|
Post by dsparil on Feb 21, 2022 11:35:14 GMT -5
Thanks! I like reading your longer takes. I've been keeping mine short because I've been laying them out as one page documents before posting them, and that's all the text that fits.
|
|
|
Post by ommadawnyawn2 on Feb 21, 2022 15:08:54 GMT -5
excelsior I think these would be appreciated over on the discord server or something like r/retrogaming as well. Yeah I know the feeling. People mostly tend to gravitate towards a few creators out of convenience and habit, and the algorithm gods often play favorites too. Besides gamers as a whole clearly having chosen video over text (I'm guilty of this too).
|
|
|
Post by windfisch on Feb 21, 2022 17:00:49 GMT -5
I just wanted to emphasize that I keep enjoying the overviews/reviews in this thread by both of you, dsparil and excelsior. It's just that I have a lot on my mind lately, so I'm not very active in terms of writing comments atm. But be assured that the effort is appreciated.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Feb 21, 2022 23:46:50 GMT -5
I don't really think there's a need to write a lot anyway dsparil as long as you get your points across. I actually write mine up off site a lot of the time too, though I just use a txt since that's all I have for offline. Remember when we could just buy Microsoft Office and make documents in Word? Those were the days... ommadawnyawn2 - I don't get the chance to watch as many videos since the pandemic hit since I usually watched them when I had the house to myself. Doesn't happen enough now. I do think the benefit of video footage is a natural fit for game coverage so I'm with you there. I don't read articles nowadays unless they're flagged to me, though I'm more interested in reading opinions on forums. There's more investment and interest in what people are up to and have to say as part of a community. Feel free to link my posts to other communities if you'd like, I'm not a member elsewhere these days so I wouldn't be in a position to share them myself. And of course as ever I'll (and am sure all of us will) take my windfisch posts where I can get 'em. Anyway, I did a bit of a catch up on my write ups the other day so I'm all up to date now, with the intention of taking a short break from the site. I need to recharge my batteries as it were, but I'm sure I'll be back before you can miss me. I'll still be reading. Don't have too much fun without me though...
|
|
|
Post by ommadawnyawn2 on Feb 22, 2022 3:59:53 GMT -5
Seems like MS just added lighter online office apps via Win 10/11 today, but that's not offline obv.
|
|
|
Post by dsparil on Feb 22, 2022 8:56:25 GMT -5
Mr. Heli’s Great Adventure Mr. HELIの大冒険Developer Irem Publisher Irem Format HuCard Release (JP) December 1, 1989 Release (US) Unreleased Difficulty Low to High Looping Second loop only Continue System One checkpoint with upgrades and money lost, 2 continues Known as Battle Chopper outside Japan, Mr. Heli’s Great Adventure takes some cues from Fantasy Zone and puts them in a sci-fi landscape that is cartoony but not cute. Elements inspired by Fantasy Zone include money and purchased upgrades hidden in rocks, bi-directional orientation, and a ground mode that is non-cosmetic. The difficulty can be uneven, but bosses usually have a specific trick to defeating them. This version also includes an easier Normal difficulty that makes it much more beatable compared to the Arcade difficulty. The main issues with this port are performance related. There is quite of bit of slow down which can be high in some situations. Enemies and their attacks seems to take display priority over the player’s making it at times impossible to attack. Approximate Hitbox
Having played the PCE version now, the new difficulty is so much easier than the arcade version. Every pip of health is one hit on Normal, but you can only take two-ish hits total on Arcade. Am I the only one that had issues attacking in a few places? Sometimes there really would be so much on the screen that neither attack button would do anything until some enemies moved off the screen.
|
|
|
Post by dsparil on Feb 23, 2022 7:43:02 GMT -5
Side Arms SpecialDeveloper Capcom Publisher NEC Avenue Format CD-ROM² Release (JP) December 15, 1989 Release (US) Unreleased Difficulty Low to High (Before Christ) Looping No Continue System Checkpoints with upgrades lost, 5 continues (Before Christ) More than a simple re-release with a CD soundtrack, Side Arms Special is in essence a compilation of the original game with an added easy difficulty and a completely new game subtitled Before Christ. The title suggests that it is an earlier unreleased version of the game and the simpler graphics do align with this although it is not clear if it actually is. The gameplay is radically different including a health system tied to option ships, a laser charge attack, and only one weapon being available at a time. There are also ten discrete stages with little shared with the standard game. Each stage has a unique boss which must be damaged with charged shots at its weak point. Whether Before Christ is an older version or not, it feels like the more developed of the two. Approximate Hitbox
Shmuplations has an interview with artist Akira Yasuda that touches upon Side Arms, but it doesn't go into the nitty gritty of the game's development. I don’t get the impression that BC is truly an earlier version rather than a game made in a style as if it were, but also find it weird that Capcom would make a minor "demake" of the game with almost all new content rather than just make the new levels and gameplay changes. The graphics that are shared between the two have subtle refinements which you can see in the player sprites and the dogū inspired platforms for two examples. There's some other things like how the Pow pick up in Standard increases your speed, but it increases the Power of your options in BC as if the move from options to the Bit weapon caused the Pow to get repurposed. The whole thing is a big mystery to me.
|
|
|
Post by dsparil on Feb 25, 2022 8:29:56 GMT -5
Heavy UnitDeveloper Kaneko Publisher Irem Format HuCard Release (JP) December 22, 1989 Release (US) Unreleased Difficulty Low Looping No Continue System Checkpoints with upgrades lost, unlimited continues Kaneko’s Heavy Unit has an atmosphere of dreams and nightmarish hallucinations. The opening few seconds alone feature a cave full of skulls, crushing machinery and fire breathing snakes emerging from a pyramid. The entire game is not a non-stop parade of strangeness, but this feeling is pervasive. The main gameplay quirk is a ship to mech transformation with each form having its own weapon load out. As a port, the graphics in the PCE version are somewhat compromised with missing backgrounds and tweaked sprites. Heavy Unit was also ported to the Mega Drive, but with heavily redone and resized graphics more akin to a portable game. This leaves the arcade game as the preferable version as the weaker graphics of both ports takes away some appeal. Approximate Hitbox
The mech form's hitbox might actually be a little smaller than the ship's! It's hard to tell if it isn't just the impression the significantly larger sprite gives since the hitbox is buried in the middle of it so I left it the same size for both.
|
|
|
Post by dsparil on Feb 26, 2022 7:04:32 GMT -5
Atomic Robo-Kid SpecialDeveloper UPL Publisher UPL Format HuCard Release (JP) January 19, 1990 Release (US) Unreleased Difficulty Low to Moderate Looping No Continue System Checkpoints with upgrades lost, 3 continues As the title suggests, Atomic Robo-Kid Special is a new version of UPL’s arcade game. The graphics, bosses and weapons are the same, but the levels are different and the free roaming gameplay received tweaks. The most apparent is the replacement of one hit deaths from enemy bullets and imperviousness to enemy contact with a health meter. However the other changes generally make the game more tedious. Some of the new levels are dull mazes, the laser no longer passes through bosses making them take longer, and the robot governors have hit points making the “duels” against them—already the worst part—even worse. The original game received a port to the Genesis which makes a few positive tweaks and adds in a bit of story making it the best version. Approximate Hitbox
I ended up playing through the arcade game too, and the Genesis version does end up being the best one. The arcade game has short transitional animations between most levels, but there's only a few of them in the cycle.
|
|
|
Post by dsparil on Feb 28, 2022 9:13:48 GMT -5
Paranoia PsychosisDeveloper Dual Publisher Naxat, NEC Format HuCard Release (JP) March 1, 1990 Release (US) October 1990 Difficulty Low to Moderate Looping Second harder loop Continue System Checkpoints with upgrades lost, 3 continues Dual’s Paranoia is supposed to take place inside the mind of the main character. However, this mainly takes the form of a standard shooter with some mild cute’em’up elements which is an odd choice for a game with this title. There are some nice graphical touches, but aside from the slightly demonic monster that appears on some screens, there is little sense of dread. The gameplay does advance the R-Type style weapon pod by giving the player dual pods which contract and spread based on movement and can be rotated around the ship. The second loop is nominally harder, but like Gunhed’s difficulty levels, an increase in the fire rate of some but not all enemies is the main difference. While not an intrinsically bad game, Paranoia mostly feels like a squandered premise. Approximate Hitbox
Dual will show up again way later as they developed the second Air Zonk. I suppose some of the more disappointing aspects of this game portend similar issues in that game.
|
|
|
Post by Woody Alien on Mar 1, 2022 7:25:01 GMT -5
Heavy UnitDeveloper Kaneko Publisher Irem Format HuCard Release (JP) December 22, 1987 Release (US) Unreleased Difficulty Low Looping No Continue System Checkpoints with upgrades lost, unlimited continues Sorry for interrupting, but I wanted to thank you for letting me know the title of this game that I saw at an arcade as a kid and never again! For some reason I had those giant archers from stage 1 stuck in the back of my head, and my imagination also conflated them with that giant horned monster that appears a little after. I miss this kind of HR Giger-inspired, R-Type-copying type of shooter with all that techno-organic weirdness and bizarre inexplicable monsters. Is there that looks anything like it now? Shooters these days are so... boring-looking?
|
|
|
Post by dsparil on Mar 1, 2022 9:26:42 GMT -5
Heavy UnitDeveloper Kaneko Publisher Irem Format HuCard Release (JP) December 22, 1987 Release (US) Unreleased Difficulty Low Looping No Continue System Checkpoints with upgrades lost, unlimited continues Sorry for interrupting, but I wanted to thank you for letting me know the title of this game that I saw at an arcade as a kid and never again! For some reason I had those giant archers from stage 1 stuck in the back of my head, and my imagination also conflated them with that giant horned monster that appears a little after. I miss this kind of HR Giger-inspired, R-Type-copying type of shooter with all that techno-organic weirdness and bizarre inexplicable monsters. Is there that looks anything like it now? Shooters these days are so... boring-looking?
The archers are actually right before the giant head. There's one screen width between them so I sadly couldn't get both in the same screen shot. It is a shame that style of graphics fell out of fashion. Aside from R-Type Final 2, I can't think of anything recent.
|
|
|
Post by dsparil on Mar 2, 2022 12:01:26 GMT -5
Space Invaders: The Day of ResurrectionDeveloper Taito Publisher Taito Format HuCard Release (JP) March 2, 1990 Release (US) Unreleased Difficulty Low to Moderate Looping No (Plus) Continue System Start of stage, 3 initial continues (Plus) A compilation of the original game and a new version titled Space Invaders Plus, The Day of Resurrection may be aimed specifically at long time players as the Japanese text is almost entirely in kanji. Plus uses some features that would later appear in Majestic Twelve: The Space Invaders Part IV—also known as Super Space Invaders ’91—such as a shield and secondary weapons but does not include its boss battles or varied enemy layouts except in the last level. Space Invaders Plus does have a hidden stage branching system which includes low visibility levels, a feature not in Part IV. However, the later game is a fuller and better aged update to the formula and still available as part of the Space Invaders Invincible Collection for Switch. Approximate Hitbox
The problem with Plus is basically that the core Space Invaders gameplay feels more archaic than Galaga's which is two steps ahead of it in design with Galaxian as the intermediary. Taito must have really wanted a Space Invaders out for PCE ASAP because a port of '91 would have been a lot better.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Mar 4, 2022 3:16:49 GMT -5
Just wanted to point out you have an incorrect date on Winds of Thunder. It came out on the same day you've listed but in 1993. I like the links you've put in the front page, those are really helpful.
|
|
|
Post by dsparil on Mar 4, 2022 4:59:26 GMT -5
That was a bad typo on my part. I've been verifying everything in quarters as I get to them so I hadn't looked at April - June '90 yet.
|
|