Takahashi Meijin's crowdfunded shooter: Star Gagnant

[Thjodbjorn]

This game fucking rules! Always a fan of Terrarin (tho tbh, didn’t love Terra Flame as much as Moon Dancer and Raging Blasters), but this might be his best work yet.

Same. I like Terra Flame, but i don't like horizontal shooters as much as vertical, so it isn't as good for me as those other two.

[xxx1993]

Is there a reason why they're against showing off the final stage, boss, and ending, though? Seriously, what game company or creator does that?

[pulsemod]

I've played a few games on PS4 that have the whole "this part of the game is blocked from being recorded" notification pop up near the end. seems like some devs care a lot about that, for whatever reason ("buy the game yourself to see the end"? yeahhhh dunno if that'll work)

[EmperorIng]

Is there a reason why they're against showing off the final stage, boss, and ending, though? Seriously, what game company or creator does that?

The last time that happened to me was playing Shin Megami Tensei V, where Atlus did not want the game's metaphysical and intricate plot inadvertently spoiled. I can only imagine that Star Pregnant is going to be touching on themes and ideas that rival -or even surpass- SMTV's surrealistic take on John Milton's Paradise Lost.

[xxx1993]

It's stupid. I usually don't care about spoilers.

[Flycast]

I have a few Terarin games on the switch, so I noticed right away that this one is using basically the exact same assets. You can hear the same sound effects when you pick up certain items. I don't mean a similar sound effect-the exact same sound effects from Raging Blasters are in this new game. The interface and visuals look almost identical as well. The soundtrack is very similar, so I assume the same person did that work as well. That last point isn't a huge problem for me, since I like the music. It's always made by the same guy and he's really good. But still, this is a "new" game that looks, sounds and probably plays almost exactly like Raging Blasters.

Star Gagnant is releasing on the US Switch Shop for $38. Raging Blasters (the upgraded version compared to PC) is currently available on the Switch Eshop for $10. It's on a sale, but the normal price is still only $14.70.

So, for a game that looks, sounds and probably plays almost identically to Raging Blasters, we are expected to pay nearly three times as much. Why? Where is the incentive? Live Wire provides Cave games for $20 a pop. Raiden IV Mikado is $25-30, physical. So it's not as if the "big names" in this industry are commanding premium prices and Terarin is providing a "budget" alternative of comparable quality.

Hell, if you have a ps3 and the fortitude to brave the shitty ps3 storefront, you can probably still buy the (probably crap) ps1 ports of all the Star Soldier games. For $7 each.

Or, y'know, there's emulation...

I want to hear the logic for this price increase. What is the value proposition that merits nearly three times the asking price? I don't see anything in the visuals, sound or gameplay that would demand three times as much work on the development side.

Edit: Also yes, the developer behind these titles provides superior versions to the Switch and never updates the PC editions of his games. Very cool and consumer-friendly behavior. Since I've only ever purchased his titles on the switch, this doesn't affect me personally. But it's still shitty.

I've noticed several price cap for SHMUPS games, and i can't understand totally why this costs so much, also if the design is very nice afterall.
Reading the story about Takahashi Meijin...i think that he dislikes auto-fire...

[BrianC]

Reading the story about Takahashi Meijin...i think that he dislikes auto-fire...

Odd thing is that Hudson did the opposite and added auto-fire to most of their controllers.

[xxx1993]

Spoiler

Finally snagged the game just before the sale ended. Anyway, here's the final stage and ending. You arrive at the Space Fortress's core. You confront the alien leader, Villan (yes, that's how his name is spelled). He vows to beat you and destroy the Earth so he can create a new government in his own image. You beat him, but in his dying moments, he reveals the Master Core has grown beyond his control. So you face the Master Core. You beat it, and then escape the fortress as it blows. The end.

[EmperorIng]

[Lemnear]

Reading the story about Takahashi Meijin...i think that he dislikes auto-fire...

Odd thing is that Hudson did the opposite and added auto-fire to most of their controllers.

was a move to leveler all the players to the level of Takahashi Meijin? Probably with his disrespect for all the auto-fire players.
i've the feels that Segata Sanshiro was his co-op partner
However, the game is really pricey

[xxx1993]

But man, playing this game makes me wish we had a new Star Soldier game. Because honestly, I don't think Star Soldier R was exactly a good note to go out on, considering it's only a 5-minute game with two short stages. You hear that, Konami?! Not that you give a damn anyway...

[EmperorIng]

I have a few Terarin games on the switch, so I noticed right away that this one is using basically the exact same assets. You can hear the same sound effects when you pick up certain items. I don't mean a similar sound effect-the exact same sound effects from Raging Blasters are in this new game. The interface and visuals look almost identical as well.

I browsed through a play through of the game, and the bosses in this game are all in the same style of his other games too, and almost all have the same attack patterns (move left and right, over and over again, shoot a circle of bullets, then have the snake boss etc etc).

Hope plenty of players enjoy the $40.00 rehash lol

[BIL]

Spoiler

Finally snagged the game just before the sale ended. Anyway, here's the final stage and ending. You arrive at the Space Fortress's core. You confront the alien leader, Villan (yes, that's how his name is spelled). He vows to beat you and destroy the Earth so he can create a new government in his own image. You beat him, but in his dying moments, he reveals the Master Core has grown beyond his control. So you face the Master Core. You beat it, and then escape the fortress as it blows. The end.

I want my fuckin money back (｀w´メ)

[Rastan78]

I love how that's what they were so concerned about people spoiling.

[BIL]

Master Core, Master Baiter more like (｀w´メ) Figures with that champion wanker Takahashi at the helm. Cheeky wanker hawking me his autofire controller with FC Star Soldier while flexing his beefy wanking arm!

[ryu]

who is this guy? What is Terarin? Did I miss anything I should have heard of?

[BrianC]

who is this guy? What is Terarin? Did I miss anything I should have heard of?

He's the Adventure Island guy, once known as Master Higgins in the US. Terarin made some shmups for Steam and switch where only the Switch versions of most games got improved assets.

[ryu]

who is this guy? What is Terarin? Did I miss anything I should have heard of?

He's the Adventure Island guy, once known as Master Higgins in the US. Terarin made some shmups for Steam and switch where only the Switch versions of most games got improved assets.

Had to look him up because Adventure Island isn't a game I've heard about before. Apparently he's a small celeb from the '80s who became famous for being good at button mashing (particularly related to Star Soldier). So I suppose Terarin is an indie dev that got him onboard for kickstarter marketing...? Weird story.

[Nahar]

I tried the game for an hour or so. For me it's a hard pass: the pace you need to maintain to keep firing the blus shot is just ridiculous. The game is nice, the aesthetics are fine, the music is enjoyable, but gameplay-wise the game is not well thought, at least on my opinion.

[Sengoku Strider]

who is this guy? What is Terarin? Did I miss anything I should have heard of?

He's the Adventure Island guy, once known as Master Higgins in the US. Terarin made some shmups for Steam and switch where only the Switch versions of most games got improved assets.

Had to look him up because Adventure Island isn't a game I've heard about before. Apparently he's a small celeb from the '80s who became famous for being good at button mashing (particularly related to Star Soldier). So I suppose Terarin is an indie dev that got him onboard for kickstarter marketing...? Weird story.

He was basically Hudson soft's sales guy, he was just a really outgoing dude they knew who worked at a local supermarket or something. They hired him when they were still nobodies running a computer shop in Sapporo. He gained a level of fame by doing in-person demonstrations of Famicom games (most notably their port of Tecmo's Star Force) at department stores for kids in Tokyo & other major cities, really early in the system's life when Hudson became one of Nintendo's first 3rd parties. He'd do stuff like play the games backwards without looking at the screen, etc. But his major claim to fame was being able to tap the fire button on a controller 16x in one second in the pre-autofire era (early model Famicom controllers were hard-wired to the console). This is what turned into the Hudson Summer Caravan, where he'd tour the country hosting score competitions to promote their new titles to kids on summer vacation (which is how he became associated with shooters in general and Star Soldier in particular, Hudson's own take on the successful Star Force).

1985 was the Famicom boom, so this talent, his proven popularity with kids at these events and his general extraversion got him a slot on Japanese TV variety shows. When Westone developed Wonder Boy in 1986, Sega bought the rights to the character to be a pre-Alex Kidd Mario competitor, while Westone retained the rights to the code. Hudson licensed the code for Wonder Boy, which became the first Adventure Island game on Famicom. But they needed a character, and Takahashi was a prominent and well-loved figure, so they gave him a silly grass skirt and made him the lead character in the game, calling it Master Takahashi's Adventure Island.

He'd used the title "Takahashi Meijin" for his public appearances - meijin means 'master,' but is written using the characters 名人, which can be transliterated as "name person" or "fame person" - ie., someone whose name is renowned for their mastery of something. But it can also be interpreted as 'famous person' or 'celebrity,' so it was used in a dual sense of video game mastery and TV celebrity. They changed his name to Master Higgins for the Western release.

During the bullet-hell era, he was quoted in an interview bemoaning the fact that shooters had stopped being about shooting (his most notable talent), and become about dodging.

So there. Now you know why a lot of gamers know who he is decades after his relevance, why he's associated with old shooters, and why he doesn't want autofire in them.

[BIL]

^ good post Always had a vague idea of the guy (the "Sixteen-Shot Meijin" thing is fairly well-known even in Western STG followings), but not his early history with Hudson.

Many years back, was amused to receive a nice copy of FC Star Soldier, its foldout manual dedicating a panel to Meijin in full Adventure Island getup, aggressively hawking his signature autofire controller. He shoulda gone into orthopaedics or something. "Don't be like me, kids! Gimme your money!"

He's still killin' it on the twatter, was bustin' out the ol' Hummingbird Fist for all the ladies in the audience just recently. EDIT: Yep here we go.

I sometimes see guys lamenting the move from Space Invaders/Scramble sniping to the screen-razing overkills of Gradius/Kyuukyoku Tiger et al. I suppose everyone has their own ideal of "shooting." Personally it's about shooting without being promptly shot right back, whatever the levels of ordnance involved...

[Lemnear]

During the bullet-hell era, he was quoted in an interview bemoaning the fact that shooters had stopped being about shooting (his most notable talent), and become about dodging.

This is a weirdly true statement after all.

From: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Takahashi_Meiji

"Takahashi became famous for his fast trigger finger speed of 16 shots per second during the 1980s and is particularly known for his use of this skill in the game Star Soldier and the Family Computer version of Star Force. In an interview with Katsuhiro Harada, the producer of the Tekken series, he revealed that his trigger finger speed was actually filmed and counted to be 17 shots per second, but he rounded down to 16 because it had a "computer sound" to it."

Love the Hudson's idea and those events. But i prefer it without 250 other people.
Only beach, summer, arcades and cocktails

He's still killin' it on the twatter, was bustin' out the ol' Hummingbird Fist for all the ladies in the audience just recently. EDIT: Yep here we go.

Is he mastering the Parkinson?
Oh poor joycon...

[xxx1993]

He's still killin' it on the twatter, was bustin' out the ol' Hummingbird Fist for all the ladies in the audience just recently. EDIT: Yep here we go.

That's why I consider him to be the real life video game equivalent to Kenshiro from Fist of the North Star. I could imagine him going "ATATATATATATATATATATA" on a button.

[Lander]

Supplemental: The GameCenter CX segment where Meijin shows up to help Arino get the bonus in Star Force is equal parts instructive and charming.

[drauch]

If you Konami code backwards right before the final boss you get the true ending of Star Pregnant according to Kotaku.

Spoiler

It's a boy

[ryu]

He was basically Hudson soft's sales guy...

Great summary, thank you. :)

[Steven]

Jaimers replay: https://youtu.be/MhgPh8Rmef0

He's saying this has like 6 frames of lag. Lol

[EmperorIng]

Not only that, but elsewhere he and others mentioned that the lag can mess with your mashing/external autofire, which is a bigger lol.

[Sima Tuna]

Everything I've seen of the gameplay of Star Gravid confirms in my mind it's an inferior Raging Blasters. Except it hates your hands for some reason. If the game had autofire then it would (at best) be Raging Blasters II and little more. No idea what the normal input lag is for Terarin shmups but I hope it's better than 6 frames. I wouldn't be able to tell, myself. Raging Blasters is/was an easy game and so the Normal and Hard 1ccs were doable even for me.

[Steven]

It certainly explains why the game feels slightly sluggish/gross. 6~7 frames is around the point where I start to notice lag, and it's kind of noticeable here, at least for me.

I still can't believe that someone actually made a modern game that specifically wants you to mash. Mashing started to go away around 1992~1994 or so for a reason, which is because it's bad and pointless.