Rob's 91-95 arcade countdown: hidden gem search.
NMK's Turbo Force.
#2! Rapid Hero (NMK, 1994)
An Aero Fighters or Psikyo inspired game with a few extra touches of their own. The Psikyo is in the bullets, made clear in all of the patterns. The shakeup comes from the Recca-like masses of small enemies. Scoring system amounts to "don't die or the item value resets" but these swarms of enemies and the slow bullets they release make collecting the bonus items a little risky. I'll take that and the lack of other elements Psikyo would eventually phase out over any early Psikyo game.
And that leaves...
#2! Rapid Hero (NMK, 1994)
An Aero Fighters or Psikyo inspired game with a few extra touches of their own. The Psikyo is in the bullets, made clear in all of the patterns. The shakeup comes from the Recca-like masses of small enemies. Scoring system amounts to "don't die or the item value resets" but these swarms of enemies and the slow bullets they release make collecting the bonus items a little risky. I'll take that and the lack of other elements Psikyo would eventually phase out over any early Psikyo game.
And that leaves...
#1! Varth (Capcom, 1992)
To start, this is the most balanced risk-reward scoring system of the entire list. By far. It's not even remotely close. Like Grid Seeker you have two methods of defense to be used at any time. Varth is unlike that game in two major ways. Instead of making the enemies more resilient their attacks become a lot more violent. It gives the game a very good reason to allow you a shield and you will still have to watch the sides of your ship carefully. Second, the game offers plenty of reward for not using any defense. You have to be an expert to play this game in its entirety without pods (50,000 points bonus at the end of each stage), but it is not all or nothing - use the pods and refrain from using the bombs. Only three of the bombs will refill, with two more possible to collect. The difference between ending a stage with three and five is just large enough for that risk, similar to the podless bonus. The stages are all very short, I think 31 in total, there are lots of secrets to uncover and the action is very high from the start of the game. The only flaw would be slowdown due to the amount of action. Nice graphics and music make this a complete package and easily #1 for this list.
That's all.
To start, this is the most balanced risk-reward scoring system of the entire list. By far. It's not even remotely close. Like Grid Seeker you have two methods of defense to be used at any time. Varth is unlike that game in two major ways. Instead of making the enemies more resilient their attacks become a lot more violent. It gives the game a very good reason to allow you a shield and you will still have to watch the sides of your ship carefully. Second, the game offers plenty of reward for not using any defense. You have to be an expert to play this game in its entirety without pods (50,000 points bonus at the end of each stage), but it is not all or nothing - use the pods and refrain from using the bombs. Only three of the bombs will refill, with two more possible to collect. The difference between ending a stage with three and five is just large enough for that risk, similar to the podless bonus. The stages are all very short, I think 31 in total, there are lots of secrets to uncover and the action is very high from the start of the game. The only flaw would be slowdown due to the amount of action. Nice graphics and music make this a complete package and easily #1 for this list.
That's all.
For a minute I tried to umderstand what looks so familiar in this screenshot. Suddenly, realization has come. Woo.Rob wrote:
~
The list was very enjoyable read, btw, looking forward to more countdowns. :)
Matskat wrote:This neighborhood USED to be nice...until that family of emulators moved in across the street....
Varth is all awesome.
+ various borderliners (check oxtsu's thread if you want to look them up)
-A few of these I thought I had downloaded, but they somehow got overlooked (Double Wings). Maybe not emulated properly.
-Games I would've liked to have played, but for the sake of sticking to the no popular game policy: Batsugun, Mahou Daisakusen, R-Type Leo, Detana Twinbee.
-Chimera Beast got excluded because I didn't want to play it again and it is unreleased anyways. Would've ranked somewhere in the middle.
-I was expecting more side scrolling shooters honestly.
Code: Select all
Games excluded:
Twin Bee Yahhoo! ~ Konami
Donpachi ~ Cave/Atlus
Pulstar ~ Aicom
Strikers 1945 ~ Psikyo
Shippu Mahou Daisakusen : Kingdom Grandprix ~ Raizing/Eighting
Raiden DX ~ Seibu Kaihatsu
Batsugun ~ Toaplan
Darius Gaiden ~ Taito
Gokujyou Parodius ~ Konami
Gunbird ~ Psikyo
Rayforce ~ Taito
Raiden II ~ Seibu Kaihatsu
Mahou Daisakusen ~ Raizing/Able
Chimera Beast ~ Jaleco
Double-Wings ~ Mitchell
Sengoku Ace ~ Psikyo/Banpresto
R-Type LEO ~ Nanao/Irem
Detana!! TwinBee ~ Konami
ASO II : Last Guardian ~ SNK
Cotton : Fantastic Night Dreams ~ Success/Sega
Thunderforce AC ~ Technosoft/Sega
XEXEX ~ Konami
Code: Select all
Stats:
Vertical 50
Horizontal 20
Other 3
-Games I would've liked to have played, but for the sake of sticking to the no popular game policy: Batsugun, Mahou Daisakusen, R-Type Leo, Detana Twinbee.
-Chimera Beast got excluded because I didn't want to play it again and it is unreleased anyways. Would've ranked somewhere in the middle.
-I was expecting more side scrolling shooters honestly.
Last edited by Rob on Sun Sep 23, 2007 1:46 am, edited 2 times in total.
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freddiebamboo
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freddiebamboo
- Posts: 1366
- Joined: Sun Jan 30, 2005 9:17 pm
- Location: UK
When I credit fed through for the sake of seeing it all it seemed to be about 60-70 minutes long. That's not so bad since it doesn't loop. The short stages make it easier to take in and I don't think about the entire length of the game since I probably won't even hit the second extend.
The "smart" pod type is best ignored. People should just pick the fixed type.
The "smart" pod type is best ignored. People should just pick the fixed type.
Varth takes 40-45? minutes, which is about two loops in most modern games.
I really don't like the first 11 stages, even without the pod. Pretty boring and the snipers aren't at all hard to swat away.
I really don't like the first 11 stages, even without the pod. Pretty boring and the snipers aren't at all hard to swat away.
so long and tanks for all the spacefish
unban shw
<Megalixir> now that i know garegga is faggot central i can disregard it entirely
<Megalixir> i'm stuck in a hobby with gays
unban shw
<Megalixir> now that i know garegga is faggot central i can disregard it entirely
<Megalixir> i'm stuck in a hobby with gays
That's a practically free 400-500k you're tossing away.Rob wrote:I don't like the first 11 stages without the pod, either. Pods from stage 2 on.
so long and tanks for all the spacefish
unban shw
<Megalixir> now that i know garegga is faggot central i can disregard it entirely
<Megalixir> i'm stuck in a hobby with gays
unban shw
<Megalixir> now that i know garegga is faggot central i can disregard it entirely
<Megalixir> i'm stuck in a hobby with gays
This thread is great, so Varth it is. Something like this should be made golden or stickied or featured on some site somewhere. Maybe Racketboy.com will host this list as an article.Rob wrote:I was wondering how people would react to Varth at #1 since I really don't know what its reputation is around here.
You guys really hate it, huh? Strange.
I thought about this a few pages ago and PMed Rob about it. I am putting them all up on my site alongside mini-reviews by me and several other people. I love doing this shit, it's almost as much fun as playing games.D wrote:Something like this should be made golden or stickied or featured on some site somewhere.