TRP-STGT 2014 Conversation Week 2: Gemini Wing

[Captain]

woops wrong thread.

edit: might as well make it count.

I did like 20 runs of this until I perfected it. first 5 on easy, next 5 on normal with cheats to probe for patterns, and last 10 to get a good score.

I usually don't put this much effort, but I fell in love with this game as soon as I played the first level, plus that boss music...oh boy.

Autofire is allowed

This saved my fucking ass thanks mate.

[Eaglet]

This game just makes me rage.
Will probably not waste any more time on it.

[shmuppyLove]

I cannot get past those vines towards what I presume is the end of stage 3

Autofire is key. Can also give you a pretty decent score boost.

[emphatic]

^^ Just go to the top of the screen.

[EmperorIng]

People play this without autofire? =/

[Ruldra]

Stupid question: can you timeout the last boss? Seems like a much better option than trying to reach his overly concealed, briefly exposed weakspot.

People play this without autofire? =/

Can't imagine this game being much fun to play back in the day. Especially considering the amount of crap it gets thrown at you. Carpal-tunnel inducing.

[spadgy]

I cannot get past those vines towards what I presume is the end of stage 3

Autofire is key. Can also give you a pretty decent score boost.

Alas - that's not an option for me on this game (don't own the PCB so playing it through Mac MAME). I even tried installing an autofire PCB into my stick, but while it works fine for my supergun sticks, it's clearly doesn't get on with my USB Virtua Stick high grades.

Gutted to say I'll be submitting a God-awful score this week.

[mastermx]

I still find it hard to see how devs in those days thought mashing a button repetitively was fun. Especially when a game like this needs it.

[spadgy]

PAthetic score submitted. My arm is longing for a game I can play with autofire next week!

[Kollision]

i hate come to hate this game with a passion

[Eno]

I cannot get past those vines towards what I presume is the end of stage 3

Autofire is key. Can also give you a pretty decent score boost.

Alas - that's not an option for me on this game (don't own the PCB so playing it through Mac MAME). I even tried installing an autofire PCB into my stick, but while it works fine for my supergun sticks, it's clearly doesn't get on with my USB Virtua Stick high grades.

Gutted to say I'll be submitting a God-awful score this week.

Not familiar with Mac, but can't you run shmupmame through whatever WINE for Mac is called? At least on Linux it runs really fine.

[Blackbird]

Now that the week is over, the Blackbird review for Gemini Wing:

Good stuff:

- Overall craft. There were a lot of small details in this game that did not have to be included but really made it stand out. Things like the ominous musical transition when you enter the cave level, the bizarre helmet-looking mountain the Salamander boss emerges from, interesting physical hazards in the stages, and so on. You can tell that whoever made this game actually cared about it and really wanted to make a good game.
- Great casual playability and difficulty level. Enemy attack behavior is diverse and interesting.
- Good design of the levels, both the stage hazards and the position of the enemy waves in the level.
- Cool looking ship. It's like a flying blue Cadillac.
- Gunballs are a fun mechanic. Blow lots of stuff up with gunballs, get more gunballs, repeat.
- Memorable looking (if easy) bosses.
- Memorable atmospheric music.
- A bizarre setting that somehow seems charmingly novel.

This makes me rage:

- Don't play this game without autofire.
- I wish some gunball varieties were more useful.
- Getting shot by things that have moved off screen.
- Getting shot at the bottom of the screen and losing all your gunballs.
- Gunballs getting stuck in walls.
- Bringers appearing at the worst times.

Final verdict: I was extremely impressed by how good it is for 1987. It really is a gem. Perhaps this wasn't played much back in the day because the game is unfun/carpal tunnel inducing without autofire enabled?

[pcb_revival]

Nicely summed up Blackbird.

Been a long time fan of the game.

Maybe the Tecmo designers got inspiration from their foremost previous release of Rygar with its chain weapon to give Gemini Wing a chain of weapons.

Good fun to have stealing the weapons back and forth from a second player especially when the extra life gunball comes in to play.

[emphatic]

Both Rygar and later Silk Worm have the power up drops happen after a certain number of enemies are killed, so that's something that they must have liked at Tecmo.