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Post by toei on Mar 16, 2022 11:10:59 GMT -5
There's basically no cue, visual or audio, to let you know you've hit something, so there's no feeling of impact. That's the game's biggest flaw. Still looks better than the rest of the series to me.
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Post by Sarge on Mar 19, 2022 23:11:04 GMT -5
Failed a run of Shadow of the Ninja. Been a while, so I forgot some stuff along the way. Pretty sure I could make another run and get through it, but not going to sweat it right now. It's still a great game that does just enough to differentiate itself from Ninja Gaiden to make it worthwhile.
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Post by Sarge on Mar 21, 2022 23:04:12 GMT -5
Ran through Willow for the arcade. Interesting how this melds several Capcom games of the time - it feels at times like Ghouls 'N Ghosts, others like Strider, sometimes Black Tiger, but more the latter than anything. This makes sense, given that Yoshiki Okamoto directed both. I don't like it as much as Black Tiger, though - I'm not entirely sure what it is, though. Could be just pure nostalgia, because I absolutely loved Black Tiger.
Anyway, you can control either Willow or Madmartigan. I chose Madmartigan whenever I could to stay in the sword theme. Willow is more a ranged character, and feels closer to what you get in GnG or BT with the projectile attacks. Madmartigan has short-range sword attacks (that can be charged to extend a bit). Willow gets a lot of different magics that change depending on when you release the button.
The game looks pretty decent for the time, and there were a few tracks I liked, too. But the game can also be cheap (surprise, surprise!), which saps the enjoyment at spots. I'm giving this one a 6.5. It's worth a romp, but it won't set your world on fire.
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Post by toei on Mar 23, 2022 18:38:23 GMT -5
Whenever I play a game that is really awful, I think "if all games were like that, there would be no gamers." Strider Returns is such a game. Movement is incredibly slow and choppy, and all the challenge results from bad game design. I pushed through until I beat the first boss, but the level had the nerve to continue. Next were enemies that come at you from above while you're trying to climb walls, despite the fact that you can't attack upwards and you have no space to maneuver. I came close to running out of time in the very first level section more than once, too. Imagine setting such strict time limits while simultaneously giving you the absolute slowest movement in any action platformer on any 16-bit console. The cruel nerve. It's worth noting that Strider Returns is a British game that originated on the Commodore 64. It's worth noting because European attempts at replicating Japanese-style arcade action on old microcomputers were almost always disasters, and I'm not sure why I'm including the "almost". See, US Gold got the right to port Capcom's original game to those platforms, and somehow, this allowed them to make a sequel of their own, similar to how Target: Renegade, one of the worst beat-'em-ups ever, was made under Ocean and Imagine without Technos' involvement. I'm not sure why this game (developed by Tiertex, if that means anything to you) was then ported to Sega's platforms in the West, since Sega of America had published Strider and not US Gold. I imagine they wanted a sequel because the first game was a hit and didn't mind that it was complete shit.
I know that my opinions sometimes run contrary to the other members' here. But I have never once in my life read or heard anything positive about Strider Returns. Try it. See for yourself.
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Post by Ex on Mar 23, 2022 20:33:57 GMT -5
Thanks for taking one for the team toei, sounds like a Strider shit show. I agree that European platformers trend on the awful side, not surprising a European action-platformer is also awful. There are of course, the rare exceptions to the rule, but exceptions are just that. Nice to see you guys putting some time into this theme. I still plan to finish a few more games for this theme myself this month. But I'm about to go on a work trip for a few days, but later this weekend/next week should be better. I hope.
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Post by Sarge on Mar 23, 2022 21:08:59 GMT -5
I actually did play it for a bit when you mentioned it earlier, and... yeah, it's bad.
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Post by Xeogred on Mar 23, 2022 21:36:18 GMT -5
I tried it for a first full continue, which only took a few minutes to hit with how ridiculously fast you die.
I chuckled out loud a bit when I was just messing around at the very beginning and realized, ah you probably have to climb those tree branches to get over this building I guess. Then that's when the timer warned me and I just laughed. 2 minutes? And the level just keeps going like toei said. I beat some weird mid boss wall thing maybe... but then some machine spitting out a bunch of poo or something killed me for my last life.
Huge sprites I rarely like. This is why years ago I sometimes went back and forth on whether or not I ultimately liked the 8bit or the 16bit era more for platformers. I usually prefer smaller characters on screen.
Those birds, robots, lasers, etc come flying at you from any direction pretty quickly. And all you have is this weird huge forward swinging attack.
The forward jump has to be one of the worst feeling things I've played in awhile. It's like he jumps INTO some water and slows down. Isn't this like the signature Strider jump though? ...
It kind of reminds me of the original X-Men Genesis game... which if I'm being honest, I don't think I like at all anymore in retrospect, lol. I think it was just one of those popular games tons of kids had, so we played it a lot growing up. But I think it'd be stretch to say I actually like it.
Nasty. I would have been pretty annoyed if this was an rental back in the day. 1/5, Xeo's 5 minute review special.
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Post by Sarge on Mar 23, 2022 22:13:29 GMT -5
I did finish the first stage of it. But bleh. I actually think it's not the most awful thing I've ever played, but I wouldn't call that a full-throated recommendation.
So, legit Shadow of the Ninja run complete. I cleaned up a few spots from last time, and remembered how to take out the last boss on my second go. You pretty much have to play near perfect through the fight, then blitz him when he goes hyper mode - dodging gets incredibly tough at that point.
Great game with that peak NES Natsume feel and sound. It's not up to Shatterhand's level, but it's at least an 8/10 in my book.
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Post by Xeogred on Mar 23, 2022 22:26:46 GMT -5
Power Blade Power Blade 2 Shatterhand Dragon Fighter S.C.A.T.: Special Cybernetic Attack Team Shadow of the Ninja The Natsume month we did way back is still one of my favorites. Simple, excellent NES games right there. Shatterhand is probably the most polished and nicest looking one, but I'm not sure if I had a clear cut favorite from all of those above.
If there's one positive to this crappy Strider Returns game... it kind of pulled me out of the trance I've been in for awhile, not playing much lately haha. They don't really fit this theme, but I just played some Alisia Dragoon (think it finally clicked) and Battle Mania Daiginjou. Maybe I'll finally check out Master of Darkness.
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Post by Sarge on Mar 23, 2022 22:38:49 GMT -5
There are things I really like about Alisia Dragoon, but I remember having trouble parsing shots against the backgrounds. Still, very solid game overall.
As far as Natsume games go (that I can think of off the top of my head), Shatterhand and Mitsume ga Tooru goes at the top, Shadow of the Ninja and Power Blade 2 right behind, then Power Blade. Dragon Fighter is also solid, but not quite as polished as those others, and SCAT, while good, isn't my favorite shmup. But the soundtrack absolutely slaps.
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