type. To me, the side pods are much more intuitive to control, so when you want to do something cheeky like lay them on an enemy in a corner, you can do it pretty easily. The game makes control easier, but still encourages gameplay in a similar vein to R-Type. This game is great.
R-Type Leo: I've played a few credits of this, and it seemed alright, but... it also felt very un-Irem. That might be appealing to those that don't like memorization-heavy games, and the game still seemed decent from what I remember, but it also felt somewhat generic, and it was way too easy for an R-Type game. I might give this one a credit or two anyways this month, just to see if my opinion might change, but as of now I'd rank it lower in Irem's shmup catalog, though thats more a testament to how good their other games are, rather than an outright knock on Leo.
R-Type Delta: My favorite R-Type game, and tied for my favorite Irem shooter. This game is fantastic. While R=Type II and III are both solid games, its Delta that, to me, feels like the biggest step forward in the franchise. Its hard to describe what exactly makes Delta so good, since at its core its still an R-Type game, but its just so damn good. I plan to spend a lot of time with this one this month. Highly recommend.
Undercover Cops: I've briefly played the arcade version, and thought it was solid, but oddly I've spent much more time playing the SFC port. While its clearly not a tough on the arcade original, I do think its still a solid conversion, if a bit flawed in places. I'd say its worth checking out if you like looking at conversions in particular. That said, I plan to explore the original arcade game this month, as what I've played of it so far seems real good. Apparently there was also a gameboy port, which I might have to try just out of morbid curiosity.
Ninja Baseball Bat Man: Its crazy how a name can sell a game, I remember hearing about this game constantly when retro gaming and MAME were starting to get popular, and not from people that play a lot of brawlers or Irem games. I played this game several times before even realizing Irem made it! Its been years, but I remember having a good time with this one. Its another I need to revisit, as I think I wasn't as exposed to brawlers when I played this, so I think I could better judge how good it is now. Killer name though.
Metal Storm: Killer game. When I first went back to try and tackle some tough NES games like Castlevania and Ninja Gaiden, it was actually Metal Storm that I first decided to try and beat. The game is really, really good, so good that I used to energy from playing and beating it to beat a bunch of other games afterwards. Its gravity mechanic is simple to use, but the game makes you really master it as you progress. The 2nd loop of this game is insane, easily arcade difficulty, and I never made it far, so its a game thats always been on my to-revisit list. May or may not try to tackle it this month, as it would be quite the undertaking.
R-Type Final: I think this game sucks. Over 100 ships to choose from, a runtime that is way too long for a shmup, extremely poor pacing that literally has the player just sitting around doing nothing for way too long. Its quantity over quality at its worst, with no sign of balance or good design (With 100 ships it likely wasn't possible to balance the game at all). I've given this game multiple chances, and always walked away thinking it was just bad. I'm not even picky with shmups either, I'll play Dooyong's Korean knockoff arcade games any day. I'd rather play Divine Sealing than R-Type Final.
Most of the games I want to spend time with this month I have already played a decent amount of, but I'll mention Dragon Breed and In the Hunt here, as they are games I'm almost wholly unfamiliar with, aside a brief try some years back, and I'd like to remedy that.
Very much looking forward to this month, Irem put out such varied, quality games that I think I could easily play only Irem games and not get bored or worn out.
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Post by Ex on Jun 4, 2019 11:11:56 GMT -5
Very much looking forward to this month, Irem put out such varied, quality games that I think I could easily play only Irem games and not get bored or worn out. I'm looking forward to your participation, it's always fun to read your passionate opinions when you get on a roll. - I plan to play Disaster Report this weekend, HLTB says it takes between 5 to 6 hours to finish. Maybe I'll finish it over the weekend then.
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Post by Sarge on Jun 4, 2019 12:32:47 GMT -5
I tried out Image Fight for NES, and... well, it just feels so bland. Definitely won't be playing any more of it.
I did, however, jump into Hammerin' Harry: Ghost Building Company for Game Boy. I played the Japanese version again, although apparently there is a European release. This is the best one I've played for sure; there's a spark of creativity in the level designs, the graphics are quite nice, and everything just feels solid. You move pretty slowly, as many Game Boy games are wont to do, but it all seems very solidly programmed, much more so than Hammerin' Harry 2 on Famicom. Really, the only thing that drags it down is the massive difficulty spike at the end. The last levels have some very tricky platforms that fall away while enemies are coming at you, and dodging hits can be very tough. Compounding this is that your default only gives you three health points, so actually surviving to the next checkpoint can be really, really hard. The sequence with the stupid robot that fires at you at the end was particularly brutal; I battered away at that for quite a while. On a positive note, though, at least I have it down now! While I made some save-states as backups out of habit, I never actually used them, instead just relying on the unlimited continues. So this is a legit win.
I also tried out Kung-Fu Master on Game Boy, which is a sequel to Irem's arcade game Kung-Fu Master / Spartan X. The West probably knows it better as Kung Fu on NES. Anyway, it retains a lot of that DNA, although the stage layouts are slightly more complex than just walk left or right and punch some dudes. I actually enjoyed this one a bit, and it wasn't terribly difficult, either. It's just alarmingly short, even for a Game Boy game, and the five continues are probably too generous given that I only used two of them, and really only hit trouble on one particular boss. Still, better too generous than not enough for me these days. I'll give this a 6/10 as well. It won't set the world on fire, but there are worse ways to spend 15-30 minutes of your time.
I'm going to try to finish the second Game Boy Hammerin' Harry next.
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Post by Ex on Jun 4, 2019 12:38:57 GMT -5
I did, however, jump into Hammerin' Harry: Ghost Building Company for Game Boy. So this is a legit win. A legit win on that game is something, once again you live up to your legacy. I remembered it was tough back when I beat it in 2017. Here's my HLTB entry on that:
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Post by Sarge on Jun 4, 2019 13:12:15 GMT -5
Your note is dead on target. The game gets STUPID hard.
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Post by toei on Jun 4, 2019 13:31:19 GMT -5
Damn, neither of you noted that Ghost Building Company has a shmup level after every platformer level? That's the one thing that made me keep playing for a while, but I didn't like the platformer stages so I just dropped it. The bosses take too many damn hits and starting from that part with the ropes and the chainsaws the levels themselves are super annoying. I think Sarge might like the other Kid Niki games. The first one is more like Spartan X with a bit of jumping thrown in, but the first NES sequel basically put the same character into a cutesy platformer, then the third gives him a staff instead, which can be used to sort of bounce off of walls to reach higher platforms, as wells as keys to find to open up doors on the way, so it's probably the more interesting one. The GB entry ( Gansu! Yancha-Maru) might be the best, though; it's the most Mario-influenced, with 3 stages per area, lots of jumping, bonus stages, coins to collect by breaking blocks, etc. Personally I was enjoying it up until about 3-2, but then it started to piss me off as pure platformers (and a bunch of Irem games, apparently) tend to do. Also, I'm surprised you beat the Game Boy Kung Fu Master so easily. I can't even make sense of the first boss. Its chainsaw has more range than your attacks, and he has no clear pattern. He'll raise it every now and then at random, then you move in and try to hit him, and it just comes down at random on you most of the time. Just an awful boss design. The best games I've tried are probably R-Type Leo and Cosmic Cop. Leo wasn't supposed to be a R-Type game originally, apparently, so the design philosophy is different. It does start off very easy, and the US version lets you continue from the same point forever, so it's easy to credit feed the whole way through, but the Japanese version has checkpoints instead (so that's the one you should play, dunpeal2064 ). The last two levels or so are just complete nonsense to me though, all I did was die over and over, but I'm going to replay the checkpoints version myself to work up to a more legit playthrough. Cosmic Cop / Gallop has that throwback mechanic from some of the first scrolling shooters, like Cosmic Avenger on the Colecovision, where moving towards the back of the screen slows you down (as well as the scrolling itself) while moving forward makes you go faster. This is because you're supposed to be chasing down criminal ships, so you have a time limit for each level. It's also got Scramble / Su-er Cobra-style tunnels to navigate and stuff. It's fun, fast and over-the-top, but you die really easily, like in most of Irem's games. And I did try Undercover Cops again, and it's still a mediocre-playing beat-'em-up with nice graphics, something like Data East's Night Stalker or whatever it's called. I especially dislike how the characters move, it's stiff and doesn't feel right. I don't like that you can only do a short dash instead of actually run, and that you can't even jump from that short dash, and the distance for throws is weird. It's a game where you're never fully in control of the situation because the controls get in the way.
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Post by Sarge on Jun 4, 2019 13:46:35 GMT -5
Oh, right, I forgot to mention those. Whoops. They didn't stand out much in my mind, I guess. They're fine.
Yeah, I started playing the third Kid Niki game the other night. I hit a wall somewhere and was running low on sleep anyway, so I put it aside temporarily. The wall jumps are interesting in that one, and it's got some big, pretty sprites. After I finish off another Hammerin' Harry game (seriously, I'm apparently through with most of the series), I'll probably hop back into it.
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Post by toei on Jun 4, 2019 13:50:27 GMT -5
You ought to check out Horizon, too, at least to give it a quick spin. It's a spiritual sequel to Moon Patrol, I'd say, except instead of jumping you switch back and forth between three planes. It doesn't seem nearly as good, but it's kind of neat that it exists, anyway.
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Post by Ex on Jun 4, 2019 13:59:33 GMT -5
Damn, neither of you noted that Ghost Building Company has a shmup level after every platformer level? If you read the 2017 HLTB post I quoted, I did mention that shmup portions exist; "there's shmup bits even". Though I didn't go into a lot of detail about that aspect.
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