New Pocky & Rocky 2021 Announcement Trailer (Tengo Project )

[Sumez]

I'd put in a vote for a remake of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S.C.A.T.: ... ttack_Team

That's just Omega Five

[drauch]

What innocent times, back when you could think of a game instead of horrible, wretched pornography.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

Same problem I have when I explain to people that I use the "GNU Image Manipulation Program".

[Rastan78]

Same problem I have when I explain to people that I use the "GNU Image Manipulation Program".

[EmperorIng]

I got another 1cc last night on Normal, using Pocky in Free mode. I still keep on taking a death at that stupid bull boss on stage 4; I dunno how many people other than say Sumez or Iconoclast have figured a good way of minimizing the damage during that fight.

Granted, Pocky is not the most versatile of the cast but I felt I should give her a solid go. Managed 2.8 million, a new best.

Two lives were lost overall but more frustrating was the little hits here and there that cost me a lot in bonuses. Otherwise I would have got to 3 million.

I, Sumez, and a few others have noted there seems to be a very specific item duplication glitch with hidden chests if you position yourself on top of them just right as you reveal them - you will get two of an item instead of one. I have not been able to trigger it myself but others have. There are only about 4 or 5 hidden chests in the game so it's not hugely game-changing but for score-purposes that's a potential extra 300k.

Once again I invite you all to my scoreboard thread which has every* game in the series!

*except the famicom game, and the gba game, because who cares

[Sumez]

I still keep on taking a death at that stupid bull boss on stage 4; I dunno how many people other than say Sumez or Iconoclast have figured a good way of minimizing the damage during that fight.

For one of the two characters that gain invincibility while dashing, I find the most effective method to be hugging the upper right corner while it does its high jump. Dash once before it falls, and then dash again, into the corner while the "shockwave" passes through you. The bull will always stop right below you as it starts charging, giving you a lot of time to pump it with lead. Then just dash down and repel any nearby plumes.
For the other characters, try to charge a defensive shield while it's doing its jumping around, and release it immediately after dodging the shockwaves, then just run through the plumes to position you in the middle of the screen so you can shoot at it right where it ends.

These might not be the most effecient approaches, but it's what works best for me that I've found.

There are only about 4 or 5 hidden chests in the game so it's not hugely game-changing but for score-purposes that's a potential extra 300k.

I think there's 12 hidden chests that I know of. One of them has a dog, so it's useless for score, but the rest should add up to:
30+30+30+50+50+50+30+30+30+50+50 = 430k extra points. That's pretty massive if it can be replicated reliably.

[Augemitbutter]

best tunes in this game. They keep playing in my head wherever i go. They should make another game, i need more!

[MidnightWolf]

Digital Foundry have just uploaded a full technical review for anybody interested.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9dNUaXjwA3U

[harborline765]

John saying the game feels authentic is definitely the best thing you can say about a shmup on the Unity engine. There are no load times, not even any lengthy boot times where libraries typically get loaded in, and input response is pleasingly low. It feels like a native game and it's great because of it.

One of my personal favourite touches about the game's presentation is how the improved audio still sounds faithful to the original Super Famicom music despite the massive increase in fidelity. It's not like the redbook audio soundtracks you used to have on CD ports of arcade/SFC games to PS1 and Saturn which often would sound far removed from the source.

[XtraSmiley]

I liked the review and definitely want more exposure for the game, but I'm not sure I would call it a "full technical" review.

I did learn some things about the makers of the game that I though was interesting, just three members? Wow!

[m.sniffles.esq]

So my copy (finally) showed up. My roommate and I excitedly sat down to play, and...

You can only play two players after you clear the entire game in single player???

Now I know why the Famitsu guy gave it a six. You market it as a couch co-op title and then you pull that shit??

[BrianC]

So my copy (finally) showed up. My roommate and I excitedly sat down to play, and...

You can only play two players after you clear the entire game in single player???

Now I know why the Famitsu guy gave it a six. You market it as a couch co-op title and then you pull that shit??

It's not like the game itself isn't excellent, though. Still a baffling decision, though it's not hard to unlock and thankfully lacks the shared lives of the Wild Guns Reloaded multiplayer. Also, I tried to search for the 2p mode on youtube (using both the original name and the localized name and with quotes) and get videos of the SNES game. I put "kuro mantle no nazo" in quotes. I shouldn't be getting results for "nazo no kuro mantle"!

Edit: Found one

[BareKnuckleRoo]

You can only play two players after you clear the entire game in single player???

Now I know why the Famitsu guy gave it a six. You market it as a couch co-op title and then you pull that shit??

It is an exceptionally stupid design decision and it's indefensible, especially given the unlock requirement is not a trivial feat or anything (you have to clear Story Mode or amass a large number of coins so you'll eventually get it, but it's not like you can buy it and immediately sit down to play co-op).

Not sure why the story mode doesn't allow for a coop option either for that matter.

This isn't the first Natsume remake to have stupid and indefensible design choices sadly. Wild Guns Reloaded, while a fantastic game, is exceptionally dumb in terms of how it does multiplayer. The levels you get in single player depend on if you're playing on Easy, Normal, or Hard. On Easy you only get the SNES stages, on Normal one stage is replaced by a new one (the level with the kinda lame artificial darkness) and on Hard two stages are replaced (you can only play the really cool floating airship level on Hard). However, in Multiplayer, there is no difficulty select option. 2 player is ALWAYS the Easy course, 3 player is ALWAYS the normal course, and 4 player is always the hard course.

If you want to play the Normal or Hard route in 2 player, you have to plug in extra controllers, wait for those players to eat through your shared lives and get killed off, then play from there without getting a gameover (players who've gameovered won't rejoin unless they press start and there's an extra life to use). 3 and 4 players cannot ever play the Easy course.

This is extremely stupid. I'm actually okay with the shared lives thing because you get a lot of lives, and because it'd probably be hard to balance extra lives gained if they were stocked by individual players (and if they were I'd hope that stealing a life to respawn were an option). But the fact that certain levels are simply denied to you in 2 player without using a stupid workaround was a really awful design choice.

[modology]

yeah, it's dumb game design. Why can't they allow multiplayer to choose game difficulty and allow any players to join in the game simultaneously just like TMNT arcade.
it's interesting that no one has review the game on youtube mentioned about this at all

[Sumez]

I played a ton of Rearmed co-op last winter, and people were halfway tapping in and out over a period meaning we'd some times play 2-player games, but most often play 3-player or 4-player. We figured the stages given were just random which was really weird - the mechanics as just explained by Roo never dawned on us, lol.
But it definitely explains why there's one specific stage we'd never get, which really confused me.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

The reason I know this is because I was determined to figure out why, when I was playing with a friend, we could only get the "Easy" levels to appear. We did eventually get to play and clear the "Hard" course once we figured it out and plugged in extra controllers, but it was tricky you're basically starting the game with zero extra lives due to how you have to kill off 3P and 4P.

It's a baffling design choice. It's not as if the Easy levels would have been trivial in 3P or 4P, give us the choice damn it!

I love the SNES game as well as the remake (here's a no-miss run of Hard to prove it ;3) but damn the multiplayer design is baffling. The worst part is the stage you're most likely to miss out on, the Hard exclusive one, is also the best one of the two new stages (the dark stage gimmick is cute but isn't THAT hard and I find the darkness just obscures the nice spritwork in the backgrounds, not worth it IMO). Natsume's twistin' the knife. >w>

[EmperorIng]

Meanwhile, the top score threshold in this game keeps getting higher and higher.

First it was 4 million, then the hidden items and roulette manipulation pushed it to 5 million, then the Japanese figured out the item dupe glitch with westies shortly behind and now 6 million was broken.

I don't know about overall but Jaimers has the highest score I've seen as of this post with 6.4 or so million. If you look at some of Jaimers' streams he's quite consistent at triggering the duplicate item glitch, essentially give him double lives, shields, bombs, etc. all over the game and finishing the game with 19 spare lives.

[drauch]

I'm... not sure how much I'm enjoying it. It's probably because I suck at it, and by probably, I mean that's mainly the reason.

Character control and switching to swish/roll feels so stiff and delayed to me; I'm always getting screwed there. If you lose your powerups killing anything is such a tremendous slog, with shit flying from all directions. Almost seems like you just need to restart at that point from my scrubby perspective.

Not intending to just shit on the game, but looking for some advice. Watching some of the videos from iconoclast and company, but even he seems to be taking lots of hits early on. Is that to be expected? I'm mainly messing with the story mode for now, but it seems the circular forcefield thing seems to be the way to go? I presume that's something that's 'unlocked' per se?

[Sumez]

Yeah getting powered down can be pretty costly, on some characters moreso than others. But at the same time it's a lot less bad than it was in the original SNES game. A character like Pocky can very quickly power back up again no matter what weapon type you go with. Make sure to pick up more of the same type in a row - switching between them will cause them to never get stronger.

I don't think taking damage is "expected". Every attack in the game can be dodged without too much trouble as long as you are aware of the enemies' patterns.
As such, the charge-up shield mechanic definitely isn't essential. When you know the stages you can use it strategically to make some sections much easier, but I wouldn't ever rely on employing it "on the fly". It's too cumbersome. In story mode you get to use it from Stage 3 on.

Just to toot my own horn, here's my annotated guide on the game:
https://youtu.be/9CxxhbAO87E

I'm using the "glass cannon" character who doesn't have much in the way of defensive maneuvers, but it does have some moves some of the others don't, most namely invincibility while dashing. When Pocky or Rocky dash you want to be absolutely sure they do so along a safe path.

[Gamer707b]

Man, I can not wait to get this on the 31st. Hearing you guys talk about it is pumping me up even more. I wanted to clear Wild Guns Re-Loaded before this came out and I did that last night.

[drauch]

Just to toot my own horn, here's my annotated guide on the game:
https://youtu.be/9CxxhbAO87E

Ah yeah, forgot y'all created a strategy section for this as well. Thanks for the guide; I'll give it a watch!

[Jonpachi]

Sorry, what's the trick with the item shops to guarantee a 1-Up? I'm watching the video Sumez posted, but I'm missing the pattern.

[EmperorIng]

Check his thread in the strategy section. It has to do with your coin count.

[Jonpachi]

OK, LOL, I was low-key struggling with Story Mode, but playing through with Laser Squirrel from stage 1 is just stupid easy. I mean that in a good way. This is ice tea and a strawberry salad on a summer day gaming, and it was a blast to play through. Onward to hard mode, but first I have a date with Andro Dunos II.

[Sumez]

I think the laser squirrel is the easiest character as well, but they all have strengths and weaknesses, and a very poor deflect and near useless defensive charge move definitely gives Ikazuchi trouble. The Samurai is another contender for a good beginner character, and the boob goddess can just fly past half the obstacles on certain stages.
The worst character I think is probably Rocky, his blue attack is so weak it's a liability even when maxed, and his defensive charge move feels like an evil prank on the player. That said, any of them are gonna tear through the game with a fully powered red attack regardless

[Gamer707b]

Called Gamestop today and found out the physical got pushed back to June 24th. Was supposed to come out this month on the 31st. It's all good. I have a freaking backlog to last me a couple years. Just wanted to give anyone a heads up that had it pre-ordered.

[m.sniffles.esq]

Called Gamestop today and found out the physical got pushed back to June 24th. Was supposed to come out this month on the 31st. It's all good. I have a freaking backlog to last me a couple years. Just wanted to give anyone a heads up that had it pre-ordered.

Thanks for the heads up. I don't have it pre-ordered, but I'm probably going to sell my copy (I only really bought it for couch co-op, and since it technically doesn't have it, I don't have much use for it) and I was going to put it up like now. But since it got pushed back, I now have a little more time to make up my mind before it becomes readily available.

[EmperorIng]

dude, you can beat the game in one sitting

then you have co-op

[Gamer707b]

Called Gamestop today and found out the physical got pushed back to June 24th. Was supposed to come out this month on the 31st. It's all good. I have a freaking backlog to last me a couple years. Just wanted to give anyone a heads up that had it pre-ordered.

Thanks for the heads up. I don't have it pre-ordered, but I'm probably going to sell my copy (I only really bought it for couch co-op, and since it technically doesn't have it, I don't have much use for it) and I was going to put it up like now. But since it got pushed back, I now have a little more time to make up my mind before it becomes readily available.

Too bad it didn't click with you. This is actually been on my most wanted list since way back when I found out it's coming. Love the job they did with the Wild Guns Remaster, so I have high hopes for this one. Yea, you might want to sell your copy before the physical comes out.

[To Far Away Times]

Called Gamestop today and found out the physical got pushed back to June 24th. Was supposed to come out this month on the 31st. It's all good. I have a freaking backlog to last me a couple years. Just wanted to give anyone a heads up that had it pre-ordered.

Thanks for the heads up. I don't have it pre-ordered, but I'm probably going to sell my copy (I only really bought it for couch co-op, and since it technically doesn't have it, I don't have much use for it) and I was going to put it up like now. But since it got pushed back, I now have a little more time to make up my mind before it becomes readily available.

Too bad it didn't click with you. This is actually been on my most wanted list since way back when I found out it's coming. Love the job they did with the Wild Guns Remaster, so I have high hopes for this one. Yea, you might want to sell your copy before the physical comes out.

I wish I could get into Wild Guns. The western aesthetic is totally my jam, but I've never been able to get games like Cabal and similar to click with me.