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Post by Deleted on Feb 5, 2022 0:20:55 GMT -5
I'm not massively keen on it really. I think the colourful sprites fun, but they aren't enough to hold my interest all the way through. The soundtrack is nice, but games with good soundtracks are ten a penny in this category. I think the most unique thing it has to offer is being a vertical cute 'em up as opposed to horizontal.
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Post by dsparil on Feb 5, 2022 14:34:57 GMT -5
Gunhed Blazing LazersDeveloper Compile Publisher Hudson Format HuCard Release (JP) July 7, 1989 Release (US) November* 1989 *Some sources list other dates Difficulty Low to Moderate Looping No Continue System Resurrect in place and checkpoints, upgrades lost, 4 continues Ostensibly a movie tie-in, Gunhed has nothing to do with the movie apart from the name unlike the Famicom strategy adaptation. The license resulted in future rereleases in all regions bearing the American title. Aside from this, Gunhed is notable for being the first PCE game to feature directly adjustable ship speed. Like many Compile shooters, the default difficulty is fairly low, but the hidden difficulty settings only seem to modify enemy fire rate. Many enemies aside from turrets rely on collisions so long sections and even an entire level are unchanged. Gunhed was the main game at the 1989 edition of Hudson’s All-Japan Caravan Festival held that July and August. The top ten national scorers received a copy of the special time attack version used at the event. Approxmate Hitbox
To be totally clear on how to access the difficulty settings because I slightly misstated (and fixed) them in my other post: 1. Hold down Select and mash I and II at the same time until the difficulty screen appears. 2. If you want something higher than Hard Human, hold down I, II and Select until the difficulty you want cycles in. 3. Pick the difficulty you want with Select, and then hold down Run and press Select to soft reset the game at that difficulty. It's really not that complicated, but all the instructions I've seen online seem copied from the same possibly not quite correct source. I did end up playing the game once more on the Super Mania difficulty to compare to the default. God of Game is aptly named because you do need to know the game inside and out to not get crushed. Super Mania is closer to a traditional hard mode, but like I said above, big chunks seem the same to me. Level 4 is the one that seems completely identical. Level 8 is mostly the same, but the second half does feature some enemies thet are affected by the difficulty. I'm still not certain if difficulty affects main bosses at all. The turret based mini-bosses like the one in level 1 do fire more quickly, but if there's any changes to the main bosses, it's incredibly subtle.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 6, 2022 16:49:39 GMT -5
Mr Heli no Daibouken
- Developer - Irem
- Publisher - Irem
- Jp Release - 1 December 1989
- US Release - N/A
- Format - HuCard
Mr Heli no Daibouken was a 1987 arcade game from Irem also known as Battle Chopper in the west. It was ported to various home computers also, but rather unsuccessfully. The PC Engine port was done by Irem themselves in 1989. In contrast to their sci-fi classic R-Type, Mr Heli is presented with a cartoonish theme, featuring a chibi-stylised helicopter as the lead. On starting the game we're initially greeted to a cute animation of Mr Heli taking off for adventure from a hangar, as seen in the banner heading. From there on we find ourselves in the gameplay which is immediately noteable as having a different playstyle from that generally seen in the shmup genre. As opposed to the usual shooter where the action moves in one direction the levels can progress upwards, downwards, left or right, and can do so in free roaming segments as well as forced scrolling ones and these will be mixed in across one stage in a dynamic fashion. The free roaming sections allow for more passive, considered play. Enemies will approach, and in places spawn endlessly, but what tends to be the concern here is powering up your ship. Their are destroyable bricks scattered around the stages, hiding crystals which function as the games currency. Powerups themselves are also found this way and rather than having a separate shop, as seen in some other shmups, here they are labelled with a price where flying into them will cause the power up to be purchased. Due to the freedom in direction we're given two types of projectiles as standard through the game - the usual forwards laser blast, and a homing missile which is initally fired upwards. These can of course both be upgraded, along with bombs, which are used when Mr Heli lands in place of missiles, and are handy to clear ground based obstacles. Along with stages progressing in various directions this mix of directional attacks allows for more freedom in encounter design, as enemies can approach from all sides and be reasonably countered. The games 6 stages are formed of 2 acts, with a mid-boss at the end of the first act, and an end level boss finishing the second. Beyond the dynamic in appraoch to level design the variety of backgrounds is quite striking. Although Mr Heli is simplistic in its graphical presentation, each first act stage features a considerably different background, although the second acts are usually similar due to them sharing an indoor base setting. The mid bosses are medium sized, but the end level ones are quite large, and cover a good amount of the screen. They are quite distinct and, whilst unfortunately not animated, the backgrounds are very nicely drawn. Between the visuals and gameplay this is a diverse title and of course the level backgrounds are complimented by the music, which isn't the strongest point of the game as it's quite understated at times, but it progresses from upbeat and chirpy to fit more hazardous environments. In playing through the games stages it's variety unfortunately seems cause of it's weakest point, and that's the difficulty. Generally speaking Mr Heli isn't one of the harder shooters on the PC Engine, but the difficulty doesn't scale as it should, and some spikes are found even throughout levels. The second end level boss felt out of place in difficulty to me, although overall the game doesn't take the gloves off until stage 5. Ignoring a few segments that may cause trouble here and there it would be fair to say most players could beat this game reasonably easy. One issue I have is with how punishing death is presented. Though you're given an energy bar which allows for some forgiving play, when you die not only are power ups reset but so is your money. It doesn't provide a real opportunity to repower your ship at many times, although the decision to restart an act on death is probably the correct one. As covered in much of this review, Mr Heli is a game that's diversity allows it to stand out from its contemporaries. It enables a playthrough that never gets stale. Although it's not the most exciting or intense of shoot-em-ups it still makes for a fun and worthwhile play.
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Post by windfisch on Feb 7, 2022 8:47:44 GMT -5
Mr Heli is one of those games I might've read the name, but never really considered giving it a try. Thanks to your review I do want to change that now, excelsior , as it does seem pretty interesting. That is probably true for most of Irem's games back then. To my surprise it got ported to quite a few home computer systems at the time and I'm almost certain now, that it served as a major source of influence for DMA Design's cult classic Blood Money, which is most obvious in the the helicopter section:
Just like in DMA's previous Menace, there's also quite a bit of R-Type DNA in Blood Money:
After the success of R-Type a lot of people were watching Irem very closely, I suppose.
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Post by dsparil on Feb 7, 2022 10:31:15 GMT -5
Sneaking ahead of me I see Mr. Heli is a game I've always bounced off of for the reasons you mention. Fantasy Zone has the same upgrade and money loss upon death, but it didn't feel as hard a game overall. Guess I'll see what I think 5 games from now.
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Post by dsparil on Feb 7, 2022 11:01:35 GMT -5
Side Arms SidearmsDeveloper Capcom Publisher (JP) NEC Avenue Publisher (US) Radiance Software Format HuCard Release (JP) July 14, 1989 Release (US) December 1989 Difficulty Low to Moderate Looping No Continue System Resurrect in place, current weapon lost, 2 continues When taken into consideration as a follow up to the arcade version of Section Z, Side Arms is a more than worthy successor. It retains Section Z’s core mechanic, dual direction shooting, and adds in a selection of weapons and a two player merge power up; it is implemented as a standard power up in this single player port. However, the NES version of Section Z is tougher competition. The graphics are technically and stylistically poorer, but the shift to an exploration heavy structure gives it a unique feature. The selection of weapons is smaller, but the weapon system overall is somewhat more intricate. Capcom does have some fondness for Side Arms as the player character and its chibi variant show up in games as recent as 2016’s Project X Zone 2. Approximate Hitbox
A note on the title. This is another one of those games with a somewhat inscrutable title. The US release is simply Sidearms. That's what it says on the cover and in the manual. The arcade game and Japanese release all feature Hyper Dyne in small letters above Side Arms leading to a bunch of variations including or excluding spaces between Side Arms and Hyper Dyne and which phrase goes first and if there's a dash or a colon between them. I probably spent more time trying to pin down the official name than I spent playing the game! The US operator instructions for the arcade game only uses the name Side Arms as does the manual to the PCE version. I even looked at a Japanese book that attempted to compile every arcade game released in Japan and the US from the 70s to about 2005, and that only used Side Arms rendered in katakana for the Japanese section and Side Arms in the US one. Despite references to the game showing up elsewhere, the game itself seems to have had absolutely no rereleases. Capcom Arcade Stadium includes Section Z and Forgotten Worlds but excludes Side Arms for example. Section Z is a worse game, but it has the NES port to pull up its profile. I remember Forgotten Worlds being good or at least having a solid gimmick in its sixteen way shooting. That does leave Side Arms as the forgotten middle child.
Edit: I was wrong about the crossed out part as it did get rereleased in 2006 in Capcom Classics Collection Vol. 2 and in 2013 as part of Capcom Arcade Cabinet. I have absolutely no idea why I didn't come across those. CCC lists it as Side Arms and CAC avoids using any text labeling in favor of the official cabinet title art.
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Post by windfisch on Feb 7, 2022 12:18:03 GMT -5
Capcom does have some fondness for Side Arms as the player character and its chibi variant show up in games as recent as 2016’s Project X Zone 2. Oh right, that's what that select icon from Street Fighter 2 on the SNES was. Thanks for reminding me. For the longest time I had no idea what that was even supposed to be.
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Post by dsparil on Feb 7, 2022 13:16:39 GMT -5
The chibi version apparently is even the win icon in Street Fighter Alpha 2 if you win with a damaging taunt! Also, I was totally wrong about Side Arms not being rereleased. It was part of Capcom Classics Collection Vol. 2 and Capcom Arcade Cabinet in 2006 and 2013 respectively, but its absence in Arcade Stadium still makes me feel like it's the least popular of the three since CAS has around 32 games in it. Hat tip to whoever decided to start a fictional crossover wiki that includes compilation appearances. It came up when I was trying to remember which SF game used the icon.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 7, 2022 18:12:27 GMT -5
windfisch - I was going to tell you that I was unfamiliar with Blood Money but had heard of it but then I realised what I'd heard of is an unrelated film. Actually I had no idea DMA ever made anything like that. It's a nice looking game that's for sure. Yeah, the Irem influence is quite clear from those screens. I'm quite into Irem's games myself, including the one you mentioned earlier in the thread being a big favourite. It's understandable of course they would influence other developers at the time. dsparil - Yeah, I snuck in there haha. I hope that's OK. Seems you've skipped over Jinmu Denshou; I can guess why but I might be off base in my assumptions... Back to Mr Heli - of course I used save states here, so it removes the issues, but I have made it a good way through on console in the past. It's a learnable game mostly. The other interesting thing about Side Arms, at least as far as this thread is concerned, is Side Arms Special coming out just 5 months later. I wonder what happened there. The Special release adds another mode so I guess you'll be covering that soonish.
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Post by windfisch on Feb 7, 2022 19:14:15 GMT -5
windfisch - I was going to tell you that I was unfamiliar with Blood Money but had heard of it but then I realised what I'd heard of is an unrelated film. Actually I had no idea DMA ever made anything like that. It's a nice looking game that's for sure. Yeah, the Irem influence is quite clear from those screens. I'm quite into Irem's games myself, including the one you mentioned earlier in the thread being a big favourite. It's understandable of course they would influence other developers at the time. Those were their early days, before Sex, Drugs and Lemmings. The latter even featured Menace-themed stages :
Visuals were Blood Money's biggest selling point for sure. It's been ages, since I last played it. But being a European-made home computer exclusive, it probably isn't the most balanced in terms of difficulty.
edit: Go Ninja! Go Spirit! Go!
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Post by dsparil on Feb 8, 2022 8:38:59 GMT -5
Seems you've skipped over Jinmu Denshou; I can guess why but I might be off base in my assumptions... The other interesting thing about Side Arms, at least as far as this thread is concerned, is Side Arms Special coming out just 5 months later. I wonder what happened there. The Special release adds another mode so I guess you'll be covering that soonish. I didn't skip it so much as I found out about when I was looking up some info on Rock-On so I added it to the list. I guess I do need to go over the whole release list to make sure I haven't missed anything. I get the feeling it might have been skipped over on both lists I used since you start out with a melee attack, but you do need ranged attacked to make any kind of decent progress. If I was doing the same type of thing for the NES, 3-D World Runner would be more of an edge case since it isn't as combat focused excluding the bosses although it does have a collectable projectile upgrade. I'd still include it, but Jinmu Denshō feels more firmly on the action rather than platforming side from what I've played.
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Post by Snake on Feb 8, 2022 19:43:32 GMT -5
The chibi version apparently is even the win icon in Street Fighter Alpha 2 if you win with a damaging taunt! Also, I was totally wrong about Side Arms not being rereleased. It was part of Capcom Classics Collection Vol. 2 and Capcom Arcade Cabinet in 2006 and 2013 respectively, but its absence in Arcade Stadium still makes me feel like it's the least popular of the three since CAS has around 32 games in it. Hat tip to whoever decided to start a fictional crossover wiki that includes compilation appearances. It came up when I was trying to remember which SF game used the icon. Talk about obscure fan-service easter egg!
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Post by dsparil on Feb 9, 2022 13:24:58 GMT -5
Rock-OnDeveloper Manjyudo Publisher Big Club Format HuCard Release (JP) August 25, 1989 Release (US) Unreleased Difficulty Low to Moderate Looping No Continue System Checkpoints with upgrades lost, no continues Rock-On is a game with more potential than proper execution. It presents an alternate history filled with advanced technology, a lost civilization and a hidden treasure worth $50 million. The graphics are bright with some at times inspired art direction, and it even manages to have multiple endings. The actual game suffers from major bugs including audio channels cutting out and major graphical corruption.The length is also short in theory with only four levels. The second and third levels are endlessly looping, but the key to the second is told in the level briefing while the third is pure trial and error to pad out the length. The positive aspects point to a team that could have produced a better game but were perhaps not given enough time for fuller game design and testing. Approximate Hitbox
Getting a little ahead of myself since I'm going to back to the other Manjudo/Big Club game next, but back page of the manual to Jinmu Denshō, I'm going to use a translation of Legend of Jinmu for that unless someone corrects me, mentions a little contest where the first 10 people to send in a piece of fan art to Big Club would receive a CD-ROM 2. That makes me suspect that Big Club was actually a magazine. Just a piece of food for thought. Regarding Manjyudo, they were only involved in a handful of games but seem to have survived for a few decades afterwards as an arcade game import/exporter catering towards Europe and Asia. Their website seemed to go away around 2010. Did the company go out of business or did the owner retire, we may never know.
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Post by dsparil on Feb 11, 2022 8:21:51 GMT -5
Legend of Jinmu 神武伝承Developer Manjyudo Publisher Big Club Format HuCard Release (JP) June 23*, 1989 *Some sources list June 28 Release (US) Unreleased Difficulty Low to Moderate Looping Yes Continue System Start of level with upgrades kept, requires use of passwords Legend of Jinmu transposes Wolf Team’s earlier computer game Yaksa into a rail shooter format. Main character Iori begins with only a melee attack so finding, upgrading and holding onto a ranged attack is crucial for progress. Despite the game presenting itself as a Space Harrier clone with a striped environment matching the PCE port and auto running as the default movement mode, it is much more methodical and greatly benefits from having “Run-Select” set to “Key”. Unlike Space Harrier, jumping along with moving and attacking towards the camera are significant elements which are easier with full control. However, also unlike Space Harrier is the speed which can be sluggish at times. Despite this, Legend of Jinmu remains a compelling experience. Approximate Hitbox
I think it's clear that I actually liked this a lot and even ended up beating it four times! No one ever seems to mention that the auto running can be disabled entirely although two levels still use it for their non-boss portions. If you play the game the "right" way, it actually reminds me a bit of Sin & Punishment in that you sometimes stop to fight and other times move and attack at the same time while dodging. The site's article is one of the more positive overviews, but it actually has some errors in it that go a little bit beyond nitpicking. The major one is that general power up types are color coded. Green is health, red is jump ability and white is weapons. You can end up with a weapon downgrade if you unknowingly switch types though. On the topic of Yaksa, I gave that a try, and it really reinforced to me that there's a big difference between the MSX and the MSX2. It's a more complex game with a world map, multiple characters, dialogue and RPG elements. On the minus side, it's a little hideous with some weird collision detection and quickly sapped health. I might go back to it sometime, but it aged more poorly than an MSX2 game. For the title, everyone goes with the direct transliteration Jinmu Denshō although for my own idiosyncratic reasons always try to translate them. I couldn't find a full scan of the manual for this (the last page show up in eBay listings), but Yaksa's manual makes some mentions of an ancient messenger/grandchild of the gods named Jinmu during an ancient time who is obviously a reference to the legendary first emperor of Japan which is usually transliterated as Jimmu. The story doesn't actually match up as Yaksa has a lot of buddhist influence as the title implies (and takes place during the Sengoku period anyway) so I kept it at the more direct Jinmu.
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Post by dsparil on Feb 14, 2022 14:56:45 GMT -5
Wonder Boy III: Monster Lair Monster LairDeveloper Alfa System Publisher Hudson Soft Format CD-ROM² Release (JP) August 31, 1989 Release (US) December 1989 Difficulty Low to Moderate Looping Yes Continue System Checkpoints with upgrades lost, 3 continues Not to be confused with the second Wonder Boy III, action-RPG The Dragon’s Trap, Monster Lair brings the series back to pure action after the action-RPG stylings of Wonder Boy in Monster Land. Unlike the first game, this installment includes level ending shooter segments and has a similar feel in the platforming portions with both modes sharing weapon power ups. Every level from the arcade game is featured with graphics close to it although with simplified backgrounds. Aside from a new CD-based soundtrack, weapons have also received a tweak in this version. They generally dissipate quickly but last the duration of a boss battle unlike other versions. This one change makes the CD-ROM² port preferable even over the original. Approximate Hitbox
This one feels so much more borderline than Legend of Jinmu, but both lists I initially used include it. This was also ported to Mega Drive, but it isn't as good. The graphics looks worse, and two levels were cut. So this also has the milestone of being the first non-exclusive "shooter" to be both better than the source material and still the best version today.
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