Man I gotta say, I forgot how good RT2's opening stage looks, to the point I almost wonder if Ridge Racer was influenced at all. Uncannily similar tropical opulence, down to those unmistakably sun-baked shades of platinum white and pale emerald.
Also must say, the stalwart ol' MD port of Rolling Thunder 2 did daaamn well for its time.
I actually kinda prefer the AC version's tighter stage layouts, at least early on. Where MD expands st2's mansion with a courtyard full of panthers, and a frickin mecha boss battle, AC has an elegant transition from Opulent Baddie Mansion to RetroFuturistic Baddie Seabase. Love how they swap out the BG layer while you're busy battling your way up the railings, only to have you drop down and
BOOM! The MANSION was actually UNDERWATER BASE!
So cute how they crammed that trademark hardware scaling in from bootup, with the satellite getting taken out.
Again, the MD fills out nicely with some first-rate character art of Alabtross and Leila, plus the greatest password menu known to man, and lots more anime-quality interstage cutscenes. Here it's almost eerily terse, with a fleeting glimpse of a tastefully appointed study, before busting out the flyer's piece de resistance:
HELL WORLD 199X
AIEEE! That's right, agent BigDick McKillaMahfucka! Iron them slacks, comb in some Dapper Man and
get the fuck strap, or dis whole place gon be
FUCC! Wait. What you say!
The broad is P1 now? Excuse me miss! Look, a big box of shoes! Why yes, I do believe they are in your size, ha ha! *slam* This is a fucking disaster. Get BigDick on the telex. No I don't care how many broads he's currently fucking at the same time. Pretty sure he just makes that shit up, the cheeky prick. Probably not even his real name now I think about it. (■`w´■)
AHA! Player side switch option! TY Ham-chan, I am far too chauvinist to be shooting motherfuckers in the head neck and chest as toots over there. Gonna give me a goddamn complex ffs.
Biggest gain feels like Ayako Saso's BGM. MD one did great, as always - but the added richness and clarity on each and every note really puts these absurdly jazzy tunes over the top, from "catchy" to
"preposterously jaunty for shooting chumps in the face to"
Wonderful to see this on ACA for we non-Switch plebes who've made do with the MD cart for so long. ;3 I remember Randorama mentioning a later checkpoint getting insanely, improbably difficult to one-life, something I can rather readily believe after dallying with ACA Phelios earlier this year. Times like this I'm more... not forgiving, but at least more apathetic towards the antics of Dicksuckin Lips and Shitty Connection. With just two star performers in Hamster and M2, this is already an era of Too Many Games.
^ As always with ACA manuals, you can tell they're written from enthusiast standpoint; love all the nods to RT1, which RT2 is not so much softer than, as it is a knowing leavening of. I'd not even thought of RT1 being a four-way game until now, I always thought it was just riding the player's ass for the hell of it.
Like FC Dracula III!