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Post by toei on Feb 20, 2020 16:55:21 GMT -5
Personally it didn't really catch my attention, it feels like an old computer game. Which makes sense, considering that's Micro Cabin's background.
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Post by Xeogred on Feb 20, 2020 20:14:04 GMT -5
I just beat GG Aleste II and probably will give the edge to the first game. It was a little longer and more epic too. I'll agree with Sarge and toei that the screen flickering was severe and strange in II, since the first had like none of that. Is it just emulation with this game? Did anyone play this on actual hardware?
I still had fun though and I liked that it had more teeth to it and better boss battles, but it was still a few levels shorter. I also actually thought the laser was one of the best weapons in the game, assuming we're talking about the same thing, with the Options and four shots worth on the screen it was easy to manage everything with it. But I did use Delta a lot too. Homing is what got super nerfed and sucked here to me. The music was more varied and awesome but I think they both equal out there.
Are the SMS entries still worth checking out? Now I want to replay MUSHA and finally hit up the SNES one I've never played.
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Post by toei on Feb 20, 2020 21:41:08 GMT -5
Xeogred The first Master System Aleste is a significantly older game, so even though it's 8-bit like the Game Gear entries it clearly feels more old-school. That said, I think both it and the sequel have a good reputation. IIRC, Sarge said recently that you're supposed to play Power Strike II Master System with PAL settings or it'll run too fast since it was optimized for PAL (you can switch regions at will in Fusion, as you probably know). I don't think the flicker in GGA2 is caused by emulation, since AFAIK it happens with all emulators and they're not all built the same. I think it's just that there's too much stuff on screen at once, kind of like how the NES went nuts if you had a certain number of sprites on the same "line". I personally enjoyed Aleste Gaiden on MSX2, which is the only game in the series where you play as a humanoid character who runs on the ground and can even jump. Think Elemental Master. The levels feel kind of sparse early on, not a ton of enemies, but once you hit a groove it's really solid.
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Post by Sarge on Feb 20, 2020 22:04:57 GMT -5
Yeah, that's just pure hardware limitations. Compile wasn't shy about letting copious amounts of flicker happen. My favorite shooter of all time, The Guardian Legend, has a ton of it.
I played a little bit of Power Strike II, and I don't know what to think of it yet. I was playing at 60 Hz, which is a bad, bad idea. So yes, make sure to change your region in Fusion.
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Post by Ex on Feb 20, 2020 22:09:38 GMT -5
I still had fun though and I liked that it had more teeth to it and better boss battles I'm glad you enjoyed GG Aleste 2, and that you played through another GG entry. I personally have not played through them, so I don't know. All I know is they are different than the GG versions. There is another GG exclusive shmup I'd like to recommend (pretty sure toei hates this one): I beat that one back in 2017 as well. These were my thoughts back then: "Fray: Shuugyouhen is a Japan-only cute 'em up, developed and published by Micro Cabin, released in 1991 for the Game Gear. This little vertically scrolling shmup stars a cute wizard named Fray. She's shooting magic death bolts at tons of monsters and bosses, I don't know why. There's cutscenes, in Japanese, which I can't read. This is by the way, an on-foot shmup. But, Fray can also jump! Jumping is interesting, as it adds platforming elements to the overhead shmup formula. At the end of stages, Fray's senpai teaches her new magic powers. Magic powers when used cost mana, but unleash hellish fury upon the land. Mana balls and life balls are dropped by dead enemies, filling their respective banks. For some strange reason, the player is not allowed to use Fray's powerful spells against bosses. But, after every stage, Fray can visit a store to buy power-ups, and said power-ups do help against bosses. Not that it really matters, as Fray: Shuugyouhen is a piece of cake. I beat it on my first try, only dying once. Graphically Fray: Shuugyouhen is pretty decent, although the sprite counts often slow the Game Gear's processor noticeably. (The vertically scrolling crawls as well, I think to help with LCD blur, and to keep difficulty low.) Fray: Shuugyouhen's OST can only be described as "eclectic" and we'll just leave it at that. There's plenty of stages, and beating Fray: Shuugyouhen will probably take you about thirty minutes. So if you're in the mood to be the magic girl, put on a skirt and grab your nearest death wand, then cast Fray: Shuugyouhen into your Game Gear."
I gave the game a 7/10, who knows you or Sarge might like it.
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Post by Xeogred on Feb 20, 2020 22:20:38 GMT -5
Fray: Shuugyouhen looks like it's in ultra slow motion, not what I expected when I looked it up. This isn't Cotton...
And wow yeah, the original Aleste (SMS) looks ancient. I don't think I love 8bit shmups that look like that, the second game looks a lot more appealing, though it again has a lot of weird flickering going on.
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Post by toei on Feb 20, 2020 22:32:22 GMT -5
Fray: Shuugyouhen looks like it's in ultra slow motion, not what I expected when I looked it up. This isn't Cotton... Yeah, playing Fray feels like like trying to run through a lake of peanut butter while having a stroke. Sloooooow and choppy. There are lots of really solid cute-'em-ups on the PC Engine & PCECD that are just miles ahead. Coryoon especially.
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Post by Ex on Feb 20, 2020 23:36:07 GMT -5
Sarge toei Xeogred I was wondering why I wasn't seeing all this sprite flickering like you guys, and then I remembered this: "Sprite Limiter - a real SMS/GG can only display a small number of sprites on any one line of the display, and after that, the rest will not be shown. Some games use this fact to make sprites disappear under other objects. However you can disable this effect and let all sprites be drawn - for some games this will remove a lot of flickering." (From the Kega Fusion readme)Options > Set Config > SMS/GG > Disable Sprite Limiter I've had that option enabled forever, forgot I even had it toggled actually. Explains why I haven't been seeing nearly as much flickering.
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Post by Sarge on Feb 21, 2020 16:31:46 GMT -5
Well, that would do it! I sometimes forget those options exist. Lots of NES emulators have this option as well.
So I have rolled around to Tails (Tails'?) Adventure, and I'm intrigued so far by what I've played. I've gotten the sub, so now I gotta figure out where to go next.
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Post by Ex on Feb 21, 2020 17:03:48 GMT -5
SargeGlad to see you playing Tails Adventure. I hope you get at least a 7/10 out of it. I've been playing Sassou Shounen Eiyuuden Coca-Cola Kid today. I've beaten the first three zones. So far it's pretty decent.
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