|
Post by toei on Jun 4, 2019 14:04:36 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. I skimmed it looking for that specifically and missed it. I mean, it's a pretty significant portion of the game, so 5 words between parentheses in yours and nothing in Sarge's post is pretty cold.
|
|
|
Post by dunpeal2064 on Jun 4, 2019 14:09:06 GMT -5
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 ). I had completely forgotten that jp Leo has checkpoints! I'll have to give that version a try. When I played the US version it was for a 1cc, and it still felt a bit on the slow side for longer than I'd like, and the lack of checkpoints somewhat furthered that, so maybe the jp version will make things tense enough to improve. 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. Heh, I quite liked Night Stalker as well, but my bar for beat 'em ups isn't set all that high. 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. I'm looking forward to your thoughts on this one. Not surprising that you managed to pick an Irem game I've never heard much about, hope it turns out to be a gem!
|
|
|
Post by Sarge on Jun 4, 2019 14:43:53 GMT -5
I like the silly flapping-in-the-wind animation when you don't put in an input. There are a lot of neat touches in the game.
|
|
|
Post by toei on Jun 4, 2019 18:47:48 GMT -5
Finished Ganso! Yanchamaru. Yanchamaru is the original name for the character known as Kid Niki in English, "-maru" being a common suffix for ninja names for some reason. "Kid Niki" sounds like the nickname of some low-level Mafia prospect, so Yancha seems more fitting, especially since he pretty much looks like a character out of Dragon Ball. In any case, the Game Boy entry is possibly the most Game Boy-ish game ever: short, simple levels, big sprites that take up a bit too much screen space for the gameplay, and dumb happy music that gets stuck in your head. I found the early levels very charming, even if they were super easy; I could imagine myself playing through them on a long car ride as a kid. The end levels are super annoying, though, both due to some trolling design and some bad programming. For example, starting from 3-2, there are tanuki hiding in some of the blocks you break all the time for coins and occasional 1ups, and for some reason there's a slight delay before they become vulnerable to attacks, so if you react by hitting them right away it just goes through them, they walk forward, and you die. There are also rotating platforms where if you're standing on them when they flip, you fall off the left side, no matter where you were on the platform, which makes no sense at all. That's what I mean by bad programming. I do like the bosses, though. Pretty satisfying fights. Anyway, I give it two stars.
|
|
|
Post by Sarge on Jun 4, 2019 22:17:49 GMT -5
Alrighty, Hammerin' Harry 2 (or Daiku no Gen-san: Robot Teikoku no YabÅ) is done. It definitely isn't as good as the previous entry, once again following the pattern of the NES games. I have to wonder if these projects were handed off to the B-Team given their late release dates, and there just wasn't as much talent or passion in them. Anyway, much like the other Game Boy game, it's a very tough game, too, and it starts that way. The one reprieve, though, comes through even more generous checkpointing. If you get through a section, your progress is saved, period. No dropping back to the beginning of the stage on a continue. This is a good thing! It's actually quite a bit like the checkpointing in Bucky O'Hare, an even more brutal game that is saved by infinite continues and rapidly saved progress.
I don't think it's programmed badly, though: I'm pretty sure it's using the same (or slightly modified) engine as the first Game Boy game, so at least it has that going for it. It has a quirky sense of humor that I mostly missed because I can't read the text in the cutscenes, so I just kept on playing. And the penultimate boss takes too many hits, although you can actually stun-lock him if you're very precise with your timing. The finale is a little bit like a shootout scene, where you get in a giant robot tank and try to hit an enemy robot as it appears to your left or right either straight forward or on the diagonals. Think the shooting scenes in Snatcher, to some degree. He'll also fake you out with dummies, and counterattack if you hit them. There's also one shooter stage that is a bit "meh", and taking out the wall at the end really requires you to conserve your health, then when it goes nuts, just crowd its space and hope you can tank the hits and kill it; the projectiles it shoots blocks all of yours, so it's really, really hard (almost impossible) to squeeze shots through from further away.
Anyway, I think this was the very definition of average, although it's an uneven average. For everything it does right, it has something it does wrong. 5/10.
|
|
|
Post by toei on Jun 5, 2019 4:46:34 GMT -5
I've beaten Spartan X 2, the NES-only sequel to the arcade game. It's mediocre, except for the final level, which is just aggressively bad. There's a few things I hate about that series; the boss battles are always simplistic yet messy, the standard jump is horrible (you barely get off the ground), and every standard enemy's attack and even some bosses' consists of walking up to you and just holding you, at which point you have to wiggle around to try and get free while your health goes down gradually. I've always found that sort of thing pretty annoying, even in good games, but when it's literally all the enemies do, it's flat-out unpleasant. Punch me, you weirdos, don't molest me. This is probably the most playable game in the series, and there is a fair variety to the levels, but that still doesn't mean much. True story: you can beat the final boss without taking a single hit by just crouching anywhere and waiting for him. He'll try to do a rushing kick that never touches you, then you can uppercut him for a lot of damage. Do this 4 or 5 times and he's done. You don't even need good timing. I don't even know if there's a more "legit" method of beating him, since if you try to fight him standing up, that same rushing kick is unavoidable and does a bunch of damage. Sometimes you can beat him by just walking to him, kicking him once, and walking away, over and over, but whether you win or not entirely depends on how many times he decides to do that kick. The original Spartan X came out in 1984 in Japan. In that sense, it's a pioneering side-scroller, and it deserves some respect for that, even if it's not very good. But this was released in 1991, and there's no excuse for it to be this basic and janky. Another game I've played through, though I had to credit-feed, is Lightning Swords, aka Ken-Go. I had high hopes for this one. Looking at screenshots, it looked like it might be a legit hidden gem; a dark, atmospheric samurai hack-n-slash from the early '90s I had never heard of before? Oh, hell yeah. Turns out it doesn't quite play as you would think. Your regular sword slash is super weak and leaves you too exposed, because for some reason there's no collision programmed in when you bump into enemy sprites; they're just "on" you, and you take damage. This happens all the time as they tend to leap onto you out of nowhere. No, you have to hold the attack button, which quickly charges up a more powerful attack that travels a bit, while also serving as a block. You can walk while you do so, and it's also the only way you can duck (that's right, you have to block first to duck in this game). You can even hold it while you jump. Most boss fights revolve around blocking enemy attacks, then releasing the button to fire at them. The whole concept could have probably worked, but unfortunately, this is a poorly-made, incredibly cheap game with bad controls. Jumping is especially bad; it's done by pressing Up (why?) and you can never get it to move forward enough, so you're guaranteed to take damage whenever there are obstacles to avoid. There are all kinds of seemingly unavoidable damage, and no invincibility frame, so you die extremely rapidly as soon as you begin to take some. The first few levels seem like they could have been decent with some adjustments; the later levels are just straight-up trash, and would be completely unplayable if you couldn't credit-feed. (On a different note, this game is so obscure that it isn't listed on Gamefaqs at all, and only the Japanese title appears on mobygames. I've found some reviews of the English version from a UK mag which seems to suggest he played it in an actual arcade, so it must have had a location test at minimum). Conclusion: After careful consideration, Irem flat-out sucked at making platformers and side-scrollers, and I will be moving away from them. I have tried all the Kid Niki games, multiple Hammerin' Harry games (including the SNES game), all the Spartan X games, and this; there isn't one legitimately good game among them. I'm still interested in the Disaster Report games, and I'll give some of their shooters some more time. Another genre they were bad at was VS fighters, though thankfully, they only made one of those (though amusingly, Irem's American branch is also responsible for turning that SNES Ranma 1/2 fighter into "Street Combat"). Superior Soldiers came out in 1993, during that early period where most companies who weren't Capcom or SNK were basically embarrassing themselves trying to follow in SF2's footsteps. Gameplay is standard SF2, down to the six-buttons set up, which is always annoying when you're playing with a PS2-style gamepad, however it's generally shoddily put-together, and the characters designs are all super goofy, with poorly-drawn, amateurish sprites. There are only seven playable characters, and the AI seems a little too good. Here's a video. I want you all to pay special attention to Cattydox's standing animation, because it's the stupidest thing I've ever seen. And yes, that other character's name is "Satinsect". He's an insect, but he's also evil, like Satan, get it? Or satin. A fabric this soft can't be right!
|
|
|
Post by bonesnapdeez on Jun 5, 2019 7:41:20 GMT -5
Anyone ever heard of Heroic Episode? It's a pretty obscure one, but it managed to hit the Switch (and other systems?) are part of the Arcade Archives line-up. Seems to be a mixture of shmup gameplay and top-down run and gun action. As in, I think the levels alternate between two styles.
|
|
|
Post by toei on Jun 5, 2019 7:55:26 GMT -5
Anyone ever heard of Heroic Episode? It's a pretty obscure one, but it managed to hit the Switch (and other systems?) are part of the Arcade Archives line-up. Seems to be a mixture of shmup gameplay and top-down run and gun action. As in, I think the levels alternate between two styles. I didn't think so at first but as it turns out that's the English title they gave it for the recent re-release as it only came out in Japan originally (as Youjyuden or Yojuden). I did try it a few days ago, but I only played some of the first level, which is a Commando-style top-down shooter. Didn't know it had regular shmup levels, but that does seem to be the case: I don't like the other style of gameplay, though, which is too bad cause otherwise I'd play it.
|
|
|
Post by dunpeal2064 on Jun 5, 2019 8:38:48 GMT -5
Spent a few hours with R-Type yesterday. Just doing single-credit runs right now, so that I can get the earlier sections down, and I'm able to clear the first three stages on one life now. Stage 4 looks to be the first sort of wall in the game, so I may just start credit-feeding to there to practice.
Game holds up ridiculously well. Each section or obstacle so far is tricky enough to make you think, but very consistent once you develop a strategy. There always seems to be multiple ways to approach each section too, and even in areas like Stage 3 (Which is just one massive boss fight) where you might think only one weapon type will work, you can make it through with any amount/type of weapon. I've read in the past that some people have even tried clearing this game without picking up a Force Pod at all, and have almost made it to the last stage, which is a sign of some quality design. The game is far from free or easy with full power, but I've also yet to encounter a checkpoint that isn't consistently recoverable from.
Of course, there are 7 stages, and I expect the game to get much meaner, but having seen a bit over half the game so far, I am very impressed. I always held R-Type in high regard, but even still I don't think I was giving it enough credit. Its not only "good for its time", its just damn good all around.
|
|
|
Post by Ex on Jun 5, 2019 12:07:28 GMT -5
I want you all to pay special attention to Cattydox's standing animation, because it's the stupidest thing I've ever seen. Kinda looks like she's got subcutaneous parasites writhing incessantly trying to break free. I always held R-Type in high regard, but even still I don't think I was giving it enough credit. Nice to read some high marks on R-Type. I would play it this month, but I'm saving it for our Arcade Shmups month in November. Still looking forward to your review though. - I got Disaster Report burned and ready to play. I plan to start it Friday night, and hopefully have it finished by weekend's end (if it doesn't suck). In the meantime here's a little gameplay snippet:
|
|