Impressions of ZanacXZanac and Gradius V....

[Thunder Force]

Come to think of it does the GC MGS disc detect any saves?

Yup. I think both Mario Sunshine and Eternal Darkness were mentioned by name.

For me it mentioned Super Smash Brothers Melee by name.

[Shatterhand]

Hmm, very cool of Konami adding games that aren't from them. Everytime I played it on the PSX I got Castlevania SOTN mentioned . I didn't know about the Fifa thing

[Turrican]

Hmm, very cool of Konami adding games that aren't from them. Everytime I played it on the PSX I got Castlevania SOTN mentioned . I didn't know about the Fifa thing

Sounds weird, in fact. Dylan1CC, are you sure it wasn't a Winning Eleven / ISS pro / Perfect Striker? I know lot of guys who call "FIFA" every soccer game they see

The Japanese version of MGS does detect a lot of game saves. I especially made a memory cart with Parodius DP, Twinbee DP, Salamander DPP, Gradius Gaiden, Policenauts, SotN saves... Mantis didn't stop talking. Although I don't remember which series he directly mentioned, his speech was very long.

Since now I also have Snatcher and Twinbee Taisen I want to try another go!

Back on topic, I finally 1cc Zanac Neo, doing a eightmillion score... Using the FC Custom, not my beloved Hammer-Duke. FC Custom is powerful, indeed. And, since I wasn't using charge shots anyway...

Turrican, most of those mechanics on Zanac Neo are just for score. If you don't play for score you still have one of the finest shmups ever. I only "gamble" for boxes when I get a powerup and I am invicible. I rarely ever remember to use the charge, and a friend of mine use it like a bomb , which I think it's fair enough. And many times I forget about the chain, and just go shoot stuff without worring too much.

Well, it's hard for me to consider these mechanics separated from the game. If they're in the game, I somewhat are tempted to make use of them, taking risks I wouldn't take just "to survive"... And also, score does play a vital role in the game, as you need to save some extra lives for the difficult final stages.
But it's funny... I had something like 32 extra spare lives when I completed the game. I didn't make use of 'em (had learned the boss behaviour by then), but I guess I wouldn't be able to gather so many with the Hammer-Duke.

Another thing it bugs me in this game is the fact that I have to power-up each weapon separately. This makes the gameplay quite different from other Compile shmups, like Super Aleste. While in Super Aleste I can stick to the weapon it fits my gamestyle better, in Zanac Neo I spend more time with weapons I happen to hate, just in order to power-up them, which is rather boring.
Yeah, yeah, I know I shouldn't whine, and I know the original Zanac has an even more unforgiving system: lose a life and get your weapons back at zero...

Gradius V, instead, is a good example of a new game that I can play just for survive. I'm so glad Treasure didn't insert point multipliers, or other bizarre score systems. Come to think of it, the most "modern" change they introduced is an extremely tiny cockpit area, which is new for Gradius.