Treasure

[Discoalucard]

Thanks for the heads-up on all of those, 645! I'll have to read through the RS notes...I agree that Iuchi is somewhat crazy, the "plot" of Ikaruga more or less points to this.

As for Sin & Punishment - I was under the impression it required the RAM pack, I remember buying one specifically for the game back when I imported it, at least. I dug out the manual and it does mention the use of the "Memory Expansion Pack", but I'm not sure in what context. Maybe I was mistaken all of these years? Also, I really rather hate the N64 controller, so being able to play with anything else other than that is a boon.

As for the Radiant Silvergun scoring stuff...a lot of modern shooters - Cave stuff in particular - are designed to be played "for score", which I feel is kind of lazy design. I want a tangible reward for good playing, not just seeing my numbers go up. By integrating the scoring into the power-up mechanics, it gives a very important reason to play the game a specific way and not just shoot things blindly, which I think is a huge innovation. I agree that the punishment is a bit harsh if you play it wrong, but the levels carry-overs in the Saturn modes pretty much negates this IMO.

[Haz]

small error: Bleach DS/DS 2nd came out in 2006 and 2007, not the other way around.

[sixfortyfive]

I'd check Sin & Punishment myself if I still had my N64 Jumper Pak. I had the RAM expansion before I bought the game. Maybe this could be checked via emulation?

And I wouldn't have (much of) a problem playing RSG for score if it was actually fun to play it that way. RSG's scoring system is just too rough, and it's really obvious if you compare superplays between it and Ikaruga. In RSG, you pretty much have to skip over a fair amount of things to keep your chain up, and waiting out the clock on every boss to destroy every part and graze against bullets/walls for extra points until the last possible second gets old really fast. In Ikaruga, you can still destroy about 99% of onscreen objects while keeping your chain intact, only one boss nets you more points for stalling, and attempting to do so is a suicide mission. I'm more inclined to play Ikaruga for score because doing it right looks cool and is fun, whereas playing RSG for score makes it tedious and a lot slower than it already is. Having the option to carry over your weapon levels between playthroughs is nice when it comes to just screwing around, but then you end up developing bad habits for the first few levels because your weapons are stronger than they should be.

Not that Xiga isn't almost worth the price of admission all by himself, but to each his own.

[kariohki]

Treasure <3 Mischief Makers was a rental of mine, and really freaking hard as a kid. Never got around to buying it. On the other hand, Silhouette Mirage is my favorite platform/shooter game. It's hard too...but 8 years of playing it has taught me how to break the game.

A few errors in that Silhouette Mirage article...in the paragraph starting "Here's when it gets a little strange", everything's backwards. Attacking Silhouette with Mirage (and vise-versa) causes damage, and atttaking Silhouette with Silhouette (or Mirage/Mirage) drains spirit. Also, Silhouette is the blue side, Mirage is the red side.

Some other random translation notes...there were a lot of religious references in the original game. Shyna's weapons were named after the 7 Sins, for example.

[Discoalucard]

Doh. I even have that screenshot right above it that points out the correct colors. Fixed now, thanks!

I think the whole red/blue thing is one of the reasons I never quite jived with Silhouette Mirage - the black/white thing of Ikaruga is much easier to understand visually.

[daimakaimura]

thanks kurt for the awesome read ^^

although sin & punishments detects the ram card, it displays the grafix cleaner (or not) if you have it installed, but i do think it was more like hybrid heaven , that one looked awefull when the RAM expansion was used

[Ace Whatever]

Great work, Kurt. It's an achievment you should be proud of. Just don't hate me for this:

Gunstar Heroes:

The focus of the new company, christened Treasure, would be on making original, compelling, complete games.

Wouldn't an "and" be appropriate here?

which has consequently has gotten

the skeezy gambler Black;

Sleezy?

using numerial life gauges

In Contra, your heroes are killed after a single,

Single what?

signs for "Gunstar Light" (presumably cigarettes) was

the battle between the Gunstars' starship and the reanimated Seven Force takes place in the background, presumably
with Blue at the helm.

Is this implying that only Red is playable in this version? 'cause it isn't mentioned anywhere.

her gender was ambigious in the Japanese release

shorter than its used to be.

you're being airlifed up by your spacecraft

knocking it on its feet.

Shouldn't it be 'off its feet'?

with scaling graphics, All

Light Crusader:

and you can combine them to make specific spells, There

Dynamite Headdy:

However, these opportunties feel a bit underutilized.

One of the coolest a pseudo-homage to the second miniboss

'is'?

None of that tinny Mega Drive scratchiness is apparent

?

dialogue that appear before boss fights.

Usually when one need a Treasure fix

Guardian Heroes:

they of the magnicent Gunstar Heroes

Royal army to do his bidding..

Altoghether, the whole experience feels

The Z button commands the Golden Warrior, giving him vague orders to defend yourself or attack all
out.

Is it golden or undead warrior? Also, did you mean 'defend you' or 'defend himself'?

but in order to succeed the better beat-em-ups,

I think this should be changed to either 'succeed in' or 'master'.

and that immense power is largely what makes the pummelling so satisfying.

The most interesting aspect are the branching paths.

and is a fairly long long playing field consisting of nothing but bad guys pouring out from every corner of
the screen. Guardian Heroes borrows its philosphy from this stage, as the levels are little more than brief, flat
playing fields. The game simply pumps out more and more enemy soldiers until its satisfied itself, and then you move
on.

outside of some excalamations made by certain enemies.

"the incredible feeling one gets from causing extreme amounts of destruction with relative ease.

Forgot the closing quotations.

while the main foe of Guardian Heroes if Kanon G. Gray.

However, there are more for fan service than anything else.

Technology has matured in the world of Guardian Heroes, and now the planet is fill with spaceships, floating
fortresses, and even more robots. However, not all as right in the land. However, Kanon and Zur have
somehow been reincarnated, and have possessed the souls of the old protagonists. There's some kind of master plan at work to
take over the world, but that's anyone's best guess, because the storyline is a complete mess. This is largely due to the
incredibly poor translation, the likes of which haven't been seen since the 16-bit days. It's full of awkard
phrasing, overtly literal translations, and just plain confusing language.

hurling their limp bodies and knocking over other foes.. If you hold down and press B, you'll slam your fist
into ground, causing all enemies surrounding you to be knocked to their feet. You can also cast magic by holding down
the R trigger and pressing B. There's only one spell per character, and it's pretty weak until you power it up.

knocking them to their feet.

'to their feet'? Also, are you sure they have one spell each? I could have sworn they had three...

which will automatically target the closet foe and pummell through them.

There's some notable slowdown certain points

Treasure also decided try some wacky

although you need to pick crystals left by fallen enemies

'pick up'?

As noted, HAN's character designs are a bit lame, and the older characters look a bit more cartoonier -
Nicole, in particular, almost looks like doppelganger of Marina from Mischief Makers. The music suffers from the
usual low fidelty audio of the Gameboy Advance, but the actual composition quality is quite good.

and the abscense of the iconic Golden Warrior

It undobutedly lacks the over-the-top anarchy

Alien Soldier:

the MegaDrive is running at its absolute shining apex

Well, the original release expect to shell out

Mischief Makers:

does an admirable job at mimicing Nintendo style

The Ultra InterGalactic-Cybot G, Marina..

Practically everyting on this planet

where you just need to barrell over hordes of foes

there's litereally a counter at the bottom of the screen

Finding some of these can be a real hassle, especially the boss stages - you usually need to beat them without
getting hit, and given the imprecise nature of the grabbing mechanics, can be a bit frustrating.

I suggest changing the fragments to 'especially in the boss stages' & 'this can be a bit frustrating'.

like the beleagured cry "HELP ME MARINA!!!" when the professor is in trouble, or the ubiqitous "SHAKE
SHAKE!"

and still one of the most own titles for the system.

?

Radiant Silvergun:

you'll find yourself using certain ones more ofter than others

and rendering you temporarily invulerable in the process.

But it's also a meticiously paced game that,

Although it lacks the frentic pace of more chaotic

If you manage to kill three enemies in a row of the same color. You'll get a scoring bonus.

All of the bosses consist of multiple segments that can be damanged and destroyed inpendently.

scaling an infiniately tall building

and they do it just as fantastically as with Radiant Silvergun.

Shouldn't the second 'as' be removed?

and there are only a handful themes.

complete with blippy sound effects mimicing old computer games.

which gives you incentive.to charge head first into enemy fire.

but Ikaruga has crisp texture work and oppresively beautiful visuals.

All of this is perfectly punctuated.with the musical score,

as you choose your difficult level,

is significantly classier than Radiant Silvergun's bright anime cariactures

as one of Treasure's most internationally popular game,

Ikaruga was intially released in the arcade

Bangai-O:

the name itself is a reference to a late 80s OVA called Dangaio

It's actually Dangaioh.

You can change between either characters with a quick press of a button.

you'll unleash an even larger number of missiles, And if you're next to a flamethrower

The amounts of items you can purchase depends on the size of your combo

The Dreamcast version also features higher quality remixed streamed version versus the sequenced soundtrack in
the N64 version,

?

but you can also take those reflect them back,

The slowdown here is perhaps even worse with the N64 version,

'worse than'?

and only throw multiple attempts can you discover the optimal way for beating them.

One level even takes place in a DS. The backgrounds range from creepy skeletons to H. R. Giger alien ripoffs
to European towers. One level takes place inside of a DS.

Your goal is to manuever your mobile base

Yu Yu Hakusho:

the Y button is used for shifting between the foreground and background planes, while Y & Z handle
forward and back dashing

The colosseum background gradually moves from morning to evening throughout the fight.

There is even a floating space junk stage, that could be straight out of a horizontally-scrolling shoot-em-
up,

The main character of Yuyu Hakusho, Yusuke is a somewhat belligerant teenager who had the misfortune of
getting hit by a car.

He can also possesses a tremendous sense of speed.

Bleach DS:

Every instance of 'Yu Yu' is typed as 'Yuyu'

Seeing these similarties,

Since the DS directional pad isn't exactly condusive for Street Fighter-style command motions,

by pressing panels on the touch screen, The touch screen is also used to activate a character card,

disabiling the ability to jump,

A quiet intellectual who later becomes one of the main antogonists of the series.

("The Black-Clotched Flickering Requiem".)

'Clothed'?

Silhouette Mirage:

Most of the weapons drain way too much powerful to be useful.

Ragugaki Showtime:

although without the boundaries that would usually seperate the teams.

Also suggesting changing 'although' to 'but'.

which then seconds out a second wave of destruction following the same motions.

?

She even SHAKE SHAKE too!

'can even SHAKE SHAKE' or 'SHAKE SHAKE's'?

so this wa to be expected.

Sin & Punishment:

And that's the say nothong of the final battle,

Astro Boy:

but it happens with other properities,

One of the largest discrepancy in quality is within Sega's Astro Boy titles.

in tandem with Sega''s Hitmaker division.

Astro Boy's standard attack is a punch, which provide quite a wallop,

which causes little barrells to pop out of Astro Boy's posterior and deal a bit of damage to everything on the screen.

but there is something undescribably cool about Astro Boy getting advice from Blackjack,

released in Europe and in limited quanities

You also have two special moves that builds up as you smash stuff -

Stretch Panic:

Streth Panic puts you in a role of a little girl named Linda.

they usually have one or two weak points that will greater drain their strength.

'greatly'?

despite use 3D graphics,

and it's clear that haven't gotten it quite right.

Streth Panic isn't exactly technically accomplished

but the brighter stages are appropriately psychadelic.

it does excude much of the same wacky charm.

a ton of a great ideas,

Its weak point is both its misshapen head and it's bottom.

and Siren morphes into a she-devil,

This girl has be turned into a robot floating in outer space.

so you need to defend this little guys until they use their attack to solidify her,

[zogbog]

I liked it
Treasure is one of the best action game developers hands down and a huge influence to me as a games designer. Pity 2d games are a hard sales pitch now days >_>

[klausien]

Kurt, beautiful job resurrecting my aborted piece from its ashes! As always, the screens are gorgeous. Can't wait to read your articles on the games I didn't get to!

[conn]

Uh, maybe it's just me, but wouldn't it be more convenient if they were all compiled into one profile on Treasure?

[Discoalucard]

Jun 25, 2008 7:13:58 GMT -5 Ace Whatever said:

Great work, Kurt. It's an achievment you should be proud of. Just don't hate me for this:

No, thank you, I definitely appreciate it!

Skeezy is a word though. It basically means the same thing as sleazy though.

Anyway, I might put up a hub page in the future, but I didn't want a full Treasure article because I just wanted to cover their most notable games and not get bogged down with Dragon Drive and a couple of their lesser titles.

[recap]

Jun 23, 2008 16:32:49 GMT -5 Discoalucard said:

As for the Radiant Silvergun scoring stuff...a lot of modern shooters - Cave stuff in particular - are designed to be played "for score", which I feel is kind of lazy design. I want a tangible reward for good playing, not just seeing my numbers go up.

Let me explain to you why statements like this just serve to show that you need A LOT of homework done before even attempting to talk about anything arcade-related. Or video-game-related, for that matter. Step by step:

"Modern shooters" are exactly like "old shooters" regarding "rewards" -- they have a determined number of stages and an ending you can only reach if you're good enough.

"Good enough" implies of course not going against the game itself and not using more than A SINGLE CREDIT PER PLAY. The reason for it (if you still can't see that the continue feature is a marketing artifact not really belonging to game desing) should be quite obvious now -- you want "a tangible reward for good playing". Credit-feeding kills it.

"Modern shooters like Cave stuff", indeed, IN ADDITION to keeping intact the "reward" mechanisms from old arcades, put there another reason to make you improve, another feature to keep you playing the game even after finishing it -- sophisticated "scoring". They usually are thoughtful, intricate systems which require a lot of effort to work. So let's say that "lazy design" is anything but suitable here.

And finally, whether if you care or not, scoring systems in modern shooting games allow for a better competition between players, which is (and always was) pretty much one of the pillars of arcade games.

And notice I'm not even a Cave fan.

[Fletch02]

Great article. For all the love of Treasure on the Internet, it's hard to find good information about some of their games. I swear there was a time when there the only screenshots from Radiant Silvergun were the ones from the Shumps.com article.

Heck, this actually prompted me to give Bangai-O, the one big-name Treasure title I never really got into before another whirl and this time everything clocked, so I can't wait for the DS one to come out here.

Due to my excessive fervor for all thing Treasure, I feel I must make some nitpicks and quips that I would normally pass on.

Gunstar Heroes: Let me first say I'm glad to know I'm not the only one who feels Gunstar Super Heroes got pushed out the door before it was done.

One interesting thing about it is the dialogue and story changes between difficulty levels. On easy everybody just trash talks each other, but on normal and hard they actually talk about the crystals. One of them even has Green kill of Emperor Gray at the destroy them all stage and Yellow drives the Seven Force into Golden Silver. Granted, this would all be a lot cooler if it actually affected the flow of the game.

There's also another strange change between the US and JPN version though. On Black's board their one square where you fight the Gel boss in the bathroom. I remember seeing a screen shot where the poster in the background says "man of men" or something weird like that, but is absent in the Us version. Unfortunately, I can't find a screen shot that affirms that and my copy of the game is nowhere near me, so I can only offer my shaky recollections as proof.

Light Crusader: While the article talks about a lot of the game technical issues, it doesn't really talk about the game itself. While I will agree that the game is one of Treasure's blander titles there are some bits of weird Treasure humor strewn about it. Like how if you attack an NPC there will be a little "Ops" text that will pop up instead of damage numbers; how one room has a shop run by a cat who sells fish (and it's even just a regular cat that only meows); how occasionally you'll enter a room and hear a digitized voice with a slight British accent say "answer the riddle" even when it's a brain-dead puzzle like blow out all the candles in a room; and how you can even occasionally decapitated and cut in half some enemies even though it's all gore free.

None of it is stuff that makes up for the game's flaws, but it does make it warrant a look if you've passed it over before.

Dynamite Heady: I surprised the article doesn't mention the secret ending you can get if you complete all of the bonus stages. It's a bit of a trip, and apparently it's also weirder in the Japanese version.

Guardian Heroes: It might also be worth mentioning that AGH still has versus and co-op play on it. I've never been able to try these modes myself so I don't know if the slowdown makes them unplayable.

Bangai-O: For the box art collection at the top of the article, you should probably include the one for the Japanese DC release, because it is pretty awesome:


Rakugaki Showtime: This literally happened only a few days ago, but the this game actually went up on the Japanese PSN, so the chances of owning a legitimate yet reasonably priced copy suddenly got a whole lot better.

Sin & Punishment: This might seem minor, but they actually translated the tutorial and ending text too. Given the fact that some of the other import games go up there raw (I'm looking at you Do-Re-Mi Fantasy), it's nice to know that Treasure went the extra mile with it.

Astro Boy: There are also a few more changes to the Western release. There are a couple new enemies in there (those black bat things specifically) and they also reduced a lot of the slowdown in the game.

Also, I remember hearing that Hajime No Ippo was a decent Punch-Out clone. Is that not actually the case?

[justjustin]

There's nothing I can add or suggest-- articles are a boatload of awesome. I've heard the gamecube port of Ikaruga described as being blurry. It never bothered me until I saw those pixel-perfect shots of the Dreamcast version; my FROTHING demand for the frothing gamecube version has just frothingly dropped a bit...

[Fletch02]

Jun 26, 2008 10:49:11 GMT -5 recap said:

Jun 23, 2008 16:32:49 GMT -5 Discoalucard said:

As for the Radiant Silvergun scoring stuff...a lot of modern shooters - Cave stuff in particular - are designed to be played "for score", which I feel is kind of lazy design. I want a tangible reward for good playing, not just seeing my numbers go up.

Let me explain to you why statements like this just serve to show that you need A LOT of homework done before even attempting to talk about anything arcade-related. Or video-game-related, for that matter. Step by step:

"Modern shooters" are exactly like "old shooters" regarding "rewards" -- they have a determined number of stages and an ending you can only reach if you're good enough.

"Good enough" implies of course not going against the game itself and not using more than A SINGLE CREDIT PER PLAY. The reason for it (if you still can't see that the continue feature is a marketing artifact not really belonging to game desing) should be quite obvious now -- you want "a tangible reward for good playing". Credit-feeding kills it.

"Modern shooters like Cave stuff", indeed, IN ADDITION to keeping intact the "reward" mechanisms from old arcades, put there another reason to make you improve, another feature to keep you playing the game even after finishing it -- sophisticated "scoring". They usually are thoughtful, intricate systems which require a lot of effort to work. So let's say that "lazy design" is anything but suitable here.

And finally, whether if you care or not, scoring systems in modern shooting games allow for a better competition between players, which is (and always was) pretty much one of the pillars of arcade games.

And notice I'm not even a Cave fan.

Maybe it's just me, but you seem to be highlighting exactly what's wrong with shump design today, or more specifically with Japanese shump design. Rather then try and change up the mechanics to make them more accessible to modern audience most new shumps have been increasingly designed for the hardcore faithful.

The average gamer doesn't really care too much about high scores. If there playing something like Geometry Wars, where the score is consists solely of shooting stuff and not dying, they might make an effort to do better. Especially if the game has an on-line leader board so they know how well they are doing compared to other people.

However, try telling them that in order to get a decent high score they need to shoot only one type of enemy while grazing bullets while not using any bombs because they hurt your score (which begs the question why they still get put in other then for said point bonuses) then they're going to look at you like you're crazy. Even if you do get them to do all that they check the Internet themselves, because most of them don't support on-line leader boards, where they will find that everyone else is vastly better then they're going to be.

Is it any wonder then that the only modern shump I've ever got my friends to try is Ikaruga, and even then it's because they thought the polarity mechanic was cool.