Amusingly bad reviews

[city41]

Does Strikers 1945 Plus add 1 point after continuing nine times? Thought most/all games stopped at 9.

[Shepardus]

It probably stops at 9. Even if it doesn't you'd time out every single stage long before reaching a decent score.

[Lord Satori]

You gotta admit though, that it's a little odd to add ANY score when you continue, considering that it's a bad thing.

That said, why don't people get that continuing is a player enforced thing? Nobody's going to respect you at all if you constantly continue like that and claim to have knowledge about the game.

[Cagar]

Lord Satori, because people don't know what the purpose of the entire "continue?" is.
I've met people who don't know what an arcade game or an arcade cabinet is. They don't know what the purpose of the "continue?" is, they think it's there just to ask if you want to keep playing without further thought. There's nothing telling them that "oh.. continuing btw ruins the main challenge and purpose of the game..".
It's not that people are stupid, it's that people are born in a different era playing different games. And there's nothing wrong with that

[Shepardus]

You gotta admit though, that it's a little odd to add ANY score when you continue, considering that it's a bad thing.

Well you're not really adding any score, you're removing all but 1 or more points, so it's still a bad thing (unless it's like Dodonpachi II where continuing actually does keep your current score and add 1).

People don't get that continuing is a player-enforced thing because most games in general can't really count on much self-motivation from their players except from their most dedicated fans. Even many competitive multiplayer games have to try very hard to motivate players, like League of Legends, Call of Duty, and Battlefield do with their unlockables or Dota 2 and CS:GO do with cosmetics drops. Such systems provide motivation through a steady stream of content, which is a lot more immediately understandable and appealing to the average person than some intangible and far from guaranteed notion of improvement and achievement.

Also, as Cagar said, people don't see continues in the same context as it appeared in the arcade, where it was basically the original pay2win. Maybe some people mistake it for a "real" game mechanic like the "crippled" mechanic in Borderlands (where if you lose all your health you'll fall to the ground but can get a "second wind" if you kill an enemy while on the ground)?

[copy-paster]

continue, considering that it's a bad thing.

That said, why don't people get that continuing is a player enforced thing? Nobody's going to respect you at all if you constantly continue like that and claim to have knowledge about the game.

If it's yes, it means like any gamers today can be considered a 'bad player' because they use continues if they die in modern games (watch some LP's video for example), yes like Cagar said.

[Blinge]

Giant bomb's quick look for DBCS

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=es-BeacgTO4

comment section surprising no one.

[Kollision]

I like Hootie & the Blowfish!

[STGAlmond]

Giant bomb's quick look for DBCS

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=es-BeacgTO4

comment section surprising no one.

I don't know what was worse. The constant comparisons to Out Run.....wait I think that is the worse part. The horrible game play and acting like the game is super hollow and is nothing but a rehash is in all bad shmup reviews, so no point in harping on it instead of the Out Run comparisons.

[CloudyMusic]

To be fair, Quick Looks are under no pretense of being a "review," it's just "hey, let's see what this game is about."

[Kollision]

I didn't think it was that bad.
Even in the comments area...

[Blinge]

Haha for sure it's not that bad. I just figure a lot of this thread is videos of people who're just out side of our little cult

speaking of which: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rTUzaBYi2rI
pretty old. It may have been posted before.

[copy-paster]

He played DDP before???

Biggest LIE ever.

[SMC]

Oh man, he got trapped by that tank he let scroll down the entire screen

[Doctor Butler]

Hey guys, you know how Cave's 360 ports give you a warning when you try to restart from the pause menu?
The little pop-up that warns you that achievements will be disabled, and your score invalidated?

Let's do that when you continue? Would that be enough to make these people understand that the goal of a game is to not lose?

[Hagane]

I think the best would be to completely remove continuing in the main mode, and make practice modes with stage (and boss) selection the norm. You would make the statement that these games are meant to be 1CC'd while still making them accessible.

Also, a good hands-on tutorial that explains the basics of the genre would go a long way in dispelling the vast ignorance on these games, I think.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

edit: I could have sworn this was in the offtopic section, oops, but whatever, Gunstar Heroes has a shmup level, close enough

I feel like chewing out some bad reviews today, so here goes:

Gunstar Heroes

Highlights from horror_spooky's 3/10 review:

"In fact, the game is basically a reskinned version of Contra with minor changes."

lolwut

"Firstly, the levels have no rhyme or reason to them. They are designed in the most basic, generic way possible. We've all seen these levels before. Mine carts, running up slopes with enemies rolling down at you, and all that stuff. In this game, Treasure takes the very basics of how to create a 2D side-scrolling shooter and makes it into a game."

First of all, you don't always have to constantly remake the wheel to execute it better, and second, who the heck complains about level design in a game with the Dice Palace?

"There's really no reason for this game to exist, as it's been done a million times before, and the innovation here is practically non-existant, with the exception being the weapon system."

If you game isn't special and unique and constantly "innovative" your game doesn't deserve to exist. Uh huh. How about "fun", does that matter?

"One thing I did like about the game is the boss fights. There are multiple boss battles in every stage that break up the yawn-inducing repetitive gameplay with epic fights. These boss battles all feel unique and require a different strategy. While it's easy to exploit and cheat these battles, they still manage to be extraordinarily awesome. It's a real shame that the rest of the game weighs down the entertainment value so significantly that the good things about it are going to be lost in the shuffle."

Complaining about levels in a game where most of the levels exist as short segues from one boss to the next is pretty rich. The fifth level is meant to be a lengthy and grueling marathon stage against an endless horde of enemies but with your upgraded health, all the health pickups to find, and your insane mobility and options of throwing, jump attacking, sliding, and generally blasting your way through, it's every bit as fun as the bosses.

"So, why is it that Gunstar Heroes just looks...muddy? While there is a ton of action on the screen at once with literally no slow-down, which is impressive for the fourth generation, besides the boss designs, the game is very ugly. The backgrounds are boring and look blurry, almost. All the pixels in the game have this weird, unattractive muddy look to them."

"My TV sucks therefore it's the game's fault."

"The two main characters look like dorky little kids from an 80s sitcom in jumpsuits. I'm afraid the artist that created these kids took the box art seriously. There's a reason Mega Man doesn't look like the dude on the cover of his game. And if you can't figure out what the reason is, play Gunstar Heroes and try to stomach it."

a) he hates anime, fine
b) he thinks the in-game art design comes after making the box art

"Keeping with the generic theme of the game, though, is the audio. The background music is average. The sound effects are average. The game just sounds like every other game like it does. There's nothing special about it, and when there's nothing special about it, it ceases being important."

"The game just sounds like every other game like it does."

---

6/10 by segasonicfan:

A decent shooter but essentially a poor copy of the brilliant Metal Slug, released years before it.

Gunstar Heroes is not Metal Slug. You're far, far more agile, you have a vastly expanded close combat moveset (the throw is insanely fun), and the forgiving nature of having a health system completely changes how the game feels. Also, enemies are not one hit kills and can actually take a bit of gun damage, and stages often have a major focus on bosses, and Gunstar Heroes' weapon combination system has infinite ammo for all weapons, meaning you can play the game however you want with specific combinations. Again, Gunstar Heroes is not Metal Slug, nor is it trying to be Metal Slug. Off to a great start with a flawed premise!

The game's backgrounds leave a lot to be desired. More importantly however, GH never surprises you. You are never introduced to 3D effects or details, any sign that thought and artistry was ever inserted into this title. You'll never play GH and say, ''that was a pretty cool effect!'' Or anything of the sort.

I'd bet money that complaining about the lack of 3D in a 2D sidescrolling run 'n gun made for a pre-3D era console is a symptom of clinical insanity. Dumb kids nowadays can't appreciate the sheer effort that went into the sprite parallaxing and the effects showcased in the Dice Palace I guess.

This is the saddest part of GH. The sound is literally terrible-uninspired and lacking all thought, emotion, setting and mood. The sound effects are decent enough, but the in game’s themes are awful. See, I love video game music more than anyone I’ve ever met

Some of the worst game music I have ever heard and a truly pathetic approach to making a quality shooter.

Are you deaf?

GH has an obviously Metal Slug-inspired shooting engine in which you scroll defeating many enemies that jump around with a single-shot kill.

"All run 'n guns are Metal Slug"

Also was he playing on Easy mode? Basic enemies quite clearly aren't single shot kills.

The only withdraw to this is on 2-player mode where you can’t stop throwing your teammate.

Throwing your teammate at enemies is extremely powerful, and also stop sucking and mashing the shot button + a direction around your teammate if you don't want to throw them.

The second new concept is the idea of infinite enemies. No matter how much time you spend shooting or jumping around the enemies don’t stop coming until you reach a boss. On the plus side, you are always on the move, maybe this is more exciting for some but on the downside you can never concentrate on a single object or clear the screen. This demolishes the replay value idea of “I’ll kill everything this time around” which is quite necessary in the lasting value of a shooter. Also, enemies constantly grab you (on hard mode anyway) which is an extreme annoyance in itself. Instead of a hit and you keep moving your enemy holds you there while you attempt to free yourself. This puts an instant break on the game's movements and results in severe jamming of controllers.

Infinite enemies are a deliberate design choice by the game to make the sections with them feel tense, like you're constantly under onslaught. True, infinite enemies kinda ruins scoring in a game with infinite milking, but Gunstar Heroes isn't really meant to be played seriously for score. It's about the experience as well as trying to beat it without getting a gameover. It'd be just as fun without any scoring system.

As far as difficulty goes, Gunstar Heroes is more than sufficiently forgiving to allow for infinite enemies without feeling like you're overwhelmed. You can take a massive number of hits for this style of run 'n gun, and you can throw, jump attack, slide attack, as well as use multiple wide area or even homing attacks for crowd control. The marathon stage where you fight against a huge horde of enemies as you run to the right also has tons of health pickups (and even with only 100 starting health as on the arcade version it's doable), and with good skill you can handle them all, feeling like a total badass in the process.

Infinite enemies is usually far more stressful on a 1 hit = death game, and so what doesn't work in Metal Slug (and certainly doesn't work in Alien Hominid) works just fine in Gunstar Heroes, because Gunstar Heroes is well designed for you to be able to handle these enemies.

However, when you die you come back with only one of your two, making bosses very difficult. And, the only way to change your weapon is to hope that maybe one of the carriage pods will drop what you are looking for.

There are several, if not most bosses, which put their continue point directly before a weapon carrier. Also, losing your weapon is what makes your beginning weapon choice feel more meaningful; which of the 4 weapons do you want to fall back on if you die and use a continue?

[Sumez]

You'll never play GH and say, ''that was a pretty cool effect!'' Or anything of the sort.

I don't think I've ever seen anyone playing GF without saying that, honestly.

[Blinge]

holy shit what a gem.
There's a special bone in my body for these kind of reviews.. a quick-temper. I want to grab these people by the shoulders and shake them.

[WelshMegalodon]

If you do, you'll probably get arrested for assaulting someone that is either a minor or suffering from mental illness, though my money is on it being the former.

[mamboFoxtrot]

damn that shit is on another level of insanity

"this is just a clone of something that didn't even exist until 3 years later"
"damn man this game on a 2D-era console is all 2D hands up who hates sprites on sprite-based hardware" (and this review was in 2001!)
"i can't stand when games made for kids, on hardware marketed to kids, have you playing as kids"
"gunstar heores apparently fucking invented infinitely-spawning enemies i guess???? and 100% murder clear is the only valid reason to replay an action video game"

like what the absolute fuck

[BrianC]

I find the comment "literally terrible-uninspired" hilarious. Worthy of Inigo Montoya.

[copy-paster]

I always never fan of Gunstar Heroes in the first place. Making two character with one has aim-lock feature and one isn't is really bad decision.

[qmish]

Honestly, I didn't like GS that much - stages were too "filler" for me, mostly not good enough while being too long at same time. Especially that tedious one. Maybe cause I played AS before, idk. Still good game and amazing debut for studio. Also dat bosses.

Weirdly, I enjoy that gba remix/remake which is usually hated. It always gives me impression of more balanced game that studio made when matured with experience (and I guess I was not much excited about weapon system in original as well , so lack of it was ok)

[Stevens]

I'm curious - How Gunstar Heroes is a copy of a game it predates by three years?

There are several, if not most bosses, which put their continue point directly before a weapon carrier. Also, losing your weapon is what makes your beginning weapon choice feel more meaningful; which of the 4 weapons do you want to fall back on if you die and use a continue?

Rapid of course!

[qmish]

Can somebody dissect this one?

https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/765 ... ed/524220/

[AntiFritz]

They lost me when they name dropped god of war and dantes inferno over anything else.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

> namedrops Dynamite Deka
> spells Deka as "Deca"

[qmish]

Don't forget a receipt to success

the developers of nier automata are sneaky mofo's
1. lets put a girl that arouses people
2. lets make the enemies look like easy to make enemies. less polygones just globe shaped enemies
3. lets make the characters robots so we dont have to worry about emotions and facial expressions
4. lets make some fillers of simplified ikagura shmups and make most sequences of fight topside camera
5. lets make the world empty

[copy-paster]

See Next page.